Second Grade Scholars

This Week's "Second  Grade Scholars"

     Since our last newsletter the class had a great class trip to the Wagner Free Institute.  The students listened to a lesson on insects and answered all the questions that the museum teacher posed to them.  They also watched a short video on butterflies migrating to Mexico.  A beautiful sight!  Then we went on a scavenger hunt on the second floor.   What a treasure right in our neighborhood … and it is free!

     The students also had a great time attending our Scholastic Book Fair.  Many of the children bought books and began reading in class during our quiet reading time.  We extend our appreciation to Marlene Adams and Tobo Houessou-Adin for their hard work in making the Book Fair a success.

     In math this week, we will work on learning our 7 & 8 math addition facts, using less finger help and more mental math.

     It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Our classroom is filled with books about Thanksgiving and we look forward to reading them and learning more about the holiday
 

Last Week's "Second  Grade Scholars"

Greetings from our Second Grade Scholars. It has been two weeks since we introduced the skill of dictation to second grade. We dictate sentences to the students that have to do with our spelling words and words that we have discussed in class from our reading material. The students have to listen closely, as well as sound out words that they do not know how to spell. We have noticed a marked improvement in the few short weeks since we began this practice. The words that the students miss are then put on a ring of index cards to practice during our center time, or when students complete an activity early. In math we completed our fact family chapter. This week we will learn different ways to add numbers that have sums up to 18, and learn different ways to subtract from numbers all the way up to 18.

We were so fortunate to be able to walk to the library again last Friday. We got there a little early, so we ate our snack outside of the library, ran around a little, and were ready when the doors opened. The children’s librarian welcomed the students with a story. The students then were given a lesson on how to browse the shelves in order to select a book to take home. We also spent some time quietly reading in the library. We are so pleased to see the enthusiasm the children exhibit for reading.

This week promises to be a full week as we celebrate our mini-harvest time in class, and respectfully discuss how some people celebrate Halloween and how some people don’t. It really is interesting listening to the children talk about their various backgrounds.