Weekly News 12-1-23

Weekly News for 2-P 12-1-23    

 *Thanks for sending coats, mittens, and hats daily as the weather

turns colder. Also, please send indoor shoes daily or send a pair to

leave in the locker.

         

*This week we kicked off new social studies work by learning about

what historians do and how they use primary and secondary sources

to find information about the past. We also learned about artifacts and

examined several examples including maps, handwritten journals, and

photographs. 

 

*We finished unit 3 of Everyday Math with work building concepts

for area and multiplication. We did review work for the big concepts

and then completed the unit 3 math assessment this week. We began

unit 4 and worked on telling time to the hour, half hour. This is a great

skill to practice at home.

*Our realistic fiction stories are coming along and full of lots of action,

dialogue and realistic problems. Student authors are enjoying sharing

their creative adventures with the class and writing partners, which is

always a great way to get inspiration and ideas for your own stories. 

*We have done a lot of work in grammar with the parts of a sentence -

the subject and predicate. We played games to practice this and had fun

making silly sentences. 

*During reading workshop we focused on character traits. First we practiced

the difference between inside vs. outside traits. Then we learned to identify

a characters’ traits based on their thoughts, words and actions.  This was fun

to work on with several engaging books - students improved with finding

proof in a story to back up the character trait they chose.

*Our spelling pattern this week was long a patterns. In phonics work we focused

on -tch and -dge spelling patterns and the -ild, -old, -ind, -ost rules as well. Second

grade spellers are growing by leaps and bounds. 

*In science we are conducting an experiment about plants, sunlight and water.

We have two sets of radish seeds growing, one in sunlight and one set in total dark.

We check them and water them daily to see which environment will yield the best

results. So far the seeds in the dark have an edge! We also investigated how

different plants grow best under very different conditions, ranging from deserts

to tropical forests. We are currently designing our own plant experiment to conduct

with our new mini greenhouse. The young scientists of 2-P have so many fantastic

ideas! We spent time Friday planting a bunch of seeds - one set will grow in the

mini-greenhouse with its own irrigation system and the other in sunlight nearby.

We are anxious to see which environment will help the seeds grow best.

Intro to area in math

We tiled our calculators with sticky notes

We had to try to avoid gaps - it was tricky!

Then we tiled a large square with multiple same-size squares.

Our pattern block templates came in handy for this work!

Swinging joy!

Still having snack outside every morning!

We played a money game in math.

More happy swinging kiddos!

Planting radish seeds

Each group planted about 6 seeds.

Grammar game with subject and predicate cards!

Watering our radishes daily!

We drew pictures of characters we read about in our reader's notebooks.

Then we identified and recorded their character traits.

Making silly sentences

Sharing our realistic fiction stories

Doing a Mystery Science plant experiment

Writing partners listen to each other's books

The seeds in the dark sprouted first!

We finished our plant unit by doing a virtual field trip to Death Valley. It was fascinating!

Leroy Ninker has some interesting character traits.

We loved Brave Irene by William Stieg.

Fitness Friday Fun

We made posters to show our learning about seeds and plants.

Our plants and mini greenhouse

Arm circles

Arm circles are fun with a partner!