February 29 - March 4, 2016 Mrs. Carroll

In History, we will learn about Seti I, son of Ramses I.  He made important changes in Egyptian history - good, bad, and even ugly!  Bible history coincides with this lesson as Seti is considered the Pharaoh  who commanded that all baby boys be killed at the time Moses was born.

In Literature, we are coming close to the end of Little House in the Big Woods!  Our next chapter is about springtime, and we see that the book is written to share experiences throughout each season. I am planning a future "Little House in the Big Woods" event (dioramas, butter-making, dress-up...). 

This week in Superkids, spelling words are steak, great, break, child, children, parent, straight, stranger, explain, today, and yesterday.  We will work on capitalization of words in a title, comparative and superlative adjectives (hot, hotter, hottest) and adjectives with irregular comparatives (good, better, best).  

We will also take an end-of-unit progress test:

1.  read words with prefixes and suffixes

2.  contractions

3.  compound words

4.  context clues

5.  use commas after a greeting in a letter

6.  use past, present, and future tenses

7.  use adjectives and adverbs

8.  use conjunctions and, but, and or

9.  spell "careful, helpful, above, behind, they, strange, eight, money, piece, sneeze"

10. sequence steps, determine cause and effect, recognize plot, beginning, middle, and end, and compare and contrast texts

These progress test are short and in sections, and not overwhelming.  They help to evaluate student progress as well as to prepare students for test-taking procedures.  I emphasize to students (always!)   that they need to read carefully not only the passage, but the directions.  Many of my second-graders rush through their work - not a good habit!