Snack: 1st and 2nd grade have our first snack time during literacy. Please make sure your child knows which food is for their lunch meal and for snacks. Healthy snacks are always the best choice. Emergency snacks are provided to students who do not bring a snack from home. 

Donation Request: Our emergency snacks are running low. Please consider sending in healthy, individually wrapped items. Thank you! 

Foundational Skills (Phonics, Decoding, and Spelling) 

Students have been learning about the Magic –e rule. When the letter ‘e’ is at the end of a word, it is usually silent and makes the preceding vowel make its long sound. Examples: made, hike, eve, bone, or tune. So far, we have learned how to read ‘a-magic-e' words, and ‘i-magic-e' words. Th 

This week, we will continue to learn how to read and spell the sounds of magic -e, with long ‘o’ and long ‘i.’ 

Reading 

We have continued rotating through our Literacy Centers during our reading time. Students have been practicing reading nonsense words in the word work center. During small groups, students are focusing on phonics and reading comprehension.  

Please continue to read to your child each night and have them read to you! It is all beneficial. 

Writing 

Last week, students learned to write the supporting details/reasons for their opinion paragraphs. We learned about the importance of linking and transition words.  

This coming week, Students will write their conclusion sentences. Students will learn that their conclusion sentence is the topic sentence restated. 

Snack: 1st and 2nd grade have our first snack time during literacy. Please make sure your child knows which food is for their lunch meal and for snacks. Healthy snacks are always the best choice. Emergency snacks are provided to students who do not bring a snack from home. 

Foundational Skills (Phonics, Decoding, and Spelling) 

Students have been learning about the Magic –e rule. When the letter ‘e’ is at the end of a word, it is usually silent and makes the preceding vowel make its long sound. Examples: made, hike, eve, bone, or tune. So far, we have learned how to read ‘a-magic-e' words, and ‘i-magic-e' words. Th 

This week, we will continue to learn how to read and spell the sounds of magic -e, with long ‘o.’  

Reading 

We have continued rotating through our Literacy Centers during our reading time. Students have been practicing reading nonsense words in the word work center. I used the time at my teacher's table to assess and progress monitor students who are on a READ plan. Almost every student has experienced growth since our beginning of the year benchmark. Please continue to read to your child each night and have them read to you! It is all beneficial. 

Writing 

Last week, students learned that the Topic Sentence introduces the reader to the main idea. This was a challenging concept for the students! Many students wanted to put all the details in their topic sentences. This coming week, students will write the supporting details/reasons for their opinion paragraphs. We will learn about the importance of linking and transition words.  

Snack: 1st and 2nd grade have our first snack time during literacy. Please make sure your child knows which food is for their lunch meal and for snacks. Healthy snacks are always the best choice. Emergency snacks are provided to students who do not bring a snack from home. 

Foundational Skills (Phonics, Decoding, and Spelling) 

Students have been learning about the 3 types of sounds that the suffix –ed makes at the end of a word. -ed can make a /t/ sound, a /d/ sound, and sound like /id/ or /ed/. So far, students have learned that –ed makes the /t/ or /d/ sound.  

This week, we will continue to learn about the remaining sounds of –ed, /ed/ /id/. 

Reading 

Last week in Reading, I introduced Reading Centers to the students. The students rotated through 3 centers a day, and 4 centers over the course of 2 days: Read to self, Buddy Reading, Writing, and Listening Center. This coming week, I will introduce two new centers – Word Work and Meet with Teacher. 

This week in reading, we will continue to apply the thinking strategy of Cause and Effect, and how it relates to Glacier Erosion. We will also review our vocabulary words: glacier, crevasse, valley, fjord. 

The term “Cause and Effect” describes a type of relationship in which one event or situation (a cause) leads to another event or situation (an effect).  

Example : 

Cause—a glacier drags rocks along the ground as it moves.  

Effect—The dragged rocks scratch and rub the land. 

Writing 

Last week, students added final details to their personal narratives. Many students are starting to publish their stories by typing them. They are so excited for this step. 

This week, we will begin learning how to write a paragraph. We will learn about the hamburger model – topic sentence, supporting details and concluding sentence. By the end of the week, students will select an opinion topic to write about. 

Snack: 1st and 2nd grade have our first snack time during literacy. Please make sure your child knows which food is for their lunch meal and for snacks. Healthy snacks are always the best choice. Emergency snacks are provided to students who do not bring a snack from home. 

Foundational Skills (Phonics, Decoding, and Spelling) 

The week before break, students began learning about the 3 types of sounds that the suffix –ed makes at the end of a word. -ed can make a /t/ sound, a /d/ sound, and sound like /id/ or /ed/. So far, students have learned that –ed makes the /t/ sound.  

This week, we will continue to learn about the remaining sounds of –ed, /d/ and /ed/ /id/. 

Reading 

The week before break, we continued with the informational text, “River of Ice.” Summary: A glacier is made of snow that turns into a huge pile of ice. Glaciers change the shape of the land as they form and as they move, creating frozen peaks and deep valleys. Essential Question: In what ways can frozen water change the shape of the land? 

This week in reading, we will apply the thinking strategy of Cause and Effect, and how it relates to Glacier Erosion. We will also review our vocabulary words: glacier, crevasse, valley, fjord. 

The term “Cause and Effect” describes a type of relationship in which one event or situation (a cause) leads to another event or situation (an effect).  

Example : 

Cause—a glacier drags rocks along the ground as it moves.  

Effect—The dragged rocks scratch and rub the land. 

Writing 

The week before break, students worked on finishing their personal narrative rough drafts, revising, and editing their work. Personal Narratives are true stories from the author’s real life. While revising, your child worked on adding sensory details, thoughts, and feelings to their personal narratives.  

This week, students will (hopefully) finish this work so that we can move on to typing and publishing their final drafts.  

You can support this work at home by asking your child to describe what sensory details (see, hear, touch, smell, taste) they notice in the moment.  

Hello literacy families! I am Mrs. Reeder, and I am your child's 2nd Grade Literacy Teacher. Each week, I will send you an update about what we have been up to in literacy that week, as well as what we are planning to do in the coming week. Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns. I can't wait to watch your children grow this year!

This week in literacy, we began settling into our routines. It has been fun getting to know the students and seeing them grow in this area already.

Our literacy schedule is as follows:

8:15-8:25 Warm Up – Sentence expanding: Build 7-Up Sentences. Each day students are given a short sentence to expand into a sentence containing 7 or more words. I love seeing their creativity and sense of humor come through in these sentences.

8:25-8:55 Foundational Skills: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Decoding, and Spelling. We use Secret Stories and follow the Orton-Gillingham method for teaching these important foundational skills. Activities typically include manipulating sounds in words, learning phonics and spelling rules, and reading decodable texts that follow phonics patterns that students have learned.

            This week, students learned that -ck comes in a short word (one syllable), after a short vowel. Examples include sack, peck, lick, clock, stuck. We read words that included -ck, we read a decodable text including this pattern, and we practiced spelling a variety of words with -ck.

8:55-9:25 Reading:  In reading, we typically learn reading comprehension strategies, activate our background knowledge around a topic, learn new vocabulary, learn about literary genres, and practice fluency. We use Open Court Reading to teach reading and writing.

This week in reading, we started off on Monday and Tuesday learning a bit about Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, as we read an excerpt from Anne Sullivan’s journal. The kids were very interested in Helen Keller. If possible, I suggest taking your kids to the library to pick out some books on Helen Keller. I only have 2 books on Helen Keller in my classroom library. Both books are very popular and are constantly being read by a student.

Mid-week, we began reading a story called, “The Mouse Who Lived in a Shoe.” We started by using our knowledge of the Mother Goose story, “The Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe” and our knowledge of mice homes and predators. This story is about a family of mice who are living in a tattered shoe and realize that they need better protection from the weather—and from the cat’s sharp claws! All of the family members, from the young children to the grandparents, work together to design and build a new home. We will continue with this story this coming week as we learn some vocabulary words from the story, practice reading excerpts from the story fluently, identify cause and effect, and make inferences.

8:55-9:25 Writing: In Writing, students learn about the writing process, learn to write in a variety of genres and text structures, for various audiences, learn writing craft techniques, learn grammar, and apply learned spelling patterns and mechanics.

            This past week, we began our study of personal narratives. Students learned that personal means “it’s about me” and narrative means “story.” We are writing first-person, true stories from our own lives. We started off our unit by learning about the genre and then generating story ideas. This week, we will pick a story idea and plan out who the characters (from our life) are, and the setting (a place we’ve been), and identify the events that go in the beginning, middle, and end.