"Second Grade News"
by Ms. McMenamin & Mrs. Hunt
MARCH 2008
Dear Parents,
A Recap of February:
We had many reasons to celebrate. We started off with Groundhogs Day. We discussed whether he actually can predict the weather. We came up with some clever theories. We also discussed China regarding its geographical location, a brief history, famous landmarks, culture & customs, worldly contributions, and more. We also read a few examples of Chinese folklore such as The Empty Pot and Lon Po Po. We expressed ourselves through art and writing (creative & reflective). We took our annual trip to Golden China in Leesburg for some delicious Chinese cuisine. In addition, we learned about one of China’s most well-known creatures: The Giant Panda. Valentine’s Day, Presidents’ Day, and 100th Day came and went with fun activities to reinforce our math and reflective writing skills.
Now On To March:
Happy Spring! With the longer days ahead on the 9th, we will finally have more sun, warmer temperatures, and fuller weeks to continue our studies, including the themes: Dr. Seuss, Caldecott books, Famous Women, St. Patrick’s Day, The Moon, the weather and more.
Social Studies:
This month we will begin our Native American unit. We will be studying about the Eastern Woodland Indians across the U.S. to the Plains and Southwest Indians. Many activities that represent the tribal nations will enhance this unit – a winter count, sign language, telling legends, dream catchers and Kachina dolls. We will read many non-fiction selections and Native American legends – Rainbow Crow, Legend of the Blue Bonnet, Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, and Arrow to the Sun. In addition to the Native Americans, we will also read about famous women for Women’s History Month, including Clara Barton and the women of the Red Cross.
Science:
With everything going on in February, we did not get enough time to investigate the moon. We will continue to learn about the moon, its features, and our (the U.S.) explorations to the moon. We will also focus our studies on air and weather as we notice the changes of our local weather.
Language Arts:
March 2nd is Dr. Seuss’ 104th birthday. We will read a small sampling of his work and enjoy his clever usage of words. We will try our own hands at some clever writing. Parts of speech, verb tenses, and consonant clusters are a constant focus of ours this month. We will also concentrate on forms of writing such as alliteration, similes and more. With each writing activity, we get the opportunity to apply our spectacular spelling, punctuation, and proofreading skills. We really enjoy their stories!
Math:
We have finished our timed-tests called “Silly Subtraction”. With practice, the students are becoming very proficient at doing their basic math facts and will now begin mixed operation problems to reinforce their skills. Bravo!
Thank you again to our second grade students for being so diligent (hard-working) with the math facts. We are seeing much improvement with the concept of regrouping in addition and subtraction as a result of knowing the facts.
Our next math unit 6 is “Geometry”. The students will identify geometric solids and plane figures as well as their properties. They will explore congruence, transformations and solve problems by using a pattern. We will be moving through this chapter quickly and then skip onto our unit 9 “3-digit Addition & Subtraction with Regrouping”. Once these chapters are complete, we will jump back to cover “Money & Time” in chapter 7. We continue to reinforce 2-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping, multiplication, and continue developing our problem solving skills with word problems. It’s amazing to hear all the strategies they use for their answers. I know they are understanding relationships between the numbers; thus, they are building their skills with conceptual math.
Project of the Month:
Our next at-home project will be a book report on a Caldecott Award winning book of your choice. The details of the project will go home on Thursday, March 6th. (A list will be provided in the guidelines.) The project will be due on March 31st. (The last Monday of the month.)
Auction Project:
Other news: we have begun tackling our class project for the Spring Auction. As you already know, our project is a dessert set, including a cake serving tray and individual dessert plates decorated with the theme “Underwater Wonders” by our wonderfully talented second graders. The Room Moms came in last week and finished decorating plates with a few of our students. They look great! Now, off to the kiln, and we will soon see the finished product. Can’t wait!
Acknowledgements:
Thank you from both of us for all of your sweet treats and thoughtful gifts & cards on Valentine’s Day. They were much appreciated! What wonderful examples you all are of what LCDS is all about.
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"Second Grade News"
by Ms. McMenamin & Mrs. Hunt
February 2008
Dear Parents,
In February, we have many reasons to celebrate. We started off with Groundhog’s Day. Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction was: six more weeks of winter! We discussed whether he can actually predict the weather. We also are discussing our next continent Asia, specifically China - regarding its geographical location, a brief history, famous landmarks (i.e. The Great Wall of China), culture & customs (i.e. The Chinese New Year & sweeping out the old spirits and then start anew), worldly contributions (i.e. silk, wheel barrels, compass, umbrellas and tangrams to name a few.), and more. We will also read a few examples of Chinese folklore such as The Empty Pot and Lon Po Po as well as factual literature, such as The True Book of China, Count Your Way Through China, and Look What Came From CHINA. In addition, our Madi is bringing in her mom and sister to discuss traveling to China. We will utilize our wonderful talents by expressing ourselves through art and writing (creative & reflective). On Friday, February 29th, we will take our field trip to Golden China Restaurant in Leesburg Battlefield Shopping Center for some delicious Chinese cuisine. Next week, we will be working on our large class dragon and have done some Chinese calligraphy on good luck banners. In addition, we will correlate the science theme of “The Phases of the Moon” and learn about one of China’s most well-known creatures: The Giant Panda. Please continue observing the moon and its phases.
Other celebrations this month are: Valentine’s Day (which will be hosted by room moms: Mrs. Fesharaki & Mrs. Hall), Presidents’ Day, and 100th Day. We will actually celebrate the 101st Day on Friday since the 100th day falls upon Valentine’s Day. We will do many fun activities to reinforce our math and reflective writing skills. Look for our new hall board this week. With the short time at the end of the month, we will refresh our memories as to discussing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in January and touch upon other famous African-Americans and their contributions to our society in honor of “Black History Month”.
Math: We are traveling through our fifth chapter of math building our subtraction skills with regrouping of ones and tens, rounding numbers to the nearest ten, checking our work with related addition facts, etc. Our BIG chapter test will be on Feb. 22nd. Use the “Check Your Progress” quizzes and practice tests to help you study. We will send them home the week of the test. NOTE: We highly recommend you to buy basic subtraction flashcards to help your second grader build sight memory of his/her basic math facts! PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE!
Looking ahead to March:
We will begin our Native American unit, and discuss women in history, Dr. Seuss’ work, celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, read Caldecott Winners’ stories, examine chapters 6&7 featuring the math concepts of Time, Money, & Geometry/Shapes and continue our air and weather unit.
Interim Reports:
I would like to give a little more explanation regarding the markings for the interim reports, specifically the 2nd trimester reports. Some of you had the same question, so I will address everyone. There are 3 categories: Below Expectations, Meets Expectations, and Above Expectations. The marking “Meets Expectations” refers to the student being right on target for what is expected of him or her in second grade in that particular category. The marking “Above Expectations” will only be given if they are soaring high above what is expected of their skills in second grade. Thus, if they received “Meets Expectations”, then they are doing well.
Acknowledgements:
Our gratitude goes out to our Wednesday Lunch Volunteers who give their time for us to stretch our legs off-campus and bond with other colleagues once a week. THANK YOU! Also, the second graders have been very diligent in completing many tasks this trimester. We look forward to further cooperation in keeping up with the pace of our theme studies and tying up all the loose ends regarding finishing assignments. We have such a great class and we are very proud of them!
Gung Hay Fat Choy,
Ms. McMenamin & Mrs. Hunt
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Second Grade NEWS!
By Ms. McMenamin & Mrs. Hunt
Happy 2008! It is January... right? The weather this week has been amazing! The weather forecasters will soon probably be predicting colder temperatures, which will coincide well with our upcoming science unit on Antarctica & Penguins. Our read aloud book this month is the age-old favorite Mr. Popper's Penguins. The class will also read The Sea of Ice, which is about Sir Ernest Shackleton, an English explorer. His true story was fascinating and a great example of this month's character trait: perseverance. We will learn the geography of Antarctica and how the animals adapt to its harsh climate. To culminate this unit, we will celebrate with "Black & White Day" on Feb. 1st. The students will sample our "penguin punch," wear black & white clothes, and eat black & white snacks. It should be a lot of fun!
Speaking of cold... with our first snow fall of the year (whenever that is), we will observe snow crystals with magnifying glasses and microscopes and discover that they are hexagonal in shape. We will continue our adventure with Andrew Lost in the Garden by J.C. Greenburg, which involves a science-minded boy named Andrew who likes to experiment with his shrinking machine and accidentally shrunk himself, his cousin, Judy, and his pocket-sized robot, Thudd, to microscopic size. We will also read Snowflake Bentley. This is the biography of Wilson Bentley who spent his life using microphotography to study snowflakes and their symmetrical designs. We too will understand the concept of symmetry and design our own snowflakes. We'll browse through his photography book, seeing hundreds of his snowflake pictures. They're breath-taking!
Other social studies mini-lessons to be addressed this month will be on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his philosophy of acceptance, tolerance, and non-violence as well as statesman Ben Franklin. We will read about how he believed lightening produced electricity and about his inventions.
In math, we are working our way through Chapter 4 and have continued renaming ones and tens in adding two-digit numbers. There has been a bit more multi-step problem solving in this chapter. Building these skills will assist them for future problem solving. We will learn the concepts of regrouping with 2 digit numbers for addition as well as build our estimating skills and solve problems requiring more than one step. We will also utilize various methods of instruction in order to reach every type of "learner". As we progress through the chapter, we will stop and go back to review the concepts addressed in Chapter 3 such as reading, interpreting, and creating various types of graphs. In the chapter 5, we will introduce the same concept of regrouping ones into tens only with 2-digit subtraction instead. That concept always poses a challenge to second graders. Please encourage them to ALWAYS go back and double-check their homework for mistakes and neatness.
Speaking of neatness, we are now beginning our endeavor into cursive writing. We will send home a guide sheet, so please encourage them as well to practice, practice, practice.
REMEMBER: Reading logs given on Mondays are to be returned on the following Monday.
Lastly, we want to take the time to say THANK YOU for all you do for our second grade class... from volunteering for Wed. lunches to providing yummy snacks to taking the time to chat with us about your second grader. We also really appreciated your thoughtful holiday gifts! You know how we love our STARBUCKS! We are very grateful to have such wonderful families to work with this year!
REMINDER: Interims will be going home towards the end of January. Also, we will start our January Project next week.
NOTE: Be prepared for February – it will be a whirlwind – China and Chinese New Year, Presidents’ birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Hundredth Day, and Grimms’ Fairy Tales. As you can see 2008 has begun with a “flurry” of activities and great fun. As always if you need me, please call or email.
