Newsletter - 10/7/13

News from Room 35

Rock and Minerals

Last week, we started our investigation of Rocks and Minerals.  We start off by learning about rocks and how they are made.  We have lots of rock samples to look at and study!

Then we move to studying minerals.  We become geologists and conduct tests of 12 different minerals to determine what they are.  It is a great way for kids to practice their science inquiry skills.

Your child is welcome to bring to school any interesting rocks from home they would like to share with the class. 

Dates to Remember

No School                      October 11

Late Start                      October 16

I hope that families are finding the homework and spelling easy to do at night.  My hope is that it helps your child with review, but does not take too much away from family time.

Check out the blog for a detailed post (with pictures) about the spelling program.  I thought it may help parents to see what we are doing with spelling.

Math

In 2^nd Grade, we expect students to know their addition facts to 20.  We talk about being MATH NINJAS who solve math problems with agility and flexibility! 

In order to be MATH NINJAS, we are working on 6 different strategies we can use to solve addition problems.  We are also working on addition word problems.

Later this week, I will send home information about the 6 strategies, and your child will bring home flashcards to work with at home.

Writing

We are finishing up our SCAR stories this week.  We are talking about how to go back through our story and EDIT to find things that need to be fixed.  This is VERY hard for 2^nd Graders….it is something that we will work on throughout the year.

We should be able to start our final drafts this week, and finish early next week.  I am eager for families to see the final project.  They should be wonderful!

Reading

This past week, we started book clubs.  Your child is reading a book at their reading level with a small group of other students.  We read sections of the book together, then the groups breaks apart to read on their own.  We get back to together at certain “pause points” to discuss what has happened in the book. 

We have been discussing characters (main and supporting).  Your children are starting to read harder books with more interesting characters.  It is important that we think about these characters and what they are like.