Monday, October 26, 2015

Day 38 - Classroom Summary - Ms. Varrell - Pine Glen Grade 2

This post first appeared on Ms. Varrell's blog
Matthew K.

Here's what we did this week...

In math we learned about arrays and repeated addition number sentences. An array is an arrangement of items in equal groups (equal rows and and equal columns) to form a rectangle. Here is a picture of an array:


We learned that when you read an array, you read it by rows and then by columns (what is contained in each row). For example, in the array above you would look at the 4 rows first and say "Four groups of five" or you might call it a "4 by 5 array."  We also wrote repeated addition number sentences to match our arrays. This one would be written as the repeated number sentence:

5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 20
The blanks signify the number of rows and the numbers signify how many are in each row. We practiced working with story problems using these types of examples:
  • books on shelves
  • garden vegetables in rows
  • toys on shelves 

We also discovered that if you turn, or rotate, the array the number sentence changes but the sum stays the same. Look around and you may find all kinds of arrays!











In Fundations our focus was on reviewing the suffixes-s, -es, -ed, -ing and introducing the new suffixes -er and -est. We also began learning about parts of speech. We reviewed nouns and verbs and noticed that certain suffixes are used with nouns and others are used with verbs. There are some suffixes that change verbs INTO nouns! We will continue our work with suffixes next week.

In Miss Varrell's reading group we focused our learning on making text-to-self connections. We used our read-pause-reflect and TTYP (turn to your partner) strategies to help us practice making those connections. On Thursday we spent some time working with vocabulary to help us with our comprehension. We learned about a special group of words known ashomophones. Homophones are words that sound exactly the same but when we read or write them, they are spelled differently and they have very different meanings. We did some brainstorming and produced some 'leafy homophones' to decorate the second grade hallway. Pictures of our work will be in next week's blog.

In Writing Workshop we learned a new strategy to help us think of topics to write about: sketching. We learned a few weeks ago that authors often use different ways to come up with ideas to write. Some draw a picture first and some use their memories to come up with topics. But this week we learned that sometimes authors just sketch what they see right in front of them. A pencil sketch can lead to a fiction story or it can lead to a nonfiction story. It all depends how much imagination we put into our thinking. We did some sketching in three locations around Pine Glen to come up with some ideas for new stories. We used clipboards, pencils and plain white drawing paper. We will share our stories next week!

In Science we are just finishing up our Explain Everything projects on trees. We have been working hard to apply what we have read and researched to our work. Here we are using our webs and trees books as we draft what we want to say into our slideshows:










Weekend Challenge Activity: Draw an array of 30 jack-o-lanterns and include a repeated number sentence with it. Bring it to school on Monday to share with the class during math time!

Parent F.Y.I.

  • Our field trip to the Discovery Museum is this Friday, October 30. Information will be sent home this week regarding lunches, etc. All permission slips have been sent in--thank you!
  • Our chaperones for the upcoming field trip will be Mrs. Davidson and Mrs. Saia. Thank you to all who volunteered. We will draw two new names in the spring for our next trip.
  • Room Parents will be contacting you this week regarding Halloween snack plans.
  • There will be no costumes worn at any time this week however we will have Crazy Hat Day at the end of the week (see below). I also greatly appreciate you limiting your child's candy consumption at school to no more than 2 sweets a day with his/her lunch, if possible. As I'm sure you are aware, Halloween is a candy-licious treat for children everywhere, with not the most 'focused' results for parents and teachers!
  • Friday, October 30 has been declared Crazy Hat day at Pine Glen by our school council! However, as we will be on our field trip for most of Friday, you may want your child to wear his/her crazy hat to school but leave it in class until we return from our trip around 1:30PM. It is completely up to you. :)

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