Mrs. Marrs’ 2nd Grade Newsletter for the

week of January 22nd-26th

Monday

22

Tuesday

23

Wednesday

24

Thursday

25

Friday

26

Library

B Specials

Specials: A - PE** B - Music C - Spanish/Art* *Spanish: Monday, Tuesday Art: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday **On PE days please make sure your child has appropriate closed-toe footwear

C Specials

“Meek Time”

(Weekly life skills lesson with Ms.

Meek)

A Specials

B Specials

STEM collaboration

with Mrs. Kraus

C Specials

Spelling Test Unit 3, Week 5

Homework Due

(Homework packet coming home for Unit 4 Week 1)

Upcoming Events: January 22nd-26th: Missoula Theatre

Wednesday, February 14th: Valentine’s Day Party (11:45am-1:15pm)

What we are working on this week: Reading: This week’s selection is “A Weed is a Flower.” The comprehension skill we will be working on

is understanding cause and effect relationships in a story. The comprehension strategies we will be

working on are identifying the main idea of a passage and supporting details, and making predictions.

The Genre is Biography.

I have also added several non-fiction article selections to every child’s frontrow account so that your

child can continue practicing these reading skills and strategies at home with non-fiction texts. I have

also assigned written responses wherein students are expected to write (type) their written responses

to the articles they read. Students receive pride punches from me for their typed responses. We will be

learning this crucial skill (written responses to text) from now until the end of the school year. Our class

code for frontrow is: marrs9 https://student.frontrowed.com/#login

AR:

The AR requirements for third quarter have two new school-wide components. In addition to meeting

their AR point goal and having an overall comprehension of at least 85%, each student will also need to

have .5 of a point of a nonfiction book, and .5 of a point of a Spanish book. Most AR books in second

grade are worth about .5, so it is essentially one nonfiction book and one Spanish book. The nonfiction

book must be in your child’s AR level, but the Spanish book may be any AR level. If your child does not

meet their nonfiction or Spanish book requirement, they have not met their AR goal.

In order to stay on track to meet their AR goal, children should be taking (AND passing at an 85% or

higher) 2-3 AR books a week! Please send any books that are ready for a test to school in the AR bag.

These bags will stay in backpacks until it is time to take an AR test. Kids can take AR tests on “C days” in

my class, during intervention time, and on the library day.

Spelling: We are working on reading and spelling words with added –er and -est

Spelling List 1: Challenge words

sooner hottest happier smallest angrier / angriest

soonest busier happiest fatter straighter

hotter busiest smaller fattest straightest

Below is the direct link to the spelling city words for this week:

https://www.spellingcity.com/view-spelling-list.html?listId=2189910

Spelling List 2: (A contraction is made of two words with one or more letters left out. An apostrophe is

a mark that shows that some letters have been left out).

I’d she’ll I’ve weren’t you’ll

he’d you’re they’ll we’ve wouldn’t

*Kids working on list 2 do not need to practice the challenge words from list 1

Below is the direct link to the spelling city words for this week: https://www.spellingcity.com/view-spelling-list.html?listId=48572281

*The three dictated sentences on the bottom of each spelling test contain several kindergarten-2nd

grade level sight words. At this point in the year the spelling of these frequently used sight words should

be accurate majority of the time. Please have your child practice the K-2 sight words he/she misspelled

on the weekly spelling test, or any sight word that you notice is misspelled on class work or homework.

(Examples of kindergarten-2nd grade level sight words: always, been, because, come, could, don’t, does,

gave, going, have, know, said, there, those, where, were, what, with, which, your.)

Writing: We are continuing our work with our “How To” writing unit. We are learning about the new

organizational structure for “How To” writing, which consists of three organized paragraphs. The first

paragraph is an introduction that consists of three sentences where students have a hook to grab the

reader’s attention, introduce the topic, and list the materials needed. In the second paragraph students

list their steps in order using transitional words such as first, next, then and last. In the conclusion

paragraph students end their piece with a question for the reader and a hope. With this unit we are

focusing heavily on use of transitional words, vocabulary, and sentence structure.

We will also continue learning about the “Four Traits of Writing” and the role those traits play in our

writing. Those traits are Ideas, Organization, Style, and Conventions. To help with spelling I made every

child a sight word dictionary where they are beginning to document sight words and high frequency

vocabulary words that they use frequently in their writing. The sight word dictionary will be used as a

tool that kids can independently look back to for the correct spelling of a word while they are writing. At

this point in the year my expectation is that students always begin their sentences with a capital letter,

and that they always end their sentences with a punctuation mark.

Science Unit- Forces, Motions and Machines: We are starting a unit on Forces, Motions, and Machines.

Next week we will be learning about forces and motion and STEM, and we will be learning about

different simple machines in class (inclined plane, lever, pulley, wheel and axles, screws, and wedges).

Math (In Mrs. Marchant’s Classroom) Dear Parents, The year is now approaching its half way point and your students are well engaged and making good progress toward their goals but they need your help. I have attached our 2nd grade Mathematics Standards. We have annotated objectives and skills your students should master by the end of the year. For example, our first objective is for your students to understand number patterns, functions and algebraic structures. Skills you can practice with them include counting by 1's , 2's, 5's, and 10's all the way to 500 or 1000. They should recognize and be able to write numbers up to 1000. They need to practice addition and subtraction problems until they can solve up to 30 single-digit problems in less than a minute with few or no mistakes. They should be able to compare three-digit numbers. They need to practice adding and subtracting two-digit numbers. Finally, they need to practice reading and using their reading skills to solve real-world, story problems. These can be simple problems like adding items in a short shopping list. Also, look over the other standards and try to find examples around the house to help your students understand and perform the corresponding skill sets. I understand that it might seem daunting to cover all this material but I can assure you that your efforts will pay big dividends in the long term. You don't have to do it all at once. Just concentrate on one skill at a time and try to make a game out of it. Give praise and encouragement for every small improvement. As you do this, you will be re-enforcing the work they have been doing in class. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Mrs. Marchant.

Parent Volunteers:

Thank you for your interest in volunteering in the classroom! I could use people the most during my literacy block, from 9:30-11:10am Monday-Thursday and during writing from 11:50am-12:50pm. If you would like to volunteer please email me the day and time, and I will add you to my calendar. I truly appreciate your help in the classroom! *Please note that from 2:00-3:00pm every day your child is next door in Mrs. Marchant’s class for math in Spanish. (And every

other day from 3:00-3:30pm for science and/or social studies). Mrs. Marchant welcomes all parent volunteers as well! You do

not need to know how to speak Spanish to volunteer in her class. If you want to volunteer in Mrs. Marchant’s class while your

child is there from 2:00-3:00pm, just let me know so I can add you to the schedule!

Volunteer Schedule

Monday 22nd Tuesday 23rd Wednesday 24th

Thursday 25th Friday 26th

9:10am-10:00am: Literacy

9:10am-10:00am: Literacy

9:10am-10:00am: Literacy

9:10am-10:00am: Literacy

9:10am-10:00am: Weekly library appointment

10:15am-10:40am: Weekly life skills lesson with our counselor

10:15am-10:40am: Weekly life skills lesson with our counselor

10:15am-11:10am: Literacy

10:15am-11:10am: Literacy

10:15am-11:10am: Spelling test and selection test

11:45am-12:50pm: Writing

11:45am-12:50pm: Writing

11:45am-12:50pm: Writing

11:45am-12:50pm: Writing

11:45am-12:50pm: Writing

2:00pm-3:00pm: Math (In Mrs. Marchant’s room)

2:00pm-3:00pm: Math (In Mrs. Marchant’s room)

2:00pm-3:00pm: Math (In Mrs. Marchant’s room)

2:00pm-3:00pm: Math (In Mrs. Marchant’s room)

2:00pm-3:00pm: Math (In Mrs. Marchant’s room)

3:00pm-3:35pm: Science (In Mrs. Marchant’s room)

3:00pm-3:35pm: Science (In Mrs. Marchant’s room)

3:00pm-3:35pm: Science (In Mrs. Marrs’ room)

3:00pm-3:35pm: Science (STEM collaboration)

3:00pm-3:35pm: Science (In Mrs. Marrs’ room)