2H Class Blog!: Oct. 16th News

For a short week---it sure was a BUSY one!

Highlights from our week:
*Columbus Day: On Tuesday, we learned a little bit about Christopher Columbus and put our engineering skills to the test! Each child, working alone or in pairs, set off to build the strongest boat possible out of just one sheet of aluminum foil. After the trial and error of building was complete, we had a "sail-off" to test just how many pennies each boat could hold. Five boats made it past 30 pennies, and one even held a whopping 132 pennies! As your child what their boat design looked like and how many pennies they were able to hold. This was just the first of MANY engineering challenges we will face this year!

*Word Study: We continue to move forward with our spelling word sorts. These second graders have been doing a fantastic job following the many routines and procedures of our word study program. Thank you in advance for your efforts at home! Word sorts will be sent home tomorrow. Accompanying your child's words will be a list of activities as well as log-in information for the online resource: Spelling City. Please have your child practice their word sort in the way that works best for them. In addition to the activities associated with our word sorts, our word study time is also spent on grammar concepts. While studying the parts of speech, students had a great time creating jack-o-lanterns representing different adjectives!! Take a look at their clever creations!

Math: During our math workshop, we continue to learn and practice our math facts. ANY help you can give with encouraging your child to practice their addition facts (working towards automaticity) would be greatly helpful as we move forward through our year. We've been talking about a TON of strategies that can help us learn our facts, such as:

-Doubles (4+4 = 8)

-Doubles +1, and Doubles -1 (4+4=8, so 4+3=7 and 4+5=9)

-Combinations of 10 (4+6=10)

-Making 10 First (4+6=10, so 4+8=12...make your 10 first, how many left over? add that to your ten)

-Turn Around Facts (6+3=9 so 3+6=9)

To help with fact fluency, encourage your child to try some of these activities at home:

-Math Playground (scroll down to the addition and subtraction section)

-Name that Number (a class favorite!) A game that can be played individually or with partners, students draw one card to be their "target" number and flip five additional cards over. Using any combination of operations, students are challenged to make a number model that equals their target number. An app version of the game is available in the iTunes App Store.

*The student could use 8+7+1=16 or 10+7-1=16

-Fact Dash

-IXL (Any E or F skills have a math fact focus; E.12 would be great addition practice for number stories (word problems) which were also practiced this week!)

*Writing: After reading numerous Kevin Henkes stories this week, 2H began crafting their own Kevin Henkes inspired stories. We noticed that most of his stories have mice characters (with human-like qualities!), they take place at school or at home, and they have everyday problems that all kids can relate to. Students began creating their main characters, decided upon a problem and solution, and began drafting their stories! It'll be fun watching these stories take shape next week.