Second Grade Travels

We had a full week in Second Grade! We got to see a one woman play about Helen Keller. It was a great opportunity for us to talk about differences and challenges. On Friday we plan on harvesting the garden we planted last year. (Check your email for details.)
Items Needed
If you have not already sent in these items, please do so by next Friday.

• an empty paper towel roll or your child's scroll from last year
• a labeled ziplock bag of coins: 5 quarters, 11 dimes, 10 nickels, 25 pennies. We will use this money during our math class. At the end of the year we will order pizza!

Books Needed!
As your child returns the reading log the hours are logged on to a chart and your child gets to take a trip to the treasure chest after a certain amount of hours. I would like to reward your child with a book for these efforts. A few families have already donated some books for this purpose. If you have books that your child has read and no longer want to store them, consider donating them to the book bank! (Free books from our Scholastic orders will also go to the book bank.)

Reading
We began our guided reading groups this week. It was a great opportunity for me to work with your child in a small group on some reading strategies. Students are reading stories about Skyscrapers and Families around the World. This is in addition to our Open Court Reading program.
Writing
Students began publishing their narrative stories. We will work on some fiction stories next week.
Math
We completed Unit 1 in math. You will receive the Unit Assessment and an individual profile for your child next week. Please check it carefully. Our next unit will focus on number stories and the basic facts. Some students will begin taking timed tests on the basic facts in the next few weeks.
Social Studies
We completed our study of People and Places. Your child learned about urban, suburban and rural areas. We also honed our map skills. We continue to take our weekly map quiz. See the link to the left for a game the students played in computer lab. It is a great site to practice the 50 states!
Science
We will begin our study of rocks and minerals next week! Our study of rocks and minerals will lead into a study of erosion and soil. We will be looking at different types of soil and doing some planting and composting. We'll take a brief look at fossils and then revisit fossils in January when we read about dinosaurs in our Open Court books.