SECOND
GRADE
October 9,
2015
Mrs. Castillo’s Classroom News
A Message from Mrs. Castillo
Our Halloween Party is three weeks
from today. Johnson will be holding its
annual costume parade on Friday,
October 20th. The time is tentatively
2:00pm. Following the parade we will
be having a small celebration in the
classroom. If your child is not allowed
to participate in the parade or any of
the Halloween festivities, please let me
know. We have alternate plans for
those students.
Ms. Tiana Hardin (Jeremiah’s mom)
has graciously agreed to be our head
room parent. She will be organizing
both the Halloween and Christmas
Party, but she will need some help.
One way all students can help is by
donating $1 per classroom party, for a
total of $3 for all three parties. That
would give us a $20 budget per party.
Another way to help is by donating
items for the party. Please see the
attached note for ideas.
October Birthdays:
Katrina Meyers-October 11th
Avary Kubalanza-October 17
th
Jude Brown-Smith-October 22nd
Parent Reminders
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Upcoming Dates
Monday, October 12thColumbus Day, No School
Thursday, October 15thParent-Teacher Conferences
Monday, October 19thReflections PTA Projects are
due (optional)
Tuesday, October 20thParent-Teacher Conferences
Friday, October 30thHalloween Classroom party
Students should be
reading at least 20
minutes a night.
Ms. Castillo’s Classroom Newsletter Page 2
READING
In reading we are now focusing on
using the text and the pictures to tell
about the characters in a story.
Together we made a list of character
traits that we could use to describe the
characters. We are also using the
character traits in our writing to not
only describe the characters but
ourselves as well. It’s interesting to see
the perspective of different students.
This is also a good opportunity to learn
to disagree with a peer, but still remain
respectful.
HOMEWORK
Daily homework for all students
includes reading for 20 minutes
and writing a reading response
in their journal. Journal entries
should include the title of the
book, the author, and the date.
In addition, we are discussing the plot
of a story and have been practicing
completing a graphic organizer that will
help understand the characters,
setting, and the plot.
MATH
In Math we learned how to distinguish
odd and even numbers. We also learned
how to create equation chains. As we
explored solving equations with three or
four addends, the students enjoyed
sharing strategies that they discovered
as they attacked such equations. It was
so much fun watching them come up
with different ways. Sometimes students
learn just as well from other students!
Part of our daily math warm up is
counting forward and backward up to
1000 off the decade by 10’s. For
example: 362, 372, 382, 392, 402, etc.
Please practice this at home whenever
possible.
Social Studies
We are flexing for Science and Social
Studies, which means that Mrs. G will be
teaching all the Social Studies and I will
be teaching Science. In Social Studies,
the students learned to identify what
planet, continent, country, state, and city
they live in. They have also learned to
distinguish between a rural area, an
urban area, and a suburb.