News & Notes {and first pictures}

Hello all!

I hope everyone is enjoying the last little bit of their extended weekend!
Thank you to all who came to the Parent Orientation last week.  I hope it was informative for you and answered many of the questions you may have had regarding the second grade year.  If you had other questions that I did not address, or if the evening prompted further questions, I would be happy to answer them.  If you were not able to make it, you should have received a packet of information when your child came home on Thursday.  Please review all of the documents thoroughly and contact me with questions.
I have posted several pictures of our first two weeks' activities below the "Peek at our Week" section. Enjoy!

A Peek at our Week:

- Math Focus:  We will practice using the 100s grid, identify place value, and begin reviewing our "10 facts" through games.  Check back for game ideas to help your child reinforce "10 facts" later this week!
- Language Arts Focus:  We will continue building our independent reading stamina and introduce the Work on Writing component of our Language Arts time.  Our reading focus will be identifying character and setting, while our grammar focus will be distinguishing between questions and statements.
- Bible Focus:  We will begin learning about Moses' life and the injustice of slavery.
- Science Focus:  We will begin our unit on Insects, starting with the Monarch butterfly life cycle!
- Social Studies Focus:  Students will learn about habit #3, "Put First Things First: Work Before Play".

Our first day of 2nd Grade!

Look at those characters!

All About Me "Bagpacks"

 We completed a mini-unit for math called "tools or toys".  This helps students to get the "play" out so when it comes time to use math tools, they are ready to use them properly.

"Look!  Blazer colors!"

 We also played Addition Top-It to practice those addition facts.

 Check out this little math craft.  We discussed and wrote about how we are ALL mathematicians!

And here's a little peek at the diligent readers working hard during Read to Self stamina time.