Last Blog of the Year!

Hello Families!
I just want to take this opportunity to tell you what a wonderful year I have had (thus far!) teaching your second graders. It was a delightful class that I will always remember. I did tell a few of them that when they see me in the halls next year, or come to Pod A to visit their first grade buddies, they will have to say hello to me- not pretend they don't me (It happens every year- so sad!). I will truly miss everyone!
If you did not hear the news, I am expecting baby #2 in December. I did promise that I would bring Baby Dahms in to see them in third grade.
Thank you to ALL parents for your support this year! It has been my honor and privilege to be partners will you in your child's education! Have a wonderful summer!

Here is how we will finish the school year:
Math: We will take our final test on Thursday June 3rd. It was a unit review chapter, but there were some new, more challenging concepts.
Reading/Writing: We will finish our study of Fairy Tales and Fables next week. The kids have planned out all the elements for their own fairy tales. We will finally begin to write our first drafts next week.
Spelling: Next week will be our last spelling test. It will be a review of all the second grade high frequency words each child missed this year. If your child didn't miss many/ any, then they will be able to create their own list of words, with my help, that they want to know how to spell.
Science: We will finish science with a study of wind. We'll make pin wheels, weather vanes and anemometers to measure wind speed and direction.
Social Studies: The communities turned out great! It was fun to see all the different buildings come together to create 3 different communities. I hope you got a chance to see the projects at the Fine Arts Fair. Thank you to parents for helping your child create their building.
Other News: We did have our Human Growth and Development talk today. We talked about male and female anatomy and functions as well as good touch vs bad touch. Please follow up with your child about this lesson.
Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

May 14-28

Hello Families! I hope all moms enjoyed Mother's Day- especially the gift and card your child made you! Our school days are flying by! There are only 4 short weeks left in the school year. I am starting to get a little sentimental- the end of the year is always bittersweet. Summer is wonderful, but that means letting my second graders go on to third grade!
Here is what we have been up to and what we have planned through the end of the year:
Important Dates:
Volunteer Breakfast-Fri. May 20 in cafeteria before school
Camp Minikani- Tues May 25- bag lunch
Human Growth and Development- Fri May 28th
Elm Grove City Hall- Tues June 1st 9:00-11:00
Field Day Fri June 4- AM
Reader's Theatre- Fri June 4 2:45 Families welcome
Math: We are finishing Unit 11- Multiplication and Division. Our test in on Monday May 17. We then start our final unit which is a review of all the concepts we learned, plus some more challenging problems.
Reading/Writing: As we ended our poetry unit, we dove right into Fairy Tales. We are immersed in fairy tales- reading them in the morning and then writing our own in the afternoon. It has been a fun unit so far!
Spelling: We took our spelling test on the two sounds c, g and th make today, ending our 2 week study of those words. We only have 3 more weeks of spelling left.
Science/SS: We have been watching WeatherBug.com everyday for the weather forecast. Our class meteorologist then charts the temperature high of the day and the weather condition. We have talked about the 3 types of clouds: cumulus, cirrus and stratus. In social studies, we have continued to talk about types of communities and their characteristics. It was fun for us to leave a suburban community and head to rural when we went to the Ye Olde Schoolhouse, then to an urban community when we went to First Stage.
*Our Poetry Cafe was a great success. Thank you to all parents who helped bring in treats and everyone who was able to come
*Our field trip to see Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day was great. The kids enjoyed comparing the book to the play.
*2nd grade teachers will present the district's Human Growth and Development curriculum on Fri. May 28. This lesson includes vocabulary instruction related to male and female body parts. Boys and girls will be separated during this teaching. Curriculum materials are available to review at our school library, the public library and at the Central Administrative offices. If you have any further questions about the content or the opt-out process, please contact me

April 30-May14

Reading/Writing: We have been working hard reading poems through an author's eyes and then writing our own poems in writer's workshop. Poem in My pocket was a great success. The kids practiced their favorite poem and then read them with great fluency to anyone who asked (teachers, 5th graders, other 2nd graders)
Math: We finished our unit on money and place value- our toughest yet. The tests went home on Thursday. We have started Unit 11 - we are revisiting and solidifying double digit subtraction. Please refer to the 11-3 Home link family for an example on how to do Everyday Math Trade First Subtraction. Your child may be able to teach you too!
Science: We have had fun experimenting with air. We have seen that air takes up space, air resistance slows down objects when falling and air pressure can cause pop ups and make water fountains. Ask your child about the water fountain, tug of war and parachutes.
Social Studies: We continue to study communities- types (urban, suburban, rural), needs and wants, goods and services, community workers. We finished our study of communities with the Junior Achievement program Mrs. Chase led. Thank you to her for all her hard work-we learned a lot and fun!
Upcoming Events:
Poetry Cafe- Fri May 7 2:45
Camp Minikani-Tues May 11
First Stage-Wed May 12
Black Light Show/Fine Arts Fair- After School Thurs May 27
Elm Grove Village Hall- Tues June 1st

April 16-April 30

Hello Families! I hope everyone had a wonderful spring break! We are in the final stretch of the school year: quarter 4. We are working hard to learn everything a second grader needs to know. We are even talking about what it is like to be third graders- good listeners, read the directions very carefully, double check our own work, edit, being more responsible.

Reading: We started exploring poetry in reading. We are learning how to read poems using the author's clues like line breaks and bold words. Poetry is a outlet to practice good fluency-expression, rate, intonation. This past week we also made inferences about poems- what is happening in the poem that the text and pictures only hint at. The kids have been reading a lot of poems. Next week they will choose their favorite and practice...practice...ppractice for an upcoming school day 2nd grade calls Poem in My Pocket Day. The students will have their well practiced favorite poem in their pocket and teachers and other students will ask them to read their poem. It is a great way to practice fluency and speaking skills.

Writing: We have started our Poetry Unit (Mrs. Dahms' favorite writing unit because she is always amazed at how creative and imaginative the poems are that her second graders write!)We have started to look at the world through a poet's eyes-observing details and seeings things a different way. I continue to encourage the kids to bring their memo pads home and back to school so that they can jot down any notes for poems.

Math: We are finishing up Unit 10 this coming week: Place Value and Money. We have been doing a lot of shopping and making change in math. We've also learned how to represent money in dollar and cent notation- anything under 10 cents is still a little tricky- $0.05.

Science: We just started our Air and Weather unit. We explored air and discovered that it takes up space, we can feel it and it can move objects. We also learned that it is one of the three forms of matter: gas. Ask your child how he/she experimented with air.

Social Studies: We continue to study communities. Our field trip to the Ye Olde School House was so fun! We noticed the change from suburban to rural on the way to West Bend. I think the kids were taken aback when the teacher scolded them right when they got off the bus. Each child got a name tag with the name of a real student who attended the school a long time ago. This was their name the rest of the day. Ask your child what their name was and what was their favorite part of the trip.

Other News:

• Conferences will be next week Monday and Wednesday.
• The Book fair will be open Mon-Thurs of next week.
• Poetry Cafe will be Fri May 5th at 2:45- Families are welcome

March 19-Spring Break

Hello Families! We have been busy in second grade. Here is what we have been up to and where we are going:
Reading: We have been working very hard thinking about the books we are reading. We have been inferring unknown words, the author's message and predicting events. We have just begun character book clubs on Friday. Every kid has a character they will about and infer character traits based on what they read. Ask your child which character they are studying.
Writing: We will be finishing our Author's as Mentors study and publishing stories right before spring break. We have studied authors like Angela Johnson, Donald Crews, Ezra Jack Keats and Cynthia Rylant. We have learned many ways to make our own writing better: using ellipses, comeback lines, lots of details, the time of day and sound words. I have been so excited about the amazing stories I have been reading this month!
Math: We are finishing up our measurement unit. The test is on Monday. We will jump right into Unit 10- studying money and place value. Keep working on facts at home. I have some good improvement over the last couple of weeks. As a reminder, proficiency is a score of 54 on both the addition and subtraction tests. *If anyone happens to have an old bath scale (non digital) that they are not using, please consider donating it to our classroom. We need it for some measurement and upcoming lessons. Thanks!
Social Studies: We began our final unit:Communities. We have started discussing needs vs wants and goods/services. We'll start discussing the three types of communities: urban, suburban, and rural. After spring break, your child will be asked to build a small building that would fit one of the communities. Look for a more detailed letter after spring break.
Other News:
*Our field trip to the Ye Olde School House is Mon. April 12- the first day after spring break. We will have a phone reminder sent to that everyone can remember their lunch and special attire.
*Mr. Saunders has been a joining our class for a half hour on Tuesdays to talk with us about friendship and peer interaction. This week he talked about what to do in times of conflict: walk away, reason, ignore. I have seen the kids applying the techniques at recess.
*We are short pencils- if anyone would like to donate plain yellow pencils to our classroom, it would be greatly appreciated!