Sunday, December 15, 2013

Week of Dec 16-20

Language Arts
Question of the Week: When does a creative idea lead to a surprise?
Comprehension Skill: sequencing, realistic fiction, appropriate phrasing
Story of the Week: Rose and Blanca
Writing: realistic fiction
Conventions: verbs
Phonics: long /i/ using i, igh, ie, y
Spelling Words: find, child, sky, bright, wild, fly, right, flight, spider, cry, blind, myself

Math
-using the place value model to represent a number as tens and ones
-number combinations
-using coins to show ways to make our number of the day
-telling time to the minute
-elapsed time
-end of unit assessment

Saturday, December 14, 2013

This Week in 2nd Grade

Writing
This week we worked on comparing and contrasting. The students asked themselves, "How are Santa and I alike, and how are we different?" Here are a few of our writing examples.






Math
This week we are learning about place value. We use 10 sticks and singles, connecting cubes, and even drawings to represent two-digit numbers.

Students work independently on their daily math assignment.


Students also worked together counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s.


 Indoor Recess
We have spent quite a few recesses indoors this week. Here a group of boys are building vehicles with a set of Magnetix magnets.

A group of girls find it fun to build an obstacle course out of geoblocks.


Language Arts
In language arts this week, students are studying verb tenses. They are cutting out cards labeled with a verb, and they must decide if the verb is written in the past tense, present tense, or future tense.






Sunday, December 8, 2013

Week of Dec 9-13, 2013

Language Arts
Question of the week: How can creative thinking solve a problem?
Reading: compare and contrast, antonyms, expression
Story of the Week: Anansi Goes Fishing
Writing: Friendly letters
Conventions: verbs for past, present, and future
Phonics: compound words
Spelling Words: basketball, someone, weekend, something, birthday, riverbank, bathtub, backyard, driveway, bedtime, raindrop, mailbox

Math
-identifying coins and coin equivalencies
-combining coins to equal 50 cents
-understanding tens and ones place
-solving problems about tens and ones
-counting by tens, fives, and twos
-adding ten to any  number



This Week in 2nd Grade

Math Game
Here a student practices a math game that she will be bringing home to do with a sibling, parent, or friend as part of her math homework. The students really seem to enjoy their "homework" when it involves a game. Thanks to all of you who take the time and play the math games with your children at home.

Indoor Recess
Thanks to the freezing temps we have been able to bond as a class indoors during recess time. We try to release some of our energy with more active games like Dr. Mixup and Heads Up 7 Up!




It also ends up being a great time to sneak in a snack!






Sunday, December 1, 2013

This Week in 2nd Grade

Math
We learned a new game called Cover Up. One player covers up some of the 18 counters and the other player must figure out how many are covered based on the number of counters they see showing. 

We recorded our results and made sure the number covered + the number showing = 18.

We demonstrated the game on the SmartBoard first. It was fun to play together and to explain the rules of the game before students played with a partner. They will be bringing this game home to play with family members this week.

It is so awesome to receive free books from Scholastic Book Clubs. Thanks to all of you who order from the book order for your children. The kids really love getting new books at school, and we love the points the classroom earns for free books! 

Writing
 During writing this week, we wrote animal fantasy stories. It was so fun to share our ideas with our neighbors. We used this time to get advice from them as well. Our neighbors offered advice on events in the story, names of characters, or even titles of our stories.

Language Arts
Here students are making lists of antonyms pairs.

We also practiced our long /e/ words with marker boards. We chose our favorite words to put together in sentences.



Week of Dec 2-6

Our Week's Objectives
Language Arts
Question of the Week: In what creative ways do we communicate?
Story of the Week: Dear Juno by Soyung Pak
Comprehension Skills: drawing conclusions and visualizing
Writing: friendly letters
Conventions: verbs with singular and plural nouns, prefixes
Phonics: long /o/ using o, oa, ow
Spelling Words: goat, hold, show, most, bowl, float, toast, ago, open, told, toad, slow

Math
-Characteristics of even and odd
-equal partners, equal teams
-patterns and developing fluency with skip counting
-coins and their values
-combining coins to a total of 50 cents
-coin equivalencies

Social Science
-our needs and wants
-many kinds of work
-good and trade
-producers and consumers