Family Math Night

Hi Parents! I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! I wanted to take a little time to catch everyone up on all of the exciting projects and activities that we have been doing in our classroom. We have really enjoyed creating the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) design briefs this year on maps, habitats and our latest one was with our Kindergarten friends in Mrs. McDonald’s Class. Last Friday we had a blast working in the lab. The children were given approximately 45 minutes to plan and design a penguin that could stand on its own using only the provided materials. My class did a wonderful job including the kindergarten buddies in the project. The penguins are displayed in the library for all to enjoy.

Testing Tidbits: This week starts the beginning of semester testing, where has the time gone?? We will begin with the reading test on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tomorrow we will do some review in class. The test will focus on comprehension of fiction and nonfiction text as well as some questions where they will have to apply their phonetic strategies with reading and spelling.Each testing day, we will begin at 8:30. There will be no homework during testing but I do encourage you all to keep up the nightly reading routine. We will also send home the Interactive Journals which are a great review resource to use at home. Please make sure your child has had a good night’s sleep and has had a hearty breakfast. The children work up an appetite so a morning snack is encouraged too.

On Tuesday, Jan. 31 we will take the Science benchmark. Living systems (habitats and man-made and natural influences on habitats), weather and seasonal changes. weathering and erosion, and scientific investigation (making observations, predictions, classifying items, collecting and analyzing data) will be the emphasis.

Math testing is on Wed., Feb. 1st. Here are some of the math skills that will be measured on this test. *Recalling addition and subtraction facts, estimating and finding sums and differences, solving one and two-step story problems, fact families, calendar questions, graphing questions, reading a thermometer, patterns, ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd), rounding to the nearest 10, comparing numbers (<,>, =), counting backwards by 10s, counting forward by 2s, 5s, 10s, equality        (2+3= 4+ ? ) and odd and even numbers.

Social Studies will be tested on Friday, Feb. 3rd. The major focus of this test will be on geography. If you get time at home, it would be beneficial to have your child practice locating the 7 continents, 5 oceans, Great Lakes, Rocky and Appalachian Mtns., James and Mississippi Rivers, and Rio Grande. We will go over this in class but I found a website with review questions that would be great to use. http://star.spsk12.net/socialscience/3/2ndGradeGeog/2ndGradeGeog.htm

I hope this helps and doesn’t overwhelm you! We are prepared and will do our best on the tests! I won’t be able to give you immediate feedback on how your child does. The tests are sent to Central Office where they will be scored and assessment scores will be available around Feb. 10th. The tests will not be averaged into report card grades. The purpose of the tests is to check for understanding on grade level content and to give us information on how to better meet the needs of the students going forward for the remainder of the year.

Thank you for all that you do at home!!

Stefanie Tellmann

Here is a link to some activities that you may complete at home, if you wish. They all relate to our reading story this week, Pumpkin Fiesta H.W. enrichment.

Here are some links to stories that you can listen to online.

Mr. Putter and Tabby story

Arthur stories

Variety of stories

Mem Fox stories

Robery Munsch books

TumbleBooks

Reading is Fundamental

Animals in Winter- National Geographic Young Explorers Magazine

Here are some activities for those interested in extending the skills and topics that relate to our reading story this week, Hedgehog Bakes a Cake.  Hedgehog Bakes a Cake homework activities

Hi Boys and Girls,

I know that the math page “Can You See it?” is challenging for some of you so just do the best you can and solve the ones that you can, and we will go over and see how you did tomorrow. I’m sitting here trying to solve them myself and I understand that some of them are trickier than others. Good luck and do your best! We will discuss the concept tomorrow.

Here is a fun way to reinforce the parts of a friendly letter…   Friendly Letter

An erosion game   Erosion Game

We had a blast last Friday at Tredegar!

I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend! This week we will be learning where the 7 continents and 5 oceans are located. Yes, that’s correct, I said 5 oceans!! I’m attaching a link for the children to practice using online flashcards. continent and ocean flashcards

Here are two practice quizzes:

1.  continent and ocean online quiz

2. world map practice quiz