Parent Letter 11/28 to 12/2

Mr. Anderson’s 2^nd Grade Class

Welcome Back!!!                                                                11/28/11

This Week in Class:

Math: The students will be reviewing double-digit addition and starting double-digit subtraction. They will learn how to trade 1 ten for 10 ones to solve problems like 43-27. Some of the math words that they will be learning are:

trade which is another word for regroup.   1 ten can be traded for 10 ones without changing the total value of the number you are subtracting from.

regroup When you subtract 29 from 46, you need to regroup 1 ten as 10 ones.

difference The answer to a subtraction problem. “What is the difference between this number and that number.”

Spelling:  The students will be associating the spelling patterns ai, ay, and a-consonant-e with the long a sound. Children learn that the ai pattern occurs in the middle of a word, while ay often occurs at the end. 

Reading: The target skill this week that I will be working with in whole group and small group read is Summarizing.  Summarizing is when the reader looks at details and picks out the main ideas, or important parts of the story.

Social Studies: For the month of December the students are going to be starting a unit called “Christmas Around the World”.  This is a very exciting unit where students will be “traveling” to different countries around the world to look at how each country celebrates Christmas. For those students that do not take part in the holiday we will be looking at other traditions in the country as well including food that they eat, ways that they dress, ect. We will make crafts, learn songs and poems, and read stories.  We will not be switching classes for Health, Science, and Social Studies because this takes a lot of time.

Writing: This week we will continue our Writer’s Workshop.  Many of the students have published Stellaluna pieces that will be coming home soon.  This week during Writer’s Workshop we will be revisiting the Writing Process. 

Food and Clothing Drive:

Sandstone is having a holiday Food and Clothing Drive starting today. If you have any  non-perishable food or gently used clothing, please bring them in. The food will go to the Billings Food Bank and the clothes go to the Women’s and Family Shelter! The Food and Clothing Drive ends December 9th! 

The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree is up in the office. If you would like to donate a present to someone in need this year, you can take an ornament from the tree and return it with an unwrapped gift! 

The Holiday Music Program

The Holiday Music Program this year is tenitivly scheduled for Dec. 21st at 9am and again at 1:30pm.

Book Orders

Web address: scholastic.com/bookclubs

Class Activation Code: HBFTM

There’s no time to lose! In order to make our deadline and have all our books arrive on time, your order to Scholastic Book Clubs is due by November 30th. 

Use the order form in the flyer your child recently brought home and return it to me with your payment right away! Please pay with a check made out to Scholastic Books!  

Or, make it easy and send me your order online! Go to  www.scholastic.com/bookclubs and log in using your user name and password.

If it’s your first time ordering online, use the Class Activation Code shown above to get started 

SIGN UP at  www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. On the parent page, click the “Register” button in the “First Time Here?” section. Register for your own user name and password. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code shown above. This code ensures that your order is sent to me. 

SELECT the books you’d like to order—choose from thousands of titles—many more than in our monthly flyers. 

SEND your order to me online by the due date and your child’s books will be delivered directly to my classroom. Ordering online is fast and easy!

Best of all, we earn a FREE book for the classroom library every time a parent places an order online.*

Sincerely, Mr. Josh Anderson

Parent Letter 11/14/11

Hello Families,                                                                11/14/11

Weekly Objectives:

Math:  Two-digit addition with regrouping and graphing including tallies, bar graphs and pie graphs.

Reading: Comprehension Skill- Summarizing

Writing:  Synonyms and Adjectives continued

Spelling:  Words with k and ck endings

Daily Behavior Chart:

Last week I put a Behavior Chart in the back of your child’s STAR folder.  Each day after school I wanted you to be able to see how many numbers your child received that day in class.  My hope is that you will be able to recognize your child’s achievement of getting no numbers in class or this can give you a chance to talk to your child if they are receiving numbers in class. I would appreciate any feedback that you have about this tool and if it is helpful at home.

Picture Retakes 

Friday, November 18^th is picture retakes for our school.  If the form that was sent home was misplaced you can pick one up at the office.

Chili Night and Cake Auction

From 6-8pm on Friday we will be having our annual Chili Night and Cake Auction here at Sandstone.  Your families are invited to come and have a free chili dinner and then stay to bid on a wonderful cake. 

Don’t Forget

Next week we only have 1½ days before break.   I hope that everyone has a great holiday break!

Sincerely, Mr. Josh Anderson

Parent Letter 11/7/11

11/7/11

Dear Parents,                                                                        

I hope that everyone is enjoying the first snow of the season!  It seems that the students are excited and ready for it, I hope that I am ready for it too!  Here are some of the main things that we will be working on this week.

Weekly Objectives

Reading:  Connections

Making a connection to the story is one way that the student shows that he/she comprehends the story. Children make personal connections with the text by using their schema (background knowledge).  There are three main types of connections we make while reading text.

·       Text-to-Self (T-S) refers to connections made between the text and the reader's personal experience. 

·       Text-to-Text (T-T) refers to connections made between a text being read to a text that was previously read.

·       Text-to-World (T-W) refers to connections made between a text being read and something that occurs in the world.

It is important to activate children's schema (background knowledge) before, during, and after reading.

Writing:  Adjectives and Synonyms:

Students thoroughly explore identifying synonyms and adjectives before using them to add variety and interest to their own writing.

Math:      Operations-Addition and Subtraction within 20.

The students will fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies.

Spelling: Words that end with nd, ng, nk, nt, mp

Cold Weather Gear:

Please send your child to school with winter gear (ie: Winter Jacket, Snow Boots, Gloves, Hats, and Snow pants.)  The students will be going out for recess as long as the weather is above zero degrees.  In order to play out in the field or on the Big Toy the students must be wearing snow pants and snow boots otherwise their recess is confined to the blacktop.

Classroom Behavior:

After conferences some parents have expressed that they would like to know how their child is doing each day in class.  Therefore if your child has to “owe a number” during the day I will let you know with our Weekly Behavior Chart.  The students and I will fill out these charts each day and put them in the back sleeve of their STAR folders.  Please check and send them back each day.

                                                                      Sincerely, Mr. Josh Anderson