Math: This week we will take chapter 3 tests at the start of our day, and work to make our math facts 'quick'. Then we'll move to working on chapter 4 with new geometry concepts including squares, rectangles, quadrilaterals, & parallel lines. We will use some great hands-on math tools to learn about and understand these concepts. This mini-unit should be complete by the Thanksgiving break.

*Your continued help playing math fact games and/or flash card drills is appreciated and necessary. Our problem solving will rely on knowing math facts, and after Dec. vacation we'll discover strategies for adding double digit numbers. Knowing basic math facts is essential to successfully mastering these skills.

Reading: This week we'll return to fiction stories. Our focus will be answering 'right there' and 'beyond the book' questions with evidence from the story. 'Right there' questions have answers directly in the story. You can find the page and point to the answer, then use it in a written response. In some cases, questions involve thoughts 'beyond the story'. These higher level questions ask readers to think about what is going on in a story, evaluate what is happening, and form a answer. We'll work together in read aloud & shared reading activities to understand what a complete written response looks like. In reading groups, each child will practice answering questions using books to match reading levels.

*You will see written responses coming home on yellow lined paper. I will be supporting students in writing strong answers. Papers with much teacher support will not be graded, but will be corrected. Papers that were completed independently will be corrected & graded with a 1,2, 3, or 4.

Spelling & Language: We will continue our exploration of sentences. We'll work to determine what kind of sentence is written (statement, question, exclamation, & command). Many children understand the differences, but do not yet know the vocabulary of labeling kinds of sentences. We'll work on this for a couple weeks.

Writing: The time has come for second graders to write a descriptive piece for assessment. We have many creative writers with interesting ways of communicating their ideas. I can't wait to see how each student will use what we have learned. All children will be expected to follow the writing process of write a first draft, revise it, edit it, and write the final 'published' piece.

*You can talk with your child about working carefully and slowly when revising (making the writing better, choosing better words). You can also talk with your child about taking time to check spelling for any (and all) words he/she thinks might be spelled wrong. Each child has a Quickword spelling dictionary to check spelling. Some children don't like taking time to check and it shows in their work with many commonly misspelled words. We have talked about how hard it is to understand when many words are spelled wrong. Even great ideas get 'lost' when they are too difficult to read.