 Dear Parents, I can hardly believe that it is already October. We are almost finished with one fourth of second grade. Isn’t that a scary thought! The children are settling into our classroom routine very well at this time. We are working very hard each day. I can already see an improvement in the students reading ability. Keep up those twenty minutes of nightly reading. It is so very important. The weekly assessment seems to be difficult for a few students. Be sure to check the Test Alert page of my website to see what this test covers and hints and reminders as to what to look for. The first page of the story assessment consists of vocabulary words and story comprehension. Rereading the selection in our reader several times will help students remember key facts for the one page assessment that is attached to the ISTEP assessment. We read the story at least two times in class and discuss story related facts. Students bring the book home two times during the week. As your child reads to you, stop and ask a few comprehension questions. Review the main ideas of each story. Talk about the yellow highlighted vocabulary words. We always look these words up in our glossary and discuss the meaning of each word as well as use them in sentences. These words will always be a part of that Weekly Assessment! If you go to my Language Arts page of this site you can connect to the reading books web and directly connect to fun activities the children can do for each story. One of the activities is using the story vocabulary words. What a fun way to review for this test! We are also working very hard in AR. I did not set a goal for the students this grading period. I will look at their individual accumulated points at the end of the grading period and let the children set a goal for themselves for the second grading period. As you know from first grade, AR is not a requirement. It is however a very helpful addition to the regular reading program. Children that participate in AR always improve their reading ability! Please encourage your child to participate in this very worthwhile program! October seems to be a very busy month. We have a lot of exciting things planned for the school this month. We will have National Fire Prevention Week, School Pictures, Red Ribbon Week and much more. October is also Fall Festival of course! I will be working our booth on Tuesday. Be sure to stop by have a slice of pizza and see me! Again this month I want to update you on what we will be working on in our classroom. Listed below are the subject areas and a general overview of the material to be covered in October. Feel free to pass this information on to your child’s tutor if necessary.  Math Rocketship Math is going very well. The children can’t wait to begin it every day. Don’t forget to practice for five minutes every night. This will insure quick progress in learning those all important math facts. Our math book will continue in topic four studying tens and ones, number words, numbers before, after and between, reading and writing numbers, compared numbers, order numbers, number patterns, and even and odd. Remember to log onto pearson's website to review each lesson and take the quiz and online test. That is a great study review. We will quickly begin Topic five studying counting money. I am aware that some children struggled with counting money in first grade. Remember, now is the time to get out that change and practice. In second grade the children need to be able to count various amounts of change including pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollars. Practice is the key to learning this skill. We will practice daily in class. If you can practice at home it will increase your child’s comfort level in class. Thanks for the extra help! Language Arts During this month we will be studying the concepts of problem and solution, antonyms, summarizing, main ideas, cause and effect, sequence of events, making predictions, dictionary skills, graphs, compound words, making inferences, prefixes, possessives, long and short vowel sounds and blends. In grammar we will focus on nouns, plural nouns, proper nouns, possessive nouns and apostrophes. Science Our area of study will be physical science. This unit covers pushes and pulls. The entire diocese is doing everything possible to get the online book available for your use!  Monthly Reminders: Oct. 6-Free Dress/Popcorn Oct. 7-NO SCHOOL Oct. 9-14-Fire Preention Week Week Oct. 12-End of First Quarter Oct. 13-October Birthday Celebration/Field Trip To Museum Oct. 14-Free Dress/School Pictures Oct. 16-21-National School Lunch Week Oct. 18-Report Cards Oct. 19-20-Parent Teacher Conferences Oct. 23-28-Red Ribbon Week Oct. 24-First Reconciliation Parent Meeting-6:30 Oct. 28-Spirit Day  Final thoughts: I am looking forward to having the opportunity to conference with parents this month. I will be sending home a pre-conference paper a week before conferences. Please take the time to fill out this paper. It will help me to plan our quick conference time. Thank you again for all your at home help. I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying your children this year. I am very blessed to have them in my classroom. Mrs. Barth   "BUZZ BACK TO HOME PAGE!" |