Newsletter

2^nd Grade News

May 13, 2013

Dear Parents,

I hope you had a nice Mother's Day weekend. It looks like we are in for a little cooler, and more seasonable weather this week. It was great to see many of you at the Art Show and Concert last week. The students did a great job with their dancing and xylophone playing. I was really impressed!

Here's what's happening in class...

Math

We are finishing up the 6^th unit and the focus is on place value to 1,000. Students are reading, writing, and comparing 3-digit numbers. They are also writing these numbers in expanded notation

(237=200 +30+7) and adding and subtracting 10 or 100 from a variety of 2 and 3-digit numbers. They will have an assessment at the end of the week.

For math homework this week, students will be bringing home a packet of 200 charts to fill in. We started this work in class, but they need to work on this Monday and Tuesday nights and bring the packet into school each day to use at math time. All the pages need to be completed by Wednesday.

Reading

Students continue to read a variety of books in different groups, but all groups will be focused on naming character traits (like brave, caring, helpful, etc.) and finding details in the story that support their opinion. Students should also be reading each night for homework and recording their reading on the sheet in their book bag. I am encouraging everyone to take a book home, and some say that they are reading a book they have at home.

Writing/Mini Research Project

Last week students chose a science topic to research. Using National Geographic Kid's Explorer magazines and books, each student chose a topic to learn more about, wrote what they think they already know, and then brainstormed 2 – 4 key questions about their topic to research. This week the students will be taking notes, writing their answers, and will hopefully get started on creating a booklet to share their new knowledge. There will be no word study this week because we will be using this time, as well as our writing time to work on this project. Eric, the librarian and tech teacher, is helping us with this project.

Science

During the last couple of weeks our bean plants have been growing and many of them now have flowers! We continue to observe and measure their growth, but have also learned about how plants make their own food through a process called photosynthesis, and have observed and dissected tulip flowers to see how pollination works. I encouraged students to look at all kinds of flowers as they appear this spring and find the different flower parts we saw in class.

I hope you all have a great week!

Sincerely,

Mary Ann Tormey