What Are We Doing in Math Class?
At the beginning of each math unit all children are given a pre-assessment on the skills that will be taught. If a child has already mastered the skills to be presented, he or she will work on extension activities within the classroom setting. These activities will challenge the child to use higher level thinking skills, more complex problem solving skills, and solidify foundational math skills. Please visit this link to see an overview of the skills covered in 2nd Grade and for links to games and other ways to practice at home. What Students Should be Doing at Home To reinforce skills learned in class, there will be homework nightly, Monday through Thursday. Always practice addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts whenever possible to increase number memory and fluency. Parents could make up story problems using real-life situations to promote problem solving skills. Please practice math subtraction facts for quick recall and memorization. Students should memorize the multiplication tables for the ones, twos, fives, and tens. We have added the threes and the fours multiplication tables as well. |
What Are We Doing in Literacy?
Second graders will be participating in Reader's Workshop. This allows them to work in groups or independently at the following centers: Independent Reading, Partner Reading, Listening to Reading, Working with Words, and Working on Writing. The teacher assistant and I will work with individual students and small groups based on instructional reading levels. This rotation of centers allows us to differentiate and effectively meet the needs of all the readers in our classroom. When reading independently, students will be given their independent reading level to use as a guide in selecting books. For phonics instruction we use "Fundations" which is a research based phonics program by Wilson. We will work with blends, digraphs, glued sounds, suffixes, vowels, vowel teams, and syllable types, Chapter books and other selections will also be used to enrich the literature experience. Each child has a independent reading level to use as a guide in selecting books. What You Should Be Doing at Home We will have homework Monday through Thursday. Homework consists of reading nightly for about 20 minutes and completing comprehension projects. Please engage with your child while they are reading as often as possible. Conversations about what they are reading are crucial in supporting their comprehension goals. Please also continue to help your child choose books on their independent reading level to read at home. Please let me know if you have any questions or need suggestions. |