March 9-13

REMINDERS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS:

If anyone still has items that we can use for our engineering project this week, they would be greatly appreciated!  We’re looking for toilet paper rolls, paper tower rolls, or anything made out of chipboard. 

This Wednesday is an early release day.  Please plan accordingly.

Spring conferences are coming right up!  They will be held on March 24-26.  A paper describing the conferences as well as a sign up sheet will be coming home this week in totes.  Please keep an eye out for it!  As always, conferences will be scheduled on a first come, first serve basis so please send them back to school as soon as you can.

Homework packets are due Thursday!

This Friday, the Cromwell Center for Disability Awareness will be visiting our classroom.  They will be doing a 30 minute discussion, lesson, and activity with Team Howard.  We are looking forward to their visit!

This week in...

Spelling:  We will focus on Unit 21.  The words are:  why, help, put, different, and away.

Fables:  Each week, a small group of students will be selected to practice and perform and short fable for the class.  Talk about a fabulous way to practice our fluency goals!   Following the performance, we will have a chance for discussion and practice work.  Fables open up a lot of really cool reading opportunities.  We will discuss character traits (which ones are strengths and which ones are flaws).  We will also have the chance to discuss the moral of the story.  When we have completed our fable unit, Team Howard will then have the chance to write their very own fables!  

Autobiographies:   We will finish our autobiographies this week.  When we are done, each member of Team Howard will have a book all about them.  We’ll learn about when they were little, in kindergarten, in first grade, this year, summer memories and other memories.  It has been so much fun to learn more about our teammates.

Biography project:  Since we will be finishing our autobiographies, we will be moving right into our next project... biographies!  This is one of the projects that second graders look forward to all year.  The goal of the project is to be able to read a non-fiction book to gather facts to be used in a research report.  Team Howard will select a book about someone famous in history.  Using the book, they will be collecting information about their interests, what they are best known for, how we are like the person they are studying, and other interesting facts.  Once our research is completed we will create a short book about the person we studied.  To model, Team Howard and I will be studying Clara Barton together.

Math:  We will begin a project that encompasses many topics.  Pennies for Peace will focus on place value, money, sharing, working together, maps, and different cultures.   After reading Listen to the Wind by Greg Mortensen (a children’s book based on his book Three Cups of Tea), we will learn all about how Dr. Greg worked together with the people of Korphe to create a school for children to learn.  By raising pennies, he, as well as many others, were able to raise money to build a school, get school supplies, and hire teachers to educate the children of Korphe.  Our project will challenge Team Howard to identify the main idea of the story, identify the author’s purpose, review how to write three digit numbers in words, numbers, and expanded form.  We will also review  bundles of 1, 10, and 100.  We will also review how to compare numbers and how to skip count within 1,000.  If you want to learn more about this amazing Pennies for Peace program, check out their website at:  http://www.penniesforpeace.org/

Scholastic News:  This week, we’ll learn all about Rayanie and her service dog, Chief. 

Science:  Engineering is the name of the game this week!  After reading a story about some friendly gnomes in their village and their market in town, Team Howard will be challenged to design something that will allow the gnomes to get to town and back to their village faster than they can now.  Using the materials you sent in from home, students will make their sketch a reality.  

Early Release Day Fun:  We’ll be reading one of my all-time favorite books, Oh the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss.  After reading, we’ll have the chance to brainstorm where we think our brains and feet might lead us to in the future.  We’ll think about our future homes, jobs, and future accomplishments.  We’ll use this information to make a fun green screen movie of our future selves!  In order to help us make this video, your child may bring in things from home to help make the video more authentic.  These things could be clothes or even props they think they might want.  I’ll send home a paper with your child on Wednesday requesting these items.  Please send them to school on Thursday (the next day).  These items will be returned to you by the end of next week.  

Have a wonderful week!