Our spelling test WILL be on Thursday of this week seeing as we do not have school on Friday. If students are feeling stressed by this, remind them that they already know 4 letters of every word, 'eigh', that's a majority of each word for most!
In the past, the struggle students usually have with this week's pattern is just working too fast and leaving off the letter 'h' or forgetting a 'g'. Please keep reminding your student to practice their habits of not just writing the word and moving on but going BACK to the word and checking it over!
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There is a lot of information coming home today in your student's take home folder. Please check them this weekend. Be on the lookout for:
Today, students are bringing home a math page that works on bar graphs and picture graphs. All of the students are doing an EXCELLENT job of reading the bar graphs and picture graphs.
What we're working on now is reading a number story that goes along with the graphs and determining what we're supposed to do in order to solve the problem. We're continuing to fine tune our "math comprehension" reading skills that ask us to read keywords from a number story to help decide which operation is needed to solve. The type of question I've noticed gives students the most trouble is when they're asked to compare two areas of a graph. For instance, if the graph is measuring people's favorite foods, a question may ask "How many more people like pizza than tacos?" We've been trying to focus on the words "how many more...than" in a question are meant to tell us that we're comparing two different numbers, not combining them! I typically phrase my questioning like this: "Do you agree that MORE people like pizza?" "Let's look at the graph where pizza is, how many people like pizza? (Ex: 8) "What are we comparing pizza to in the question? (tacos) How many people like tacos? (Ex: 3) "Since 8 IS more than 3, let's draw out both numbers and see HOW MUCH more 8 is than 3." They are wordy questions but it really helps students see when they are truly being asked to compare two numbers in a number story. I hope this helps! Monday--PJ Day
Tuesday--Twin Day Wednesday--USA Day Thursday--Mathletes vs. Athletes Friday--Spirit Day There is a math page coming home this afternoon focused on solving one step number stories (both addition and subtraction).
Our focus this week has been less about figuring out what strategies to use and more about the reading comprehension of the number story itself. If you work on this page with your student, you may read every problem to them, we are not assessing their reading for this part! Remind students to look or listen for clue words that tell our brain WHAT to do with the numbers. For example, if we hear works like "gave away" or "in total" those two phrases tell us to do different things with the numbers. The toughest problems this week, as a class, have been when there's a change in the number. For example "Tim had 8 crackers. He got some more crackers. Now he has 15 crackers. How many crackers did Tim get?" Continue to remind students that words like "some" tell us there's a mystery number. The words in this specific problem don't tell us to add the two numbers together, rather, we need to CHANGE 8 into 15. How many more would we need to do this? It tends to be best if students draw out the story so they can visualize the problem easier! I know lives are busy so if you're able to get to the page tonight feel free! At this point in the year, all reading grades given are after having the passage, or story, and the questions read aloud to the students. Our focus right now is on the THINKING that happens with a multiple choice comprehension question. We are working on building habits and stamina required to answer comprehension questions. As a class, we go back into the article and look for details that help us answer questions to model what a reader does every time. As I've mentioned before, 2nd graders often feel like it's "cheating" to look back into the text or that it takes too much time so we're working together to build that work ethic.
Later in the year, students will be reading both the passage and the questions themselves. Our hope is that starting the year with us doing the reading truly allows their focus to be on the thinking that happens every time you answer a question so when the time comes for students to attempt it on their own, they feel as prepared as possible! Students are bringing home a sheet from their math workbook dealing with fact families. This page should help students prepare for a short graded check in on both subtraction and fact families however there are some tricky parts to the page. I'm including a video and a picture of our classroom Fact Families poster should you need some extra guidance for your student.
Our goal is for students to recognize the 4 equations they can solve using the same three numbers. For example: 3, 4, 7 would have the fact family of 3+4=7, 4+3=7, 7-3=4 and 7-4=3. We've been focusing heavily on the terms part, part, total when referring to the numbers within the equation. Typically the biggest struggle 2nd graders have with the fact family is when they get to the subtraction facts. At times, I'll see students just plug in numbers and end up with an equation like 3-4=7. We continue to have the conversation that the total of the fact family must come at the beginning of the subtraction facts and at the end of the addition facts. https://www.kidsacademy.mobi/video/v_math_g1_u1ch3l4_fact_families/ Today students brought home their first scholastic book order form. If you are interested in ordering books for your student, please follow this link https://orders.scholastic.com/WTM7C to place orders.
Please have orders placed for any books you're interested in by Friday, October 6th. I will then try to get another book order out in time for Christmas! When ordering, please feel free to include our class code, WTM7C, that will help build up points to purchase materials for our classroom! This week students will starting bringing home a few graded items in both reading and math. As mentioned before, we use grades in 2nd grade as a way for families to stay connected to their child's learning in the classroom. We hope the scores reflect your student's understanding of concepts taught in class and possibly emphasize areas that may extended practice.
For your understanding, I read ALL math questions and number stories aloud to students and they may have the questions repeated as many times as they need. At the beginning of the year for graded reading checks, I read the article aloud with the class as well as the questions. We practice as a class good question answering habits. As a class, we go back into the article and look for information that would help us answer a question and build the "stamina" it takes to really slow down and answer reading questions carefully. I often have to remind students that not only are they allowed to go back into a reading to look for information, it's highly encouraged! |