Week of October 23-27

Grammar: This week's focus will be on root words. A basic word to which affixes (prefixes and suffixes) are added is called a root word because it forms the basis of a new word. The root word is also a word in its own right. For example, the word lovely consists of the word love and the suffix -ly.

Spelling: Spelling this week will focus on r-Controlled o syllable patterns. R-controlled a syllable is a type of syllable that changes the way a vowel sounds. It’s called an r-controlled syllable because the r controls the vowel sound. It is important to learn about r-controlled syllables because many words contain these sounds. Being able to recognize and read r-controlled syllables will allow you to read many more words. Here is the regular word list: learn, girl, turn, heard, twirl, churn, person, dirty, turnip. The high frequency words are 2nd grade words that need to be spelled correctly when writing. They are: another, because, got, head, really, saw, thought. Some students have a modified list: fern, term, herd, perk, sir, stir, first, winter, monster. The sight words they should practice are: got, saw, around

Reading: We will be finishing up Sequence of Events using signal words (first, second, next, last). Sequencing is one of many skills that contributes to students' ability to comprehend what they read. Sequencing refers to the identification of the components of a story — the beginning, middle, and end — and also to the ability to retell the events within a given text in the order in which they occurred. The ability to sequence events in a text is a key comprehension strategy, especially for narrative texts. Sequencing is also an important component of problem-solving across subjects. We will then focus on how to answer a question using the 5 W's (who, what, when, where, why).

Writing: This 9 weeks focus will be Informational Writing. Informational writing is a type of nonfiction writing that conveys information about something, which means it is factual. Many examples of informational writing can be found in newspapers, almanacs, and reference books.Another difference between informational writing and other forms of nonfiction is that it does not involve characters. Informational writing does not generally focus on a person's life in the way a biography does. Instead, it usually provides information about the natural or social world . This week we will start a Spider Informative writing piece.

Math: Our focus this week will be adding and subtracting to 100 using different strategies such as base 10 blocks, decomposing, and chunking on a number line. Refer to the pink fold-able that you were given at conferences if you need guidance. It is different from just the regular algorithm that most of us were taught.

Social Studies: We are moving on from Creek and Cherokee Native Americans to learning about Sequoyah. Sequoyah, a Cherokee Indian with ties to Georgia and Oklahoma, did something no other person in recorded history has done. He created a system of writing for an unwritten language. In 1819, Sequoyah started work on a written version of the Cherokee language. He developed a character for each syllable in the language. A syllable included a single sound, like a vowel, a consonant, or a diphthong. Eventually Sequoyah created a total of 86 characters, devising what's known as a syllabary. Cherokees quickly caught on to Sequoyah's practical system for writing their language.

Important Dates:

November 6-10: Book Fair

November 6-17: Canned Food Drive

November 7: Student Holiday/No School

November 9: Veterans Day Walk/8:00am/Harvest lunch for 2nd grade

November 20-24: Thanksgiving Holiday/No School