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