Mrs. Brown's 2nd Grade Class

WINTER BREAK

2010-01-03T16:29:00.001-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful winter break and is ready to return to school. We have a very busy Month and I look forward to seeing everyone and getting started on Monday, January 4th.

I want to thank everyone for the wonderful Christmas presents as well as the cute basket full of goodies that the class gave me. Hopefully, everyone is well rested and ready to begin this new year!

CURRICULUM FOCUS

2010-01-03T16:12:00.000-08:00

Math: Putting Together and Taking Apart Unit

This week we will be starting a new unit in Math. We will be working on developing an understanding of base-ten numeration systems and place value concepts.

Reading

This week we are continuing Theme 3 Around Town: Neighborhood and Community. Our story this week is Big Bushy Mustache. Our comprehension skill this week is problem solving and our comprehension strategy is predict/infer.

Phonics:

We will be working on· vowel pairs ow, ou and ways to decode these words in our reading such as: growling, loudest, shower, and thousand. We will also be working on suffixes -ly and -ful as in the words loudly, painful, lonely, graceful and quickly.

Grammar: Common Nouns

This week we will be working on one and more than one and when to just add -s or -es.

Spelling

The words are as follows: Please remember there will be 2 sentences dictated in class on Friday.

family, children, school, behind, story, town, house, sour, frown, clown, found, mouse, could, should, around

Sight Words

New words: family, children, school, behind, story

Review words: family, children, school, behind, story, eyes, soldier, kind, floor, very, straight

Writing: Functional

We will continue working on functional writing. Functional writing is a "how to" paper giving someone step by step directions on how to do something. We will be focusing on how to make a snowman this week and writing out the steps.

Science: Human Body

This week we will begin looking at the human body and how it works. We will be looking at our muscles and why they are important as well as other parts of our bodies.

CURRICULUM FOCUS

2009-11-15T16:43:00.000-08:00

Math: Shapes, Halves, and Symmetry Unit

We will continue to explore different shapes and find ways we can use repeated addition while exploring these shapes. We will begin to have timed addition tests this week, so please practice working on basic addition facts at home.

Reading

This week we will focus on different fables. A fable is a short story that teaches a moral, or lesson. The characters in fables are often animals that act and talk like humans.

Phonics: Review

· Long vowels: when a vowel is long it says it name.

· Short vowels: when a vowel is short it makes the vowel’s sound.

· Two sounds for g: hard g (/g/ in gem) and soft g (/j/j in germ).

· Two sounds for c: hard c (/k/ as in camping) and soft c (/s/ as in city).

· Double consonants: understanding that a double consonant stands for a single sound

Grammar: Revising Stringy Sentences

This week we will review the structure of a sentence. Sentences begin with capital letters and end with a punctuation mark. We will be discussing ways to separate sentences with punctuation marks versus just using the word and and having one long continuous sentence.

Spelling

The words are as follows: Please remember there will be 2 sentences dictated in class on Friday.

animal, were, people, said, before, neck, lake, sick, ask, lick, pack, woke, kick, lock, poke

Writing: Narrative

We will be taking one of our favorite pieces of writing through the writing process to get a final piece for our Writing Portfolios.

Science: Properties of Matter

We will continue discussing the properties of matter.

CURRICULUM FOCUS

2009-11-11T15:31:00.000-08:00

This week we will be working on the following skills:

Math

This week we will begin our investigation into shapes. During this unit we will look at identifying shapes by various attributes. We will also compose and decompose two and three-dimensional shapes as well as describe spatial and numerical relationships found among shapes.

Reading: Owl Moon & Owls

This week we will review the comprehension skills that we have learned during Theme 2. The comprehension skills that we will be reviewing are as follows: compare & contrast, fact & opinion, and categorize & classify.

Phonics: Review

· Long vowels: when a vowel is long it says it name.

· Short vowels: when a vowel is short it makes the vowel’s sound.

· Two sounds for g: hard g (/g/ in gem) and soft g (/j/j in germ).

· Two sounds for c: hard c (/k/ as in camping) and soft c (/s/ as in city).

· Double consonants: understanding that a double consonant stands for a single sound

Grammar: Sentences

This week we will review the four sentence types: statement, question, command, and exclamation. A statement tells something about someone or something and ends with a period. A question asks about someone or something and ends with a question mark. Commands are sentences that tell someone what to do and end in a period. An exclamation is a sentence that shows strong feeling or emotion (such as surprise or fear) and ends with an exclamation mark.

Spelling

where, because, always, many, great, ready, around, laugh, sure, across, later, little, they, when, what

Writing: Narrative

We will continue looking at narrative writing until Thanksgiving. We are finishing up a piece started last week and the students are signing up for writing conferences to share their writing with me.

Science: Properties of Matter

In science we will begin exploring the properties of matter. This week we will explore how objects can be described based on their physical attributes.

CURRICULUM FOCUS

2009-11-01T15:28:00.000-08:00

Reading: We will be reading the story Around the Pond: Who's Been There? We are still focusing on Nature and will continue to do so for the next few weeks. Our Comprehension Skill is Categorize and Classify and our Comprehension Strategy is Monitor and Clarify.

Phonics: Our phonics skill is working on words with double consonants like pull, puff, and dress.

Grammar: Our grammar skill is working on exclamations. We will continue to focus on sentence structure and punctuation.

Spelling: across, great, water, because, around, bell, off, all, mess, add, hill, well, egg, will, grass

Sight Words: around, caught, because, water, across, brother, great, stand, been, found, front

Writing: We are still working on Narrative Writing and this will be our focus until Thanksgiving.

Math: We are beginning a new unit in Math where we will sort, describe, and identify shapes by various attributes. Compose and decompose two- and three dimensional shapes. Describe spatial and numerical relationships found among shapes.

Science: We will be learning about Properties of Matter.

2009-11-01T14:14:00.001-08:00

As many of you have heard our globe project was not a success. We had started to create globes using paper mache this project turned out to be very time consuming as well as extremely messy. The students were getting very frustrated with the process and the newspaper was not sticking. I decided to scratch the project, so we could move on and do some fun Halloween projects this past Friday. Hopefully, nobody was too upset by the mishap, but it turned out to be a very frustrating project for all of us.

CURRICULUM FOCUS

2009-10-27T15:15:00.000-07:00

Reading: Our story this week is "Exploring Parks with Ranger Dockett". This is a non-fiction text and provides the students with information about being a Park Ranger. The comprehension strategy is fact and opinion.

Phonics: In phonics we are working on the two sounds c makes. There is the hard c sound like in cat and car. The soft c sound is in words like nice and slice.

Sight Words: put, through, walk, later, busy, little, important, touch, young, where, many

Spelling: many, later, little, walk, where, trip, swim, club, stone, next, brave, glad, lost, storm, space

Math: We are finishing up working on story problems. We are focusing on subtraction story problems this week. The students are using the strategies learned in class to help them solve some of the harder problems.

Writing: We will be writing spooky Halloween stories this week to continue on with the Narrative Writing Genre.

Social Studies: We are finishing up our unit talking about maps and globes. We will be making globes in class this week.

CURRICULUM FOCUS

2009-10-19T03:43:00.000-07:00

Reading: Targeted Comprehension Strategies and Skills in Theme 2: Question, Compare & Contrast; Evaluate, Fact & Opinion; Monitor and Clarify, Categorize &
Classify

Math: Become familiar with the structure of 100. Work with quantities of 100. Use the 100 chart as a tool for combining and comparing numbers. Use familiar addition combinations to find totals.
Develop strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems.

Spelling: always, laugh, ready, saw, sure, bone, robe, these, rope, note, cute, close, hope, those, mule

Social Studies: Where We Live: Our planet has many different
oceans and continents.

Writing: Continue instruction in the Narrative Writing Genre

IMPORTANT INFORMATION!

2009-10-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

We have Art this week, so library books will be due back next Tuesday.
There are no Spelling words this week, but your child will have Reading and Math homework each night this week.
Remember Sunshine Math sheets are due on Thursday each week.
Remember to have your child read nightly and log the books on their reading log sheet in their homework folder.
Scholastic Book Orders are due Friday, October 16th. I will be placing the order that afternoon.

CURRICULUM FOCUS

2009-10-11T17:47:00.000-07:00

This week we will be working on the following skills:
Reading - This week we will be reviewing all the stories and grammar skills taught in Theme 1 Silly Stories. We will be taking our end of the Theme Assessment test Thursday and Friday.

Phonics: We will be reviewing long and short vowels, as well as rhyming words in order to prepare us for our assessment test this week.

Grammar: We will be reviewing the following skills naming parts, action parts, capitals, punctuation marks, run-on sentences, ABC order and syllables.

Spelling - We will not have any spelling words this week. So enjoy a week off from spelling homework.

Sight Words - We will be reviewing all sight words taught thus far in class.

Review Sight Words- No new words this week, just review

Math - We will continue working on adding coins and working with multiples.

Writing - We are still working on Narrative Writing and are discussing engaging beginnings and exciting endings.

Social Studies - We are continuing Social Studies this week and will be learning more about our Unit People and Places.

REMINDERS!

2009-10-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

Remember to return your library books by Tuesday, so your child can check out some new books.
Sign and return any papers that require a parent signature and please sign and return the Progress report sheet.
Remember NO LATE HOMEWORK is accepted.
Scholastic Book Orders are due by October 16th. Please remember if you are order books to send a check, please do not send cash.

CURRICULUM FOCUS

2009-10-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

This week we will be working on the following skills:
Reading - This week we will be finishing up Theme 1: Silly Stories. We are closing out this theme learning about Poetry and will practice writing poems during center time.

Phonics: We will be working on rhyming words and reviewing long and short vowels.

Grammar: We will review naming and action parts of sentences as well as learning about run-on sentences.

Spelling - Our spelling words for this week are as follows: some, been, want, know, never, wide, bump, skip, dime, date, name, fish, yet, ask, not

Sight Words - some, been, want, know, never

Review Sight Words- your, talk, some, here, know, want, morning, thought, long, never, what, wall, been

Math - We are working on counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's. We are learning to use multiples of 2's, 5's, and 10's to count large quantities of things.

Writing - We are still working on Narrative Writing and are discussing engaging beginnings and exciting endings.

Social Studies - We are continuing Social Studies this week and will be learning more about our Unit People and Places.

CURRICULUM FOCUS

2009-09-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

This week we will be working on the following skills:
Reading - this week we will be reviewing the following strategies and skills: Predict/Infer and Fantasy and Realism

Phonics: We will be working on short and long vowel sounds

Grammar: We will continue working on naming and action parts of sentences

Spelling - Our spelling words for this week are as follows: thought, does, goes, use, went, when, two, about, their, have, again, every, other, very, what. These words are a review from previous weeks.

Sight Words - We are reviewing all the words taught during Theme 1 in Reading. They are as follows: begin, thought, their, very, goes, every, about, again, other, give, word, have, move, two, first

Review Sight Words- These are all the review words taught during Theme 1 in Reading. began, thought, their, very, bought, front, kitchen, roll, until, goes, begin, gone, until, every, love, live, other, brought, reason, special, surprise, give, about, animal, again, eight, three, first, two, different, move, floor, poor, letter, word, four, second, seven, enough

Math - We are learning the basics of using a calculator and are working on two new games, Close to 20 and Beat the calculator.

Writing - We are still working on Narrative Writing and are discussing trying to use new words in our writing. We read a great book called Skippy Jon Jones which has some wonderful descriptive language. The class really enjoyed this story.

Social Studies - We are continuing Social Studies this week and will be learning more about our Unit People and Places.

CURRICULUM FOCUS

2009-09-21T15:10:00.000-07:00

This week we will be working on the following skills:
Reading - Comprehension Strategy: Predict/Infer, Comprehension Skill: Predicting Outcomes

Phonics: Long Vowels a, i/ Grammar: Action Parts of a Sentence

Spelling - Our spelling words for this week are as follows: word, have, move, two, first, made, same, shake, gave, take, bike, smile, fine, mine, hide

Sight Words - word, have, move, two, first

Review Sight Words- eight, three, first, two, different, move, floor, poor, letter, word, four, second, seven, enough

Math - We are continuing to work on Number Strings, Combinations of ten, and Doubling like numbers when adding.

Writing - We have continued our lessons on beginning, middle, and end and the students created their own characters and are now working their characters into a story. Please remind your child to use a capital letter at the beginning of their sentence and a punctuation mark at the end.

Social Studies - We are starting Social Studies this week and are working on a unit called People and Places.

REMINDERS!

2009-09-21T15:04:00.000-07:00

Wednesday is PE day, so please make sure your child wears tennis shoes.
NO LATE HOMEWORK will be accepted. All homework must be turned in the very next day to school unless your child is sick. I do not accept late homework.
Homework is part of your child's grade, so they need to be completing it each night.
Please sign and return any tests or daily papers that are stamped or have a sticker on them to be signed and return. These papers come home in your child's Friday Folder and need to be returned on Monday.
Our library day is Tuesday and we will be going to the library every other Tuesday to check out books beginning this week. Please make sure your child returns their library books on time or they will not be able to check out another.
We have snack daily, so please remember to send your child a snack.

HOMEWORK!

2009-09-13T17:25:00.000-07:00

Please make sure your child is completing and turning in all their homework. Remember to turn in your homework on time, I do not accept late homework and also make sure your child is doing the nightly spelling homework written in their planner. Directions for the spelling homework is in your child's purple homework folder.

CURRICULUM FOCUS

2009-09-13T17:21:00.001-07:00

This week we will be working on the following skills:
Reading - Comprehension Strategy: Monitor/Clarify, Comprehension Skill: Fantasy & Realism

Phonics: Short vowels o, e, u, Grammar: Naming Parts of a Sentence

Spelling - Our spelling words for this week are as follows: every, about, again, other, give, when, went, then, stop, off, frog, from, jump, much, just

Sight Words - every, about, again, other, give

Math - We will begin working on doubles and adding same numbers together

Writing - We will begin writing narratives and discussing the importance of a story having a beginning, middle, and end.

Science - We will continue discussing severe weather and how to stay safe during severe weather.

Thank You!

2009-09-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it Open House. I enjoyed meeting everyone and getting a chance to update you on how our classroom will run this year. If you have any questions feel free to email me at: brownm12@duvalschools.org.

Please look for our weekly newsletter that will be coming home every Friday. I will use the newsletter to update you on the skills we are working on in class. As well as important dates.

Welcome to 2nd Grade!

2009-08-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

As the start of school quickly approaches, I want to welcome everyone to my Second Grade class. Please use this blog to stay up to date on the happenings and events going on in our classroom. I look forward to meeting everyone Monday, August 24th!