McDonald's News

Hello Summer!

 As we begin our last week of the 2008-09 school year, I would like to share what a great learning year we have had! I am very proud of my students and their successes we celebrated throughout this year. The children have grown both academically and emotionally and I am pleased with their individual accomplishments. 

It is so important to maintain the skills they have mastered during the summer. Please encourage your children to read each day and to practice math facts and computation each week this summer. This will give your children a jump start on skills when they return to school in August.

 Thank you for your support throughout the school year! It has been a pleasure to teach your children. They are very special to me!

Enjoy your summer;

Mrs. McDonald

News! News! News!

 Second Grade-

                                     This is an exciting time of year in second grade math! The students have been learning about multiplication using manipulatives and creating arrays. They are also using skip counting strategies to solve basic multiplication facts. This is evidence that the children are very close to third grade and they are excited about that! 

In Spelling we have completed our vowel patterns and are learning about spelling rules when adding suffixes to root words. The students are working hard at applying these rules in their daily writing. 

We have been reading a great chapter book about summer camp. The children are using comprehension strategies to recall details and make connections to the story.

Third Grade-

 We are reading our last Magic Treehouse adventure for this school year during our weekly book club. It is titled High Tide in Hawaii. This book is full of new vocabulary words and awesome adjectives that help us visualize the events and setting of the story.

In Spelling we are working with multisyllable words and suffixes. The students have learned how suffxes change the meaning of a word. Our spelling units this year have helped the children improve their spelling and their reading as they break words apart to decode them.

We continue to work with multiplication and division in Math. We have enjoyed a variety of math games to reinforce the basic multiplication facts. Please continue to encourage your children to practice their facts at home.                                                                               

Our News!

We're off to a great start as we begin our fourth nine weeks of school.
Second Grade-
  We are learning about multiplication in Math. We have used counters and stickers to make multiplication pictures. These arrays help us understand how multiplication works!
  As we read nonfiction books, we discuss and learn about the table of contents, glossary, and index. These are new ways to find information in the books we read!
  In Spelling we are learning about contractions. We will have fun making a contraction word wheel!

Third Grade-
  In Math we have been reviewing our multiplication facts as we begin to learn about multiplying larger numbers. We will be creating arrays to understand multiplication of one times two digit numbers. Please continue to practice multiplication facts with your child at home.
 In Spelling we have been learning about contractions.We will also try to use these words in our writing during Writer's Workshop.
 We will be completing Tonight On the Titanic this week during book club. We have also read It Wasn't a Trick. This is a story about the attempt of the Carpathia to rescue the passengers on the Titanic.the children enjoyed learning about this aspect of the famous disaster. We will culminate our unit by writing a narrative about a new Jack and Annie adventure with the students as characters on an adventure!

Classroom Update!

Third Grade-
                                      In Math we will continue our unit on measurement. We will read the book
How Long? How Wide? as we begin to measure using the metric system. We will estimate and measure objects in our classroom using centimeters and the meter stick.
  In Language Arts we will read our book of the month This Is Our Dream.  The children will then respond to this literature by writing a persuasive writing piece about treating all people equally. Our spelling pattern of the week relates to two syllable words with a vowel, consonant, consonant, vowel pattern as in the word 'picnic'. The students are doing a great job using the strategies we learn to read and spell new words.

Second Grade-
 Our spelling pattern this week will relate to suffixes. We will learn about the rules for adding 's' or 'es' to the end of words. We will make a flip book which changes words from singular to plural by adding 'es'.
We will read Our Moon and make a fact book containing facts about the moon from this nonfiction book.
 In Math we will continue measuring by learning about the metric system. We will measure objects using centimeters and talk about making good choices about the unit of measurement to use.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to my students and their families! I hope you enjoy your weekend with those you love!
Second Grade-
 We have been learning about measurement in Math! The children have been measuring many different objects in the classroom as they learn about inches, feet, and yards. We began our unit reading Size-Measuring in Many Ways. This story helped us make connections to our world of measurement.
 In Reading we read a great nonfiction book titled Whales. We created nonfiction fact cards to help us recall details from the book. Our spelling pattern of the week are the sounds of the digraphs 'ch','sh', 'wh', and 'th'. We made a whale book filled with 'wh' words.

Third Grade-
 We are working on reading and spelling multisyllable words by learning to divide them into syllables. This week we learned words with a vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel pattern, such as the word 'muffin'. As the children divide the words, they learn to find smaller words within the words. This helps them in .decoding the new words. In Reading we completed the book Midnight On the Moon. We had also read a  book titled Our Solar System. The children were able to compare and contrast details and characteristics of both of these fiction and nonfiction books.
 In Math we have been exploring measurement. We began our unit with the book Carrie Measures Up. The children have been using rulers and their knowledge of fractions to measure to the nearest 1/4 inch. We made our own rulers with 1/4 marks to help us better understand this new concept!

Class News!

It was so nice to meet with parents last week during conferences!  I enjoyed sharing your child's successes with you and discussing strategies to use at home as we work together to help each child master new skills. Thank you for your continued support!

Second Grade-
  In Math we are working on understanding three and four digit numbers. We are using manipulatives and drawing pictures to represent numbers in different ways. We will continue to learn about the value of each digit in a number.
  Our vowel pattern of the week is the sound of /au/ as in the words 'walk', 'August', and 'saw'. We will make a word sort as we decode new words containing this sound. We will read a fiction book titled The Surprise Snow as we compare and contrast the characters in the story.

Third Grade-
 In Math we are working with fractions and decimals. We will make fraction bars and label them with the correct fraction and decimal they represent. We will also solve word problems related to fractions in our math journal.
 We will continue to review the vowel patterns we have learned this year as we move on and begin to learn about other sound clusters within two and three syllable words. Our pattern this week will be the sound of /le/ as in the word 'castle'.
 We will read nonfiction books about various animals that live in the habitats of Georgia. We will learn how to find facts about these animals as we complete a research grid to record important information. The students are excited to share the facts they find about their animal.

Our News!

  Second Grade-

                                   We completed our unit on fractions in Math. We will now begin exploring numbers in the thousands. We will use manipulatives as we represent numbers in different ways through drawings, expanded form, and place value.                                                                                          

Our vowel pattern will be the sound of /ou/ as in 'house' and 'cow'. We will play a word game as we sort words with these vowel patterns. We will also search for these vowel patterns as we read A House in the South.  This is a fun activity for your child as he reads to you at home. It increases a child's awareness of vowel patterns within words in a story. Ask your child to find specific words on a page that contain various vowel patterns we have studied this year.

Third Grade-

  We will add and subtract fractions using models. Fraction bars will show us that the numerator changes as we add and subtract, but the denominator remains the same. We will then begin to learn about decimals as they relate to fractions.

 We will read The Surprise Snow as we review the parts of a story. This will help the students as they write a narrative, including the story elements in their writing piece. Our editing skills are improving as the students check their rough draft for correct punctuation and capitalization.

Weekly News!

Third Grade-
                                   The students have enjoyed learning about fractions in Math. We used many manipulatives to explore fractions as part of a whole. Now we will discover the concept of fractions as part of a set. The book titled A Clean Sweep will be an excellent introduction to this unit as the children will make connections to fractions in their world. We will use various sets of objects, including colored goldfish, to master this skill.
  Our vowel pattern of the week is the sound of /oy/ as in boil and enjoy. The students are becoming word detectives as they use the vowel patterns we learn to read and spell new words. We will read a nonfiction book titled Up in the Air and compare and contrast this to the fiction book Midnight On the Moon that we have also been reading. We will write a response to literature to share the main idea of the reading passage.

Second Grade-
 In Reading we will continue to discuss the difference between fiction and nonfiction books as we read Dogs at Work and A Pet for Bobby. The students also enjoy making connections to the books as well as using prior knowledge during our prereading discussions. Our vowel pattern of the week is the sound of /er/ as in the words 'her', 'first' and 'turn'.
  In Math we will continue with our unit on fractions. We worked with fraction circles as we learned about parts of a whole. Now we will work with sets of objects to discover parts of a set. We will use a software program called Fraction Fireworks to review both skills on our laptops.

Happy New Year!

Welcome back! I hope my students and their families had a fun, relaxing holiday break. I can't wait to see everyone tomorrow morning! I'm excited to continue our learning as we begin 2009!

Second Grade-
 We have been working very hard on whole numbers in Math, and now we will begin learning 'parts of a whole' as we explore fractions. We will begin with a book titled Fractions and then use tasty treats like cookies to review 1/2 and 1/4, as well as introduce 1/3 and 1/6 of a whole.
  In Language Arts we will write a personal narrative as each student shares a story about something special they did during our holiday break. We will use a story map to organize our ideas during prewriting. Our vowel pattern of the week is the sound of /ar/ as in the word 'car'. We will create a 'star' word sort book of /ar/ words.

Third Grade-
  I'm excited to begin our book club this week as we read Midnight On the Moon. We will take another adventure with Jack and Annie as they explore the moon. We will discuss the similarities and differences between this book and other Magic Treehouse books we have enjoyed. This is a great way to make connections among several stories we have read. Our vowel pattern of the week is the sound of /er/ as in the words fern, shirt, and turn.
  In Math we will begin a unit studying fractions. We'll begin with a book titled Apple Fractions and  will then use geoboards and apples as we learn about parts of a whole.

Happy Holidays!

Second Grade-
                                       We are completing our unit on geometry. We will have fun as we use our laptops and a program called Kidspiration to create circle maps categorizing plane shapes and solid shapes. We will also find examples of each shape in our world.
 Our vowel pattern of the week is the sound of /or/ as in the word 'orange'. We will also be working with r-controlled vowels when we return in January. The students are using these vowel patterns and recognizing them as they read new words. We are reading a great book titled Save the Sea Turtles.  We will make a pop-up book by writing an informational paragraph about sea turtles.

Third Grade-
  As we complete our geometry unit, we will create a snowman and then identify the diameter and radius of his body. His eyes and nose will be made by using equilateral, isosceles, and scalene triangles. We will also label the angles of each triangle.
  We have been reading about several animals that live in Georgia during Reading. We then wrote a persuasive paragraph stating why we should protect their habitat.
Our vowel pattern of the week is the sound of /or/ as in the word 'horn'.

  As the holidays approach, I'd like to thank you for the gift of your children. I enjoy working with them each day and am proud of their progress and dedication at school!  May you have a holiday filled with the love of family and friends!
           Anne McDonald