Upcoming week:
Tuesday: Our day to go shopping at the book fair. Students will bring home flyers and some ideas of items they liked.
Wednesday: Science fair after school.
Week in review
Reading:
We've been reading about how people can work together as a community or as a team to make change, focusing on the classic story of Stone Soup, comparing and contrasting many different versions of the story.
Reading skills that have been central to our reading are: determining importance (very important when writing summaries!), identifying parts of a story (characters, setting, plot--rising action, climax, falling action, and theme), and summarizing.
Spelling:
We just wrapped up a unit of spelling words, and will begin a new two-week unit on Monday.
Writing:
We have moved from writing the narrative to writing the expository. We have written several summaries of expository texts focused on how we can help the Earth (in preparation for Earth Day, and because it's good to know about how human affect the Earth, and what we can do differently in hopes of preserving it for generations to come). Students are also studying science experiments focused on magnetism, and will soon write their own science experiment about magnetism.
We have also started CURSIVE! Second graders are always chomping at the bit at this point in the year to learn cursive, and it motivates them to continue to study their spelling words and practice their best handwriting. Cursive, while old-fashioned, has benefits:
- Further develop fine motor skills and an attention to detail.
- Make writing legible and beautiful, with practice.
- Make writing faster, with practice.
We are focusing on proper letter formation and legibility, knowing that speed will come soon enough with enough practice.
Math:
We just finished a quick chapter on coins. Your second grader should be able to:
- Identify (name, amount) pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.
- Count by fives, tens, and twenty-fives.
- Count a mixed handful of change, starting with the largest amount, then going down from there.
- Write money using a cent sign OR a dollar sign, but never both.
- Solve story problems with mystery coins, differences (subtraction), and totals (addition).
Students also got to practice writing checks ("buying" and "selling" products that they invented).
Content studies (science):
We have explored much with magnets! Click here for more details and fun pictures of learning.
We also had a special guest speaker (My wife, Dr. Currey) who taught us all about nutrition. Click here for the presentation (there's a fun and funny song at the end too!).
Students learned all of the kinds of food that make up a diet, and especially the importance of eating a rainbow of vegetables and fruit.
We also had a special guest speaker (My wife, Dr. Currey) who taught us all about nutrition. Click here for the presentation (there's a fun and funny song at the end too!).
Students learned all of the kinds of food that make up a diet, and especially the importance of eating a rainbow of vegetables and fruit.
