Weekly Update

Hi all,
I hope your week is going well! Here are some updates to our curriculum this week.

Last week we found that we struggle more with sequencing our stories, being able to tell what happened before or after an event. So we've begun working on a story timeline. This can be done with any book you want at home. Create 4-8 boxes and have your child write the main events in the story. Our second graders are having difficulty picking out which events are just details and which are really important to the story. When we are finished reviewing sequence we will be taking our 2nd reading stamina practice with another 5-passage practice. During this time we'll be talking again about taking breaks and what to do when we're tired of working but must keep going.

In writing we have begun our Fantasy Unit. We are in the planning stages of our stories! We have chosen whether we want to write a: fairy tale, fable, folktale or tall tale. We also planned four traits we will have that pertain to each of those units. (I.E. if I'm writing a fairy tale I'm going to have a princess who is a teacher, a magical sorcerer, a pet dragon, and an enchanted forest. If I were writing a fable I would need some animal characters like maybe a fox and a giraffe, these animals will have human traits like trying to trick their teacher from giving them homework, and my story will teach a lesson like how it's better to be honest than lie.) This story will take up much of our time for the next 3-4 weeks. We look forward to sharing them with you afterwards!

And in social studies we have switched to our economy unit with the help of Mrs. Sampson and Mrs. Martinez through Junior Achievement. We are focusing on learning the difference between producers and consumers, and then the different between goods and services.

Homeworks are as usual! 1) Reading comprehension, 2) Writing a short fable, 3) Reading "The Softball Game" twice, and 4) a spelling activity.

If you have any questions feel free to post on here or email me! Have a wonderful week!

Homework and Terrific Tuesdays

Hi everyone, hope you had a blessed Easter! It appears the flu is now hitting the morning class with another 7 absent today. Please rest up you guys and feel better soon!

We're going to carry on here as we have our end of the year benchmarks in about a month!

Starting this week we are going to begin growing our stamina of taking longer reading passage practices each Tuesday. Our schedule is so busy, I think it will be better to do them on a regular basis to help everyone out. Wednesdays are library days, Thursdays are computer lab and Fridays are spelling tests and checking homework. So Tuesdays we are going to begin taking a practice reading passage assortment and using that data to drive what we work on in class.

Homework:
Reading Comprehension homework
Spelling Activity
Writing Homework (over fairy tales)
Home Reader

What a Crazy Week, Happy Easter!!!

Ok, I wanted to post a quick note that I went ahead and canceled our spelling words for this week. We'll use the same words next week so if you did your spelling activity already just hold on to it so you can turn it in next Friday!

Secondly, I wanted to address the flu that seems to be going through our classroom. We have had up to 10 children out per day. We have made sure to use hand sanitizer hourly and have cloroxed our tables, chairs and even our pencils! For those of you who are out we hope you'll concentrate on feeling better! For those who may not know yet about all our illnesses I hope you'll stay healthy and make sure to get plenty of sleep and those other healthy choices we make each day!

Because of so many absenses I have not taught extra content this week. We reviewed the skills of distinguishing between fact and opinion and worked on our book reviews and Flag Day books. None of those are assignments that will be sent home for "make-up work." We'll take care of it when any students who missed the assignment come back. It's just too hard to explain the directions and it's something that should be completed in class as the books we use are in our classroom library.

For the book commercials: I will only post the commercials that I have consent for from the yellow sheet. (You can find an extra copy on the first few posts of the blog if you haven't yet returned one.) I will try my best to post all 20-30 students that I can but we will see if I can get them formatted correctly, because I'll have to learn a bit about Blogspot first :)

And lastly, I hope you enjoy your Good Friday. I hope you'll get to spend time with family and cherish the day however your family chooses. It's a very special weekend and I hope you'll enjoy the time with family and friends in the best ways possible.