May 2-6

Reading and Writing

This week in reading we will be reading some books about some very special people. Those special people are our moms! Students will celebrate their mommies and read some wonderful books about moms. We’re making a little something for our awesome moms in our lives! Can’t share more, it’s a secret…… you’ll see!

Math

We are continuing 3 digit addition and subtraction this week. We are combining them and students will be responsible for deciding whether a problem is asking them to add or subtract. We will review everything we’ve learned before assessing at the end of the week.

Science:

This week we will be wrapping up our unit on animals and plants and completing our PBL.  Now that we have learned so much about animals we will assess to test our knowledge, and we will also have a large school-wide fundraiser. We will be collecting money all week from booths by the school doors in the morning and afternoon and all of this money will donated to The Austin Zoo on our field trip the week after next on Thursday.  We will take a big check to present to the Zoo!  To learn more about the Austin Zoo visit this website: http://austinzoo.org/.

To increase awareness of our fundraiser next week we are asking the kids to wear special clothes each day:

Monday- 5/02: Hats Off to Helping- Wear a crazy hat to school  

Tuesday- 5/03: Socks for Snakes- Wear mixed up socks  

Wednesday- 5/04: Tattoos for Tigers- Wear stripes. The more you wear, the more you support our Earth.  

Thursday- 5/05: Operation Ocean- Wear blue of all shades

Friday- 5/06: PJs for Pandas- wear your PJs and enjoy a movie showing during lunch in the cafeteria

Remind your child to bring in their dollars to donate and help support animals and get a chance to vote on the teacher they want to see slimed.

Parents who would like to volunteer to help run our booth, you can sign-up here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0445a4af28a5f49-environmental

Research question of the week:

Research an endangered species and come up with a plan to help save it.  

Reminders:

Monday, May 2 Teacher Appreciation Week

Wednesday, May 4: Early Release Day- school lets out at 12:45.

Wednesday, May 11: Zoo field trip

April 25-29

Reading and Writing

This week in we will wrap up our research unit. We will share our completed final drafts of our research papers along with our research projects. We will be opening up our classroom to the other second grade classes to come view our projects and learn from our research.

Math

This week, we are wrapping up 3 digit addition before moving onto 3 digit subtraction. We will practice using white boards, games, I-Spy activities, and word problems.

iXL has got some great practice activities in the J section. Make sure your child has paper and pencil though to write out the problems!

Science:

We are focusing on animal adaptations this week. We learn how different animals use camouflage to stay safe in their environment. At the end of the week, we will create our own creature with different adaptations that would allow it to survive in different environments.

Research question of the week:

Pick a habitat and research the food web from that habitat.

Reminders:

Saturday, April 23: Earth Day Clean-Up, 8:00am
Tuesday, April 26: Spring picture order forms due

Friday, April 29: Laguna Gloria field trip. Zoo permission slip and $6 due.

Wednesday, May 4: Early Release Day- school lets out at 12:45.

Wednesday, May 11: Zoo field trip

April 18-22

Reading and Writing

This week in language arts we will use the research we have collected to write a well-written and informative research paper. We will also begin working on our creative products that we will use to teach others and share what we have learned.

Math

We are beginning adding numbers with 3 digits this week. We will practice with whiteboards, flip books, and I-Spy activities. We will play games like Spin and Add to practice our new skills as well. We will also practice adding 3 digit numbers with word problems.

iXL has got some great practice activities in the I section. Make sure your child has paper and pencil though to write out the problems!

Science:

This week we will focus on food chains and webs.  We will work in teams to create a variety of food chains and discuss how the sun is an important part too.  We will learn about the sun’s movement and how that affects living things.  Consumers and producers will be compared and we’ll connect them to our ecosystem here at Caraway.  

Research question of the week:

What is the life cycle of an eel?  

Reminders:

Friday, April 22: Field trip permission slip for Laguna Gloria due

Thursday, April 21: Principal's Coffee and Conversation at  7:45am

Saturday, April 23: Earth Day Clean-Up, 8:00am

April 11-15

Reading and Writing

This week in language arts, we will begin our research unit. We will begin the research process by choosing a topic of interest, setting goals, and gathering our research materials. Students will use a variety of books and online sources to gather information about their topics. We will be gathering facts and organizing our information in preparation for writing our research paper.

Math

We are focusing on 3D shapes this week. We will learn vocabulary words like edge, vertex, and face and learn the attributes of common 3D shapes. We will see how 3D shapes are made out of two-dimensional shapes and identify those shapes. We will also learn that the area is the space inside the shape. We will practice counting the area with cheez-its and end the week with a fun activity where students get to make their own robot and then we will calculate the area of them!

Science:

We will be moving on from plants and starting animals this coming week in science.  We will be looking first at insects and butterflies.  We will focus on butterfly life cycles and creating a butterfly craft.  This is an exciting time and our enrichment time that is studying insects will be able to be the leaders in our classroom.

Research question of the week:

What is the life cycle of the praying mantis?  

Reminders:

April 15th Sham’Rock and Roll

April 4-8

A Note From Our Wonderful Music Teachers, Mr. Touchet and Mrs. Schuler

Just a reminder that the 2nd grade PTA performance is Tuesday, April 5. The PTA meeting will start at 6:30 and the performance will start right after that.

We would like to have the students in the cafeteria annex between 6:15 and 6:30 to prepare for the performance.

Attire will be school appropriate clothing.

We look forward to seeing everyone there for what will be a fun time and great performance.

Writing:

This week in writing, we are continuing to write our own fables. We have picked a moral and characters and have decided how our character is going to learn the moral. Now it's time to write! We will create a rough draft, edit it, and turn it into a published copy.

Reading:

This week in reading we are continuing our unit of theme and genre. Students will compare different versions of the same story in traditional and contemporary folktales. We will compare and contrast the characters, settings, and plot.  We will read several well known stories that the students will be familiar with, however the story might be told by a different character in the story.  It’s a fun week of reading!

Math:

This week we are wrapping up multiplication and division with an assessment. Then we are moving on to geometry! We are beginning with 2 dimensional shapes. We learn vocabulary words like side and vertex and see what shapes we can make when we slice other shapes apart. We will play a fun game called “Guess My Shape” before moving onto 3D shapes next week!

Science:

We’ve had a great week learning about plants. This next week we are going to focus on the seasons and how plants and seeds adapt.  We will also do some experiments with plants and track the growth of our bean seed we are growing in class.  We will also discuss plant habitats and the reason they live there.

Research question of the week:

What is cartilage?

Reminders:

April 1: Family Fun and Fitness Night

April 5th: Second Grade Performance- following 6:30 PTA meeting

April 7th: Science Night 6-8pm

April 15th: Sham’Rock and Roll