Gr2 Week of 3/29
Dear Families,
We have been very busy over the past couple of weeks! Our Beam project is in the final stages, we are fully immersed in the world of geometry, and our first Realistic Fiction books are complete. Read on for details!
In Math workshop, we are deep in our study of geometry. We started out by taking a careful look at various 2D and 3D shapes. Students worked on describing and categorizing shapes based on their attributes. Since the students are still developing the precise vocabulary of geometry, they have very different ways of talking about and grouping the shapes. Some students take a very artistic approach: “These are all shapes that look like other things. This triangle looks like a mountain!” Others are grouping shapes according to the number of sides or vertices they have. As the kids develop more vocabulary, their observations about the shapes will become more mathematical. In addition, we have also learned that one large 3D block can be composed of smaller 3D blocks. We are now focusing on quadrilaterals, which includes a study of rectangles. Our mathematicians will be introduced to the concept of area as they attempt to sort rectangles according to size. At home, encourage your children to notice geometry in their world, and to play around with shapes. Tangrams is a great geometry activity which supports the development of spatial awareness and allows kids to notice attributes of different shapes and how they relate to each other.
In Reading Workshop, we are fully immersed in our series book clubs! Now that our readers are tackling longer and more complex books, much of our work is focused on understanding characters across the whole arc of a story. When we read series, we can track how our characters act and react in many different situations. This helps us predict how our characters will respond to problems, and also enables us to identify when our characters are acting out of the ordinary. As always, we are working on how we know about our characters. Many kids know why characters act a certain way. A character may be angry and sad because she is being teased. But as readers we need to prove how we know, by looking at a character’s words and actions– she yelled, she kicked her chair. This is especially important when characters respond in different ways than we ourselves would respond. As you read with your children at home, make sure you ask questions that encourage your child to prove their thinking: “How do you know? What words or sentences tell you that?”
In Writing Workshop, we finished our first Realistic Fiction books! We shared our books across the second grade classes. We are now moving into a faster-paced second cycle of realistic fiction writing. We will use the same process as during the first cycle, and will continue exploring how to make our pieces focused and meaningful.
In Social Studies, we have been learning about what NYC was like more than 400 years ago, before European explorers arrived. We are reading about Lenape American Indians, and how they lived in the area before their lives were altered by the arrival of settlers. Next week we will visit the Wyckoff House Museum, which was built in 1652!
Please take note of some important dates:
Tuesday, April 2: 201 visits the Wyckoff House
Wednesday, April 3: 202 visits the Wyckoff House
Monday, April 15: Timeline Projects are due
Have a wonderful weekend!
Ms. Anne and Ms. Mathis