It's That Time of the Year

Yes, it is that time of year.

The students are a buzz with holiday excitement.  They have even decided to make decorations for the room and many great notes and letters for me.  Thanks class.

We learned about holiday traditions in Holland and the USA this week.  Did you know that in Holland kids put on their wooden shoes for St. Nicholas to fill with special treats? We made and decorated some wooden shoes of our own.

We all know that in the USA people string lights from trees and houses.  We wrote about our family tradition and strung some lights here in the classroom.

This week in reading we read the story The Polar Express.  We wrote about the character traits of several of the characters, visualized our favorite parts and practiced putting the story in proper sequence.  

This week we started addition with regrouping.  The students adjusted nicely to this new procedure.  We will continue to practice often so that the students are very comfortable adding this way.  

Report cards went home today.  Please look out for them in your child's take home folders.  Be sure to sign the envelope and send back next week.  One more week to go....I hope all of your shopping is done!! 

Buddy was tricky today...the students had a hard time finding him.

Where in the World is Buddy...

This week Buddy the elf traveled to Italy, England and Mexico. Of course, he was still up to some mischief in the classroom, too.

When he traveled to Italy, we learned about La Befana the good witch that leaves treats for children.

 

 

We made a Yule Log living room scene like it would look in England.  In England, Santa is called "Father Christmas."

 

 

We did another research report this week in reading.  This time we researched polar bears.  Did you know that polar bears are the most feared animal in the Arctic?  They can weigh over 1,000 pounds. 

 

 

In writing, the students wrote a persuasive essay about why they should be Santa's Head Elf.  Some of the reasons why were:  they are good at being sneaky, they are good at being bossy, and they must LOVE Christmas.

 

 

This week we were treated to a fantastic assembly sponsored by our wonderful Home and School Association.  It was called NED.  It was all about believing in yourself.  NED is an acronym for N-Never Give Up, E - Encourage others, and D- Do your best.  We saw a few cool yo-yo tricks, too!!

 

 

One more full week until the winter break...Hang in there!!



 







 



 

Buddy is Here!!

An elf has arrived in our classroom.  The class named him Buddy.

The students filled out elf applications to apply for an elf job with Santa. Buddy brought our applications to Santa and all of the students were approved!! Buddy wrote us a letter with the approved applications.  

Buddy is on a secret mission from Santa.  Santa has asked him to travel around the world and report back to us about the Christmas traditions in different countries.  So far he has traveled to Germany.  In Germany, they call the Christmas tree a Tannenbaum.  We created some Tannenbaums of our own.

This week in reading our essential question was "What do we love about animals?"  We read several poems about animals.  We discussed how the author of each of the poems felt about the animal the poem was about.  We looked for key details in each poem and multiple meaning words.  We took a reading test at the end of the week to practice some of these skills.  Look for these to come home this weekend to be signed. 

We started our two digit addtion/subtraction unit in math.  We started by adding and subtracting 10 and then 100.  Next week we will be reviewing adding 10 and 100, then adding with a number grid and base 10 blocks, and then...we will be learning the algorithmn for adding two digit numbers. 

We had our first Health lesson with Mrs, Visalli today.  The students were shown the proper way to wash their hands to help keep them and our classroom germ free.  We also had our last Footprints lesson.  Thank you to the Woodbury Heights Municipal Alliance for sponsoring this program for our second graders.  They learned a lot about the dangers of cigarettes, alcohol and drugs through stories using puppets.  

Have a great weekend.