Sunday, October 27, 2013

Late October Happenings

What a fabulous trip down town on Thursday. I hope the kiddos told you all about it. The firefighters, police officers, town workers and friends at the cable studio were all so wonderful and happy to share their knowledge with the kids. Sitting in the ambulance or ladder truck, trying on handcuffs, being seen on TV or seeing our school on a large map were just a few highlights from the days events.


 
 
Charlotte B even had her birth certificate pulled from the files of thousands of certificates in just seconds.

Thank you to all the chaperones who came along for the fun. We had an absolutely beautiful day. The children were very excited and enthusiastic everywhere we went. All were well prepared and asked some very interesting questions. On Wednesday night, homework will be to write a thank you note to one of the services workers who patiently shared their time and expertise with us. The children have also been working on a research project on one service worker with a partner. This week they will use their research to put together a short power point on their service worker. A final piece will be to create a service worker craft project to culminate the unit. It has been a very productive unit on communities. Our next topic will be mapping which will further develop their knowledge of these social studies skills.







 
On Thursday, our class is looking forward to our Halloween Celebration. The children will be involved in creating some haunting craft projects in the afternoon. It is always a fun day but the week is always very exciting too. There will be lots of reading of wonderful literature,  poetry and song. It is always hard for second graders to focus this week anticipating the haunting events but there is still lots of business to accomplish as well. Please have your child wear Halloween colors, Halloween shirts and possibly some limited make-up. Thank you to all who offered to send in materials and snacks for the day.
In Math, all second graders are working on Chapter 2 of the In Focus Math Program. This chapter is Addition of Three Digit Numbers With and Without Regrouping. Kiddos still need to practice their easy facts in order to make these three digit problems easier.
In FUNdations, we are beginning Unit 5; the study of multisyllabic words, compound words, and homophones. Students will be taught that at the end of  two closed syllables you use _ic as in the words; traffic, public, and comic. Please continue to practice trick words possibly putting them on index cards and keeping a set in the car.
Finally, in grammar, we continue to focus on capitalizing proper nouns. The children know the rule but often forget and do not carrythe rule over to their everyday writing. In writing, we are still writing small moments and narrarives trying to "stretch" and "super size" sentences.
Happy Haunting friends and GO RED SOX!