2nd Grade Newsletter

This week, your child is learning about r-controlled vowels. We also call this concept Bossy R because when the letter “r” follows a vowel, it controls the sound of the vowel. We are learning that “er” is the most common spelling for the /er/ sound, as in the word “perch.”

On our spelling test, we have 10 words that follow the pattern that we are focusing on. These are our ten words for next week:

after

stern

monster

ever

rather

silver

whisper

permit

thunder

berth

Then, we have 5 "red" words. These are words that cannot be sounded out because they do not follow our learned spelling rules. Because they do not follow rules, they can be a bit trickier and take a lot more memorization, so they usually repeat for a couple of weeks before we get new ones. These are our 5 red words for next week:

call

room

ball

few

many

Finally, they will dictate two sentences that I say out loud. I do not send these home for memorization because I want to see their skills in action!

Each week, we also read stories that correspond to the concept we are learning. This week our story will be a nonfiction text "All About Rivers." We read together in class, using a highlighter to highlight any words they find in our story that fits our concept. Then we answer comprehension questions on another day.

Standards we are working on:

• Read and recognize common words that don’t follow regular spelling patterns
• Practice common vowel patterns and sounds, including vowel teams and diphthongs.
• Read two-syllable words with short and long vowel sounds.
• Read words with common prefixes and suffixes, such as un-, dis-, -ful, and -less
• Retell important ideas and details from stories and information we hear or read.
• Identify the main idea of a text.
• Understand how nonfiction texts are organized, including how the beginning introduces a topic and how the ending wraps things up.
• Ask and answer who, what, where, when, why, and how questions to show understanding.
• Read grade-level books and passages accurately, smoothly, and with expression to help us understand what we read.

We've been practicing getting our thoughts out of our heads and onto the paper. Although second graders have huge imaginations, they usually struggle to write fictional pieces when the whole world is open to them on what they're allowed to write. Because of this, we start by writing about things that have already happened to us. We have been working hard on how to write an entertaining woty and captivate our audience with lots of details!

Standards we are working on:

• Write our own stories with a clear beginning, middle, and ending, including details that bring our characters and experiences to life.
• Practice neat, readable handwriting by forming letters correctly and spacing our words and sentences.
• Write complete sentences and practice combining and expanding our sentences to make our writing more interesting and detailed.

We are continuing to learn different strategies to add and subtract within 20. This is a key standard in second grade and a building block to understanding larger numbers, so we spend a lot of time here to make sure we grasp this concept before moving on. This week we are focusing on making a number into a 10 and then adding up from there (7+8=?, 7+3=10 and then 10+5=15, so 7+8=15).

Standards we are working on:

• Build fluency with addition and subtraction facts within 20.
• Practice using mental math strategies to solve problems quickly and accurately.
• Work toward knowing our basic addition and subtraction facts within 20 automatically, without needing to stop and figure them out each time.

Students have gotten a lot stronger at telling time to the closest five minutes on an analog clock this month! We have been practicing the difference between the hour and the minute hand and collecting 60 minutes a day. We also know there are 24 hours in a day and the difference between AM and PM.

Standards we are working on:

• Read and tell time using both analog and digital clocks.
• Practice telling time to the nearest five minutes.
• Learn to identify whether a time is a.m. or p.m.
• Write times correctly using numbers and a.m./p.m.

This week, we built a prototype of a bird feeder that each of us wanted to build. We picked a type of bird, learned what they like to eat, and how they like to stand when they eat. We also got creative with how we would keep birds safe from cats if they visited our feeder.

Next week, we will finish this animal section in science and move on to a new and exciting unit.

Standards we are working on:

• Observe different plants and animals and notice how they are alike and different.
• Explore how different habitats are home to different kinds of plants and animals.
• Compare the variety of life we find in different habitats.
• Learn how the plants and animals in a habitat can be different depending on where they live.

Thursday, October 22nd - Quarter 1 Ends

Monday, October 26th - Individual Picture Retakes and Class Picture

Thursday, October 29th - Halloween Party and Parade

Thursday, October 29th - Student Led Conferences

Thank you for those that signed up for snacks for the classroom! I will send an email out to you the week before to remind you of the month. I still have December, February, April, and May open if anyone else is able to sign up.