Well, it was nice to get back into a more regular routine, however, I do miss the crafts and projects that the weeks surrounding winter break brought. This week, we were back into a regular week with Wonders, and what a great job the children did, studying their spelling words. There were some tricky long a patterns. We didn’t quite make it through all of the components we had hoped to, as we were getting back in the swing of things. Our practice with contractions and compound words will carry over into this upcoming week.
In Wonders this week, we read about force, motion, friction and gravity, both during whole group, and during reading groups. The children were excited to read about this topic! So, we had a little bit of fun with it, on Friday. We used some little train racers, to explore push, pull, gravity, and friction, with a STEM project. The children learned that even a little bit of friction, created by a piece of paper, or the carpet, will drastically reduce the speed, and distance that a vehicle will travel. They also realized that by increasing the ramp size that the vehicle will travel down, the speed and distance will increase as well. Our room was abuzz, and the children had a lot of fun!
If you haven’t asked your second grader about Reading Counts, you should! Reading Counts is a web-based program, where the children go in and complete comprehension quizzes on books they have read. We took the first one with our book buddies, and the children never looked back! We have logged some impressive numbers, and the children are super proud of their progress! (and so am I!)
In math, this week, we finished up with unit 3. The children have been solidifying some strategies with subtraction, and I was very proud of how well they did on the assessment. It is nice to see them applying strategies that they have learned! Next week, we will be jumping right in to Unit 4, which will start with practicing telling time! Please use any opportunities to have the children practice telling time. We will start by reviewing time to the hour, then progress to the half hour, quarter hour, and finally to the minute.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for the donations to our LEGO basket! We have about 10-12 donations, thus far! If you are planning on sending in any other donations, please do so by Thursday, the 17th, at the latest. We could still use a couple more donations, to fill up our basket! Thank you again for your continued support of the PTA! They bring some amazing programs, like the Eyes on Owls presentation that our children enjoyed, this year, to our school! We are lucky to have such an amazing PTA that is so dedicated to our students!
Please remind your second graders to wear boots, each day, and to bring a pair of shoes to change in to. There are lots of puddles, and often slush, even on the blacktop, so it’s important that the children have a second pair of shoes/boots to change into. Otherwise, they are left with cold, and soggy feet for the day. We try to get the kiddos out, each day, if weather permits, so dressing warmly is important!
Finally, if you happen to have any extra disinfecting wipes hanging around, we would greatly appreciate a couple of containers. With the increase in viruses going around, we have been trying to wipe surfaces quite regularly.
It has been wonderful to meet with some of you, already, to chat about your second grader’s progress! I look forward to meeting with many more in the upcoming weeks! I feel so fortunate to have such an amazing group, this year! Thank you, for all that you do to help your second graders have a successful, and fun, year in second grade!