update, 10/18

Hello Parents of Second Grade Superstars,

We hope you can join the class in a presentation of “The Ugly Pumpkin” following our annual Del Mar Heights Halloween Parade on Friday the 30th. The performance should run from about 840-9 and we will follow up with a bit of socializing and some pumpkin treats. If you’d care to bring a pumpkin snack please sign up through our class website. 

During our Daily Five Reading Jobs time, our young readers extend at their various paces and according to their needs through literature and non-fiction. As part of this time, students are frequently required to use a reading log to respond to “close reading” questioning in order to activate and practice higher-level comprehension work. The questioning is derived from high-quality literature chosen for specific purposes. Currently, Chris Val Allsburg’s fantastic works are our base for learning. His works tend to leave room for inferential thinking and invite the reader to wrestle with issues of character perspective and authorial choices. This can all be a bit overwhelming to a young reader. Sensibly and necessarily, the highest level questioning is supported by series of questions that move from the rote and easily discoverable to the more abstract text-dependent questions. We work in whole group settings, small group settings, and individually towards that end. A sampling of questions from the last couple of weeks includes, “How was the Sherrif’s perspective different than that of the child who was coloring in the coloring book?”, “What did Maggie learn in the story and how do you know that she learned it?”, and “Who was the boy in The Wreck of the Zephyr? How do you know?” The students are showing great progress with justifying their reasoning and refining their thinking. 

As always, thank you for sending well-prepared students to school each day!

This Week’s Highlights

October 19-23

Phonics and word study focus

Long vowels- oa, ow, Nouns and verbs working together

Reading focus

Comprehension focus: Author Study, Chris Van Allsburg,

Close reading: connections and readers’ questions

Book club individualized strategy lessons: Lessons created for specific skill outcomes based on individual and group needs

Focus books: Van Allsburg, Halloween, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Writing focus

Conventions- Spacing, Feeling ending of sentences, Periods and Capitals,

Writing skill- Showing/Telling, Narrative structure and the writing process

Topical writing- expository, Government

Math focus

Full Math workshop (mystery number, number decomposition, word problem, independent practice, personal challenge and three math routines)

Math journal problem solving through visual models

Individualized challenges

Computation- Doubles arrays

Social Studies focus

Government

Science focus

Bridges and Engineering inMrs. Minarik’s Science Lab

Homework

Daily reading and homework packet