Quarter 3 Week 6

 

                                                                                                           February 13, 2017

Dear Parents,

Happy Valentine’s Week!!  As has been mentioned in the last couple of blogs, since Valentine’s Day is on a school day, we will be celebrating it with a small party on Tuesday.  Students may bring in Valentines to give to their classmates.  We will pass out Valentines and play some Valentine related games on Tuesday afternoon from 3:15 till 3:55 pm.  We are keeping it very simple!!

Math

We have continued working on adding and subtracting with renaming within 1,000.  This is a very complicated standard (remember, it was started at the end of the first quarter).  All of the time has been very worthwhile, as students are really picking up on the renaming, because it is all done through decomposing and composing numbers students are really understanding how to break down and rename the different place values.  

This past week we focused on addition using branch method on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.   On Thursday students worked on subtraction using the branch method with renaming in the tens place.  Here's an example...

         762   -    43  =                          1.  Decompose numbers by place value.

        ↙↓↘         ↙ ↘                            2.  Group hundreds.  Group tens.  Group ones.

  700  60 2    40    3                          3.  Subtract hundreds.  Subtract tens.  Subtract ones.

(700 - 0) + (60 - 40) + (2 - 3)              4.  Watch out for negative differences.

     700       +    20     -     1  =            5.  Write and solve renamed equation.   

         720 - 1 = 719   

Here's the homework for the week...

Monday	Worksheet: Subtraction Branching with renaming 10’s
Tuesday	No Homework due to Valentine’s Day
Wednesday	Worksheet: Subtraction Branching with renaming 1’s and 10’s
Thursday	No Homework enjoy the long President’s Day Weekend

Language

In Language we are finishing up our work with commas in friendly letters.  Students have been practicing using commas through letter writing to Groundhog Phil, expressing their opinion of his prediction of 6 more weeks of winter.  We will assess on commas this week and move on to the punctuation mark, apostrophe.

Writing

Research, research, research...our writing has focused on researching student selected Famous People.  Students have used their chromebooks and books to fill out their notetakers.  Students have created a slide show about their Famous Person.  Each slide show includes slides on the following topics... title slide, birth date and place, childhood, reason for their fame, other interesting facts, and a resource slide.  Most students have finished this project and are working on revising and editing.  Famous People slideshows will be completed this week and ready to share.  The students have done a great job researching and creating their slide shows.

Projects

Students have been actively working on their decade time line projects.  Pairs of students are working on completing notetakers.  They are learning about the presidents, important news, inventions, transportation, music, children’s books and movies, and much more as they research their decade.  

Remember that President’s Day is coming up on Monday, February 20th, there will be no school.  Wishing everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day and a Happy President’s Day!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Bloomfield and Miss Garcia

Quarter 3 Week 5

   

                                                                               February 6, 2017

Dear Bighorns,

Mrs. Bloomfield and I can't believe we just changed the calendar pieces from January to February!!  How can we be done with the first calendar month of the year???

In math 2nd grade students have been working very hard using previously learned strategies (open number line-last week and branch models-this week) renaming the ones and tens to add and subtract within one thousand.  This work involves a lot of decomposing and composing of numbers.  Students are showing their ability with number flexibility as they are catching on very quickly.

Examples from last week…

Addition

450  +  90 = ___     1.  The next hundred after 450 is 500.

         ↙ ↘              2.  To get to 500 you need 50, so the 90 get decomposed into 50 and 40.

     50   40             3.  The renamed equation is 500 + 40 = 540.

500 + 40 = 540        4.  Check by using the open number line.

Subtraction

56  -  7 = ____     1.  The last ten before 56 is 50.

      ↙ ↘              2.  To get to 50 you need to subtract 6, so the 7 gets decomposed into 6 and 1.     

    6    1                   Then take the 6 and subtract it from the 56 to make 50.

56 -6 = 50            3.  The renamed equation is 50 - 1 = 49.

50 - 1 = 49           4.  Check by using the open number line.

Examples for this week…

Renaming the ones.

       606   +    145  =                             1.  Decompose addends by place value.

      ↙↓↘          ↙↓↘                             2.  Group hundreds.  Group tens.  Group ones.

    600  0   6   100 40  5                      3.  Add hundreds.  Add tens.  Add ones.

(600 + 100) + (0 + 40) + (6 + 5)            4.  Decompose the ones place to rename.

     700       +     40     +     11               5.  Write and solve renamed equation.          

                                         ↙ ↘

                                       10   1

     700        +     50     +     1 =  751

Renaming the tens.

         256   +    371  =                       1.  Decompose addends by place value.

        ↙↓↘         ↙↓↘                         2.  Group hundreds.  Group tens.  Group ones.

 200  50  6  300 70 1                        3.  Add hundreds.  Add tens.  Add ones

(200 + 300) + (50 + 70) + (6 + 1)     4.  Decompose the tens place to rename.

                     ↙ ↘                    5.  Decompose the tens place to rename hundreds place.

                    20 30                                6.  Write and solve renamed equation.  

500     +     120     +     7

                 ↙ ↘

              100  20

600    +    20    +    7  = 62

Homework

Due to our work in math over the next couple of weeks, 2nd grade homework for this week will be worksheets.

Language

We have moved from working on shades of meaning of words to using commas.  In 1st grade students learn about using commas in a date and using commas to separate words in a list.  This week we reviewed the 1st grade comma standard and started learning about the 2nd grade comma standard, which is using commas in the greeting and closing of friendly letters.

Writing

Second grade students have been very busy researching the famous person they selected last week.  Students have used 2 resources to research their person, filled out a note taker, and worked on creating a slide show.  Students will be finishing their slide shows this week and presenting their research to the class this coming week.  The students have been very excited about learning about their famous person!

Projects

Students have worked on their personal time lines.  Thank you for sending in some dates for some of the special events that your child has achieved during their lifetime.  Our 2nd graders have been paired and they have drawn a decade from the 20th century to explore.  Students will be researching about their decade and have a list of facts to find.  The facts include everything from the President of the United States to popular children’s movies of the decade.  Students will really start digging into this project this week.

Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is coming up on Tuesday, February 14th.  Since this holiday falls on a school day, the 2nd grade team will enjoy a few activities at the end of the day.  Our plan is to have students pass out Valentines (please be sure that your child sends one to everyone), play Valentine Bingo, and share appreciations.  Miss Garcia and myself wish to have the children enjoy the holiday with our students in a very simple manner.  

FYI...The Oasis Student Council will be selling Candy Grams.  Although Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd graders will not be allowed to buy them, parents may purchase them at the front office.  

Wishing you all a great week!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Bloomfield and Miss Garcia

Quarter 3 -- Week 4

Dear Parents,

How can we be starting the 4th week of the third quarter, ending January, and beginning February???

Math

Our work in Math last week and for the next few weeks will be focusing on addition and subtraction with renaming.  We will be using the same strategies (open number line, branch method, and partial sums and differences) that students have already been taught.

This week we worked on decomposing and composing ones and tens to help us make the next ten or next 100 so that we could easily add.

Here's what it looked like...

Example 1:  Adding ones by making the next ten.

56  +  7 = ____          1.  The next ten after 56 is 60.

       ↙ ↘                 2.  To get to 60 you need 4, so the 7 gets decomposed into 4 and 3.     

     4    3                      Then take the 4 and compose it with the 56 to make 60.

60 + 3 = 63                  3.  The renamed equation is 60 + 3 = 63.

Example 2:  Adding tens by making the next hundred.

450  +  90 = ___        1.  The next hundred after 450 is 500.

         ↙ ↘                  2.  To get to 500 you need 50, so the 90 get decomposed into 50 and

     50   40                   40.  Then take the 50 and compose it with the 450 to make 500.

500 + 40 = 540          3.  The renamed equation is 500 + 40 = 540.

After solving the equation, students used the open number strategy to check their answers.

Homework

As was mentioned last week homework for the week will be worksheets because the standards being worked on are not on IXL.  This will be the case for the next few weeks.

Writing

Our work in writing is moving into informative writing.  We are learning how to research and will use the information to create a slide show on a famous person.  Students have already selected their famous person and we will start researching this week.

Language

It's all about vocabulary in language.  Students have been learning about synonyms (words that have the same meaning).  We have been learning about and using a thesaurus and thesaurus.com to find stronger words.  Students have also been working on ordering groups of synonyms by intensity.  We are incorporating some of our new vocabulary words into our speaking and writing.

Projects

Our Timeline Project has begun!!  Students finished their timelines of Martin Luther King.  They are now making a personal timelines.  Last week we learned about time periods that include a century and decade.  We looked at some videos to get a sense of how things have changed in the last 100 years.  These week students will pick a decade to become an expert on.  The decades will be from 1900 to 2000, so students will be working with a partner.

Valentine’s Day    

Valentine’s Day is coming up on Tuesday, February 14th.  Since this holiday falls on a school day the 2nd grade team will enjoy a few activities at the end of the day.  Our plan is to have students pass out Valentines (please be sure that your child sends one to everyone), play Valentine Bingo, and share appreciations.  Mrs Bloomfield and I wish to have the children enjoy the holiday in a very simple manner.  

FYI...The Oasis Student Council will be selling Candy Grams.  Although Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd graders will not be allowed to buy them, parents may purchase them however they will only be sold during the lunch hour from a student council member.

Wishing everyone  a great end of January and beginning of February!!

Sincerely,

Anne Bloomfield

and

Shannon Garcia