Mrs. Ballnik's Second Grade

Classroom News from
Mrs. Ballnik’s Class My email is ballnic@dearbornschools.org
Friday, March 2, 2018
Important Days to Remember
LITERACY NIGHT- Tuesday, March 6 at 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. – free night of reading fun for parents and their children- make stick puppets with me and do many other activities for FREE with other teachers in the school!
Field Trip- March 27th ½ day. $5.00 as soon as possible with signed permission slips for Dearborn Historical Museum- 3 chaperones with paperwork in to the office needed.
Gym – Tuesday-Please remember to wear tennis shoes and bendable clothes (not jeans or slip on shoes).
FRIDAY SPELLING TESTS
Here are the words for the next spelling test. The spelling pattern will be the schwa sound of a.
The spelling words are: alone, again, agree, comma, above, idea, ago, away, alike, along. The Dolch words are: him, his, us, on, so.
Every Friday there will be a spelling test. Please practice every day with your child so that they will do well on the Friday Spelling test. Corrected tests are sent home on Monday for you to sign and send back to show me that you know the score.
We started to put the 16th word on the spelling test to challenge the students that get the spelling test correct every week. It is just for fun and no one is required to study these extra credit words. They come home in a worksheet each week, that we go over. They are not meant to be second grade level words and we would usually learn to read them and understand them, but not spell them.
MATH MATH MATH MATH MATH
Unit 7 will include all of the higher level adding and subtracting, as well as, counting money. Please practice adding money and counting by quarters (25’s).
Science
Our unit continues to be Earth Science and covers explorations that help us learn that Earth events can occur quickly (landslides, etc.) or slowly (erosion that carves rivers, canyons, etc.) We are making observations and discussing landforms and bodies of water.
Social Studies- .
Our unit is on Economics. This includes how our community buys and sells things, resources, production, wants and needs. We are talking about scarcity makes people have choices. Choices involve your wants and needs.
Writing
Our next genre of writing will be informational writing. This can a real subject and details. We are writing an informational report about George Washington. If your child brings in other informational reports, they will count as extra credit. They should try to use the S S lightbulb, secret formula for the topic sentence and repeat the beginning (introduction) at the end, (conclusion), but use different words. The secret formula is: S (setting or where/when), S (subject- who or what), light bulb (big idea of the report).
Reading- Read, Read, Read!
BOOK BAGS! Please observe how your child does with these books. Every book at level 20 and 24 for March (the level for second grade at this time) for example, may not be read easily depending on the words. Please ask your child to write a list of the words that they do not know, so you can work on them.
Please keep them in the bag and count the books, so they do not get lost. I will trade out the books every other week or so. Students should reread books until they are smooth and fluent when reading. Students record on their log when they read.
Have a great weekend with your wonderful child and read, read, read!

Cheryl Ballnik