Dear Parents and Students,
Can you believe 2009 is almost over? We have had such a wonderful first half of the year! I am expecting great things for the remainder of our school year. The children performed their "reader's theater" readings today, and I was so proud of them! Reader's Theater is basically a play without the props and acting. The children took this task very seriously and they all did fabulous! Check out the blue folder for grades and comments from this activity. We will continue to do this type of reading in the future, as it is an excellent way to improve fluency and expression when reading. The children will be inviting you to a performance in the future. Look below to see what else we have been doing in class this week...
Phonics/Grammar: This week in phonics, we reviewed all of the spelling patterns and rules that we have learned so far. We also played several games to review grammar rules in preparation for our benchmark assessment. We took the exam on Wednesday. Please look for your child's results in the blue folder.
Reading: This week, we worked on fluency and working in cooperative groups while doing our reader's theater. We also read The Polar Express and worked on skills such as counting syllables in words, finding synonyms and antonyms for words, and identifying the root words in words with suffixes and prefixes.
Math: We completed our unit on solid shapes. We compared characteristics of shapes such as faces, edges, and vertices. We looked in magazines for real examples of solid shapes. Please continue to emphasize this vocabulary at home. It will be seen again on the CRCT and this tends to be a challenging area for 2nd graders due to the vocabulary being so new to the children. Here is a list of words to know...cone, cube, rectangular prism, square pyramid, sphere, cylinder, face, edge, vertex. You may also want to continue to review the plane shapes vocab...quadrilateral, triangle, parallelogram, trapezoid, pentagon, hexagon, angle, right, acute, obtuse. In addition to completing our geometry unit, we also reviewed our 2nd nine week material and completed the benchmark exam. You may also find these results in your child's blue folder. This was, and always is, the most challenging benchmark exam that we give. This nine week period in math covers some very difficult concepts. We will continue to review these newly learned skills as the year progresses.
News and Reminders...
Our party is tomorrow from 10:30-11:30! All parents are welcome to join in on the fun! Thank you to everyone who has helped in the planning and organization for this party. Needless to say, the kids can't wait!
We are about halfway through our chapter read aloud, The BFG. When we complete the book, we will have another movie night as a culminating activity at my house. More details will be coming soon!
There is a teacher workday on Monday, January 4th. The children will resume classes on Tuesday, January 5th.
Be on the lookout Tuesday, the 5th, for an important permission slip. We will be going to the Cobb County Fire Safety Village on January 14th. We are asking your permission to apply the funds already collected for the field trip to Hyde Farm that we had to cancel to this new trip. You will need to check and sign the front and the back of the form.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas this year! I can't wait to see everyone back in 2010!
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