January 5 - 9

Happy New Year!  We hope that everyone had a nice and restful winter break.  We will be jumping right back in to instruction in the run-up to our mid-year assessments.  Please remember that ALL students go outside for recess.  We do not keep children inside just because it is cold out.  So make sure to send them to school with coats, hats, gloves, and anything else you consider necessary to keep them warm while they get some outdoor break time.
Here is what we will be working on in English class this week:

• mid-year writing assessment: writing a narrative about making a snowman - we will be following the same process as we have for all the other narratives we have written.  What makes it an assessment is that they will need to do it with minimal help from me.
• phonics lesson 4: nonsense words
• phonics lesson 5: capitalization (proper nouns)
• phonics lesson 6: /h/, /j/, /l/, /m/, /e/ (short)
• phonics lesson 7: common words - he, was, for, on, are, as, with, his, they, I
• phonics lesson 8:  /n/, /p/, /r/, /s/, /o/ (short)
• New Year's Resolution activity
• math: continued practice using the standard algorithm for two- and three-digit addition
• comprehension strategy: compare and contrast
• expanding vocabulary strategy: use dictionaries, thesauruses, and glossaries as tools

Happy Holidays from Second Grade!

December 15 - 19

This will be the last week of instruction prior to winter break.  Classes will resume on January 5th.  We hope that everyone has a safe and peaceful holiday vacation. Here is what we will be working on in English this week:

• Finishing up our snowman stories: the blue class needs to finish writing the final copy and then illustrate, the red class is working on illustrating
• writing a Santa tale given a prompt
• phonics: letters a, b, f, d, and g
• phonics: common word list #1 - the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it
• phonics: building consonant-vowel-consonant words
• phonics: nonsense consonant-vowel-consonant words
• comprehension strategy: ask someone to define the word
• comprehension strategy: cause and effect
• comprehension strategy: compare and contrast
• math: begin working on the standard algorithm (see below) for two-digit addition with regrouping
• on Friday we will have holiday rotations to learn about different holiday customs around the world

November 9 - 12

I am so sorry that I didn't get the blog post up for this past week.  Things have been a bit crazy!  Hopefully they will calm down, and we can get back to life as normal.
Last year, the entire faculty sat down and determined what was essential for students to know at each grade level in math and language arts in order for them to be able to progress to the next level.  We know that there are many things that students need to know, but we came up with one per quarter that we were going to track.  We call these our "Big Rocks" because they are goals that absolutely have to be met.  Big Rock #1 for math in second grade is that 100% of students will demonstrate fluency with numbers through ten.  One of the ways we have been working on this is with ten bonds: 0+10. 1+9. 2+8, 3+7, 4+6, 5+5. 6+4. 7+3, 8+2, 9+1, and 10+0.  While we have not reached the 100% mark yet, I am happy to report that 89% of second graders know the ten bonds without having to use their fingers.  I sent flash cards home with the six DLI students that are still working on them, and I would appreciate it if you could work with them at home until they have mastered these facts.  We are now working towards Big Rock #2: 100% of students will be able to represent number to 1,000 in standard form, written form, pictorial form, and expanded form.  I will let you know our progress.
Here is what we will be working on this week in English:

• Holiday music assembly: Wednesday @ 1:00
• creative writing narrative: What does your snowman do at night?  Circle map, flow map with transition words and details, opening (who, what, and when) and closing (who, what, and how) sentences
• math: horizontal two-digit addition using expanded form (no regrouping yet) - see below
• math: vertical two-digit addition using expanded form (no regrouping yet) - see below
• power hour: continuing to work on becoming fluent readers who can effectively comprehend what they read
• fluency strategy: using punctuation to enhance phrasing/prosody
• comprehension strategy: main idea and supporting details

Here is what we will be working on in Spanish class:

• science: the phases of the moon (full - luna llena, half - cuarto menguante, new - luna nueve, quarter - cuarto creciente)
• science - color and brightness of stars, constellations (video)
• social studies - ponsettias (flor de la nochebuena)
• math: two-digit addition vertical expanded form (with and without regrouping)
• math: place value quiz (see big rock #2 above)
• words with z,c, or s that make an /s/ sound: salida, paso, sopita, hizo, dice, cereal, cima, taza, zorro, lazos, cien, solo
• high frequency words: escuchar, encima, tirar, fuerza, igual, facil, malo

We will teach the children three different algorithms for completing multi-digit addition problems.  Last week they learned how to use the expanded form algorithm (some people call it the partial-sums algorithm).  We have only worked with numbers that do not require regrouping so far.  It looks like this:

We have also been working on the expanded form algorithm in a vertical format.  It looks like this:

November 17 - 21

Here is what we will be working on in English class this week:

• math: greater than, less than
• math: hundreds place value quiz
• math: using place value to add/subtract tens and hundreds
• content: the importance of balance in a diet
• comprehension strategy: using pictures, illustrations, and diagrams
• comprehension strategy: using text features
• comprehension strategy: author's purpose (PIE - persuade, inform, educate)
• narrative writing about the best day you ever had - circle map, flow map, adding transition words and details
• Daily 5: continuing to work on becoming fluent readers who can effectively comprehend fiction and non-fiction text (ie: read grade-level text with purpose and understanding)
• word work: distinguish long and short vowels in regularly spelled one-syllable words

Here is what we will be working on in Spanish class this week:

• sight words: algo, caer, fuego, manera, nido, nubes
• discussing the characteristics of fiction versus non-fiction
• spelling words: gota, llego, apaga, ganso, persigue, regalo, guiso, gato, gol, alguna, guinda, fuego
• content: food words (vegetables, fruit, dessert, beverage) 
• content - making good food choices to maintain a balanced diet
• math: review skip-counting, place value (centenas, decenas, and unidades), number words (0-1,000)
• math: different ways to write numbers (standard form, word form, expanded form, and picture form)
• math: greater than and less than 

November 10 - 14

Here is what we will be working on in English this week:

• narrative writing - with details and transition words
• writing from a flow map
• writing a topic sentence
• writing a concluding sentence
• comprehension strategy: using pictures, illustrations, and diagrams
• fluency strategy: adjust rate
• comprehension strategy: using text features
• Daily 5: continuing to work on becoming fluent readers that comprehend text
• math: place value - multiple tens (ie: 14 tens = 140)
• math: using place value to add/subtract - subtracting hundreds and tens
• math: skip-counting by tens and hundreds when the beginning number is not a ten or hundred (ie: 237, 337, 437, etc)
• Tuesday: Veteran's Day assembly @ 1:00

November 3 - 7

Wow, October flew by!  Welcome to November. Here is what we will be working on in English class this week:

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• final assessment for writing a letter (ie: can they do it without my help)
• math test on Tuesday: chapter 1 - place value, odds and evens, skip-counting by fives and tens
• continued narrative writing practice
• reading comprehension strategy: summarize
• expanding vocabulary strategy: tune in to interesting words
• math: adding two digit numbers (no regrouping yet)
• sight words: many, these, time, no/know
• how to use a dictionary
• Daily 5: we've shuffled a few kids this week that met goals, or who needed different instruction - so, if your child says they have a new teacher for reading, you know why.  There will be big changes to Daily 5 for the red class next week.