Hello Parents,
It is the last week of the First Quarter of 2nd grade, can you believe it? This week is full of assessments for you child ranging from Math Quarterly Assessment (Wednesday/Thursday) to the Writing Assessment (Thursday/Friday) and some students will be having another Running Record performed. The main thing to keep in mind is that all of the assessments are looking for mastery of a concept not whether or not a student can regurgitate information. The new Core Standards that are coming down the pipeline are all about critical thinking (and non-fiction text). An important thing that you can do is simply have your student get a full nights rest each night this week and that they have a hearty (and low sugar) breakfast so that they are "in it to win it!"
Due to the assessments for this week, homework will be a little sparser than usual. One thing I mention is that if you feel your student needs to have more homework then encourage them to practice their math facts nightly. Math facts such as 2+2=4, 4+4=8 are vital to their math success. When students are unable to quickly add in their head then their speed on assessments is hindered as well as their accuracy as a student may be more prone to making careless mistakes. You can always practice math facts and if you child loses the ones provided by the Expressions book then I've always found sets (and better ones I may add) in the dollar bin at Target or the Dollar Store.
We are shifting gears away from Science this week and onward to Social Studies. We will be spending Monday through Wednesday reviewing insects and life-cycles before heading on to the topic of Elections. Now we all know that elections can be a sensitive subject. Everyone has their own opinions and with good reason. Rest assured that I will simply be reviewing the whole process and encouraging students to look more at how the nomination/election process works than what the platforms are. Due to our coverage of elections at the beginning of the year (when we had our our election) we will be going at a brisk pace to cover this topic so that we can move into the Thanksgiving Tradion. There is one assignment that I would like to mention, your student will be bringing home a sheet today about clouds. Everyday for 1 month, please have your student go outside and look at the clouds. Then mark down what type of clouds there were that day. It should take all of 2 minutes. This will enable your child to have their schema (brain backpack) loaded with some information about clouds for when we start our weather unit. Even if your child does not come to school one day please have them complete the graph so that we can compare our class data accurately.
In Reading/Writing we are spending some time on the topic of "Small Moments." The story for today was A Chair for My Mother. In writing we began brainstorming ideas for our very own small moment stories and I was very excited by what I saw. Stories ranging from loosing a tooth to soccer games. In the hallway we also have some of our pirate stories and our "Book Reviews" of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Please be sure to check them out after your conference.
On a final note, as birthday season is upon us I would like to remind all parents that if you are going to provide a snack for your child to celebrate their birthday at school then please send in enough for all the students (we have 21). Last week a child came into school with only enough cupcakes for five of her friends to have. Some of the other students had hurt feeling and it turned a joyful experience into an ackward one. Also, if you would like to send in a healthy snack such as fruit, low fat chips, pretzels then please do so.
**Quick Reminders**
*There is no school on Monday (October 31st) but there are conferences. Please look for the reminder sheet going home today and fill out any questions you may have. It also has important directions about coming in the bus loop door of the school.
*Literacy Night is November 3rd (next Thursday) beginning at
5:30pm
*Fall Picture Day is November 4th (next Friday)
*No school on November 11th as it's a holiday.
No comments:
Post a Comment