10-15-21

 Weekly News for 2-P 10-15-21

*Sneakers Tuesdays for PE and water bottles every day. Library books back for Friday!

        

*In math we worked on lots of addition strategies in unit 2 - combinations of 10, doubles, near doubles and turn around facts.  We are practicing them visually, with number models and with hands-on games. Mastery of these facts/concepts really helps students as we tackle harder skills.

*During reading workshop we focused on identifying story elements. After reading lots of fun fiction, we practiced naming the characters, setting, problem and solution. Students learned to fill in story maps with this important information. 

 

*In writing workshop we studied ways to craft quality endings by looking at some of our favorite small moment books. Students practiced writing endings to their own pieces.  We also set personal writing goals to help us make gains that suit our needs as writers.  Students got a new writing tool - their very own “Quck Word” dictionary to help them find the correct spelling of commonly used words as they write.

*We have completed our fifth spelling unit on short u.  Next week is a review unit.  If students score a 90 percent or greater on the review pre-test they will not get a list.  We added “word chains” to our word work routine this week to help us become proficient with phonetic patterns and manipulating sounds in words.  As part of our grammar lessons we focused on verbs, proofreading, prefixes and capitalization/punctuation. 

*As a culminating activity to our biodiversity work in science we returned to our earlier work on the bats in Bracken Cave.  Then we learned about a new location where a different colony of bats lives. We  compared and contrasted  the physical environment and the other living things that can be found in each place. Students made insightful observations about why more plants and animals lived in the new location.  Ask them why the Congress Avenue Bridge had a higher level of biodiversity!  We did a biodiversity survey of the apple orchard Friday afternoon where we tallied plants and animals we observed.  It was fun to sit in the outdoor classroom and sketch what we discovered!

We played a game to help us practice our combinations of 10!

10 frames provide a great visual 

Our Mystery Science led us back to our initial bat mystery - we investigated a new bat habitat and found it offered a home for many more plants and animals than Bracken Cave.

This chart helps us remember good strategies for ending our narratives.

We love DEAR time!

Mrs. Reny helped us learn to read facial cues that represent how others feel.

We finished Lulu and the Brontosaurus and wrote about our favorite part!

Playing a dice game to practice addition

We went out on our biodiversity walk and ran into Mrs. Sample releasing butterflies!

We tallied plants and animals as we made our way to the orchard.

The Outdoor Classroom was the perfect place to sketch and record what we saw.

We had to stop and talk about this plant sprouting in the rocks!

Book response about opinions

We learned to identify story elements.

Second grade writers got "Quick Word" tools for spelling and set writing goals with Mrs. Pols.

Looking for combinations of 10 to help us solve other addition facts.

Second grade writers are stretching down their pages with action, talk and feelings!