Hello! I hope you all are keeping warm :)
In your child's Home-School folder today should have been a copy of the Moon Phase calendar assignment! This is a month-long assignment for you and your child to work on together. The goal is for your child to observe the moon first hand. Fortunately, this time of year one can observe the moon in the morning or the evening. At the same time, we as a second grade team understand that this is a busy time of year, and often an overcast time of year! This is why the website was included on the letter home. It is also under the HELPFUL LINKS section of the blog, appropriately titled, "Moon Phase Calendar" :) Moon phases are usually included in the weather report in the newspaper, and occassionally on the evening news on TV.
We are beginning our poetry unit in Language Arts! We will be learning the various forms of poetry, topics, and parts of a poem. Students will also be able to learn the various poetic elements - such as alliteration and onomatopoeia. Be on the look out for some poems written by your own little poets :) The books that will be coming home in the book baggies over the course of the next few weeks will be books that the students may keep. Students are permitted to write and make notes in these books.
In continuing our study of Geometry in math, we will be spending some time with Solid Figures this week. Students will be identifying the names of various solid figures, as well as identifying the number of sides, edges and vertices each solid figure has.
Have a wonderful week!! Stay toasty warm! :)
Monday, December 6, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Hello!
Just a few reminders about parent conferences, and our wacky schedule this week :)
Schools open four hours late this Monday, November 22. Students may begin coming in at 12:15. Students will not be served lunch on this day, so please be sure they are fed prior to coming to school. Dismissal will be at the regular time.
Schools are dismissing three and a half hours early on Tuesday, November 23. Students may come to school at the normal time - 8:15 - however dismissal will begin at 11:00. Students will be served lunch at 10:25 today.
When you come for your conference, there will be a "lounge" area available as soon as you turn the corner to head back to our classroom. I will be coming to get you from this location. I ask that you kindly wait here out of respect for the privacy of the parents who are conferencing before you :)
Finally, I hope you and your families have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Whether traveling near or far, I hope you get to and from safely. Have a great holiday!
:) KM
Just a few reminders about parent conferences, and our wacky schedule this week :)
Schools open four hours late this Monday, November 22. Students may begin coming in at 12:15. Students will not be served lunch on this day, so please be sure they are fed prior to coming to school. Dismissal will be at the regular time.
Schools are dismissing three and a half hours early on Tuesday, November 23. Students may come to school at the normal time - 8:15 - however dismissal will begin at 11:00. Students will be served lunch at 10:25 today.
When you come for your conference, there will be a "lounge" area available as soon as you turn the corner to head back to our classroom. I will be coming to get you from this location. I ask that you kindly wait here out of respect for the privacy of the parents who are conferencing before you :)
Finally, I hope you and your families have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Whether traveling near or far, I hope you get to and from safely. Have a great holiday!
:) KM
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Turkey Researchy :)
Hello Families!
Ever feel like there just aren't enough hours in the day? Or days in the week? Yikes!
Well, because of running over on some assignments last quarter, and running out of time, I've made a few adjustments to cover all the curricular bases.
The students will be conducting a research project of their own. However, this will not be on a country, as originally planned, but rather on an animal. Students will have a list of animals to choose from, which we created based on the characters of the various folktales we've just finished reading. Students will be selecting these animals this week. My goal is to have each student with a different animal.
Before I have the students begin their own research projects, we are conducting a class research project to go through each step of the process together. Are topic of research (since it is November) is the turkey! Be sure to ask your student some of the information he/she has learned - we've found some pretty interesting facts!
We began the process last week, and will continue through this week. Projects will be completed in class.
Students will begin their personal research projects after we return from Thanksgiving break.
On Friday a half sheet of paper came home asking for class directory information on one side, and volunteer availability on the other. Thank you in advance for completing and returning this information. Student pictures were also sent home on Friday, they look great!
Coming home this week will be another half sheet asking what information you are most interested in discussing during our parent-teacher conference. Our time is short, and I want to make sure that you get the most our of our brief time together!
Report cards are also coming home this week, and I must say, I am quite impressed! All students received grades on the O, S, N scale - all students receiving Os and Ss!! Woohoo!! Please remember that the students are graded based on the THIRD grade curriculum.
We will be starting our new unit of study in math this week - GEOMETRY! One of my favorites! SO much fun! Our main focus this week will be on plane shapes - polygons, congruent figures, symmetry, and types of triangles and quadrilaterals. We will be having a quiz at the end of the week on the information learned Monday - Thursday.
The reading books this week will be continuing our theme of research. The books will be non-fiction, and the questions will be asking the students to use their knowledge of text features throughout the books. The pink rubric will continue to be the rubric to follow for their writing responses.
As always, should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you for your continued support! Have a wonderful week!
Ever feel like there just aren't enough hours in the day? Or days in the week? Yikes!
Well, because of running over on some assignments last quarter, and running out of time, I've made a few adjustments to cover all the curricular bases.
The students will be conducting a research project of their own. However, this will not be on a country, as originally planned, but rather on an animal. Students will have a list of animals to choose from, which we created based on the characters of the various folktales we've just finished reading. Students will be selecting these animals this week. My goal is to have each student with a different animal.
Before I have the students begin their own research projects, we are conducting a class research project to go through each step of the process together. Are topic of research (since it is November) is the turkey! Be sure to ask your student some of the information he/she has learned - we've found some pretty interesting facts!
We began the process last week, and will continue through this week. Projects will be completed in class.
Students will begin their personal research projects after we return from Thanksgiving break.
On Friday a half sheet of paper came home asking for class directory information on one side, and volunteer availability on the other. Thank you in advance for completing and returning this information. Student pictures were also sent home on Friday, they look great!
Coming home this week will be another half sheet asking what information you are most interested in discussing during our parent-teacher conference. Our time is short, and I want to make sure that you get the most our of our brief time together!
Report cards are also coming home this week, and I must say, I am quite impressed! All students received grades on the O, S, N scale - all students receiving Os and Ss!! Woohoo!! Please remember that the students are graded based on the THIRD grade curriculum.
We will be starting our new unit of study in math this week - GEOMETRY! One of my favorites! SO much fun! Our main focus this week will be on plane shapes - polygons, congruent figures, symmetry, and types of triangles and quadrilaterals. We will be having a quiz at the end of the week on the information learned Monday - Thursday.
The reading books this week will be continuing our theme of research. The books will be non-fiction, and the questions will be asking the students to use their knowledge of text features throughout the books. The pink rubric will continue to be the rubric to follow for their writing responses.
As always, should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you for your continued support! Have a wonderful week!
Monday, October 25, 2010
Fabulously Fantastic Fall Festivities!
Walking tour field trip = success! The students did a wonderful job, as did the parent chaperones! A special thanks to those of you who were able to join us, it means so much to your own children, to the other students, and to us teachers :)
Language Arts this week...
We'll be continuing our study of folktales and fables, continuing to read a folktale out of the Junior Great Books anthology. We'll be moving on to one final sub-genre of folktales, which is fairy tales, as we move into November. We will also be taking a look at how folktales may have many different versions, usually from various cultures. We'll be looking at the tale of the Gingerbread Man and it's many versions!
Taking a look at the various versions of this story will provide a great segway into our future research project on a country...
Math...
Moving on to SUBTRACTION! Students will still be practicing addition and addition with regrouping skills throughout the week. This week is focusing on subtraction processes, moving on to subtraction with regrouping next week.
Fall Festival this Friday!!
Many of you have expressed an interest in attending our fall festival, please come! The snacks and craft are pretty much under control. We do a pumpkin measuring and carving activity as well. The carving is left strictly to the adults, don't worry ;)
It would be great to have some extra hands with set up and clean up, and crowd control throughout the party. Thank you in advance! If any of you have a pumpkin carving kit that you would be willing to bring with you, that would be a huge help!
If you catch any sales this week...we're running dangerously low on disinfecting wipes and tissues (tis the season!). Thank you!
Thank you so much for all your support, have a wonderful week!
Language Arts this week...
We'll be continuing our study of folktales and fables, continuing to read a folktale out of the Junior Great Books anthology. We'll be moving on to one final sub-genre of folktales, which is fairy tales, as we move into November. We will also be taking a look at how folktales may have many different versions, usually from various cultures. We'll be looking at the tale of the Gingerbread Man and it's many versions!
Taking a look at the various versions of this story will provide a great segway into our future research project on a country...
Math...
Moving on to SUBTRACTION! Students will still be practicing addition and addition with regrouping skills throughout the week. This week is focusing on subtraction processes, moving on to subtraction with regrouping next week.
Fall Festival this Friday!!
Many of you have expressed an interest in attending our fall festival, please come! The snacks and craft are pretty much under control. We do a pumpkin measuring and carving activity as well. The carving is left strictly to the adults, don't worry ;)
It would be great to have some extra hands with set up and clean up, and crowd control throughout the party. Thank you in advance! If any of you have a pumpkin carving kit that you would be willing to bring with you, that would be a huge help!
If you catch any sales this week...we're running dangerously low on disinfecting wipes and tissues (tis the season!). Thank you!
Thank you so much for all your support, have a wonderful week!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Hello! I hope you all have been enjoying the lovely, slightly unseasonal weather :)
This week in Language Arts we will be continuing our study of folktale genres. We have focused on traditional folktales, tall tales, and this week we'll be focusing on fables - specifically Aesop's. The reading groups will still be reading folktales out of the Junior Great Books anthologies, and meeting together - Literature Circle style - every day! They've done a really impressive job with this. I've seen some really thought-provoking questions and conversations between the students - way to go kiddos! :)
We are going to be working on persuasive writing over the next week or so. Our first assignment is going to be persuading me to bring in an apple-snack of their choice. (Since we've been so apple-themed lately!) We'll be doing this one together, then moving on to more independent writing as we approach November.
This week we will be focusing on addition and subtraction strategies - mostly addition. We'll get into regrouping next week, as well as further into subtraction.
Social Studies has turned towards communities! Different types of communities (urban, rural, and suburban) as well as communities in the past and present. This unit will tie in very well with our upcoming field trip to Frederick and New Market!
One of our science units in the spring will be Changes and Life Cycles. There is a focus on the life cycle of plants - and we do some seed planting during this time. I hope to have the students plant some bulbs sometime soon so they can see those in the spring as well! Keep an eye on the blog and their agenda books - I'll be sure to send some notification the day before so they don't come to school in their Sunday best to get dirty :)
Our Fall Festival is coming up Friday, October 29th! I have ordered the supplies for a fun little craft for the students to make, and we'll have a really fun pumpkin-carving activity to do in small groups! I'll be sending out some more information this week about volunteering, food/drink/paper product contributions, etc. Looking forward to it! So much fun! Details about times and costumes were in the UES News sent home last Friday, and can also been found by clicking here.
Have a wonderful week!! Thank you for your continued support!
:)
KM
This week in Language Arts we will be continuing our study of folktale genres. We have focused on traditional folktales, tall tales, and this week we'll be focusing on fables - specifically Aesop's. The reading groups will still be reading folktales out of the Junior Great Books anthologies, and meeting together - Literature Circle style - every day! They've done a really impressive job with this. I've seen some really thought-provoking questions and conversations between the students - way to go kiddos! :)
We are going to be working on persuasive writing over the next week or so. Our first assignment is going to be persuading me to bring in an apple-snack of their choice. (Since we've been so apple-themed lately!) We'll be doing this one together, then moving on to more independent writing as we approach November.
This week we will be focusing on addition and subtraction strategies - mostly addition. We'll get into regrouping next week, as well as further into subtraction.
Social Studies has turned towards communities! Different types of communities (urban, rural, and suburban) as well as communities in the past and present. This unit will tie in very well with our upcoming field trip to Frederick and New Market!
One of our science units in the spring will be Changes and Life Cycles. There is a focus on the life cycle of plants - and we do some seed planting during this time. I hope to have the students plant some bulbs sometime soon so they can see those in the spring as well! Keep an eye on the blog and their agenda books - I'll be sure to send some notification the day before so they don't come to school in their Sunday best to get dirty :)
Our Fall Festival is coming up Friday, October 29th! I have ordered the supplies for a fun little craft for the students to make, and we'll have a really fun pumpkin-carving activity to do in small groups! I'll be sending out some more information this week about volunteering, food/drink/paper product contributions, etc. Looking forward to it! So much fun! Details about times and costumes were in the UES News sent home last Friday, and can also been found by clicking here.
Have a wonderful week!! Thank you for your continued support!
:)
KM
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Homework Adjustment
Hello all -
I was out sick yesterday. The substitute didn't get to all that I left for her, so today was spent on getting caught up on that, not in preparation for the Pioneer books that were supposed to go home tonight.
So there will NOT be a Pioneer book to be read this evening. I will assign a new question to go with Johnny Appleseed Heads West on Thursday, just no reading of the Pioneer book tonight.
I apologize for the change in plans. Thank you for your flexibility!
I was out sick yesterday. The substitute didn't get to all that I left for her, so today was spent on getting caught up on that, not in preparation for the Pioneer books that were supposed to go home tonight.
So there will NOT be a Pioneer book to be read this evening. I will assign a new question to go with Johnny Appleseed Heads West on Thursday, just no reading of the Pioneer book tonight.
I apologize for the change in plans. Thank you for your flexibility!
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