Weekly News 10-2-26

 Weekly News for 2-P 10-2-26

*Library books on Fridays and sneakers on Monday for PE     

10/9 - NO SCHOOL: Professional Development Day

10/12 - NO SCHOOL: Indigenous Peoples Day

10/23- WCS PTA GET GLOWING FUN RUN

*In math we worked on skip counting patterns with 2s, 5s, 10s and 100s. Students filled in number grids with 3 digit numbers. We explored odd and even numbers and practiced identifying patterns in a series of numbers. We also reviewed addition patterns with doubles facts as they relate to odd/even numbers. We learned some fun new games to help us practice our skills. Unit 3 is complete and we are reviewing for the test next week.

*During reading workshop we expanded our focus on the genre of fiction to folk tales. We read and enjoyed a wide variety of folk tales and completed book responses that identified the setting, characters, plot and moral. This helped prepare us for our writing unit this week!

*In writing workshop we turned to writing folk tales. After reading many models we started to design our own. We brainstormed ideas and used a graphic organizer to plan our folk tales. We crafted fun and engaging pieces that we were very proud to share with our friends. Our grammar tie-in was on compound subjects and conjunctions.

*In Go2 Science we got to go along with Beth and Curtis to La Paz and saw our first cetaceans - 13 bottlenose dolphins. We enjoyed seeing a variety of animals, including a chocolate chip sea star and a HUGE fish! 

* Our phonics and spelling work this week focused on reviewing silent e exception rules and -es ending rules. 

*This week in social studies we learned to use a compass rose to find directions on maps. We also learned to use a map key or legend. As part of the community focus in our reading, we each made our own homes and labeled our families. Then we created a huge mural of the important places in a town! 

We made badges to represent our community - highlighting where people live, work, play and solve problems.

Reading with our stuffies

Jammy Day!

Building our community mural - we made drawings of all the important places in a community!

Odd and even game

We each built our "house" and labeled it with family names.

Odd and Even Race!

math games

We really loved skip counting on our calculators!

Weekly News 9-25-26

 Weekly News for 2-P 9-25-26

*Library books are due on Fridays.

*Sneakers Mondays for PE 

MATH:  We completed the unit 2 test on Monday and that will come home soon for you to see in math portfolios. We kicked off Unit 3 this week, which  will focus on patterns in numbers. We started by skip counting with numbers in the hundreds, identifying patterns on number grids and being able to read, write and manipulate big numbers.

READING:  During reading workshop we practiced identifying fiction as a genre. Students did well giving specific evidence to prove the genre. We also learned how to tell our opinion about a book. Kids did a great job explaining why they thought a book was funny or silly or serious. 

WRITING: *In writing workshop we worked with poetry, focusing on a place poem. Each child chose a special place and brainstormed sensory details about that place, before writing their first draft. Later in the week we learned to add a simile to our poem and then revised and edited our drafts. Our connected grammar work was about singular and plural nouns.

SPELLING/PHONICS: In UFLI this week we reviewed silent e words and continued to practice reading and spelling them correctly, along with our growing list of high frequency words. 

SCIENCE: In Go2 Science we got to  welcome Beth and Curtis back for Mission Cetaceans in the Baja, California Peninsula. We got to hear from a scientist, Dr. Spocter, who is worried that cetaceans are changing their migration behaviors so that fewer species are visiting the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. We will collect data to  test his hypothesis that there are at least five different species of cetaceans still in those waters. It was wonderful to see Beth and Curtis again, learn about cetaceans, see a school and the money used in Mexico. We also learned about desert farming! 

*We finished our Mystery Science unit on Animal Biodiversity this week with a final performance task. Students researched animals in a project designed to pull together their animal knowledge!

*We kicked off a social studies unit on geography. We will explore how the geography of a particular place impacts the community. We studied what a community is and what types of places you might find there. 

We wrote animal reports to tie together our first science unit on animal biodiversity.

We worked on identifying fiction this week and finished up with reading Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs....we drew about why it was a made up story!

We worked hard on our first poem of the year - a place poem!

Illustrating our poems

Picture day ready!

Free Choice Friday - a tall tower!

Lining the animals up for our favorite game.

Some train building

Playing a UFLI game with partners

Using editing checklists to polish up our writing

Reading partners work hard!

Reading fiction together

Sharing our writing

Weekly News 9-18-26

 *Sneakers are needed on Mondays.

*Library books are due back on Fridays.

  

Open House is next Thursday, September 24th from 5:30-7. Yogurt parfaits are available in the cafeteria starting at 5:30 and then classrooms are open for visitation from 5:45-7:00 p.m. Hope to see you all!

MATH    We have completed Unit 2 of Reveal Math. We have learned to read, write and represent three digit numbers. We are building a strong foundation of place value sense. We also learned to break apart, or decompose, 3 digit numbers in 3 ways (standard form, word form, expanded form). Lastly, we are learning how to compare 3 digit numbers. We have done lots of review work and will  do some assessment activities next week before moving on to unit 3.

READING   This week we worked on identifying the main story elements in literature:  characters, setting, problem and solution. Students enjoyed listening to and reading fictional books and completed story maps that named these elements.This concept will be woven back in throughout the year, as we continue to read fiction and realistic fiction. 

SCIENCE  We dove into two Mystery Science investigations about animal classification and how we can use characteristics to sort animals into groups. We investigated how and why frogs make noises and how the biodiversity of their habitat can impact them. We also did an investigation about birds and how their adaptations and what they eat help them survive. We designed bird feeders to attract particular birds - second graders were great engineers.

WRITING    In writing workshop we learned how to write character sketches and each child took a piece all the way through the writing process. We were introduced to nouns, both common and proper and practiced using them in our sentences. Students also did a great job revising their drafts by adding details! 

SPELLING/PHONICS  Our phonics work reinforced consonant clusters, blends and all the many digraphs: sh, ch, th, ph, wh, ng, nk, ck. We are working hard to master spelling of all the high frequency words we use commonly as writers.

We designed birdfeeder prototypes before building them.

We had a great time using materials....

to build a variety of bird feeder models.

Buddy reading!

Free Choice Friday!

Listening to each other's character sketches in writing

Hunting for nouns!

Place value UNO!

Sorting numbers into standard form, expanded form or word form

Writers get feedback on their pieces