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)