Grade 2 Class Updates

Week of October 10

Hi, and welcome back from the long weekend. I trust everyone had a nice National Day break. I am excited for this week as I will be teaching a little poetry with the kids for the first time. We will be looking at some of the unique features of poetry.

We will begin the week with a vocabulary lesson, then work on some grammar and spelling practice. On Thursday and Friday we will read Water Rolls, Water Rises, a fun poem about the water cycle. We will close the week working on writing descriptive paragraphs in preapration for our letter writing task next week. Use the resources below to help you and your child review and practice this week.

Week of October 3

This week the class will be reading a fun little story called The Great Fuzz Frenzy. This is a crazy story of a community of prairie dogs fighting over a tennis ball. It will be a realtively regular week as we practice spelling, vocabulary, grammar, reading, and writing.

Spelling focus for this week will be a review of vowels, both long and short. Grammar will be a review of nouns and how plurals work. As we read The Great Fuzz Frenzy we will be focused on the skill of using visuals to connect them to the text as an aid to learn more detail. Finally, writing workshop this week will focus on descriptive writing, specifically descriptive language and paragraphs.

Below are this week's handout and vocabulary slideshow if you would like to use it to review at home this week.

Week of September 26

This past week the kids have been working on writing their own personal narratives. A personal narrative is a true story about something that happened in their lives told from their own point of view. I tasked the kids with choosing a time they helped a family member, friend, or their community.

My objectives for this lesson was to get the kids in the writing mood and review some basics of writing. First and foremost, I hoped to help them get comfortable with the writing process. I also wanted them to practice paragraph construction and see how well they did choosing words to express details about their memories. Watching them write the past week has been instructive and will help me better craft writing lessons for the kids as we go forward. A few of the students finished the task, but we might not have time for everyone to get done. Nonetheless, I look forward to sharing what the kids complete at parent-teacher conferences.

Week of September 12

Look at that. First week in, and I missed an update. My apologies, parents. This week we are getting into our second lesson out of Into Reading. Last week we worked on the first where we read Clark the Shark, practiced the reading strategy of questioning, and practiced subjects and predicates. Please contact me if you would like those resources.

This week we are working on the lesson that deals with the book Spoon. During this week we will focus on short vowels, complete sentences, and the reading skill of analyzing author's purpose. We will also be starting our focus on writing a personal narrative. Below are some of the resources we will use this week.

Week of August 29

Hello, and welcome to the new school year. This page is your home for weekly updates about what will be going on in my class. I will try to keep this page updated, but if I fall behind, do not be shy to email me for updates.

This week is all about getting to know each other and some of the routine lessons and activities from my class. We will also be getting to know our pen pals in Kenya through a short writing assignment. See the material below to learn more!