Catch up time

Yikes, it is not good news when I have not posted in the entire month of November. Let's see if I can catch everyone up with the happenings in our classroom!
We have completed our study of outer space (a well loved topic) and are moving on to learn about children in colonial days. We'll be doing comparing and contrasting with the students' daily lives to those who lived hundreds of years ago. Next week, students will be creating a song as a class that sums up their learning about these times. I'm hoping you hear it at home!
In reading, we have added quite a few strategies to our FACE board. We focused almost an entire month on schema (the information we bring to a book). Now we are looking into connections to texts and how those connections bring us closer to understanding what the author intended us to "get" from the book. Students are taking control of their learning by using sticky notes to jot down these connections. We have also learned a great deal about comparing (way things are the same) and contrasting (ways things are different). Students are versed in making VENN diagrams, T charts, and even writing comparision paragraphs.
One major undertaking in second grade is learning to write narrative stories. We started this process by writing about memories; now we are picking small moments and adding many details to those moments to make them into stories. It is important for students to move past the patterned stories of- I went ...., I went...., I saw....
One frustrating moment for parents will be coming with the introduction of "partial sums" addition. Our math series teaches 2 digit addition in a very different way than most of us learned. I will send home an explanation with the homework to help you understand it. It is important that students learn and use this strategy because of the way it will be used in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. We will later learn the more popular "carrying" method.