Today we talked about C.U.P.S – an editing strategy that focuses on the conventions that we work on all year long. CUPS stands for:
C – Capitalization (Sentences, and names should start with a capital letter)
U – Understandable (our brains move faster than our pencils, so we need to read our work aloud to make sure we can understand it)
P – Punctuation (Students should use periods, exclamation points, and questions marks to punctuate their sentences)
S – Spelling and Spacing (Some sight words should be spelled correctly. More challenging words should be attempted. Students can underline the word so they can come back to it later. There should be a finger space between each word.)
Writing Expectations (The Basics): Checking for CUPS is a good place to start. At this point we would expect students to write at least 3 paragrahs independently. Some may be writing much more and some may have to work hard to get their stories completed. Writing about real life events is often the best practice, because students will have the most knowledge about the details of events they have experienced. Finally, writing should be fun! Right now we are not asking students to write for homework, but it never hurts!
Spelling and Sight word lists
Your child brought home a list of Spelling and sight Words. These are the words they should know by the end of the school year.. Please keep this for reference throughout the year!
You should also find an instruction page explaining how our Spelling program will work this year.
I have attached a copy of each document here:
Spelling Program Instructions
No Excuses Spelling Words Grade Two Spelling Test
Once we begin our Spelling Program next week, I think that you will find it will run very smoothly. If you have any questions, please contact us!
C – Capitalization (Sentences, and names should start with a capital letter)
U – Understandable (our brains move faster than our pencils, so we need to read our work aloud to make sure we can understand it)
P – Punctuation (Students should use periods, exclamation points, and questions marks to punctuate their sentences)
S – Spelling and Spacing (Some sight words should be spelled correctly. More challenging words should be attempted. Students can underline the word so they can come back to it later. There should be a finger space between each word.)
Writing Expectations (The Basics): Checking for CUPS is a good place to start. At this point we would expect students to write at least 3 paragrahs independently. Some may be writing much more and some may have to work hard to get their stories completed. Writing about real life events is often the best practice, because students will have the most knowledge about the details of events they have experienced. Finally, writing should be fun! Right now we are not asking students to write for homework, but it never hurts!
Spelling and Sight word lists
Your child brought home a list of Spelling and sight Words. These are the words they should know by the end of the school year.. Please keep this for reference throughout the year!
You should also find an instruction page explaining how our Spelling program will work this year.
I have attached a copy of each document here:
Spelling Program Instructions
No Excuses Spelling Words Grade Two Spelling Test
Once we begin our Spelling Program next week, I think that you will find it will run very smoothly. If you have any questions, please contact us!
Jolly Phonics
Practice your letter sounds by singing along with the Jolly Phonics songs.