Conferences, Parties, Learning Oh My!

We have had an absolutely AMAZING week in Moss world this week!  We have had a week full of conferences, a Valentine's Day party and so much learning!

Reminders:

• Book Fair opened this week!  You can shop tonight until 7:00 pm, 8:00-11:00 am on Friday (2/16), and 7:30 am-3:00 pm on Tuesday (2/20) for Special Family and Friends Day.  Your child had an opportunity to fill out a wish list earlier this week.
• Student Banner will be hung early next week!  If you have not turned in your child's student banner please send it to school on Tuesday. We want for every child to be included.  If you need another copy you can click here to print it off.  If we had not received your child's banner as of Thursday afternoon, we sent a new one home in your child's Friday Folder.  We know that we were meeting with some of you this evening, but just wanted to make sure that everyone had a banner that could be easily found over the weekend.
• No school on Monday due to President's Day.
• Special Family & Friends Day is Tuesday (2/20) at 1:35 for second grade.  Family members and friends are welcome to come to this showcase the students will be at specials at 1:35.  You will have an opportunity to visit your child in Music with Mrs. Sharp and in Media with Mr. Reeder.  If you would like to have a chance to take your child to the Book Fair you can arrive at 1:15 to have a chance to shop before specials (you can shop afterwards also).  If your child will be leaving with his/her special family and friend (who is not a parent) please email me or send a note that the child has permission to leave.
• Decade Day is on Friday (2/23).  What decade will your child dress up like?
• If you are wanting to order a yearbook for your child they are $7.  Order form and money are due by February 28.
• Your child's 6 Flag Read to Succeed form is due by March 1 - no late forms will be accepted!

Look At What's Been Happening in 2nd Grade!

• Math: This week, we continued to focus on learning different strategies to solve word problems. Word problems can be tricky because students have to pull out the important information and use the clues to figure out what they are solving for.  Next week, we will talk about different strategies to solve 2-digit by 2-digit addition.
• Writing: Yay!!!! All students are finished publishing their first informational story!!  We will have a share fair to celebrate their hard work next week and then this writing will be coming home with your child in his/her Friday Folder - so be on the lookout for it.  Next week, we will start our combined informational writing and opinion writing topic "Which is Better" - similar to the Who Would Win book series.  The students will have an opportunity to choose two topics that are similar (jobs, famous people, animals, countries, etc.).  We will research both topics, and then write a book telling what we learned, and then incorporate an opinion paragraph telling which they think is better.  This is a BIG project and the students will end up with a 12 paragraph book.  Last year the kiddos LOVED this project and some of the first grade classes came and walked through our share fair - so they are already excited to get to do this!
• Online Research: We learned a new writing research strategy a few weeks ago from Mrs. Howard, and tried it out this week!  The students chose a topic that they wanted to learn about from PebbleGo (an online resource).  They wrote down their topic and headings on their paper.  Then they had to take their paper to the other side of the classroom (we had laptops on one side and papers on the other).  The students read through a paragraph at least 2 times to learn about their topic.  Then they had to walk to their paper on the other side of the room to write down their facts. The idea behind this research strategy is that the kiddos are putting their facts into their own words and not just copying facts from their source. This worked out great and we will be continue to do this strategy during their research next week.  It was just an added bonus they got be moving around while they researching!

• Reading: We started talking about what the main idea and supporting details of nonfiction text.  We read an article about the planet Mars and then the students had to identify that the main idea of the article was Mars and what the supporting details of the text were.  We saw that all of our supporting facts had the word Mars in, so we realized that it was important that the supporting details all relate back to the main idea.  Next week, we will continue to work on this strategy.
• Word Study: We are continuing to focus on long vowel words.  This week we talked about the vowel team of "ee" and "ea."  Next week, we will look at long i vowel patterns of igh, y, and CVCe.  The spelling words for next week are: might, bright, high, night, sky, dry, try, why, rise, write.

Valentine's Day 

What better way to start off Valentine's Day than doing Conversation Heart math!  The kiddos used their skills of estimation, graphing, ordering from greatest to least, and practicing adding/subtracting with their hearts.  

Before the Valentine's Day Party Mrs. Neale came in to read to us.  She read I Love You Forever and Penguin in Love.

WOW!  What a great party!  We have been so lucky to have parent volunteers and donations to make our parties a success.  Here are the pictures as promised from the party yesterday - click here to see them!

It is at this time, after meeting with families and having an opportunity to reflect on the learning that has taken place during the first two-thirds of our year, that I get to confirm that I am truly lucky to be a part of this learning community!  I appreciate everyone taking time out of their day to come and visit about your student progress with us, and I look forward to another wonderful last three months with you!  Please remember, that if you need anything from me - just ask!

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend!