I can't believe it is Friday already! What a mixed-up couple of weeks! I just wanted to pass on a couple of pieces of information to you.
Our class will be attending a production at the Lied Center on Thursday in the afternoon. Volunteers won't be needed on this field trip, but it would be a good time to start thinking about whether or not you might be interested in going to the Kansas City Zoo with our class in April! I will let you know that date once it has been set.
I am in need of a couple of volunteers to help with Kansas Day in our classroom. Our room will be used as the "butter churning station" from 11:35-1:35 next Friday, January 29. Students will listen to a book about pioneers while shaking jars of cream to make butter, which they will then get to enjoy on slices of fresh homemade bread! 6 different groups of first and second grade students will rotate through our class that day...that is a lot of bread and butter! If you would be interested in helping with slicing bread, spreading butter, handing out snacks, and possibly reading out loud, please let me know. The more the merrier!
Today, students picked poems to memorize for our Poetry Cafe at 2:45 on February 11. They will be bringing home a set of their assigned poems on Monday. Part of daily homework until February 11 will include practicing these poems. We will also be working on them here at school. Look for a formal invitation to the Poetry Cafe soon...we hope to see all of you there!
The 100th day of school this year will be all about math! Believe it or not, the 100th day of school will be next week on Thursday, January 27. We will be celebrating in many ways here in our classroom. One thing that we need you to do to help is to send in 100 pieces of a snack to make a "100th Day Trail Mix". Examples might be small pretzels, raisins, pieces of cereal, mini marshmallows, etc. Please send your childs pre-counted snack to school on Thursday.
Due to the snow day yesterday, I am extending the deadline for Scholastic book orders to Monday. I will submit the order than and have your books to you as soon as possible. I will not send a Scholastic order home for the month of February, due to the book fair.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Winter Wonderland!
I hope that your 2nd graders have enjoyed these past couple of snow days! I'm sure there has been much sledding, snowman-building, and hot cocoa drinking! I, also, have kind of enjoyed running around in the snow with the dog and drinking hot tea on the couch...but I am very excited to return to Langston Hughes tomorrow!
In math this week, we will continue to study data collection and analyzing of graphs. We started this unit looking at different types of pictographs. Next, we practiced putting data onto a table and solving comparison problems using the table. Later this week, we will begin to look at bar graphs. Student should be able to accurately graph information and state different facts about the graphs. Specifically, we have been working on making comparison statements using graphs and tables (for example, "Joe has 6 more snowballs than Mary"). During our daily routines in math, we continue to practice telling time and are also working on place value.
It has been so much fun starting our 2nd grade poetry unit! So far, students have been working on couplets and different types of shape poems. Be sure to check out our "Poet Tree" in the pod to see some samples on display! In the coming days, students will begin writing list poems, cinquains, and acrostic poems. Tomorrow, we will take a quick break from writing poetry to write book reviews.
We have enjoyed reading some of Tomie DePaulo's books since school resumed! Students learned that DePaulo's family is half Irish and half Italian, and that he incorporates his heritage into many of his stories. We will continue to read his books in the days to come. I also hope to start "Mr. Popper's Penguins this week! This is always a favorite...for the students, as well as for me!
What a time to begin studying weather in science! Last week, students observed some sunny and mild days. I'm sure they are going to love talking about the weather this week! Early last week, students learned about the seasons and did some writing to describe winter, spring, summer, and autumn. On Friday, the class began to learn about the different types of clouds. When our science test rolls around, 2nd graders will need to know about cumulus, cumulonimbus, stratus, and cirrus clouds. This week, we will continue our study of clouds and will also begin to look at the different types of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, and hail). We will take a break from our weather unit of study on Friday to study about Martin Luther King Jr. and the impact he had on America.
There will be no school next Monday, January 17 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) or January 31 (professional development day). There will also be no school February 18 (recording/reporting day for teachers) or February 24 and 25. Conferences will be Wednesday, February 23, and Thursday, February 24. I can't believe it's almost that time again! I can't wait to share your child's progress with you!
I hope that 2011 has gotten off to a wonderful start for all of you! Have a great week!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Happy Holidays!
It is so hard to believe that 2010 is coming to a close! I have really enjoyed working with your children these past 4 and a half months. They are such a respectful and enthusiastic group, and I will be looking forward to seeing them all again in January!
I wanted to let you know what things we will be studying in our class to kick off 2011! In math, we will be beginning a unit on data collection and graphing. Today, students were assessed on 2-digit addition, money, and number sequences. They did an excellent job! I was thrilled to hear that many students remembered to practice their math skills last night at home. Their hard work shows!
In science, 2nd graders will be starting a month-long unit of study on the weather. During this unit we will discuss the water cycle, types of precipitation, storms, wind, and types of clouds. Students will make daily weather obervations and learn about the seasons. Now that we are quickly approaching a Kansas winter, I am sure that we will have some...exciting...weather to observe during this time!
A favorite writing unit is coming up...POETRY! During the month of January, students will learn how to write couplets, shape poems, acrostic poems, cinquains, and free verse poems. We will read and listen to poems by many different authors, and students will have the chance to create their own poetry books about weather! They may even memorize a popular poem or two...stay tuned for more information on that!
Our author study for January will be Tomie dePaola. He is the well-known author of the Strega Nona books, the character "Big Anthony", and many other books...some of which tie into our study of the weather! If your child has any Tomie dePaola books and would like to share, feel free to send them in! In the month of January, we will also be starting a new read-aloud...my favorite children's book of all time, Mr. Popper's Penguins. As we read this book, we will do some fun penguin writing activities. Reading groups will resume the first week after winter break.
During the "word work" portion of our language block, we have been working on many different skills. Since school started, we have taken this time to study parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives), syllabication, compound words, prefixes and suffixes, alphabetical order, plural nouns, and contractions. Next month, we will spend quite a bit of time talking about homophones and homographs, as well as dictionary use. These would all be excellent skills to discuss at home!
This Friday (December 17) will be our winter party. All Langston Hughes students are invited to have a "pajama day" that day.
As always, thank you for all that you do. It has been a wonderful year so far, and I look forward to a great start to 2011! Have a safe and beautiful holiday with your family, and I will see you in the new year!
I wanted to let you know what things we will be studying in our class to kick off 2011! In math, we will be beginning a unit on data collection and graphing. Today, students were assessed on 2-digit addition, money, and number sequences. They did an excellent job! I was thrilled to hear that many students remembered to practice their math skills last night at home. Their hard work shows!
In science, 2nd graders will be starting a month-long unit of study on the weather. During this unit we will discuss the water cycle, types of precipitation, storms, wind, and types of clouds. Students will make daily weather obervations and learn about the seasons. Now that we are quickly approaching a Kansas winter, I am sure that we will have some...exciting...weather to observe during this time!
A favorite writing unit is coming up...POETRY! During the month of January, students will learn how to write couplets, shape poems, acrostic poems, cinquains, and free verse poems. We will read and listen to poems by many different authors, and students will have the chance to create their own poetry books about weather! They may even memorize a popular poem or two...stay tuned for more information on that!
Our author study for January will be Tomie dePaola. He is the well-known author of the Strega Nona books, the character "Big Anthony", and many other books...some of which tie into our study of the weather! If your child has any Tomie dePaola books and would like to share, feel free to send them in! In the month of January, we will also be starting a new read-aloud...my favorite children's book of all time, Mr. Popper's Penguins. As we read this book, we will do some fun penguin writing activities. Reading groups will resume the first week after winter break.
During the "word work" portion of our language block, we have been working on many different skills. Since school started, we have taken this time to study parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives), syllabication, compound words, prefixes and suffixes, alphabetical order, plural nouns, and contractions. Next month, we will spend quite a bit of time talking about homophones and homographs, as well as dictionary use. These would all be excellent skills to discuss at home!
This Friday (December 17) will be our winter party. All Langston Hughes students are invited to have a "pajama day" that day.
As always, thank you for all that you do. It has been a wonderful year so far, and I look forward to a great start to 2011! Have a safe and beautiful holiday with your family, and I will see you in the new year!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Marble Party!
Happy Thursday! I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are staying warm on this first week of December! We remain very busy in 2nd grade...here is what we are studying!
In math, students continue to work on place value and two-digit addition (with and without regrouping). Students had the opportunity to design their own strategies, as well as to learn some new ones. Today, we made the connection between money (dollars, dimes, and pennies) and our math drawings (quick hundreds, ten sticks, and ones). We will contine to look at place value, money, rounding, and estimation for another few days.
We take the last three weeks of school before winter break to cover some topics in health. This week, students are studying ways to stay safe in different situations. Next week, we will take a look at how to stay well during the cold and flu season. During the week of December 13, we will discuss the dangers of drugs and practice different ways to "say no". Today, we were excited to have a guest speaker come to our classroom to review what we studied last week and the week before about Native American cultures!
I can't give you much information on our current writing project, as it is a holiday surprise...but, I can tell you that your 2nd graders are working very hard and putting together some great pieces. We continue our author study of Janell Cannon, and will be doing some work with cause and effect in some of her books next week. During our language minilessons, we are working on the use of prefixes and suffixes.
The big news in our classroom as that we have earned our third marble party of the year! After an almost unanimous decision, students will be able to wear pajamas to school tomorrow and bring a (small) stuffed animal to act as a reading buddy. We will celebrate the marble party (and the upcoming winter season!) with hot chocolate and a Janell Cannon video in the afternoon.
Thanks, as always, for all you do!
In math, students continue to work on place value and two-digit addition (with and without regrouping). Students had the opportunity to design their own strategies, as well as to learn some new ones. Today, we made the connection between money (dollars, dimes, and pennies) and our math drawings (quick hundreds, ten sticks, and ones). We will contine to look at place value, money, rounding, and estimation for another few days.
We take the last three weeks of school before winter break to cover some topics in health. This week, students are studying ways to stay safe in different situations. Next week, we will take a look at how to stay well during the cold and flu season. During the week of December 13, we will discuss the dangers of drugs and practice different ways to "say no". Today, we were excited to have a guest speaker come to our classroom to review what we studied last week and the week before about Native American cultures!
I can't give you much information on our current writing project, as it is a holiday surprise...but, I can tell you that your 2nd graders are working very hard and putting together some great pieces. We continue our author study of Janell Cannon, and will be doing some work with cause and effect in some of her books next week. During our language minilessons, we are working on the use of prefixes and suffixes.
The big news in our classroom as that we have earned our third marble party of the year! After an almost unanimous decision, students will be able to wear pajamas to school tomorrow and bring a (small) stuffed animal to act as a reading buddy. We will celebrate the marble party (and the upcoming winter season!) with hot chocolate and a Janell Cannon video in the afternoon.
Thanks, as always, for all you do!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving!
It has been a wonderful week in 2nd grade! Everyone made it through the one FULL week of school in November! Remember that, next week, we will only have school on Monday and Tuesday.
In math, we continue our unit on place value. Students have done an excellent job working with larger numbers! We continue to practice representing numbers with boxes, sticks, and circles. We have practiced some more challenging story problems, as well as several activites on estimation! We are beginning to incorporate some short time practice activities into our daily routine. Please continue to discuss minutes before and after the hour at home.
It has been fun getting into our Social Studies books this week! As a morning activity, students are doing daily geography practice. In the afternoon, we have been studying Native Americans, Spanish explorers coming to America, and pilgrims. As a writing project this week, we talked about writing from another point of view. Students were asked to write a journal from the point of view of a pilgrim on the Mayflower. It has been wonderful seeing many great and creative ideas in this project!
There will be no reading groups next week, as we will be taking our language block to do different Thanksgiving and reading activities. On Monday, we will begin our "Deck the Halls with 2nd Graders" project. Be sure to visit the pod in December to see the 2nd grade display! On Tuesday, we will make our pumpkin pie in a bag! Thank you SO much to all of you who have sent/are sending ingredients on Monday. This is always a favorite project for our class, and a great chance to have our own class Thanksgiving celebration!
As part of our "Deck the Halls with 2nd Graders" project, we will need hair-colored yarn. I have some yellow, red, black, and brown yarn, but could always use more of these...especially brown and yellow. If you are someone who has spare yarn in your house that could be used and would like to donate some, please e-mail me over the weekend and let me know what colors you are sending. I will plan on doing some yarn-shopping on Sunday or Monday for the colors that we are still low on.
I hope you all have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving with your family. It was great seeing all of you at conferences last week, and I am truly thankful to have the opportunity to work with your terrific kids this year!
In math, we continue our unit on place value. Students have done an excellent job working with larger numbers! We continue to practice representing numbers with boxes, sticks, and circles. We have practiced some more challenging story problems, as well as several activites on estimation! We are beginning to incorporate some short time practice activities into our daily routine. Please continue to discuss minutes before and after the hour at home.
It has been fun getting into our Social Studies books this week! As a morning activity, students are doing daily geography practice. In the afternoon, we have been studying Native Americans, Spanish explorers coming to America, and pilgrims. As a writing project this week, we talked about writing from another point of view. Students were asked to write a journal from the point of view of a pilgrim on the Mayflower. It has been wonderful seeing many great and creative ideas in this project!
There will be no reading groups next week, as we will be taking our language block to do different Thanksgiving and reading activities. On Monday, we will begin our "Deck the Halls with 2nd Graders" project. Be sure to visit the pod in December to see the 2nd grade display! On Tuesday, we will make our pumpkin pie in a bag! Thank you SO much to all of you who have sent/are sending ingredients on Monday. This is always a favorite project for our class, and a great chance to have our own class Thanksgiving celebration!
As part of our "Deck the Halls with 2nd Graders" project, we will need hair-colored yarn. I have some yellow, red, black, and brown yarn, but could always use more of these...especially brown and yellow. If you are someone who has spare yarn in your house that could be used and would like to donate some, please e-mail me over the weekend and let me know what colors you are sending. I will plan on doing some yarn-shopping on Sunday or Monday for the colors that we are still low on.
I hope you all have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving with your family. It was great seeing all of you at conferences last week, and I am truly thankful to have the opportunity to work with your terrific kids this year!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Ingredients Needed!
We will be making pumpkin pie in a bag in our classroom on Monday, November 22. In order to do this fun project, there are some ingredients that we will need. If you would be willing to send in one or more of the following ingredients, please add a comment to this blog post so that everyone can see what is being sent and we can be sure to cover all of the ingredients.
Thanks so much! Please let me know if you have any questions.
* 2 boxes of graham cracker squares
* 1 cup of sugar
* 1 small tub of soft butter (there should be extra...I will send it home)
* 5 small boxes of instant vanilla pudding
* 6 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice
* 1 gallon of milk (there should be extra...I will send it home)
* 3 cans of pumpkin
Thanks so much! Please let me know if you have any questions.
* 2 boxes of graham cracker squares
* 1 cup of sugar
* 1 small tub of soft butter (there should be extra...I will send it home)
* 5 small boxes of instant vanilla pudding
* 6 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice
* 1 gallon of milk (there should be extra...I will send it home)
* 3 cans of pumpkin
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
All about the body!
Good afternoon!
I look forward to seeing all of you next week at conferences! Please remember that there will be no school this Friday (teacher recording/reporting day) or next Thursday and Friday due to conferences. I am still missing conference forms from a few of you...please return these as soon as possible to confirm your conference spot. I can't wait to share with you the great things your 2nd graders have been doing in class!
This week, we are wrapping up our study of the human body. We took some time this afternoon to review, and will continue to do so tomorrow. The assessment over this unit will be this Thursday. Tomorrow, students will be bringing home a body system memory game to play. Here are some things you should discuss as you play this game and prepare for the assessment:
* What are some ways to take care of your nervous system, digestive system, and skeletal systems? (for example...wear a helmet while biking to protect your brain, eat healthy foods to promote proper digestion, exercise to keep bones healthy and strong)
* Tell about some of the basic bones of the body (for example...your skull protects your brain, your backbone can also be called your spine and is actually made of many vertebrae.)
* Why are your muscles and bones important? (your bones stand you up and give you shape and your muscles pull on bones to help you move).
* What does your brain do? (helps you remember, think, problem solve, have feelings, etc.)
* What does your respiratory system do? (helps you breathe...oxygen moves into your lungs when you breathe in, and then you breathe out carbon dioxide).
* How does your digestive system work?
* How does your circulatory system work? Why is your heart so important? (it pumps blood all over your body.)
Next week, we will take a couple of days to talk about healthy food choices and the food pyramid. The following week, we will begin a long social studies unit on "Our Past". During this unit, we will compare Native American tribes, learn about the pioneers during a book discussion about "The Josephina Story Quilt", discuss Christopher Columbus, and talk a little bit about the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. As you can see, we will be fitting a lot of information into the month of November!
We are wrapping up our math unit on time. Students will take their time assessment tomorrow, so tonight would be a good time to review telling time, elapsed time, etc. Take a look at the class activity pages from the past week for ideas! On Thursday we will begin our next unit, which is on place value and addition to 200.
In writing, students are currently working on descriptive paragraph writing and the use of the writing process. I look forward to sharing writing portfolios, as well as information on reading levels, at conferences.
Thanks, as always, for all that you do!
I look forward to seeing all of you next week at conferences! Please remember that there will be no school this Friday (teacher recording/reporting day) or next Thursday and Friday due to conferences. I am still missing conference forms from a few of you...please return these as soon as possible to confirm your conference spot. I can't wait to share with you the great things your 2nd graders have been doing in class!
This week, we are wrapping up our study of the human body. We took some time this afternoon to review, and will continue to do so tomorrow. The assessment over this unit will be this Thursday. Tomorrow, students will be bringing home a body system memory game to play. Here are some things you should discuss as you play this game and prepare for the assessment:
* What are some ways to take care of your nervous system, digestive system, and skeletal systems? (for example...wear a helmet while biking to protect your brain, eat healthy foods to promote proper digestion, exercise to keep bones healthy and strong)
* Tell about some of the basic bones of the body (for example...your skull protects your brain, your backbone can also be called your spine and is actually made of many vertebrae.)
* Why are your muscles and bones important? (your bones stand you up and give you shape and your muscles pull on bones to help you move).
* What does your brain do? (helps you remember, think, problem solve, have feelings, etc.)
* What does your respiratory system do? (helps you breathe...oxygen moves into your lungs when you breathe in, and then you breathe out carbon dioxide).
* How does your digestive system work?
* How does your circulatory system work? Why is your heart so important? (it pumps blood all over your body.)
Next week, we will take a couple of days to talk about healthy food choices and the food pyramid. The following week, we will begin a long social studies unit on "Our Past". During this unit, we will compare Native American tribes, learn about the pioneers during a book discussion about "The Josephina Story Quilt", discuss Christopher Columbus, and talk a little bit about the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. As you can see, we will be fitting a lot of information into the month of November!
We are wrapping up our math unit on time. Students will take their time assessment tomorrow, so tonight would be a good time to review telling time, elapsed time, etc. Take a look at the class activity pages from the past week for ideas! On Thursday we will begin our next unit, which is on place value and addition to 200.
In writing, students are currently working on descriptive paragraph writing and the use of the writing process. I look forward to sharing writing portfolios, as well as information on reading levels, at conferences.
Thanks, as always, for all that you do!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
