Mrs. Bice's Second Grade

Readers Workshop

This week we continued our work on increasing our fluency. Readers learned that dialogue tags (he replied, he whined, he yelled, etc.) can help readers read dialogue with expression. It’s important for us to pay attention to the tags to know how the character was feeling and we can “talk like the characters.” Readers also learned how to match their voices to the meaning of the text. They have loved working on their fluency and feeling empowered as readers! Encourage your child to pay attention to the dialogue and practice their fluency.

Math Workshop

Mathematicians worked on a ton of different skills this week. Word problems are a HUGE part of second grade. Now that they are able to read problems on their own, it’s important for them to learn how to carefully read a number story. We worked on some strategies to read those problems carefully as well as how to set up a problem to solve it. Money and time are sprinkled in throughout the curriculum and are not a huge focus right now but students will be practicing these skills several times each week in one of their stations during Workshop.

Mathematicians also practiced using an open number line. This video does a great job of explaining how students use an open number line in 2nd grade. This is a great tool for students to use but they do need to have a strong number sense in skip counting (5,’s, 10’s, 100’s etc). These are skills that should have been mastered in the beginning of 2nd grade but some students still have a difficult time! Please work with your child on skip counting at home!

2nd Grade Musical

Your children are excited to share the treasured story, “Tikki Tikki Tembo” with you on Tuesday, January 28th, at 7:00p.m. The program is free and all family and friends are invited! Please have kids at Forest Hills Northern High School Auditorium at 6:40 pm. Tuesday morning we will head to FHN High School to have a dress rehearsal at 9:00 am. Please be sure to arrive on time so your child does not miss the bus.

All students will be dressed as villagers who live in Tikki’s town. This is the costume:

• On top, students should wear a plain, white shirt.
• On bottom, students should wear dark colored pants.
• Tie a brightly colored sash around your child’s waist. Feel free to use something like a winter scarf, an old necktie, or any long piece of fabric.
• Please dress students in comfortable shoes.

Chinese New Year

We had a wonderful assembly to celebrate the new year! There were performers, a lion dance and a dragon! What a great cultural opportunity for all!

MAP Testing

All students have finished (YAY!) the reading and math MAP test. They were troopers in answering all of the questions and trying their very best. Your child’s MAP score for reading and math will be shared with you in the next few weeks. Please celebrate your child’s growth! We will take the test again at the end of the school year.

Valentine’s Day

We will have a short but sweet Valentine’s Day Celebration on Friday, February 14 from 2:50-3:45. Feel free to stop by! Students will also pass out Valentine’s in the morning. Your child may (but does not have to) bring in Valentine’s for their peers. I will attach our class roster to my weekly email, and send a hard copy home! We have spoken a lot about gratitude this year so I am hoping the students can think of Valentine’s Day as a day to show others gratitude and how thankful we are for their friendship!

We will also participate in a da of service on Valentine’s Day. We will use this day to partner with Kids Food Basket to assemble, prepare, and load as many bags of trail mix as possible to help children affected by hunger right here in our local community, and even within our school. From now through February 13, 2020, we are seeking food donations in preparation for our Day of Service learning. Students will also be decorating bags for the Kids Food Basket organization. Please bring items to school at any time and place them in the bins/boxes outside our classroom and inside the front doors of school. The following items are needed: large containers of raisins, bags of small pretzel twists, Cheerios (original and plain only- off brand okay), and cheese crackers (goldfish or cheezits work best).