Week of October 13th- October 17th

 Hello Families-

Thank you, thank you for all of your support these past few weeks with our spirit Fridays, Ride/Walk your bike to School Day, last nights bingo night and now our all school food drive.  Your support is truly amazing and appreciated!  We are down to only five more days until Fall Break.  

Did I mention they will be jam packed days full of fun but also hard work as we wrap up our data collection. Soon your teacher will be sending out a sign up for Fall Parent Conferences.  These are not held until the second week after Fall break. 

By now you should have heard from your classroom teacher about when your child's fall party will be along with any needs to support these fun events.  We all look forward to seeing you then. 

Friday, October 17th is also a PTCO Friday Fun Day, bring in $1 and wear a fun mustache that gives some of our specials teachers a run for their money! 

This week we will focus on ....

Math: In second grade math, we will be continuing unit 3. This week's lessons will discuss making change by counting up, coin exchanges, and frames and arrows with multiple rules.  Typically your child will have homework Monday through Thursday.  We will be working on higher level thinking activities on Fridays, and will not assign homework over the weekend.  For 3rd grade math students, they are continuing their work in unit 3 focusing on perimeter, area, diameter, circumference and number models that help with these concepts. *Please continue to time your child 2 minutes and 15 seconds with their math facts. 

FAST (phonics):  We are working on concept 9 (Silent Magnetic -e) this week. We will discuss how an -e at the end of the word can change a vowel to make it say its long sound but you never hear a sound from the -e.  For example, the word "kit" turns to "kite" by adding the silent -e.  If your child ever forgets their spelling spiral, please check out the spelling tab on the blog.  We will be studying list 8 of our spelling words. 
 
Reading: 
In Class: We will be working on making meaningful connections to texts.  Our goal is to help the students understand that their own personal experiences are important to understanding what they read and learn.  Keep working on how their connections help them understand the text better.  (This could be because they understand how the characters are feeling.)     

For Homework: Your child will be asked to build "T-charts" that demonstrate what their connection is and how the connection helps them better understand their personal text.

Wordly Wise: We will introduce and begin to work from Lesson 5 this week.  The words we are focusing on this week are: absorb, anchor, brush, bud, center, core, factory, hive, sapling, trunk.  Check out the wordlywise3000 website for addition support.
  
Writing: We are continuing to work on Personal Chronological Narrative.  This week your child's classroom teacher will choose to do a new prompt or mini lessons focused on their individual class' needs.  We are writing into our focused modeled writing notebooks. There is an opening sentence, three sentences for details, three sentences for extended details and a closing sentence.  We are modeling so many wonderful writing strategies within our lessons based on our rubrics and the student's needs. 

Social Studies: We will be continuing Unit 8 "How Can I be a Good Shopper?" This addresses the financial literacy standard for second grade. As classes we will discuss needs vs. wants.  

FOSS:  FOSS science is in full swing.  Your child will get to experience FOSS in their classrooms on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:45pm-3:25pm.

Upcoming dates to know:
10/16 Cherokee Trail Spirit Bus
10/16 Pack Assembly
10/17 PTCO Friday Fun Day, bring in $1 mustache day
10/20-11/2 Fall Break