Happy Thanksgiving!

As November wraps up, we have been very busy in second grade!  This weekend, ask your child to tell you about:
*Our ornaments for the Town Hall Trees
*Their Wampanoag and Pilgrim book
*What their reading goal is
*Some "silver-dollar words" they used in their time of day poems
*An iPad app they enjoy using in our classroom

When we return to school next week, we will begin a measurement unit in math and in science we'll study sound!  We'll also continue to create paintings and poems for our "Time of Day" books in Artists/Writers Workshop.  In reading, we will focus on how to infer (inferring is how to understand things the author doesn't tell us!).  I look forward to an exciting and productive month of December with your child!

Wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving with your families!  Stay warm!

Guest Readers Wanted!

If you'd like to sign up to read a story to our class this year, please let me know!  I'd love to have parents, grandparents, or other family members come in to be guest readers.  This might work best on Parent Lunch Days when students return to the room from recess at 1:00.  We could also set up a time that works best for your schedule as well.  You could choose a story you think our class would enjoy, have your child pick a story, or I could suggest some ideas for books.  If you're interested in this, just send me an email at tmingarelli@kearsarge.org.  Thanks for considering!

What's new? Artists-Writers Workshop!

                      

Last week our class began Artists/Writers Workshop!  During this time children are creating paintings using crayons and watercolor paints.  Then we use the pictures to create poems with rich language and word choice.  This approach to writing integrates art and writing, with a focus on expanding children's word vocabularies.  We will also talk about editing our poems for punctuation, capitol starts, and clear handwriting. During the next few weeks, we will be creating paintings and poems for each of the different times of day and each child will have a published book at the end of the unit!  Today we listened to a story called Grandfather Twilight, talked about the different times of day, and discussed the sky's appearance at different times of day.  This approach comes from the University of New Hampshire.  Please visit UNH's Picturing Writing Website for more information.

In other news, we have been working on subtraction word problems in math.  In social studies, we are wrapping up our unit about Pilgrims and Wampanoag Native Americans by researching online and creating a book about their food, clothing, housing, games, school, and chores.  Have a great week!

Optional Home Activities for November!

You have the choice to do any or all of these activities. It covers a lot of subjects and will change each month. If the activity is underlined, click on it to go to that page. If you can print or bring in what you've been working on I would love to see it! Have fun!!
Reading
Go to the scholastic website to read letters from the Pilgrims
Pick some fall stories to read about. There are 5 stories to pick and choose from.
Read a book about Thanksgiving
Math
Practice addition at prongo
If you have a ruler, Measure 3 objects and write down their measurement. See if you can use inches and centimeters
Practice addition at kids math games online
Practice subtraction
Social Studies
Go to youtube to learn a little about the pilgrims.
We have done the k and w part of the KWL chart. Write down 5 or more things you have Learned about The Pilgrims, Native Americans and the First Thanksgiving
Visit the Scholastic Thanksgiving Website. Go to the Thanksgiving Feast slideshow.
Would you rather do the chores that a Pilgrim girl did or the chores that a Pilgrim boy did? Make a list of reasons for your choice. (You will need to wait until after we read in class those stories about pilgrim children)
Writing
Write a thank you letter to the people and businesses who gave out candy and other goodies for the parade.
Imagine you were the president. Write about things you would change or like to see happen.
Write a thank you letter to a veteran to thank them for the service protecting our country.
Write about what you are thankful for or about Thanksgiving
Write about what you think the journey on the Mayflower was like.
Technology
Go to coolmath-games.com and play some math games
If you could pick a Native American name what would you choose? Click girl or boy

Gym
Have a dance party! Put on some music and time how long you can dance for.
Do a chore in your home that you don’t normally do. Write what you did.
Health
Make a list of all the foods you ate for Thanksgiving dinner. Then sort the foods you ate into the right food group: meat, dairy, fruits/veggies, grains, fats/sweets
Art
Draw a picture of what you think the First Thanksgiving looked like.
Draw a picture about what it looks like outside. Observe the trees, the sky, the ground and so on
Draw a picture of what you are thankful for at Thanksgiving.

News from our Classroom

We began our week sharing about our weekends and learning a new morning meeting song called "Aroostasha."  Ask your child to share it with you!  In math, we are working on the relation between addition and subtraction.  For example, 14-10 is the same as 10+ __=14.  In writing workshop we published our stories by recording them into the iPads.  Our next writing unit will be a poetry that incorporates children's watercolor paintings.  More to come about this in our blog!

In social studies, we learned about what it was like to be a Pilgrim boy and Pilgrim girl.  Ask your second grader to share about Pilgrim children's daily chores and the clothes they wore!  This week we'll learn about the life of Wampanoag Native Americans.

If you're looking for some good read-alouds or chapter books for your child, these are some series that are quite popular in our class right now:

   

The Littles Series                            Magic Tree House Series

Amelia Bedelia Series

     

 Horrible Harry Series                    Junie B. Jones Series