PTA Reflections Artists

Silver Springs celebrated student artists at the PTA Reflections award ceremony.  More photos are in the Photo Gallery linked to the right.

I hope you had a great three-day weekend.  In class this morning we discussed Martin Luther King Jr. and read a Time For Kids article about him and how he changed the United States.

Math Bar Model for Comparison Problems
Now that students have a pretty good grasp of how to use a bar model to solve basic addition and subtraction problems we are moving on to see how bar models can be used to help solve problems with comparisons.  An example of a comparison word problem might be: “In second grade there are a 54 boys and 78 girls.  How many more girls are there than boys?”  When using a bar model for a question like this you draw two bars, one to represent the number of boys and another to represent the number of girls.  Here is another online video to explain what it looks like.

Curriculum Overview
Literacy - In reading we are learning about and making inferences.  We studying how a reader can infer something even when it is not directly stated in a text.

Math - Students are learning when to add and when to subtract in different real world situations.  We are using bar models to understand addition and subtraction.  This week we are focusing on comparison problems and problems with multiple steps.  We will have an exam next Monday.

Writing - This week we will continue two new writing projects.  We will be writing the words for a wordless picture book by Tomie DePaola titled Pancakes for Breakfast.  We will also begin a unit on opinion writing.

Science - This week we are finishing our study of the different states of mater (solid, liquid, and gas) and the ways that water can take on those states of matter as ice, water, and water vapor or steam.  There will also be a science exam tomorrow, a study guide went home last Friday.

Social Studies with Mrs. Heron - Last week we reviewed why communities form governments and discussed why communities need laws. 

Word Study with Mrs. Sepich - This week we will receive new word sorts.  We will continue to work with the vocabulary words first introduced last week.  Students will add them to their Vocabulary Journals along with synonyms, antonyms, a visual representation of the word as well as using it in a 7-up sentence which is a sentence that uses 7 or more words.

Leadership - Using Habit 3 - Put First Things First.  We are trying to do our best in library so we can earn a double plus from Ms. Meisel.

In science we learned about the three states of matter.