Week 29

Brrrr! We bundled up and had another fabulous week in second grade! 

Reading

This week we reviewed how to read digraphs, or two letters that work together to make one sound. The students have studied many digraphs and vowel pairs: ch, sh, th, wh, ph, ng, ea, ai, oa, ee, oi, and oy (to name a few!) Understanding how to read these combinations of letters prevents students from trying to sound out each letter individually. Imagine trying to read the word choice without knowing that “ch” is working together and “oi” is working together! The students went on digraph hunts around the classroom to find examples of these patterns. We will continue working on learning how to read digraphs like ou, ow, au, aw, ew, and ay during the next few weeks. We are also going to work on breaking words into smaller chunks, or syllables, to make them easier to read. 

We finished our read aloud chapter book this week! Using this book, we have been learning how to develop theories about the characters and plot line of a story. Next week, we will begin a new chapter book and work on making inferences using the text, determining character motivations, and figuring out the meaning of tricky words using the clues in the text! 

Spelling

The students worked on review words this week or studied words that change when you make them plural (like goose to geese, or half to halves!) One of the patterns many students needed to review was adding “ck” to the end of short vowel words like neck, and adding “k” to the end of long vowel words like seek. Next week, the students will work on adding “ed” to the end of a word to show it is in the past tense. They will also learn to drop the “y” on the end of a word like try and add “ied.”  

Vocabulary

Next week’s vocabulary words are: Alarm, collect, damp, insect, plant, safe, scatter, soil, team, and tool.

Writing

This week, the students worked hard to publish their stories by using their best handwriting. Now, the students are practicing reading their work to an audience and receiving positive feedback and constructive criticism. Next week, the students will practice how to take notes and draft a research report on the life cycle of an animal, insect, or plant. The following week, the students will begin researching a topic of their choice, so they can start thinking of what they’d like to research at home!   

 

Math

As we come to the end of our unit of fractions, the students have decided that, “Seeing is believing!” When thinking about fractions, a visual representation helps the students identify, compare, find fractions in a group, and even add the fractional parts together! The students have worked on drawing the fractions and many have decided that splitting a rectangle into pieces makes it easier to see the fractional parts than using a circle. We are encouraging the students to draw out any visual representation they need to support their thinking!