Grade Two November Newsletter

1. Grade Two November Newsletter • November 4th: All of the second grade classrooms will go on a field trip to Da An Park from 9:00AM - 1:00PM. • November 27th & 28th: Thanksgiving Break • Thank you for attending the first quarter Student-Led Conferences. We will have our next round of Student-Led Conferences in March. The second grade team would also like to extend a big thank you to all of the parents that participated in the Halloween activities.

2. Reading Second grade students have continued to build their reading skills through independent reading of Just-Right books and through guided reading sessions with instructional books. During a guided reading session, the children are reading books that present a greater challenge to them, but they have the support of a teacher to help them successfully apply reading skills they already know and to learn and use new skills.

3. Writing with…Authors as Mentors During our Writing lessons in October our focus was on helping our students learn more about THEMSELVES as writers. We introduced an author, Ezra Jack Keats, and shared many of his books and ideas. These ideas are also referred to as the author’s crafts. Students noticed how Ezra Jack Keats used ellipses…that slow down the reader and create wonder of what will happen next, capital LETTERS to emphasize feelings or actions of the character, sound words ( boom) that make the reader imagine the action, dashes to s-l-o-w down the reader, detail words that describe tiny actions that help the reader understand the characters feelings, inner thoughts that help the reader know what the character is thinking or dreaming, and many other crafts used in Keat’s stories to make them more interesting to read. We took time to identify “crafts” that are used by authors in our own class libraries. Our goal is to see our students using the same kinds of crafts in their daily writing.

4. Spelling We have completed our first six units in spelling. The children have done a wonderful job learning and applying our classroom spelling routines. Thank you for helping us by working with your child at home each week to practice their words.

5. Math Second grade has launched Unit 3 in Math. We are very excited about learning more information about Place Value, Money and Time. Your child has been using base-10 blocks to help him or her understand the idea of place value. They are using money to find the value of coins, identify different coin combinations for the same amount and make change. Students will use an analog clock to record time to the hour and minute. We hope that you took time to read the parent Home Link that was sent out at the beginning of the unit. The Home Link had some great ideas for helping your child master the skills in unit 3 while having fun.

6. Integrated Studies Our Frogs, Friends and Change study is coming to an end. Our culminating activity and celebration will be our field trip to Da An Park on November 4. The children will have time to play games with their second grade friends and enjoy a picnic in the park. The second graders have enjoyed reading all the great Frog and Toad stories written by Arnold Lobel and studying the story elements: character, setting, problem, solution and ending. They have done many different activities related to the Frog and Toad stories and now they are writing their own Frog and Toad adventure which will include all the elements of a good story. We will be starting our first science unit of Peebles, Sand and Silt the beginning of November.

7. ESL Reading Workshop for Parents The ESL department is thrilled to announce that we had outstanding attendance at the monthly parent workshops again. This is fantastic news for children, parents, and teachers alike! Our students are working very hard to learn everything a second grader needs to know in addition to a second or even third language. Sharing information and becoming consistent with one another is the best thing we as teachers and parents can do together to help them accomplish their goals. Information about the workshop on reading we held, as well as reading tools and guides, can be found on the ESL link.