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

Thanks for coming to Parent-Teacher Conferences!

Many students in our class applied for the Wee Deliver program this week and the candidates have been hired!  Wee Deliver is a school-wide writing/mail program that is ran by teachers and students.  Many students applied and interviewed for the second grade job positions and we talked about congratulating our classmates that were chosen for the prestigious jobs!

It has been a pleasure to meet with parents for conferences this week.  I thank you for your time and appreciate your perspective!  Many parents asked for ways to help their child at home.  Continuing to read and talk about books each day will greatly benefit your second grader.  Also, encouraging your child to write at home is helpful as well (a letter to a family member or friend, the shopping list, a story about a special day you had, etc.).  In math, practicing basic facts (a 1-digit number added to a 1-digit number) through games or online activities would be great.  You could play "Addition War" with playing cards where each player flips two cards and the higher sum wins.  Have your child count up the money in a coin jar or tell you the time.  Also- try these fun, interactive games online!

Funbrain Tic Tac Toe Addition Game

Funbrain Addition Baseball

IXL Math  (dozens of 2nd grade math games with some free access before needing a subscription)

Penny Cup Game 

The latest news from second grade!

Halloween and the Simonds costume parade brought much excitement last week!  Thanks to our parent volunteers who helped with costumes and snacks!  In this week's news, today is the second Math League Day!   Second graders will be encouraged to use perseverance to complete the math problems in this optional event!

We also learned about Veteran's Day yesterday through Scholastic News and will continue to study Pilgrims this week in Social Studies.  Today our class will use the Chromebook laptops to go on a virtual tour of the Mayflower ship!

  In math workshop, we are exploring odd and even numbers in relation to dividing numbers into two equal groups.  For example, 20 is an even number because it can be divided into two groups of 10.  This begins to lay a foundation for multiplication!  Yesterday each child chose a material to sort into piles of odd and even numbers (playing cards, cuisenaire rods, or dominoes).    

Mrs. Cermak will also come in this week to talk about kindness with our class.  This is a topic we discuss often as we learn together in second grade.  Students have many wonderful ideas of ways to be kind to others and we have been talking about ways to problem solve issues with classmates in an appropriate way.  Ask your child how they have been kind lately!  :)