April 4-15

Hello Families! It was wonderful to see some of you for conferences! We are now in the home stretch of 2nd grade: 4th quarter. This will be a fun, but always busy quarter. Some of the fun things we will be studying and learning are communities, air and weather, reading and writing poetry, reading and writing fairy tales, multiplication and continued keyboarding practice. We have some big events coming up as well: Our Poetry Cafe for families to attend in the beginning of May, Readers' Theatre with a Fairy Tale theme in the beginning of June and a field trip to the Ye Olde School House on May 23rd (I can take 4 parent chaperones along with us. We will leave at 9:00 and return by 2:30pm. There is a $3 fee for chaperones. Let me know if you are interested!)

Spelling: Please let me know if you have any questions about the new spelling format where the kids choose their own 6 personal words. I think it will be great for the kids.

New Student: We are welcoming a new 2nd grader to our class on Monday. Her name is Drew and she just moved to Elm Grove from Atlanta. The kids are so excited!

Surprise Reader: Please check your email for the open surprise reader dates. Lat me know if you are interested in reading on one of those days.

Reminders: Please turn in the Brewer Game permission slip and fee ASAP. It was due on Thursday. Thank you!

Ask Your Child: What is happening in the class read aloud The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane?

What is a summary?

What did you publish for your Humor writing unit?

How do you keep a paper towel dry while submerging it under water?

March 15-April 1

Hello Families! We are back in the swing of things. I think we are all adjusted after the transition of teachers. We are working on RESPECT in our classroom right now. Ask your child what does respect look and sound like, what does it not look like and who are the respect reporters. We are celebrating when we see respectful behavior. We are working towards a popcorn party. Ask your child how we are going to earn the party.

Here is what we have been up to:

*In reading, we have been making inferences (using the pictures and/or text clues to understand the text better). This week we participated in character book clubs. The kids choose a character. Then read books with that character. As the kids read, they had to write down character traits and support their trait with clues from the text. So I could say that Clifford is caring because he helped a cat get down from a tree. The kids have had time every day to meet with their book club and share their ideas and read books.

*We are reading my favorite read aloud in 2nd grade: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. Ask your child who Edward is and what words can you use to describe him.

*We will begin to publish our humor pieces we have been writing. We will each make a Funnies page with our work. After our Humor unit, we will begin to write poetry (This is my favorite writing unit!) After spring break, we will host a Poetry Cafe that all families will be invited to attend!

*Our Measurement unit in math will be ending next week (Test is Wednesday). The Everyday Math program loves to expose kids to lots new concepts and math skills that the kids will not be expected to master. So if the concepts have seemed challenging, it is because they are; the kids are simply being introduced to the concepts (like liters and milliliters and conversions)

Class News:

*Knuffle Bunny Field Trip Mon March 21st- no need for a bag lunch, we will return in time for lunch at school

*Conferences Thurs Mar. 24 and Tues Mar. 29

*Visit the Book Fair:)

If It Could Talk...

"Is it my birthday?" by Sonia

"Help! I'm going bananas!" by Ethan S

"Thump, Thump, Thump! Come on! I'm tired people." by Taylor

"I'm so warm. Where is the AC?" By Justin

"Please don't break me again!" by Will

March 4-18

Hello Families! It was so nice to return to big smiling faces on Monday! The kids made my return so much easier with their hugs and smiles. I am glad to be back- it almost felt like I never left! I thank Mrs. Schessler for that!

This week we have been celebrating Dr. Seuss and finishing up some big units like Plants, Fractions, Nonfiction and Animal Reports (WOW did these turn out great!). We have also begun some new units like exploring the genre of Humor in writing, learning about making inferences in reading (using clues from the text and pictures to better understand the story/text). We have also begun...keyboarding. The kids seem to be excited about learning how to type. It is a hard skill that takes patience, a positive attitude and focus to learn. Please encourage your child to place their hands in the "online" position (fingers on home row keys) when they type at home. It is especially hard for kids this age to use the correct fingers as kids are use to "pecking" with two fingers. We also started learning about communities this week when our Junior Achievement representative, Kelly, came into our room to discuss what makes a community. The Junior Achievement program will teach the kids an interactive lesson about community every Friday for 6 weeks. It is a fabulous program that the kids seem to love.

Class News:

*Knuffle Bunny field trip permission slip is due on Friday March 11.

*Send a couple photos to school to be used to write captions in our Humor study

*Conferences are approaching- please turn in your green confirmation sheet if your child has been scheduled a conference