Happy Wednesday!

We have had a great week so far!!  It has been so great to be able to talk with everyone this week during our conference - please know that if you have any questions that come up between now & the end of the year to let me know! :)  I cannot believe that we are already a two-thirds of the way finished with our 2nd grade year together.

As a reminder, I will not be sending home Friday Folders tomorrow due to speaking with everyone this week at conferences & being a short week - plus a long weekend (no school on Friday or Monday).

Special Sharers

Aubrey sharing her Piggie & Elephant book that she created.

Lexi sharing her rabbit cage that she made for her stuffed rabbit.

Valentine's Day Party
Yesterday, we had a great Valentine's Day party!!  The kiddos enjoyed making "heart attacks" (writing something special to either Mr. Jim-our custodian, the secretaries in the office, Mr. Smith or Mrs. Carey) then they went & delivered their "heart attacks" by decorating their office/classroom door.  They had lots of fun with this  I even received a "heart attack" from each of the kiddos and these are displayed in the back of the classroom!  We enjoyed some sweet sugar cookies, creative fruit kabobs, cheese sticks & popcorn.  They loved passing out their Valentines & the of course seeing everything that they got in their bag or box!  Thank you for everyone who sent in supplies to make our party a success!!

Diggin' in Trash

Your student may have come home on yesterday and said we made them dig in the trash, which is some what true.  :)  We had bags of clean trash for them to dig through and infer about the family/location the trash came from.  They had to support their inferences with evidence from the trash and their schema.  It was funny to see which pieces of trash stood out to them.

Which Hershey Kiss tastes the best?

Today, we taste test of Hershey's Kisses  that will be used with our opinion writing.  The students enjoyed most of the flavors.  :)  Ask your student which was their favorite.  We had them write down things they liked and didn't like about the flavors.

Pizza Party

We will have our 2nd Trimester Pizza Party next Friday, February 24.  Students will each get 2 slices of pizza, a healthy side and a dessert.  Students may bring in a drink if they would like.  No larger than 20 ounces and plastic or aluminum only, no glass.  :)

Next Week

Math

• Next week, we will continue working on subtraction with and without regrouping.  The students have learned how to use tens frames, hundreds charts, number lines and the traditional algorithm for subtracting.  Please continue to practice subtraction facts at home so they know them quick and fast when solving 2 and 3-digit subtraction problems.  

Hundreds Chart for 36-24

Circle the 36, go up 2 tens (for 20) and cross them out, then count back 4 (from the ones place of 24) crossing them out as you go and circle the 4th number, that is our answer.

Tens Frame for 36-24

Draw 4 tens frames and fill in 3 of them all the way with dots, then on the 4th tens frame fill in 6 spaces.  Cross out the 4 ones to start, then cross out 2 full tens frames (for the 20).  You are left with one full tens frame and 2 extras, so the answer is 12.  

Traditional Algorithm with Regrouping

Reading

• This week, we have started learning to make inferences.  Inferences are made using schema (background knowledge) and clues from the text.  We practiced this by digging in the trash that has pictures above.  We also had mystery bags today where the students had to infer what was in the bag based on the clues.  They were all stumped by a clothespin.  :)
• Next week, we will continue working on inferences using short passages and finding evidence within the text.

Writing

• We have started our opinion writing unit.  We did a continuum on Monday where they had to choose between two items (types of pizza, cookies, colors, etc) and then explain why the one they chose was better.  Today, we taste tested Hershey's Kisses (pictures above) and tomorrow they will write an opinion pieces about their favorite flavor using evidence from our taste test.  The Dark Chocolate ones were the least favorite for most students.  :)  After we finished the Hershey's Kiss opinion, they will write an opinion about ice cream flavors (we like food) and then we will use our notes from reading about places to live and write an opinion piece about the best place to live.  

Social Studies

• We are continuing to research different places to live.  The students are using their note taking skills learned in reading to keep their information organized.  They will use this information to write an opinion piece in the coming weeks.  

Science

• February 28 we will be going to the Planetarium at Rock Bridge High School.  They will get to watch a short movie and then get to see the stars.  We will be gone from approximately 9:30-10:30.