September 28, 2018

Good Afternoon Families,

I hope you all had a fantastic week. It is finally starting to feel like Fall! Bring on the sweaters! We had a great week in 2nd grade. Please read ahead to hear what we accomplished this week!

Reading: This week in Reading, students switched their focus from reading tricky words to author’s purpose and intentions. Students are reading texts and trying to uncover whether they think an author wrote the story to entertain, persuade or to inform them. Entertain are simply fiction stories that we can all enjoy. Inform are usually found in non-fiction stories where author’s are trying to inform us about a topic. Lastly, persuading texts can be found in articles. For example, why it is important to recycle. Furthermore, students have been finding specific parts in the stories that they can mark that back up their answers to author’s purpose. Evidence, evidence, evidence! Next week, we will continue this practice.

Writing: Students this week have been editing their narratives. I have been conferencing with students. We are checking if all periods, capitals, sight words are present. In addition to this, I am seeing if students have a clear who, what, when, where in their story. Next week, students are going to use technology to record their stories onto their Class Dojo portfolio where you will be able to hear your child read!

Math: In Math this week, students have been breaking numbers apart by place value and using shapes to help them understand the different values. Squares represent 100s, bars represent 10s and dots represent 1s. Today, students performed a checkpoint so I can see exactly where students are in this practice. Next week, students are going to start adding 3 digit numbers using shape math. In addition, students are going to be challenged by having problems that values that need to be redistributed to different place values. For example, 12 ones can be turned into one new ten and two left over.

Phonics: This week in spelling and phonics, we covered complex fronts and ends. These words encompassed multiple previously covered rules such as super sized spelling and consonant teams. Next week, students are going to start practicing syllables.

Spelling words for the week of October 1, 2018:

Index, Publish, Object, Absent, Upset, Seven, Cannot, Sunset

Announcements:

1. Thank you so much to the parents who reached out and volunteered for my cold/hot read fluency parent helper. Mrs. Williams is going to take over this position and I am so pleased! Thank you!!

2. If you wish your child to have their own headphones during our computer use, please send your child with over the ear headphones. They will keep them safely stored in our classroom.

3. Fall break is approaching fast! Our break lasts for one week during the week of October 15.

4. Mr. Mulligan’s 2nd Grade Class is teaming up with the popular clothing brand Vineyard Vines again this year to help students in need. Next week, students will be given a homework assignment to write and draw about their favorite bedtime store. Each completed assignment will be sent back to the Vineyard Vines downtown Denver location to be displayed. With each assignment, Vineyard Vines will donate a clean pair of pajamas to a child in need.