Weekly Update

Thank you for a terrific curriculum night!   We enjoyed sharing what a typical day in 2nd grade looks like with you parents.

Here's a picture of last week's art done with Mrs. Fornia.

chalk pastel owls

A few new additions to our blog:  (look at the page links at the top of the site)

1.  ABCs of 2nd Grade
2.  Volunteer List  (Thank you to all our volunteeers!)
3.  Goal Setting Conference Schedule.   If you haven't signed up yet, please look at the schedule and email us with your conference time request.  If there isn't a spot that works for you, just contact us and we'll make different arrangements.

Homework Update: We will begin sending home our weekly homework sheet (including spelling words) NEXT week. We thought it made more sense to start this new system in October. Students will turn in their September reading calendar logs on Oct. 1st and then receive the new homework sheet (we've changed the reading log from a monthly calendar to a weekly check sheet).

Today we logged onto Xtra Math. Your child is bringing home a letter describing how you can log on at home. Your child will have time in class to practice with this program. Starting next week, they will need to log on and practice from home one day a week. If this is not possible at your house, just let us know.

Dance Marathon:  As of today, our school has raised $18,740 towards this year's Dance Marathon fundraiser.  This leaves $27,260 in donations needed to make our $46,000 goal.  Thank you for your support and help.

 The Dance Marathon will be held this Friday September 28th during the children's lunch recess periods at the covered main school entrance.  Join the fun and come dance with the kids.  

 Please also remind your child to wear their Dance Marathon T-shirts on Friday.  All children turning in donations over $10 receive a Dance Marathon T-shirt.  The first 300 children turning in donations over $85 join us in a school-wide swim and gym party Saturday, October 20th from 5-7 pm at the Northshore YMCA (or alternately receive an Adventure Ticket if unavailable to attend).  All donations over $150 earn an Adventure Tool prize - your child's choice of compass, kite, lanterns or cooler camp stool.  All donations over $250 earn your child's choice of a sleeping bag, binoculars or two Adventure Tickets.  All prizes are awarded on a first come, first serve basis and are cumulative at the various levels.  

 Questions?  Contact any of the Dance Marathon co-chairs:  Cynthia Hudson <Cynthia@cynthiahudson.net>, Caroline Adam <carolinea@comcast.net> or Kathy Maynard <maynard.kathy@gmail.com>.

Today's learning targets

You may have noticed the white board behind our desk.  Each morning, we write down our learning targets for the day for the students to see.


 We had our first fire drill last Friday.   Students had a great time writing about it.... including lots of details about what they saw, heard, felt, and thought.      A sample from today's writing..

Thanks so much!

Curriculum Night This Week

With heart  and helping hands,

 a child can accomplish

 anything

Dear Parents,

We are getting into the swing of 2nd Grade here in room 127!   Last week, Mrs. Fornia began our science unit on Geology.   Your child will be learning all about pebbles, sand, and silt.   Today we had two huge boxes delivered to our room, full of science supplies.   This is going to be a fun unit.

 

This week we are also working with our Math Envisions curriculum and learning addition strategies.  With this comes daily math homework so your child can continue to practice at home and become stronger with their math facts.

 

Math Homework:   Each day your child will bring home this Math Magazine with math sheets inside. The Math Magazine is completed and corrected in class. Inside the Math Magazine are a math Practice sheet and an Enrichment sheet. This will be your child’s math homework. Some days we may begin the Practice sheet in class. The Enrichment sheet contains challenge level problems. Please check over their work each night to ensure success. Math homework does not need to be returned to school but it should be completed every day. Skills are built upon each other with each lesson.

 

We have also been diving into our reading and writing curriculum and getting to knw our students as readers and writers.

 

Tomorrow, we begin our Social Studies unit on communities.

 

We are excited to tell you more about our 2nd Grade curriculum and look forward to seeing everyone this THURSDAY, Sept. 20th.    Mrs. Frasier will be speaking in the commons at 6:45 and then parents are welcomed into our classroom to learn about our curriculum.  

 

Please bring your calendars with you.   You will get a chance to sign up for conferences and for special volunteer opportunities....including a chance to pick a day and talk about your career or special talent/hobby you have.

 

We truly enjoy your childrend and we  thank you for allowing them to be in our hands for this special year of school.

 

 

 

A Great First Week!

 

Dear Parents,

What a terrific first week we have had!   Mrs. Fornia and I could not be more pleased with this group of enthusiastic learners.     (You can hear a pin drop in this room during silent reading time!!)

 

We are learning all about our Imaginarium (the extraordinary book den).  Students are having a great time finding books they love.    This week we will be making our own labels for each special bin.  We will also be making labels for our personal book bins (more information on this to come on Curriculum Night).

 

We all become better readers and better writers by reading as much as possible.   Students are encouraged to fill in their monthly reading logs (at least 20 minutes a night would be best).   Listening to a parent read aloud counts too.

 Here are some watercolor self portraits done in class last Friday.    They are hanging up in the front of our room.

In addition to learning about our Imaginarium, we have been learning about classroom routines, learning about each other, writing, practicing our math facts, and working on graphs. 

 

 

 Today we observed a painting of a bicycle by Andrew Wyeth and learned how to draw our own bicycles.  Students followed directions to create a bike, then they added their own magic to the drawings.

 Our first star student was chosen this week!     Hanako shared her poster and will take home this class book and add her own writing to it.   Each child will get to take this home and bring it back the following Monday to share their writing.    I have added a list of everyone's star student week on the side bar of this blog.

Other important reminders/notes:
1.  Students are welcome to eat a 2nd snack after last recess if they are still hungry.    
2.  Library books are due in 2 weeks from the day checked out (our library time is Thursday)
3. Second Grade Curriculum Night will take place on September 18th at 6:00. Due to a schedule conflict for one of the 2nd grade teachers we decided to do our Curriculum Night on a different night.  The new principal, Heather Frazier, will send out more information next week on that Curriculum Night.  We hope to see you there.
4.   We will start our official 2nd Grade weekly homework assignments after curriculum night.  (Most likely the last week of September).  As of now, the only homework is to read, read, read!!

Nice to Meet You

Thank you for a terrific walk-through/meet and greet! It was a pleasure to meet each of you. It looks like we are going to have a terrific class this year.

A few reminders:
1. Please bring a water bottle to school with you that your child can keep on his or her desk. They may bring this water bottle to the lunch room with them or they can bring a separate water bottle with their lunch sack.

2. The Star Student posters are not due until Monday, Sept. 10th. Parents may assist students with their writing if necessary. We will keep the posters in the classroom and display them individually during your child's star student week. The star student schedule will be posted next week.

3. If you did not get a chance to collect the items from your child's school mailbox, we will be sending home those papers on the first day of school. Included in this is a sheet for you to fill out about your child.

4. We do have PE tomorrow (Wednesday), so students should dress appropriately.

I think that should do it, please feel free to email both of us if you have any questions.

We are looking forward to seeing all of you on the first day of school.

Ms. Subcleff and Mrs. Fornia

It's going to be a wonderful year!

Welcome new second graders and parents!

We are going to have a great year together!    We are getting prepared for a fabulous new year in our new school building.

This blog will be a place for parents to come and see what is happening in our room.  Please check the tabs on the top of this page for useful information. (You can  read a little about each of us by clicking on the tab about us at the top of this page.)  You can also check the side-bar for upcoming events, useful links, and we will be posting our class birthdays once we have our official list.


We will update the blog with new posts (you can read them right in this spot), once a week and we will send you a reminder that the blog has been updated.

We'd love for you to leave comments on our posts and/or you can contact us about any questions you have. You'll find our contact information right here in the tab labeled "Ms. Subcleff/Mrs.Fornia"

We look forward to seeing each of you during the Meet and Greet on September 4th at 3:00-4:00.  See you soon!