This week in math we are reviewing for the math benchmark. Our beginning of the year benchmark will be this Thursday, November 17th. I am sending home a review for the students to complete at home this week and to be returned on Thursday. We also did a review today in class that is coming home today. Please go over any question your student missed. Discuss strategies and ways to solve the problem.

*The concepts we have covered that will be on the benchmark are:
place value (hundreds, tens, and ones)
basic addition and subtraction facts
fact families
odd and even numbers
skip counting and patterns
ordering numbers
recognizing points on a number line
reading number words
comparing numbers (> < =)
counting pennies and dimes
word problems
measurement (length and temperature)
graphing
probability
shapes—2D and 3D Shapes

This week in social studies we are discussing Colonial days. We will compare a day in the life of a child in Colonial times vs. today. You can go to http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/ to explore! We used this website in class today!

This week in science we are going to learn about all about sound. We will do a few different experiments with sound this week in our classroom. Explore different sounds around your house this week!

In Reading we will be reading stories about Sarah Morton and Colonial Life, the Native Americans, and Arthur's Thanksgiving. We will work on vocabulary development, comprehension, looking for details, and fluency.

In Writing we will be created WANTED posters for Tom the Turkey. We will be writing what we are thankful for and other fun Thanksgiving stories throughout the week!

In Word Study/Spelling we will be working with words that have the oa pattern. Be sure and check out SpellingCity.com so your child can take a practice test and play games throughout the week.

Check out the pictures below of our Fables Reader's Theater that the students performed last Friday! We had so much fun acting out the fable, "The Foolish Little Hare".

This week in math we will learn about fractions of a whole. We will practice writing and reading different fractions. Please look for a email of different websites that your child may enjoy to play at home using fractions. Later in the week we will learn about paired numbers. This means if one tricycle has three wheels, two have 6, and so fourth. For example: How many wheels would 6 tricycles have?

This week in science we will learn all about heat as a form of energy. We will explore friction, and even do an experiment with heat on Friday!

This week in social studies we will begin to discuss Thanksgiving and the importance of Native Americans and their culture. On Friday we will discuss Veterans Day and write a thank you card to someone in our United States Military.

In Reading we will be reading fables this week. The students will enjoy learning about this genre by reading some of Aesop's Fables. We will learn how to determine the story's main idea and message, how to sequence the story and how fables use personification.

In Writing we are learning how writers revise and improve stories. We will focus on improving the beginnings and endings of our stories. We will learn how authors use good leads and conclusions in their writing. We will also work on how to "show, not tell" when we're writing.

In Word Study/Spelling we will be working with words that have the oo pattern. No spelling test this week though!

This past Friday was Fall Fun Day in 2nd grade and we started the day off with a Scarecrow parade to show that we are "Scaring Drugs Away"! We had a great turn out for the parade - thanks to all those who were able to come and see our scarecrows - all of the teachers agreed that this was the best looking group of scarecrows we've ever had at Kaufman before AND the most participation we've ever had. Thank you parents for your support and creativity! Here are just a few pictures from Friday....if you have any that you took with your own camera, please email them to us and we'll post them to our blog as well!

Also, last week in science we looked at chemical and physical changes. We used the playdough to show physical changes and we saw chemical changes while making the ice cream in a bag! Ask your student to tell you all about our Ice Cream experiment...it was so much fun!

This week in math we will continue with place value to the hundreds place. We will focus on ordering numbers from least to greatest, greatest to least, and comparing numbers using greater than, less than, and equal to. We will also look at number lines and decide where our number would fit correctly on the line. Remember we are now working with three digit numbers.
***Things you can review at home this week would be: three digit numbers, numbers that come before/after/between, and the value of each digit.

This week in social studies we will learn about what states border Texas and what county borders Texas. We will also learn about the word immigrant. This week we will have a special homework assignment on Tuesday in social studies. Students will be asked to fill out a family tree that we'll we send home. We will discuss ancestors and if they came to America from another country we would like to know. We will use the map to find these different places.
***If you have an ancestor that came to America from another country did they come through Ellis Island or Angel Island in California? We will learn a little about our heritage this week by learning about our families past.

This week in science we will begin to explore light and light energy. We will look at shadows and how they change depending on the position of the sun.

In Reading we will be reading Arthur stories by Marc Brown. We will compare and contrast stories and look at how Arthur has changed over the years. We will learn how to do a story map and we will learn about facts and opinions. In Writing we are learning how writers revise and improve their stories. In Word Study/Spelling we will be working with words that have the long u and long i sounds.