We had a fun day in second grade today with all of our cute athletes! We had football, soccer, baseball, and cheerleading! Such a fun sports day! Here is what we have been up to!

Writer’s Workshop:

Our second grade writers are learning to be purposeful writers who can problem solve and make mindful decisions. We have made great progress in just a few weeks! We are continually using the writing cycle:  Think of an idea, Rehearse/Plan, Write/Draft, Finish/Draft, Reread and Revise, Get Ready To Start a New Story.

Math:

Last week, we learned a strategy for helping us add partners that had teen totals. We can “make a ten” to help us add in a snap. An example is below.

First, we underline the bigger number. Then we draw circles for the smaller number. We will need to borrow one of the circles from the 5 to make the 9 into a 10. Since we borrowed one, the 5 becomes a 4. Most of us can do 10+4 a lot faster than 9+5! This strategy works well for some kids but may be too confusing for others. If your child finds it helpful, that’s wonderful! If not- no worries, we have many other strategies we can use. Keep practicing to find the one that works best for your second grader!

Reader’s Workshop:

Last week, we compared books to a puzzle. All of the different parts of our stories (characters, setting, problems, solutions, relationships…) fit together to make a bigger picture – like a puzzle! Sometimes it takes more than one time of reading the book to figure out how all the pieces fit together. When we reread a book, we can understand the story even better, and it might help answer questions that we had the first time reading it. Today we had some fourth graders come in and model “mindful partner talk”, and then they watched as we practiced with our partners.  This was a powerful way for our readers to grow in their reading conversations with one another and also set goals for how to improve their partner talk.