Week of October 3rd-6th

2nd Grade Curriculum News                                                                 

Curriculum News & Information

As we continue to take a look at the four seasons during our Literacy Block time, we will begin our exploration of poetry.  We will be looking at poems that have to do with the changing seasons.  Students will also better understand the basic components of poems as we break them apart to better understand how they are written.  Second grade is doing quite well with adding two-digit numbers, so we will be moving on to 2-digit subtraction which is always a bit more challenging.  I am confident that this group will continue to do well with their math facts but PLEASE remember to work on their basic addition and subtraction facts at home too!

As our C.A.T.C.H. program continues, we will be taking a closer look at reading food/nutrition labels which will hopefully lead to better understanding of how to choose healthier food and snacks.  During our Science time we will be taking a look at the different layers or zones of the ocean.  This will allow students to see where the different ocean animals are found throughout this vast habitat.  Student ocean animal posters are due on Thursday, October 6th so that we can start to present to the class some of the information that they have learned through their research.  Remember, students are also to write 3 sentences about their ocean animals on their posters, which will be on display so that everyone can learn a bit more about this unique animal.

 

Spelling    way       great    where     help    gold     colt     fold      mold       sold     told      why      parent

Challenge Words:    through           resource

 

Reminders

Parent/ Teacher conferences will be held on Wednesday and Thursday evenings from 3:30-7:00.  I look forward to meeting with all of you!  Because of conferences, we will not have school on Friday, October 7th or on Monday, October 10th because of Columbus Day.  Have a great weekend!

 

Mrs. Johnson

 

 

Week of September 26th-30th

2nd Grade Curriculum News                                                                                                                                        

(Taken from the classroom website/blog –  ajhula.edublogs.org)            Sept. 26th-30th\

 

Curriculum News & Information

With another busy week under “our belt”, we are moving into a week filled with many important skills and topics to cover.  This week we will be taking a closer look at the changing seasons as well as exploring the many different types of trees that are found in our environment.  We will be doing this mostly during our Reading/Literacy Block time as we read and discuss some of the informational books about this very important part of nature.  I do ask that students bring in 2 different types of leaves on Monday in a ziploc bag to help kick off our unit on Trees and Leaves.  This will allow us to take a closer look at some of the characteristics of leaves.

During our math time, we will continue to work on addition but will get an opportunity to try 2-digit addition.  Please remember to keep working on those basic addition facts.  This is a necessary skill that 2nd grade students need to master!  The Ocean Habitat will continue to be an important topic during our time that is allotted for Science.  We will be taking a closer look at various types of ocean life found in our oceans and seas.  With that in mind, students will be getting a specific ocean animal assigned to them next week which will allow all students to learn a bit more about each unique and amazing animal that can be found in the sea!  This assignment will be coming home by Tuesday of next week.   Students will have over a week to complete this assignment!

 

Spelling    name      good     man     think    right     might     high     tight     flight     bright      push       pull

Challenge Words:    sentence          strength

 

Reminders

There is an early dismissal on Wednesday, September 28th at 11:30!

Have a great weekend!

 

Mrs. Johnson

Week of September 19th-23rd

Curriculum News & Information 

Class DoJo should be up and running by now.  If you have not received the email invitation from me yet please let me know by sending the proper email address that you would like to use.  It is definitely a worthwhile tool to help keep you informed of the upcoming events in 2nd grade as well as a quick and efficient way of communicating back and forth.  Also, I have signed our class up for the Raz Kids Website which promotes reading and comprehension.  Students can access this website at home by going to the raz-kids.com/ website and logging in under student login.  The teacher access code is ajhawaii and their student password is dog.  It is worth checking out!

This upcoming week will also be quite busy with Volleyball Homecoming Week taking place this week.  You will find the dress up days below.  This week during our Reading/Literacy Block time we will look at a few more Cynthia Rylant books along with some others as we take a closer look at the Changing Seasons!  In Writing, we will be working on some key writing skills such as proofreading and run-on sentences.  Writing is an area that we will spend quite a bit of time on as reading comprehension and fluency go hand- in-hand with writing skills.  During our Math time, we will continue to focus mostly on addition strategies and working on those addition math facts!  Keep practicing at home please!  Our afternoons will also be quite busy as we continue to explore the many areas of the ocean and discuss ways to stay healthy during our CATCH program lessons.  This week we will mostly review the difference between GO, SLOW, and WHOA foods!  By the end of this next week they should be able to explain this concept to you more closely!

Spelling    very     after      things      our       just       girl        dirt      shirt       life      third      thirst      birth

Challenge Words:    cycle        system

 

Homecoming Week/ Dress Up Days

Monday-Sports Day (Dress Up in Any Sport)

Tuesday-Black/Orange Day

Wednesday-Pattern Day (Stripes, Plaid, Polka Dots…)

Thursday-Black Out Day (All Black)

Friday-Twin Day (Dress like others)

 

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Johnson

Week of September 12th-16th

Curriculum News & Information

Most of you have already noticed that we have begun using the Class Dojo App in 2nd grade to help make communication between us simpler.  There was an email sent out at the beginning of this week inviting you to join our group with the information needed to set it up.  If you are still having problems you can send me an email at ajohnson@hartem.org and I will be happy to help you get this set going.  I apologize for the late start with this but it took me a while to get comfortable with it but this should be an excellent tool to keep you informed about what is happening daily in the second grade classroom!

 

With this past week being a bit shorter, we will definitely be using next week to more closely take a look at our first author study, Cynthia Rylant.  So far students have gotten the opportunity to know the author by exploring some of her more personal stories such as When I Was Young In the Mountains and The Relatives Came.   Now we will be able to look at some of her more popular characters from series such as Henry & Mudge and Poppleton.  During some of our writing time we will also take a look at her writing style and practice using more descriptive words to help us become better writers.  Our Social Studies time will allow us to discuss things such as how communities change over time as well as comparing different types of communities.  As we continue our work with the ocean habitat, we will also start looking more closely at specific ocean animals and researching what makes them unique!  There are always so many new things and exciting things to cover!

 

Spelling                               (I did shorten the list slightly!)

live         me         back          give          most         saw          law         raw         jar         straw          draw         ocean

Challenge Words:  motion       change

 

I look forward to an excellent week!

 

Mrs. Johnson

Class Dojo

Parents

If you would like daily updates about what is happening in the classroom and how your child is doing, please check out the Class Dojo website!  I have just entered everyone’s email into the system so that you can receive daily information about the second grade classroom!  Please be patient as I am learning about this website right along with you but will hopefully have the hang of it by the end of this week.  This will give me the opportunity to show you a bit more of what is happening on a daily basis so that you can  strike up a conversation with your child about what kinds of things they are learning in 2nd grade.  Thank you for your time!

Mrs Johnson

Week of Sept. 6th-9th

Although students may NOT be so thrilled, teachers (including myself) are quite excited about finally having our regular dismissal schedule back.  There still might be some rather warm days but we are well on our way towards Fall!  Our first regular week of school will find us quite busy as we will be taking our first set of benchmark tests.  Students will not be tested every day and the tests are quite short.  These will be given at 3 different times throughout the school year to help give us an idea of where students stand and which areas we need to work on.  So students, show up ready to show us how smart you really are!  I have already seen some wonderful things from this group!

Curriculum News

During our Reading/Literacy Block time in the morning, we will be taking a look at our very first author.  We will be fortunate enough to explore many of the stories written by the wonderful children’s author, Cynthia Rylant.  She has written many beloved children’s books such as the Henry and Mudge Series and has written numerous other amazing books which students will most definitely enjoy!  During Math, we will be looking at many different strategies for improving our addition and subtraction skills.  As we are able to be in the classroom a bit more beginning this week, we will have more time to explore the topics of neighborhoods and different types of communities during our Social Studies time.  We will also have some time to look at writing better sentences as we explore the different types of sentences during our English/Grammar time.  There is so much to cover this week!  This week’s spelling words are given below.  Remember that the test is given on Friday and the Challenge Words are graded as extra or bonus points on the test!

Spelling

little      work      know      place     years     rain      mail      wait      paint     chant      paid      goods     pitch      history

Challenge Words:  services          volume

 

Reminders:

There is no school on Monday, September 5th because of Labor Day.  Have a wonderful holiday weekend and enjoy the last “unofficial” weekend of summer!

 

Mrs. Johnson