May 12: Newsletter

UPCOMING EVENTS:

May 23 - Jet's Pizza Night (Don't forget to mention our class when ordering)

May 29 - No School (Memorial Day)

June 7 - Ice Cream Party

June 9 - Last Day of School

READING:

Today I have sent home a new reading challenge to help encourage your child to keep reading the rest of the year.   I challenged all second graders to read 8 more books.  Please see the reading challenge paper for details.  Once they have completed all 8 books, they can turn their papers in for a small reward.  At the bottom of the paper, students are asked to assign one of their books an “Eagle Award”.  All they need to do to is pick their favorite book that they read and tell why they liked it.  Students will share their Eagle Award book with the class to promote others to read similar books.  This reading challenge continues until the last day of school.  Happy reading!!!

To be at grade level, students need to leave second grade reading at a level M.  By November of their third grade year they need to be at a level N.  It will be extremely important for your child to read all summer to maintain the skills they have and continue their reading growth.   

WRITING:

Next week we will continue to draft the teaching chapters of our informational writing piece about plants.  We will work to include many facts to support a main idea as well as many examples, evidence, definitions, and tips.  All of this work is preparation for students write their final piece in second grade.  After we write about plants as a class, students will be asked to pick a new science topic to research and write to inform others.  

MATH:

Don’t miss your child’s unit 6 math test that was sent home on Friday.  You will be impressed to see how well they can add and subtract 3-digit numbers.  

We will be celebrating all of the hard work students have done this year to know their addition and subtraction facts to 20 with ICE CREAM!  Students have a few more weeks to continue to practice their facts to earn more toppings for their sundaes.  We will practice many strategies in the classroom to build fact fluency.  We will review double facts and near doubles (6+7) as well as practice how to make a ten.  These strategies significantly increase fact fluency.  Also, continue to have your child practice Xtramath at home.  Two of the ice cream toppings will be saved for the second graders that complete addition and subtraction on Xtramath.  They can do it!  If you are interested in donating items for our ice cream party, please see the note that came home in your child’s Friday folder.  Thank you in advance for your help with this!  Also, if you would like to help scoop the ice cream at the actual party (Wednesday, June 7), please let me know.  We would love to have your help and we will pay in ice cream!!! 

SCIENCE:

Next week we will wrap up out study on plants.  We will start the week with a plant presentation from a local farmer.  We will then learn about the plant life cycle and the different characteristics of plants.  Finally, we will spend time reviewing everything we have learned about plants to prepare for the unit assessment.  Please look for your child’s plant folder and a review paper coming home next week to help prepare for the test. 

OTHER NEWS:

Achoo!  This a common sound we are hearing a lot in the classroom these days.  Unfortunately, runny noses are bothering many of us.  With that said, our Kleenexes are diminishing rapidly.  Some days we go through more than a box a day!!!  We are currently using our last two boxes.  If you are willing, we would greatly appreciate a few more boxes of Kleenex to get through the next few weeks of school.  Thank you for the boxes that have already donated.  We are using them already!!!