Good Monday Evening! I am sorry that I am just getting to write this post now. The weekend got away from me. There is a bit to this post, so please take the time to read through all of it. You may have heard your child talking about writing a "Golden Story." Basically this is their final piece in our narrative writing unit. They are writing it on gold paper. I am using this term strictly to give the assignment importance and to get them excited about it. This story is their chance to show all of the concepts that each student has learned during this unit. This final piece will take two-three week to complete. I will share them at our parent conference.
Last week's math class had the students working on more fact fluency with dominoes, comparing equations and totals using the greater or less than symbols, and working on story problems. These story problems are designed (and adapted for each kid) to challenge kids to use the math skills they have learned by applying them into problem solving situations. We will continue this work this week too. Ms. Figdor reported that the 2nd graders have begun to explore measurement. They used unifix cubes as a benchmark for measuring the length and perimeter of rectangular shapes. They noticed that when measuring the length and perimeter of objects students were finding very different answers. This led us to develop a set of measurement guidelines so that they could be more accurate in our measurement. A few examples of the guidelines are: Make sure that your measurement tool is flat against the object you are measuring and always make sure you are starting at the end of the line. In addition to measurement the students have been working on telling time, expanded notation (326= 300 +20 +6), and skip counting by ten starting from a number other than ten (12, 22, 32, 42, 52….). We finished up our science unit (What is a Scientist? and Writing Like a Scientist) last week. We finished the unit with an experiment. The kids had 8 cups two of each of the following: hot water, vinegar, vegetable oil, and seltzer. Then a candy corn was placed in one of each of the liquids and a ghost Peep was placed in one of each of the liquids. The students continued to focus on the scientific process and recorded their results in their science notebooks. During the month of November, we will be focusing on a geography unit.
Last week all of the students had a chance to carve pumpkins that were then used on the Loop Rd. during Halloween. We used our project time in Wednesday afternoon to go outside and pick and carve our pumpkins. Most of the students seemed to really enjoy this. A couple found it a little "gross."
Parent Conferences: Later this week, you will have a chance to sign up for your child's conference time. There are slots on a Wednesday and a Thursday. Please sign up early to get a slot you want. These conferences will be done in person. I ask that the students do attend the conference.
Please understand that with twenty students and a very full schedule, I will only be offering slots during these two times. There are 20 slots for 20 kids. If one parent needs to join remotely and the other in person, we can make that work via Zoom. I appreciate your help in making this work.
Notes:
*All of the Scholastic books should have been delivered now. If you didn't receive something, please let me know.
*Mr. Cadwell (our class' student teacher will be conducting a STEM lesson this Wednesday. He will be recording this lesson for his class. He sent out an email today with the information and he will need to know, by tomorrow night, if you don't want your child to be in the video. If you are okay with it, nothing needs to be done. The video will only be used for his classwork. His email is cadwellp@gmail.com.
*We will not have school tomorrow.
*Tomorrow is the day to vote on the school bond. No matter where you stand on this, please get out and vote.
That is all for now.
Peace,
Mr. Young
