1-30-15

1-30-15

Sorry about missing last week's post.  I got busy working on report cards and totally forgot about my newsletter.  Since last week was a short week, we spent 2 weeks finishing up our story on Helen Keller.  Any of our spare time was spent on informative writings and social studies.  There is a lot of math because it is all the lessons from the past two weeks.

Language Arts

Language Arts: Over the next two weeks we’ll ask, “How do you know when story ideas are important?” We read the biography of Helen Keller, who learned how to communicate with help from her devoted teacher. And we learned about other ways to communicate in the informational text Talking Tools.

This week’s…

Target Vocabulary: curious, imitated, knowledge, motion, silence, illness, darkness, behavior

Phonic Skills: Words with long o (o, oa, ow) [open, coat, bow]

Vocabulary Strategy: Suffix -ly (means “in a certain way”)

Comprehension Skill: Main ideas and details—tell important ideas and details about a topic

Comprehension Strategy: Summarize—stop to tell important ideas as you read

Math

Mid-Module 4 Assessment

The test was out of 29 points, I will share all assessments with you at conferences in February.  If you want to know a score or have any questions, please let me know.

Lesson 17

Objective:  Use mental strategies to relate compositions of 10 tens as 1 hundred to 10 ones as 1 ten.

Lesson 18 & 19

Objective:  Use manipulatives(place value disks) to represent additions with 2 compositions.  Relate the manipulative representations to a written method.

Lesson 20

Objective:  Use math drawings to represent additions with up to two compositions and relate drawings to a written method.

Lesson 21

Objective:  Use math drawings to represent additions with up to two compositions and relate drawings to a written method.

Lesson 22
Objective:  Solve additions with up to four addends with totals within 200 with and without two compositions of larger units

Maps & I-Clickers

 The last few weeks we have been using the i-clickers in the classroom to practice our map skills.  This is a great way to see how many of the students are able to answer questions correctly without knowing what your neighbor picked.  I can then display the data with a graph and discuss how we came up with the correct answer.  My plan is to be done with maps this week.  Although I feel like I have been saying that for a while now.  Math and Language Arts just takes up a lot of our time.  Each student is expected to organize information to make and interpret simple maps.  They also need to use cardinal directions and a map key to locate places on a map.

Bring in all boxtops next week for our school wide contest.  Pretty sure the winning class gets some kind of reward.

1-16-15

January 16, 2015

Language Arts:

Over the past two weeks we read about schools in other parts of the world and explore the question, “Why Do authors write different kinds of texts?” In the informational text Schools Around the World, learned about how schools in other parts of the world are the same and   different. We’ll also read a selection of poems about school in School Poems.

Target Vocabulary: culture, community, languages, transportation, subjects, lessons, special, wear

Phonics Skills: Vowel digraphs ee, ea (long e sound)

Comprehension Skill: Author’s purpose—tell why an author writes a book

Comprehension Strategy: Analyze/evaluate—tell how you feel about the text and why

Math

Lesson 13

Objective:  Use math drawings to represent subtraction with and without decomposition and relate drawings to a written method.

Lesson 14

Objective:  Represent subtraction with and without the decomposition when there is a three-digit minuend.

Lesson 15

Objective:  Represent subtraction with and without the decomposition when there is a three-digit minuend.

Lesson 16

Objective:  Solve one and two step word problems within 100 using strategies based on place value.

I'm planning on giving the mid-unit test on Monday after a little review.  Please try and work on the review sheets that I sent home.  Notice the answers to the 2 difficult story problems are posted right above.

 We were finally able to finish our map flip books this week.  I think everyone really enjoyed making these.  If there are any parts that were not completed by your child, just have them bring it back on Monday or just staple it together at home.  We will continue working on some map skills and directions next week to.

Food Drive: Lake Center Bible Church has started a new Food Pantry called 12 Basketswhich is located on Portage Road.  The number of needy families in the community that they serve has increased.  Lake Center’s Annual Food Drive, sponsored by Student Council, will be January 19 – 23. All items collected will be donated to 12 Baskets Food Pantry.  The top collecting classroom will proudly display the trophy for the rest of the year in their room! Suggested non-perishable items are listed on a separate document sent by office.

Dibels & Star Reading Tests

Look for a little white index card in their homework folders.  It will have both their Dibels score and Star scores from January.  I also put down their fall scores so you can see the improvement.  It's actually quite amazing to see their growth from the beginning of the year.  Just wait until Spring!   Let's not put all our eggs into one basket when it comes to both of these reading scores though.  Especially the Star score.  I just use it as a ballpark to make sure I'm challenging your child within the classroom, and it can also be used for at home.  I much rather have everyone reading at a nice happy-medium pace with lots of expression.  Comprehension and Fluency go together hand in hand.  If your child is concentrating so hard on what they are reading, then they aren't going to remember the important details.  If they are flying way too fast, then chances are they won't remember the details either.  We need to find that perfect place right inbetween.

Welcome Ms. Keith!

Ms. Keith just wrapped up her first week with us in 2nd grade.  It's so nice to have another helping hand in the classroom.  It's like being in two places at once.  It will be a great advantage to be able to work with students one on one.  Anyway, attached is a letter from Ms. Keith introducing herself to all the parents.