Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want you to know how much I enjoyed visiting with all of you at conferences. I am enjoying sharing your children with you this year!
Here are a few curriculum notes before we leave for break:

Social Studies- Last week we began a new unit about our past. We started looking in depth at the first Thanksgiving and the pilgrim’s journey. We spent sometime studying totem poles and even created our own in class! We also extended on our understanding of picture/symbol writings and took some time to write our own symbol stories in class. This week each second grader was paired up to research two different Native American tribes and created a venn diagram comparing how they are alike and different.

Writing- Our writing last week followed the theme of… turkeys! Monday each child took a basic everyday work and used a thesaurus to come up with more interesting words. Each of the “interesting” words was displayed on the feathers of a turkey… our thesaurus turkeys! We have spent a lot of time thinking about the things we are thankful for and even wrote a journal from a pilgrim’s point of view. This week we took some time to write funny made up stories about silly turkeys.

Math- In math we have been working on estimating, odd vs. even, and two digit addition. This week I introduced the paper pencil strategy of carrying. This is one of the new strategies they can use when solving problems on homework.

I hope you have a restful and safe Thanksgiving break with your family. Enjoy!

Conference Week!

I can not wait to meet with you at conferences this week! If something has changed in your schedule please let me know as soon as possible. As always with conference, it is important to arrive on time, as many conferences are scheduled back to back. I am looking forward to sharing all of your student’s great work with you!
Last week we wrapped up our study of the human body and have spent this short week studying the food guide pyramid. We constructed a class pyramid and have created our own healthy menus!
Last week we also wrapped up our study of time telling and will be spending the next few weeks focusing on place value and representing numbers in different ways. We will also be learning about two digit addition strategies.
In writing this week we spent some time writing about things we are thankful for and have wrapped up our “How to Draw a Monster” how- to activity.
I hope you have a restful long weekend and I look forward to seeing many of you soon!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!
This week a conference form went home with your child. Please confirm your conference time and return the form to school as soon as you are able. If for some reason you are not able to attend your conference time, please let me know and we can look at rescheduling. You should also see coming home a pink pre-conference form. If you could take a few moments to fill this form out, it will let me know what specific things you would like to discuss at your child’s conference. Return this form to school by November 3rd.
This week we have been celebrating red ribbon week! Friday is the last day as we say “boo” to drugs. Tuesday we were the audience for the sixth grade music program, dress rehearsal
Curriculum information-
Writing- This week we have continued our unit on descriptive paragraphs. Monday each child was given a paper bag with an object inside. Using descriptive writing each child took turns trying to get their friends to guess their mystery object! Last week we used apples as our inspiration. First we collected information using our five senses as we “experienced” an apple. Step by step we took this information through the writing process. The end result was a descriptive paragraph about apples. This week we used another fall favorite to inspire our writing… pumpkins!
Math- Last week we wrapped up our unit on story problems. Our focus now shifts to telling time. Wednesday we had a “mix it up” day. In efforts to focus instruction to our students needs, we grouped our second graders for additional practice in telling time, using the clock, and other time skills.
Animated literacy- We continue to work on parts of speech and are practicing contractions.
Science- We are studying about the 6 body systems in science. So far we have learned about the skeletal, muscular, digestive, and respiratory system. We even made our own skeletons… Thursday we will decorate them for Halloween! Next week we will take a look at the last two systems and will take our end of unit test.

Friday is the big Halloween class party. Just a reminder that we will begin putting on costumes around 2:10pm and to refrain from blood and weapons on costumes. I am looking forward to seeing all the fun costumes! It sounds like the room moms have a fun party planned.

Have a safe and fun weekend!

Beautiful Autumn Day!

I hope autumn is treating everyone well and that you and your 2nd graders are finding time to enjoy the beautiful weather! This week we made stain glass pumpkins to hang by our window… and spooky bats to hang from the ceiling.

Curriculum for the next few weeks is as follows:

Math - In the third unit of Math Expressions, students continue looking at different types of story problems. I am really impressed with the progress they are making in showing their thought processes for various types of problems! We continue to look at examples of change plus, change minus, comparison, and collection story problems. This week, we have examined story problems that have either too much information or not enough information as well as solve story problem with multiple steps. Thank you for your continued support with math homework!

Writing - Students have been working on different paragraph writing activities. We touched on descriptive paragraphs about autumn (be sure to check out the 2nd grade display in the pod!) and are currently working on paragraphs about memories. They are wrapping up these paragraphs about their memory boxes!

Spelling - As spelling lists and pattern sorts become more challenging, it is so important that students continue to practice at home. Please help your child remember that some sort of spelling homework is due at least once a week...this can be anything from an art project using spelling words to words written out on a sheet of paper to a sticky note from you saying he or she wrote words with sidewalk chalk. It is also important to spend time studying the meaning of these words.

Health - This afternoon, students were assessed on our unit on taking care of the body, eyes, and ears. Next week, we will begin to study the different body systems, starting with the skeletal system and the muscular system. Thanks to those of you who have sent in books, X-Rays, and models...a big thank you to Mrs. Knapp for coming in to share the spine and heart with our class!

Reading - Students continue to work hard in their guided reading groups! Don't forget that reading group books that come home can be used on daily reading logs! Our author of the month is Mem Fox; we continue to read many of her best loved stories from Australia.

There will be no school next Friday, October 22.
There are sixth graders at school raising money for the oil spill in the gulf. This will continue through October. If you would like to send a check make it payable to: National Wildlife Federation.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Autumn Has Arrived!

It sure feels like autumn has finally arrived. We have been enjoying this cooler weather at recess. We are waiting patiently for our Monarch butterflies to emerge… many of our chrysalises are turning transparent. Hopefully by next week we will have 11 beautiful butterflies!
Last week each student performed their reader’s theatres for the kindergarten classes. They did such a fantastic job showcasing their reading fluency.
This Wednesday we wrapped up our study of butterflies and moths. The class did a really great job on their tests! This week we will begin our next science unit about the body. We will first take a look at hair, skin, and nails… followed by a study of the eye and ear. We will be looking at models of the eye and ear to study how each of them help us and how they work. Next week we will be visited by an ophthalmologist who will speak to us about proper eye care. There are a few health links on our blog to check out!
In writing our class has been working on using good word choice. They have been participating in fun class activities to help us “spice up” our writing and even got to use a thesaurus. Next week we will put our sentence writing skills to the test as we begin paragraph writing. Now that all of the memory boxes have been shared, each child will select their favorite item they brought in and will write their first published paragraph!
Tuesday our Boys and Girls Club leader Miss Laura came to show us a presentation on internet safety. I have added a link to Netsmartz on our blog. This is a safe site that teaches about internet safety in a fun way.
Our class earned their first marble party Wednesday and celebrated with pjs, stuffed animals, and a short movie! This was a fun reward for all of their hard work and super behavior!
Next week we will begin our new author study featuring Mem Fox. She is the author of the book our memory box project was based on Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge.
Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the weekend!

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!