Happy Halloween!

The Halloween party was so much fun!  A HUGE thank you to Jessica Troost for organizing the party and to ALL of the parents that come to help out.  We had a great turn out.  Here are a few pictures from the party..

October 28: Newsletter

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Monday, October 31: Halloween Party 9:30-10:30

Friday, November 4: Early Release/Dismissal at 12:15

Wednesday, November 9: Parent Teacher Conferences

Thursday, November 10: Parent Teacher Conferences

Today I have sent home a parent questionnaire for you to fill out before we meet for parent teacher conferences.  I would greatly appreciate your feedback about your child.  Please complete the questionnaire and return it to school by Friday, November 4.  Also, please let me know as soon as possible if your conference time does not work.  I look forward to meeting with you soon!

On Monday, October 31 we will celebrate Halloween.  We will have a classroom Halloween party from 9:30-10:30.  All are welcome and we hope you can join us for the fun!  Students may dress up for the Halloween party.  Students may wear their costumes to school on Monday or change into their costume right before the party.  If your child wears his/her costume to school, please remember to pack a change of clothes.  Students will only wear their costume for the party.

READING:

By the end of next week students should be at 50% of their SRC goal.  Which means students should have read and passed 5 SRC quizzes by next Friday.  Please continue to have your child read at home to prepare for their SRC quiz.  Please check out your child’s SRC report to see how many quizzes they have taken so far.  If your child has passed 4 quizzes, they are right on track!

If your child has completed their reading for the Book-It program this month, please turn in the form on Monday.  Today I have sent home the new form for the month of November.  Happy reading!!

WRITING:

Next week we will take a short break from writing narratives.  Instead, we will be working a few surprises for you at parent teacher conferences.  In class, students will write down some of their thoughts and goals for the year.  I am eager to read their ideas and share them with you!

MATH:

Next week we will dive into Unit 2: Addition Within 200.  We will begin by representing numbers to 200 in different ways and identifying patterns involving place value.  Near the end of the week we will explore methods of 2-digit addition.  More information about these strategies will be coming home next week.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

 Next week we will spend the majority of the week discovering what regions our community belongs to.  Students will learn that our community is part of a state, a country, a continent, and the world.

VOCABULARY WORD:

Our vocabulary word this week is distinguish.

Distinguish means to set apart, separate, or tell apart.  

Go Green!  Go Blue!

October 21: Newsletter

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• Monday, October 24: Holiday posters are due
• Tuesday, October 25: Turkey Trot
• Friday, October 28: Michigan vs. Michigan State Day
• Monday, October 31: Halloween Party 9:30-10:30

          We hope you can join us for the fun!

• Friday, November 4: Early Release/Dismissal at 12:15

READING:

Please continue to have your child read their SRC books for reading homework.  At this point students should have passed three SRC quizzes with 80% accuracy or higher.  Many students have met this goal.  Way to go!!!  Please do not worry if your child has not done this yet.  Ther is lots of time to catch up!  Please check out your child's SRC report in his/her Friday folder.  The SRC report will list the books that your child has be quizzed on as well as their overall score.  Students need 80% accuracy or higher for it to count as a passed quiz.  

WRITING:

Next week we will wrap up the writing process by taking time to revise, edit, and publish a small moment story.  On Friday, we will have a small writing celebration in the classroom.  Students will have time to read their classmates' stories and notice all of the great writing strategies used in each story.  Please look for many of your child's small moment stories coming home next week.  However, I will keep their final small moment narrative to share with you at parent-teacher conferences.

MATH:

This week we completed many two step word problems.  Two step word problems are some of the most difficult problems we will complete all year long.  Students will not be officially assessed on this type of problem until the end of the year; however, we will continue to practice how to successfully solve this type of problem.  It takes a lot of work to solve two step work problems, but they are getting it.  In class, we talked about having grit!  I introduced grit as...

G: Give it your all!
R: Redo if necessary!

I: Ignore giving up!

T: Take time to do it right!

Students had a lot of grit this week. I am proud of their smart thinking and determination!!!

Please continue to practice Xtramath at home.  The students are increase to build their addition fluency!  

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Next week we will study different communities and how they have changed over time.  We will find out how people have changed a community and identify the positive and negative consequences due to those changes.  

VOCABULARY WORD:

Our vocabulary word this week is distinguish.

Distinguish means to set apart, separate, or tell apart.  

October 14: Newsletter

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• Monday, October 24: Holiday posters are due
• Tuesday, October 25: Turkey Trot
• Friday, October 28: Michigan vs. Michigan State Day
• Monday, October 31: Halloween Party 9:30-10:30

          We hope you can join us for the fun!

• Friday, November 4: Early Release/Dismissal at 12:15

READING:

The students officially completed their first week of SRC (Scholastic Reading Counts).  Many students earned their first point for SRC by taking a quiz this week and passing it with 80% accuracy!   Way to go!!!  Students learned a lot about taking a quiz on the computer or iPad!  They are also finding out how important it is for them to have their SRC book bag at school each day...even if they don't need to take a quiz.  Students do have time to read their SRC books throughout the day.  Also, students will hand in their weekly reading logs on Fridays.  Today you will find a new gold reading log in your child's SRC bag.  Please help your child fill out the chart, sign the bottom, and return it to school on Friday.  Thanks!

Next week we will focus on building comprehension strategies while reading.  Our focus will be on what great readers can do before, during, and after their reading.  We will also practice building our reading fluency.

WRITING:

Next week we will continue to write small moment narratives.  We will work on keeping our stories organized and in order.  To help the reader fully understand the events of story in order, we will add in transitions words.  For example, students could add the words first, next, then, finally, suddenly, or immediately.  I am excited to see how transitions words can transform our stories and make them even easier to read.

MATH:

Today you find a note in your child's Friday folder about Xtramath.  This is an online program that doesn't require much parent help once it is set up. We use XtraMath to increase speed and accuracy with addition and subtraction facts. Please help your child use Xtramath a few minutes each day to practice their math facts on a computer, tablet, or phone.  Even if your child used the program last year, you must register this year to be linked to our classroom.  I receive weekly emails of your child's results.  It only takes a couple minutes a night!

Also, you will find green flashcards in your child's Friday folder.  These are "make a ten" cards.  Ask your child to show you how they can quickly make a ten to solve each addition fact.  The back of each card shows this strategy using a picture.  

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Our focus next week will be on the natural characteristics in a community.  We will learn about many various landforms and bodies of water.  Students will complete a short assessment at the end of the week to see if they can identify the different landforms (mountain, hill, valley, etc.) and bodies of water (ocean, lake, pond, etc.).

VOCABULARY WORD:

Our vocabulary word this week is compare.
Compare means to find likenesses between two or more things.

OTHER NEWS:

• If you child didn't not complete his/her scrapbook page you still have time to finish it.  Please have them turned in by Monday.  It has been so fun looking at all the pages!!!

Book-It

We will once again be participating in the Pizza Hut Book-It Reading Incentive Program. Each month there is a reading log that is sent home. The goal is for students to read fives nights a week for 20 minutes each night.   At the end of the month, please send your child's reading log back to school.  Students may count their SRC reading homework for the Book-It program!  Kids that achieve the goal will be given a certificate for a free personal pan pizza. No other purchase is necessary. 

October 7: Newsletter

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• Friday, October 14:  Early Release/Dismissal at 12:15
• Monday, October 24: Holiday posters are due!
• Tuesday, October 25: Turkey Trot
• Friday, October 28: Michigan vs. Michigan State Day
• Monday, October 31: Halloween Party
• Friday, November 4: Early Release/Dismissal at 12:15

READING:

Today is the official kick off to our reading homework.  Please look for your child's SRC book bag that came home today.  You will find a letter further explaining homework in 2nd grade and the Scholastic Reading Counts (SRC) program.  Please help your child establish a steady homework routine.  I'm not sending as much work home this year, but would like all 2nd graders to consistently read five nights a week for 20 minutes each night.  Also, they should be asking you to help them fill out their weekly reading log each night they read.  Reading logs are due back to school every Friday.

This session of SRC will continue until December 4th.  It is our goal to have all students take and pass ONE quiz a week.  That means it is their goal to take 10 quizzes by December 4.  In order to take a quiz, your child will read one of their library books at home.  Students may even want to read their book more than once!  When they are ready and have returned their book to school, they will take a 10 question quiz online.  Please help your child bring their SRC book bag to school each day.  I know they may not take a quiz daily but we want them to begin the habit of having their books with them each day to build responsibility and consistency.

WRITING:

Next week we will work on adding details to our small moments that help develop the characters in our stories.  Students will work on describing their characters' feelings, actions, thinking, and talking.  Also, we will take time to look at the first small moment that was written at the beginning of the year.  It will be exciting for the students to see how they have grown as writers already this year!

MATH:

We will continue to work through various word problems next week.  We will practice strategies to do before, during, and after finding the solution to each word problem.  Students know to read the word problem and retell it before trying to solve.  Then as they work on the word problem students are identifying important information, writing an equation to match, and showing their thinking through a math drawing.  Finally, students will double check their answers and label their work after they have found a solution.  Through this process students are able to thoroughly explain their thinking and are successfully answering very tricky word problems.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Next week will spend the majority of our week creating our own maps of Hudsonville.  Students will make a map of their neighborhoods and as many other parts of Hudsonville that are nearby.  All students will need to include natural characteristics on their map as well as human characteristics.  Natural characteristics are characteristics of the environment that are part of nature (rivers, lakes, mountains, etc.).  Human characteristics are characteristics that a human made (bridge, buildings, railroad tracks, etc.).  See if your child can identify the natural and human characteristics around your neighborhood!

VOCABULARY WORD:

Our vocabulary word this week is retell.
Retell means to tell in your own words.

OTHER NEWS:

• Please see the note regarding our classroom scrapbook that was sent home last week.  Our classroom scrapbook becomes one of our favorite books in the classroom.  Thanks for helping with this fun project!

September 30: Newsletter

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• Wednesday, October 5: Evacuation Drill
• Friday, October 7: Maize and Blue Day/Popcorn Day

• Friday, October 14:  Early Release/Dismissal at 12:15
• Monday, October 31: Halloween Party
• Friday, November 4: Early Release/Dismissal at 12:15

READING:

Next week we will be focused on strengthening our decoding strategies.  Students will learn that readers use more than one strategy to figure out tricky words.  As we read, we will make sure to slow down to think about each unknown word and use various strategies to figure it out.  The strategies we will practice next week will be reading through the entire word making sure we don't miss word endings, using parts of the words that we already know, flipping the sounds of certain identified letters, and making sure the word looks right, sounds right, and makes sense.

Also, next week we will begin reading homework!  Please look for a book bag and letter coming home next week that further explains reading homework in 2nd grade.  Your child's reading homework will be connected to an online program called Scholastic Reading Counts (SRC).  2nd graders are typically quite motivated by this program and the incentives they can earn at library.  Stay tuned for details coming home next week Thursday!

WRITING:

Students are on a roll drafting their small moment stories.  Next week we will work on adding details to describe the character's actions, thoughts, and feelings.  We will also revise our leads and endings.  Our goal will be to write a lead that grabs the reader's attention and makes them want to read more as well as writing an ending the wraps up our stories with a wish, a hope, or a feeling.

MATH:

This week we spent a lot of time practicing our double facts.  Please continue to practice these facts at home too!  We are learning that when we know the doubles facts it helps us know many other related facts.  Please ask your child how they can use a doubles fact to solve 6+7.  

Next week the majority of our time will be focused on solving word problems.  We will make a problem solving book that will teach us important steps to follow to obtain accurate solution.  We will work hard to fully understand each word problem before trying to solve.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Our study on communities continues!  Next week we will be exploring maps.  Students will learn how to read a map, how to use a map key, how maps are organized, and will eventually create their own maps of Hudsonville.  

VOCABULARY WORD:

Each week we will learn a new vocabulary word.  The identified vocabulary word is a word that is used in all content areas.  This week our word was DESCRIBE.  Students learned that describe means to tell in your own words.  This word was used all throughout the week and students had fun catching people using it.  Many students even told me that they heard you use it at home!!

Next week our word is IDENTIFY.  Identify means to locate or find something.

OTHER NEWS:

• Please see the note regarding our classroom scrapbook in your child's Friday folder.  Our classroom scrapbook becomes one of our favorite books in the classroom.  Thanks for helping with this fun project!
• You will also find a Holiday Poster in their Friday folders.  This project is from the Hudsonville Area Chamber of Commerce and is completely optional.  All submitted artwork will be displayed throughout town.  The winning posters from each grade will be displayed at City Hall.  The winners will also receive a special prize bag and get to ride on the Holiday trolley in the parade.  All posters are due back to school by October 24.  
• I couldn't resist posting a picture of the "twins" we found in the classroom this week!  Too cute!!!