Because of the fact that I will not be at school on Wednesday, Apr. 1st I am posting a few important items for the week that we return from Easter break.  There is no school on Monday, April 6th for the last day of break but once we return we will be jumping right back into the swing of things!

Curriculum

During our literacy block in the morning we will be taking a look at the children’s classic tale of Peter and the Wolf.  This will allow us to look at elements of classic folktales more closely as well as give us an opportunity to take a glimpse into the wonderful world of music.  We will also continue with our practice of the uppercase cursive letters.  Before you know it we will be writing a lot of things using our newly acquired skill!  Telling time will continue to be our focus during math time.  We still have so much to cover and so little time to do so!

Spelling Words

bolt            jolt        colt         felt        belt        welt        built        stilt         wilt         melt         salt          face          set          tally

Challenge Words:           vertices                edge

There will be a note going home later that will explain in greater detail, however, the 2nd grade class will be making our annual trip to the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Lincoln on April 16th.  We will be leaving the Emden building around 11:40 and returning around 3:00 that day.  It is always a wonderful event put on that gives second graders across Logan county the opportunity to better understand how our community’s hospital works and hopefully makes them feel more at ease if they ever have to make an unplanned visit.

Enjoy your Easter/Spring break everyone!

Mrs. Johnson

Curriculum

Because of the short week, we will not be having a spelling test.  During our “Word Work” time we will be practicing some Spring/Easter words but students will not be tested on them.  During our math time, we will be focusing on telling time.  Spring will also be the theme during our Literacy time as we take a look at several important reading skills while also taking a look at some Easter/Spring stories.

Kindness Project

As we continue to take a look at the importance of practicing kindness both in and out of our school day, our “Kindness Quilt” is growing on the wall.  As soon as this section of our quilt is complete I will post a picture of it to show off our students’ kind deeds!  They have been very excited about taking part in this important project!

Reminders

Our Spring/Easter break is Thursday, April 2nd-April 6th.  School resumes on Tuesday, April 7th.  Hope that everyone has a wonderful and blessed Easter!

Curriculum

This next week will give us the opportunity to wrap up some of our units before our spring break begins.  During our Literacy Block in the morning we will wrap up our author study of Tomie DePaola.  With all of the extra things taking place this week, we had to cut some of our discussion time short so we will continue to explore more of his books this upcoming week.  We will also be wrapping up our unit in math of measuring length but will be moving on to “Telling Time” towards the end of the week.  This is a very important topic that we will be spending a lot of time on over the next several weeks.  Weather will be another topic that we will be wrapping up this week and next week.  There will be so much to cover after spring break!

Spelling Words

soft         lift         shift       drift         gift          left         raft        craft         loft       swift        sift          apart           form       arrange

Challenge   congruent         geometric

Reminders

There will be an early dismissal on Wednesday, March 26th at 11:30.  Also, keep watching the Lincoln Courier for our “What Makes Me Smile” turn on the front of the newspaper.  They told me that it should be in there around the end of March and the beginning of April!!!

With all the negativity that we seem to hear every day, we have decided to kick off a “Kindness Project” in the second grade classroom!  Just this morning we shared a story that got us thinking of ways to show kindness to others and the importance of simple, small gestures of kindness.  We also listened to a story called”The Kindness Quilt”  that demonstrated how we are going to recognize out second grade students who show “Random Acts of Kindness”.  There is a link below that shows that same story read aloud.  Tonight students will be asked to complete one piece of out quilt by writing and illustrating one way that they showed kindness at home.  This is their official homework assignment and will be displayed in the hallway as a start for our own Kindness Quilt in the hallway!

Curriculum News:

This upcoming week will allow us the opportunity to learn about one of my favorite children’s authors, Tomie DePaola.  He has such a fun and whimsical style of writing that I am certain all second grade students will enjoy love the experience of exploring many of his books!  During our math time we will continue to explore measurement, including perimeter and area.  We will also be continuing our exploration of weather during our science time!

Spelling Words:

drink       think       sink      stink       wink        bank        drank        honk        blank         shrink     sphere      cube       prism      blink

Challenge:        pyramid            rectangular

Reminders:

Skating continues during PE.  Second grade will be skating Tuesday and Thursday of next week and also Monday and Tuesday the following week.

Family Reading Night!

Thursday March 19th is the date of our district’s Family Reading Night Event.  It will be from 6:30-8:00 in the gym at our elementary building.  We will be having a very special guest author who will be here sharing her love and excitement towards reading.  There will be many fun-filled activities and the Scholastic Book Fair will also be in full swing!  This should be a very fun evening!  Hope that many of you will be able to make it!

Enjoy the beautiful spring-like weather!

Mrs. Johnson

Curriculum News

We will simply be continuing on with several topics from last week, including folktales from around the world because of the extremely short week that we are currently wrapping up.  During our math time we will be starting our discussion of measuring and will need to make sure that everyone has a ruler at school so please check with your child to be sure that they still have one that is usable in their desk.

Spelling Words

back         stack       pack        dock       lock       quack       sack       snack       quick       neck       check      circle      square       plane

Challenge:     rectangle       triangle

While most students are showing that they can be responsible with their work, we still seem to be having several problems with people who are forgetting to get their work home or simply showing up without their work.  When this happens, students lose their recess and have to work on the missing assignment.  I am going to need to be a bit more rigid by having no student work accepted (unless they have been absent) after 2 days.  It will simply be a “zero” in the gradebook.  We need to develop and encourage responsibility at this level to help them prepare for their future!  Your help with this matter is greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Mrs. Johnson

In spite of the shorter week, we will still attempt to have a spelling test on Friday.  We will spend some extra time in class practicing the words but need to keep plugging away at our 2nd grade list of words.  The test will count as a normal grade in spelling versus being weighted in the grade book.

Thank you!

Mrs. Johnson