Weekly Update

Dear Parents,
Here's a little look into what we've been doing this past week....

Social Studies/Art:

Students are learning about the three types of communities, rural, urban, and suburban. During art, they learned how to draw a rural scene using perspective. Students drew a horizon line and used a vanishing point to show the road going off in the distance.

 World Languages:   We continue to add to our ways of saying, "Good Morning" and have posted a giant map in our 2nd grade shared space.   We are having fun learning about where different families come from.

 Literacy Time:
Students are working through various rotations each morning.   This time enables Mrs. Fornia and I to check in on each individual student.  We are able to teach them new strategies for comprehending the text they are reading, reading accurately and fluently, and expanding their vocabulary.   

 Math:   We continue to work on mastering addition and subtraction skills.  The goal is to build fluency with addition and subtraction within 100.   They will also learn to solve problems within 1000 by applying their understanding of models for addition and subtraction.   
Here's an example of a fun math game that we played today.

Other Information:

• PTA student directories went home today along with new PTA cards for PTA members
• A reminder about our Nature Vision program went home today, please be sure to send in your $8.00 as soon as you can.
• Vision and Hearing Screening is this Thursday
• Reflections due Oct. 26th
• Book Orders due online by Sunday, Oct. 28th

Weekly Update

 Dear Parents,

Here's a look at what is going on in our room:

Art/ Science:   
Students read about invertebrates in our National Geographic magazines.  Then they created vertebrates - using their names as skeletons.

 

 

 

Reading:
Our volunteers during reading time have made it possible for us to incorporate some great reading activities for the students.   Sometimes students are able to play a word game (like Apples to Apples)and other times they get to read their social studies books in small groups.

World Languages:
We are lucky to have so many families in our room who speak languages other than English.   We thought we'd put this to good use by learning some of these languages.  Currently, we are collecting ways to say, "Good Morning".  We have learned, "Gud Morgan" (Swedish) and "Buenos Dias" (Spanish).   If your family knows a way to say good-morning in a different language, we would love to have your child share it.   Just be sure to write it down for them, so we get the spelling correct.
Also... if you are able to come in and give a little mini-lesson on your language... we would love that.  We already have two folks signed up!  (thank you Shuko and Marianela!)

Field Trips:
We are planning two out of school field trips (more to come on these later) and some in-school field trips.    One in school field trip program is Nature vision....where a naturalist come to the classroom to give our students a hands on scientific learning experience.  It is like an in school field trip for the kids.  We have registered for three different topics this year.  They include Formula Fossils (Dec. 4th), the Water Cycle (Feb. 19th), and Investigating Insects (May 14th). 

 Each of these programs is used to enrich and extend our students scientific learning.  The fee for this in-school program per child is $8 which covers the cost of the instructor and the supplies they use in the activity.

Please send in either a check (made out to Carl Sandburg) or cash. Thanks.

Happy October!

Dear Parents,
We are enjoying our time conferencing with you and your 2nd grader!   They have made some excellent goals and we look forward to the growth they will make this year.

Last week, students learned about the artist Henri Rousseau and his paintings of jungles.

We looked at the types of greens he made by mixing blue and yellow.  We noticed the animals he liked to hide in the leaves.  Then we painted our own leaf scene withourselves hidden in the picture!

We will be collecting all the student art work so that we can have an art show later in the year.  Your child will get to share their work with you and then take everything home in one bound art book.

Ask your 2nd grader about the drama game we played today... it is called, "family portrait".  We took some great family portraits.

This week we began our first weekly homework packet and our first spelling list.   Our first test is this Thursday.    The coversheet for the homework is due next Monday.

This Wednesday, students are to practice their math facts as their math homework.  Please let us know if you have any problems logging on to xtramath.org.   Each child needs to know their PIN.  These were sent home last week, but we can happily send it home again if you need us to.

Your child brought home a flyer about the Reflections Art Program today.   All entries are due to the office by Oct. 26th.   We hope all of our great artists enter this contest.  Remember, students can also enter a piece of writing, a photograph, a musical composition, video, or a dance.

QUEST:  If you are interested in applying to the district's highly capable program, applications are due to the district office until 4 p.m. on October 30, 2012.

  Volunteers start next week!  Thank you to all our terrific volunteers!   And a big thank you to all of you... we had 100% participation in the dance marathon!!

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