Grade 2 Week of 9/27

Dear Families,

We hope you are enjoying this first FULL week of school! We are now well into the swing of things here in second grade. Here’s a look at what we are up to this week:

In Math Workshop, we are learning some of the routines and structures that we will use throughout the year. For example, we made our first posters with our math partners! Postering gives us a chance to share our ideas and communicate our thinking clearly. It also enables us to consider other ideas and strategies, and to work on thinking flexibly. For this first poster, we put addition equations into groups of problems that go together. Partnerships made different decisions about which problems should be grouped together. See below for examples of student posters:

Throughout September, we have been getting to know students as learners in order to understand the many strengths they bring to second grade, and areas for growth. This week we did an initial assessment of fact fluency, or the ability to add single digit numbers up to 20. Students who need to work on their addition facts often benefit from practice at home. One of the best ways to practice is by playing games. Attached is a list of math games that you can play with your child at home to support their learning in school. While we play some of these games in school, many will be new to your children. Have fun!

During Writer’s Workshop, we are exploring our ‘Special Moments’. Students have chosen a special moment in their life and are expanding it into a story. We are learning that writing a story is similar to a plant growing. We begin with a seed, which is our ‘idea’, then we have to water and grow the story a little by making a ‘plan’. Once our plan is in place we can begin nurturing our ideas by adding to them. We have learned that we can stretch the story by adding details to it. Some of the details we have noticed in our mentor texts are sensory- what the characters see, hear, smell, feel… We are also adding dialogue and details about big feelings. Our next steps will be to learn how to edit, revise and publish. Be on the lookout for some amazing stories!

In Reader’s workshop, we have been thinking about all of the jobs that the reader does while they read. We have discovered that readers stop, think and retell. Readers also jot notes as they read to keep track of the story. Students are beginning to bring home books from our class library. Please make sure that your child brings their books back to school each day.

As we mentioned in a prior email, we had to cancel our field trip to the Staten Island Greenbelt. We have scheduled a similar trip to the Salt Marsh Nature Center, which will take place on Tuesday, October 9. If you already paid for the Greenbelt trip, you do not owe any more money for Salt Marsh. If you have not paid yet, please send in $8 with your permission slip.

We are scheduling our first Birthday Celebration on October 19, 2018. Time to be determined. If your child has an allergy or dietary restriction, please send in a snack for them to eat.

Have a great week,

Ms. Mathis and Ms. Anne