Friendship Week

Thank you so much for sending in all the apples!  The applesauce was a huge success!  As an extra bonus, our classroom smelled so good Friday!

This week we will be talking about friendship in my class.  In reading, we will be reading stories about Frog and Toad.  Frog and Toad are best friends who help each other out.  We will have a test on Friday on the story, The Surprise.  Students will bring their reading book home Wednesday and Thursday to practice reading this story.  We will also continue to compare fiction and nonfiction stories.  This week we will compare/contrast the Frog and Toad stories with nonfiction books about frogs and toads.

In English, we will write a paragraph about our best friend.  The paragraphs will be graded as an English test grade.  I will be looking for basic paragraph format:

• Indention
• Complete Sentences
• Topic Sentence
• 3-4 details
• Conclusion Sentences
• Few or no grammar and spelling mistakes (We will edit in class)

In spelling, we will continue to practice the spelling pattern of consonant, long i, consonant, silent e.  We will have a spelling pretest on Thursday.  If the students make a 100% on their pretest, they do not have to take the spelling test on Friday.  They also will not be responsible for spelling homework on Thursday night.

The Rachel's Challenge Assembly is Tuesday, September 30 at 8:30.  This is a wonderful program to teach the children about friendship and creating a bully-free school.  I highly encourage everyone to attend the assembly if you are able to come.

September 22, 2014

We have a busy and exciting week ahead of us!  This week in reading we will read fiction and nonfiction books about Johnny Appleseed and the life cycle of apples.  We will learn how to complete fiction and nonfiction book responses.  Learning how to complete book responses is important because we will soon begin taking notes about the books we are reading.  There will be no reading test this week.  Instead we will have a test on Vocabulary Workshop Unit 2 on Friday.  This will count as a reading test grade.

Our spelling list will consist of 15 words that follow the "long a, consonant, silent e" pattern.  We will also begin having 5 words that will come from the "No Excuses" spelling list.  This is a list of words leveled kindergarten - second grade that children are expected to always be able to spell correctly.  We will begin this list using the kindergarten leveled words as a review.  The words will progressively get harder as the year goes on.  I will include a list of the No Excuses words in our spelling binder.

Our English Chapter 3 test will be on Wednesday.  On Tuesday the students will complete a "Chapter Check-up" in class.  The first page of our test will look VERY similar to the check-up.  Be sure to look over the check-up when you are helping your child study Tuesday night.  I will also include a chapter review for homework Tuesday night to help them prepare for the test.

Thursday, we will taste different kinds of apples.  We will write a descriptive paragraph using our senses to describe how an apple looks, smells, feels and tastes.  We will learn about the parts of a correctly written paragraph:  Topic Sentence, 3 or more details, and a Conclusion Sentence.

On Friday, we will use the extra apples to make applesauce in class.  We will sample homemade applesauce and store bought applesauce.  We will make a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two.

Here are just a few reminders:

• Tuesday - Johnny's Pizza Night - Come eat at Johnny's Pizza on McKeen Place from 5:00-8:00 and be served by River Oaks teachers and staff!  A percentage of the profits made during those hours will go back to our school.  I will be working the 5:00-6:00 shift!  I hope to see everyone there!  You may also call your order in and pick it up to take it home to enjoy!  
• Wednesday - Picture retakes
• Thursday - Send 2 apples to school!
• Friday - Applesauce Day
• Tuesday 9/30 - We will have a Rachel's Challenge Assembly in the morning.  I will send a note about the exact time later this week.  

September 15, 2014

Reading:  This week in reading we will be discussing the difference between fiction and nonfiction.  We will make this chart in our reading notebooks:

Fiction

• Not real
• Story talk
• Read to enjoy
• Read books in order
• Has illustrations
• Has a beginning, middle and end
• Has a problem and solution
• Has characters and a setting

Nonfiction

• Real
• Fact talk
• Read to learn
• Can usually read it in any order
• Has photos, charts and graphs
• Has a Table of Contents and an index
• Uses true information or gives directions on how to do something
• Uses real people and real places

We will learn how to sort books into fiction or nonfiction.  We will also go to the library and learn how to check out fiction and nonfiction books.  Students will be asked to check out one fiction and one nonfiction book from the school library.  Please make sure they return their previously checked out books so they can check out new ones!   (Mrs. Morris' homeroom will go to the library on Tuesday.  Mrs. Funderburg's homeroom will go on Wednesday.)  Our test on Thursday will have both a fiction passage and a nonfiction passage that students will have to read and answer questions.  They will also have to answer multiple choice questions about our fiction/nonfiction chart.   

Henry and Mudge Week!

Reading

This is one of my favorite weeks in reading!!  It is Henry and Mudge week!!  All this week, we will be learning about the author Cynthia Rylant and one of her book characters, Henry, and his goofy dog, Mudge.  We will read books written by Ms. Rylant during Read To Self time.  We will also learn about characters, setting and sequencing the story.  We will complete activities, in class, that will be counted as a reading test grade.  If you have any Henry and Mudge books at home, you may send them to put in your child's reading bag.  The public library has MANY Henry and Mudge books also. (That's where I get the ones we read in class!)  Be sure to ask your child what predicament Mudge found himself in each day!

Spelling
This week in spelling, I will try something new.  I will begin having 3 different spelling lists.  One child may have 12 words, one may have 15 and another may have 20.  Most of the words will be the same on the 3 different lists; some will just have more than others. The grades on the previous week's list will determine which list your child will receive.  Hopefully, this will help all children ease into the transition of second grade spelling.