March 31, 2017

Dear Families,

Some important dates to remember:

*April 3-7: Spring Break

*April 14: No school/ Good Friday

*April 28th: Celebration of Learning during the school day in the afternoon.  More information to come!

Reading:

Thanks to Dr. Matthews for reading at our Milk and Cookies Event! This week, we spent time this week reading Scholastic News articles, focusing on text features and main ideas. 

Writing: 

We finished up our Book Reviews and worked on writing opinion pieces about our favorite seasons, trying to persuade others to agree with our favorites! We also spent some time creating ads for our new Little Free Library, introducing it to the school and persuading kids to use it!

Math: 

We had a busy week, learning how to add four digit numbers and playing a fun game called Basketball Addition. We also spent time measuring with meters and yards and flying our paper airplanes! Please see the math review Unit 7 sheets attached to my email. We'll practice and review all of these math topics when we return from break.

WIN Time: We spent the week finishing up projects and catching up on our math workbooks!

Science: After the break, we'll begin working on our plant unit.  We're accepting donations of seeds, bags of seed starting soil and mulch for our back yard area. We'll begin our PBL project and have lots of projects starting in April. 

Also, our classroom theme for the Family Fun Night is Planting. Our basket will be all about gardening. If you're out and about during break, you might want to look for a donation to our classroom basket. I saw lots of cute garden stuff at the Dollar Store. Fairy Gardens are quite popular and are a great thing to add to our Fun Fair Basket. 

Conservation sheet for the month of April is attached to my email.

IXL SKILLS FOR UNIT 7

IXL Skills: 1^st Grade: B17, 2nd Grade: E 17, E19, G13, G15

IXL Skills: 1^st Grade: N4, N11, 2nd Grade: S2, S8

IXL Skills: Second Grade: R6, R7

IXL Skills: 1^st Grade: N4, N11, 2nd Grade: S2, S8

Have fun reading over the break!

Be sure to check out our new Little Free Library! If you're home over the break, be sure to take a couple of books from our little library and return them when you're finished. 

Have a wonderful Spring Break!

The Second Grade Teachers

March 24, 2017

Dear Families,

Great job to all 2^nd graders for a wonderful music performance! We loved watching everyone on stage!

Some important dates to remember:

*Spring Conferences: Spring conferences are on March 30th in the evening. These conferences are on as needed basis. If we, the teachers, feel we need to meet to talk with you about your child, we ​have already ​email​ed​ you.

*April 3-7: Spring Break

*April 28th: Celebration of Learning during the school day in the afternoon.  More information to come!

Reading:

This week we continued to work on nonfiction reading by looking at a Scholastic News article that had to do with segregation, which has been a hot topic in our classroom this year. We read about an event in history, discussed it and worked on answering comprehension questions carefully.  We watched a great short movie from Scholastic narrated by one of the students who participated in the Sit In, that we read about.  We also spent a little time "tasting books," and picking out a new book to read with our book clubs. We're learning how to jot down notes to help us remember talking points to chat about with our groups. Next week, we will be working on meeting with our book clubs and enjoying our Milk and Cookies event on Thursday during school. Dr. Matthews has agreed to be 2^nd grade’s special guest reader for this event!

Writing: 

This week we finished our book reviews on Kidblog. We revised and edited to the best of our abilities. Check them out on Kidblog! Next week, we'll write some more book reviews, but this time, we'll be writing them for a special purpose. We have a new Little Library outside of our front doors of the school! We'll start adding some books and writing little book reviews to place inside. If you have any books that are in good condition that you'd like to donate to our library, we'd love to have them. I have stickers that say, "donated by" that we'll place inside. Please visit this link to see more information about these little libraries. 

Little Free Library

Math: 

We had a very busy week taking tests! We reviewed the unit 6 test, did our quarterly units 5/6 test. The at home review for unit 7 came home last week. Next week, we'll make goals to go along with Unit 7, so we'll be able to focus on the things we need. We also completed lesson 7.1, which focused on learning a new math game called, Hit the Target. This is a great game to play to practice finding the difference between multiples of 10 and other 2-digit numbers. Our test for unit 7 will be sometime after Spring Break.

IXL SKILLS FOR UNIT 7

IXL Skills: 1^st Grade: B17, 2nd Grade: E 17, E19, G13, G15

IXL Skills: 1^st Grade: N4, N11, 2nd Grade: S2, S8

IXL Skills: Second Grade: R6, R7

IXL Skills: 1^st Grade: N4, N11, 2nd Grade: S2, S8

Social Studies:​ 

This week we did a lot of prep work for our community service presentation for the entire school. This was our culminating event where we showed the school what we have accomplished, as well as celebrate all we have done to help the TLC Animal Sanctuary and the Happy Days Rescue. Thank you so very much for all your support! I have attached the Animoto from the presentation, in a previous blog. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Second Grade Community Service Project 2017

Second Grade Community Service Project 2017

March 17, 2017

Dear Families,

Volunteers: Thank you so much to all the volunteers who donated fabric and/or helped with cutting the blankets for the kids! We truly appreciate all your help! Our Cabin time was great! We had enough fabric so that everyone in the school was able to help make a blanket for our service project!

Some important dates to remember:

*March 23rd: Second Grade Spring Concert, 7:00-8:00 pm

*March 24th: Records Day/ half day,  Dismissal is at 12:30 pm.

*Spring Conferences: Spring conferences are on March 30th in the evening. These conferences are on as needed basis. If we, the teachers, feel we need to meet to talk with you about your child, we will email you.

*April 3-7: Spring Break

*April 28th: Celebration of Learning during the school day in the afternoon.  More information to come!

Reading:

This week we read book reviews and worked on picking out our favorite books in order to write a review. We read several book reviews in order to find things that are important to include in reviews such as hooks or grabbers, summaries and even opinions!

Writing: 

This week we continued to work on writing book reviews about some of our favorite books. We are drafting them on Kidblog and hope to publish them sometime next week.

Math: 

We learned a new thinking routine this week and modeled it in front of eight teachers from our school! They were really impressed with the thinking that second graders were able to share in their math and writing notebooks. Ask your child about C.E.R. I was super proud of them and their amazing behavior and thinking!
We finished up unit 6 and took our test.  Please be on the lookout for the cover sheet to be coming home soon.  We are also sending home the Unit 7 at home review that is attached to my email.  PLEASE keep this is a safe spot where you can go over it and use it as a review for our next test.

IXL SKILLS FOR UNIT 7

IXL Skills: 1^st Grade: B17, 2nd Grade: E 17, E19, G13, G15

IXL Skills: 1^st Grade: N4, N11, 2nd Grade: S2, S8

IXL Skills: Second Grade: R6, R7

IXL Skills: 1^st Grade: N4, N11, 2nd Grade: S2, S8

Social Studies:​ 

We worked more on learning about some key vocabulary words for the economics unit.  We also got ready for our cabins on Thursday where the whole school helped us to make blankets for the cats and dogs in the shelters. TLC Animal Sanctuary stopped by today and picked up all of the supplies that we collected and made for them. They were thrilled! We will finish up our project next week with our whole school community circle. This is our culminating event where we show the school what we have accomplished as well as celebrate all we have done to help the TLC Animal Sanctuary and the Happy Days Cat and Dog rescue. Thank you so very much for all your support! 

Poketti Pocket Powers
Take a look at this website! Pokettis were created by kids!

Have a great weekend!

The Second Grade Teachers

Our Bake Sale Fun!

 

 

 Thank you to Mrs. D. for teaching us about starting up our businesses!

 

 

Business was booming! All proceeds will go to TLC Animal Sanctuary!

Our Field Trip!

Our All School Field Trip!

 

Thanks to the DCC for a wonderful experience on our all school field trip to MSU Tollgate Farms!

 

 Thanks Ms. Brooke for teaching us about maple syrup tapping!

 

 

 Mr. Roy taught us how to use the drill to drill into the maple trees.

 

 Second graders were so patient with their kindergarten buddies, taking care to watch out for them and make sure they were staying near!

 

Warming our hands by the fire

Having fun in the barn!

March 10, 2017

Dear Families,

We had another busy week!  We had a great time on our field trip, had a great guest speaker, Mrs. Dorogi, come in to talk to us about our business plans, and had our bake sale.  So much fun!

*Thank you for helping your child in making their business a success. We appreciate all of the time and effort you all have put into the planning, the baking, the purchasing the fleece and doggy things and the cutting of the fleece! We couldn't do it without you and we truly thank you for all you do!  

Volunteers:

We hope the blisters aren't too severe, but we really appreciate all of your help cutting!

Some important dates to remember:

*March 23rd: Second Grade Spring Concert, 7:00-8:00 pm

* March 24th: Records Day/ half day,  Dismissal is at 12:30 pm.

*Spring Conferences: 

• Spring conferences are on March 30th in the evening. These conferences are on as needed basis. If we, the teachers, feel we need to meet to talk with you about your child, we will email you.

*April 3-7: Spring Break

*April 28th: Celebration of Learning during the school day in the afternoon.  More information to come!

Reading:

This week we continued to work on a nonfiction strategies.  We are learning strategies to help us to better understand nonfiction articles and that help us to comprehend.  

Writing: 

We finished our Business Plans and wrote persuasive signs and posters for our bake sale and Pet Sanctuary Collections.

Math: 

We continued to review Partial Sums and learned a new thinking routine called Claim, Evidence, Reasoning where we claimed our answers, proved with evidence, and wrote out our reasoning. We also caught up in our workbooks and practiced some more story problems. 

*Our unit 6 test will be Friday, March 17th. 

IXL SKILLS FOR UNIT 6

E.12, E. 18, E.20, G.9, G.14-- Addition Word Problems 

F.10, H.9, J.5-- Subtraction Word Problems 

Section M--Place Value

Section R--picture and bar graphs only 

Social Studies:​ 

This week we finished our business plans, and learned about setting up a business and all of the hard work it entails from our amazing guest, Mrs. Dorogi!  We loved learning about entrepreneurship and learning about her business and businesses that have been started by kids! We loved the Zollipops!  Students spent time making advertisements for their businesses and then got to put their plans into action during our bake sale.They had a blast and really learned how to sell their products and how to package and set up their displays. All proceeds from our bake sale will go to the TLC Animal Sanctuary:  http://www.tlcanimalsanctuary.com/home.html 

Have a great weekend!

The Second Grade Teachers

March 3, 2017

Dear Families,
We had a very busy week! Thanks to our High School Football players who came in to read to our kiddos for March is Reading Month and to our parent Art Smart Volunteer! Also, thanks so much for all of the support with our Community Service Project. Our fleece is piling up and we really appreciate all of the donations!  We're looking forward to seeing all of the creative baked goods at next week's Second Grade Bake Sale!

 

Mrs. G.'s former students!

 

 

Volunteer Opportunity:
If you can help us to cut the fleece and get it ready for tying blankets, please contact us and let us know when you're available. We are still collecting fleece! Please send it in next week so that we can get it cut. 

Second Grade Service Project:  We are collecting grain free dog or puppy food, durable pet toys, rawhides, puppy pads, crate liners, collars and leashes, pet beds, crates, used pack and plays (for puppies).

Some important dates to remember:

* March 9th: All School Field Trip—Please remember to pack a small, disposable snack and we are encouraging students to bring a lunch.

* March 10th: Second Grade Community Service Bake Sale! Please remember to bring in 1-2 dozen baked goods the day of the sale. Also, please do not make anything that uses nuts or has peanut butter in the recipe. Thank you!

* March 16th: Cabin Time. All fleece needs to be cut by this date.

* March 23rd: Community Service project presentation during the whole school community circle (9:30-10:00am). Parents are welcome to attend!

* March 23rd: Second Grade Spring Concert, 7:00-8:00 pm

* March 24th: Records Day/ half day--Dismissal is at 12:30 pm.

* March 30th: Spring Conferences from 5-8 pm. This conference is not mandatory. If your teacher feels like they would like to speak with you about your child, they will schedule a conference time with you for that day. If you are not contacted for a conference, you may still request a conference time for that evening.

* March 31st: Spring Break begins at the end of the day.

* April 10th: School resumes

* April 28th: Celebration of Learning. More information to come later on! Teachers will be turning off Seesaw notifications within the next few weeks to prepare for the Celebration of Learning. Please do not be alarmed if you do not get updates, as we would like to have our students show you new things on that day.  

Reading:

This week we worked on a nonfiction close reading piece about the month of March. We practiced adding in our tracks of a reader to show our thinking and then went back into the article in order to provide answers to the questions. We also finished our Book Clubs and had great discussions about our books. Next week, we'll work on more strategies for reading nonfiction. 

Writing: 

This week we worked on writing paragraphs, including a topic sentence, supporting details and a closing sentence. We also spent a lot of time writing our business plans for our Bakery Businesses! Next week, we'll focus on writing book reviews!

Math: 

This week we worked really hard on learning two new concepts, rounding numbers in order to help us with ballpark estimates and an adding strategy called Partial Sums. Partial Sums is the first step to learning regrouping. Students practiced building (showing) the numbers with base ten blocks, then grouping  (hundreds, tens and ones) and then adding them. This may seem like an extra step, but it really helps students to see the place value of the numbers before they actually start to "carry" or regroup the numbers. Please continue to practice these skills at home and be sure to review the videos that were sent home earlier in the week.
 

IXL SKILLS FOR UNIT 6

E.12, E. 18, E.20, G.9, G.14-- Addition Word Problems 

F.10, H.9, J.5-- Subtraction Word Problems 

Section M--Place Value

Section R--picture and bar graphs only 

Social Studies:​ 

We worked all week on our business plans, learning about setting up a business and all of the hard work it entails!  Students carefully planned out many aspects of their businesses and began creating signs for advertising. We also designed boxes to set around the school to  store all of our donations.  All proceeds from our bake sale will go to the TLC Animal Sanctuary:  http://www.tlcanimalsanctuary.com/home.html 

We're really excited about helping this Animal Rescue Group!  Please remember to refer to our animal donation list, if you wish to donate to our cause. Thank you very much for all of the donations of fleece for our pet blankets. Also, thank you for your support with the bake sale! Reminder: All bake sale items need to be sent in Friday morning (March 10th) for the sale that day! We're all very excited about making the blankets with our Cabin Groups in a couple of weeks. Please let us know if you're able to help out with the cutting of the fabric!

Have a great weekend!
The Second Grade Teachers