Spider Week 2016

**The reading counts lunch is next Friday the 28th ... Students need to have reached their goal by next Thursday to attend!**


Last week we learned so many fun facts about spiders! We started by charting our schema and any questions. We continued adding to it throughout the week and this is what we ended up with:

We discussed some really strong vocabulary that came from our focus book, Spiders by Gail Gibbons. This is one of my favorite parts of our reading curriculum! I love hearing students use the new vocab words in their conversations.

We also studied diagrams in nonfiction books. Then it was time for them to create their own diagram with labels. They drew a large picture of a spider, labeled the body parts, then matched up the correct definition next to the label.

In small groups we read about the difference between arachnids and insects, created venn diagrams and wrote paragraphs to compare and contrast the two creatures.

Spider week is always a favorite in second grade!

A peek at this week:

No spelling words! Since it's a short week, we will not have a reading passage or spelling words/homework. We will pick back up next week. We do have Language Arts IXL due Friday. Check the Portal if you need the assignment.
 
Our focus read is "Crankenstein." They are absolutely loving it!

Feast of the guardian angel

We were a little late celebrating the feast of the guardian angels, but better late than never, right?? The kids loved talking and learning about guardian angels. We made our own angels to wear on our shoulder to remind us that they're there. I snapped these photos super fast on Friday afternoon...

Bat fun!

Happy (almost) Friday! Last week we learned a ton about bats (until hurricane Matthew interrupted!).  Our focus story was Stellaluna. After our first read we discussed how Stellaluna felt throughout the book. The students had to provide evidence from the text to help us know why she felt the way she did. 

In small groups the students worked on "strong verbs" they found all throughout the book. They had to go on a verb hunt in the book. Also in small groups we worked on writing the sequence of events from Stellaluna. 

We also read several nonfiction bat books. We did a directed drawing on Monday and then they had to write a paragraph about their favorite bat facts. Again, I reinforced using an intro sentence, correct capitalization and punctuation, and writing strong sentences with at least 7 words. 

We managed to squeeze in the -er, -ir, -ur spelling test on Monday and then begin long -a this week! Can't wait to share with you about our spider week!

Reading Counts Wall

Last week we started our Reading Counts wall. There are different goals on the wall that go up to 100. Each week I will read off the points and if a student has reached the next goal they can come and write their name on the door! This made everyone very excited!