Welcome to December! Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me during conferences. I so appreciate the time to connect, make plans and talk about the amazingness of each of your children.
We started our first week in December with some key topics from our team of teachers. Ms. Amblo taught us about the Zones of Regulation, they are identified by color and feeling. There are four zones, red, yellow, green and blue. December can be an emotional month. We are working hard at school to help teach mindfulness, focus, breathing, and self-regulation, within ourselves and our communities. Ms. Kayli taught us about hygge, a quality of coziness, contentment, and well-being. We used four herbs to create a tea together and while we tried it, she read us some winter poetry.
Our focus this week in science is weathering and erosion. We made a weather model describing types of weather that affect our world. Each student brought one home to help track the weather and how it changes. We also began an experiment about erosion using a rock tumbler. We gathered as a whole second grade to describe rocks before, during and soon to be after a week in the rock tumbler.
During writing, we are writing how-to (procedural) pieces as well as making signs and posters as part of our real-life writing unit.
Our non-fiction reading unit is off and running. This week we read paying attention to the details. We practiced this skill reading a penny with a magnifying glass.
We started our phonics unit of study this week as well. We are professors of phonics. Some language we are using to help us write and read words are consonants, short/long vowels, digraphs, blends, r-controlled vowels, vowel teams, silent e and many more. We are practicing every day.
During math, we are adding single and double digits using an open number line. We will use our knowledge of addition strategies to help with our practice in adding numbers within 1000.
On Friday we participated in an assembly run by the fourth grade. I'm keeping the tie-dye shirts here at school to use during assemblies. If you'd like your child to bring theirs home at any point, let me know.
Thank you for all you do,
Jen Belisle
**You received a parent letter about Reading A to Z. This is a tool we are using at school as part of our reader's workshop. This letter explains how you can have access at home as well. Let me know if you have any questions.
