2nd Grade Update

Hello Parents,

      Progress reports are coming next week and I would like to give you all an update of what we are working on, some changes, and what you can help with at home.  Some of the key skills we have worked on over the past 4 weeks are:

READING-Sequencing, Alphabetical Order, Making Connections, Asking Questions, Summarizing, Main Idea and Details, rhyme, Fiction/Nonfiction identification, reading genres-fairy tales, rhyming fiction, fiction.

FLUENCY- Reading with "feeling," Changing tone for dialogue while reading, reading with "flow," reading a poem a week aloud with good fluency.

WRITING- Writing in complete sentences, using a question to formulate an answer, writing a story with a beginning, middle, and end, using graphic organizers for pre-writing, writing a 5 sentence paragraph, writing a heading, writing a narrative and fairy tale story, editing and publishing.  We have written 3 different paragraphs with the use of graphic organizers in class so far.

MATH- Vocabulary words- Addend, sum, difference, doubles, almost doubles, whole, parts, greater, less
than, minus, plus.
Choosing an operation based on a word problem (in all-addition, altogether-addition, how many are left?-subtraction)  Writing a number sentence using a number story, knowing basic math facts, adding doubles (4+4=8, 5+5=10, etc.), Using the "whole" number to begin a subtraction sentence (Greatest number begins the sentence 11-6=5 not 6-5=11)

SOCIAL STUDIES- Government (Vocab-taxes, mayor, governor, president, laws, government services, judge, citizen, election, vote)  The 2nd graders are learning about how local (city), state, and our countries government is run.  They have learned which title identifies leaders of the city, state, and country, what government services are provided to people who pay taxes (roads, schools, and parks), how leaders help us be safe and get along, how an election works, what can be done with tax money, and what consequences can come with breaking of laws. 

With the 5th week of school approaching, I think this class is ready for more of a challenge.  For the students who get 100% on the pretest, they will get a list of 3rd grade words to work with for the week.  I did a practice on Friday with those students, and they did a nice job of putting 21 words in alphabetical order and reading those words with ease.  They will be tested on Friday, as the other students will, so there will be 2 test sessions.  If you don't want your child to participate in the 3rd grade challenge, email me.  I will also be adding writing a 5 sentence paragraph with the vocabulary words in place of writing 5 sentences in which they must have the proper heading, a title, and INDENT!   On Weds. nights, they will use all 15 spelling words in a sentence in the correct context. Monday will remain 3x's each and Thursdays will remain comprehension questions and re-reading the weekly story.  They also take weekly timed test in which my goal is to get them to answer 25 addition and subtraction problems in 1 minute.  I started with 5, moved to 4, last week was 3, and some of them are finishing in about 2 minutes!  Once they master this, they will be given 100 and after mastering that, it is on to multiplication!