January 14-18

Welcome to another week in second grade. I am sure it will be another jam packed and fun one. Since returning from the break, the students are more motivated then ever to reach for their goals and be the best workers they can be. It is such a pleasure coming to school each day and working with them.

Spring Conferences are around the corner (Thursday, Feb. 7th) and you should have received an email by now confirming the time we will meet. I am looking forward to sharing the progress your child has made since our last formal conference in October and setting some goals for the remainder of the school year.

Current Events sharing will continue this week. Students sharing this week include on: Tuesday: Auggie, Jackie; Wednesday: Ainsley, Aidan; Thursday: Victoria, Will; Friday: Isabella.

Thanks for the support I know you have been giving your child to help them get ready to share.

This week your child will sit for their fourth math assessment and today you will receive a Math Home Link explaining the method for addition that focuses on place value. Please practice this method (the partial sums method) with your child at home, as I am doing here at school.

Other Important Dates to Remember:
Parent Reader - Friday, January 18: H. Coleman
Ident a Kid - Wednesday, January 23
Martin Luther King Jr Holiday (no school) - January 21
Grandparents and Special Friends Day (noon dismissal) - Friday, January 25
Oldie Goldie Book Sale: Friday, March 22
Town Meeting Presentation: Our class will share at Town Metting on Tuesday, February 19

Literacy
* Phonics: Diagraphs /f/ - gh, ph
* Spelling List 17: phone, tough, graph, enough, laugh, photo, cough, phoncs, trophy, rough
plus up to five high frequency words
* Vocabulary: cozy, mystery, stoke, enchanting
* Story of the Week: Mr. Putter and Tabby Write the Book by Cynthia Rylant
* Reading Workshop: Friendship Unit; Readers play close attention to how the friends in our books sound when they are talking to one another and we do this by listening in on the conversations that friends are having during good times and bad times. When friends are going through a bad time, readers notice how characters react. We picture in our minds how each friend behaves. The actions of each of our friends gives us insight into and lets up know more about the type of relationship that these friends have.
* Grammar: Review question and exclamation sentences; capitals in sentences; quotation marks
* Writing Workshop - Small Moment Narrative: Stretching ideas out over the pages
* Handwriting - f, q, paragraph practice, x, z

Mathematics - Unit 4 Review
We will be reviewing the concepts in Unit 4 and the students will sit for their math assessment on Wednesday.

Social Studies - Australia
We will watch a music video of I Still Call Australia Home to spark interest in the small continent on earth. The students will then brainstorm topics of interest that they will individually research and present  to the group in the next couple of weeks.

Science - Plant Growth and Development
Students will have the opportunity to reflect on how much they already know about plants and what they would like to learn. They are also asked to look closely at the outside of a bean seed, an exercise that introduces skills that will be developed throughout the unit: observing, recording and predicting.