Happy Thanksgiving!

We have had a great two days!    We continued learning about time, we had Maker Space, and started our next social studies unit about Colonial times (specifically about the first Thanksgiving).

Math

This week, we learned about telling time to the nearest five minute.  Your child made a clock on Monday (which should have come home in his/her homework folder yesterday) - this is a great material to use for homework practice!  Today, we talked about am and pm.  We learned that there are 24 hours in a day and 12 hours are in the am and 12 hours are in the pm.  We also talked about that the same time happens two times within a day, and it is important to think about what is happening at that time to determine if it is am or pm.

Next week, we will move on to place value.  We will learn about expanded notation (184 = 100 + 80 + 4) and representing a number with place value blocks.

Campfire Stories

The kiddos finished up their second personal narrative last week.  Today, we talked about the importance of an author being able to share their writing.  So today we had a writing share celebration!  We sat around campfires and shared our stories.  Even Dr. Link and Mrs. Neale came by to hear our stories!  After our campfire share, we talked about what we could have done to our own stories to make it even better.  Some students wanted to add dialogue, other students talked about adding more details to help with the reader being able to visualize what is going on, etc.  

Maker Space

Yesterday, we had Maker Space.  The students used Perler bead to design an object.  The students were so excited when they heard that this was their option and worked so hard on their project!

Thanksgiving Fun!

Yesterday, the students wrote about what they are thankful for and then they weaved a place mat.  These place mats are coming home with your child today.  They worked extremely hard on them!  

We also partner read some fiction Thanksgiving books and the students completed a Thanksgiving story elements graphic organizer.

Today, we read a book called The First Thanksgiving.  In this book, we learned about the first Thanksgiving and even found out some myths that we thought we knew about the first Thanksgiving that weren't true!  The students wrote about this on a graphic organizer.  Make sure to ask your child what they learned - you will be impressed!

I hope that you, and your family, have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving break!

Amazing Week!

We have had amazing learning experiences and celebrations in the Moss world this week!

What's Been Happening in 2nd Grade?

• Math: This week we finished up Unit 3 - our subtraction unit.  Overall, the students did AMAZING in this unit!  We can really see the growth in the student explanation of how/why they did something.  We took the Unit 3 assessment earlier this week and this test will be coming home on Monday.  We ask for you to review the test with your child and talk about their growth (the pretest will be attached).  Please sign the assessment and return to school on Tuesday.  We ask you to sign and return so that we know that you have seen the assessment.  Today we started Unit 4 - the main focus of this unit is time, measurement and place value.  Please practice with your child on telling time on an analogue clock.  In second grade, the expectation is that students can tell time to the nearest quarter hour.  However, we will also be talking about the nearest 5 minute, so any support that you can give your child with this skill will be valuable!

• Writing: This week, the students turned their second personal narrative into a published piece of writing.  This writing, is a true reflection of what your child can do independently because we did not teacher conference as much with this piece of writing.  The students will have an opportunity to share their published personal narratives with their peers.  Also, the students worked on a fun Thanksgiving persuasive writing prompt.  The students pretended that they were a turkey and wrote a persuasive speech of trying to other people to not eat turkey for Thanksgiving but another main course food.  They designed an advertisement poster to go along with their speech.  Next week, we will focus on being thankful in our writing - more to share next week (it's going to be a surprise)! :)
• Reading: This week, we will focused on two different parts of speech: nouns and adjectives.  We learned that a noun is a person, place, thing or idea, and developed a list of nouns.  We also took some of the these nouns and came up with a list of adjectives to describe them.  The students had an opportunity to show their understanding of nouns and adjectives by making an adjective turkey,  They chose a Thanksgiving food and described the noun.  These adjective turkeys are on display in the classroom - you should come by and see them!
• Science:  This week, we continued to learn about the three different states of matter!  The students made a states of matter sort poster that is hanging in the hallway - the next time that you are at RBE make sure to check them out!  Then yesterday, we used marshmallows as molecules to show our understandings of the characteristics of a solid, liquid and gas.  Today the students had a variety of fun science stations to show their understanding of states of matter.  They built the different states of using marshmallows and toothpicks, had molecule dance party, designed a states of matter flip book, and tasted a solid ice cream, a liquid root beer and when combined together they made a gas (aka...they enjoyed Root Beer Floats).  Next week, we will be moving away from science and back to social studies.  We will start talking about the way of life, jobs and clothing of the Pilgrims.

• Word Study: This week we continued our study of long vowel sound.  We focused on two different long a patterns (ai and some more "magic e" words).  Next week we will have a fun Thanksgiving spelling word list: Thanksgiving, feast, eat, potato, November, turkey, pie and family.  We will talk about the importance of capitalizing proper nouns, that the long e sound at the end of a word can be made different ways, and that vowel pattern ea can also make the long e sound.

Even With All the Learning, We Had Fun!

When the weather isn't the best outside, the kiddos get to enjoy a variety of inside recess games and activities!

On Wednesday, we had our trimester pizza party celebration!  The students enjoyed pizza, fruit, vegetables and popcorn as they had a chance to watch a short video or enjoy a longer lunch time to chat with their friends.  Fun was had by all as they enjoyed a yummy lunch!

The students earned their twenty-fifth compliment earlier this week, and today we wore pajamas for our class celebration!  Plus, it was stuffed animal day for our school wide dress up day.  The kiddos were so excited to be able to be comfy and warm in their pajamas!

Meals on Wheels Food Drive

Thank you for the support of Meals on Wheels, which is one of our Partners in Education!  Service club bagged up the donated food into different Snowy Day bags for the Meals on Wheels clients for the inclement weather days when drivers are not able to deliver food.  150 bags were bagged up this week!  This food drive is so important and vital to so many people - thank you!

Special Next Week

As a reminder, we are only in school on Monday and Tuesday next week, due to Thanksgiving.  With a shortened week, we will not be assigning homework.  However, please continue to encourage your child to read over next week!  I hope that you have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!