Unit of Study: Balls
Children enjoy playing with balls in many different ways. They throw, catch, kick and roll them with delight. We investigated different kinds of balls, how people use balls, what they are made of, what is inside them and if they can bounce.
Literacy: We read a variety of books and compared how athletes play different ball games, and the equipment needed to play each sport. Students also drew a picture of their favorite ball and named/wrote the first letter they heard in that word.
Math: Students graphed their favorite ball and discussed which column had more/less. They also counted ping-pong balls and sorted them by color, as well as, sorting other ball types from smallest to biggest. Students also compared which ball bounces the highest and lowest.
SEL: Students identified the feelings happy, sad, surprised, scared and angry. Students learned that people could have different feelings about the same thing.
We hope everyone has a wonderful Spring Break.
Literacy: We have been reading books with a theme of fun with imagination. During this time we have been focusing on students recalling characters, setting, beginning, middle and end. Next, we will be moving onto an author study. We will be studying Bob Graham while focusing on point of view..
Writing : In writing we just finished our informational animal writings. We were reading informational books about animals, while taking notes on important information we learned. We utilized our notes in order to write a paragraph with an introduction, two facts and a conclusion. Now we are going to move onto writing biographies. We will start by writing an autobiography about ourselves.
Math: We are finishing Module 5 which focuses on place value concepts to compare, add and subtract. Students have been using their understanding of tens and ones in order to apply different strategies when adding and subtracting. We will be moving onto Module 6 which focuses on attributes of shapes while building on their place value skills.
Science: Currently we are in our behavior of sound unit. The big question we are exploring is, “how do drums and guitars make sound?”. At the end of this unit students will be building their own instruments.
SEL: We are in our Empathy and Kindness unit. In this unit students explore the value of kindness and learn how to recognize and demonstrate kindness across varied situations.
This month we are having so much participating in Book March Madness. Each day of March we are reading a new book, be sure to ask your child about the book of the day. We are excited to continue watching your child grow. We are so appreciative of the at home support in your child’s learning!
Reading: As we begin the third trimester we are working our way through both fiction and nonfiction text sets so we can finish the year strong. Folk Tales are up first and the children have been enjoying learning about tricksters and what we can learn from these stories that have been told for hundreds of years.
Writing: We are continuing our animal research and writing our books. The goal is to have the books complete and ready for reading by Spring Break.
Math: Second graders are learning so many strategies for adding and subtracting numbers within 1,000. Please be sure to refer to the Apply Book for the best ways to understand our learning and help your child.
Science: Our focus is on the Properties of Matter, including the three states of matter: liquids, solids and gases. We are learning in groups and individually, doing experiments and sorts...so much hands on fun!
SEL: We are in our unit with a focus on Empathy and Kindness. We are looking for ways to be empathetic toward others and are thinking of ways we can show kindness in everything we do.
Be sure to mark your calendar for our Music Performance lead by Mrs. Bender on Wednesday, April 30th at 6:30. It will bea fabulous way for you to see all the amazing things your child does in school music class!
March has been a blast in the LMTC! Students voted for their favorite Monarch award book. THERE'S A GHOST IN THIS HOUSE by Oliver Jeffers was our winner!! We had a great time learning about voting and putting it into practice.
Kinder: Responding creatively to stories we read aloud together.
1st: Making predictions while reading stories and digital citizenship topics such as finding media balance.
2nd: We finished up our unit on finding nonfiction books in the library. Students are finding books independently and doing great! We are now learning about digital citizenship topics, such as creating strong passwords.
Please encourage your students to return any overdue books before Spring Break. If students have all their books returned, they can check out an extra book to read during break!
The LMTC is so lucky to have such wonderful readers in our school! The amount of participation in our “Read Across America Week” was at a record high with tons of students completing the Reading Bingo Game, dressing up for theme days, and engaging in different literacy activities in the classroom. One of the most fun moments of this week was when each student got to switch to a different teacher to participate in a read aloud in that classroom with different students throughout the school. The students also had so much fun racing to be winners in the “Books are Fun” incentive. We are so happy that through this incentive all students in our school will receive a free book and so many students will be the recipients of a treasure box full of books.
We have also officially ended our Bluestem Award incentive. The LMTC is busy totaling up all the books and meeting individually with each student to ensure the number of books read is accurate. As soon as the numbers are finalized, the LMTC will be highlighting students who read all 20 and sending invitations to the students who read 6 or more books to be invited to our celebration.
We also have begun introducing to the 4th and 5th graders the Battle of the Books Incentive. Students are busy forming groups and selecting which books they will read to prepare for the Battles that begin in May. The students were very excited to hear that 3 out of the 4 books are Bluestem Titles for the next school year therefore they can get a very early jump on reading next year’s books while competing in this year’s Battle of the Books.