Here’s our learning for the week!
Reading We will focus on understanding story elements and their connection to the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why, and how). I will also talk about thick and thin questions and how the former are deeper. I will explain that asking thick questions will help your child comprehend better while reading. I will model the same using mentor texts like Fire flies and a book by Mark Teague called "How I spent my summer vacation". In phonics, the focus is on digraphs and if time permits context clues. Writing We are learning how to write good endings for our narrative stories. Your child will be creating CSPs (character, setting, plot ideas) for the next two days. Research shows that students with a good understanding of story structure are able to translate this into good endings for their fictional stories. They will be listening to ‘Wolf’ by Becky Bloom that has a great story structure. The idea is that students will see the connection between the problem and the solution and how the ending connects the two. Ask your child about circular endings and surprise endings by the end of the week. Social Studies We have wrapped up the Georgia regions unit and will move on to Rules and Laws. We will talk about Constitution Week and also the heads of government namely the mayor, governor, and president. Also, I was so impressed with the team work that your children showed while working on the five regions of Georgia. They made such good use of their research and communication skills to create travel brochures of the same! Math We will continue to practice more word problems. Please have your child count money at home. For example, you can just ask them to mentally add 4 nickels, 3 dimes, and 10 pennies and see if they know the answer. Important Dates: September 22: Picture Day! September 25-29: No School | Fall Break * There will be a substitute teacher on Thursday in our class as I will be attending my first Curriculum and Instruction Meeting of the year at school. (There will be 2 more over the course of the year.)
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Hope you are enjoying the extra 2 days with your child and staying safe!
Here's a look at what we are doing this week! Writing This week our focus will be on adding sensory details to make our writing more interesting. Ask your child to name a few types of introductions from the last two weeks (Hint: question, dialogue, and setting)! These are skills that we will be focusing on throughout the year. Reading We will be focusing on author's purpose namely is it to persuade, to inform, or to entertain. By the end of the week, ask your child to tell you the purpose of a TV commercial that you are watching, or the book that you are reading. Test to see if they can tell you that the purpose of a recipe book is to inform! Social Studies We will continue with our project-based learning on the 5 regions of Georgia. I am amazed at the way that your children are interacting with their peers and taking on leadership roles as needed. As we have lost two days of instruction, I might have to push making the travel brochures to early next week. Math We will be working on word problems. In guided math groups, we will continue to work on differentiated word problems. The good news is that I am constantly moving around the students in our math groups based on the improvement that I notice during number talks and guided math. I will send home the graded place value tests tomorrow. I just need to work with a few students on expanded form. Reminders:
Here’s our learning for this week!
Reading: We will focus on the main idea and details for another week and then move on to the different types of questions to aid in comprehension. In phonics, the emphasis is on CVCe words (long vowel words). Great job on the spelling test last week! Writing: I’ll continue to model the different types of strong leads or introductions using various books. Please talk to them about starting with a question, dialogue, setting, or onomatopoeia. My hope is that they will have a second published piece by Friday. I can’t wait to hear their stories! Social Studies: We are moving from science and matter to Social Studies where the focus is on the five regions in Georgia. It will involve project-based learning, where students will be divided into groups to learn the content, and yet be accountable for specific aspects of each region. I will be looking for the cooperative spirit and leadership quality in your child to blossom through the course of this project! Math: We will focus on place value a little more and have an assessment on Friday. I might revisit money the following week as most have a strong grasp on recognizing coins and showing their value. Important News/Reminders:
We had a fabulous trip to the Fire Safety Village on Friday and learned a lot about keeping ourselves safe. I think they enjoyed the puppet show the most, not to mention some great dancing moves!
Here’s what we will be learning this week! Reading: We will continue our focus on the main idea and details in a text. It is a complex skill as students need to use the metacognitive skill of asking questions to figure out the main idea. We are learning this in a gradual manner by first sorting things into categories, then figuring out what doesn't belong in a group, and finally to the main idea or what the text is mostly about. You could use any book at home to read a chapter together with your child, and asking he/she what the chapter was mostly about (main idea). Check to see if they can tell you a couple of supporting details that go with the main idea! Writing: We are moving from small moment stories to full-fledged narratives. I’ll model the different types of strong leads or introductions using various books. My hope is that they will have a published piece by the following Friday. Leads are very important to 'hook' the audience to the writing. Science: We will wrap up matter this week by doing some experiments and studying the properties of the three states. I can't wait to play a fun game with your child on Monday! Math: We are focusing on counting pennies, nickels, and dimes. If your child is ready, he/she will also be introduced to counting quarters and dollars. Reminders: * Early dismissal on Wednesday, August 30th at 12:20. 8/21/17
Here's our learning for the week: Writing We are studying mentor texts and trying to mimic the authors' good writing techniques. We will start to work on 'small moment' stories. I will use my own story to model a small moment story across 5 pages. We are also working on capitalizing proper nouns in our writing. Give your child a list of common nouns and proper nouns and see if they can tell you the difference. I bet they can!! Reading A very important reading standard is identifying the main idea and details to help in comprehension. I will model it during large group and guided reading times. The idea here is for students to first figure out what sentences belong together and then proceed to find the main idea. Also, Bookfinder.com is a good online site to find books of your child’s reading level. You may use the same to get books from the public library. In phonics, the focus will be on short vowel words. Science We will of' course be working on some solar eclipse activities on Monday. I will start the matter unit on Tuesday with the basic characteristics of the three states and some simple experiments. Math For guided math, we will continue with place value of 3-digit numbers with a focus on comparing numbers. I hope your child is learning and enjoying our guided math centers. Important dates/info: * Field trip on August 25th:Please dress your child in comfortable clothes and tennis shoes (no dresses for girls). Also, please send in the permission slips for the field trip if you haven't already done so. There is a homework/information sheet form the Fire Safety Village that I sent home on Friday in the blue folders. Please complete it with your child as it will help us get you smoke alarms if you need any for your homes. * A huge thank you to Mr. Jones for offering to be our room parent. The PTA and I are very appreciative of you! This is our learning for the week!
Reading: We will continue to focus on the 5 Ws to understand the key details in a text. We will use picture cards with some groups and story maps with some others. I am also setting the stage for independent work during Readers Workshop so that I can start my guided reading groups by the following week. Our focus will be on picking books of the right level and learning to partner read using the EEKK (elbow to elbow, knee to knee) approach. Most students also started going to the media center. Writing: Our focus within narrative writing is to bring stories to life. The specific skills that I will model are based on the Lucy Calkins approach and include making characters ‘move’ and ‘talk’. Math: We will continue to work on place value this week. Students will need to know how to represent numbers in standard form (327), base ten blocks (pictures of hundreds, tens, and ones), word form (three hundred twenty seven), and expanded form (300+20+7). We will review all of these forms this week in guided math; Thanks to all the parents who took time off to meet me on Thursday. I enjoyed talking to you and answering your questions! Here's our learning for the week:
Reading: We are learning how to become great readers in second grade! We will discuss the three ways to read, setting reading goals for ourselves, taking care of our books and library, and how to pick ‘Just Right’ books. Writing: We are learning about how writing workshop works in our classroom. We will focus on narrative writing this quarter. This week we will learn that good personal narratives come from the heart. We write about things we know and love! Focus is on stretching our ideas to elaborate. Math: We are working on place value this week. Students will need to know how to represent numbers in standard form (27), base ten blocks (pictures of tens and ones), word form (twenty seven), and expanded form (20+7). We will review all of these forms this week. Thanks for sharing your precious ones with me. It is going to be an amazing year! I cannot believe that the first day of school is almost here and that we will be meeting as a class for the first time tomorrow! This week will be spent working on rules and procedures of our classroom and school. I believe that this initial investment in time will reap huge rewards later. I will also be introducing them to some good literature and reading habits. I am a big believer in the benefits of number talks in math and will be modeling that from day one.
Reminders: * Blue take home folders and agendas will be coming home tomorrow. Please use either to communicate with me and to send lunch/ASP money etc. * Me Bags with information are coming home tomorrow. Please feel free to add some items and send in any time during the week for us to share. Hi everyone! I am Mrs. Aiyer and privileged to be your teacher this year. I cannot wait to meet each and every one of you. I’ve taught Kindergarten for 5 years and this will be my fifth year teaching second grade. All except for one year have been spent at Sedalia Park and I have to say second grade is my favorite to teach!
Important Dates: July 27: Meet & Greet | 1-4 p.m. July 31: 1st Day of School! August 8: Open House 1, 3, 5 | 6-8 p.m. August 10: Open House K, 2, 4 | 6-8 p.m. See you soon as we get ready for an exciting year of learning and fun! |