November 4-8

Hi Parents,

Reading

Our nonfiction unit will continue this week. We will be learning how to read nonfiction books by looking at some different text features, such as bold print and captions. We will learn the purpose of each of these features and how they help us read the book.

Writing

We will be starting a new and exciting writing project that will go on for the next two weeks!  We are going to become published authors through the Student Treasures Program (http://www.studentreasures.com/).  At the end of our writing time we will send in our completed work and it will be published in a class book that you can order!  We even get a free book for our classroom!  

This is going to be an exciting and intense writing time where we must all work together in class to get our book finished and sent in.  I’ll be contacting parents in a separate email to arrange parent volunteers to help with this big project.  

I have never done this project before, but I hear from other teachers and from our vice principal that it is a wonderful and exciting program.

I can’t wait to see our finished class book!

Spelling

Our spelling words focus on words with ph, gh, and tch. Words will go home on Monday and we will check our learning on Friday.  Remember that we are not trying to memorize our word lists, but practicing the spelling pattern.  If you cut out and sort the home lists and brainstorm other words that fit the pattern together, then your child should do great on their surprise words by applying what they learned.

Math

We’re continuing our unit on money this week.  Thanks so much for all the donations and volunteers for our Halloween Math Stations!  The kids had a wonderful time and they were so excited to put their money knowledge to use!

We’ll be playing several money games and discussing various coin combinations of different amounts.  Students will work with money manipulatives and practice problem solving.  Singing our way to counting coins will be a blast as we have many songs that we’ll be enjoying to help reinforce these skills.  We’ll even “Race to the Bank” to count coins!  At the end of the week, students will review and we will have an assessment on Friday.

Money is an ongoing TEKS for second grade.  Please continue to have your child count different amounts of coins regularly.  With debit and credit bank cards being used so frequently, children aren’t exposed to counting money as often.  One fun way to have your child count coins is to give a handful of your loose change and if they can count it correctly, they can keep it!  Their piggy banks will be full in no time!

Science:

We start science this week!  We will be working on motion/force and types of energy for the next few weeks.  We will get to explore with magnets, create ramps, and experiment with water and wind.  We will play a game to refresh our memory with push and pull also.  We need to borrow small, toy cars for our ramp day.  If you have some, please send them to school before Thursday.  

Reminders:

• Life journals are due on Friday.
• Library day is Wednesday.
• Report cards go home on Tuesday, November 5th.
• TAG Parent Information Meeting: November 7th at 5:30 in the library.
• Ms. Hoveland will be out at District Trainings on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. See y'all on Friday!