Week of September 13th

We had a busy start to the week today with our spelling and vocabulary assessments as well as our spelling pretest for this week. I am so proud of how hard the kids have been working on their spelling words! Please continue to keep up the good work. Since we did not have the weekend to restudy words that were missed, they were added to their individual five (the words in blue) this week.

Tomorrow the kids will have their first Math Assessment. This will review the concepts that we have introduced so far and will give me even more insight as to what they need additional practice on. When you receive their assessment sometime this week, please look over it, sign it, and send it back. It will stay here with me! Our next unit will focus a lot on addition and subtraction facts. A great way to support this unit is to practice these facts at home. You can use flash cards or even play some games on the computer. I have links on the side of this blog that supports these skills. Enjoy!

Last week in Science we started to talk about Matter and the different states of matter. The kids did a really fun experiment where they had to drop an Alka-Seltzer tablet into a cup of water and observe the changes. It was priceless. I wish I could have captured every look on their faces! I did take some pictures and will upload them to the Shutterfly site this week. Here are some words you may want to talk about that we will be focusing on during this unit in science: states of matter, solid, liquid, gas, and properties (characteristics). Throughout our science units you will see the underlining pattern of "changes". Second grade has partnered with some upper division clubs to work on a gardening project. This week we will get to observe as the soil is prepared for planting. We look forward to learning a lot and being able to observe some changes and growth! Please send a change of clothes with your kiddo on Wednesday or at least an oversized shirt and gardening gloves (if possible) as they may have the opportunity to pull some weeds and be a part of the process!

As we continued our journey through North America last week, the kids researched facts about North America and then worked together to make a web on the computer about North America. They did a great job! We are even learning our first poem for our November program. Please stay tuned as I add these poems to the page so you can practice them at home.

We finished our introductory unit to Writer's Workshop and the kids picked a story to fancy up. We shared them on the projector Friday and rejoiced in the fact that we are all AUTHORS! Their stories are up on the Author Wall!! This week we are starting our Small Moments unit and so far, we are off to a great start.

Reminders:

• Picture Day tomorrow! Please send in the picture form if you have not already.
• Scholastic Book Orders are due by Friday. I will place the orders Friday afternoon.
• Please remember to sign your child's homework log to show that they are reading 20 minutes each day. I do collect their homework logs. There are a lot without any signatures :(.
• Please return the yellow Highlight's order form, even if you checked "no". I need to place those orders tomorrow.
• Current Events this week:
  

Monday: Jett and Dorothy
Tuesday: Zachary and Rachael
Wednesday: Connor and Hannah
Thursday: Nico and Kelly
Friday: Luke