Mrs. Parks’ September Newsletter

September 1, 2011

WELCOME!

I am thrilled to have your child in class and get to know him/her this year! Second grade is full of great learning experiences. We’re off to a great start!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Email:

Phone: 918-299-4415 ex. 6856

Lunchtime: 12:20-1:00

SCIENCE: INVESTIGATING SOILS

We are going to begin our science unit of the study of SOILS!!!

Key points to understand:

~Observe and describe physical and chemical properties of earth materials. i.e. rocks, soils, water, gases, of the atmosphere

~Soil may contain animals, plants, and their remains.

~Over time, dead plants become a part of soil.

~Sand, clay and humus are three basic components in soil.

Skills Developed by student

~observing, recording, and organizing test results.

~Developing enthusiam for investigating soils.

MARVELOUS MATH

We have just started our Everyday Math curriculum. Please make sure to check your child’s agenda in the coming week to begin Homelinks homework. We will be working on:

  • Money
  • Time
  • Everyday Math Routines
  • Number Sequencing
  • Math Facts

LANGUAGE ARTS

We will start our Comprehension Toolkit lessons this week. We want the kids to love reading and realize that it is as much fun as it is educational! We have introduced Read to Self, and the children have already built their stamina to 20 minutes! In the coming weeks, we will begin to build our stamina in the other four areas of Daily 5, which are: reading to someone, listening to reading, writing, and working on words.

Writing Workshop

We have already done a few writing assignments and they have done great! The kids learned how to write an Acrostic name poem and will soon be writing a cinquain poem. We also wrote a story titled “If My Shoes Could Talk.” Here, the children had to describe their summer from their shoes point of view. This month we will be doing an autobiography and other fun writing projects. We will be learning all the stages of the writing process as we write this year, including brainstorming, prewriting, first draft, sharing, editing, final draft and publishing. We will soon be authors of our very own book!

Reminders:

Homeroom Moms: Graham Anderson & Joy Allen

No school: 9/2, 9/5, & 9/6

Please make sure to turn in your t-shirt order forms ASAP.

HAPPY SEPTEMBER!