Week of May 29th - June 2nd

Hi Families,
I hope you’re beating today’s heat! 

We’re in the home stretch now. Field Day was HOT but fun. Check out some pictures below. Thank you to our P.E. teacher, Ms. Atwood for all of the planning and preparation, and to all of the parents who volunteered to help out. Also this week, Barrows welcomed back former students who are now graduating seniors. Congratulations to those shining stars! In 10 years our current second graders will be doing the same.

Unfortunately, we got a bit behind in pacing this year, so we are not going to appropriately cover the remaining units in Math and Phonics. I will do my best to teach the essential concepts from the units so that students are prepared for third grade!

​Important Upcoming Dates

• Friday, June 9th: Talent Show for grades 3-5. We’ll be in the audience for most of the morning.
• Thursday, June 15th: Move-Up Day -meet the teacher team for next year.
• Friday, June 16th: Report cards issued. Last day of school! 

---

Community Building
 Students course-corrected this week and are now back on track to their typical expectation-following behavior, often prompting other teachers to compliment them. We’re going to finish the school year strong!

Literacy 
We finished Insects and began a short, fun unit on Greek Mythology (high interest and high utility for background knowledge!) Highlights:

• Took our End-of-Unit Assessment for our Insects Unit;
• Learned and practiced new vocabulary words related to Greek history, such as “rugged,” “summoned,” “independently,” and “contributions;”
• Discussed geographic and cultural features of ancient Greece;
• Read aloud a brief history of Greece and an introduction to the 12 Olympian Gods and Goddesses.

Writing
We worked on writing an opinion piece about insects, our last activity of this unit. Highlights:

• Learned about the structure of an opinion piece: introduction, opinion, reasons, and conclusion;
• Learned how to make an opinion more convincing by providing reasons that are backed up by facts;
• Used our notes from the Insects unit to extract facts to support our opinions.

Phonics
We began an abbreviated Unit 15 on the vowel sounds in “school” and “book.” Highlights:

• Practiced reading and spelling single-syllable and multisyllabic words with “oo,” “ou,” “ue,” “ew” “u-e,” and “u,”  such as “smooth,” “overdue,” “soupy;” “chew;” “flu,” and “flute;”
• Learned new trick words and compared their sounds to their unexpected spellings: January, February, and July.

For at-home Phonics information and practice:

• Current:  Fundations Home Support Packet for Unit 15
• Remaining: Fundations Home Support Packet for Unit 16
• Remaining: Fundations Home Support Packet for Unit 17

Math
We began an abbreviate Unit 7 on Addition and Subtraction within 1,000. Highlights:

• Reviewed 2-digit addition and subtraction with composing and decomposing;
• Learned and practice 3 strategies for solving addition and subtraction of 3-digit numbers: “Count on,” “Add Up,” and “Subtract Down,” using equations for each step;
• Found mystery numbers in equations involving addition and subtraction of 3-digit numbers.

For at-home Math information and practice:

• Current:  Illustrative Math Family Support Materials for Unit 7
• Remaining: Illustrative Math Family Support Materials for Unit 8
• Remaining: Illustrative Math Family Support Materials for Unit 9

Science
We didn’t really get to Science this week. We just watched part of a video on animals in the habitats to learn more about habitats around the world, the different animals that live in them, and how the animals have adapted to their environments.

​​Thank you for taking the time to read the entire update! Please reach out with any questions, or to connect to discuss your child’s progress. Have a great weekend!