WELCOME TO 2013

January 2 - 4
Welcome back!  Can you believe it is a new year and we are still here despite the Mayan Calender?  I am grateful for the break but am ready to begin the new year.  Our family stayed in NC this Christmas.  One outing we enjoyed thanks to our son Esteban, was a trip to the Raleigh Art Museum.  I highly recommend this short venture if you would like your children to experience a bit of culture.  The museum was very child friendly and had a beautiful outdoor path to travel once the indoor artwork had been viewed.  Thumbs up Raleigh Art Museum!

BACK TO SCHOOL STUFF!

This week since it is a short week we will be doing a bit of review and mid-year assessing.  There will be math homework, but no written reading or spelling homework.  The math will be direct review for the mid-year assessment that will be given next week.

MATH!

It is time for a 2nd semester assessment.  The assessment will cover the following topics:

MONEY

TIME

STORY PROBLEMS

BAR/PICTOGRAPHS

ADDING/SUBTRACTING PLACE VALUE BLOCKS

 Homework for the next four days (not including Friday) will be in a math block form.  Each night the students will complete ONE math block to help review for next week's test.  If you see your child struggling with a concept, please take the time to review with them so that he/she is ready for next week. Especially be wary of the story problems.  Watch to see that your child is comprehending what the problem is asking.   The Assessment will be given on Wednesday and Thursday of next week.

SPELLING!

This week I will be assessing the students for record's sake and next week we will

 Return to Words Their Way. 

I have made up some manila folders to help keep the homework straight.  These folders will have the nightly homework listed and explained so that your child will be able to study appropriately.  Words Their Way focuses on various English Language Norms.  

I also have included a helpful website that allows the children to digitally sort their words.  This might prove helpful to you as the parent.  (It helped me when I had a difficult time figuring out the oddball words!)

educationextras.com/withingwordpatternsorts.html

READING!

This week I will be assessing WPM (words per minute) as well a few other assessments.  In addition to this we will be looking at adjectives a bit more closely and writing some descriptive sentences while viewing some pretty cute and cuddly animal pictures.  Next week we will dive into our final Patricia Polacco text titled, When Lightning Comes in A Jar.  

Also, for small groups next week we will be studying SOUND through some solid non-fiction literature.  There will be homework twice a week based on this text.  There also will be a project due the first week in February concerning this Science Theme of Sound.

READING LOG!

Please continue to fill in December's reading log for January.  I decided to just continue this December log since December was so short.  EVERYONE should have if filled in by the end of January!  (No Excuses!)

SOCIAL STUDIES!

This week we will continue where we left off concerning our study of our three levels of  government.  

I'm looking forward to sleeping through New Year's Eve and seeing everyone Wednesday!

December 10 - 14

AN EXCITING WEEK AWAITS US!


This is the last full week before Christmas Break.  Yes, we will have school next week, but it will be filled with frivolous fun in place of our usual hard work.  The students deserve a few less strenuous days since we have been working very hard.
REMEMBER THESE DATES:

Monday, December 10th:   SCIENCE PROJECTS DUE!  Please return science notebook, take-home test, and project.  We will begin sharing these in class.

Tuesday, December 11th:   SUPPLIES FOR GINGERBREAD HOUSES DUE!  Everyone should supply their own icing - can or squirt bottle - as well as requested candy item.

Thursday, December 13th:  Parent Involvement.  We will be creating our Gingerbread houses here at school.  We will begin promptly at 1:45.  

Monday, December17th:    8:45 AM - 9:30 AM  SOUND SCIENCE FIELD TRIP!
ALSO NOTE!  I have moved our pajama day and movie to Monday afternoon.  Tuesday would have been tricky since it is an early release day (11:45).  SO MONDAY, DECEMBER 17th will be our PAJAMA DAY IN ADDITION TO SCIENCE FIELD TRIP!!  BUSY!  Tuesday will be a day of clean up and preparing for Winter Break.

This week in 2nd Grade:

READING:
We will be learning a bit about Germany this week since the idea of a gingerbread house originally came from the Grimms Brother's fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel.  In addition to learning a bit about the country and its language, we will be looking a two different versions of Hansel and Gretel and will compare these text using a Venn Diagram.

ADJECTIVES WILL BE OUR GRAMMAR FOCUS


MATH:
We have concluded our study of bar graphs and pictographs.  We will touch on the pictograph using our gingerbread house creations on Thursday.  However, now it is time to challenge the students' minds with some tricky pre-algebra story problems.
Yes, this week we will be looking at how to solve some very tricky problems.  Please take the time to review your child's homework.  It will reflect exactly what was covered in class.   The concepts presented this week are challenging, so be prepared to take the time to answer potential questions.

We will have one final 80 problem addition time tests this week.  After Winter Break we will move to subtraction.
SPELLING:
Last week (with the exception of make-up tests) for our high frequency words.  When we return from break we will also return to Words Their Way.

SOCIAL STUDIES:
This week will be filled with learning about our country's government, our state government as well as our local government.

December 3 - 7

DECEMBER IS HERE!  Today officially marks the first day of Advent - four weeks our family puts aside to focus on the Christmas Season.  In addition to our quiet time, we celebrated by traveling down to Meadow and viewed the Meadow Lights!  It was simple, but fun.  The kids enjoyed looking at the creative lights in the middle of, well - a meadow!


Our weeks leading up to Winter Break are filled with fun and many activities.  Be watchful as we near some important dates.

Reading:
This week we will continue to read Patricia Polacco's brilliant books.  Last week the students really seemed to enjoy The Keeping Quilt.  After summarizing the book using:
Someone
Wanted
But 
So
Then
we each made a quilt to remember the book.  I have connected the students' pieces to make a large quilt on our back wall.
We will enjoy My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother this week.  This is a charming book about sibling rivalry.  Polacco reminisces about the adventures her and her older brother had while trying to beat each other at various competitions.  In the end, they learn to appreciate each other.
Our focus will shift from nouns to adjectives this week.
                                               

Spelling:
At first I wanted to give the students all remainder 25 high frequency words, but presently have decided I will only give the students 15.  We will finish off the list next week.  Therefore. . . I have highlighted the words on the list that the students will be responsible for this week.  The homework is also slightly different.  Instead of sentences on Wednesday, the students will write each word in bubble letters.

Math:
Monday we will graph our November temperature.  The students will create a line graph with the data collected in the month of November.  Then, we will concentrate on Pictographs this week.



Science:
Science projects due Monday, December 10th.  Please return:
1:  Project
2.  Take Home Test
3.  Notes in Blue Folder
In House Sound Field Trip on Monday, December 17th!

Social Studies:
We will dive back into Social Studies this week looking at the country's government.  Since the election is somewhat fresh in our minds, I thought this would be a wise unit to begin to cover now.

Gingerbread Houses:
I will be sending home the information on Monday about the gingerbread houses.  I didn't want to overwhelm you all last week, so decided to wait to send home the note on Monday, December 3rd.  This will be a parent involvement activity.  All parents are welcome to come and enjoy this sticky-sweet project.  We will be creating the houses on Thursday, December 12th @ 1:45.  If things go well, we may even perform a small German song for the parents!