February 1-5

Writing

We will continue the writing process by writing how we can change the neighborhood to make it more safe.  We have split into our solution groups and are working hard on developing reasons to convince our audience.  

We are also working on some grammatical things like apostrophes, possessives, pronouns, and prepositions this week.  

Reading

This week in reading we will introduce inferences and drawing conclusions.  When we make an inference we are using what we already know (schema) and the author’s clues to make a guess at what is happening.  Students will look at pictures without words to infer what is happening. We will also read several scenarios in books to infer what the author is trying to say. Inferencing is such an important skill to develop in order to be effective readers and critical thinkers. When reading with your child at home, see if you can challenge them to make inferences throughout their books.

Math

We will spend this week finishing up our money unit with a review and an assessment. Then we are reviewing telling time. We will practice reading analog clocks to the minute and reading the time in time language.

iXL: Q.1-Q.8- great activities for reading clocks and practicing time language

Science and Social Studies:

We are dipping into the geography part of our projects this week.  We will study natural and man-made resources in our community.  We will study rocks and the properties of rocks also.  We are going to add natural resources and rocks to our region map in the hallway.  

*If your child has a rock collection this is a perfect week to bring it and share!

Research question of the week: Who invented Velcro? Why?   

Reminders:

Feb. 3rd- Early Release Day

Feb. 3rd- Spirit Night at Catfish Parlour

Friday Feb. 12th- Valentine Parties 1:30-2:30

Thursday Feb. 25th- Talent Show (6-7 at Canyon Vista)

January 25-29

Writing

This week we will get to showcase our playground equipment persuasive writing to the RRISD board.  We have guests coming on Wednesday morning to be part of this.  You are invited to come also!  It will start at 8:00 in the cafeteria.

We kicked off our new project based learning on safety and gathering in our neighborhood.  This week we are going to begin gathering data about what safety features we do and do not have in our community.  We will begin the writing process by writing how we can change the neighborhood to make it more safe.  

Reading

This week in reading we will continue to identify the main idea in a text and distinguish it from the topic. We will have some fun activities that will help students develop several strategies to help them identify the main idea when reading either a paragraph, story and non-fiction text. When reading with your child at home, ask about the main idea and the supporting details of what was just read.

Math

We are continuing our unit on money this week. We will be learning all the names of the coins and their values. We will continue to practice counting groups of coins up to 1 dollar. Students will learn the difference between using the dollar sign and a decimal point and the cent sign. We will assess at the end of this week.

The iXL activities are great practice for learning the coins and their values as well as counting a group of coins. You also can have your child count your change at the grocery store or if you go out to dinner!

Science and Social Studies:

This week we are going to continue discussing the safety and gathering spots in our neighborhood.  We are going to compare the way our neighborhood looks today with 100 years ago.  We are also going to learn about the positive and negative modifications that have been made.  

Research question of the week: Who was Louis Armstrong?    

Reminders:

Feb. 3rd- Early Release Day

Feb. 3rd- Catfish Parlour

Friday Feb. 12th- Valentine Parties 1:30-2:30

Thursday Feb. 25th- Talent Show (6-7 at Canyon Vista)

Great Kindness Challenge

January 25–January 29 Caraway will participate in the nationwide Great Kindness Challenge. Each student is encouraged to participate by completing a random act of kindness. Students will then write their name, grade, and their act of kindness on a paper hand that they will receive during their Guidance lesson. Please return the hand January 25 through January 29, to their teacher, so that we can help color our world with kindness! Hands will be displayed on the Counselor’s Bulletin Board in the 3rd grade hallway.

January 19-22

Writing

We will be working on our persuasive letters to the school board for our project based learning of our all abilities playground design. We will use our editing checklists to polish our pieces and give each other feedback on how to make our work even better!

Reading

In reading this week, we will be learning all about how to identify the main idea of a text. We will identify the main idea and supporting details in a variety of books throughout the week!

Math

We are beginning a new unit on money this week. We will begin by learning all the names of the coins and their values. Later in the week, we will practice counting groups of coins up to 1 dollar. Students will learn the difference between using the dollar sign and a decimal point and the cent sign.

The iXL activities are great practice for learning the coins and their values as well as counting a group of coins. You also can have your child count your change at the grocery store or if you go out to dinner!

Science and Social Studies:

We are going to start thinking like geographers this week.  Our question that will drive our learning is “How can we, as student geographers, help make our neighborhood more safe and fun for everyone in the community?”  We will kick it off with a neighborhood walk to discover all of the safety features that are present and missing from our community.  We will end the week with a fun bike rally that includes information from a police officer and hopefully a bike shop employee!  Please send in bikes, scooters, skateboards, and especially helmets on Friday.  We also need streamers, balloons, scotch tape, etc. to decorate our items for the rally. These items can stay in our classroom or on the bike rack.  We will need access to them throughout the day.

Research question of the week: Who was Miles Davis?    

Reminders:

MLK Day- January 18th

January 11-15

Writing

We will finish up our persuasive letters that were from last week.  We will begin writing persuasive letters to the school board for our project based learning of our all abilities playground design. Students will brainstorm together as a class about what  we want, who is our audience, reasons why, reasons they might say no and how we will persuade them.  We will review leads and how to begin a persuasive letter by asking a question, painting a picture, sharing a memory from the past. Students will write, revise and edit their pieces.

Please remember that Life Journals are due every Friday.

Life Journal expectations are as follows:

1. Students will glue or draw an item in their Life Journals. It could be a movie or game ticket, a picture, a drawing, an envelope with a special letter in it…as long as it can fit in their notebook, students may use it.

2. Students will write at least a paragraph about what was glued or drawn into their Life Journal. The visual placed in a Life Journal will assist in writing about it.

Reading

This week in reading we will continue to discuss author’s purpose.  We will focus on entertaining text. We’ll discuss the characteristics of entertaining texts and what the author is  trying to accomplish. We will review all 3 types of texts, persuade, inform and entertain.  

Please remember to read 100 minutes a week at home.  If students read 20 minutes at least 5 days a week, they will reach this goal.  Challenge your child to use more than one strategy they’ve learned in class during their at home reading time.

Math

We are continuing fractions this week. We will learn about eighths and thirds. We will use pattern blocks to think about fractions. If a hexagon is the whole, what shape will be one half? One third? One sixth? We will wrap up everything we’ve learned by making our own fraction neighborhood and end with an assessment on Friday.

Important: In second grade we teach kids to talk about and write fractions using words, (one half) not the typical number notation (½). If you could help us stay consistent at home, that would be great!  

Get in on the fun at home: cook with your child and talk about measurements. If a cup is your whole, what will one half look like or one fourth?

Science:

This week we will be reviewing our classroom community and what it means to be a great student. We will also review what it means to have a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. We will think abut tasks that are difficult for us and see if we can change our mindset about them!  

Reminders:

MLK Day- January 18th

January 5th-8th

Writing

We will be learning all about persuasive language and how to write an effective persuasive letter. We will explore various mentor texts and create our own persuasive piece.

Reading

This week in reading we will review expectations for reader’s workshop.  Students will make new reading goals for the semester and decide how to achieve their reading goals.  We will also begin to learn about the author's purpose for writing persuasive, informational and expository texts.

Math

We are starting the new year with fractions! We will learn how to partition a whole into equal parts and learn the names of those parts. Also, we will see how the more pieces that the whole is cut into, the smaller the pieces will be. We will learn to count by fractional parts when there is more than one whole.

We are learning about fractions with food! Let me know if you can bring in any of the following:

2 boxes of honey graham crackers

1 jar of chocolate frosting

Reeces Pieces

Mini M&Ms

Mini marshmallows

Important: In second grade we teach kids to talk about and write fractions using words, (one half) not the typical number notation (½). If you could help us stay consistent at home, that would be great!  

Get in on the fun at home: cook with your child and talk about measurements. If a cup is your whole, what will one half look like or one fourth?

Science:

We have finished our playground models this week. We will be taking our descriptive paragraph about them and using it to help us write persuasive letters to our school district about why our designs should be considered in the building of our playground here at Caraway. We will also be reading about several different types of disabilities, including visual impairments, hearing impairments, autism, and learning disabilities to help us write with empathy and better make our case.   

Research question of the week: What are the “Northern Lights”? Where are they and what creates them?

Reminders:

MLK Day- January 18th