Week of Oct. 29 - Nov. 2, 2012

This Week's Objectives...

Language Arts:
Reading- facts and details, cause and effect, reading with expression
      *Story of the Week: Bremen Town Musicians
Conventions- plural nouns that change spelling
Phonics- -s, -es, -ies (plurals)
Spelling Words- lunch, lunches, story, stories, tune, tunes, switch, switches, baby, babies, note, notes
Writing- Fairy Tales (bumpy little pumpkin)  Writing Trait: Organization

*We are having a spooky story writing contest in our room. Stories will be created and written by students only, but may be typed at home. They should be handed in to Mrs. Krause by October 31st.

Math:
- what to do when a story problem has too little or too much information
- completing two-step story problems
- addition and subtraction doubles and double + 1

Social Studies:
- our country's symbols
- presidential election "Meet the Candidates"
- the voting process
*Our second grade will be taking part in Kid's Voting at school on November 6th. Look for a sample ballot to be sent home this week. Feel free to go through it with your child so they feel prepared to cast their vote on the 6th!

This Week in 2nd Grade

 This week and last we worked on writing biographies. First, we gathered information about a family member by interviewing them. Next, we compiled all of that information into a biography. We worked on editing our sentences to make sure that they flowed together nicely. Here are two of the finished projects!

 During math this week, we solved math stories with a group. Each student showed their thinking on a shared piece of paper. They each had the chance to share their strategy with their small group and compare answers. This gave us great practice in working together and presenting information to a group.

(It's also Wacky Hair Day!)

 We read The Bumpy Little Pumpkin and compared the pumpkin in the story to our class pumpkin! We will be using this pumpkin as part of a writing activity about Fairy Tales for next week. 

*I wanted to give a quick shout-out to my sister for providing us with this odd little pumpkin!

Grandma reads with those students who were finished early with their writing projects.

RED RIBBON WEEK

"We Elect to be Drug Free"

Monday: Red Day

 Tuesday: Pajama Day
*so sleepy*

 Wednesday: Sports Day

 Thursday: Wacky Hair Day

Friday: School Spirit Day

Teachers vs. 5th graders "volleyball" game

This was an awesome way to end our week of celebrating being drug free. Our DJ played awesome music, and everyone was singing and dancing as they cheered on the volleyball players. It was a blast!

Week of October 22-26, 2012

This Week's Objectives...

Language Arts:
Reading- facts and details, using a dictionary/glossary, read with appropriate phrasing
Conventions- singular and plural nouns
Phonics- r-controlled er, ir, ur
Spelling Words- person, nurse, dirt, turn, birth, serve, curb, curl, skirt, purse, turtle, her
Writing- Biography, choosing details
*We are having a spooky story writing contest in our room. Stories will be created and written by students only and should be handed in to Mrs. Krause by October 31st.

Math:
- represent and solve collection problems and comparison problems

Social Studies:
- biographies
- working together to meet people's needs
- presidential election

This Week in 2nd Grade

Visitors

The Presentation College nursing students came back to visit us once more. This time, they each presented a lesson to our 2nd grade class. We learned about washing hands, being safe during Halloween, eating healthy foods, and bullying.

 common and proper noun anchor chart

Math Stories

This week we worked on writing our own math stories (story problems).

After we wrote our math stories, we had a chance to share them with the class.

Bats

We love to scare Mrs. Krause with bat pictures and bat facts. YUCK!

Indoor recess means we get to take out some of our classroom games...

 ...and even play with some pattern blocks.

A big thank you goes out to all who were able to come to conferences. I appreciated the chance to get to speak with you!

Week of Oct. 15-18

This Week's Objectives...

Language Arts:
Reading- Author's Purpose, using a dictionary/glossary, reading with expression
Conventions- proper nouns
Phonics- contractions
Spelling Words- can't, it's, he's, I'm, didn't, who's, she's aren't, isn't, haven't, hadn't, I'll
Writing- Biography, identify a focus topic

Math:
- represent and solve math stories where the change is unknown
example: Last year Jenna the librarian had 5 computers in the library. She bought some more over the summer. Now there are 12. How many computers did they buy over the summer?   5 + __ = 12

Social Studies:
- time lines
- studying people who changed history

This Week in 2nd Grade

Reminder: Conferences will be held on the 18th and 19th of this week. I'm looking forward to meeting with all of you!

Math

We used rulers for the first time this year to measure objects around the room. We measured to the nearest 1/2 centimeter. After recording our measurements, each student compared their results with another student.

We even measured Mrs. Krause's ear!  AHHH!

After learning about the properties of a square and a rectangle, we tried creating them ourselves. We checked our work by measuring each of the sides. It took more than one try for most of us to make a perfect rectangle or a perfect square. 

SHE DID IT!

Working with unifix cubes to solve math stories.

 Angry Bird Cause and Effect Posters

Almost everyone can relate to the popular game Angry Birds! We used them as an example of a cause and effect relationship. The bird in a slingshot being the cause and the brick towers falling being the effect. This project also gave us great practice in working as a team.

Finished Products

group 1

 group 2

 group 3

 group 4

 group 5

 group 6

Learning about Helen Keller

We discussed the frustration both Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, must have endured while Helen learned to communicate. 

 Students attempted to guess which spelling word their partner wrote into their hand without looking or being able to ask questions.

Week of Oct. 9-12, 2012

This Week's Objectives...

Language Arts:
Reading- cause and effect, reading accuracy and appropriate rate, checking for understanding
Conventions- common nouns
Phonics- r-controlled vowel: ar, or, ore
Spelling Words- hard, born, horse, before, more, smart, farm, porch, corn, chore, score, part
Writing- Narrative Nonfiction focusing on beginning, middle, and ending

Math:
- measurement
- marking and counting centimeter lengths
- measuring the perimeter of squares, rectangles, and triangles
- labeling geometric shapes

Social Studies:
- customs and traditions
- how people help communities

This Week in 2nd Grade

Grid Maps

This week in social studies we practiced reading grid maps. We learned enough to be able to make our own!

 We even quizzed friends..."Where could I find the school?" "What building is located in B3?"

Our new scarecrow friend keeps an eye on us in 2nd grade!

 We Love to Write!

I often write quotes from my students down in a journal. Most of them are funny, some are inspirational, and some are just plain nice to hear. One of my favorite quotes from a student was, "Mrs. Krause, you are really going to make me love writing!" What an awesome thing to hear as a teacher. 

We really do love to write and are becoming so good at it. Here are our latest stories we wrote after listening to the online eBook Where the Wild Things Are. 

If I were king of the wild things...

Day by day our handwriting is improving.

Math

We worked on adding three numbers together. Choosing two numbers to add together first made these math sentences a lot easier to solve.

 Another student shows his work.

 This student demonstrates his work as well. Notice, he also understands that 11 can be broken apart into these three parts by writing a math mountain (drawn at the top). 

 We had four senior nursing students from Presentation College in with us for 2 days this week. They observed the 2nd graders and followed them to recess, lunch, and their specials. They even offered their help when it came time to edit our writing assignments!

 Gym Class

 It is so great to see all the different activities these students have a chance to participate in during gym class twice a week. Here they are working on their throwing form.