Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Field Day

Field Day is next week, Tuesday, June 6 from 10:00-11:30.  Please make sure your child wears athletic gear, tennis shoes, and sunscreen (if necessary).  Also, they may want a water bottle on this day.  

We would LOVE to have two parent volunteers from our classroom to help out for Field Day.  If you are interested, please email me by the end of this week.  It is a lot of fun and we would greatly appreciate the help.  Thanks in advance!!!


Friday, May 19, 2017

May 19: Newsletter

UPCOMING EVENTS:
May 23 - Jet's Pizza Night (Don't forget to mention our class when ordering)
May 29 - No School (Memorial Day)
June 6 - Field Day
June 7 - Ice Cream Party
June 9 - Last Day of School (Early Release)

READING:
You may have noticed that your son/daughter was able to check out FREE CHOICE books this week in the library.  They were very excited to get a book outside of their SRC level.  The students know that the time in the classroom should be spent reading a good fit book.  The free choice books are for reading at home.  This will give you a chance to read new books with your child at home.

Last week I sent home a new reading challenge to encourage your child to keep reading the rest of the year.   I challenged the class to read 8 more books.  Please see the reading challenge paper for details.  Once they have completed all 8 books, they can turn their papers in for a small reward.  At the bottom of the paper, students are asked to assign one of their books an “Eagle Award”.  All they need to do to is pick their favorite book that they read and tell why they liked it.  Students will share their Eagle Book Award with the class to promote others to read similar books.  This reading challenge lasts until the last day of school.  Happy reading!!! 

WRITING:
We will wrap up our 2nd grade writing requirements next week.  Students will write one last informational writing piece based on a science topic.  I will encourage students to write about the science topics we have already covered in 2nd grade (matter and water).  If you happen to have any nonfiction books about these topics that you would like to send to school with your child, we will use them for research on Monday.   Thanks!

MATH:
Next week we will spend two days reviewing for our last math assessment for the year.  This math test will cover arrays, line diagrams, equal shares (halves, thirds, fourths), and word problems involving adding three or four addends.  I will send a math review home on Monday for you to look over with your child.  Tentatively, our math test is planned for Wednesday.  

Also, continue to practice addition and subtraction facts to 20 with your child at home to help them earn more toppings for our ice cream party on Wednesday, June 7.  If you are interested in helping scoop the ice cream with me, I would love your help.  Please just send me an email if you are willing to help.  We will have plenty of ice cream for you to make a delicious sundae and celebrate with us.  

SCIENCE:
Please don’t miss the pictures from our plant presentation this week.  We learned many new things about plants!  Students were able to name specific properties of various seeds.  They also learned the parts of a seed (seed coat, food supply, embryo).  The presentation ended with students planting two seeds to bring home.  The second graders are excited to watch the Indian corn and green beans continue to grow at home!   Today you will find your child’s plant folder and a short review paper coming home to help prepare for our plant assessment on Monday.

OTHER NEWS:
Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!  We have a good supply of Kleenexes in the classroom.  I think we are set for the rest of the year.  Thanks again for your generosity.






Saturday, May 13, 2017

May 12: Newsletter

UPCOMING EVENTS:
May 23 - Jet's Pizza Night (Don't forget to mention our class when ordering)
May 29 - No School (Memorial Day)
June 7 - Ice Cream Party
June 9 - Last Day of School

READING:
Today I have sent home a new reading challenge to help encourage your child to keep reading the rest of the year.   I challenged all second graders to read 8 more books.  Please see the reading challenge paper for details.  Once they have completed all 8 books, they can turn their papers in for a small reward.  At the bottom of the paper, students are asked to assign one of their books an “Eagle Award”.  All they need to do to is pick their favorite book that they read and tell why they liked it.  Students will share their Eagle Award book with the class to promote others to read similar books.  This reading challenge continues until the last day of school.  Happy reading!!!

To be at grade level, students need to leave second grade reading at a level M.  By November of their third grade year they need to be at a level N.  It will be extremely important for your child to read all summer to maintain the skills they have and continue their reading growth.   

WRITING:
Next week we will continue to draft the teaching chapters of our informational writing piece about plants.  We will work to include many facts to support a main idea as well as many examples, evidence, definitions, and tips.  All of this work is preparation for students write their final piece in second grade.  After we write about plants as a class, students will be asked to pick a new science topic to research and write to inform others.  

MATH:
Don’t miss your child’s unit 6 math test that was sent home on Friday.  You will be impressed to see how well they can add and subtract 3-digit numbers.  

We will be celebrating all of the hard work students have done this year to know their addition and subtraction facts to 20 with ICE CREAM!  Students have a few more weeks to continue to practice their facts to earn more toppings for their sundaes.  We will practice many strategies in the classroom to build fact fluency.  We will review double facts and near doubles (6+7) as well as practice how to make a ten.  These strategies significantly increase fact fluency.  Also, continue to have your child practice Xtramath at home.  Two of the ice cream toppings will be saved for the second graders that complete addition and subtraction on Xtramath.  They can do it!  If you are interested in donating items for our ice cream party, please see the note that came home in your child’s Friday folder.  Thank you in advance for your help with this!  Also, if you would like to help scoop the ice cream at the actual party (Wednesday, June 7), please let me know.  We would love to have your help and we will pay in ice cream!!! 

SCIENCE:
Next week we will wrap up out study on plants.  We will start the week with a plant presentation from a local farmer.  We will then learn about the plant life cycle and the different characteristics of plants.  Finally, we will spend time reviewing everything we have learned about plants to prepare for the unit assessment.  Please look for your child’s plant folder and a review paper coming home next week to help prepare for the test. 

OTHER NEWS:
Achoo!  This a common sound we are hearing a lot in the classroom these days.  Unfortunately, runny noses are bothering many of us.  With that said, our Kleenexes are diminishing rapidly.  Some days we go through more than a box a day!!!  We are currently using our last two boxes.  If you are willing, we would greatly appreciate a few more boxes of Kleenex to get through the next few weeks of school.  Thank you for the boxes that have already donated.  We are using them already!!!

Saturday, May 6, 2017

May 5: Newsletter

UPCOMING EVENTS:
May 12 - Early Release
May 23 - Jet's Pizza Night (Don't forget to mention our class when ordering)
May 29 - No School (Memorial Day)

READING:
This session of SRC is officially done!  Congratulations to all of the second graders that made it to their goal.  It took a great deal of dedication and many hours of reading.  Way to go!!!  Second graders will not have SRC reading homework for the remainder of the year.  However, I will send home a new reading challenge that will last until the rest of the year.  Please look for details coming home next week.
To be at grade level, students need to leave second grade reading at a level M.  By November of their third grade year they need to be at a level N.  It will be extremely important for your child to read all summer to maintain the skills they have and continue their reading growth.   

WRITING:
Next week we will continue to work on informational writing about science topics.  The first topic we will write about is plants.  We will spend time researching facts about plants.  This will help make sure we have sufficient facts, details, and examples to include in our writing.  We will then begin writing an introduction and the first couple teaching chapters.  

MATH:
Students completed our unit 6 math assessment last week.  Please look for your child's test paper in next week’s Friday folder.  We are now working through our LAST math unit for the year.  We are learning about arrays and will soon move into fractions.

SCIENCE:
We had an AMAZING day at Frederik Meijer Gardens learning more about plants!!!  The weather was beautiful and we had many parents join us for the day.  Thank you to all of the parents that made the day such a success!!!  I will post pictures from our field trip very soon.  Stay tuned!

OTHER NEWS:
Achoo!  This a common sound we are hearing a lot in the classroom these days.  Unfortunately, runny noses are bothering many of us.  With that said, our Kleenexes are diminishing rapidly.  Some days we go through more than a box a day!!!  We are currently using our last two boxes.  If you are willing, we would greatly appreciate a few more boxes of Kleenex to get through the next few weeks of school.  Thank you!!!