Writing: I’ve been so impressed with the poetry writing that the second graders have done this week. Our lessons this week were all about making poems sound more like poems and less like stories. We worked on using precise language to make our poems more descriptive. Some additional strategies were to use repetition, create a mood of the poem by using appropriate language, and using a comparison (simile or metaphor). We ended the week by learning about a structured type of poem called a Haiku.
Math: As the year comes to and end, we are working on the exciting skill of learning about multiplication. We are looking at groups of objects and rectangular arrays to study multiplication. This week we made the connection between repeated addition and multiplication. We played a game called Raging Rectangles to practice making rectangular arrays.
Science: We conducted an experiment called a soil shake in which we observed how soil particles settled in water. It was interesting to see how the soil formed layers and we could clearly see layers of sand, clay, and humus in our soil samples. We ended the week and our soil unit by getting to know earth worms a little better. Each second grade had their own pet earth worm to observe during science class today.
Second Step: This week we read the book If Everybody Did. Please ask your child about this book and what the main message of the book is. It provided us with an important reminder about following expectations so we can have a happy and successful end of the school year!
Conversation Starters:
What is the difference between rows and columns?
What did your earth worm look like? What was the most interesting thing you noticed?
How did you use a comparison in a poem this week?
Dates to Remember:
May 30th: No School
June 1st: Early Release
June 16th: End of the Year Celebration