A great start!

It is so hard to believe that we have already been in school for over 2 weeks! I have really enjoyed working with your 2nd graders. We have been quite busy! Here is some information about what we are studying at this time. Please check the bottom of this post for additional announcements and upcoming dates.

MATH: Students continue to work on strategies for addition and subtraction. Today, we looked at how to count on to find the answer in an unknown partner problem. I sent home a pack of practice cards for counting on today. We have a set in class that we will be using as well. We will be starting up our math leveled groups after Labor Day. Once we have those up and running, I will begin to send home flashcard practice about once a week.

LANGUAGE ARTS: In class, we continue to work on our study of fairy tales. We have been practicing various comprehension strategies with the stories that we have read. These include comparing and contrasting, sequencing, retelling, identifying important events, predicting, and forming opinions. Next week, we will be doing some goal mapping to get a little bit deeper into some familar (and also some new) fairy tales. During our writing time, students are working on learning and using the parts of a friendly letter. We have written letters to Mrs. Mickel as well as our author of the month, Kevin Henkes. Practice will continue next week as we write to fairy tale characters, former teachers, and friends. Reading groups are scheduled to begin on Thursday, September 15. Let me know if you have any questions about reading levels.

SPELLING: Students received their first spelling lists on Wednesday! They have been doing an excellent job of practicing their words in class in various ways. Our first spelling test will be next Wednesday. Please remember that all students are responsible for at least one spelling at-home practice a week (see my e-mail from Wednesday).

SCIENCE: Our Monarch caterpillars are becoming quite chubby! I expect that we will see a chrysalis or two next week. Students have really enjoyed observing our larvae and are very excited about their progress! This week, we studied life cycles. Next week, we will learn about insects and the parts of a caterpillar. From there, we will talk more specifically about Monarch butterflies and the differences between moths and butterflies.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

No school Monday or Tuesday! Enjoy the long weekend!

Thank you SO MUCH to all of you who purchased items from our class wish list! If you were unable to come to curriculum night and would like to donate something to our classroom, please contact me and I will let you know what remains on the list. If possible, please remember to send in a box of Ziploc bags (any size). We have already gone through a couple of boxes.

Grandparents' Day will be next Friday, September 9. A blue information sheet was sent home early last week. We hope to see many grandparents in our room at 2:45 for some book sharing, discussing, and snacks! If your child will be getting a ride home from his or her grandparents, PLEASE either return the blue form to me with that information of shoot me an e-mail letting me know.

Scholastic book orders will be due next Friday, September 9. Now is a great time to stock up!

Today is your child's first day with a calendar, star chart, and book log. Please remember to check folders every night and sign or initial on the correct date to let me know that you looked in your child's folder. Students will be rewarded for getting those signed every night and bringing them to school.

Please continue to talk with your child about the three "R"s of behavior at Langston Hughes...respect, readiness, and responsibility. Many students are having some difficulty with being responsible listeners and are wanting me to repeat directions multiple times. As the year goes on, consequences will become more frequent for failure to listen to and follow directions the first time they are given.

Thanks for all that you do to help our class. Each day is a fun adventure, and I am looking forward to a great year!

Welcome to 2nd Grade!

It was so wonderful meeting all of you last night at our supply drop-off! I am looking forward to a wonderful year with your child. Our curriculum night will be on Thursday, August 25, at 6:00 here in our classroom. At that time, you will receive information about classroom management, topics we will study this year, birthday celebrations, field trips, volunteeering, communication, and much more. Some information, however, I wanted you to have right away...and here it is!

* Tomorrow morning, students will need to tell me how they will be getting home each day. Please be sure that your child knows whether he or she is a walker, bus rider, car rider, or Boys and Girls Club member. If your child will have a different routine on some days after school, please send me a note. If your child is a bus rider, please be sure he or she knows the bus number or daycare name.

* We will be starting several units of study over the next few weeks. To begin the year, we will be looking at fairy tales, the three "R"s of good behavior, writing friendly letters, the books of Kevin Henkes, story problems, friendship, and watermelons.

* Be sure to look in your child's red daily home folder each evening after school. This is where you will find important notes, homework, etc. At curriculum night, we will talk about other items that will be housed in this folder. It is very important that your child is responsible and returns his or her daily folder each day.

* Students are welcome to bring water bottles to keep in the classroom. Bottles should be the sports/pop-top kind to avoid spills. Bottles with an open or twist-top lid will be sent home.

* I regret to tell you that I will be out of town next Monday and Tuesday (August 22 and 23) for a good friend's wedding in Ohio. I hate to be gone so early in the year, but I have scheduled a fantastic guest teacher and I know our class will have a great couple of days with her.

* To wrap up our watermelon theme, we will be having a "Watermelon Wednesday" next week (August 24). On that day we will be making watermelon glyhs, watermelon writing pieces, watermelon shapes, and doing some watermelon math. If you would like to donate a watermelon or two for the activities, please let me know! These can be sent in Tuesday to be ready for the following day.

I look forward to working with all of you this year. If you have any questions about first day procedures or would like to set up a time to meet to talk about any concerns you have about your child, feel free to call or e-mail me. I'll see you at curriculum night!

Happy Mayday!

I can't believe that, in less than a month, this school year will be drawing to a close! We are in the process of wrapping up some things and fine-tuning some 2nd grade skills. It's going to be a busy month!

Guided reading groups ended last week. During the next two weeks, I will be using our Daily 5/Language block to do some year-end reading testing. Students will also be doing some reading comprehension and word work activities in class during that time. When testing is finished, we will begin our "Teach the Class" week. I will be sending an information letter home this coming week. Now would be a good time to start talking with your child about possible ideas for teaching the class. Some lessons that have worked well in the past are various cooking lessons, sports lessons, small craft projects, how to play different board and card games, how to take care of animals, and how to draw something. Be creative!

This week will be the last week of spelling groups. On Wednesday, all students will begin working on a "commonly mis-spelled words" list. The following week, all students will begin working on a fun spelling list including words from our curriculum this year. Students should still plan to turn in some sort of spelling homework for these two lists, and will still be tested on Wednesdays.

Our current math unit includes a lot of different information, as you have probably noticed! So far in unit 13, students have worked on multiplication, division, fractions, and geometry. Next week, we will spend a couple of days on probability and statistics, and then do some more work with geometry. The unit 13 assessment will be on Wednesday or Thursday.

I haven't looked at the amphibian/reptile test that students took on Thursday, but our guest teacher from that day, Mrs. Sullivan, reported to me that they all worked really hard and seemed to know their information! This coming week will be our Junior Achievement week, and we will be welcoming Sydney's mom, Mrs. Smetak, into our classroom to talk about production. For the rest of the month of May, we will be using our science/social studies block to study about animal adaptations, United States symbols, and so some geography review.

We had a great day at the Kansas City Zoo yesterday! The weather was beautiful, the animals were active, and every member of our class did a great job of following directions and being respectful to our parent helpers. Thanks so much to Shannon, Nami, Gretchen, Ashley, Bethany, and Jenn for joining us on our trip and being excellent group guides.

Please check with your child one last time about school supplies. I know that many students are working with dry markers and almost-empty glue sticks. Those things will definitely come in handy with some of our end-of-the-year projects. Our treasure box is also running low again. If you are interested in donating small items to re-stock it, let me know!

I will be sending out our final book order for the year on Monday. Now would be a great time to stock up on 3rd grade types of books for the summer! Let me know if you need suggestions!

Thanks, as always, for all that you do!

April showers bring May flowers?

Happy (rainy) Friday! I have lots of news to share with you about curriculum and upcoming events. We are definitely in the home stretch for the school year! In math, students were assessed on place value, money, and three-digit addition and subtraction on Wednesday. Yesterday we began a unit on basic multiplication. So far, everyone seems to be picking the concept up fairly quickly! After multiplication we will visit fractions, 3-dimensional shapes, and finish up with time for some review. I have really been pleased with each 2nd grader's progress in math this year! Everyone has picked up some wonderful strategies. I definitely have some junior herpetologists in my class. So far, we have studied frogs, toads, and salamanders in the amphibian category and snakes and lizards in the reptile category. In the next couple of weeks, students will learn the difference between alligators and crocodiles and will also learn about turtles. Please hang on to any reptile/amphibian sheets you see come home. These will be helpful for review when the time comes to study. Many students are in the process of wrapping up and illustrating their animal research projects. They have learned so much, and I have been so proud to see how independently they have learned to work. Most students are following the writing process very well. You are going to love reading their books when they bring them home! After research is completed, we will spend the remainder of the school year reviewing some key writing concepts, doing some descriptive writing, and reviewing the 6 trait model. The last day of reading groups will be Thursday, April 28. I can't believe it is that time already! After reading groups have wrapped up, we will take 2 weeks for DRA testing and some in-class reading lessons. The week after that will be "Teach the Class" week. Each student will have the opportunity to teach the class how to do something. This is always a SUPER fun week! Information will be coming home soon. We have been having many conversations this week about the phrases "End the year strong!" and "Put your best foot forward!" Now that the weather has been getting nicer and summer is in sight, some students have had a challenging time remembering some of the basics that they have learned this year. There has definitely been an increase in careless mistakes, nameless papers, less-than-neat handwriting, friendship conflicts, and rushed assignments. Please continue to encourage your child and praise him or her for work you see coming home that is truly his or her best work. We will continue to press on here at school! A letter will be coming home on Monday with information about the zoo field trip. All money and permission slips have been turned in...thank you for that! Please see Monday's note for details about packed lunches, appropriate attire, etc. This note will also have information about the music program on Tuesday night. I look forward to seeing all of you there! Next Thursday will be the first annual Langston Hughes family fitness event! The event will kick off at 5:45 with a family walk for interested families. Meet at the front doors for the walk. The fitness event will be held in the multipurpose room, gym, and field from 6:00-8:00. I hope that many of you will be able to make it! I think it's going to be a great time! The week of April 25-29 will be Wellness Week here at our school. That Wednesday, April 27, will be a "Walk to School with Your Teachers" day. Cross your fingers for nice weather, and plan to walk to school on that day if you are able! It's always a lot of fun seeing my students and talking with them as we make the trek to school for the day. Thanks, as always, for all that you do. Stay dry out there!

April showers bring May flowers!

As I am sitting here in my house listening to the thunder after a temperature of 89 degrees this afternoon, I am reminded that it is spring and the school year will be over before we know it. I hope that all of the 2nd graders were able to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend!

In math, we continue to practice working with place value and adding and subtracting three-digit numbers. Students are doing a great job working with money amounts and story problems! Thanks again for your continued help with flashcard practice at home. Students are showing steady growth in speed and accuracy with basic facts. This week, we will continue to work with place value and problem solving strategies.

Most students are now working on rough drafts of their animal research projects...so far, they are looking fantastic! We are using some time during writing to review the traits of good writing and the structure of a good paragraph. During our reading and language block, students are working on plural spelling rules and using the dictionary. We have been talking about how to use guide words to locate words alphabetically. This is a hard skill, but the second graders are doing a great job!

We wrapped up our trip around the globe on Friday! Students were very engaged this unit and asked a lot of great questions and learned many things! I will try to have the geography tests graded this week sometime. We are now moving into our science unit on amphibians and reptiles! Students will be learning the difference between amphibians and reptiles, as well as specific traits of frogs, toads, alligators, crocodiles, turtles, snakes, lizards, and salamanders! This Friday, we are excited to have a visitor come to Langston Hughes from Prairie Park Nature Center to show various reptiles and amphibians to the class. Be sure to check out the relevant links under our science tab!

Field trip money and permission slips are due at the end of this week. Thanks to those of you who have already turned them in! It is time to start crossing your fingers for a beautiful spring day on April 29. Please mark the following dates in your calendars.

April 8 - Board game party...students may bring in games on this day!

April 11 - Spring class pictures

April 19 - 2nd Grade music program

April 21 - Family Fun, Food, and Fitness Event

April 29 - Kansas City Zoo field trip

April 30 - School carnival (remember to send in your donations for our coffee themed basket!)

May 13 - Field Day

May 24 - Last day of school

Happy Spring Break!

What a great couple of weeks it's been! It's been so wonderful being able to spend more time outside, and lots of exciting events happened in our class this week! We have been very busy travelling the world, searching for leprechauns, and becoming researchers!

Students did an awesome job on their geometry assessments! We are now in a (rather long) unit reviewing adding and subtracting numbers above 100, estimation, and working with money. Some great things to practice and review at home right now are counting back change, using a benchmark to estimate a number of items, and working with ungrouping when subtracting. One thing that students really enjoyed in math this week was working with estimation while figuring out the mode, median, range, and mean of estimates in our classroom. We will also be taking some time over the next few weeks to look at function boxes and discuss finding an unknown addition or subtraction rule.

I have had a great time travelling around the world with our class! So far, we have visited Antarctica (brrr!), Asia (ask your 2nd grader about the kite that he or she made!), Africa (did you know the world's largest diamond was found there?), Australia (mmm...fairy bread!), and Europe (just in time for St. Patrick's Day!) After the break we will tour North and South America. Thanks so much to Gretchen and Carrie for coming in to do a baking activity with the class in Africa! We really enjoyed the sweet cornbread! As you begin to help your child prepare for the geography assessment on April 1, some things to think about are the location of the seven continents and oceans (on the assessment, students will use a word bank to label a blank world map), as well as fun and interesting facts about each of the continents. Students should also be able to use a compass rose to answer questions about the cardinal directions.

We began our big animal research project this week. Students are working in pairs to research an assigned animal. We spent some time yesterday researching on the computer, and some time this morning taking notes out of books (the class is becoming very efficient at using the index in the back of a book to locate information!). I hope that you will take some time with your child to check out the National Geographic for Kids link to the side. This is the website that we used for research yesterday, and it has so much great information about many animals. Students especially enjoyed the short animal videos on the site!

We will take the Monday after spring break to review Daily 5...the second graders have gotten a little "comfortable" during the final trimester and seem to need a Daily 5 crash course. Reading groups will resume Tuesday. Students did not receive a new spelling sort this week. We are continuing to practice dictionary use in our classroom. If students are doing writing at home and you have a children's dictionary handy, please encourage your child to use guide words and alphabetical order to search for words.

I realized today that I neglected to send out a Scholastic order for the month of March...so sorry about that! I will send out an April order the day after spring break, and will try to squeeze in one more order this school year, probably at the end of April. Be sure to stock up with books for the summer months! I received several e-mails back stating interest in a summer book club, so stay tuned for information about that. Also, please let me know if you are interested in a tutor list for the summer months. I am able to offer tutoring, and I know that several other staff members tutor and would be great as well if you would like for your child to have some one-on-one practice in reading, math, or writing over the summer.

I hope that you all have a magnificent spring break, full of sunny days and fun times! Thanks, as always, for all that you do!

2nd graders travel the world!

I really enjoyed meeting with all of you at conferences last week! It is so hard to believe that we are into our last trimester of the school year. It has been such a fun year, and I am really looking forward to many more adventures in our classroom this spring!

Students were assessed on coin counting and subtraction with ungrouping on Thursday. They did a really great job! We are now working on a mini-unit on geometry. Vocabulary words students are learning include: congruent, polygons, regular polygons, irregular polygons, area, similar, slide, flip, and turn. This unit will wrap up at the end of the week, and then we will revisit both 2-digit addition and subtraction strategies in unit 11.

During our language block, we have been working on using a dictionary. Students are assigned a different word each day to look up in a dictionary, using guide words and knowledge of alphabetical order. We will continue dictionary practice this week. We will also start our new author study...Joanna Cole, the author of the Magic School Bus books. If your child has any Magic School bus books to share, he or she is welcome to bring them in and we will have a look!

For the next week and a half, students will be working on using the six trait model to write personal narratives and stories. This week, we will be focusing on word choice, organization, and sentence fluency. Late next week, our class will begin a research writing project on animals.

We are starting one of my favorite social studies units! For the next month, students will be travelling the world! Our class will "visit" every continent and learn about language, culture, foods, and landforms in each continent. On the geography assessment at the end of the unit, students will be responsible for labeling the 7 continents and the oceans on a blank world map. This would be a great thing for you to be working on with your child! I have added a link to an online game to practice this skill under our Social Studies links...check it out!

Our field trip to the Kansas City zoo is scheduled for Friday, April 29. I will be needing 5 volunteers to ride the bus with us to the zoo and help lead student groups. 3 of you have already volunteered for this, so I need two more! This will be on a "first come, first served" basis. Of course, if the bus fills up, some of you are welcome to meet us at the zoo as well!

As always, thank you for all that you do!