Dear Families,
Welcome to second grade 2017 -2018. Our first two months of second grade have been very busy. We have been building class community, and establishing classroom routines. We begin most mornings with a morning meeting to give students opportunity to make connections with their peers.
Below is what we are we are doing in academic areas:
Reading: Now that your children are second graders, they have learned to read alone, they know routines for reading with partners and they know how to choose their just right books. They know that reading involves using strategies at points of difficulty and above all reading means making sense of the text.
Writing: In this first unit of study, Narratives/Authors as Mentors, children will write small moments from their lives. The goal of this unit is that your writers will write narratives that read like real literature.
Math: We are grouping our students for math according to ability. Students are working at their ability. Mr. Bickford, Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Spivey are the other two teachers working with me.
The second grade teacher team is working on writing grants and finding businesses willing to donate money for our ski trip. For the last couple years second graders have had the opportunity to go skiing at Mt. Abram. This has been such a wonderful trip for students. This year we have a large second grade class and need to earn more money. We started our fund raising with a school wide penny drive. Thank you for all you donated. We do not have a final count yet, but we did well. We would welcome any ideas for fund raisers.
I am looking forward to seeing you all at teacher conferences.
Choosing A Good "I Pick Book"
A questioned often asked by parents is, "How do I help my child pick books that are at their levels?"
We have been working on how to choose a good fit book in the classroom. You may hear your child talking about an "I PICK" book. I Pick stands for the following.
I choose the book
Purpose - Why do I want to read it?
Interest - Does it interest me?
Comprehend - Am I understanding what I am reading?
Know - I know most of the words.
We also talk about the 3 finger rule. The child begins to read the text, for every word he/she does not know a finger goes up, if the child has 3 or more fingers on a page the text is too difficult. The number of fingers may go up to 5 on books with lots of print.
We have been working on how to choose a good fit book in the classroom. You may hear your child talking about an "I PICK" book. I Pick stands for the following.
I choose the book
Purpose - Why do I want to read it?
Interest - Does it interest me?
Comprehend - Am I understanding what I am reading?
Know - I know most of the words.
We also talk about the 3 finger rule. The child begins to read the text, for every word he/she does not know a finger goes up, if the child has 3 or more fingers on a page the text is too difficult. The number of fingers may go up to 5 on books with lots of print.
Homework
In second grade, students should be reading approximately 20 minutes daily. Students have a reading record sheet sent home on Mondays. Please fill out the record sheet and sign daily. Students should be keeping the sheet in their homework folders. Students may also have a math sheet some nights. This should be a review of previous assignments. If at any time your child is struggling on the math sheet, please write me a brief message and send back to school.
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