Week of September 23-27

Hello families,

Here is what has been happening in Room 105!

This week in reading workshop we took some time to begin our i-ready reading assessment.
Due to technical difficulties we have yet to finish the test. Our goal next week will be to complete it once i-ready fixes the problem with their site.  In the classroom this week we continued to work on growing our reading! We read the book Those Darn Squirrels and the Cat Next Door.  We used the book to practice retelling important events. Readers worked on adding some details from the story and using some of the language from the book to their retelling.

In writing, we continue to work on writing small moments. This week we met with a partner to check our stories for capitals to start every sentence, periods at the end of each complete sentence and we fixed up snap words. I introduced a small moments check list for second grade. We used a piece of writing from another author to practice using a checklist with. We worked on re-reading our own writing to make sure it makes sense!

In phonics we worked this week on r controlled vowels. We searched for ar, er and ir in a familiar piece of text.  We then learned how to spell burp - and how we know the right vowel to use by looking at the word spelled three ways: berp, birp and burp and then noticing which one looks right!  We learned some rules to help us remember which vowel to use: er- usually comes a the end of a word. Ir and ur are usually in the middle of a word.
Next week we will work on "trouble maker words"...some of them are: said, they, where, first, friend, girl, when, went and your. We will learn how to tackle a tricky word and how to practice it by chanting it, writing it over and over, take a picture in our minds and clapping it into parts.

In Social Studies, we worked this week to deepen our understanding of what makes up an Urban, Rural and Suburban community. We read the story Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. We saw the changes in the environment caused the little house to go from living in the country to the city. We also learned the difference between wants and needs. Next week we will learn about man made versus natural resources. We will wrap up the first unit of social studies toward the end of next week. A study guide will come home on Wednesday to help your child for a unit test. The unit one social studies test will be on Friday, October 4.

In math, we have reached the end of unit 1. We reviewed odd and even numbers, we went over patterns on the number grid, we played the broken calculator game. The quarter was introduced and we practiced counting coins. The unit one study guide went home yesterday and it is due on Tuesday, October 1. Students will take the unit 1 math test on Wednesday, October 2.

Please remember that there is no school on Monday, Sept. 30th.
Upcoming events:
Funky Fall Fund walk/color run - Oct. 11


Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Scheck