Week of Feb. 16th-20th

Curriculum News

This past week was fun as we studied the topic of chocolate and how it is made.  We were also able to continue our discussion of the 7 Continents by learning a bit about the “Land Down Under”-Australia.  This next week we will wrap up the continents as we look at the cold and desolate continent of Antarctica.  We will also be working on writing a paragraph about our favorite food and explain why we have picked that particular plate as our favorite.  During Math we will be continuing our study of counting money and get more time practicing this very important skill!  During our literacy time we will start to take a look at fables and folktales from around the world.  So much to study with so little time!

Spelling Words

boxes         foxes       washes       dishes        brushes       rushes         bushes           wishes          dashes          part         couches        whole         fair         share

Challenge-         fraction          churches

Reminders-  The Valentine’s Day party is tomorrow morning at 10:00!  Also, there is no school on Monday because of Presidents Day!

Week of Feb. 9th-13th

Curriculum News

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I thought that we could shift our focus during our literacy time away from our discussion of a “Journey to Freedom” to that of chocolate!  Why not……that is one of the reasons why we all love Valentine’s Day anyways!  During this time we will be learning about “making predictions”, “making inferences”, and several other important skill sets all while learning about chocolate and reading a fun chapter book called “Chocolate Fever”.  It will be a fun and interesting week to say the least!

Also, our official study of counting money will begin.  There was a note sent home on Thursday, Feb. 5th asking for your help by sending a few coins with your child to school so that we can practice using some real coins!  Please try to send that on Monday or Tuesday of this week!  I am also asking for your help with assembling some Valentine Card boxes.  If each child could have a small (cereal, shoe, or tissue) box here by Tuesday, February 11th that would greatly help!  Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

Spelling   still       learn       should       world        hush          slush          dash       wash       wish         dish        coin        bill        cent          money

Challenge Words-        America                      dollar

Announcements/Reminders

There is an early dismissal Friday, February 13th at 11:30, with the Valentine’s Day party that morning at 10:00.  Also,  there is no school on Monday, February 16th because of President’s Day!

Week of Feb.2nd-6th

Curriculum News:

Another full week of school and so many things to cover and explore.  This next week will give us the opportunity to begin some basic geometry.  We will be looking at shapes and begin our exploration of fractions.  During our Social Studies time we will continue to learn about the 7 Continents of the world as we take a closer look at Africa.  During our morning literacy block, we will continue to study African American’s “Journey to Freedom” as we look at the life of Dr. Martin Luther King and a Black History Timeline.

Spelling Words:       letter         mother          group        found        study         much         such        church          search          march          starch       repeat             subtract         divide

 Challenge Words:             answer          remainder

Announcements & Reminders:  Carnation order forms need to be turned in by Tuesday, Feb. 3rd.  Second Grade book orders are due Friday, February 6th.  Also, our class Valentine’s Day party will be on Friday February 13th from 10:00 – 11:00 in the morning.  We do have an early dismissal that day so we might as well enjoy our morning by celebrating this fun-filled holiday!

Week of January 26th-30th

Curriculum

As we wind up the month of January, we will also be wrapping up our unit of “Journey to Freedom” during our morning literacy block.  We will be taking a close look at the story of a boy who escaped from slavery using a very interesting means of transportation.  We will also explore more closely  the “Underground Railroad” and many of the brave conductors who helped slaves on their long journey to freedom.  In Math, we will continue to work on 3-digit subtraction and start our study of shapes and fractions.  Miss Carr from the University of Illinois Extension Office will be returning on Monday to continue our study of healthy eating choices and the importance of exercise!  Students are really excited about all of the valuable information that they are gaining from each of her visits!

Spelling Words

away         animal        house          point       page         desk           mask         task         ask          tusk             disk          events           equal         array

Challenge Words:        process             multiply

*New Show & Tell calendars will be coming out next week!  Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend

Week of January 19th-23rd

Reminders:  There is no school because of Martin Luther King Day on Monday, January 19th and there is a 2:00 dismissal on Wednesday, January 21st!

With those important bits of information out of the way, there are now many important things to announce.  Second graders have been learning many exciting new things this week!  Our reading unit called “Journey to Freedom” began with a lot of enthusiasm towards our person of interest- Mr. Abraham Lincoln.  Students were very inquisitive and eager to learn more throughout this entire week!  It is always wonderful to see such excitement towards learning!  Ask your child to give you 3 facts that they have learned about Mr. Lincoln and I am quite certain they will give you many more!  Also, our exploration of the 7 Continents has continued with our discussion of South America.  Another exciting piece of news is that our new classroom rug has arrived, thanks to some very generous donors and the school helping out to cover the remainder of the cost!  We are very excited and appreciative of this new addition to our classroom!!!

Curriculum News:  This next week we will continue our discussion of the “Journey to Freedom” by learning about the Underground Railroad and Ms. Harriet Tubman.  Our study of the 7 Continents will take us across the ocean to the continent of Europe.  We will also be working on writing some narrative stories about our experiences during this winter season!  So much to cover with so little time!

Spelling Words:   change         off       play         spell        air       bend       send       mind      offend       sand          land         draw       label          steps

Challenge Words:        object           feature

*Enjoy the 3 day weekend everyone!

Week of Jan. 12th-16th

With last week being a bit crazy because of bad weather, we will be spending a lot of time this next week playing catch-up.  Many things planned last week will actually be covered this upcoming week including the spelling words.  Below are the words that will be used for our spelling test.

try         kind          hand         picture         again          fast           post          last          blast         cast          oral          data           record           science

Challenge:  magnify      contrast

Curriculum:  Beyond that, we will begin our Journey to Freedom unit during our Literacy Block.  This will allow us to learn a lot about Mr. Abraham Lincoln during the upcoming week of school.  Students will better understand the turmoil that our country went through during this period of our country’s history and in turn will more clearly see why President Lincoln is one of our most honored presidents.  During our social studies time we will continue our study of the seven continents by looking more closely at South America.  Science will allow us the opportunity to take a closer look at the water cycle and why we need to do everything possible to conserve our water supply.

Stay warm everyone and hopefully we will have a full week of school to accomplish all of these goals……and more!!!

Week of Jan. 6th-9th

First of all, I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Hope that you enjoy your time with family and friends over the holiday season!  It is so hard to believe that half of the school year has already passed us by.  As a teacher, this is when I always start to panic as I realize that I only have about 5 more months with these students to help prepare them for their next level of education!  We still need to learn all of our cursive letters, the important topics of telling time and counting money, work on a variety of writing formats, and most importantly continue to develop that very valuable love of reading!  Keep reading everyone……even over Christmas break!

Spelling Words for the first week of January:

try         kind          hand         picture         again          fast           post          last          blast         cast          oral          data           record           science

Challenge:  magnify      contrast

Reminder:  School resumes for students on Tuesday, January 6th!

Week of December 15th-19th

Curriculum

Although this week’s curriculum which will be covered is quite sparse, we will still find time to explore and practice many of the recent skills newly acquired.  This includes further instruction and practice with lower case cursive letters.  During our Literacy Block we will read several festive Christmas stories and even look at the classic Charles Dickens’ story “The Christmas Carol”.  Hopefully this will help get us all in the Christmas spirit!  Our math time will allow us to look at some 3-digit addition problems.  Hopefully we will also begin our exploration of the water cycle which we ran out of time for this last week!

Because of all of the distractions and extra activities this week, there will be no spelling test this week!  We will, however, be practicing some Christmas/ Holiday words during our “Word Work” time in class.

Reminders/Announcements

The elementary Christmas program is tonight!  We always look forward to this beautiful evening filled with Christmas spirit.  Students are asked to be there at around 6:15 with the show beginning at 6:30.

There will be a all-school field trip to Mason City on the morning of Wednesday, December 17th.  We will be leaving right away in the morning and will return in time for lunch back at school.

There is a 2:00 dismissal on both Thursday and Friday of next week as well.

Hope that everyone has a blessed and wonderful Christmas and holiday season!  

Week of December 8th-12th

Curriculum

As we get closer to our Christmas break, it seems like we have less and less time to focus on our curriculum and school work!  Oh well, Christmas is such a joyous time that we might as well give in and start celebrating.  As we begin our “Seven Continent Adventure” we will start with our home continent-North America and spend some time learning about the culture and land found in our neighboring country of Mexico.  Since we are quickly approaching the holidays, we will also discuss how they celebrate Christmas and other holidays in this fascinating Latin American country!  During our Math time we will be focusing on counting up to 1,000 and the corresponding place values used in these larger numbers.  We will also be talking about writing numbers in standard form, expanded form, and number words.  Reading will allow us to continue to explore the topic of bridges and the various styles that are found around the world.  This will lead into a discussion of “Building Bridges” among people as we enjoy several books that explore those topics!  Science will allow us to begin our exploration of the water cycle, which you can see by looking at the spelling words given below!

Spelling Words:    ask            went         men         read         need         short       core        sport       report      port       escort           solid        liquid         gas

Challenge:      question        cycle

Reminder

The elementary Christmas program will be Friday, December 12th in the high school gym.  It begins at 6:30 but students are asked to be there around 6:15 and will meet with their teachers in the cafeteria!  This is always such a fun time of year!

Hope everyone has a fantastic week!