Tis the Season

Its that time of year when we are enjoying the kick off to the holiday season and enjoying one last normal week before the little bits of Christmas sprinkled here and there take over our classroom and our schedule.  I hope that you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving with friends and family.  I have heard from the kids that most of you did.  We had to get back into our routines and the first couple days of the week proved to be a bit of a challenge.  However, I am sitting at my table with an empty classroom this Friday loving the dedication these kids put in today!  Wow we had a great day.  Today was a full day with lots of fun and hard work.  We spent time with our first grade buddies, writing Christmas poems, working on writing second grade answers to questions (this definitely brought out a few giggles in the groups), decorating our room, practicing for our concert, and working our brains to the max in math with our double and triple digit addition with regrouping!!!!

I am sure some of you noticed a note about head lice coming home. Yes, it has made its way into our room, we have hopefully put a stop to it, but please be sure if you notice your child itching a lot to check it out.  Thank you to those that have dealt with it properly as I know it is no easy task to rid your poor kids and house of those little critters.

Please take note of some of the upcoming events we have going on this month.  Thank you for all you do to support your kids.  They are a great group and I look forward to wrapping up 2014 with them before we know it!

Latest Learning

Writing: Enhancing their writing with the use of adjectives and adverbs.

Science: Made Pin-wheels

Social Studies: Talking about urban, suburban, and rural communities.

Leader in Me: focusing on habit #5 seek first to understand

Comprehension Tool-kit: talking about details of pictures and making inferences

Upcoming Dates

Dec 10th- Happy Birthday Hayden
Dec 11th- Christmas Concert 7:45

Dec 18th – caring concert at 1:45

Dec 19th – watch the Night at the Museum at the Met Theater
Dec 23rd: Our Christmas party and all school sing along
Dec 23-Jan 6- Winter break

End of 1st Trimester

Patchwork Island

Okoboji Island

We had to think Win-Win so both islands could win!

Go Cadets!!!

On to State!!!!

Bump, Set, Spike!

Just trying to stay warm!

Another busy week under our belts!  This week some of the highlights included: The veterans day assembly, helping to send off our volleyball girls to the state tournament, Joseph as our leader of the week, getting new classroom roles, and wrapping up another unit in math. 

Parents please be sure to check your child's notebook when they bring it home on Tuesday, November 25th.  Please take time to look it over and discuss it with your student.  The shaded numbers on the report represents the end of the year benchmark. Please be sure to celebrate your child's strengths and accomplishments with them and offer them some encouragement as they work to reach our end of the year goals throughout the rest of second grade.  If you have any questions upon seeing your child's report card please feel free to contact me to clarify scores and marks your child has received.   

Latest Learning

Writing: Discussing word choice and using verbs and adverbs appropriately in their writing pieces with Mr. Johnson.

Science: Working on temperature

Social Studies: Beginning our Thanksgiving Unit

Leader in Me: Continuing to focus on Habit #4 Think Win-Win

Comprehension Tool-kit: Working on linking new facts to background knowledge

Upcoming Dates

Nov. 18- Happy Birthday Brianna

Fri., Nov. 21 – Students will be transported to the High School @ 8:45 for a performance by the River City Kids

Wed., Nov. 26 – Fri., Nov. 28 – NO SCHOOL – Thanksgiving Break – See you Monday, Dec. 1!

Happy Halloween

Thank you so much for coming in and taking time to meet with me at conferences.  It is a wonderful opportunity for both of us to learn more about your child.  Please realize that communication is a two way street and I will do my best to use email, this blog, and your child's notebook to communicate with you but I appreciate any and all questions, concerns or celebrations you would like to share with me about your child and their year in 2nd grade.

Just a reminder it is that time of year and there have been a lot of colds in our classroom.  Please help remind your child to cover their cough, use tissues, and wash their hands. We will do our best to wipe things down and clean as much as possible.

Claire, Hayden, and Cannon enjoying some sweet treats!

Waiting for the Curious George play

Delivering some decorations for our Pineview neighbors!

What an enthusiastic crew!

Upcoming Dates:

November 11th: Veterans Day Assembly- wear red,white, and blue

November18th: Brianna's birthday

November 26th, 27th, 28th: No School (Happy Thanksgiving)

October 17th

We have had a busy week.  I apologize I did not do a good job of photographing our week either.  The kids earned their first sharpen your saw party and chose to do a p.j. day on Wednesday.  We enjoyed some yummy popcorn and m&ms with some good books, good friends, and some plush extras.  We also played a little Huckle-Buckle-Bean-Stock.   Today we ventured over to Cedar Falls to watch the play, Curious George.  It was a great day and the kids behaved very well.

Alexus, Brooklyn, Claire, and Keaton working hard to make our classroom a little bit more festive. Happy Harvest Season!

Recent Learning:

Math: frames and arrows, function machines, name boxes for numbers, fact families

Spelling: clusters and diagraphs

Leader In Me: Begin with the end in Mind, setting goals

Socials Studies: leadership unit focusing on president

Writing: Organization of ideas

Science: finishing a unit all about Air

Comprehension Tool-Kit: Discussing being a specialist on a topic

Reading: Mrs. Brown Went to Town, working on making predictions

Upcoming dates:
Red Ribbon Week: October 20th-24th
Monday: wear Red
Tuesday: silly socks
Wednesday: Work out clothes
Thursday: Hat day
Friday: Team Spirit

Early dismissal for conferences: October 23rd and 28th (I will send another reminder home, but please contact me if you still are unsure of your conference time)
Fall Party: October 31st 2:00
Fundraiser Pick Up: Wednesday, November 5th

October Assembly!

Wow! These second graders put on a great assembly all about Synergizing.  In order to pull of this great event they had to synergize too!  We would like to thank those of you who helped your child get props to school and also those who helped out by donating some of your time to watch these kids practice.  We were excited to see so many parents and a little nervous too.

  

Recent Learning:

Math: addition story problems, doubles facts, +9 facts, turn around facts

Spelling: long o and u words

Leader In Me: Begin with the end in Mind, setting goals

Socials Studies:discussing the US Constitution

Writing: Organization of ideas

Science: continuing a unit all about Air

Comprehension Tool-Kit: creating their own book with features

Reading: Read Julius and discussing things that are fantasy and real

Upcoming dates:
Claire's birthday: October 6th

fundraiser ends: October 7th
School wide walk: October 7th (wear tennis shoes)
Eli's birthday: October 12th

picture retakes: October 16th 

field trip to see Curious George October 17th

Early dismissal for conferences: October 23rd and 28th (I will send notes next week with your conference times)

Homecoming Week

Getting Rowdy for the Cadets

great listeners for our guests

Cannon trying on the gear it fits just right! 

Alexus got a chance to help cheer

Keaton looks ready to beat the mustangs

Open House:

Wow! We had a wonderful turn out for open house. What a lucky group of students to have families that are so supportive of their education.  Thank you so much to all of you for all you do to support your kids and get them here and ready to learn everyday! I hope you enjoyed seeing what they have been working on this year.

Leader of the Week:

We have now started our Leader of the Week rotation.  So keep an eye out for your student to bring home the Leader of the Week envelope in their book bag so that they can have a week in the spot light in our classroom.  We want to make sure they realize how much we enjoy having them in our classroom by taking some extra time to get to know them.

Leader In Me Assembly:

We have just started working on our first student led assembly!  The assembly will be October 1^st at 8:30.  The students have chosen to focus on habit number 6 Synergize.  The students will be involved in some skits, cheers, and creating posters for the event.  It will be a short assembly and we would love to have you stop by if you are able. I will be posting some pictures and possibly a video to our webpage for those that are unable to attend!

Rotations:

·      Mrs. Sheahan- we have been focusing on Habit #1.

·      Mrs. Kullow finished up the students getting to share all about themselves (they each had an all about me card)

·      Mr. Johnson had students do writing and focusing on topic.

·      Mr. Bridgewater has continued a unit on air and weather for science.  This week the students got to begin working on their parachutes.

·      Miss Light- Students have been discussing features of nonfiction text.

Leadership Notebooks:

Please be sure you are taking time each night to check your student's leadership notebook for notes, homework, snack, behavior, etc. 

Upcoming Dates:

 Fundraiser: Began on Wednesday.

 Homecoming: parade downtown at 4:00 on Friday!

Drive In Movie: Saturday, September 20^th 7:30

Leader In Me Assembly: Wedensday, October 1^st 8:30

Nathan's Birthday: September 25th