Weekly Updates SY 23-24

Week 5 though it was shorter, this week was so much fun! Check out some highlights from this week!

SEL:

• This week in SEL we focused on happiness. What does happiness look like at school and home? What makes us happy at school?
• We also spoke about how we can share our emotions with adults and peers.

Math:

• This week students had a "snowball fight" to review Chapter 1 math concepts!
• This week, Students took an assessment on Tuesday for Chapter 1.
• This week we started Chapter 2- Addition and Subtraction. Students are enjoying learning about mental additions. Students created addition and subtraction expressions and equations.
• This week students enjoyed doing a math project where they came up with their own word problems and wrote the expressions to go along with it.

Foundations:

• This week students completed a Spelling Check.
• This week students worked on word operations. This means that students took a word and changed it to create new words. Students changed consonant letters at the beginning or end of the given word (ex. same→tame→tale)

Reading/ Writing:

• This week students began plotting points in read alouds and independent reading books. 
• This week students identified the beginning, events, the high point and ending of the fiction book “How bad could it be?”
• This week the class started working on narrative writing skills. Students identified a problem at school and then created solution attempts that students might take to solve their problem.

Science/ Social Studies:

• This week for science, we investigated the question: Why aren’t new Chalta trees growing in the Bengal Tiger Reserve? Students are having fun investigating systems in Bengal Forest.
• This week for social studies, students compared daily life long ago and life today. Students took a closer look at schools, homes, computers, and communities long ago and how they are the same or different now.

Week 6

The second graders had a fantastic week of school! Check out the highlights from this week!

SEL:

• This week in SEL we focused on the importance of sharing our feelings with friends and adults. Students drew feeling pictures based on the focused questions. 

Math:

• This week we learned strategies to do mental Addition, Subtraction, and strategies to make 100 and 1000. The class loved playing the games where they were making 100s and 1000s. 

Foundations:

• This week students found CVVC, CVCe, and oddball words in their independent reading books.
• This week students worked with their partners to sort CVVC and CVCe words. 
• This week the focus was also to understand that  long ‘a’ can be spelled with the ‘a-e’ as in ‘bake’ and also with ‘ai’ as in wait. 

Reading/ Writing:

• This week students focused on understanding the characters, their feelings, and traits. 
• This week students showed their understanding of the lessons by reading the book ‘The Spelling Bee’ and identified the characters' feelings and traits with evidence from their reading. 
• This week the class continued working on narrative writing. Students identified the problem, setting, solution, and attempts they might have made to solve the problem.

Science/ Social Studies:

• This week for science, we continued our investigation of the question: Why aren’t new Chalta trees growing in the Bengal Tiger Reserve? 
• This week students read “My Nature Book” and made their observations on different habitats that will help us learn about the broadleaf forest habitat in the Bengal Tiger Reserve.
• This week the essential question for social studies was ‘Why did people move to new places?’ Based on the reading, students also answered the question  ‘What did immigrants and Black Americans who moved to Chicago have in common?’

This week students had their first visit to the library! Student’s checked out books and will be able to do this again on Wednesday!

Week 7:

Hello 103 Families here is the weekly post for Week 7 (sorry for the delay),

SEL:

• This week in SEL Students got to know their new SEL partners by asking them thick questions. 
• The students worked with their partners and also participated in whole group discussions. 
• The focused questions were: Why is it important that we treat one another with respect, both in the classroom and on the playground? How can we respect each other's boundaries? 

Math:

• This week we worked on understanding word problems and coming up with the expression of the problem.
• Students also learned part- whole bar model strategies to solve the addition and subtraction word problems.

Foundations:

• This week students took a spell check in foundations based on short and long ‘a’ vowel spelling patterns.
• They started short and long ‘o’ sounds. They sorted CVC, CVVC and CVCe words in their foundations book.
• Also, students searched and recorded short and long ‘o’ sounds from their independent reading books. 

Reading/ Writing:

• This week in reading, we focused on finding Text Evidence.
• The class read the book ‘True Colors’. They showed their understanding of the characters, their traits, and finding text evidence for those traits. 
• In writing, students learned about dialogues and added dialogues to their writing Graphic Organizer as well as sensory details.

Science/ Social Studies:

• For science, we continued our investigation of the question: Why aren’t new Chalta trees growing in the Bengal Tiger Reserve? 
• This week's Investigation Question was: How do scientists study habitats?  Such as the habitat in the Bengal Tiger Reserve.
• This week students got a chance to be plant scientists. They investigated the habitat outside the school. This helped them understand how scientists in the Bengal Tiger Reserve do their investigations and research. 
• In Social Studies, The essential question was "How do families and their past shape our community?"
• Students learned about “how families share cultures” and “what are their favorite traditions to follow”.

Week 8:

Happy Friday Room 103 Families! Check out this week's highlights!

SEL:

• This week in SEL our focus was “Who works in our school”, the students went around the school and interviewed the adults who work at our school!
• This week in SEL our talking circle focused on Safe Bodies, and how we can all have safe bodies throughout our school day.

Math:

• This week in Math we finished our Chapter 2: Addition and Subtraction- Part 1.
• Students reviewed word problems around the classroom.
• Students took an assessment on what we learned in Chapter 2.

ELA:

• This week in Foundations students completed their Tic-Tac-Toe worksheet which focused on CVCe, CVC, Oddball and CVVC words.
• This week in Foundations students completed a spell check.
• This week in Reading students analyzed fiction books by using text evidence to find: Title, Author, Characters, Setting, and the Plot.
• This week in writing students started on their narrative rough draft.

Science/Social Studies:

• This week in Social Studies, students focused on the EQ: “How do people in the past affect our lives today?” and learned about “Brave Bessie”.
• This week in Science, students studied maps of the Bengal Tiger Reserve and investigated habitats.

Week 9:

103 had a wonderful week including the Jogathon! Thank you to all of the parents who came to support the second graders!

SEL:

• This week in SEL our focus was on kindness and what steps we are taking to show kindness towards our friends and adults in the classroom/school. 
• We had a visit from Mr. Murray and a member of the student counsel to come and talk to us about Bullying,

Math:

• This week in Math we continued to work on Chapter 3. Students have been learning addition, subtraction, rounding, and estimating problems.

ELA:

• This week in Foundations students completed short and long ‘u’ sounds.
• Students showed their understanding of the lesson by doing the word sort for CVC, CVCe, CVVC words
• This week in Reading students were introduced to different types of context clues. The class learned about finding the meaning of a vocabulary word by searching for the definition, synonym, antonym, or examples in the sentence. 
• This week in writing students worked on their final drafts on personal narrative writing.

Science/Social Studies:

• This week in Social Studies, students finished Chapter 1 on Life Long Ago and Life Today. We ended the chapter by reviewing the main ideas of the lessons and by taking the assessment. 
• This week in Science, students investigated, observed, and learned about different seeds to better understand the investigation question on ‘Why Chalta Trees are not Growing in Bengal Tiger Reserve?”

Week 10:

Though it was short, 103 had a fantastic week! It was great getting to speak with parents at conferences as well! Check out these highlights!

SEL:

• This week’s SEL focus was on emotions and deep breathing. We discussed different kinds of breathings such as, snake breath, bunny breath to help us calm our mind and bodies.

Math:

• This week in math we finished Chapter 3: Addition and Subtraction-Part 2 
•  This week in math the students took the Chapter Assessment.

ELA:

• This week in Foundations students took a spell check on short and long ‘u’ sounds.

• This week in Reading, the class identified different elements of poetry. The students analyzed what metaphors look like in a poem. 

• This week in writing, students finished their final narratives.

Science:

• This week in Science, investigate how new plants such as, Red Silk Trees, and Chalta Trees Grow?
• The class made predictions on what seeds need to grow and learned to measure plants using the centimeter ruler.

Week 12

SEL:

• The SEL topic for this week was Kindness. The class learned and shared ideas about kindness.The class worked with their SEL partners and wrote words that are considered as kindness which are: care, concern, and gentleness.
• The focus questions were “What are some ways to show kindness?” and “How do you think being kind will affect our school and classroom community?”

Math:

• This week, the class continued working on Multiplications and Division problems.
• The students have been learning about properties of multiplication, the relationship between multiplication and division, finding the quotient and remainder of the expression. The class is enjoying practicing math using their whiteboards.

ELA:

• This week in Foundations, students practiced substituting, adding and deleting consonant letters to come up with a new word.
• Students reviewed short and long ‘e’ words and took a spell check to show their understanding on long and short ‘e’ words. 
• This week in reading, students explored different types of nonfiction books. They explored: informational, narrative, and biography books. The students showed their understanding by doing nonfiction sorts and worksheets. 
• This week in writing, students finished their character worksheet and sketched a plan for their fictional story. 

Science/Social Studies:

• This week in Science, students explored science books with their partners. Students investigated and predicted "Why are Chalta trees not getting what they need to Grow?” The class explored the facts that a plant is a system with parts that help it get the things that it needs to grow. For example, plants have leaves that get sunlight and plants have roots that get water from the soil. 
• This week in Social Studies, We finished Lesson 1: Use a Map. The class learned about road maps, political maps, and physical maps.

Week 13

This week was so much fun! Thank you to all who came in to make this week extra special! Happy Thanksgiving!

SEL:

• This week in SEL our focus was on showing respect to adults and peers. We also focused on identifying who and what we are thankful for!

Math:

• This week in Math we finished out Chapter 4 on Multiplication and Division. In this unit students were introduced to Multiplication and division by solving multiplication and division equations, division with remainders, 1 step word problems and 2 step word problems. Students completed a chapter assessment on Friday.
• Next Chapter, Chapter 5, will focus on Multiplication.

ELA:

• This week in Reading students learned more about nonfiction books. Students read the paired text called: The Hottest Place on Earth and The Coldest Place on Earth. They used this text to identify the main idea, key details, and compare and contrast the texts.
• This week in writing students continued to write their fiction narratives and worked with their writing partners to finish their writing.

Science/Social Studies:

• This week in Social Studies students finished their unit on maps and created maps of their neighborhoods, school or classroom.
• This week in Science students continued to learn about what a seed needs to grow. This week students investigated why the Chalta Trees are not growing in the Bengal Tiger Reserve. Students identified water, sunlight and space as what seeds need to sprout and grow.

Week 15

SEL:

• This week in SEL our focus was on identifying negative emotions and discussing how we can manage these emotions. Student’s came up with a bunch of coping skills they can use when feeling; frustrated, sad, mad, anxious, etc.

Math: 

• This week in Math students took their Chapter 5 Part 1 Assessment on multiplication.
• This week in math student’s have been focusing on multiplication with and without regrouping.

ELA:

• This week in reading student’s read “Into the Dark Waters”, and identified text evidence, cause and effect, and assessed their comprehension on the reading about the Titanic. Students also had a mystery read come in on Friday!
• This week in writing student’s edit and revise their narrative fiction writing.

Science/Social Studies:

• This week in Science student’s studied the way that seeds can be dispersed. Students engaged in an investigation where they created their own models to represent different types of seeds. The student’s used cotton balls, paper, paper clips and a fan to investigate.
• This week in Social Studies students focused on the essential question: How is the Environment Where We Live is important?