It's the Last Week of Our First Quarter!

Dear 2A,

Can you believe this is our last week of school before Fall Break? This quarter has flown by and I still cannot believe we are nearly halfway through our first semester! Here is what our last week before Fall Break looks like:

Literature: We finished reading Charlotte's Web! It was an emotional and beautiful ending for our friends Wilbur and Charlotte. Next up is The Boxcar Children. We won't be starting this novel until the end of October so don't worry yet about needing to bring it to school. We will be using our Literature time next week to prepare for our self-evaluations at conference time!

Poetry: We did not get through all of the poem recitations for Something Told the Wild Geese this week so those will continue with those into next week. Our new poem is: Merry Autumn Days by Charles Dickens. Please check your child's homework folder on Monday for a copy of this new poem.

Spalding Words: 
Monday: right, write, wrote, date, road, rode, ride, March, march, next
Tuesday: indeed, four, herself, power, wish, because, cause, world, country, meet (see), meat (eat)
Wednesday: another, tripped, trip, list, people, ever, held, church
*Review Phonograms for Homework

Grammar: We will review all parts of speech and practice labeling our nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. 

Writing: We will practice commas in a series when listing. We will also read Pippi Longstocking!

Math: Renaming in Subtraction has really posed a challenge for us this last week! We will continue to embrace the struggle next week and review this concept of three digit subtraction. 

Here are the rhymes/chants we are learning in class: 

No Renaming:
Numbers the same? Zero is their name! 
More on the top? No need to stop! 

Renaming the tens:
More on the floor (in the ones column)? Go Next Door (to the tens column), Get Ten More! Cross it out, count one down, bring the tens (10 ones) over, it's big enough now SUBTRACT!

Renaming the hundreds:
More on the floor (in the tens column)? Go Next Door (to the hundreds column), Get 1 HUNDRED more! Cross it out, count one down, bring the hundred (10 tens) over, it's big enough now SUBTRACT!

Please let me know if you or your child needs more help and support in this area. Notes on their homework is perfect! Please keep in mind that subtraction with renaming is likely the most challenging concept we will cover in second grade and rest assured we will continue to work on renaming throughout the year :-).

We've wrestled with addition and subtraction with renaming for the past few weeks and after Fall Break we are going to move forward with a new unit! With that being said, we have our cumulative test on Friday, so keep an eye out for a study guide in your child's Take-Home folder on Thursday. We will get into our new unit on Length after we come back from Fall Break!

History: We are continuing our study of Ancient India. We will finish learning about Hinduism with a fun lesson about the Festival of Lights on Monday! Later in the week, we will begin learning about another religion that began in Ancient India: Buddhism! We will be listening to a jakata tale, a story told by Buddha that taught a lesson. You can read more jataka tales at home here: http://mocomi.com/fun/stories/jataka-tales/

Science: We will take some time to review the cycles we've learned about so far. Your child will take a test on Thursday. A review/study guide will come home with them on Tuesday evening. See if your child can describe the stages of life for a chicken, frog, butterfly, and plant.

Thank you so much for all you've done to celebrate Mrs. Gerhart's birthday with us on Thursday! Here is a note she shared with me to share on our class blog: 



Dear 2A Families, 

Thank you very much for the wonderful and generous gifts! What a joy to be able to celebrate with a classroom full of children again and what a special privilege that it is your children.

Have an amazing weekend and again, many thanks!

Mrs. G



Have a great week!

Warmest, 

Mr. High