Final Week of School

Curriculum News

Our final week of school for the 2014-2015 school year has arrived.  It is so hard to believe that the school year is over!  We have had a wonderful school year and have had so much fun exploring and learning new things.  During our final week, we will be doing a lot of review as well as wrapping up our school year with some fun activities!  Our field day festivities will be on Wednesday, May 27th in the morning followed by 2 early dismissal days at 2:00.

Because of it being the final week, there will not be a spelling test but we will be practicing some other important words for second graders/almost third graders to know during our “Word Work” time in the morning.  I personally want to thank everyone for helping to make this school year such a success.  Next week I will be posting some pictures of some of the last week of school festivities!  There will also be some websites posted that might help your child stay one top of some of the valuable skills that they recently learned in second grade!

Hope that everyone has a wonderful and safe summer!

Mrs. Johnson

Week of May 18th-22nd

Curriculum News

As the school year begins to come to a close, we are starting to review some very important concepts…..especially during our Math instruction time.  We will be reviewing things such as telling time, counting money, and go over basic addition and subtraction facts.  With these key skills being vital to the future success of our students, I also encourage everyone to spend time reviewing these things at home over the summer.  During our Literacy Block we will continue with our theme of “Healthy Living” by focusing specifically on the 5 Food Groups and taking care of ourselves.  This will allow us to look at several stories and articles that focus on the benefits of eating a healthy diet.  During social studies we will be looking at a variety of maps and practice various map skills.  We will also be wrapping up the introduction phase of cursive letters and will be putting this skill to use as we attempt to do some of our assignments in cursive handwriting!  This is also something that should be revisited over the summer to help students be better prepared for third grade!

Spelling Words

thankful             cheerful           hopeful              useful               forgetful             painful            joyful             careful         helpful       connect                 self                  text                  world                meaning

Challenge

grateful                thoughtful

Upcoming Events

This next week should be pretty quiet without too many “extra activities” taking place.  This will be an excellent opportunity to focus on several skills which need to be highlighted and reemphasized as we wrap up the school year!

Week of May 11th-15th

Curriculum News

With a whirlwind of fun activities this past week, we find ourselves behind once again with our weekly lesson plans.  That is ok, though, because I am quite sure that a good time was had by everyone on our field trip!  Because of our extra activities, we will be continuing our study of reading and discussing non-fiction literature and will turn our attention to some stories that discuss the topic of “Taking Care of Ourselves”.  This will just be an elaboration of the unit that Miss. Carr from the U of I Extension has been working on with them for a good part of the school year.  Our writing time will be spent working on some personal narratives from our experiences in 2nd grade.  We will also be wrapping up our cursive handwriting introduction and will be putting it to use on several assignments as we wrap up the school year!  This next week will also allow us to study the topic of fractions more closely during our math time.  Fractions are something that will be used for the rest of their life and we will be looking at real world applications during this time as well!

Spelling Words

fastest         slowest        biggest           shortest         loudest         softest         smartest       context        brightest        bravest        result           valid            select                revise

Challenge Words-      funniest           silliest

Thank You!

First of all I would like to personally thank everyone for the kind words and thoughtful gifts during “Teacher Appreciation” week!  It is so nice of you to think of me and to appreciate the work that all teachers do throughout the year!  It wouldn’t be possible, however, without the encouragement provided by you to make this a successful school year!

Have a good weekend!

Week of May 4th-8th

This past week was filled with many fun-filled activities that gave students the opportunity to learn about a variety of very worthwhile things!  Ask your child what they remember about Lei Day.  Hopefully they can give you a few bits of information about our beautiful 50th state!  We will be putting their knowledge of Hawaii and the notes that they took over the course of a few days to use as we compose informational paragraphs about Hawaii to help them remember our special celebration during Lei Day!

Curriculum

This upcoming week, we will truly get an opportunity to explore the inside of seeds and the topic of plants in general during both our literacy block time and our science time in the afternoon.  We will also be using the “Magic School Bus” series to help us review some of the different systems in our body introduced by Miss. Sarah Carr from the U of I Extension Office.  During our Math time, we will be working on fractions so that students have a basic understanding of them and are prepared for third grade.

Spelling Words

painter       washer      dryer         flyer       server        worker        singer       teacher        speaker        thinker      dreamer          sketch        problem        check

Challenge:       reason            justify

Upcoming Events:  Thursday, May 7th, will be our whole-school field trip to a Normal Cornbelters Baseball Game.  This is a day that does depend on the weather.  There will be a rain date later this month if this Thursday gets rained out.  It will be an all day event in which the Cornbelters will have numerous activities to take part in along with enjoying a beautiful day at a baseball park.  There will be a letter sent out next week with more detailed information!