2H Class Blog!: Nov. 8th News

A big thank you to all those who made it out to parent conferences. The home-school connection is such a vital piece of a child’s education. I am committed to keeping you involved as we work together for the remainder of the school year. We're set up for a wonderful rest of our year together!

Highlights from our week:

*Field Trip: Just a reminder that this Monday, SMS Second Graders will be heading to Strawbery Banke! Students should dress for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes as we will be walking in and out of exhibits. A big thank you to Lily's mom and Graham's dad who will be chaperoning our trip! Just a reminder that students are encouraged to bring a packed lunch on the day of our trip. I also recommend eating a big breakfast as we will be eating lunch much later than usual. It's bound to be a great day! Let me know if you have any questions!!

*Writing: Throughout the week, we have been having a BLAST celebrating our animal poetry books! After sharing our books within our classroom, students then chose the audience they wanted to share their book with. Each Owl wrote a letter (reviewing friendly letter writing skills!) to a teacher at SMS and then was given the opportunity to read their wonderful book! Everyone from Mr. Fosher, 5th Grade Buddies, Kindergarten and first grade teachers, and teachers of their siblings were chosen as audiences. Ask your child who they chose to share their special book with.

*Reading: The owls have been having more fun than ever during their reader's workshop. As we're in our last stages of our nonfiction reading unit, they have grown enormously with their ability to sustain reading, pull out important information, talk about their learning, and, most recently, compare information across texts. This is a lot of work for second graders---thank goodness it's engaging and fun!! Early this week, they each Owl received a "topic baggie". In it, there were 2-4 sources about a topic of their choice. They had so much fun digging in and learning even more as they read each text! It was some of the best reading work I've seen all year! Check them out!

All of this hard work, is gearing them up for our nonfiction reading celebration in which they will use their new learning to teach others what they know! We'll be working on that during this upcoming week. Be sure to ask your child about their topic and some of things they have learned.

*Math: We are working hard here in 2H applying all of our place value knowledge to whole number operations. This work has a heavy focus on multi-digit addition. Before students are exposed to the traditional algorithm for addition, they are taught several other strategies. Some of the strategies your student might be using are:

Base-10 Blocks: Students can physically build each number and then count all of their blocks to arrive at a total. Students have been taught how to use "base-10 shorthand" to draw our their numbers instead of physically building them. They can then count their drawing when adding to find their sum.

Open Number Line: Students draw a blank number line with a starting point representing one of their numbers. They then hop up the number line by tens (either in individual jumps of 10, or in one hop of their total 10s), land, and then continue hopping by their ones to arrive at a total sum.

Partial Sums: Students decompose the numbers first (writing them in expanded form), and then add the different "parts" before finding the total sum.

Students are encouraged to use the method that works best for them. Ask them which method they prefer. It is important students are successful using at least one of these methods before they are introduced to the "traditional algorithm" for adding. By understanding what is happening when they're adding larger numbers, students are able to explain their mathematical thinking as opposed to just memorizing a process. It's truly remarkable work! Students can practice this skill at home using IXL skill G.6 (they'll need scrap paper or a whiteboard to complete the problems!).

*Book Orders: November Scholastic Book Orders were sent home last week and are due Monday, Nov. 13th. If you’re interested in buying any books as holiday gifts, you can order online and send me an email letting me know to keep the books until we can work out a time for you to pick them up—just let me know! You can also send a paper order and check in an envelope if you prefer ordering that way. I will send home one more book order before the holiday (Scholastic is pretty good about getting books delivered quickly!).

*Community Project: On Monday, you received a notice asking for a black & white photo of a place in Stratham. Our owls enjoyed studying Mo Willems' book Knuffle Bunny and seeing how he incorporated photos of his hometown. They are anxious to begin crafting our own story using photos from our community. Please have photos emailed by Monday so we can begin this work. Stuck? Take a look a Ms. Riley's blog post for inspiration! We thank her for sharing this great project idea with us!