Wednesday, February 20th, 2013

Good snowy afternoon!

I apologize for not getting this to you yesterday. Better late than never :) Especially since there is so much important information in this week's addition.

This week's IA: Art
Next week's IA: Music

We have been busy preparing for our Voyage the last couple of days. Today, we played a game called "Airport." This game gave us a chance to practice collaboration, empathy, and trust. One student was the pilot while another student, the air traffic controller, guided the "blind" pilot down the runway using only verbal cues. After we all had a chance to participate, we talked about how we can use what we learned from this experience in the classroom and on our Voyage next week. 

Today, we also went over our gear list and talked about packing. I will be out on Monday and Tuesday at a Writing Conference. So, students will not bring their gear until next Wednesday morning. I have told the students that I am trusting that they will make sure they have packed all their gear and won't be missing any essential items. Please make sure to have their daypacks packed with a sack lunch and 2-4 snacks, packed separate from their lunch, labeled with their names. On Wednesday morning, students will leave their duffel bags and other gear outside by our bus. There will be 3 buses in the same area, as other grade are leaving the same day. Please be sure to find the sign with 2nd grade on it, and place your child's gear by the correct bus. Students should come into school with their daypacks. Plan on arriving at the normal time on Wednesday, there is no need to be early. If you have ANY questions about gear, please don't hesitate to email me. I will resend the gear list today as well. 

*In addition to the gear that is on the packing list, please write a note to your child for them to read on Wednesday night before they go to bed. These little reminders from home are a wonder to help with homesickness. You can tuck these letters in their gear bags. 

Monday, February 11th, 2013

Hello!

*Our Crew will be sharing our community poems and spirit read at All School Meeting this Wednesday morning at 9am. We would love for you to be a part of the audience, if you are able to attend!

*Our Valentine's Day Party is this Thursday at 3pm. Please have your child only put his or her name on the valentine cards in the "From" section and leave the "To" section blank. This makes passing out valentines much easier. Students will need to bring in a valentine's box on Thursday.

This week's IA: PE
Next week's IA: Art

On Friday, we created our Crew Life is Art Project that will be available during the auction at Life is Art on Saturday, March 16th.

Reader's Workshop
As we get further into 2nd grade, we will focus on supporting our thinking with examples from the text. This evidence will be visible in our Reading Journals. We are currently learning how to write complete sentences and include good conventions (capitals and end marks) in our writing during Reader's Workshop as well. We're learning how to begin our sentences with words like, "I think, I wonder, I infer, I predict..."

Writer's Workshop
Now that we've finished up our poetry genre study, we will begin learning about our next genre study, non-fiction. We will read many different examples of non-fiction text before we begin thinking about how to compose our own non-fiction piece. This will connect very well with our new science expedition, which we are also beginning soon.

Math
Our new unit is all about patterns and rules in numbers. We will review skip counting as well as continue to work on differences between 2-digit numbers. In this unit, we will also learn how to analyze data using mean, median, and mode.

Expedition

Thank you so much for supporting us last week at our Poetry Reading Night! What a wonderful evening we had. Before we launch our science expedition, we will be learning about personal financial literacy. During this brief study, we will learn about short and long term goals, as well as decisions that must be made with finances.

Monday, February 4th, 2013

Hello there!

I hope everyone got out and enjoyed the beautiful weather last weekend. I enjoyed a nice long, though brisk, thanks to the wind, walk on Saturday.

This week's IA: Music
Next week's IA: PE

*Ms. Diana is wondering if anyone can let her borrow a costume police hat for next week. She said a child's costume hat would be perfect. Please let me know if you might be able to help her out with that.

*Our Poetry Reading Night is this Thursday, 2/7, at 6pm. I am hoping that all students and their families will be able to attend. If you have any questions, please let me know. You will be receiving a sign-up genius in the next day or two for that evening. Our Crew will need drinks, plates, and napkins for that night. Also, if anyone has plastic table cloths we can borrow, that would be great! I will need 5 of them. Your children have worked so hard on their poetry about community, I can't wait for you to hear all of their hard work!

Last week during All School Meeting, Mr. Doug hosted our annual Cup Stacking Tournament. I'm very proud to announce that our very own Keanan won the tournament!! He beat every other student in the tournament. Way to go, Keanan! In class, we talked about how this proves how much perseverance pays off!