Week 4- Busy no more? NAH!

Of course we are busy!! Would you expect any less? We had an incredibly busy week last week. First, we had Grandparent's Day. It was a HUGE success, with CHE hosting over 350 grandparents on Thursday morning. I believe this is the largest number of grandparents to ever attend at our school. It was a pleasure to meet so many students' grandparents and share a little about what we are learning in 2nd grade. Then on Friday our Hometown Heroes were honored by 2nd grade EAST. The class was lucky enough to meet three firefighters. After eating cookies, punch, and reading kid-made, heartfelt thank you cards, they showed the class all the equipment on their truck. The students then got to walk through the cab of the fire truck. With a little arm twisting (but not much!), the firefighters turned on the sirens and blew the LOUD air horn as they pulled away from the school. What an exciting day! I will be posting pictures soon! We owe Mrs. Paula Cook a great big THANK YOU for organizing and hosting this EAST event! You are awesome, Mrs. Cook!


Hopefully, our week will be just as busy, but not quite as eventful as we concentrate on some deep learning this week. One big event is our Parent-Teacher Conferences that will be held on Thursday, September 15, at 3:30-6:30 p.m. There will be a PTA meeting at 6:00 in the multi-purpose room. I encourage you to become a part of this organization. It is vital to our school because it provides so many resources that the students benefit from!

Here is what we will be learning this week:

Reading: We will be looking at long e words, word pictures, and rhythm and rhyme in our story, "Three Little Bikers", this week.
Here are our vocabulary words:


1. signals- anything that warns or directs, such as a light or a hand motion
2. steep- having a high slope or angle
3. trail- a path
4. gravel- small stones or pebbles
5. giggled- laughed
6. gully- a small valley made by running water
7. soared- flew upward
8. crept- moved slowly


Please work with your child on making a sentence using the word. Some students are still giving definitions on the test!


We will also be working on author's purpose. It's as easy as P.I.E: Persuade, Inform, and Entertain! This is continued from last week. We just barely touched on it because of all of the events happening last week. We will REALLY become master's at this skill this week. Additionally, we are going to learn one of the most important skills of the year: How to read a passage. This will be the foundation for summarizing, main idea, outlining, note taking, and research in later years. Yes- 2nd grade is where this starts!


Spelling- Our focus will be on long e spelled ee and ea.
Here are our spelling words:

1. deep
2. seen
3. free
4. leaf
5. meal
6. team
7. each
8. lunch
9. their
10. through
11. would
12. could

Be sure to check out Spelling City. You can play games and take practice tests. You can find the list at Spelling City

Language- We will be covering the types of sentences a final time before moving on to common and proper nouns. Be sure to have your child sing the "Noun Song" for you! You will find yourself humming it, I promise! :)

Writing- We will continue with our "What Makes a Good Friend?" writing- We are ALMOST finished. They will be ready for Parent-Teacher conferences on Thursday.

Math- word problems- Boy, are these hard! I have taught the kids how to CUB their answers and we have learned some ways to help us solve problems. Please refer to the posters if your child needs extra help.


cub it

Word Problem Types


We will review result unknown and change unknown word problems on Monday. Then we will add start unknown to the types of word problems. Please help your child each night with their homework. Remember, they CAN use calculators. That is one strategy for solving word problems, however, I encourage students to find other ways to solve problems before resorting to the calculator. They can use their 100 chart, draw a picture, use base 10 block pictures, use manipulatives, or use a math equation.


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

Planner- We will continue learning about the five food groups and how they help our body grow. We will be examining our food logs to see what food groups we ate from. We will then analyze our eating habits and set some goals for ourselves. Hopefully, these goals will include making some healthier eating choices- And yes, this includes me!!
We will also be documenting our exercise in an exercise log. Please help your child remember to fill out the log each night. We will be looking at ways we can improve in our activity areas after we complete this. It will be due next Monday.

Last, don't forget about our Scholastic Book Orders. You can order online by using the instructions below. It's a great way for our class to get new books and get your child reading!

Online Ordering Information">

Thanks again for your support! Let me know if you like the blog by leaving a comment on our class blog!

Alisha Stevens