Mrs. Freeland's Weekly Note

Mrs. Freeland’s Weekly Note

October 10-14

Halloween:  Halloween is coming soon!  We will be celebrating in the afternoon on Monday, October 31^st.  Parents and friends are welcome to come and watch us parade through downtown starting around 1:00.  After the parade we will tour the 4^th grade Wax Museum, have a snack, and watch a Halloween video.   On this day the children will need to bring their entire costume in a bag labeled with their name.  We will change into our costumes right before the parade.  Please look for a note with more information regarding supplies for our party in your child’s Friday Folder next Friday.

Looking Ahead:

·         Thursday, October 20- Field Trip to Klackle Orchards

·         Monday, October 31- Halloween Celebration and Parade in the afternoon

·         Tuesday, November 1-

No School/Professional Development for Teachers

·         Wednesday, November 9- Report cards sent home

·         Thursday, November 10-

Conferences/No school for students

Field Trip Reminder:

Our field trip is next week on Thursday, October 20^th.  We will be leaving around 8:15 and returning by 3:45. Since our return time is after school dismisses, you will need to make arrangements for someone to pick your child up at this time.  Please have your child dress in layers, wear tennis shoes, and bring a sack lunch (no glass bottles).

 Happy Birthday!:

We celebrated Carsyn’s birthday on Thursday, October 6th.  We celebrated Mya’s birthday on Friday, October 14^th. We hope you both had a great day!

Math:

We started Rocket Math this week. This is a daily one minute timed test in which children progress up a rocket as they meet or beat their goal. The goal is determined by the amount of numbers that each child can write in one minute.  We started with addition facts 1+2 & 1+3 and their inverses 2+1 & 3+1. When students beat their goal they move forward to the next addition fact. The children are excited about the progress they are making!

In our Everyday Math series we are learning about addition skills and shortcuts. We learned how to play “Beat the Calculator” and “Domino Top-It”. We reinforced these skills with a math game day on Friday. Children rotated through math game centers. It was great fun!

The vocabulary we have covered in math this week is:

·         Addition fact: Two 1-digit numbers and their sum, such as 9 + 7 = 16.

·         +0 shortcut: If 0 is added to any number, the sum is the number.

9 + 0 = 9

·         +1 shortcut: If 1 is added to any number, the sum is the next higher number.    4 + 1 = 5

·         Sum: The result of adding two or more numbers. Same as total.

·         Fact power: The ability to instantly recall basic arithmetic facts.

·         Doubles facts: The sum or product of the same two 1-digit numbers, such as     2 + 2 = 4 or 3 x 3 = 9.

·         Facts Table: A chart showing arithmetic facts. We studied an addition/subtraction facts table.

·         Row: A horizontal arrangement of objects in a table.

·         Column: A vertical arrangement of objects in a table.

·         Diagonal: A line or objects or numbers from upper left to lower right or from lower left to upper right, in a table.

Social Studies: 

This week we learned about Columbus Day through classroom discussion and a Reader’s Theater Scholastic News.

This week is also Fire Safety Week. We discussed the importance of practicing fire drills at home and at school. You will find a family letter and connect-the-dot activity about fire safety in your child’s Friday Folder. We learned about animals that have helped humans in fire emergencies while reading our Scholastic News. We also discussed how firemen are important community helpers!

Reading:

This week we reviewed the skills we have learned this year in second grade.  The students also took the Unit 1 Skills test from our reading series. It consisted of comprehension stories and questions, phonics (beginning sounds, middle sounds, ending sounds, long e sounds), grammar, and study skills.