Math

LAKES
LINES

St. Thomas the

Apostle
Grand Rapids, MI
October 2, 2015
Volume 11, Issue 4

Mrs. Lakes Classroom Newsletter

Super Second Graders!
We are really rolling now in Second
Grade! What an awesome group!! Miss
Kienke is having a wonderful teaching
experience with these darlings!
Just one more week of MAP! Sorry I
forgot to send out a text reminder on
Monday night this week. I will try to
remember this week. Our last test is
Science and it is Tuesday morning. Please
make sure they get enough sleep and some
protein for breakfast. Remember that this
is their first experience with testing, and
even though I have been preparing them
for what they will see and have to do, it will
still be a new experience for them. The
MAP tests are designed to show growth, so
the scores they will get this time around
will be compared to the scored in April/May
to see their growth over the year.
Please remember your child has
homework every night Monday through
Thursday: 10 minutes of reading, Xtra
Math, and spelling practice. I do get a
report that tells when they get on Xtra
math. Let me know if you want me to send
home leveled books for your childs just
right reading. Thanks so much!

For Where Your Treasure

is, There Your Heart
Will Be Also.

Volunteers
We still need some recess and lunch
volunteers if you are able. Fridays and
Mondays we are short helpers if you are
available at alleven if you cant commit
to every week. Thanks so much!

Spelling
I tested the kids on word wall words
that they should have learned in first
grade, and each week the pretest is on the
five word wall words for the week and
words based on the phonics rule we
learned the week before. If they are all
caught up on the word wall words, they
are given a list based on how they did on
the pretest with the phonics rule. If they
are still working on word wall words, they
still get at least two words to practice the
phonics rule. So each child has an
individual list based on the words they
need to learn how to spell. The last few
weeks they have had a hard time on their
spelling tests. Please make sure they are
practicing their spelling words EVERY night
Monday-Thursday to get ready for the
spelling test on Friday. This is part of the
homework. This weeks spelling words
were based on last weeks rule: the 1-1-1
doubling rule. Next week we will
practice contractions in our spelling.

Book orders Due on Monday,

October 12, These went home today.
Use the online code GVW64 for our class.

Mrs. Lakes Classroom Newsletter Page 2

Reading/Writing

Second Grade is a little bit

different when it comes to Word Wall
Words. The words for the week
come directly from the stories we
are reading in our reading book.
Some of these are review of Word
Wall Words from last year and some
are new. I will put the words here in
the newsletter for the next two
weeks. These are also spelling words
as I mentioned if they dont know
how to spell them. This week we
learned: house, took, never,
these, off. Next week we will
learn: keep, new, mother, myself,
warm
The second graders are
enjoying writing in their journals and
we have been talking about how to
write a good sentence, making sure
it has a subject and a predicate
and also capitals and
punctuation. We are working hard
on remembering our handwriting
skills.

Religion

This week we learned about an

art print called, God Created the
Earth and we learned about Saint
Francis whose Feast Day is Sunday.
We enjoyed a special mass for
Grandparents today. Next week we will
focus on the rosary for the month of
the rosary: October. We will pray it and
learn about the mysteries.

Upcoming Events
Book Orders Due
Monday, October 12

Science and Social Studies

This week in Science we talked
about what plants need and what
purposes the parts of the plants
have. We planted some lima beans
and will give one of them sunlight and
water, one just water and one just
sunlight. Next week we will make an
adorable book where they glue the
purposes of the parts onto the paper
behind the word. We will also be
observing our plants to see how they
are growing even when they dont
have what they need.
In Social Studies we are talking
about government, especially local.

Math

This week in math we finished

our Module on Counting and
Modeling two and three digit
numbers and then started
Measuring Jacks Giant Beans with
Tens. This is a study of place value.
We will finish that next week and start
the Module: Adding on the Open
Number Line. These are strategies of
adding bigger numbers. In Number
Corner (our calendar activities) we
finished our September calendar
collector of collecting 60 minutes a
day for a total of over a thousand
minutes. This month we will collect 5
minutes a day. So last month we
looked at how many minutes go by
when the hour hand moves one
number and now we will look at how
many minutes with then minute hand
moves one number. We also use
predicting and finding patterns
and recording information with
the calendar and number lines.