Quarter 2 Week 5 & 6

Dear Parents,

It's the week of Thanksgiving and thankful, thankful, thankful is how Mrs. Bloomfield and I feel!!   We give thanks for the amazing students that we get to teach and learn from everyday.  We are thankful for the wonderful parents that support their children in the educational process.  And of course, we are thankful to be a part of the Oasis Academy Staff.

Since this week is only 2 days, this blog will include the homework for this week (Week 14) and next week (Week 15).

Math

Last week in math we continued our work with graphing.  Students reviewed tally charts, picture graphs, and bar graphs.  Second graders also learned about line plots.  We collected lots of data including the length of various books in the classroom, the amount of children in our families, and the amount of pets each child has.  This made for some interesting line plots.

                                                                                 X

                                                             X

                                                                       X       X

                                                           X         X       X

                                                           X         X       X         X                

                                                 X        X         X       X         X        X        X       

_______________________________

 1      2      3      4      5      6      7      8      

Amount of Children in Families    

This week we will spend 2 days working with money.  The following week second grade mathematicians will be starting their work on our geometry unit.

Since we have a short week, students will only have homework on Monday.  Enjoy the Thanksgiving Break!

Here's the homework...

Week 14

Mon.  (11/21)	IXL P.4 Counting money up to $1
Tues.  (11/22)	No Homework--Enjoy your Thanksgiving Break

Week 15

Mon.  (11/28)	IXL T.3  Count Sides and Vertices
Tues.  (11/29)	IXL  T.4 Compare Sides and Vertices
Wed.   (11/30)	IXL  U.3  Count Vertices, Edges and Faces
Thurs. (12/1)	IXL  U.4  Compare Vertices, Edges and Faces

Writing

In writing students have been working on a persuasive piece.  In this writing students are asking parents for something or to be able to do something.  This writing will be completed this week.  From there students will continue with some short opinion writing pieces.

Language

Our work in language this week was all about adverbs.  Students learned that an adverb can tell how something happened, when something happened, or where something happened.  The work on adverbs will continue this week.  We will review adjectives and advervs on Monday, November 28th and assess on Tuesday.

Projects

Students have been working on lab reports that follow the scientific method. They will be determining how the solid or liquid they selected will change when heated and cooled. They will also be experimenting to see if the changes are reversible or irreversible.  

As we make our way to Thanksgiving on Thursday, Miss Garcia and myself wish you a Happy Thanksgiving that is filled with special memories.

Here’s some reading information from Mrs. Rowlett…

Hello Second Grade Families,

This week I will not be meeting with students in reading groups due to the short week, instead I will be completing report card assessments.  Students will be comparing and contrasting two different Thanksgiving books that will be read aloud to them, we will be reviewing author’s purpose, and students will be finding the main idea in multi-paragraph articles.  

Important:  Second graders will be bringing home a reading log to complete during the week of Thanksgiving which will begin Monday, November 21 and continue through Sunday, November 27.  I would like to encourage your child to read, read, read!  If they choose to complete the reading log and keep track of their minutes that they read they may earn a prize when they return to school on Monday, November 28.  This is completely OPTIONAL but if your child reads 80 minutes during this week they will be eligible for a prize.  Be on the lookout for the reading log that they will bring home with them Monday night.

Happy Thanksgiving and happy reading,

Miss Garcia and Mrs. Rowlett

Quarter 2 Week 4

November 14, 2014

                            

Dear Parents,

Congratulations to our October Students of the Month at Oasis Academy!  You worked hard to display the Tribe Agreements, being a good friend, working hard, completing your homework and being a dedicated student!

Our 2nd grade students have been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!  

Math

Second grade students have been busy collecting data, creating picture graphs and bar graphs, and answering questions using the graphs.  Students are zooming along with these Measurement and Data Standards.  This coming week students will learn about line plots.  We will be able to assess on this standard before Thanksgiving!

Here’s the homework for the week....

Monday	IXL R.8 Create Pictographs
Tuesday	IXL R.4 Create Bar Graphs
Wednesday	IXL R.5 Interpret Line Plots
Thursday	IXL R.6 Create Line Plots

Language

Students have continued to work on identifying adjectives in text and using adjectives in writing.  This past week students participated in an activity called “Adjective Triangles”.  They picked an image and listed 4 adjectives to describe the image.  The formatting of this writing made a triangle, thus the name “Adjective Triangles”.  Second graders will move on to adverbs this week.  Being aware of adjectives and adverbs will help students to write with stronger details.

Writing

We are finishing up our first opinion/persuasive piece in writing.  Beware!!  All students are writing about something they would like to ask their parents for-- all students are stating their “want”, backing it up with 3 reasons with examples, and closing by restating what they would like.  Students have come up with a variety items to ask for...everything from a puppy to new furniture.

Projects

Projects have continued with work on the Scientific Method--Question, Hypothesis, Materials, Procedure, Results, and Conclusion.  This past week students have been using the Scientific Method as they explore what happens when solids (baking soda, salt, sugar, flour, and sand) are mixed with liquids (vinegar and water).  Second grade students have done a great job making observations as they have mixed various solids and liquids.  Our work with the Scientific Method will help students next week when they begin to develop their own questions to explore how matter can be changed and whether those changes are reversible or irreversible.

A few other notes…

Oasis Academy is collecting “Box Tops”.  With Thanksgiving just around the corner, many families will be busy cooking.  Check to see if any of the items you are using have a “Box Top” on them.  “Box Tops” are little thing that can make a big difference!

Oasis Academy is also collecting money for the Fallon Youth Club.  This is being sponsored by the Student Council.  The class bringing in the most money will be awarded a movie and a treat from Taco Bell.

Finally, we are looking for a few parent helpers to teach P.E. on Thursdays.  Ideally Mrs. Bloomfield and myself would like helpers from 3:20-3:55.  If you would like to help out with P.E. please let us know.

Looking forward to another wonderful week full of learning!

Miss Garcia & Mrs. Rowlett

Dear Second Grade Families

Don’t forget to “Fall Back” and set your clocks back one hour so that you arrive to school on time on Monday!

Thank you for attending Parent- Teacher Conferences.  Our goal at Oasis is to have 100% participation and most of the time that goal is met!  Thanks for being involved in your child’s education!

We would also like to thank ALL parents/volunteers that made our Scholastic Book Fair such a success. It was the perfect time of year to hold the book fair and have such a decorative theme!  Remember that a percentage of the money that we made at the book fair is returned to Oasis Academy.

We had a great time at our Halloween Party --Thank you to all the parents that helped make this a success. Here is a picture of our Ghouls!!

Math

Last week students finished adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers using open number line and the arrow method.  Our students have done a fantastic job working on learning 4 different strategies to add and subtract with 2-digit and 3-digit numbers.  Miss Garcia and myself are very proud of all our 2nd graders.

This week we will start off working on word problems that will allow students to use their addition and subtraction strategies.  We will be determining whether a problem is a part, part, whole problem or a whole, part, part problem. Then we will move towards working with gathering data, creating graphs, and interpreting graphs.  All of this and of course “high number” work!!

Here's the homework schedule for this week...

Monday	Word Problem Worksheet
Tuesday	IXL R.1 Interpret Tally Charts and Tables
Wednesday	IXL R.2 Interpret Bar Graphs
Thursday	IXL R.7 Interpret Pictographs

Language

The second graders completed their mini book on Halloween collective nouns.  This week we will move onto learning about adjectives and how they describe nouns.  By learning about adjectives, the 2nd graders will be able to add them into their Opinion writings to make them more descriptive.

  Writing

The second graders are going to begin working on writing an Opinion Piece.  Each student must think of something they can convince their parents to get or do by stating their opinion and supporting their opinion with specific reasons WHY!

Projects

We continue to experiment with matter.  This week the 2nd graders watched dry ice turn from a solid into a gas as we added warm water.  Our class also transformed a solid crayon into a liquid and back to the form of a solid!  Ask your 2nd grader how our class did this experiment!  Students also tried mixing water and oil, as hard as they tried students could not keep those two liquids mixed.