Week 6 - Bonjour - October 1-5

Welcome to another week in second grade. I can't believe that it is already October and fall. Today the students wrote about their favorite thing about this time of year and most students wrote about Halloween, Thanksgiving and the cooler weather. It is a magical time of the year.

Our greeting for this week is Bonjour, which is hello in French. It is a four day school week for the students, with Thursday being a no school day, due to conferences. By now you would have received an email confirming your conference time. I am looking forward to our meeting. Please arrive a couple of minutes before your scheduled time so we can start on time.

Current Events continues this week. Auggie, Jackie, Ainsley, Aidan, Victoria, Will and Isabella are scheduled to share.

Library check-out is every Tuesday, so please remind your child to bring their books back on this day. This year the students are able to check out three books.

Thanks to all parents who have signed up for Parent Reader this year. We really look forward to this time. Our parent reader this week will be B. Burke.

This Friday, we will be planting plants in the garden and each child will need to bring in a pair pf gardening gloves to school. We will be planting at 1pm, if you would like to join us.

Just a reminder that Friday, October 12th is a Professional Development Day and no school for the students. Also, Fall Festival will be on Wednesday, October 31st. The students will be dismissed from the classroom to enjoy the festival. A note about the festival will be coming home soon.

Here is a glance at the main concepts covered in class this week.

Language Arts
* Phonics: long vowel i/ie, igh
* Spelling: high, lightning, tied, fright, mighty, plus five high frequency words
* Reading: Winners Never Quit! by Mia Hamm; Climb Your Mountain by Helen Thayer
* Vocabulary: techniques, specially, struggle, traction
* Reading Workshop: Readers: Readers figure out tricky words by using a variety of print strategies (Read through the whole word - beginning, middle, end; try different pronunciations; using all they know)

* Grammar: Review structuring a sentence
* Writing Workshop: Proofreading and editing a small moment story; publishing our landmark postcard (writing to a family member or friend)

Mathematics - Unit 2
* Turn around shortcut for addition and provide practice for a shortcut for addition facts that have 9 as an addend
* Explore and practice doubles plus 1 plus 2 facts
* Addition strategies that use doubles facts
* Subtraction from addition

Social Studies
* Landmarks of North America project. Students will publish their North American Landmark Postcard.

Science - Changes - Lesson 4 - Mixing and Separating Solids
Students will use two solids - kosher salt and gravel - to create and investigate a mixture

Have a wonderful week and I will see you on Thursday -

Marion O'Mullane