September 28-October 2

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Our field trip to the Cumberland Fair is this Thursday!  If I have not received your child's permission slip, an extra one was sent home with them today.  It's on orange paper.  Please return this slip, signed, by tomorrow!

We are also in need of some more parent chaperones.  If you have already filled out the volunteer paperwork and would like to accompany us, please let me know by tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon at the latest!

Students are allowed to bring a water bottle to school with them.  They can fill them up in the morning and keep them on their desk to stay hydrated throughout the day.

Please remember to send a healthy snack to school each day.  Apples, bananas, grapes, cheese and crackers, carrot sticks, celery sticks and sunbutter, pretzels, whole grain cereal, etc. are all great choices for snack time!

On Tuesday, Shaw's will be visiting our school for a quick assembly.  They are donating $400.00 to Russell School!  We are so grateful for their generosity.

On Wednesday, Mrs. Thibodeau, our guidance counselor, will be visiting Team Howard.  She'll be sure to bring her friends George and Kelso to go over some of Kelso's choices and how we can use them to help us solve small problems.  If it's a big problem, we should also get an adult to help!

You should expect homework to go home next week.  But DON'T WORRY!  I'll be sure to send home a "homework survival guide" as well to help you and your child understand how the homework works and what second grade expectations are.  This guide will include all of your child's login information for various websites we'll be using.  I'll also be making some how-to videos to help you navigate the websites.  If you find you have more questions after reviewing the guide, please don't hesitate to ask.  We want homework to be a chance for some extra practice, not to be an epic battle!

THIS WEEK IN...

Writing:  We have been working incredibly hard at understanding what makes an "expert writer."  This week, we'll have the chance to take a look at some example (made-up) students to see if they are experts or not.  For the students who we think are not experts quite yet, we'll talk about some advice we might want to give them to help them out.  We'll also be looking at some just "write" examples of writing to understand what is expected during our writer's workshop.  Then, we'll have a chance to start building up our writing stamina with some quick writes.  The rules for quick writes are:  never stop writing,  stay on topic, and there is no right answer.  The goal for quick writes is to increase writing fluency.  The idea sparkers for quick writes are also really fun.  My hope is that these spark some ideas for Team Howard to continue writing about beyond our quick write time.

Reading:  Just like in writing, we've been studying what is looks like to be a reading expert as well!  This week, we will have the chance to look at some example (made-up) students to see if they are experts or not.  We'll also have the chance to look at some example (made-up) students to see if they have chosen just right reading books.  Last week, we did a lot of work around just right reading books.  We read Goldisocks and the Three Libearians which is a great story about a little girl on the lookout for that just right book.  

We also learned a fun song about how to pick a just right book.  It follows the "IPICK" acronym below.  Ask your child to sing it for you!

To go along with the Cumberland Fair, we'll also be doing a lot of reading activities about schools, then and now.  We'll read an interesting non-fiction story all about schools and how they've changed.  When we are finished reading, we'll write three facts we learned.  As the week continues, we'll do a true or false activity as well as a comparison activity.

Math:  Our first math unit is all about graphing!  The first couple weeks of schools, we worked on creating all kinds of graphs that told a little more information about us as a class.  We created picture graphs, bar graphs, pie charts, venn diagrams, a pirate glyph and more!  This week, we'll work on how to sort data (which is a fancy word for information) into categories.  This skill is going to help us immensely next week when we begin asking our own survey questions to the class and collecting data.  We'll use this information to create a bar graph.  Then, we'll have the chance to explain and interpret the data answering questions such as...

Which category had the most?
Which category had the least?
How many are in a certain category?
How many more _____________ are there than _______________?
How many fewer _____________ are there than _______________?  

Social Studies:  The first few weeks of school we are all about creating our classroom community and setting expectations.  We do this through creating a shared classroom vision and a code of cooperation (which is really like classroom rules).  You probably saw our vision lyrics come home the other week or perhaps you've heard your child singing it for you!  If not, here are the lyrics:

Best Team

***to the tune of Fight Song by Rachel Platten

We will work hard

Give our best try

Say that we can!

Never we can’t

We will respect ourselves

others, our classroom too

A positive attitude

Can bring success for me and you

Together, each and every day

we always cooperate

We will keep our heads up high

Can you hear our voice this time?

We are the best team

Honest and true team

Helpful and kind team

This is our big dream

Focused right now is what we’ll be

We are the best team

With my best effort here and friends by my side today

I know that I can make it all the way

The five words that we thought were the most important were respect, effort, attitude, cooperation, and honesty.  It just so happens that the first letter of each of these spells the word REACH!  We thought this was so cool because it goes along with our morning song, Reach for the Stars by S Club 7.  It's a fun song we listen and sing everyday to help us get our day started on the right track.  Here it is below for your listening enjoyment!

From our classroom vision, we created our code of cooperation.  These are the things we have to do in order for our vision to come true.

1.  Treat others the way you want to be treated.

2.  Give your best try and never give up.

3.  Be positive!

4.  Everyone has to do their part.

5.  Take responsibility.

Today, we played a really fun game of "Headbandz" to help us understand what each of our classroom rules look like.  Ask your child about it tonight!  The whole class was smiling and giggling by the end of the game.  

To help set up classroom expectations, we've also been reading a lot of reading great books.  Check them out below!

And so many more great books!  We've also been watching great videos like the one below.  This one is a great example of how self-control is important and is rewarded.  We talk about "two marshmallow" behavior all the time.

Read Aloud:  We are loving the story of Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.  Each day, we sketch the picture we see in our minds as we are listening to the story.  Then, we write a quick sentence talking about what is going on in our pictures.  We love to share what we have drawn and written.  

I know that was a TON of information!  Hopefully you found it interesting and helps you to get a quick glance as to what's going on in our classroom.  I hope everyone has a great week!

The Final Post for the 2014-2015 Team Howard!

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Tomorrow is field day!  We will be participating in the activities rain or shine so please help your child dress appropriately.  They also need a change of clothes for afterwards.  An extra pair of socks and sneakers is also helpful.

Friday is the last day of school!  Students are dismissed at 12:00.  It’s hard to believe the end of the year is already here.  Thanks to all for a great year!

This week in...

ELA:  We are completing our memory books of second grade.  We’re writing all about some of our favorite things and all about the fun activities we did this year.  We’re even taking a few moments to reminisce about our accomplishments and our future goals.  This project always brings a few tears to my eyes!  In each student’s memory book, I’ve also written a short note to them.

We will also create a gift and a card for Father’s Day!  It’s a surprise... so you’ll just have to wait and see what we’ve created :)  We hope you enjoy it!

Students also performed in our final Reader’s Theater plays for the school year.  It was amazing listening to the expression that is in our voices now.  My favorite part is listening to the audience give compliments to the students who performed.  So special!

Math:  This week, we’ll create a glyph to go along with our summer bucket lists.  The glyph will show us our favorite season, how many books we plan on reading this summer, our favorite ice cream flavor, and what we would rather do at the beach.  The glyph will accompany our short summer bucket lists of all the things we hope to do this summer.

Classroom Community:  We’ll work as a team to help clean out the classroom.  Today, we cleaned out our desks.  Some of our materials will be coming home to you.  There are a couple writing tools, folders, writing journals, and spelling workbooks in your child’s backpack.  Please feel free to use these as extra tools to help your child practice their learning goals over the summer.  Later this week, we’ll work together to pack up many of our classroom materials to make the classroom “summer ready”.  It’s sad to see everything come down and get packed up, but so exciting at the same time.  We are so proud of all of the things we have accomplished this year and all of the new friendships we have made.

There will also be a short awards ceremony for the team.  I’ll be handing out special awards to each member of Team Howard as a way to recognize the many special qualities we all have.  

Finally, I have put together a short slideshow with pictures of all of the fun memories we’ve shared this year.  The team will watch it together.  My hope is that it will allow everyone to remember what a special time we’ve shared with one another.

Photobooth:  Mr. Johnson is bringing a photobooth for second graders!  We’ll get a chance to take some pictures with our friends.  We’ll even get a copy of the pictures to bring home with us.  It will be such a fun way to end the school year!

Last Day of School Fun:  We’ll meet one last time as a second grade team to watch a short slideshow that Mrs. Hannan has put together for us.  Then, each student will be honored with a medal.  After receiving our medals, we will parade through the hallways one final time to wave goodbye to all of our old teachers and friends.

As a team, we’ll play some fun minute to win it games and read some special books.  To start the day, we’ll read I Knew You Could by Craig Dorfman.  To end the day, we’ll read Oh the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss.  

Thanks again to each and every one of you!  The progress your children have made could not have been possible without your support at home.  I’m sad to watch the team move on to third grade but so proud of all they have accomplished!  Best of luck to you at Dunn School.

Your forever grateful teacher,

Mrs. Howard

June 8-12

Announcements and Reminders:

Our class book has arrived!!  Your child should be bringing it home with them today if you had ordered it previously.  We are so excited to see our story like a real book.  We certainly worked hard on creating a great story with some great illustrations.  If you didn’t order a copy of the book before and would like to order one now, it’s not too late!  Your child will be bringing home an information paper that tells you have you can order a copy for yourself.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Field day is TOMORROW!  Please send your child to school with a change of clothes and a water bottle.  They will be getting wet during some of the activities that are planned so a change of clothes is necessary.  If you can, a change of socks and shoes might also be helpful.  All students will need to be wearing sneakers in order to participate in the activities.

Friday is our Step Up Day to Dunn School.  Please remember to send your child to school with a packed lunch if that is what you indicated on your child’s permission slip.  It should be a fun day!  We’ll visit a third grade classroom, ask them all of our questions, have lunch, go to recess, and do a short activity with our third grade buddies.  This field trip is highly anticipated! 

This week in...

ELA:  We are working on creating an end of the year newspaper for our classroom that highlights some of our favorite projects, field trips, and memories.  Team Howard is working in groups of two or three to write a fact-based article that is interesting to our audience.  Our articles will have at least three details, capital letters where they belong, and correct ending punctuation.  Then, we’ll create a detailed illustration to accompany or article in the newspaper.  It will be fun to read when it is completed!

We will also be participating a lot of fun camping-themed review activities.  We’ll be identifying main idea and details, sorting nouns as people, places, or things, sorting words as nouns, adjectives, or verbs, putting words in ABC order, sorting synonyms and antonyms, creating silly sentences, placing correct ending punctuation, creating compound words, capitalizing words that need capital letters, solving riddles using context clues, and sorting words into long and short vowel sounds.  Phew!!  It’s a lot but it’s sure to be fun!

Math:  We will working on our final math facts assessments as well as time, money, and line plot assessments.  Now that the year is coming to an end, most of our time will be spent assessing any goals that haven’t been assessed yet.  However, we will have some fun activities planned as well!  This week, we’ll be applying our measuring skills to fairy houses!  We’ll measure several nature items and compare them before using them to build our very own fairy houses at Russell School.  

Read Alouds:  We’ll continue to read some great picture books.  This week, we’ll read our very own book as well as some of the books from our very authors like Chris Van Dusen, Marty Kelly, and Ryan Higgins.

End of the Year Fun:  This week, we’ll begin to assemble some memory books to capture all of the precious memories we’ve made in second grade.  We’ll reminisce about past field trips, school favorites, and more!  We’ll even have a chance to get the autographs of our teammates and think ahead to third grade.  These memory books are always fun to create.

June 1-June 5

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Our field trip is tomorrow!  We will be going rain or shine so please help your child dress appropriately for the weather.  Umbrellas are allowed, as well, if you would like to send one along with your child.  All students need to bring a packed lunch and water bottle with them.

Please send along $2.00 (only!) with your child so they may purchase a drink or ice cream from the snack shack.  We will NOT be visiting the gift shop so please do not send along any extra money.

Students may choose to bring a quarter to buy food to feed the fish, bear, or deer while we are at the park. 

If there should be a downpour tomorrow while we are at the park, we will come back to school early.  

Today, your child will bring home a large gift bag with their name on it.  It is my end of the year gift to them.  In it, you’ll find a team jersey for your child.  They are asked to wear it on the field trip tomorrow.  You’ll also find information for summer practice.

If you would like your child to participate in the school wide book swap on Friday, please send them to school with a gently used book they would like to trade for a different book.  It should be a book you think another child would be interested in reading.  All books should be donated by TOMORROW!  The book swap will take place on Friday.

This week in...

ELA:  This week will be dedicated to our final personal narratives for the year.  This will be the writing piece that will be used as the final assessment of our writing goals.  It will also be sent to your child’s future third grade teacher.  Today, we shared our memories out loud with partners so we could remember as many details as possible.  Then, we brainstormed when our memories happened, who we were with, where it happened, what happened, and how our memories made us feel.  Later this week, we will use all of this information to write a personal narrative.

Our narratives should have:

-a good topic sentence

-lots of details about our thoughts, feelings, and actions

-information that goes in order and makes sense

-some use of transition words like first, next, then, and last

-a good closing sentence

-capital letters where they belong

-correct ending punctuation

-most of the words spelled correctly

-neat handwriting with finger spaces between the words

After writing our rough drafts, each student will proofread their own work.  Then, they will have two other students proofread their writing before they turn it in.

Spelling:   Our final spelling test of the year will happen on Friday!  Students will be assessed on list #4.  

Math:  We will focus on measurement.  Here are our learning goals:

-be able to select an appropriate tool for measuring

-estimate how long an object is

-measure in inches and centimeters

-create a line plot of the measurements and talk about the data (i.e.  How many objects were six inches long, how long were most of the objects, how long were the fewest amount of objects, etc.)

Science:  We will be celebrating all of our hard work on our animal projects by visiting the wildlife park!  The GNG Middle School students will be giving several presentations on the animals we will visit to give us more information.  

Read Aloud:  From now until the end of the school year, we are going to read some great picture books... just for fun!  It’s important to know that reading is fun and should always be enjoyed.  We don’t always have to read to learn something.  Sometimes, it’s nice to just read a book that makes us smile or laugh.  I’ll be reading some of my favorites to Team Howard over the next few weeks.

May 26-29

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Please remember to send back the TWO permission slips as soon as possible!  There is one for step up day and also one for our trip to the Wildlife Park.

Also, please remember to send $3.50 with your permission slip for the Wildlife Park.  This is for admission into the park.  Please let me know if you have any questions!

Some students from GNG Middle School will be visiting our classroom on Tuesday!  They will be sharing the projects they created specially for our second graders.  Their projects will be shared on iPads and will deepen our learning of animals and habitats.  At our field trip the Wildlife Park, some middle school students will be presenting information on the animals we will see.  We are very excited to be working with the middle school!

Thursday is the cookout!  We hope to see you all there.  It’s always fun to share a special lunch with all of our moms and dads.  

After the cookout, parents are invited to join Team Howard’s Wildlife Safari!  Please visit our classroom to see all of our animal projects that we’ve been working so very hard on.  The team will be there as your “guides” and they will teach you all about the animals they have been studying.  

The last homework packet of the year is due on Thursday!!

This week in...

ELA:  We didn’t get a chance to write our animal riddles last week, so we’ll do them this week instead.

We’ll also be taking some time to reflect on two things that we can do now, near the end of second grade, that we couldn’t do at the beginning of the year.  These will be on display with our “two-cans” out in the hallway.  Stop by and see them when you come to Team Howard’s Wildlife Safari!

This week, students will be assessed on their individual list #3.  We’ve really been loving the opportunity to be responsible test givers.  A sense of pride can be felt in the room when we take our spelling tests!

At the end of the week we’ll begin brainstorming some ideas for our end of the year personal narratives.  We’ll think about fun times, scary times, times we got hurt, and angry times.  Then, we’ll pick just one memory that we would like to write about.  Next week, we’ll write our very best personal narratives about that memory.  

Math:  This will be the final week of our flexible groups for word problems.  By the end of the week, all students will be assessed on their learning goals.

We’ll also continue on our measurement adventure!  This week, we’ll measure different items around the classroom like our chairs, books, and pencils in inches and centimeters.  When we’re done, we’ll use the measurement to create a line plot.  We’ll use the line plot to help us analyze the measurement data.

Science:  We will begin reading some books about how seeds travel.  First, we’ll find out how and why seeds travel.  We’ll also learn about how different seeds also look different.  In the book Who Will Plant a Tree?  we’ll see how seeds are dispersed in many different ways in many different places.  An extra challenge will be for us to identify the different habitats we see throughout the book.

Speaking and Listening Goals:  This week, we’ll be presenting our animal projects to parents and students of Russell School.  Team Howard will be asked to present relevant facts in a way their audience can understand them.  They will have to use an appropriate sound check level voice so their audience can hear them and they will also have to speak clearly.  

Animal Projects:  We’ll finish creating our animal habitats this week.  We are so excited for you to see them!  As a celebration of all of our hard work, we’ll begin watching the Disney Nature documentary “Bears” since we studied brown bears together as a class.

May 18-22

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Please send in all shoeboxes by WEDNESDAY!!  Any extra shoeboxes would be greatly appreciated as well.  With the whole second grade participating in these projects, I’m sure we’d be able to find a use for any extras.

Homework packets are due on Thursday.   Also, you will receive the last homework packet of the year this week.  It’s crazy how fast the time has flown by!!

Mrs. Thibodeau will be coming to visit us on Friday!  She’ll be showing the Good Touch/Bad Touch video that you previously received information about in totes.  It’s always a joy to have Miss Tippy Toes come to visit!

Classroom wish list:  If anyone is able to donate any modeling clay to the class, it would be greatly appreciated!  Earth tone colors would be best (browns, tans, whites, grays, blacks, etc.) since we’ll be using the clay to make models of the animals we have been studying.  It would be best if we could have all donations by WEDNESDAY!  Thank you so much for your consideration.

This week in:

Phonics:  We are working with the schwa sound.  Our focus words are:  idea, comma, alone, agree, ago, above, again, awake, away, and alike.

Spelling:  Students are working on list #2!  They will be assessed on these words on Friday.  

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  vast, oceans, areas, voyage, and planet.  We’ll use our vocabulary words to define these words and show our understanding of them.  Then, we’ll search for them in the short story called “Continents and Oceans” and also in the short story called “Record Holders!”

Comprehension:  This week, we’ll review main idea and supporting details.  The main idea is what a story is mostly about.  The details give more information to support the idea.  We’ll practice this skill while we read Columbus Explores New Lands 

Grammar:  We will talk about possessive pronouns.  These words take the place of a possessive noun.  These words shown who or what owns something.  Examples are:  my, his, your, and her.

Writing:  This week, we will finish our animal report final drafts.  We’ve been practicing how to write appropriate paragraphs.  When we write our final drafts, we will make sure each new idea is a new paragraph and that each new paragraph starts with an indent.  

Team Howard will also have the chance to write a riddle about the animal they have been studying.  

Science:  We will continue our study on habitats.  We’ll illustrate different kinds of habitats and then solve different animal riddles to decide where each animal belongs.  

Engineering:  Our animal projects are also accompanied with a diarama.  These will be entirely student created.  They will be responsible for creating a background that looks like their animal’s habitat as well as creating several 3D components.  They will also incorporate natural elements likes sticks, rocks, and sand.  Finally, they will use clay to create a lifelike representation of their animals.  We will begin these diaramas this week.

Math:  Word problem flexible groups will continue.  Please refer to previous posts to find the specific standards these groups revolve around.  

I will also begin our measurement unit with Team Howard this week.  This week, we will estimate things that could be about an inch, about a foot, and about a yard.  We’ll also estimate things that could be about a centimeter or about a meter.  Later, we’ll use measurement tools like rulers, yard sticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes to measure items around the room in inches and centimeters.

Have a great week!

May 11-15

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

On Tuesday, the Russell School teachers will be hosting a Wellness Fair Kickoff Assembly.  I will be playing the role of Healthy Heather!  The assembly will give the students a chance to learn more about the 5210 movement and also the chance to hear from some of GNG’s very own scholar athletes.

Wednesday is an early release day.  Please plan accordingly.

Wednesday will be our school wide Wellness Fair.  The students will be given the chance to participate in several 5210 activities.  For us, we will start the morning by making some fruit infused water and eating some healthy fruit as a snack.   Then, Team Howard will be involved in two physical activities.   The activities are things like an obstacle course, karate, dance party, fly fishing, kickball, and more!  Finally students will have the chance to participate in screen time alternatives.  The choices are board games, dance parties, legos, arts and crafts, and drama!  The whole day is sure to be fun for all!

Homework packets are due Thursday.

Friday will be the first individualized spelling tests for our May spelling review.  Practice words were sent home today with your child.   Please let me know if you have any questions.

THIS WEEK IN....

ELA:   This week, we will be coming up with individualized student plans for spelling words.  First, students will practice any second grade words they still need a little more time to memorize.  Then, students will begin practicing some third grade words.  Each week, students will be assessed on ten words.  They will practice these words at school and they should be practicing them at home for homework as well.  Please refer to the paperwork that was sent home with your child today to find out what words they should be practicing.

We will also use this week to write the rough drafts of our animal reports.  Team Howard will be writing about what their animal looks like, what it eats, where it lives, and also some interesting facts about their animals.  Once our rough drafts are complete, we will edit and revise them to create our final draft books.  

Math:  We will continue with our flexible math groups.  Students are working on adding and subtracting within 100 using strategies based on place value.  They are also working on solving one and two step word problems with unknowns in all positions. 

Science:  We will begin studying different types of habitats.  We’ll use youtube videos like this one:

We’ll also use several books from the library.  After learning about these habitats, we’ll solve animal riddles to decide where different animals belong.