May 14: Newsletter

UPCOMING EVENTS:

April 21 - Wear blue in correlation with Autism Awareness Month

May 3 - Field trip to Frederik Meijer Gardens (see corresponding letter in your child’s Friday folder)

May 5 - Students should be at 100% of their SRC goal

May 12 - Early release 

READING:

This month we are reading FAIRY TALES!  Students have learned that fairy tales are a type of folktale.  Fairy tales often begin with “once upon a time…” and end with “and they lived happily ever after”.  As we read various fairy tales we will look for many story elements including: royalty, magic, love, far away lands, talking animals, good and bad characters, and use of the number three or seven.  Next week we will work on comparing fairy tales.  We will make sure to read each fairy tale well enough to compare the characters, problems, and lessons in each story.  

WRITING:

We are back to writing small moment narratives for the last time this year!  The students are thrilled to write true, stories about their lives again.   They all have many stories to tell after spring break.   Our main focus next week will be to add sufficient detail to our stories.  We want the reader to be on the edge of their seat as they read our stories.  To do this we will make sure we include strong feelings and tell the story bit by bit.  

MATH:

We have been working on adding three digit numbers.  Students are using their strategies (new groups below or show all totals) to add numbers up to ONE THOUSAND.  Next week we will continue to practice this concept as well as identifying the relationship between addition and subtraction. 

SCIENCE:

Today you will find your child’s matter assessment in their Friday folder.  Overall, I am very pleased with their understanding of the properties of matter.  Next week we will already wrap up our next unit of study- properties of water.  We have spent a few days understanding the water cycle.  You will have to ask your second grader all about our water cycle exercises.  Also, all second graders should be able to explain the four parts of the water cycle (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection).  I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the second graders can even spell these words correctly, too!  Please look for a review page coming home next week to help prepare for our unit assessment. 

OTHER NEWS: 

We will be taking a field trip on Wednesday, May 3 to Frederik Meijer Gardens.  On this field trip we will learn more about plants.  We will need many chaperones for this trip.  Please let me know if you are interested in joining us by filling out the corresponding paper in your child’s Friday folder.  I hope you can join us!