Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want you to know how much I enjoyed visiting with all of you at conferences. I am enjoying sharing your children with you this year!
Here are a few curriculum notes before we leave for break:

Social Studies- Last week we began a new unit about our past. We started looking in depth at the first Thanksgiving and the pilgrim’s journey. We spent sometime studying totem poles and even created our own in class! We also extended on our understanding of picture/symbol writings and took some time to write our own symbol stories in class. This week each second grader was paired up to research two different Native American tribes and created a venn diagram comparing how they are alike and different.

Writing- Our writing last week followed the theme of… turkeys! Monday each child took a basic everyday work and used a thesaurus to come up with more interesting words. Each of the “interesting” words was displayed on the feathers of a turkey… our thesaurus turkeys! We have spent a lot of time thinking about the things we are thankful for and even wrote a journal from a pilgrim’s point of view. This week we took some time to write funny made up stories about silly turkeys.

Math- In math we have been working on estimating, odd vs. even, and two digit addition. This week I introduced the paper pencil strategy of carrying. This is one of the new strategies they can use when solving problems on homework.

I hope you have a restful and safe Thanksgiving break with your family. Enjoy!

Conference Week!

I can not wait to meet with you at conferences this week! If something has changed in your schedule please let me know as soon as possible. As always with conference, it is important to arrive on time, as many conferences are scheduled back to back. I am looking forward to sharing all of your student’s great work with you!
Last week we wrapped up our study of the human body and have spent this short week studying the food guide pyramid. We constructed a class pyramid and have created our own healthy menus!
Last week we also wrapped up our study of time telling and will be spending the next few weeks focusing on place value and representing numbers in different ways. We will also be learning about two digit addition strategies.
In writing this week we spent some time writing about things we are thankful for and have wrapped up our “How to Draw a Monster” how- to activity.
I hope you have a restful long weekend and I look forward to seeing many of you soon!