March 21, 2014 Update...

Dear Parents and Students,
Thank you for visiting today!  We had such an exciting week, with our news about next year as well as a few special events going on in the classroom!  All of the second grade teachers and students would like to give a HUGE THANK YOU to Mrs. Newlin for organizing our Math Olympics that we had on Friday!!!  She did everything from create our hall displays to make all the games that kids played.  We focused on emphasizing four essential math skills (adding and subtracting, telling time, counting money, and problem solving).  All the students had so much fun visiting all of the countries and earning their medals.   I'd like to also thank Mrs. Beasley, Mr. Clark, Mrs. DeFoor, and Mrs. Barfield for helping in our room with the games on Friday.  Check out below to find out what we've been doing in each subject area this week...

Phonics/Grammar:  We focused on learning the long and short o and i spelling patterns and the /oi/ and /oy/ spelling patterns in our phonics groups this week. We also reviewed using possessive nouns in sentences as well as capitalizing proper nouns.  We edited several paragraphs that focused on using titles of books and poems in writing and what conventions to use.

Reading: We began our exciting new chapter book, Horns and Wrinkles, this week. We worked on identifying the important characters through study of character traits and proof from the text.  We also looked at cause and effect relationships in the story so far. 

Writing: We reviewed what the important components of a narrative are and we wrote stories telling about a small moment in our life.  We talked about including dialogue, using the senses (what we see, hear, feel), and moving through the story sequentially.  

Math:  We worked all week on efficient techniques for adding and subtracting triple digit numbers.  We practiced skip counting by 10's and 100's forward and backward.  We talked about using strategies that are quick and accurate. We practiced our math facts using the website located on this blog.  Please encourage your child to devote some time to math fact practice!

Social Studies: We learned about the similarities and differences among the local, state, and federal governments.  We talked about the responsibilities of each.  We also discussed what rules and rights are and how our world would be different without them.

Class News and Announcements...

Congratulations to SAWYER KALE for being chosen as last week's CELEBRITY!  Way to go on consistently following our RULES TO LIVE BY all year long!

Thank you , Mrs. Newlin, for helping out with OSCARS this week.

Thank you to the Kales for keeping Joe over spring break!  We are excited to hear how their cat, Mary, reacts to this new furry houseguest!

Over spring break, please encourage your child to work on math facts as well as read as much as possible! We want to end the year on a strong note in preparation for third grade and we will not be wasting one minute in the classroom!