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Third Week of Second Grade

Writing

In Writing Workshop we delved into beginning our narrative unit on small moment stories. In order to learn how to choose meaningful small moments, we studied authors who have written meaningful small moment stories. We read the first page of the story Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, and noticed how she begins to describe this one night of owling with so many details! We got to writing our small moment narratives, using ideas from our decorated writing folders, and studying Jane Yolen’s writing to help us stretch our stories. With our writing buddies we talked about our ideas, brainstormed ways authors decide on their small moments, and shared our writing. We can’t wait to read The Leaving Morning by Angela Johnson next week to see how another author describes their small moment. We are working on planning out our stories by writing down our ideas, drawing sketches, taking notes, and then of course writing!

Ask your child what they are writing about, and help them narrow down their ideas to one small moment.

   

Math

In Math this week we continued learning about place values in the hundreds, tens and ones. We began comparing numbers using math symbols (< and >) for greater than and less than. We began to use our new math notebooks, and made folding tabs to write numbers in three different forms- standard form, word form, and expanded form. Then, we learned how to write problems in our math notebooks, which is a first for second graders, and practiced writing the symbols. To remember the symbols, we turned them into hungry alligators who always want to “eat” the greater number. We also practiced these skills in our  through a game where second graders used blocks to represent hundreds, tens, and ones, and their partner had to put the correct symbol in between the numbers to signify which is greater or less than.

Have your child think of a number in the hundreds and try to guess it by having them tell you if your guess is greater than or less than their number. 

Shofar Exploration

We looked closely at the two classroom shofars we have and recorded our observations using four senses- sight, sound, touch, and smell. After we observed the shofars we talked about if they are similar or different. If two items are different, what makes them both shofars? Where do shofars come from? Some students knew that shofars come from an animal. Would these shofars come from the same animal? Which animals might they come from?

Rosh Hashannah Stations

We have been learning about the traditions and foods of Rosh Hashannah. We experienced the symbols through three different stations: shofar play, Hebrew memory game, and art station.

First Shinshinim Class

Second graders met Elal and Zohar this week! They got to know us and taught us about the four ordinal directions. They showed us a map of Israel and told us that this year we will be travelling through Israel on Shvil Yisrael, a hike through Israel. They showed us pictures of animals in Israel in their natural habitats and asked students to guess where in Israel they would live.

 

Recess Fun!