The Holiday is Finally Here!!

What a crazy week!  We were very busy preparing for the upcoming holiday.  The students created special gifts for their families.  They also made special cards with some help with some "elves."

Mrs. Miller came in this week and set up a store for the students to shop.  The students had been earning money over the past several weeks for good behavior.  With the money they earned, they were able to purchase gifts for family members.  They had to count out their money and several students got to be practice being cashiers.  Thank you, Mrs. Miller!!

We read the book, The Polar Express, this week and were rewarded for our compliments (and a little help from our classroom elf) with a Polar Express party.  We watched the movie and had chocolate milk.

Our elf left us a special note today to say goodbye.  He had fun in our classroom but must go back to the North Pole.

Speaking of goodbye, today we said goodbye to our leader, Mr. D.  We had a special assembly to say goodbye.  It was pretty emotional for many of us as he has made a great impact on our school.  When we return from break we will welcome with open arms our new leader, Mrs. Gansert.

I would like to take this time to wish all of you a very special holiday.  I hope you all enjoy some fun, family time during our break.  I am looking forward to continued success from the second graders.

The Countdown is On!!

It was nice to see many of you at the winter concert.  We had a great time practicing our songs and our hip-hop movements.  Thanks...Mr. Banas.

Our classroom elf is still up to some mischief.  This week he was found sleeping in our classroom mailbox, sitting in our foam letters and hanging on our writing balloon.  He also added some marbles into our compliment jar.  This may mean that we may have to have a reward for receiving so many marbles!!

This week the students were taught the parts of speech.  We learned about nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.  We practiced using them in sentences and naming them as well.

In math, we learned about parallel lines and line segments.   We talked about what makes a shape a polygon.  We also discussed quadrangles (quadrilaterals).  Ask your child...what must a quadrangle have?  (The answer is...four side, four angles and four vertices.)  We will have a unit test next week before the break.

We learned a lot of facts in reading this week about the sun all the while discussing how to determine what information in a book is important and what information is interesting but unimportant.  The students were given another Theme Test which they performed well on once again.  These will come home next week to be signed.

Our science unit, balance and motion has been completed.  The students had a great time doing all of the experiments and hopefully have gained valuable knowledge from this unit.  Our next unit, Solids, Liquids & Gases, will start after the holiday break.

Have a great weekend....

I'VE BEEN ELF-ED!!

Our class elf, Gingerbread, was rather sneaky this week.  He appeared to us on Monday morning and has been keeping a close eye on our class to report back to the North Pole.  This week we have discovered him on the fan in the room, hugging on of our class monkeys and this is what we found this morning.  I wonder what he will do next.

The classroom and hallway are looking very festive now with all of our fun decorations.  This week we filled out applications to be elves and created elf glyphs.

We also wrote stories about what would happen if Santa got stuck in the chimney.  Believe it or not, all of the students decided it would be best to help him out.....so that he could continue to bring them their presents.

We also learned how to write a friendly letter.  After reading the book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, we wrote friendly letters to the Grinch telling him why he should not have stolen from the Who's and why he should like Christmas.

We have started a kindness campaign related to the Grinch as well.  We have a Grinch in the hallway who needs some hearts cause we all know that "the Grinch has a heart two sizes too small."  So, therefore, whenever someone in 2nd grade does an act of kindness, he or she can pin a heart on the Grinch.  As you can see we already have a few on there.  Good job second graders.  Keep up the kindness.

This was a tough week in math.  The students are learning how to add 2 and 3 digit numbers together.  Please keep in mind that this is a new skill.  Some second graders will pick it up easily and some will need a little more practice.  As you have probably seen from the homework, the students were taught two different ways to add.  The first way is to add by place value, adding the highest place value first like so:  53 + 35 = ?  Add 50 + 30 first, then add 3 + 5.  80 + 8= 88.  The other method is the "old" way that we learned.  This seems to be the way that most of the students were drawn to do.  There is still some confusion about where to place the "1" they need to carry.  Again, this is a beginning skill and we will continue to practice throughout the year.

Have a great weekend!!!