2nd Grade Activities: Week 26

RELIGION: daily prayer; review prayers in preparation for 1st Communion; attend Mass.

MATH: experiment with geoboard, making triangles, rectangles, squares, octogon, pentagon, and other shapes; find out how many smaller squares fit in a bigger one; do some simple multiplication (1x1, 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 1x2, 1x3, 1x4, 1x5, 2x3, 2x5); solve word problems from Techniques of Problem Solving A involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, comparison of quantities, time, money, and measurement (cm.), counting by 10s; online math practice: addition and money problems:
http://www.thatquiz.com

PHONICS: Explode the Code 4: learn about open (CV) and closed (CVC) syllables; read and answer questions containing two and three-syllable words; watch Between the Lions: Quest, Quest, Quest video covering the consonant q, word family -est, and vowel short e.

READING/SPELLING: reading in Phonics, Math, and Catechism study; read some comics, websites, early readers, and picture books; IM with relatives; play online spelling and proofreading games:
http://www.eduplace.com/kids/sv/books/content/smg/
http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hme/k_5/proofread/

READING: Don't Tell the Whole World!, Joanna Cole;
Piggy and Dad Play, David Martin; Monkey Business, David Martin;
Monkey Trouble, David Martin.

HANDWRITING: work in Italic handwriting Series B, Getty & Dubay.

SCIENCE/NATURE: observation and care of fish and ants; watch Eyewitness videos: Flight, Bear; Big Science Comics DVD: virtual science experiments involving non-standard weights and measures; read from Why Does It Fall Over? Projects About Balance, Jim Pipe;
Build-A-Fish online activity: find out which characteristics of a fish are beneficial in a particular habitat:
http://www.sheddaquarium.org/sea/interactive_module.cfm?id=7#

FOREIGN LANGUAGE/CULTURE: attend Spanish story time and Mandarin Chinese classes. Practice speaking and writing Chinese characters; learn more about the traditions of Chinese New Year.

ART: make Curious George from twist ties and craft sticks, balance him on wires across the room, make food for George from modeling clay; draw Enkidu from the legend of Gilgamesh; attend Great Artists class: study the work of Pablo Picasso, paint a portrait using a similar style; make crafts for Chinese New Year; coloring with colored pencils.

MUSIC: listen to classical and contemporary music; read along and sing some music during Mass; sing children's songs; play African-style music on virtual thumb piano:
http://www.pbskids.org/africa/piano/piano.html

P.E.: softball; dancing.

READ ALOUD: Two Mice in Three Fables, Lynn Reiser; Round Robin, Jack Kent; Puss in Boots, Charles Perrault (retold and illustrated by Hans Fischer).

HISTORY: read from The Story of the World I: Joseph and his brothers, Hammurabi and the Babylonians, Shamshi-Adad and the Assyrians, the story of Gilgamesh. Historical fiction early readers: The Josefina Story Quilt, Eleanor Coerr (mid 1800s: a family of pioneers travels west to California in a wagon train), The Drinking Gourd, F.N. Monjo (a boy and his father helps a runaway slave family travel the "underground railroad" to freedom: 1850s).