Dear Families,
Happy Valentine’s Day! This class is in love with school and has been working very hard. This month we will be working narrative writing and using details to answer questions from our reading. In math we will we be working on 3 digit addition and subtraction as well as graphing.
Please remember to read with your child each night, when they see you are interested in reading they naturally become more interested themselves.
February is black history month and we will be learning how to research and create projects while focusing on the contributions of these great American’s. Presidents day will find us learning all we can and understanding the greatest thing about being an American is that we all have the ability to be President if we choose to do so.
Our zoo trip is right around the corner, if anyone would like to sponsor a student by paying for part or all of the trip please let me know.
Thank you,
Mrs. DeRienzis
Literacy: Throughout this month we have been and will continue to focus on identifying the important events happening at the beginning, middle, and end of our stories. Students have worked hard to complete story maps that detail important information about each story that we have read including the characters, setting, problem, and solution. In addition, we have learned to make connections to the text we are reading. After reading a text, students should be able to make a text-to-text (connecting one text to another), text-to-self (connecting the text to something that reminds the student of his/her own life), or text-to-world connection (connecting the text to something that has occurred in world around the student in the past or present). This month we will study Johnny Appleseed and tall tales. We will also begin our first novel study. We will be reading Long Way to a New Land. We will work to better understand how characters change as a result of the challenges they face. Just in time for Halloween, we will wrap up the month with a unit about bats. We will read fiction and non-fiction texts about bats. Students will collect facts and research about these mysterious night creatures!
Math: Throughout October we will finish our study of place value. We will begin to learn how to approach and solve word problems using a method called, “chunking.” Students will learn to identify key math words in word problems and use those to determine how to solve the problem. Students are asked to solve all word problems in a variety of ways. They have learned to draw a picture or model of the information in the problem, write an equation, and develop a complete sentence answer to the problem. Students will learn how to provide a written response to prove why the answer is correct.
Science: We will learn how organisms differ from and are similar to their parents based on characteristics of the organism. We will look closely at the life cycle of an apple tree. Students will identify ways that the apple tree closely resembles the “parent” tree in appearance and how they are different.
Social Studies: We have learned about government services within our community and the value these services such as schools, libraries, and parks add to our community. Students have been learning about citizens in our community that exemplify characteristics of good citizenship and how they can do the same. Second graders will have several opportunities throughout this school year to participate in service learning projects to teach them that they can make a difference in the community as well. As we finish up this unit, we have our first service learning project. We have been given the unique opportunity to honor the Hickory Police Department and some of our Hickory firefighters. We will celebrate these unsung heroes with a small celebration. Members of the Hickory Police Department will be visiting us on Thursday, October 13th. We will have the chance to speak with the officers and offer our thanks for their service. In addition, we will celebrate our community’s firefighters on Monday, October 17th. We are beyond excited to show our appreciation to these exemplary citizens of our community.
Field Trip Information will be coming home soon!
October is going to be a busy and exciting month for us! Here are some important dates to remember:
- October 9th-13th – Book Fair week
- October 12th – Progress reports go home
- October 30th – No school – Teacher workday!
Fall Fun at Home
What better way to celebrate the fall season than with a good book and delicious treats. Enjoy a fall book while you wait on these wonderful leaf cookies to bake!
Suggested book Titles:
- Poppelton in Fall by Cynthia Rylant, The Fall Festival by Mercer Mayer, Clifford’s First Autumn by Norman Bridwell, and Apples by Gail Gibbons
Fall Leaf Cookies
What you need:
- leaf shapes (cut from construction paper, copied from a book, or traced from real leaves you pick up on a nature walk)
- refrigerated cookie dough
- cookie sheets
- 3 egg yolks (separated from whites)
- food coloring
- 3/4 cup water
- new paintbrushes
- Roll out the refrigerated dough.
- Use the leaf shapes as patterns to cut leaves out of dough. Supervise children carefully if they are using plastic knives. (Tongue depressors can be used instead.)
- Mix egg yolks and food coloring and pour the mixture into small paper cups, bowls, or mini-muffin tins. Add a few drops of food coloring in leafy hues (green, yellow, orange, red, brown) to each.
- Use the paintbrushes to paint the leaf-shaped cookies.
- Bake cookies according to package directions and eat!
Thank you all very much for your help and support in making this a successful start to the school year for your child!
Ms. DeRienzis