Weekly Update!

Greetings from 2-2! It might have been a short week, but it was certainly full! Please note in the "Upcoming Events" that the children will be taking their Reading and Math MAP tests (...we discussed those on curriculum night...) next week. A good night's sleep and a healthy breakfast (especially for Monday and Thursday!) would get us moving in the right direction as the children take these tests for the first time! LMC will be cancelled next week due to testing.

Reading: The children continue to practice their "Daily 5" reading stations. The first station the children were introduced to last week was Read to Self.  We are building our independent reading stamina in this station each day. The children achieved 20 minutes of uninterrupted reading time this week! I am excited to see that they have built up their endurace in this area very quickly. I know they will do a great job once our reading groups start next week, as it will be important for them to stay focused and demonstrate self sufficiency for given periods of time! The children also practiced our Word Work station. They practiced working cooperatively with a buddy to write their spelling words, check them, alphabetize them, and sort them. (They also learned about the "Tower of Terror!" for misspelled words. Have them show you!) Now that we have two stations down, there are three to go! This practice is crucial to the success of our reading groups this year, and the children are doing a great job so far.

Spelling: Looking through the children's spelling tests just now, I was very pleased with the results! Lots of 100%s! Their handwriting was so neat, too! Thank you for helping your child with their spelling homework throughout the week. Their hard work is apparent. We will take a spelling pre-test of new words, following a new pattern, on Monday. 

Writing:  We continue to plug away at our autobiographies, adding labels to our pictures, details to our drawings, and additions to our writing. The children work hard during our writing time, and they are so proud of their own accomplishments each day!

Handwriting: We noticed something this week. The children's handwriting is BEAUTIFUL during our handwriting lessons. It is formed properly, sitting on the lines, nicely spaced, the works! The children sit tall in their chairs, their papers are slanted, their guide hands are holding their papers still. Once our handwriting lessons are over, however, the children are sitting on their shoes, the guide hand has disappeared, and the letters are no longer on the line and the formation is backwards and bottoms up! I no longer recognize my class! Something goes seriously wrong! We are working hard to apply the good handwriting techniques that we know all throughout the day! Especially when handwriting is over! Please help me keep an eye on this at home! :)

Math: The children reviewed grouping by tens, and then played the Money Exchange Game! They rolled dice in order to exchange $1.00, for $10.00, and $10 for $100.00 bills on a place value chart. We familiarized ourselves with our hardcover Math Reference Books. We realized that this book is like a dictionary or encyclopedia full of math terms! The children completed their first "Math Boxes" in their Math Journals. We noticed that some math boxes have MRB and then a page number at the bottom of them. We flipped to those pages in our reference books and found it was a CLUE to find the answer!  Finally, we did some work with the hundreds chart. We practiced counting up and down by ten, and back and forth by one... we noticed even and odd numbers.. the children did a great job recognizing the many patterns that can be found on the hundreds chart. Another great reference to use when completing our math lessons!

Social Studies:  In Social Studies this week the children continued to learn about the various landforms. We identified the oceans that border the United States to the east and west (ask them to tell you about my dear great grand-PA) and they also learned about the Great Lakes. They have learned the secret mnemonic device of HOMES to remember them... quiz your child to see if it worked already! We watched a video from Discovery Education online to give us real photos and images to attach to what we've been learning about! We will be applying our learning as the children create a landform "mural" next week.

Homework: The children have jumped right into our homework routine. Every night they are to complete one section of their reading log, practice their spelling words, and their math homework will begin soon. A few children have stayed in with me during recess to make some improvements on their work quality or increase their effort, but overall I have been so pleased with the work I've been seeing! Again, thank you for taking the time to check your child's work and support them with their homework. It doesn't go unnoticed!

That's it in a nutshell! Enjoy the weekend!
See you next week!