It's that time of year where students are settled in and true learning has begun. Not that learning wasn't happening early on, that was about building classroom relationships, learning new routines, bonding with their teacher and establishing their place in the scheme of new placement. Now, learning new math, grammar, spelling, writing, social studies and science is well underway. Some students are jumping through hoops, some pacing themselves and some still keeping their heads just above water. Most importantly, all need to feel safe and secure knowing they are doing their best and there is a "coach/cheerleader" willing to help whenever needed.
I am looking forward to meeting with you all to discuss your child's progress. Conferences will be held from November 17-19 as scheduled. Report cards will be sent home on Tuesday, November 16 giving you time to view your child's progress and come to the conferences with any questions you may have. Please remember that all children develop and bloom academically at different times. Your children are working very hard trying to focus on new skills as well as review strategies or rules that were previously taught and might apply. The most important factor at this age is the effort they are putting forth and are they behaving as a respectful, responsible classmate.
Fundations unit lessons are becoming move involved and some of you have asked for a list of practice words. I was under the impression the newsletters offered these words as they did in first grade. Having said that, I have added a list on EDLINE that you can access at the beginning of each unit. I hope this will be helpful in increasing your students dictation scores. While we work on multisyllabic words, we are also working on compounds words. The practice of compound words will be celebrated on COMPOUND WORD DAY, Wednesday, November 17. Your child can come to school dressed with compound word attire and accompanying artifacts. A letter with more information will come home this Wednesday with more detaiils.
In grammar we will continue looking at nouns and proper nouns this week. Nouns name people, places and things. Proper nouns give a special name to these people, pets, and places.
Your children are so excited about Math Fever. This practice should add to the automaticity of their facts for other skills they need. The math lessons this week will be reading bar graphs, review of frames, arrows and function machines. It will also look at how to make change when shopping. Making change is a very challenging task. Allow your child to make change whenever possible. When shopping, have you child pay and predict what the change may be. This will be highlighted with a GARAGE SALE on Wednesday, Nov. 24. More information will follow soon.
This week in social studies we will begin mapping. We will review what was learned last year and add to the development with a focus on waterways and mountain ranges. The children will compile a book of maps and will be able to locate the continents learned last year, mountain ranges, major oceans and rivers both on a map and the globe.
This week Killam will participate in a practice "lockdown" on Wednesday, Nov. 10. Our class will view the "lockdown" video on Monday. Please discuss this with your child Monday or Tuesday in prepartion for the practice on Wednesday morning.
Finally, there will be a Pillars Assembly on Wednesday in honor of Veteran's Day hosted by the fifth grade. Please have your child wear the second grade Pillars color of yellow or their Pillars shirt that day.
Have a fabulous week. I look forward to seeing you at conferences. This will be the last post until after Thanksgiving.
