Our Caterpillars are Growing!

We have had a very busy week this week in second grade! Our larvae continue to munch away and are growing by the day! We continue to make written and picture observations of their growth. In science we are studying the stages of the life cycle and even made a life cycle using various types of pasta! The second important thing that we have been studying is the difference between butterflies and moths.
Good News!... Reading groups will begin Monday the 20th! We are very excited to begin and start getting into routine. I want to stress the importance of the reading group folder. The night your child brings this home they are to read it and return it the very next day. Our first and second grade policy about folders is that if they are not ready and returned on that next day, your child will be asked to turn a card.
In writer’s workshop we have been writing our first published personal narratives! The true stories about our lives have been fun to read and fun to write! This writing requires we put our sentence writing skills to work! This week we have also begun to finally plan and write our letters! This planning, writing, editing, making a clean copy, and addressing of envelopes will take us into next week. It is fun to hear the class talk about how fun it is to write and “snail mail” letters!
In math we have been super busy! We have been talking about equations and how “partner” numbers are interchangeable in what we call a fact family. This week each table brainstormed together all types of combinations of numbers that would equal a number given to them. After all of their brainstorming… each table worked together to write all of the equations on strips; those were then connected to make “equation chains”. This week we met a new math friend named Bob… Bob is an alligator who is helping us to understand greater than and less than. We have been working on place value to order numbers.
Just a small thank you for helping your child to complete and send back math homework! Each child gets an opportunity to share their strategies used on math homework, we call this math talk, each day with many different classmates using a cooperative learning strategy called Mix, Pair, and Share!

*If you have not contacted our room moms with your child’s contact information and would like to be a part of the class directory, please contact Amanda Elo at ajaveyard@yahoo.com. They are putting together a resource that can be beneficial for play dates, parties, and other get togethers.

Coming up… this weekend there is a butterfly tagging even 9/18 at the Baker Wetlands. The even will be from 7:30-11:30 am. This event is open to the public!

Enjoy the holiday!

Just a quick note to check in about our week…

This week we began practicing for our first reader’s theatre puppet shows! Hopefully we will have these ready to perform for an audience next week. This is our final project with our Jolly Postman/fairy tale unit.
Next week we will begin applying our sentence skills as we start writing personal narratives. These stories about our lives are sure to be fun!
Although the testing continues for reading group placement… we will begin reading skill groups in the mean time beginning next Tuesday. We will be working with various reading strategies and comprehension activities.
In science we continue to study about butterflies and moths. Our Monarch larvae is scheduled to arrive next Monday! We can’t wait to begin our observations!
Our first research project will begin on Tuesday. Each child has been partnered up and assigned a specific butterfly or moth to begin gathering information. The final project will be called a “report in a can” and will be displayed in the library. (If you have any clean soup/vegetable cans to send in… we will need 13 total.)

Some important dates coming up:
September 10th- Grandparent day 3:00pm
September 13th- Picture day


If a family would like to be included in a class, please contact Amanda Elo at ajaveyard@yahoo.com or 785-856-0570 with your information. Participation is optional, but if you would like to be included, please contact Amanda by Friday, 9/10. The following information should be provided:
Child's name
Parent's names
Siblings names (and grades is applicable)
Address
Phone number to use to contact the family

Email address to use to contact the family


Enjoy your long weekend!

In Full Swing!

Well... it looks like our school year is in full swing and keeping very busy! We have been keeping our agenda full. In writing we have been working on our sentence writing skills. We have been studying the various components of what makes a complete sentence. We put our skills to work writing friendly letters to our new principal Mrs. Mickel, our author study Kevin Henkes, and many fairy tale creatures.
Our journey with the Jolly Postman is coming to a close with the many versions of The Three Little Pigs. Along the way we have been practicing our sequencing skills and story components. Friday we will begin an activity called goal mapping, with a book called The Three Little Javalinas.
Our librarian Mrs. Fredrickson, has spent the last few weeks helping us to pick "just right" books. We used the acronym CAN IT Be good? to guide our discussions. C-cover, A-author, N-number of pages, I-illustrator, T-title, and B-blurb.
In science we began our study of different animal life cycles and the basic parts of insects. This understanding will lead in to our unit on butterflies! Our caterpillars arrive September 7th! We are looking forward to learning the parts of the caterpillars, components of the butterfly life cycle, and all there is to know about these amazing insects!
If you have any questions about parent night, or the information sent home, please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you for your support with reading at home and math homework. Just a reminder that math homework will be going home on most evenings. As a good rule of thumb, if your child is spending more than 20/30 min on this work, please let me know. Also, one spelling homework is due every Tuesday. If your child's practice isn't something easily turned in, a note that your child practiced is plenty!
Friday we will get a chance to meet our fifth grade book buddies. Next week we will get to spend more time reading and getting to know them!

Have a wonderful and safe weekend!

Beginning a New School Year!

I am so excited to be starting a new school year! It has been great getting to know your 2nd graders the past few days. Rather than sending home a paper newsletter this year, I will be posting important class information on this blog. When there is an update, I will send out an e-mail. I plan to update at least every other week. I encourage you to check in often. To the right, there are several links that will be helpful to you and your 2nd grade student this year! These links will change periodically to tie in with our curriculum.
We have been busy these first few days of school with many fun and engaging activities. One of the big introductory units we have started is called the Jolly Postman. We are visiting many familiar fairy tales and have been practicing our sequencing activities.

Don't forget that the 2nd grade curriculum night is tomorrow, Thursday, August 19, at 6:00 in our classroom. I hope to see all of you then!

Mrs. Amber Crooker

Welcome back to school!

Well... it is that time of the year and school is ready to begin! I am excited about this upcoming year and can't wait to get to know you and your families. Instead of a weekly newsletter I will be posting all information about class events and other information on this site. The blog will also offer sites and links supporting our curriculum at school. You will receive an email notification when a new posting is uploaded.
I am looking forward to meeting with you at Curriculum Night next week!

Mrs. Crooker

Happy Summer!

I can not believe I am sitting at my computer… writing our last blog! Where did the school year go? The last few weeks of school are full of fun, friendship… and still a lot of learning!
In math this week we will wrap up our math unit on function machines. We have been learning the patterns of what happens to numbers when they enter this special machine. These machines have rules such as doubling, add 7, or subtract 2. We also have been using data to investigate real life situations… such as how many kids are in our classroom families! We have also taken our end of the year assessment.
Last week the Boys and Girls coordinator Miss Laura, came to talk to us about internet safety using an online program called Netsmartz. She shared all of the games on this “safe site” that are fun for kids!
We have taken some time these last few weeks to reflect upon the projects, fun times, and memories we have made in second grade. Our bulletin board in our pod is a “buzz” with memories! Each student chose a memory from the year to write about and made a buzzing bee to go with!
Our end of the year science unit is called All About Animals. As a class we have taken time to look at what makes an animal a vertebrate and invertebrate. We have also studied how many animals have learned to adapt to their environment in order to survive! Each student created a poster of their animal and labeled what adaptations help this animal to eat and live.
Friday this week is… field day! We will also be having a pizza party for lunch thanks to our room moms If your child would like to have pizza that day, please do not send lunch with your child to school.
Next Monday we will be participating in yearbook signing and Tuesday is our end of year celebration called blue and silver!

I just want to take this moment to thank you for sharing your children with me this year. I have truly enjoyed having each and every one of them in my classroom and have learned just as much from them as they have probably learned from me! I hope you all have a fun and restful summer. Encourage your child to keep reading, writing, and thinking about the world around them! I hope to see you around Langston in the fall! Happy Summer!

Mrs. Amber Crooker

Welcome May!

Welcome to May! Believe it or not… May is finally here! Our week kicked off with our visits from Jr. Achievement. Our teacher is from Peoples Bank and has been teaching us about jobs in our community and assembly line production. She will continue her lessons through this week.
We have finally wrapped up our non-fiction books! I am in the process of grading them and can not wait to send them home for your child to share with you! I am so happy with how they turned out. They put so much time and effort into this writing project. Our next unit in writing is called “You are in the picture”. Each student was given the choice of a picture book. They then were asked to select a picture that looked the most interesting. Next they wrote down what they could see, feel, hear, smell, and maybe taste in the picture. The final project will be a descriptive piece of writing!
In math we have started measuring distance, looking at direction, and have been using the axis to locate objects. Mr. Origin has been helping us to learn directions!
Monday a “Teach the Class” form was sent home with your child. Please take some time to discuss with your child, what they might want to teach their classmates. Return form by May 11th. If you have any questions please ask!
In spelling this week, we will begin reviewing patterns and will be working on theme words for the rest of the month!
We had such a fun week last week during Wellness Week! By far the highlight was a visit from KC Wolf from the KC Chiefs!! He came to talk to us about how important it is to eat a healthy diet and stay active! Thursday we had a smoothie challenge… although our recipe was not chosen as the winner, we had a lot of fun trying our smoothies!
Field trip… take 2! We are scheduled to go to the KC zoo on May 11th. I will send another reminder note home about sack lunch that day. Thank you for your patience and let’s think good thought about the weather!