Marvelous Monday!

What a great day!  Let's get some rest again tonight and we ready to go tomorrow!

It was nice to get to spend some time with each of you over the course of last week for conferences. As I may have stated, we can always conference again if needed. Your child will make many strides as the days and months progress and there may be times when added practice is needed at home. I will always keep you posted of all aspects of your child's progress including both academics and behavior. If you would ever like to have another conference, please don't hesitate to ask.

Tomorrow we have our first Picture Lady visit. I know that the children will remember their "guest speaker" manners!  This is always a fun learning experience for both the children and me.

We completed our Bouncing Balls experiment today.  YEA!  We had been trying to get outside during Science class a couple of days last week and Mother Nature didn't cooperate. The children did a fabulous job of working together to gather data of the many bouncing balls. Sorry, the teacher forgot her camera.No worries, there will be plenty of other opportunities to see your little scientist at work.  Tomorrow we will  share our data and form our conclusions. Then we will move onto to another experiment called Floating Pumpkins. Based on what they already know about pumpkins and water, the children will form their own hypothesis on whether or not they think the pumpkin will float steam up, steam down, or sideways!

In Social Studies, we are going to devote another week to learning more about Florida. Last week, the children completed informational webs in computer lab with main topics being Fun Facts, Geography, and Places to Visit. The focus of that activity was to have the children learn how to use the program Inspiration using their knowledge of what they had learned about Florida in class.  I would like to take this idea one step further and divide the children  into groups according to their own interests. The group  will focus on one of the three specific main topic and research specific facts under that topic. The group will then have to decide how they wish to present their material. For example, they have learned how to use Comic Life and Wordle in computer lab, but they may choose another way to persent the information such as create a brochure or poster.

This weeks spelling words are short vowel followed by a double consonant words. Tonight for homework they are to write each word twice on loose leaf paper. They can write the words in color or use certain fonts if they choose to type the words on the computer. The test will be on Thursday since the children are not in school on Friday.

The Reading Comprehension activity this week, Ice Can Scream, continues with out poem theme. This week the children are to find the verbs in the poem and then add additional verbs that would also be an action of ice. I asked them to try and think of two extra verbs.The children should also focus on the pattern of the stanzas while they are reading them. Don't forget to sign the activity sheet as soon as your child has read it to you. We will be working on a Poetry Unit a little before Poetry in the Park. The reciting of our poem on that special day will be our culminating activity.

The children also have a poem for October called Trick-Or-Treat. This poem is due on October 19. I did tell the children that this time they could add a small prop to the poem. The prop can be something to hold or wear on the top of the head. No masks!

In Math, we will work on our last Algorithm, Trade First Method, continueBallpark Estimates, and solving word problems with three or more addends.  Tonight for homework, the children must complete Home Link 2.3, a review of "What's My Rule".

Tomorrow we will read the story in our Wordly Wise workbook, Roundup Time in Virginia. This is one of my favorite stories because not only do I have the famous books that were written about this event, I actually have a picture to share with the kids. This is a special event to Virginians and it is absolutely amazing to watch. I will do my best to bring this story to life for the children. They will be coming home with a few questions to answer for homework. We will restate the questions in class, but then they will have to use the details from the story in the answers. We will have our Wordly Wise test on Thursday. The children will be coming home with the index cards to help them study at home.

We are moving right along in Charlotte's Web. We have reached Chapter 10. The children are becoming quite good at finding important vocabulary. One question thus far has been, why Fern's mother was more worried about her than her dad. You may want to ask your child that questions just to see what they had to say. The follow up question was, Why do mom's seem to worry more than dad's? I am sure this question will make you smile and perhaps chuckle. We will be working on how to be more specific when responding to literature whether in complete sentences or by using a sticky note to make a prediction or make a connection.

By the end of the week, we should be finished with our first personal narrative. We will spend a little bit of time editing and revising before we move onto our second writing sample. The second personal narrative will focus more closely on a specific event or memory, using the five senses to describe and reflect on that one event.

Please make sure that the paper envelopes have been signed and returned. In your child's papers, you may have seen an end of the year second grade assessment. If you did not see this last Friday, you will see it in the next round of papers. I gave the children some time in class last week to complete this assessment. I felt like I needed to know areas of strength and weaknesses. Some of the skills from second grade were not meant to be mastered. But they will be expected to master those skills from that assessment by the end of third grade.

We have art on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Also, once your child has finished with his/her library book, they can bring it back to school and turn in before it's our scheduled library time. This can sometimes keep books from getting lost.