Ms. Mottaz's Class: A Wonderful Week! :)

We have had a wonderful week! It has been so nice to have a full week the kiddos! I can't believe that February starts next week and we have SO much happening next month. Please read through this blog thoroughly and get all the dates and events on your calendars!

What's Coming Up?

February 2: It's the 102nd day of 2nd Grade! It's time to celebrate!! :) We have LOTS of fun activities planned for Thursday.

We will be sending home a 102nd Day in 2nd Grade Mystery Bag on Monday. We have been working on making inferences, taking evidence (clues) from a book and using schema from our heads to make a conclusion. These Mystery Bags will provide the kiddos a fun way to put their inferring skills to work.
If you would like to send your child in with 102 items for snack you can (example: 102 Goldfish crackers, 102 raisins, 102 pretzels, etc.).
Also, if your child would like to create a 102nd Day of 2nd Grade shirt or outfit, s/he can wear it on Thursday. Below are a few examples of 100 Day of School shirts that you could adapt to 102nd Day of 2nd Grade shirts. Please remember that this is completely optional and please make sure that the shirt/outfit isn't a distraction.

Image result for 100 day of school shirts

February 6: No School (Teacher Work Day)
February 13-16: Parent/Teacher Conference Week (be looking for conference time confirmation slips coming home in Friday Folders next week). Progress Reports (report cards) will be coming home this week, and also the Book Fair will be open daily in the Media Center.
February 13: Special Friends and Family Day with Specialist Students may bring a special friends, neighbor, grandparent, or other family to visit them during our daily special times. Our special times are 12:45-1:35. Visitors will get to visit P.E. first and then transition to Music. The book fair will be open all day - so if you would like to bring your child to book fair after specials you can.
February 14: Valentine's Day Party Our last party of the school year starts is from 1:45-2:30. Your child can bring Valentines to school. We have 18 students. Please have your child fill out the "From" but leave the "To" blank to help with the passing out process. If your child would like to bring in a Valentine's Day box to collect his/her Valentines that is fine, but this is optional. :) More specific information about the party will be coming out later.
February 17 & 20: No School (Parent/Teacher Conference & President's Day)
February 24: School Spirt Pajama Day

Year Book Order Forms

Coming home in your child's Friday Folder is a RBE Yearbook order form. If you would like to order a yearbook, please return the order form and money (yearbooks cost $7) to school by February 28.

Six Flags Read to Succeed

A Student Reading Log went home with your child at the beginning of January for the Six Flags Read to Succeed program. Your child must log 6 hours (360 minutes) and return the form to Mrs. McKinzie by February 28.

Read Week!

This year's Read Week will be March 6-10. Read Week is always one of my favorite weeks of school. During this week, the whole school is focusing on the love of reading. We will have Celebrity Readers coming to our school on Friday, March 10, who will read to us, and then Guest/Mystery Readers coming our classroom throughout the week. We will be sending out a Sign-Up Genius soon with time slots so that you, family, friends, etc. can sign-up to come in & read to us. Also, we will have a special Munch & Read Lunch on Tuesday, March 7. You can come to school to eat lunch and read with your child. Munch & Read Lunch will be from 11:00-11:45. I hope that you can make it! :)

We have worked so hard this week! Check out everything that we have done & what we will be up to next week!

Math

This week, we continued working on 2 and 3-digit addition problems. The students learned how to break apart a 3-digit addition problem. They also have learned how to regroup with 2 and 3-digit addition problems, then check the 2-digit problems on a hundreds chart.

Next week, they will review 2 and 3-digit addition, then use these skills to solve word problems. The current plan is to have our post-test next Friday, February 3.

Spelling

This week, we worked on identifying the sound made by -ed at the end of the word. It can make a /d/, /t/ or /id/ sound.

Next week, we will continue working on adding -ed to the end of a word. We will focus on CVVC words and CVC words and identifying whether they simply add -ed or double the final consonant and add -ed. Next week's words are snapped, dripped, zipped, stirred, chopped, shouted, cheered, spoiled, pointed, chained.

Reading

This week, the students worked to identify the main idea of an article, as well as the main idea of a paragraph. We discussed that the main idea is what the article or paragraph is mostly about or what the author is mostly talking about. The students used a tyrannosaurus-rex and an elephant article to identify main idea.

Next week, we will be using the same articles and identifying details to support each main idea. I always tell the kids the details are the legs to a table and the main idea is the table top. Your details support your main idea, like the legs support table.

Writing

This week, the students worked all their main idea paragraphs. Almost all the students are finished with their rough drafts! :) We talked about making our writing "double thumbs up" writing which means they included all the necessary parts of their paragraph, but then added a little extra to make it more enjoyable for the reader. The students worked very hard on their writing, I can wait to share it at conferences.

Next week, the students will edit and revise their writing using CUPS and ARMS. CUPS is used for editing and ARMS is used for revising. Once they have edited and revised, they will start publishing.

Science

This week, students read a book called Forces of Water and we did a mini experiment to show how water poured on soil at a faster rate could cause a flood, but over time, that water will absorb into the soil. We also talked about the different effects of floods.

Next week, we will do an experiment that shows how glaciers can cause the land to change.

Guest Readers/Presenters
We had a few guest readers/presenters today! This morning, Olivia showed off her art binder this morning & a few kiddos today wanted to try out her art techniques during our morning recess. Lexi and Hazel both read their own books based on one of their favorite books. Lexi wrote a book based on Piggie & Elephant and Hazel wrote a book based on Winter According to Humphrey. Lexi's grandparents were also visiting for the weekend and so her grandmother read to us an I Wonder book and a few poems.