Hometown Heroes

On Friday, September 9, the second grade EAST students, facilitated by Mrs. Paula Cook, had the opportunity to meet some of our Hometown Heroes. Our class was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to have a tour of the outside of the fire truck and walk through the cab of the inside. The students learned about 9/11 and the policemen and firefighters that were the heroes of that tragic day.

Each link in this paper chain symbolized the 343 firefighters who gave their lives on 9/11.

The students had their pictures taken with our Hometown Heroes.

The students made hand prints to symbolize the nearly 3,000 people who were killed on 9/11.

Here is what we will be learning this week:

Reading: We will be reading "The Surprise", this week.
Here are our vocabulary words:

guess- to try to give the answer to something when you are not sure
pile- a heap, mound, or hill of something
tomorrow- the day after today
surprised- when you didn’t know that something was going to happen
never- not ever
pleased-when you are happy or content with something


We will continue working on author's purpose. The students are still struggling with this skill, so we will look at it from a different perspective. We will also be working on sequencing and using transition words to help us understand texts. Examples of transition words are first, next, then, also, finally, last. We will be using these words in our writing this week, too!

Spelling- We will be looking at the inflected ending -ed and high frequency words.
Here are our spelling words:

1. jumped
2. pulled
3. pushed
4. crossed
5. wished
6. picked
7. house
8. never
9. took
10. these
11. off
12. funny


Language- We will become masters of common nouns and proper nouns this week. We will continue to work on complete and incomplete sentences, and the four types of sentences, though, so help your child remember those while you are reading and writing sentences at home.

Writing- Didn't those final copies look fantastic out on the wall! I was very proud of their hard work and their neat handwriting. We will be starting a new writing- "How to Make My Favorite Sandwich." Be sure to talk with your child about how you make their favorite sandwich. Be thinking of ways to make it even healthier- They might ask you how healthy their sandwich is!

Math- We will have our assessment of word problems on Thursday. We will continue working on the 'secrets' we discovered the other day with the 'start unknown' type of problems. I have some smart students who made some very big mathematical break-throughs and discoveries the other day. Good job small group! I love your thinking!

Don't forget to have your child practice math facts at Xtramath.org.

Planner- We will make our healthy meal on plates. MyPlate is a great place to learn more about the new 'food pyramid." We will also reflect on our new food logs that they (hopefully) filled out over the weekend. We will make a new bar graph to compare how the students eating has changed since learning about the food groups. The class is also really excited about creating a menu for the cafeteria one day. I will let you know what day our menu will be served in our cafeteria. We want all of the 2nd grade to eat a tray that day! Last, we will reflect on how our health has improved because of studying healthy habits. Do you see your child wanting to eat healthier? Do you see them wanting to be more active and get you active? Are they washing their hands more? Are they making it a point to eat more fruits and vegetables? If so, they are really taking ACTION during this planner!

Remember, Scholastic orders are due September 30!


I hope you have a GREAT week!