December 15-18

Writing

We all know that the Grinch has a heart that is just too small.  This week we are going to brainstorm some ways we could make his heart big and full of love.  Our writing will explain what we are going to do to make this happen.  We will use complete sentences and focus on appropriate usage of capital letters and punctuation.  

Reading

This week we will be reading the story Snowflake Bentley. We will learn about how Wilson Bentley became a photographer of snowflakes. We’ll discuss his character traits, motivations, and the challenges he faced to become such a known photographer.

Math

We are wrapping up length this week with an assessment over everything we’ve learned. Then we will spend a few days putting our measurement skills to work by making some new murals for the hallway. Students will need to draw a boat that is one meter long or a flower that is 6 inches tall. It will be a great way to wrap up our semester of learning!

Science

This week in science we will discuss natural and manmade resources.  We’ll learn that natural resources include rocks, soil, plants, water and air.  We’ll discuss that manmade resources are made from natural resources.  Students will classify and explain the differences between natural and manmade resources.  Rocks come in many shapes and sizes.  We’ll talk about their different physical properties and how they’re different depending on their natural environment.  Students will Identify natural sources of freshwater and saltwater.  We will describe and compare the properties of freshwater and saltwater.  Lastly, we will discuss how we can take care of our natural resources.

Reminders

Class Winter Party- December 18th 1:30-2:30

Book Exchange- wrapped, gender neutral books due Dec. 17th

December 8-12

Writing

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a snow globe?  This week we will put on our imagination hats to tell a story about that.  We will use some facts and some of our own background knowledge about snow globes to create the stories.  We will include descriptive vocabulary to help explain the experience.  

Reading

This week we will continue to read nonfiction texts with our purpose being to understand that the author puts important events in order so that the reader will understand. We will read a book all about Abraham Lincoln and students will sequence the events of his life in an order that makes sense.

Math

Measurement continues this week. We will learn about the difference between the customary and metric systems. We will practice estimating and checking our work with a ruler when we measure a friend! Halloween is visiting second grade again when we measure some spooky spiders, bats, and ghosts. At the end of the week we will review everything we've learned before assessing at the beginning of the following week.

Science:

Science will be fun as we observe and identify how magnets are used in everyday life. We'll learn that some objects stick to magnets, especially those made with iron. Students will explore how magnets are used in many ways such as holding small objects to a refrigerator or lifting objects. We'll learn that magnets are also used in common everyday objects like doorbells, phones, speakers, compasses, and devices with electric motors. We'll discuss the physical property that allows an object to be attracted to a magnet. At the end of the week we will review and assess or force and motion to complete the unit.

Reminders:

Class Winter Party- December 18th 1:30-2:30

December 1-5

Writing

We will focus on more expository writing this week.  We will explain a time when we were sick.  We will include facts and opinions in this type of nonfiction writing.  Our stories will go through the writing process including brainstorming, first draft, revise/edit, and a final product. Our stories will also include a clear beginning, middle, and end.   

Reading

This week we will continue to look through nonfiction texts but our focus will be on identifying the main idea. Students will understand the meaning of main idea and be able to identify it by looking at the facts and details in the story.   

Math

It’s going to be a long week as we start our new unit on measurement. We are beginning with a review of non-standard units of measurement before diving into inches, feet, yards, and centimeters. We will practice estimating lengths of classroom items and checking our work with a ruler. We will also practice with “broken” rulers, where we have to figure out the length of an item even if the ruler doesn’t start on zero.

Science

We continue with science this week with fun motion experiments.  We will be watching items spin, slide and roll.  We will discuss the force that causes these items to move and record the changes that occur as an item moves.  Then we will move on to magnets and learning how and why magnets move items.

For our fun experiments we need:

2 bottles of bubbles

5 tops- like the little plastic ones

5 pinwheels- the colorful little ones you blow to spin

5 pool noodles

​Thanks for helping us make science fun and engaging!

Reminders

November 24-28

Thanksgiving Break

Monday, December 1

Science Fair Coaching 6:00pm

Wednesday, December 3

Early Release 12:45

PTA Spirit Night Out - Newks 5:00pm

November 17-21

Writing

Our Student Treasure class books are shipping off this week to be published!  It was so neat to see the kids get excited about this project.  They all were able to contribute in their own way to the Counterpane Fairy and give Teddy, our main character, a new adventure.  This week we will focus on bridging the nonfiction text features we’ve studied in reading to our very own writing.  We will complete a booklet on a topic we are knowledgeable about.  We will include things such as a diagram, table of contents, headings, and glossary.   It’s fun to find out all of the topics your kiddos know so much about!

Reading

We will learn all about synonyms (two words that have the same meaning) and antonyms (two words that have opposite meanings).  We will work on specific reading skills in reading groups to increase fluency, comprehension, accuracy, and vocabulary development.  

Math

We have one more week of addition and subtraction strategies! We will learn a few more subtraction strategies and practice distinguishing between addition and subtraction word problems. At the end of the week, we will review everything we’ve learned before an assessment on Friday.  

Science

This week we are moving back into science with increasing and decreasing energy.  Students will observe how vibrating objects produce sound energy and discuss how energy can be increased or decreased.  Students will investigate how heat energy can change a material’s state of matter, how light energy can change how an object appears, and how sound energy’s vibrations can change depending on the volume.  We’ll sing a fun science rock song called Energy and see how scientist experiment with sound and light!

Reminders

November 18

Last day to return Student Treasures (class book) order forms!!!

PTA Meeting /3rd Grade Program 7:00pm

November 19

Caraway Thanksgiving Meal at 11:33

PTA Reflection Awards 6:30pm

November 20

Science Fair Coaching 6:00pm

November 24-28

Thanksgiving Break

Monday, December 1

Science Fair Coaching 6:00pm

Wednesday, December 3

Early Release 12:45

PTA Spirit Night Out - Newks 5:00pm

November 10-14

November 10-14

Writing

This week we will continue our writing project called Student Treasures books.  These are class books that we will send off to have published and bound for you to purchase.  Our class book will be called The Counterpane Fairy.  Each child will write an additional chapter of the story. We will be working through the writing process and will also include an illustration page that goes with our writing.  We will choose a cover and title page illustration for our class book also.

Reading

We will continue learning about nonfiction text and graphic features this week. Students will be able to identify and comprehend the meanings of diagrams, bold print, captions, labels, etc as they look through nonfiction texts. Towards the end of the week, we will learn all about synonyms (two words that have the same meaning) and antonyms (two words that have opposite meanings).

Math

This week we are focusing on subtraction strategies. We will learn to break apart numbers, use a number line, and learn to use addition to check our work. At the end of the week, we will combine everything we’ve learned with some mixed problem solving. Students will practice reading the problem, choosing an appropriate strategy and then solving.  

Social Studies

We’re continuing in Social Studies with government services. Who pays for these services?  We all do and we will discuss that citizens pay taxes that are then used to pay for services. When we all contribute, we are able to accomplish some big projects that we could not do individually.  Students will learn that each citizen puts in a portion from their income, sales tax and property tax.  When these monies are all put together, the government can pay for government services.  The community can provide valuable services for all members of the community, services that include police and fire protection, libraries, schools, and parks.  Mapping our community will be fun as we explore why people choose to live in a certain area.  We’ll  identify the government services provided around us and discuss private businesses as well.  At the end of the week we will identify the leaders and their job title. Students will compare the roles of mayor, governor, and president.  

Reminders

November 13- Second Grade field trip to Inner Space Caverns

November 3-7

November 3-7

Writing

This week we will begin our writing project called Student Treasures books.  These are class books that we will send off to have published and bound for you to purchase.  Our class book will be called The Counterpane Fairy. We will read one of my favorite childhood books called the Counterpane Fairy by Katherine Pyle and write our own version. Each child will write and illustrate their story and then we will send it off to be published!

Reading

This week students will understand and be able to distinguish the difference between fiction and nonfiction texts. Students will have the opportunity to explore and sort many different types of books into fiction and nonfiction categories and explain their reasoning for their sort. Towards the end of the week, we’ll explore the text and graphic features found in nonfiction texts.

Math

We are learning how to add bigger numbers this week with mental math strategies. We will learn how to add the tens and ones separately with the partial sums strategy. We will learn to add with an open number line. We will also practice drawing pictures to represent bigger numbers, rather than each individual unit. At the end of the week we will be starting our subtraction strategies by subtracting with base-ten blocks. All of this will be done through lots of problem solving practice. You can support your child at home by giving problems for him/her to solve mentally!

Social Studies

We’re moving into Social Studies this week.  Our focus will be on keeping order in local communities.  We’ll ask the question, “What is government?” Students will learn that the purpose of government is to provide security, establish order,and manage conflict.  Just like we need rules in school to keep us safe and allow us to work in an orderly manner, and avoid conflict, we need the same in our community.   We’ll discuss that a working community is one with its citizens taking responsibility in daily life. We’ll learn that when people act as good citizens and volunteer in the community, follow the rules, vote, and help others, we can have an  influence on communities. When people in communities work together, they can accomplish a great deal.  

Reminders

November 13- Second Grade field trip to Inner Space Caverns (permission slips in Tues. folders)

October 27-31

October 27th-31st

Writing

It’s getting spooky in second grade this week!  We will create a pumpkin and use descriptive writing to explain it in a story.  We will make sure to have a clear beginning, middle, and end.  We will also work on ABC order, creative spelling with the letters h-a-l-l-o-w-e-e-n, pros/cons of eating Halloween candy and most importantly, Halloween safety.

Reading

We will finish up and present our Trick or Treat book reports this week. Students will present the characters, setting, the problem and solution, and their favorite part of the story! The pumpkin characters will be due on Monday, October 27th.

Math

3 digit place value continues this week as we look at the different ways we can make numbers. We can make 237 using 237 ones cubes or 2 hundreds, 2 tens, and 17 ones. Later in the week we are digging into problem solving strategies by creating a bank of mental math tips. Our first tip is to make the numbers friendly by taking facts we know and using them to figure out the rest of the problem.

Halloween is on Friday and we thought we’d spice things up a bit with an engineering challenge! Students will be challenged to design and build structures out of toothpicks and gummy pumpkins. Can they build a tower? Can they figure out how to make straight toothpicks curve and build a witch’s hat? What about a bridge?

Science

We are going to have fun exploring what happens to materials when we change their physical properties such as cutting, folding and sanding. We will make physical changes to create paper airplanes.  We’ll be problem solvers by combining materials to build structures and justify the selection of materials based on their physical properties.  Students will have fun singing science rock songs! At the end of the week we will review and assess on changing and combining materials and physical properties.

Reminders

Red Ribbon Week is this week!

Monday: Red Ribbon Day (Students and staff will receive red ribbons today and are encouraged to wear red ribbons all week long.)

Tuesday: Pair Up and Make Good Choices (Find a friend and dress up as twins.)

Wednesday: Sock It to Drugs Day! (Wear silly/crazy socks to school.)

Thursday: Good Character is Our Super Power (Students and teachers will wear superhero clothing.)

Friday: Rally in Red Day: (Students and teachers will communicate support for Red Ribbon Week by  wearing as many red items as they can. The class with the most red items will win a prize.)

Wednesday, October 29: Early Release - school ends at 12:45pm

Friday, October 31st: Halloween- no costumes at school, please!

October 20-24

October 20-24

Writing

This week we will practice writing brief comments about nonfiction information.  We will use Halloween/pumpkins as our topic.  Our “All About” booklets will keep our comments, diagrams, and comparisons that we write comments about.  

Reading

We are starting our Trick or Treat book reports this week. Students will dive into their chosen fiction book to identify characters, setting, the problem and solution, and their favorite part of the story! The pumpkin characters will be due on Monday, October 27th.

Math

Our study of 3-dimensional geometry continues this week. We will combine writing and math by making a “Wanted” poster for a shape that has committed a crime. How will we know what the criminal looks like? Students will have to describe the shape’s attributes so the public knows what to look for! We will review our learning on Tuesday before assessing on Wednesday. We are beginning a new unit on 3 digit place value later in the week. We got the basics down with 2 digit place value; now we will see how adding a third digit changes things!

Science

This week in science we will be comparing changes in materials caused by heating and cooling.  We will predict and compare changes to wet paper when heat is applied and removed.  We’ll explore changes from hot to cold in liquids and compare their physical properties.  Experimenting with freezing and melting will be a blast as we explore liquids and solids that have been frozen.  Our senses will help us discover what is still felt frozen, what was gooey, what textures had changed and what felt the same.  At the end of week we will be engineers and make gnome bridges.  We will use items to illustrate and model  how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a problem.  We’ll discover what happens when you put different materials together they can do things that they cannot do by themselves

Reminders

Friday, October 24: First nine-weeks ends

Saturday, October 25: Caraway Harvest Festival

Wednesday, October 29: Early Release - school ends at 12:45pm

October 14-17

October 14-16

Writing

This week we will be “batty” over writing.  We will work on writing a diary entry from the perspective of a bat.  We will include fact and fiction in our writing.  We’ll also get to design, name, and add captions to our very own bat.  We’ll take our writing through the writing process, working on editing and peer conferencing.  We will continue to practice the spelling rule of the week each day.  On Fridays we will assess how well they know the spelling pattern.  If you would like additional “at home” practice there are some links on the blog under “websites”.

Reading

This week we will be discussing the elements of fiction by reading many books by the same author. Students will compare similarities and differences in the plots and setting and will be able to describe the main characters in the books, including their traits, motivations, and feelings. We will also discuss the theme, or moral lesson, in the book as well.

Spelling

The spelling list will come home on Tuesday and we will assess their knowledge of the spelling pattern on Friday.   

Math

We’re getting in shape this week with our new unit on three-dimensional geometry! After checking what we learned about telling time on Tuesday, we will jump into learning about the attributes of different three dimensional shapes. We will learn some new vocabulary words: vertex, edge, face, and surface and how those words apply to certain shapes. We will ask ourselves why a rectangular prism has 8 vertices but a cone only has a point. We will also that a cube is made up of 6 squares and a square-based pyramid has 4 triangles and a square.

Science

This week in Science, we will be continuing our unit on matter and energy. We will classify matter by physical properties, including shape, relative mass, relative temperature, texture, flexibility, and whether material is a solid or liquid. We will discuss the misconception that students may think materials have only one single property. Students will discover that the same materials can have multiple properties.  (Ex: An eraser is pink, rectangular, small, lighter than a rock, and feels cooler than the Sun.)  We will use our senses to explore objects and describe their physical properties. At the end of the week we will have a review and assessment.

If you’re looking for enrichment fun at home, here are some ideas:

SUPER Objects Story

Cartoon superheroes possess properties that humans do not have like stretching bodies to any size, throwing their own fire, or having incredible strength. Students create a short story booklet imagining they are a scientist who can change the properties of common objects into SUPER objects. Their cover picture should be in divided in half, with the object picture with a list of its common properties on top and the SUPER object picture on the bottom with its new properties drawn on the bottom. The remaining pages (2 or 3) are for the creative story of what happened with the SUPER object. For example, if the student wanted to use a cereal bowl as their object, they would draw an image of a ordinary cereal bowl on the top half with properties listed as: plastic, bowl shaped, a little flexible, doesn’t break, holds cereal and milk. On the bottom they would create a SUPER cereal bowl that might be able to change temperature and freeze the cereal into ice cream; or changes shape into a spaceship that transports the student into another world just for breakfast and returns them back to their breakfast table. Their story could be a short breakfast adventure they have in their new breakfast world.

Changing Texture Challenge

Take a small old object at home and change its texture. For example if your child has a  plastic ball, they could glue on sand to make it rough or add blobs of glue to make it bumpy. Draw a before and after picture with the texture change words at the top of each (Smooth - Bumpy).

Reminders

Library Day is Thursday: Don’t forget to return books to school!

Thursday, October 16: Caraway Science Night

Thursday, October 16: Coffee and Conversation with Mrs. Bailey 7:45-8:30

Friday, October 24: First nine-weeks ends

Saturday, October 25: Caraway Harvest Festival

Wednesday, October 29: Early Release - school ends at 12:45pm

October 6-10

October 6th-10th

Writing

This week we are so excited to start our second grade service project, Coins for Coats!  We will be incorporating this into language arts, math, and science throughout the month of October.  The next two weeks we are getting the word out about the project.  We will create commercials for the K-OWL news, make posters for the school, write persuasive letters to send home in Tuesday folders and create collection jars.

Reading

We will put together several reading skills this week and take it back to our own reading. With our reader's tool-kits, we will be on the lookout for questions, predictions, connections, and inferences.   

Math

We’re late, we’re late, for a very important date! We will learn to not be late again as we practice telling time this week. We will start by reminding ourselves how long a second, a minute, and an hour are and tasks we can complete in each of those time periods. We will be looking at analog clocks and digital clocks to tell time to the minute. We will also learn telling time language, such as a quarter to 8. We will practice all week and wrap up with an assessment the following week.

Khan Academy: Telling time with a labeled clock

Many of you have been asking if your child can do more than just this assignment. Of course! We are working through the Early Math Mastery Challenge. Your child can always continue with that.

Science

This week in science we’re moving into matter and energy. Students will learn that matter has physical properties and those properties determine how it is described, classified, changed, and used. Students will classify matter by physical properties, including shape, relative mass, relative temperature, texture, flexibility, and whether material is a solid or liquid. We will have some fun sorting activities and see how we can sort our shoes.  We’ll also have a lab where we observe and identify the physical properties of objects and classify those objects based on observable properties.  Students will observe and describe size, shape, color, texture, flexibility, temperature, and mass.  Using all of our senses except taste to compare frozen and non-frozen gummy worms and ice pops, deflated and inflated balloons to compare how objects are the same and how are the objects different.  We’ll be real scientists and ask questions such as:

• Did the textures of different things change? How did they change?

• Are there differently shaped objects?
• Did solids stay solid? Why did some items become liquid?

Reminders

Library Day is Thursday: Don’t forget to return books to school!

Wednesday, October 8:  Spirit Night at Catfish Parlour

Monday, October 13th: Columbus Day, No School/Staff Development

Thursday, October 16: Caraway Science Night

Thursday, October 16: Coffee and Conversation with Mrs. Bailey 7:45-8:30

Saturday, October 25: Caraway Harvest Festival

Wednesday, October 29: Early Release - school ends at 12:45pm

September 29- October 3rd

September 29th- October 3rd

Writing

This week our focus will be on putting a story in the correct order.  Our goal is to have a clear beginning, middle, and end to a story.  We will practice this skill by ordering “everyday tasks” such as tying shoes or making a bowl of cereal.  By the end of the week we will write about how we brush our teeth. 

Spelling this week focuses on beginning blends with words such as clip, crab, glass, and slug. For an extra challenge at home, have your child brainstorm more words that fit this pattern!

Reading

This week we will be focusing on making connections and inferences as we read. Students will understand that making connections will help them dig deeper to figure out the author’s meaning of the story. We will learn how to make text-to self, text- to text, and text-to world connections as we read. We will also be learning about inferences. When we make an inference we are using our schema (what we know) and the author’s clues to make a guess as to what is happening in the story. 

Math

We are wrapping up our place value, addition and subtraction unit this week! We will spend a few days learning some more strategies such as finding the missing addend. We will be upping the ante this week by mixing addition and subtraction word problems together. After a few days of practice, we will review everything we’ve learned before assessing on Friday.

For homework this week, please complete Addition and Subtraction Problems with 20: Level 2 on Khan Academy.

Science
This week in science we will continue tracking the weather and reading thermometers daily.  We will move into science safety and discuss the importance of using science tools correctly.  We’re going to learn about different scientists and  identify different topics that these scientists study.  We will ask the question, "what is science?" and students will describe their idea of a scientist, including the things scientists study and the tools they use. Students will go over science safety contracts, then take them home in their folder to sign and return.  We will discuss what do we do that makes us all scientists.  We’ll introduce vocabulary a scientist might use when conducting investigations, such as prediction, question, plan, observations, and explanations. At the end of the week, students will make their own science safety videos!  Throughout the week we will be putting our science safety rules to the test by continuing our weather experiments.

Reminders

September 30th:  Individual picture day (These orders are prepaid, please send order forms by Sept. 30th)

September 30- October 1st: OLSAT testing

Library Day is Thursday: Don’t forget to return books to school!

September 22-26

September 22-26

Writing

This is “Education, Go Get It” week at Caraway.  We will write about what college or university we would like to attend and possible jobs we would like to have.  We’ll finish off the week by designing a t-shirt with the college/university logo on it to share with the class.  During Writer’s Workshop we’ll be conferencing and checking for correct ending marks and spelling.  We will continue our spelling practice this week by using some hands-on activities with things such as playdoh, marker boards, and pompoms.  On Fridays we will assess how well they know the spelling pattern.  If you would like additional “at home” practice there are some links on the blog under “websites”.

Reading

This week students will understand that good readers ask questions before, during, and after they read. We ask ourselves questions to help us comprehend what the author really means in a story. As a class, we will practicing asking questions as we read. Students will each get a “toolkit” to help flag questions they have as they read their individual books.

Spelling

The spelling list will come home on Monday and we will assess knowledge of the skill on Friday.   

Math

In math this week, we are going to become problem solving detectives! Problem solving is a process and we are going to go through the steps one at a time. We will figure out the question, look for key words, get rid of extra information and choose a strategy to help us solve the problem. The first part of the week is all about addition and we will end the week with subtraction! Taking our time to learn these addition, subtraction, and problem solving strategies is essential so we can start working with bigger numbers!

Khan Academy: Please have your child complete Addition and Subtraction Word Problems within 20: Level 1 before next Friday.  

Science

This week we are moving into science.  We will be discussing weather and how it affects our lives.  Seasons are going to be a big topic and what to wear in certain types of weather.  We will read some books on weather, sing some songs and discuss what each season each student enjoys the most.  We will learn how to read a thermometer and how different weather instruments are used in predicting weather.  We will do some fun weather experiments and learn how to make a thunderstorm, make lightning and fog at home!  We will make scientific connections to our everyday life and discover how science is all around us!

Reminders

September 24th: Early Release Day at 12:45 (lunch is served)

September 30th:  Individual picture day (order forms coming in Tues. folder)