Curriculum News

   While we will still be studying the “Wild West” for a while, this week we will take a short break to look at some fun Halloween stories as well as take some time to study an often misunderstood creature- bats!  As we continue to work on more skills that will help us become better writers, we will focus more on using Main Idea and Detail sentences to help us compose better paragraphs and stories.  This will definitely be a fun-filled week that is jam packed full of learning!

During our Social Studies time in the afternoons we will be continuing with our exploration of our amazing planet.  This week we will turn our focus to the continent of Europe and will also spend some time focusing on the fascinating country of Italy.      In Math we will be working with subtracting 2-digit numbers, as this is a very necessary skill to master before moving onto more challenging concepts.

Starting the week of November 4^th, ^, students will be asked to complete a weekly reading log to track the number of minutes read outside of the classroom.  Students are given a goal that should be easily attained.  They are to read 60 minutes within a week’s time.  Papers will be passed out each Monday and are asked to be returned the following Monday.  We will keep track of those that are successfully meeting this goal and they will get a chance at the end of each month to either eat lunch with me or get a homework pass to get out of one assignment.  I know that there are some amazing readers who will meet this goal with no problem and want to provide an incentive for those who always work hard and are responsible enough to turn in this paper each week.  If the paper is misplaced you can always write down the number of minutes read and sign the paper for proof of completion as well.   I am doing this to teach students responsibility and to encourage any bit of extra reading time that they can find in their everyday lives!

 

Spelling  Words

mean     clean      peak     dream     beach      team     neat     seat     repeat     least     treat     leap

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Reminders/Announcements: 

*October 30^th–  11:36 Dismissal

* October 31^st – Halloween parade @ 1:00 with parties to follow

                                                                                                                              (Turn over please)

*Next week is also Red Ribbon Week, which emphasizes the importance of saying “No to Drugs!”  Each day will have a theme and students are asked to dress up if possible.  Below are the themes for each day!

 

Monday- Wear Red

Tuesday- Nerd Day-Dress Smart

Wednesday- Sports Day/ Dress in your favorite sports attire

Thursday-Costume Day/ Wear your Halloween costume

Friday-Pajama Day

 

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Johnson

 

 

 

Curriculum News & Information

During our morning literacy time, we will continue our discussion of the “Wild West”.  We will start out by taking a look at a few more tall tales from this time in our country’s history and then will turn our attention to a Magic Tree House book about the “Wild West”.  Students will get a better idea of what life would have been like as pioneers and cowboys explored this new territory back in the middle 1800’s.  Our Language Arts/Writing time will be spent working on adjectives and using more in our own writing to help enhance our work.

Second graders will also be learning a bit more about our 7 continents.  Each week we will focus on one continent at a time.  We will take a look at some maps to help them become more familiar with some of the fascinating places found around the world.  One day of that week we will spend some time getting to know a particular country found within each continent and hopefully better understand their culture and lifestyle.  The world is such an amazing place to study and explore!!!

Our upcoming C.A.T.C.H. curriculum lesson will focus on choosing more “Go foods than slow foods and more slow foods than whoa foods”!  This will hopefully help us all make better choices to help us stay strong and healthy for many years to come!

 

Spelling      blue     true     clue     glue    argue     duel      fuel      flew     grew    chew     threw     crew

 

Reminders/Upcoming Dates

3oth– 11:30 Dismissal

31^st–  Halloween Day Parade (weather permitting) on Thursday, the 31^st  at 1:00 PM.  If it rains, students will parade around the gym several times.  Following the parade, parties are in classrooms for most of the afternoon!  Students may wear their costumes to school that day as long as it is not too distracting to them during the school day.  If you do not want your child to wear them to school, we will allow time for them to change or add things to their costume before the parade.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Mrs. Johnson

Curriculum News
This week we will kick off our study of the “Wild West” during our Reading/Literacy Block by first getting a bit more familiar with what life was like during this time in America’s history. Students will learn a bit about some of the fictional characters that we all have heard of such as Paul Bunyan and John Henry. By the end of this week students will be more familiar with some of the tall tales that were developed and shared throughout this particular time period. Students will also be working on writing some “Super Sentences” about the “Wild West” as we continue to develop our ability to add more detail to our writing which creates a much more interesting story!
We will be continuing our study of a variety of habitats as we compare the Ocean, Rainforest, and Desert habitats and discuss their importance in the sustainability of the world. During our Social Studies time we will begin our unit on the 7 Continents. The first week will give us a chance to compare the difference between countries and continents and get students familiar with the location and size of all of the continents. Students will get a chance over the next several weeks to learn a bit about each of the 7 continents individually as we take a look at each one more closely! This is always a fun unit to explore and gives us the opportunity to be introduced to some amazing cultures and people from around the world! In Math we will be starting to work with 2-digit subtraction problems. We have so many important skills and concepts to cover!!! I am already looking forward to next week!!!

Spelling Words
nurse curve turn burn curl purse fur church hurt blurt surf curb

Reminders/Announcements:
* October 31st is the Halloween Parade and classroom party. The parade starts at 1:00 with parties following immediately afterwards. Students are asked to avoid wearing costumes to school that would be too frightening for our younger students and to avoid things that resemble guns or knives. These rules are in place so that our younger students are not frightened on this fun-filled day! Thank you for your cooperation with this!

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Johnson

This next week we will be wrapping up our unit on Biographies and Inventors.  We have already learned a lot about how some of the everyday things that we rely on “came to be”!  This week we will learn about some more examples and will take some time to do a bit of research on some very well-known inventors who have used their creativity and ingenuity to help make our lives much, much easier.

   During our Social Studies time we will continue our work with maps as we explore several different types of landforms found around our country as well as the world.  We will also be talking a bit about “Go, Slow, & Whoa” foods as we refresh our memory of why it is important to try to avoid those very tasty and tempting “Whoa” foods as much as possible.  This will take place as we continue to kick off our CATCH program which highlights the importance of doing our best to stay healthy. 

  During our Math time, we will continue our work with adding 2-digit numbers with regrouping.  We have already spent quite a bit of time practicing this in class and will get some more work in on this very important skill!  There is so much to cover this week in spite of our shortened time together!

 

Spelling   

loud    sound found   shout count mouth   ground house brown growl    crown town

 

Reminders/Announcements:  

*Parent/Teacher Conferences are Wednesday (Oct. 9th) and Thursday (Oct. 10thth) from 3:30-7:00.  I look forward to meeting with everyone!!!

*No school on Friday, October 11th and Monday, October 14th because of conferences and Columbus Day!

*Halloween Parade & Parties- October 31st @ 1:00 PM!

*If you are sending a note to school that needs to be turned into the office, please be sure to put a date at the top.  This helps us keep track of when notes were turned in and what is going on each day. Thank you for your help with this!

 

Have a great weekend!