Happy Holidays! December 22, 2017

Dear Families,
Thank you so much for the sweet treats and gifts! I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season!

Important dates:

Monday, January 8th School Resumes

Monday, January 15th Martin Luther King Day/ no school

Thursday, January 25th    Half Day of School @12:30 p.m.

Friday, January 26th NO SCHOOL

Wednesday, January 31st                 Multicultural Night 6:00-8:00 p.m.

We had a fun week with all of our holiday festivities!  Students spent a lot of time working on gifts, cards for our school wide gift exchange, and fun crafts to put up around the house!  They also had a great time at the holiday party! Thank you so much to the parents who volunteered and made the party possible.  We appreciate you!

Reading:  Students learned how to infer with elf inferring!  They read about some silly elves, and decided on a character trait based on the elf's actions. They also read some holiday articles for close reading practice. 

Math:  Students took the unit 4 math test this week.  Scores went home on Friday!  After the break we will begin unit 5.  Please be on the look out when we return for a unit 5 at home review and resources.

I hope you all have a wonderful, safe and relaxing holiday break and look forward to seeing the kids in the new year!!

Have a Great Break!!!

December 15, 2017

Dear Families,

The snow day reminded us to remind you to have your child practice putting on snow pants, boots, mittens and zipping those coats!  We have a long, cold winter ahead of us and we'd like for them to be prepared. We go outside for recess each day throughout the winter if the weather permits. 

Important dates:

Thursday, December 21st : Grade Level Holiday Parties: Holiday/Winter themed clothing day!

Friday, December 22nd : Last Day of School Before Winter Break/ Whole school Pajama Day and a movie

Monday, January 8th: School Resumes

Here are some highlights from our week:

Reading- This week we continued to use articles to learn about "close reading." We used tracks of a reader and highlighted the answers to comprehension questions in order to show evidence. We also had fun enjoying books from our classroom library and our book baggies.

Writing- We began blogging this week and had so much fun! We learned how to login, learned our passwords and became comfortable with posting. We talked about internet safety and appropriate commenting. The nice thing about blogging is that our students can write from home, comment from home and practice their writing skills from home. Right now they are really enjoying sharing stories and counting how many comments they have. After winter break we'll encourage them to edit more carefully and use spelling resources to help them to spell more carefully. Please encourage your child to blog over the winter break!

Math- This week we worked on lessons 4.6- 4.9. We learned about base ten numbers, comparing numbers and measuring to the nearest inch and centimeter. Continue to practice telling time. Our Unit 4 math test will be on Tuesday of next week.

We worked on our family gift this week and some holiday crafts to decorate our project area and our classrooms!

Have a Great Weekend!!

The Second Grade Team

December 8, 2017

Dear Families,

Reminder: The children go outside to play each day if the temperature is above 0. Please remind them each morning to dress accordingly. Also, we try to teach them to put their scarves, hats and gloves either in their coat sleeves or in their backpacks as they hang up their coats, but this doesn't always happen...;)   Please teach them this trick so that we don't have missing items. 

Reminder: We need small cylinder containers (small Pringle sized) for a special project. 

Important dates: 

Wednesday, December 13th Holiday Shop @ 4:30 - 8:00 pm

Thursday, December 21st Grade Level Holiday Parties

Friday, December 22nd            Last Day of School Before Winter Break

Monday, January 8th School Resumes

Here are some highlights from our learning:

Reading- We read several articles this week and worked on Close Reading Strategies. When students are "close reading," we are focusing on finding evidence for our answers. We read an article several times in order to find and prove our answers. Often you'll see tracks of a reader written all over the page as well as highlighted vocabulary words and highlighted sentences. These are often the answers to the comprehension questions. Basically it teaches the child to go back into the text to find the answer to a question and prove it. 

Writing –  This past week, students created a paper blog and and learned about appropriate commenting. The paper blog was just an introduction to blogging as we will move on to online blogging next week. Thanks to Mrs. B. who came into our classroom to help set up our blog and help each child choose an avatar. Next week they will learn about digital citizenship and begin blogging online! After next week, kiddos can begin to blog from home. It's always fun when they begin blogging and commenting from home and great writing practice too! Shhh...don't tell them that!

Math –  We continued learning about time with lesson 4.2 & 4.3, and place value and using place value to compare numbers in lesson 4.4 and 4.5  Next week, we will complete lessons 4.6-4.9. We highly suggest you do the homelinks, practice IXL, and find some fun apps to continue working on TIME at home.  

     
                                      

Social Studies- We continued working on our welcome packets for new students who move to our school. 

Mindfulness- Ms. Carol taught us about how being mindful helps us understand the difference between wants and needs.  She read a book titled "Those Shoes" by Maribeth Boelts which discusses the difference between wanting and needing something. We then talked about the differences. Ask your child to show you how mindfulness can help anyone in a stressful situation!

Reminder:
Please send 2 healthy snacks only! No candy, chocolate bars, cupcakes, or sugary items. Children will be asked to put those items away. Thanks for your cooperation:)

Have a great weekend!

December 1, 2017

Dear Families,

With the weather becoming colder and coats, boots, mittens, gloves, scarves and hats being worn to school, please remember to label all of your child's items, snow pants and boots especially. 

Important dates: 

Monday, November 27th-29th  Vision Screening for 1st and 3rd Graders

Wednesday, December 13th Holiday Shop @ 4:30 - 8:00 pm

Thursday, December 21st Grade Level Holiday Parties-a sign up genius will be sent home soon if you would like to help at the party

Friday, December 22nd Last Day of School Before Winter Break

Monday, January 8th School Resumes

Here are some highlights from our learning:

Reading- We are continuing the amazing reading strategy, "BHH".  This strategy is an amazing tool to help students become not just incredible readers, but to actively think about the text and about their own thinking.  We hope that while your child is reading with you at home, you can have conversations with your child about: 1.Book: retelling or summarizing what is in the book (somebody,  wanted, but, so, then),  2.Head: what surprised me? What was a powerful statement? What am I wondering about? What questions do I have? and 3. What life lessons did I learn? What did I learn about me? How will this help me to be better?
How do I feel after reading this text? 

Writing – The students are very excited....next week we will learn about Blogging! Next week, we will learn what blogging is, who blogs, and why bloggers blog. We'll learn about Digital citizenship and  look at sample blogs.  We'll  begin to  write a paper blog and learn about commenting and how to write appropriate comments.  Please don't  go onto Kidblog yet, as they haven't been taught how to sign in or our classroom blogging expectations.

Math – We took our unit 3 math test.  Please look for the cover sheet that went home today. We also took our pretest for unit 4.  The homelinks, at home review, and IXL skills will be  sent home soon. We started learning about time with lesson 4.1.  Next week, we will complete lessons 4.2-4.5. We highly suggest you do the homelinks, practice IXL, and find some fun apps to start working on telling time at home.  

                                            

Social studies- We continued working on our welcome packets for new students who come to Deerfield. We will most likely finish them up next week. Thank you to all who participated in the Flat Stanley Project! Flat Stanley traveled all over the world and we were able to learn about many new places and interesting languages!  Some of the places we received letters and pictures from were Texas, Wisconsin, Washington D.C, India, Japan and Korea! It's so impressive to hear seven and eight year olds read and speak in their native language!

Mindfulness- Ms. Carol taught us about how being mindful helps us create space to control our emotions. She read some great books that shared information about responding or reacting.  We also talked about what you can do if you have a strong emotion (where to go, what to do). Ask your child to show you how mindfulness can help anyone in a stressful situation! 
                                                

   

Reminder:
Please send 2 healthy snacks only! No candy, chocolate bars, cupcakes, or sugary items or hot fries/Doritos! They are welcome to eat those items at their lunch time but not in our classroom. Children will be asked to put those items away. Thanks for your cooperation:)

Have a great weekend!