October 28-November 1

Announcements and Reminders:

This Thursday, October 31st, will be our Harvest Party!  Thank you so much for all of those who were able to donate supplies or offer up their time to volunteer at this event.  If you are still interested in volunteering, please let me know as soon as possible!  The event will run from about 1:40-2:40 with time for set up and clean up before and after.

Our Harvest Party will get Team Blowey moving and working together!  We’ll have fun with pumpkin ring toss, butternut squash bowling, and popcorn relays!

Homework packets are due on Thursday!  Please remind your child to put their homework packet in their folders on Wednesday night!  No homework packet = no free choice Friday!

With the weather starting to get chillier, please remember to send your child to school with the appropriate outerwear!  I don’t know about you, but I get pretty cranky if I’m cold!

Conferences continue this week!  I will see some of you tomorrow and some of you on Wednesday.  If you don’t remember your day and/or time of your conference, please let me know!  I’d be happy to send along another reminder.  Also, these are parent, teacher, STUDENT conferences so please remember to bring along your child!  They will play an important role in the goal setting part of our conference.

This week in...

Phonics:  We are studying the long and short /u/ sound.  We will practice sounding out, sorting, and spelling the following words:  bud, dude, rude, rule, fume, duck, sun, bump, cup, and cube.  

Vocabulary:  Our new vocabulary words are:  drowns, drifts, desert, gently, burst, and neighbor.  We'll be figuring out what these words mean and building connections to them.  Then, we'll search for them in a story called Plant Power by Bradley Roberts.

Comprehension: We will practice drawing conclusions about a story.  We'll do this by using what we know, clues in the story, and picture clues.  Being able to draw conclusions helps us to understand the story better.  We'll practice these things while reading The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle.

Writing:  This week, we will be working on a harvest time “how-to” story.  We’ll begin by brainstorming some ideas for things we do this time of year (i.e. picking the perfect halloween costume, carving pumpkins, going trick-or-treating, etc).  Then students will pick an idea that they would like to teach to someone else through their writing.  They will have to break down each step using the words first, next, then, and last to show the correct order.  They’ll also have to make sure their sentences start with a capital letter and end with a period.  Here is an example:

How to Tell a Spooky Story

First, make sure you are in a darkened room.

Next, use a flashlight to show your face.

Then, use a deep and scary voice to tell the story.

Last, make sure you take a big pause before you tell the scariest part!

Math:  We are going to focus on strategies to help us learn our math facts.  In second grade, we are learning how to add and subtract numbers up to 20 using strategies from memory.  Basically that means, we know the sums and differences in our heads in a snap (three seconds or less).  We have already practiced a lot of the games and other menu stations that we will do to practice our math facts, however, now our goal time will be focused on each student’s individual goals.  We’ll also be placing a bigger emphasis on using mental strategies.

We will also introduce our time standard.  Students must be able to tell time to the nearest five minutes.  This week, we’ll introduce digital and analog clocks, talk about the hour hand and the minute hand, and review how to read different clocks.  Our math centers will allow students to practice these skills, reviewing old skills and practicing new ones.

Read Aloud:  We are still reading the silly story, Chocolate Fever.  A story about a boy who loves chocolate so much that he ends up getting chocolate fever!

Technology Time:  This will be our first week in the computer lab!  We will be exploring the laptops and computers while practicing our typing skills.  Throughout the year, students will also have the opportunity to create fun projects with technology!

Halloween Themed Activities:  Since Halloween happens this week, we’ll also be doing some festive and spooky activities to practice second grade skills.  In math, we’ll practice making a different kind of graph called a glyph.   A glyph is a picture that shows data that we have collected.  After reading two books about bats (Stellaluna and Bats at the Beach), students will create a bat glyph that represents them.  They will be giving information about whether they like to hang upside down or not, what book they liked best, and if they are afraid of bats.  We'll also be making a graph to show if we think spiders are cute or creepy!  In literacy, we’ll introduce the idea of fact vs. opinion.    Facts are things that are true and can be proven.  Opinions are personal beliefs or feelings about a topic.  Using fall themed and spider themed facts and opinions, Team Blowey will have to sort them into their correct categories.