Happy Thanksgiving!

I look forward to speaking with you at our conferences! I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Reading

This week, we have been working on making inferences by using clues the author puts into his or her story and then adding in our background knowledge. For example, we inferred that Gabby, the babysitter in our chapter book, was kind and not easily frustrated because she handled the three-year old’s tantrum very gently! The writer did not directly tell us that Gabby was kind, we had to infer it using the text clues.

We have learned many different phonics patterns this year! Ask your child if they can teach you about “bossy e” or “two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking!” In second grade, we talk about how English is a tricky language but we can learn all of the tricks to sound out the words we’re reading!

Spelling

This week, the students studied words containing short “u” sound and words where “y” is acting as a vowel. After Thanksgiving, the students will study words containing silent letter patterns. This is the same as our phonics pattern about two vowels together, the second vowel is silent. Examples of this pattern are words like leave, remain, throat, and the “ay” in today.

Vocabulary

Now that we have finished our first two vocabulary units, it is time for some review! As the students review the 20 words they’ve learned so far, they will also learn about synonyms, antonyms, and how to classify words. The students will practice adding the suffixes to their vocabulary words, so that bench becomes benches and dash becomes dashed.

Writing

The students have been working on identifying nouns (people, places, or things) and verbs (action words.) Each sentence they write should contain a noun and a verb. See if your child can sing you our noun and verb songs!

We are excited to show you our wall of published stories! When the students come back from Thanksgiving they will begin their next story so they should keep their minds open for story ideas over the break!

Math

The students have been practicing spending small amounts like $0.40 or $0.18 and then figuring out how much change they will get back from a dollar. This is a difficult skill and requires a lot of practice throughout the school year.  

Project Based Learning- Science

Thank you for your lovely comments about our history of Charlotte project! If you didn’t get a chance to see it, you can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHCbFMzjxDw

The students have spent this week researching natural resources for our first science unit. The notes the students are taking will be used to answer this Project Based Learning question: How can we, as reporters, research, write, and produce a news show to teach our community about natural resources?