I really don’t understand where the time goes! November is here! It really snuck up on us, didn’t it? I was so happy to have had a chance to meet with each of you to discuss your child’s progress and growth over the first few months of 2nd grade. Can you believe how much they have learned? They are becoming such wonderful inquirers and communicators. It is hard to believe they are only in 2nd grade!
Reading- Literature Circles will have its big kick-off following the November break. We didn’t have a chance to begin this valuable activity in October, as we were wrapped up in our other reading activities. Students have continued working hard during DEAR each day to work toward an individually chosen CAFE reading goal. DEAR is also a time where I meet one on one with students to discuss these goals, practice reading strategies and decide upon future actions.
Writing- Our 2nd grade authors are really beginning to think and work like professional authors. Many students have individually (or with a partner) worked through the writing process, evaluated their piece with an author’s rubric, met with the publisher and are now in the process of publishing! Other students have begun to really STRETCH their writing while including important details and other story elements.
Spelling – Students will be using (Structured Word Inquiry) SWI to better understand how the spelling of base words can be affected by adding a prefix and/or suffix. We each got to write a base, prefix or suffix on our hands this month and made hand-words by putting our fists together! Students will now determine which words are REAL words, and which words are NONSENSE words. They will also find out if prefixes and/or suffixes can change the spelling of a root word!
Math- Geometry has been the focus of math for most of October and will continue on through November. Have your son/daughter point out 2-D shapes as compared to 3-D shapes. Discuss the names of these geometric figures. See if you can spot them in ‘real life’! In November, our focus will be working on perfecting our subtraction fact memorization. Please work on this at home. Some websites that may be of use to help your child practice are:
Unit-
Cities are unique and evolve in different ways! This is our Central Idea for the current PYP Unit. I have been so impressed with our students’ ideas, wonderings and observations. Recently, we went out into Dhaka to record our findings and photograph current changes we found. Students have really begun to did deep into the hows and whys of changing cities. Please encourage any research they may want to do at home.
Welcome Dunghyuk!
Dunghyuk comes to us from Korea! He is doing a wonderful job making friends, learning school/class routines and being a risk taker as he learns English. We are so happy to have a new friend to learn and explore with!
Dunghyuk comes to us from Korea! He is doing a wonderful job making friends, learning school/class routines and being a risk taker as he learns English. We are so happy to have a new friend to learn and explore with!