Cursive
As you know, cursive has been removed from Brownsburg's curriculum. However, students are expected to know how to read cursive and sign their own names. The only way students can read cursive and sign their own names is if I teach cursive! We no longer have handwriting grades in Brownsburg, so there is no way for me to grade cursive with it not being a part of our curriculum. So I have decided to give the kids a cursive packet each week to practice at home. I will pass the packet out on Monday, introduce the strokes/letters in class, and demonstrate the proper way to form the letters. Students need to turn the packet in by Friday. I will keep track of who turns in their cursive packet. Students who have turned in all of their cursive packets at the end of the nine weeks will receive a token for the treasure tower in the office! Please help your kids practice with the cursive packet at home.
Reading
Students reading levels improved greatly during first semester, which was very exciting for me to see! Keep up with reading books for the Top 40 Challenge at home. In Reading class at school, we started reading the novel, Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliett, this week. I will read aloud most chapters to the class and we will practice reading skills that go along with the novel. Students typically love this novel because it is an art mystery. This week we tasted baba ghanoush (which is the secret word for today's post), a Middle Eastern dip that is mentioned in the novel. Let's just say that most of the kids were not fans of the baba ghanoush! The Lexile of the novel is 770. If this Lexile is lower than your child's Lexile, please encourage them to read novels at their own level at home as well!
Writing
In preparation for ISTEP, which begins toward the end of February, we are practicing writing to a timed prompt. We are also learning about Memoir as a genre. Second graders benefit from our prompt writing practice, even though they are not taking ISTEP. Ask your child how to know if a book is a memoir....they will know all of the main ingredients of that genre!
Science
Hooray! This is the semester that we focus on Science units. This week we started a unit on Energy and Motion. Students are working in small groups to build "Puff Mobiles." They will have to use their creative engineering skills to build their Puff Mobiles and race them later next week! Students are only allowed to use one sheet of paper, ten drinking straws, four lifesavers (wheels), and push pins for their mobiles. The mobiles will be powered by wind energy.....which will come from their own mouths. Ask your child about their team's design that they created today in class!
Social Studies/Morning Work
Students have started doing Daily Geography packets for morning work to reinforce many of the Social Studies skills that we learned first semester. This week we did the Daily Geography packet instead of Daily Science, which we did first semester. Eventually, we will probably do both each morning.
Everyday Math
Second grade students are learning about multiplication and division. Third grade students are working on multiplying two digit numbers by two digit numbers and three digit numbers by one digit numbers. Everyday Math teaches students three wonderful strategies for solving multiplication problems: the traditional algorithm that you probably learned in school, the partial products method, and the lattice method. Even though, as a parent, you are not familiar with partial products or the lattice method, please be supportive of these different strategies. The important thing is that your child can find the correct answer, not that they use just the traditional strategy that you learned in school. Students today are lucky to have different strategies available to them because it suits different learning styles. I appreciate your support! Kids don't like hearing their parents say, "I don't like this strategy. This isn't right. This isn't how I did it in school." They especially don't like hearing this when the new strategy makes more sense to them!
Important Things to Remember
- Today (1/7) Report Cards available online
- 1/10 Skating Party Grades K-2
- 1/17 Dr. Martin Luther King Day- NO SCHOOL
- 1/18 DT MOVIE NIGHT 6:00 p.m. A Bug's Life
- 1/21 All Pro Dads Breakfast 7:45 a.m. DT Cafeteria
- 1/24 Skating Party Grades 3-5
Working on Wonderful
Congratulations to Molly and Jake for being December's W.O.W. winners for the character trait of Joy. Molly and Jake were nominated by their classmates because they show joy in all that they do. January's trait is determination!
Projectors and Airliners
Classrooms in Brownsburg are very blessed to have received ceiling projectors and airliners. My projector has been installed and is ready for use. As soon as I receive my airliner, students will be using it each day. The airliner allows for student interaction and participation in a whole new way. These are very exciting tools for us to have in our classroom!! Delaware Trail's PTSG agreed to purchase the airliners for classrooms because they could see what a wonderful learning opportunity it would provide to all students.
Have a wonderful weekend! GO COLTS!
