This Week in 2nd Grade

Science/Writing

Our research on sea life is complete and our reports are typed. They are hanging in the hall along with beautiful sea life art work the students completed in art class.

Science

We have a few more days to learn about the parts of the eye. We will be dissecting in early May. Be watching for a parent letter and permission slip.

Globes
Our globes are complete and hanging in the room. They will be displayed at the music concert and then will be sent home.

Week of April 29-May 3, 2013

Spring is finally here! Here are our objectives for the coming week:

Language Arts

Reading: compare and contrast, homophones, accuracy and appropriate fluency rate

Story of the Week: Just Like Josh Gibson by Angela Johnson

Phonics Skill: inflected endings

Spelling Words: tried, trying, planned, planning, liked, liking, skipped, skipping, heavier, heaviest, lighter, lightest

Conventions: using capital letters

Math

-review symmetry

-introduce fractions

-identify and represent one half, one third, one fourth, two thirds, and three fourths in geometrical shapes

-understand what numerator and denominator signify

-compare fractions using fraction strips

- write money amounts as fractions

This Week in 2nd Grade

Earth Day: Paper Mache Globes

In the beginning, we weren't so messy!

 Not long after we started, the mess was uncontrollable, but we loved it! 

Thanks Miss Deibert for your help! :)

 Hard at work

 I got sloppy too!

NEWSPAPERS GALORE! 

Thank you families and staff for donating the newspapers for our paper mache project. We had an overwhelming number of people help us out. THESE ARE OUR LEFTOVERS! It looks like we have some recycling to do!

 Sign Language with Miss Roggow

We try to do one sign language class a month. This month we signed words and phrases relating to Earth Day.

Making Words

Here we are making words with fun fonts on the SmartBoard. 

This week we studied words that have au, augh, and aw.

Math Games

We played a few math games this week to help us review place value up to the thousands place. We also played a very fun game reviewing subtraction. A deck of cards can be a great tool in helping develop and review math skills.

Humorous Fiction

We have read many examples of humorous fiction stories this week. This has been one of our favorite genres this year. The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash, The Signmaker's Assistant, and any Robert Munsch book seemed to top our list of favorites! Seeing these great examples will help us write our own humorous fiction stories as we move into next week.

 Bald Eagles

We have been following a family of bald eagles from Minnesota. You can follow the eagles live at www.mnbound.com.

Language Arts

Reading (review week): dictionary skills, cause and effect, fact and opinion, prefixes, suffixes, 

Writing: Humorous Fiction, continued

Conventions: contractions and pronouns
Phonics: suffixes -ly, -ful, -er, -or
prefixes un-, pre-, re-, dis-
vowel patterns aw, au, au(gh), al
consonant digraphs ph, gh, ck, ng
Spelling Words:
talk, because, August, caught, draw, walk, chalk, auto, taught, thaw, fault, launch

Math
-unknown start and cxomparison problems

-mixed addition and subtraction story problems

-making change from $10.00
***Unit 6 test is scheduled for Friday, April 26. A practice test will be sent home on Thursday.

Science

-parts of the eye
-optical illusions

Thank you to everyone who was able to donate newspapers for our paper mache project!

Week of April 15-19, 2013

Language Arts

Reading: main idea and details, inferring, suffixes

Story of the Week: The Signmaker's Assistant by Tedd Arnold

Writing: Humorous Fiction

Conventions: contractions
Phonics: vowel patterns aw, au, au(gh), al
Spelling Words:
talk, because, August, caught, draw, walk, chalk, auto, taught, thaw, fault, launch

Math
-more practice subtracting from numbers with zeros

-understanding whether or not ungrouping is necessary in subtraction

-solve complex story problems containing 3-digit numbers

Science

-how our eyes work

-taking care of our eyes

Social Studies

-taking care of our earth

NOTE: Our class is looking for enough newspaper to make a paper mache project for Earth Day. If you have any extra newspapers or know of someone who might, we would gladly take them off your hands!

This Week in 2nd Grade

Proud Moments in Math

I cannot express how proud I am of my 2nd graders this year in math. We have discussed math strategies since the beginning of the year. Students pick the strategies that work best for them when solving problems like the ones pictured below. The two story problems were presented to the students this week. All were able to get the correct answers for both and an overwhelming number of them were able to do it in their heads (THE ULTIMATE GOAL)!

We often practice "chunking" numbers to make sense of them in a way that is easier to see in our heads. One student describes his strategy in completing the story problem below:

"I broke apart the 64 into 62 and 2. I used the 2 from the 64 to make the 398 an even 400. Then I added 62. 400 + 62 is much easier to do in my head than 398 + 64."

Nice Work!

Writing

When I grow up... 

Origami

Our fast finisher project this week was origami! Thank you to one of our students who brought plenty of materials and books for everyone to enjoy the art of folding paper!

Science

We have been studying our eyes, how they work, and what we need to do to take care of them. Here a student watches his pupils as we turn the lights on and off.

During center time in science this week, students studied our model of the eye.

Author's Chair

Our research papers on sharks and whales are complete! Each student was required to research sharks or whales and write a five paragraph report based off of a rubric explaining the requirements for each paragraph. We finished typing them in computer class this week and shared them with our class.

This Week in 2nd Grade

Language Arts

Here students are completing a group project on comparing a character's behavior from the beginning of the story to the end of the story.

 Groups were able to present their information to the class.

Spelling

Silent Letter Bingo proved to be a great way to read, write, and study our spelling words for the week.

Our fast finisher project this week allowed these boys to invent their own game of math hangman! 

Science

A special thanks goes out to my aunt for supplying our class with years worth of Ranger Rick magazines. We love looking through them when we get a few minutes of free time. We have also used these magazines in science class as we study sea life.

Week of April 8-12, 2013

Language Arts

Reading: character and setting, story structure, compound words

Story of the Week: Horace and Morris but mostly Dolores by James Howe

Writing: When I Grow Up...

Conventions: pronouns
Phonics: consonant patterns ph, gh, ck, ng
Spelling Words:
phone, enough, backtrack, laugh, ticket, duckling, graph
tough, photo, rough, cough, clang

Math
-making change from $5.00

-invent ways to solve addition problems in which both numbers have three digits

-present good explanations of methods used to solve addition exercises

Science

-begin studying the parts of the eye

Week of April 2-5, 2013

Language Arts

Reading: plot and theme, background knowledge, classify and categorize, idioms

Story of the Week: Bad Dog, Dodger! by Barbara Abercrombie

Writing: Expository Nonfiction Writing: Research reports on sharks/whales

Conventions: using I and me correctly
Phonics: silent letter patterns kn, wr, gn, mb
Spelling Words:
knock, sign, knee, wrong, write, climb, wrap
wren, gnat, lamb, comb, knob

Math
-place value up to the thousands
-word names for numbers between 100 and 1,000
-buy and sell goods using exact money amounts
-use dollar sign and decimal point to write dollar amounts
-making change from a five-dollar bill

This Week in 2nd Grade

Math Night

A big thank you goes to everyone who helped with and participated in math night.