Week of 9/23-9/27

*Things have been going great!  We've been practicing many routines and have really dived into the curriculum.  A lot has been review but now we're moving on and I look forward to see how we do!  

*Blog: Each Friday at the end of a full week, I will add a note to the blog to let you know what we've been working on and what's coming up.   Please check it for important information as well as use it as a tool to start a conversation about school.  I'm trying to figure out a way to have it come directly to your email if there is a new post...when I know, I'll let you know.  

*I'll be sending the book order in tomorrow am, so if you haven't ordered and would like to...please go ahead and do it tonight. If you need the information, see the post below.

*Next week we will begin talking about homework...2nd grade will be expecting students to read for 20 minutes every night next week.  After that, we will begin doing 1 reading response online and the following week will be reading nightly, 1 night a response online, as well as a Fundations or math worksheet.  More info will come later.

What's been happening in room 235?

Literacy: We've finished assessments and have started reading groups.  We're off to a good start...we've been reading and responding to our reading in our notebooks.  We've also been focusing on using post-it notes to help keep track of our thinking.  Ask you child how they would mark something they questioned or their favorite part.  In writing, we've started brainstorming stories and practiced telling across all 5 fingers to make sure we're stretching it out.  Using our 5 senses is another way we stretch out our story by adding specific details.  We also started some basic grammar review.  Ask your child what punctuation goes with an asking or telling sentence.  Next week, we'll focus more on making connections to the stories we read and hear and using our schema (what we already know about a topic or idea) to help us understand what we're reading.  In Fundations, we finished unit 1, a review of 1st grade, and have moved on to unit 2 which is a review of bonus letters as well as the letters pairs that make the 'r' sound (ex. -er, -ar, etc.).  We also started using Tumblebooks on the laptops to hear stories which helps our own fluency. 

Math: We took the first unit test and overall students did very well.  We talked a lot about not understanding something and making careless mistakes.  I will be sending them home next week.  We worked on adding combinations by playing some Kathy Richardson games and we started using the laptops during math to do Xtramath.  Next week, we'll keep working on adding and subtraction combinations as well as reviewing easy number facts and doubles.  

Science/Social Studies: We finished up our mini-unit on plants where we observed seeds, let them germinate, and then observed them again once the root began to grow.  We also talked about how seeds travel.  Ask your child 1 way seeds can travel.  We will be starting social studies and will begin with continents and oceans.  We will begin learning where our place in the world is and where Newton is located in the U.S.A.  

If you have any questions...don't hesitate to ask!  

Have a wonderful weekend!