Greetings from second grade!

Our field trip to the Great Frederick Fair was a huge success! The students had a great time looking at the different displays and animals. A huge thank you to the Maryland Geographic Alliance, Frederick County Public Schools, and the the Great Frederick Fair for keeping this field trip opportunity available to us!

This week in Language Arts, students will begin having some homework for their Guided Reading Groups. At this point in the year, students will be expected to read and reread the books/magazines they were assigned in class. As the year progresses, students will also have some comprehension questions to answer in their Reading Response Journals. You will be informed of when this change takes place via the students' agenda books, as well as the BLOG. This week, students will have either a National Geographic book or magazine to read and reread at home. This book will come home in their Book Baggie - a gallon sized Ziploc bag with his/her name on it. Students will earn smiley faces on their baggie every time they bring their baggie to group. Every time the students earn ten smiley faces, they will earn a prize coupon! Please treat this baggie as you treat the Home-School folders and Agenda Books - from home to school and back again everyday. Like we say in class - it lives in your backpack! :) Thank you for your support!

Wednesday afternoon we will be planting bulbs in our garden! In the spring, we will be studying life cycles - including that of plants. So, we are planting bulbs now to see them in the spring. I don't anticipate it being too dirty of an experience, but I wouldn't recommend coming to school in your Sunday best either. If you would like to help out, you're more than welcome to join us! We'll be doing this in the afternoon, at about 2:30. If you have any small gardening tools (small hand shovels or bulb diggers would be ideal) that you would like to contribute, they would be MOST useful. Please have your last name written on them so they can be returned. Thank you in advance!

We will be meeting our Junior Pals class this week! The Junior Pals program is new to UES - and it fits in perfectly with our Positive Behavior System that's already established. Primary grade classes are paired with secondary grade classes, and students within those classes are partnered up to form friends. Our classes will have times to read together, work on math skills together, and participate in school events together! We will be meeting our Junior Pals class on Tuesday afternoon, so please be sure to ask your student about their new 5th grade friend. Our class is paired up with Mrs. McLaurin's 5th grade class - looking forward to it!

Just a reminder that there is no school on Thursday, and a two hour early dismissal on Friday. Thank you for your continued support and communication - have a great week!

:) KM