Social Studies

These are the definitions for the terms they are using on the foldable.

These are for you to use to make sure your children are going in the right direction.

The students should put definitions in their own words.

This is due Friday, but I would recommend starting tomorrow, not tonight, as we just started learning these today. They will know them better tomorrow.

community: a place where people work, live, and play

state: a section of land within the United States

country: the land and the people who live there

continent: a large body of land on Earth

Math Test

There will be a Unit 3 math test on Wednesday, November 7.

The test will cover adding coins, counting back change, addition facts, counting by 5's, 2 rule frame and arrow problems, reading a bar graph, and reading a thermometer.

I will send home a review on Monday.

Room 206 Weekly Updates

Phonics

We are continuing our study of glued sounds in phonics. We will be learning the -ild,-ind, -olt, -ost,

-old sounds and spelling patterns.

ELA

We are continuing to work on adjectives this week. We will learn about comparative and superlative adjectives. We will do Smart Board lessons on these, and adjectives will be imbedded into literacy centers.

Reading

This week we will begin our study of story elements. We will do an overview of all of them: characters, setting, plot, problem, solution, theme.

Our focus this week will be characters. We are going to learn how to identify main characters and character traits.

Our current chapter book read-aloud is The BFG by Roald Dahl. This is the third Roald Dahl book we have read this year as part of a Roald Dahl author study. Last week we learned a bit about the author's life.

Math

The math objectives this week are being able to count back change and work with two-rule frame and arrow problems.

We will learn to count back change in the following way: The pencil costs 67 cents and I pay with three quarters. How much change will I get back?

Students will count up using the least amount of change starting with how much the item costs until they reach the amount paid.

For this I would count up from 67 cents with 3 pennies to reach 70 cents, and then use a nickel to reach 75 cents. My change would then be 8 cents.

This is a good way to practice at home. Subtracting cost from amount paid is not developmentally appropriate to figure out the amount of change, as many 2nd graders cannot subtract 2 digit numbers in their heads or on paper.

Social Studies

We will begin the unit called "Exploring Georgia". This week we will learn about where we live: community, city, state, country, continent, world.

We will work on our map skills by learning to use a map key.

We are giving a social studies homework assignment that is due on Friday. I will send home the blank foldable for your child to use.

Directions are on the homework planner, but I will put more detailed guidelines on the blog tomorrow.

Communication

Please continue to check the blog for class information and announcements.

Please make sure you are reading your child's homework planner and signing the reading log portion to turn in on Friday.

Creating Timelines

We created timelines today of our Wednesday school schedule. We practiced putting the correct times on analog clocks and putting the times in order.

Students understand the short hand is the hour hand and the long hand is the minute hand.

We are also working on understanding the hour hand moves slowly as the minute hand moves around the clock.



Fall Adjective Wordle

Today we brainstormed adjectives that describe Fall using an ABC brainstorm organizer.

We then came together with our individual ideas to create a whole class brainstorm.

Check out our Wordle that we created!

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5910462/Fall_Adjectives

Just for a Smile

During our literacy centers, I found a trio of singers in my room.

They took a new take on "Read to Someone" with the 13 Nights of Halloween book.

Mystery Reader

Thank you Amy Streelman for being our Mystery Reader today!

Links You Can Use at Home

Phases of the Moon Game
http://www.neok12.com/diagram/Moon-01.htm

Number Sense Game- Place Value - Greater Than/Less Than
http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/math-games/number-sense/

Room 206 Weekly Updates

We had a great week learning in room 206! Here is what is on tap for next week.

Phonics

Our spelling focus next week is glued sounds such as ong, ung, ank, ink, onk, unk.

We started talking about "Bossy R" vowels this week and will continue next week. A "Bossy R" vowel is when the letter r comes after a vowel, and it controls the way the vowel sounds.

Here are some examples for Bossy R that we learned this week:

ar-car-/ar/

or-horn-/or/

We will learn the sounds for /ir/, /ur/, /er/ next week.

ELA/Reading/Writing

We are going to continue our study of adjectives next week. I hope you enjoyed the pictures from our adjective face-in-a-hole project this week.

Next week we will be investigating fall gourds/vegetables and using adjectives to describe them.

We will brainstorm adjectives that describe "Fall" to connect with our current season and our science curriculum.

We will also connect to science by writing a five line poem about any of the seasons. Each line will use a different sense to incorporate using senses and visualization.

Math

Next week will focus on telling time. We will use hands-on clocks that we can manipulate to help us understand the functions of the minute and hour hands. We will create clock booklets and work in small groups with the teacher for extra support.

We will also spiral back to base-10 by doing a building numbers activity using place-value mats and number cards.

Science

We are wrapping up our unit on the sun, moon, and stars next week. On Monday and Tuesday they will use choice boards to pick in-class projects to work on to show their understanding of the content.

On Wednesday we will play a review game in class, and on Thursday we will take a test to assess this unit.

Field Trip

Friday we will be going as a grade-level to the Center for Puppetry Arts to see the puppet show The Headless Horseman. I will be contacting you if your child has not turned in a permission slip yet.

Heather Regnault will serve as a chaperone. Thank you Heather!

AR

Please continue to encourage your child to be reading AR books to reach their goals.

Seasons Books

Please remember that your child's season book is due tomorrow. It is a grade, and it is imperative that they turn it in. Thank you!

Adjective Faces!

Check out our adjective self portraits!



Report Cards

Report cards will be sent home tomorrow instead of today. Morningside will be sending out an e-mail notice to parents later today.

Weekly Updates

Here is a look at what we will be up to this week!

Phonics

This week our spelling rule is the bonus letter or FLSZ (pronounced floz) rule. When a word has a short vowel followed by f,l,s, and sometimes z at the end of a word, we double the f,l,s, or z.

We also will learn about the glued sound "all" that we find in many words, and we will start talking about the "bossy R" rule.

Spelling words will be on the back of the homework planner for the test on Friday.

Reading

Visualization is still the comprehension skill we are focusing on. We frequently talk about making pictures in our heads while reading text without illustrations. I often have the students do this during our current read aloud, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

This week the homework planner will feature AR goals. 

ELA/Writing

I am introducing adjectives this week. We will use lessons on the Promethean board, write sentences using science words and adjectives, do a project using adjectives to describe ourselves, and we will do a Halloween character art project that will incorporate an adjective writing assignment.

Math

Unit 3 will begin this week. Our focus this week will be base-10 place value and using coins to buy things. We will use base-10 manipulative blocks on Monday and Tuesday. Our objective is to understand place value. Students will understand the value of each digit in a 2 or 3 digit number.

On Wednesday-Friday we will work with play money to learn how to use money to buy things. They will be engaged in different activities such as deciding what coins to use to buy fruit from a fruit stand, playing a partner game to practice exchanging a large amount of coins for a smaller amount of coins that has the same value, and writing number stories.

Science

We are continuing our Sun, Moon, Stars unit. On Monday we will learn about scientists who study outer space. We will use the reading skill of "asking questions about the text" to learn more, and we will use the higher order thinking skill of comparing and contrasting to analyze the two scientists we read about.

During the rest of the week we will learn about why we have seasons. The students will understand the relation between the length of day and night and the seasons. Thy will understand the tilt of the Earth when we do a lab activity on Wednesday. The students will also understand what causes the seasons to change.

On Friday we will use math skills to interpret a graph and answer questions about it.

Field Trip

Please send in the permission slip for 2012-2013 field trips by Wednesday.

Our first field trip will be on October 26 to the Center for Puppetry Arts.

Mystery Reader

Thank you Michelle Constantinides for being our Mystery Reader!

Edible Moon Phases - Questions to Ask Your Child

We are continuing our study of the Sun, Moon and Stars unit as we learn about the phases of the moon. Today we did a read aloud of a non fiction book about the moon.

We then made our own edible moon phases using Oreo cookies! This was a special treat that helped the kids create the phases themselves in a tactile manner. It important for them to have hands on experiences and to create things themselves in order to have the full brain-based learning experience.

The "Tornado Table" is very excited about creating the phases of the moon.

Here is a completed plate with the main phases of the moon. The students know there is a last and full quarter moon, but for sake of supply amounts, we made just one "moon" for each big phase.

Catherine showing us a "New Moon".



Questions to Ask Your Child

1. What are the phases of the moon?

2. What causes the phases of the moon?

3. How long does it take for the moon to orbit around the Earth?

4. What is the surface of the moon like?

5. Does the moon create its own light?

6. Ask them to get up and SHOW you what "rotate" looks like. Ask them to get up and SHOW you what "orbit" looks like!

Field Trip

Today I am sending home a field trip permission slip to cover permission for 2012-2013 field trips. Please sign and return the bottom half by Wednesday, October 17.

Our first field trip is on October 26. We will be seeing The Headless Horseman at the Center for Puppetry Arts.

Change in Weekly Plans/Infinite Campus

I have a change to the Room 206 updates for this week.

We, as a second grade team, have decided to postpone starting math unit three until next week. We are going to do math centers to continue skill building in this short week. The homework planner will say Home Links 3.1 on one of the nights, but I will be sending home an alternative assignment. Unit 3 will start on Monday, October 15 instead.

We also will not be giving a spelling test this week.


I am working to get grades inputed in Infinite Campus. Report cards will go home on October 17.

I hope you had a great long weekend!

Fundations Pictures

I am already seeing positive results from our Fundations spelling program with our class. Below are photos of our letterboards. We use these to manipulate letters to spell words within our spelling patterns. These are derived from the Orton-Gillingham method of teaching spelling.

Here is Sage using one of our letterboards during small group work. You can see Archer in the background taking an AR test.

Caleb is working during small group with a letterboard. You can see other students in the background working in their reading centers.

Fun Visualization Activity

Into The Book is a great site for reading skills. For visualization, just drag the visualization paintbrush to the middle for a fun activity!

http://reading.ecb.org/student/entry.html?login=mrs.nel00006

Room 206 Updates

It is finally October! We had a great first week of October in Room 206.

Here are some updates on what is to come next week.

1. ELA -

Next week we will not have a new spelling list or spelling pattern due to the short week. We will review sounds we have learned (qu, ch, th, sh, ck). I will give a spelling test using words with these patterns. Some will be words we have not had on our list. The reason for this is because if they understand the spelling pattern we have learned, they will be able to spell the word using the sounds they hear.

We will continue to work a little bit with sentence types. We will also continue to work on "visualization". I encourage you to ask your child about what pictures they make in their head while you read with them.

2. Math -

We will start a new math unit. We will start by reviewing the base-10 system to increase our number sense of place value in 2 and 3 digit numbers. We will use manipulatives and place value mats to build numbers.

The purpose of place value and the base-10 system is to help them understand the MEANING of a number. They will understand that a ten is made of 10 ones, a one hundred is made up of 10 tens, etc. We are working toward them understanding concepts such as the "2" in 426 equals "20" and not "2".

3. Science-

We have been learning about the Sun, Moon, and Stars in science. Your child should be able to tell you what stars are made of (hot gas), that the sun is a the closest star to the earth, and the way stars are different from one another. They should be able to explain to you how we have day and night on Earth. They should understand that the Earth rotates (spins) completely every 24 hours (1 day). They should be able to tell you that we have daytime when the Earth faces the sun, and when the Earth rotates and faces away from the sun, we have night time.

Next week we will be learning about the moon and its phases. We will do some fun activities to increase our understanding.

4. AR -

Accelerated Reader....With the new 9 weeks approaching I am changing the way I do AR. I am going to do a better job of monitoring it. I will be individualizing the homework planner by putting point goals on the planner to remind them of how many points they need to earn. We are at 131 points as of this morning as a class. If we reach 1,000 we will have a class pizza party.

Do not forget you can track your child's progress. I sent this information in August I believe.

5. Snack -

Please remember every day to pack a snack for your child. Please put it outside of their lunch so they know what is snack and what is not. I have emergency snacks but do not rely on them. They are for emergencies, not daily use.

6. Basic Facts - Please continue to practice basic facts at home :) Flash cards are GREAT.

Mystery Reader

Thank you to Amy Hartman (and Sam Hartman) for coming today to be Mystery Reader! We loved hearing Skippy Jon Jones Lost in Spice.