Happy Monday!

I heard about LOTS of fun that happened over the weekend & I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend!  I just wanted to send out a quick blog post to tell/remind you a about a few things.

1. Coming home with your child today is his/her 102nd Day in 2nd Grade Mystery Bag.  Your child will need to put items in the bag & then write 3 clues for these items.  Your child can bring in the bag with the items on Thursday (or earlier if s/he would like).  It will take a few days for everyone to be able to share their Mystery Bag. 
2. Your child also received a voucher for the MU wrestling match this Saturday.
3. This week's spelling words are working on past tense.  If a word is a CVC word you must double the last letter & add -ed.  If a word is a VVC or a VCC word then you just add the -ed.  Our words this week are: snapped, dripped, zipped, stirred, chopped, shouted, cheered, spoiled, pointed & chained.

Have a great evening!

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.

• 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.

  

We definitely had a great and busy week.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend & try to stay warm!! :)

Thursday's Thoughts

Wow!! We have had a great week so far & I am completely looking forward to a fantastic Friday!  I have a few reminders below.

Peggy Jean Fundraiser
 It has been super cold day and a warm & delicious pie will make it better!  Even better is that RBE will receive 20% of each pie purchase.  Remember to present the flyer below when you purchase your pie!

Winter Attire

Brrrr!!!!  Yesterday & today  definitely showed us that it is still winter.  A wind chill of 19 degrees during our morning recess.  Please make sure that you are sending a winter coat, gloves, hats, scarves, etc. with your child to school.  It is too cold to not have the appropriate winter attire when playing outside at recess.

Valentine's Day Party

A few questions have come up about Valentines Day.  I will be passing along more information about the party at a later date, but here are the answers to a few questions that have been asked:

• Yes, we will be exchanging Valentines.  We will have 18 students in our class in February (we  have a new student starting next week!).  It is easier when passing out Valentines to NOT fill out the To: and only fill out the From:.  This allows the students to quickly pass out Valentines & not have to read names, find the appropriate Valentine box/bag & then put the Valentine inside.
• In class, we will be decorating a bag to collect our Valentines in.  If your child would like to make a Valentine's Day box, bag, etc. at home s/he is more than welcome to bring it in to collect Valentines, but please know that this is optional.
• Our Valentine's Day Party is February 14 (1:45-2:30).  Parents are more than welcome to come!

Parent Teacher Conference Request Form

I have recieved almost every family's request form for Parent/Teacher Conferences.  If your child has not returned his/her form to me I sent home another copy with your child.  You can also find the form here.  Please fill out & return tomorrow (or send me an email) because I have our conference scheduling meeting next week.  Thank you!

Happy Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!  We had a wonderful day today and had a special raptor presentation - checkout below what we learned.  Keep reading to find out some other important information & a few reminders! :)

Raptors

• Missouri Department of Conservation came today and gave a presentation on raptors.  The students loved it!  The students learned the difference between diurnal and nocturnal animals.  Some of the raptors are diurnal and others were nocturnal.  Ask your kiddo what diurnal means or which raptors are diurnal!  There are 19 different species of raptors in Missouri.  They learned about the different reasons birds weigh so little.  The main reasons are they have hollow bones and the feathers have very little weight to them.  A hawk weighs about 2 1/2 pounds and can actually only life half its body weight.  They also told the kids that it is illegal to have any bird parts (feathers, bones, etc) without a proper permit.  They brought in 3 different raptors for the students to see.  Havoc was a juvenile red tailed hawk.  Autumn was an adult red tailed hawk.  Mr. Tiggs was a 2 year old kestral.  There are a few pictures below and the rest can be found here.

  

Havoc

Autumn

Mr. Tiggs

Parent/Teacher Conference Request Form

•  If you have not returned your child's Parent/Teacher Conference Request form, please do so by Friday.  We will be scheduling conferences next week and will try to give everyone a time that fits in their schedule.

Permission Slip for Ms. Hackmann

•  In your student's homework folder is a permission slip from Ms. Hackmann.  The permission slip allows her to use student samples without your name.  Please fill out the form with the correct box checked at the bottom (I DO or I DO NOT give permission) and return them to school.  On the permission slip it asks for her name and Education Preparation Program and State.  It is listed below
• Student Teacher's Name: Brittany Hackmann
• Student Teacher's Educator Preparation Program and State: University of Missouri-Columbia; Missouri

Decade Day

 

Friday is Decade Day at school.  If your student would like to participate, they can dress as their favorite decade.  Please remember, their outfit needs to not be distracting and also appropriate for school.  It's always fun to see all the school spirit!

Have a fabulous day!

A Fantastic Friday

This has been a great week of school & I am looking forward to a few full weeks of school with the kiddos!

What's Happening in 2nd Grade:

• Math: We have continued our addition unit this week.  We have practiced adding 2-digit plus a 2-digit number with regrouping (carrying).  We have learned two different strategies to solve these problems (break-apart & hundreds chart) and we have started to practice solving these problems with the algorithm.  Next week, we will continue to practice solving addition problems with regrouping.
• Reading/Social Studies: We have read a variety of Martin Luther King Jr. biographies and articles.  We have practiced taking notes from what we have read and finding the evidence of to questions that are asked in the text.  Next week, we will continue reading nonfiction articles but will be focusing on the main idea of the article and also the main ideas of each of the paragraphs.  We will have word study next week and continue to focus on past tense words.  Next week spelling words are: snapped, dripped, zipped, shouted, cheered, spoiled, stirred, chopped, pointed & chained.
• Writing: We have finished our research for our first project on animals.  We took notes using online resources (PebbleGo) and from books.  We talked about the importance of organizing our notes into categories to help when we write.  Today we started writing our introduction/lead paragraph.  We had a conversation that our information writing has to have a lead just like our small moment stories.  Then we need to tell our reader what they will be learning (topic & main ideas) and then restate the topic.  Next week, we will continue to write our first informational writing.
• Science: Next week, we will be learning about how different types of water change the land (running water, standing water, glaciers).  The Missouri Department of Conservation will be coming on Tuesday to give a fun presentation to 2nd grade on raptors.

Board Game Celebration

The kiddos had so much fun playing board games today for their celebration.  The perk to this celebration is that they had fun but this time also worked on social skills.

Other Fun Things

Today was full of other fun things!  Vivian read a Mo Willems' book to the class this morning.  Cal's birthday will be tomorrow & he brought in yummy popcorn with frosting & sprinkles to share with the class.  In art, the kiddos made dragons/lizards last week and today they were able to decorate and add additional items to their reptile.  The kiddos are super excited about their art project so make sure to ask your child about it!

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Parent/Teacher Conferences are coming up during the week of February 13.  Coming home in your child's Friday Folder is a request form.  Please fill out the form and return it with your child.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  I am looking forward to talking with everyone! :)

Have a wonderful weekend.  We talked this morning that weather tomorrow is supposed to be 60 and sunny - so I told the kiddos to get out enjoy their Saturday! :)

We have had a great few days back from a long weekend & the kiddos are transitioning quickly back into the swing of things!

Board Game Celebration on Friday
 The kiddos have been working so hard & we filled up another sticker chart! :)  As a celebration, on Friday (January 20), your child can bring in a board game from home to play.  We have talked about the difference of a board game & an electronic (no tablets, phones, etc.).  If your child would like to bring in a game that has batteries that is okay (UNO Attack, Operation, Electronic Battleship, etc.).  We have plenty of games in the classroom to play if your child would prefer to not bring in a game.

Spelling Words
We have been spending extra time this week reading and talking about the impact that Martin Luther King Jr. has brought to our country.  With this extra time being spent on Social Studies, we did not introduce this week's spelling words and will not have a spelling test this week.

Special Friends & Family Day
We have a new event to add to your February calendar.  Special Friends & Family Day will be February 13 during specials time (12:45-1:35).  More information will be coming soon! :)

Parent/Teacher Conferences & Book Fair
During the week of February 13, we will be having Parent/Teacher Conferences.  A new conference request form will be coming home in Friday Folders this week.  Please look at the different conference time options and select what works best for your family and return the sheet by Friday, January 27.

The Book Fair will also be open in the Media Center during the week of February 13.  I will be sending out times as soon as I know them.  The Book Fair will be open during Special Friends & Family Day!

Weather
Please continue to check the weather each day to ensure that your child has the appropriate clothing for going outside.  As a reminder, our recess is in the morning (9:50 & 11:25).  Typically, it has rarely reached the high when we are going outside.

Have a wonderful evening!

Thursday's Thoughts

We have had a great week of school!  Below is some important information.

No School Tomorrow
Our Question of the Day today was if we thought that there would be school tomorrow.  The kiddos predicted correctly.

CPS will NOT have school tomorrow due to the ice storm that is supposed to be coming towards us.  Below is the email that was sent out to CPS families from the district.  Please stay safe & warm!

We have been monitoring weather forecasts and consulting with our community partners.  Experts indicate the storm is imminent and the weather event will be significant.   Emergency operations, county, city and MoDOT partners have requested that we consider not being in session tomorrow, Friday, January 13.   While we hesitate to cancel based on a forecast, with these factors in mind, we believe it is in the best interest of safety for our students that Columbia Public Schools not be in session tomorrow, Friday, January 13.

We were already scheduled to not have school on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. - so stay safe and warm & enjoy your 4-day weekend!

Friday Folder
Due to us not having school tomorrow I did send home your child's Friday Folder today.  There are several graded papers inside.  In addition to these papers, there are 2 important things that are also included.

• FREE book certificate:  Since we went on our field trip to Daniel Boone Regional Library (DBRL), they sent us a coupon for a free book.  Take your child & his/her coupon to either the DBRL or a bookmobile stop to receive a FREE book! :)
• Chat & Chew Enrollment Form: Chat & Chew is a book club that meets during lunch.  A book assignment is given & the student reads the assignment at home & meets during lunch with a parent volunteer & other Chat & Chew readers to discuss the book. If your child would like to participate please send in the enrollment form by next Friday, January 20th.

In Math, we  started our Addition Unit with Regrouping.  We practiced 2 different addition strategies to help us solve 2-digit addition problems: hundreds chart & the break apart method.  We also learned about how to know if an addition problem will need to be regrouped.

In Reading, we continued to work on making sure that we included all the parts in our reading responses.  We also practiced reading nonfiction texts and answering questions from the text.  There are some examples of this work coming home in Friday Folders today.  We started learning about past-tense words.  Next week, we will focus of the pattern of adding ed suffix to words to make them past-tense.  A base word that is CVC - you double the consonant and then add ed, a base word that is VVC - you just add ed.  Our words next week are: snapped, dripped, zipped, shouted, cheered, spoiled, stirred, chopped, pointed & chained.

In Writing, we started researching an animal topic of each person's choice.  We practiced taking notes and keeping our notes organized by heading.  We used a website called PebbleGo and also read books to find out about our animal.  Next week, we will start turning our notes into paragraphs.

Special Readers
Today, we had 2 special readers.  Aubrey shared a Mo Willems book, Pigeon Wants a Puppy and Lexi shared a book that she wrote Piggie & Gerald Go to the Movies.  It is so neat to see how the students have grown as readers & writers and want to share what their doing with the class! :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Marvelous Monday

We had a marvelous Monday!  The kiddos were so focused & worked extremely hard! :)  Just a few things that I wanted to pass along to you are below.

Homework
Homework is starting back up in 2017!  This morning we went over homework  Students are still expected to read for at least 15 minutes, complete a math game night & a fact practice night.  Last week we had no students that passed their Math Wizard Test - please continue to practice with your child on these facts at home.  If you would like extra tests to practice on please let me know.  One night of homework is to answer 3 word problems - we have been working on stacking the numbers & making sure to include a qualifier (what the problem is asking about).  The other night of math homework is a geometry section.  There are two questions that the students are answering.  We have been reviewing these questions during our geometry unit, but I wanted to make sure that as parents you knew the answers in case your child is struggling.

• A rectangle is a quadrilateral with opposite sides that are the same length.  A square is a quadrilateral that all sides are the same length.  So all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.
• A parallelogram has 2 sets of parallel lines (2 lines that will never cross/intersect).  A trapezoid only has 1 set of parallel lines.

Math
Today, we took the STAR Math Assessment (this is a computerized math assessment).  The students took this same assessment in August.  I will have these scores to be sharing with you at conferences.  Tomorrow, we will be starting our addition unit with regrouping (carrying).  This will be the first unit that we will take a pre- and a post-test in.  As your child continues to advance in school, pre- & post-tests will be occurring more and more often.

Reading

• Nonfiction Reading: We are working on reading nonfiction texts with the purpose of answering questions.  We talked about the importance of reading through the questions one time (to help you know what you will need to be thinking about), reading through the passage/text one time, and then answering questions.  Today we practiced finding the evidence of our answer by underlining the answer in the passage. 
• Word Study: Our spelling words this week are focusing on past-tense words.  This week's words are: picked, jumped, hoped, hopped, melted, camped, looked, wanted & rained.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions!  Have a wonderful week.

Happy Friday

It has been so great to get back in the routine of things here at school and the kiddos have done a great job transitioning back to school from a restful and fun Winter Break!

What We Will Be Working on This Month:

• Math: We have started to work on stacking and adding 2-digit numbers without regrouping.  Our next step will be to add 2-digit numbers with regrouping (or carrying).  We have finished up our geometry unit today with a quiz.  There are still some misconceptions about some of the geometry vocabulary.  Please continue to help your child keep these terms fresh in their head & to help reinforce what we have learned at school at home.
• Polygon: closed shape with only straight lines
• Quadrilateral: polygon with 4 sides and 4 angles
• Parallel: 2 lines that go on & on but never cross
• Parallelogram: a shape that has 2 sets of parallel lines
• Rectangle: a quadrilateral with opposite equal with right angles
• Square: a quadrilateral with all sides equal with right angles
• Reading: This week, we have focused on self-assessment of our reading responses.  An example of this will be coming home in next week's Friday Folder - please look over this with your child.  This month in reading, we will be focusing on reading nonfiction texts and taking notes on what we have read in an organized way.  It is important when taking notes to not directly copy from the book but put in our own words.  
• Word Study: Our word study focus will be switching from vowel patterns to how we make words past tense.  Many students add a "t" to the end of a word instead of an "ed" so over the next few weeks we will be looking at specific words and how to change their tenses.  Next week's spelling words are: picked, jumped, liked, hoped, hopped, melted, camped, looked, wanted & rained.  Please reinforce these words with your student at home.
• Writing: We started our Informational Writing unit today.  The students were able to choose 3 animals that they were wanting to learn more about.  We started writing down questions that we wanted to know more about on our topics by using our spelling words from this week (who, what, when, where, why and how).  

Six Flags Read to Succeed

Coming home in your child's Friday Folder today is the Six Flags Read to Succeed Student Reading Log.  Please remember that the Six Flag Read to Succeed is reading that is completed at home that is not a part of your child's homework.  The log needs to be completely filled out with Parent Initials and turned in by Tuesday, February 28.

Weather & Dressing Appropriately

This week the weather turned extremely cold & next week it is supposed to get warmer again.  It is so important to check the weather each night/morning to make sure that your child is coming to school with the appropriate clothes.

Box Tops
Please keep sending in Box Tops!  We had our first collection today & we had several, but we need to keep bringing them in!  If you would like an additional Box Top Collection Sheet you can go here or send in any loose Box Tops that you have! :)

Upcoming Dates:

• January 10: PTA Meeting (6:00 pm) in the Media Center
• January 16: No School - Martin Luther King Jr. Day

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend!

Welcome Back!

I hope that everyone enjoyed their Winter Break.  Today the kiddos had a chance to share in our Morning Meeting circle 2 things that they did over break or presents that they got - it sounds like everyone had a wonderful time!  We had an amazing day and everyone seemed to be transitioning easily back into our school routines.

I just wanted to share with you a few things that will be happening this week.

Homework

We will not be having homework this week due to a short week, but make sure to read about what you can do to help support your child in the math section with a quiz on Friday and our spelling words this week in the reading section.

Math

Today we finished up our 2-D geometry unit.  Tomorrow we will be reviewing and on Friday we will have a short quiz.  Your child is bringing home the quadrilateral flap poster that we have been working on during this unit.  I am sending this home for you to be able to use to study at home if you would like to review with your child over the next few days.  In addition to quadrilaterals, your child will be expected to know what a polygon is (a shape that is close with straight sides).  

Your child needs to know the following for the test

• Polygons and be able to determine if different shapes are polygons or not
• Parallel lines
• Parallelograms
• Give names for different shapes

We have also been working on solving 2-digit word problems and on the quiz on Friday there will be a few word problems.

Reading

We are working on getting back in the routine of reading stations this week.  This week's stations include a 30 minute reading block, a reading response (from a list of choices), word study, and a writing station.  This week's word study (spelling words) are all question words: who, what, when, where, why and how.  We talked today that many times that questions words are called the 5 W's but really should be called the 5 Wh's and a bonus H word. :)  We will not have an official spelling test this week like we have had previously but will be having each student generate a list of questions about a topic to help them prepare for our informational research/writing unit.  

Writing

Today the kiddos had a chance to write about their Winter Break.  Tomorrow we will be writing about our New Year's Resolutions.  We will be starting our Informational Research and Writing unit on Friday.

Weather

Brrrrr!  It's cold outside.  We talked about the importance of making sure that we are wearing winter coats, gloves/mittens & hats to school.  We did not go outside for recess today because the wind chill was below 10 but whenever it is warmer than 10 we want the kiddos to be able to get outside and play - so send in everything that they have! :)  Snow is supposed to be coming in tonight through early morning tomorrow - drive safely!

Book It Reading Logs

Please send in completed Book It Reading Logs by tomorrow.  Several kiddos tried turning them in today but they were not complete.  I have sent home January's log with your child today. 

Box Top Competition

We will be having a Box Top Competition in January.  The classroom that submits the most Box Tops will get a special surprise treat.  A collection form went home with your child before break, but you can also send in loose Box Tops.  I am looking forward to LOTS of Box Tops coming in! :)

Have a wonderful evening!