Outdoor Classroom & Earth Day

Happy Monday!  We had a great day.  We have kicked off Outdoor Classroom Week with an assembly this morning.  We honored the people who originally came up with the idea for the Outdoor Classroom, and learned about all the parts of the Outdoor Classroom!  We learned about the prairie, pond, amphitheater, the arbor, and the garden.  We will get to go on a tour of the Outdoor Classroom on Wednesday (fingers crossed about having good weather because I know rain is in the forecast).  Second grade also performed a song in the assembly, and the whole assembly also sang a song called "One Seed" (video below).

We started talking about Earth Day is coming up on Friday.  To enjoy the beautiful weather today we had Word Study outside.  We went on a nature walk and the kiddos had to fill in an ABC chart with words that they found in nature.  

This week we will be talking more about how to take care of the Earth.  We will be reading passages about Earth Day and pollution, writing about ways that we can reduce, reuse, and recycle.  Make sure to ask you kiddo about what they can do to help take care of the Earth each day! :)

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

I hope you all have had a wonderful week!  I am absolutely LOVING this beautiful weather.  If you are needing something to do tomorrow CPS & MU are teaming up to put on the Science Sleuth for elementary students and their families.  This is a free event.  I hope that if you are able to stop by that you will.  The kiddos always have a fun when they go! :)

I can't believe the end of the year is so close.  You can feel the excitement already building about the end of the year.  We had a conversation this afternoon that it is important to continue to do their job at school and that we have a lot of fun things planned for the rest of the year. We talked about that they are almost third graders and it is important to act like it. :)

Reading

This week, we worked on summarizing fiction stories.  We taught them a different strategy other than "Somebody, wanted, but, so then" this week.  We focused on identifying the main idea, details and the most important words and then using this information to create a one sentence summary.  A one sentence summary was hard for some kiddos but by today they had it down! :)  

Next week, we will be working on a similar strategy with nonfiction passages.  We will identify the main idea, details and then use this information to create a one sentence summary of the nonfiction passage.

Writing

This week, we wrapped up our rough draft for our best pet opinion writing.  Next week, we will edit it and then publish our writing.  We will be publishing our writing next week, and afterwards we are planning to use a form of technology as another way to publish our writing.  

Math

This week, we wrapped up our geometry and fraction unit.  I will be sending home this test next week.  Please review them with your student then sign and return it to school.

We took our pretest over measurement today.  We will start our measurement unit on Monday.  We will start with non-customary measurements, then move into standard measurements.  We will also be talking about different units of measure and tools to measure.  

Science

We have been observing our plant experiment, and the students are noticing what the plants need to survive.  We had a conversation that the plant with no water is hard, droopy and dying, so we now know that plants canNOT survive without water.  We also noticed that the plant with LOTS of water is also getting droopy and not really growing.  To our surprise the plant with no soil is not growing but the flowers are still okay - we had a conversation that cut flowers can live a while in just water, so we predict that the plant will slowly die.  The flower with no water is starting to grow some mold :( and the flowers are turning yellow instead of orange.  The kiddos are LOVING to read to our "Read to Me" plant - we have found plant books to read to it and the flower leaves on the plant are fuller than our control (maybe this spring & summer you should have your kiddo read to your flowers!).  We will continue to observe our plants over the next few weeks to see if our hypothesis is confirmed that plants need water, soil and sunlight to grow. 

 

Homework

We will have homework for the next 2 weeks and then will be finished with homework.  The students will have optional homework after that of reading and math facts each night.  If they do math facts and reading (15 minutes each) for at least 3 nights (starting in May), they can eat lunch in the room on Friday.

Field Trips

• April 29: Jazz Ensemble at Hickman High School, leave RBE at 9:30 & return by 11:30
• May 11: Runge Nature Center, leave RBE at 8:30 & return around 2:00

Important Dates

• April 22: "Earth Day" - Wear green or other "Earth Friendly" attire
• April 29: Jazz Ensemble field trip
• May 10: PTA Meeting (5:30)
• May 11: Runge Nature Center field trip
• May 13: Variety Show
• May 20: Field Day
• May 20: "Summer Fun" - Wear your most colorful, fun, floral outfit to kick off summer (no swimsuits)

If you are looking for something to do tomorrow afternoon, CPS & MU are teaming up to put on a Science Sleuth.  Elementary students and their families are invited.  The kiddo always have so much fun when they go, so if you have the time - go check it out!! :)  Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the warm weather! 

Wednesday's Wows!!! :)

I am so proud of our classroom!  On Monday, we learned about the St. Judes Children's Hospital Pin Caner fundraiser that Myles Putnam and Mrs. Howard's second grade class is working on.  We set a class goal of $25, and we "crushed it." (as one of our second graders said).  Yesterday the kiddos brought in approximately $35, and so we made a new goal of $65.  WOW!!!  Today we "crushed it" again!!!  Today the kiddos brought in $68.16 - that's over $100 that we are giving to kid's who have cancer!!!!  We set a new goal of $135.00.  I am so super proud of our classroom and how they are wanting to give back!!  What a wonderful example that you are setting for your kiddos to be so generous!

 

Math

We have been working super hard on geometry and fractions since we have gotten back from Spring Break.  We have learned about triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons and hexagons.  We have also talked about special quadrilaterals called a square (all sides are even), rectangle, and trapezoid.  We have also learned that partitioning is dividing a shape equally into parts.  We have talked about halves, thirds, fourths and sixths (this is a third grade objective - so the kiddos were excited when we learned it).  Today we made a fraction quilt.  Each kiddo designed their own quilt square and we added our squares to Mrs. Ross's class.  Our fraction quilt is hanging in the hallway (also pictured below).

Summer School

I also wanted to remind everyone that the date for a guaranteed spot in summer is this Friday.  I know that summers can be very busy, but if summer school fits into your schedule, it is a good review of 2nd grade skills, as well as an introduction to 3rd grade concepts.  During summer school we have a lot of fun learning activities and some specials things that we don't always have time to do during the school year.  If your child is going to a different school next year, they will still go to RBE for summer school, unldess you have requested a different school (and will be providing transportation for your child).

I am so happy for warmer weather - I just hope it is here to stay!  I hope you have a chance to get out & enjoy it tonight! :)

Pinning Cancer!

I hope that you have all had a wonderful start to you week!

Your child is coming home with flyer about about raising money for St. Jude Children's Hospital.

One of her students, Myles Putnam, is doing a fundraiser called Pinning Cancer to raise money for cancer research.  Mrs. Howard's class has decided to take this opportunity to do a whole school fundraiser.  We will be collecting coins (dollar bills are fine also) in the classroom to donate to St. Jude Children's Hospital.  The link below gives additional information about the fundraiser and also a place to donate if you would like to donate online.  Please do not feel obligated to donate by any means, but I wanted to share the information with you because the kids may come and talk about it.

https://getinvolved.pincancer.org/fundraise?fcid=593893

This week, we will be working on summarizing in reading, opinion writing, fractions in math and experimental design through plants in science.

Please remember to send a jacket with you kiddos  for recess - it can be very chilly in the mornings.

Have a wonderful evening!

Happy Friday!

We have had a wonderful week back from Spring Break!  So many fun things have happened.  I have uploaded the newsletter to the blog - make sure to read through it.  :)  There is an additional field trip scheduled, and information about what we are doing in reading, writing & math!

Science
Before we left for Spring Break, we designed an experiment to test whether or not plants need sun, water and soil to grow.  We talked about the importance of having a control (plant that we do not change anything) and on the other plants that we could only change one variable.  Yesterday we actually set up our experiment!! Miss Sullivan & Miss Steward lead us as we put together our experiment.

The kiddos had a lot of fun getting a little "dirty" while they planted.  Each group was responsible for one of the variable plants.  We will keep observing them each week to see how much the plants change.  Our hypothesis is that the plants with no soil, no light, extra water and no water will die.

All our flowers (except the one with no light - it's in the closet).

Mother's Day Singers
Yesterday we enjoyed listening to the Mother's Day Singers.  We learned some sign language to the song "The More We Get Together" and they even sang a song from Aladdin!!

Maker's Space

Today we had Maker's Space.  The kiddos really enjoyed building with K'Nex.  Some kiddos used the directions to make some items and others used their imaginations!!  Here are some pictures from today!!

Fractions

Today we started learning about fractions.  The kiddos enjoyed making fractions by cutting brownies in halves, thirds and fourths.  We then compared the fraction pieces to determine which fraction is smallest and which fraction is the biggest.  Even though 1/4 has a denominator (a new vocabulary word) of 4 and 4 is a big number the kiddos learned that it means that you have to share your brownie with 4 people and the brownie pieces are actually smaller than 1/2.

We also learned when you are talking about fractions you don't say I partitioned the brownie into "twos" instead you say halves.  Here is a video of the kids saying the fractions that we learned today! :)

MyOn Reading

We now have on display the student that has read the most on MyOn in each grade in our Media Center hallway.  Josselyn was the "Super Reader" for 2nd Grade for the month of March by logging the most hours on MyOn.  Congratulations Josselyn!!!  Please remember that your child can use MyOn to read books at home and is a wonderful way to drastically expand your home library. 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! :)

Skippyjon Jones Play!! :)

Before we left on our field trip we had a discussion about Audience Etiquette (a new word we learned - so ask your kiddo about it!).  They did a wonderful job of coming up with examples & non-examples of Audience Etiquette.  Our class rose to the occasion and were wonderful audience members at the Skippyjon Jones: Cirque de Ole play today!!

The kiddos had SO much fun on our field trip today! :)  We weren't able to take pictures during the show but I was able to get a few before the show started.  Enjoy our pictures!  Also before the show started we had to wait on another school to arrive so we had a dance party.  Please don't judge my videoing skills but here is a video I shot. :)

When we got back from seeing Skippyjon Jones: Cirque de Ole we had a discussion that RBE's PTA gave us money to be able to go see the play.  We wrote a thank you note to our wonderful PTA.  We really appreciate everything that you do for our kiddos!!

We definitely are having a different type of day but we are enjoying ourselves!!!  I hope you are having a wonderful Hump Day - just like we are!!

Field Trip Tomorrow & Other Things! :)

I hope that you & your family had a wonderful Spring Break!  The kiddos were all very excited to share what they did over break.  We talked about it, drew a picture and wrote about it.  We will be having their writing and their pictures in the hallway, but they won't be hung together.  The goal is to match the writing to the correct picture because of all the wonderful details that were included! :)

Field Trip
We will be going to see Skippy Jon Jones play tomorrow.  We will be loading the bus at 8:45 and will be back around 11:00.  We will have a slightly later lunch tomorrow since we maybe back a little after 11:00.  The kiddos we have recess/lunch from 11:30-12:15 tomorrow instead of our normal time.  Please remember to ask your kiddos about the play tomorrow afternoon. :)

Math
We took our geometry/fraction pretest yesterday.  In this unit, we will work on identifying triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, and hexagons.  We will discuss the difference between a cube and a square.  The kiddos will also have to partition (evenly divide) shapes into halves, thirds and fourths, as well as, identify the fraction that is shaded.  This unit will take approximately 2 weeks.  Even though we aren't currently working on addition or subtraction please continue to practice these facts at home! :)

Reading
This week in reading we are working on visualizing.  This is a skill that helps the students to better understand the story.  The idea is that the students have a "movie" playing in their head as they read or have a story read to them.  As the kiddos advance as readers pictures are not as prevalent in books and visualization is important skill to help with comprehension.  We are practicing visualization through our read aloud book and various poems.

We are continuing to practice on using prefixes to help us identify the definition of words.  We have learned that re- is to do again, pre- is to do before, and un- is the opposite or not.  Have your kiddo find words that have prefixes in their reading and explain what the word means (examples: pregame is before the game, unhappy is not happy, or rearrange is to arrange again).  We have talked about the difference between a prefix and a compound word.  A prefix is a sound that is added to word to change the meaning, but a compound word is 2 words that are put together.

Writing
We are continuing our opinion writing unit.  For our next opinion writing the kiddos are writing about what the best pet is.  They will be conducting research and using their research to support their opinion.  They started looking at different pets today on PebbleGo (this is a great website with kid-friendly information) - many kiddos enjoy reading off this website and is a great place to find information!

Science
Before Spring Break, the kiddos designed an experiment to test what a plant needs to survive.  We had a conversation that we have been taught that, but we might not have evidence to back it up - proof.  Our experiment that we designed will give us the proof we need! :)  We talked about having a control and also variables.  We discussed the importance of only changing one variable so that we can identify what made the experiment successful or unsuccessful.  On Thursday, we will set up the experiment and make observations over the next few weeks to determine if our hypothesis is correct that plants need soil, water and light to survive.  

20 Stars Were Earned Again!!! :)
The kiddos worked hard and earned another 20 Stars today!!!  They were excited.  Our celebration today was iPad time.  Here are a few pictures. :)

Weather
Hopefully warmer weather will be here to stay shortly.  Please make sure your kiddo has a jacket with them for recess.  It is still chilly at our morning recess, especially with the wind on the playground.  It is harder to enjoy recess if they are cold.

Have a wonderful week, and as always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me!