Nov 6

Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed our long weekend. 

We will have library tomorrow! Please make sure your student brings their book with them so that they can check out a new one. 

Math: This week we are starting double digit subtraction. We will practice equations with and without regrouping, as well as estimating. We will take our quiz on Friday. 

Reading: We are continuing to learn about government, and different influential figures in American History. This week we are learning about Sonia Sotomayer and Shirley Chisholm. 

Phonics: We are focusing on R controlled vowels for the next few weeks. This week we are learning words with "ar" (car, chart, smart). We will take a spelling pre quiz on Monday, and will take our quiz on Friday. 

Writing: We are continuing to develop our fairy tales. This week we are focusing on characters, and character traits in fairy tales. 

Oct 30

I hope you are all doing well (and staying warm)! My first real Colorado fall feels more like winter . Here is some information for this short week:

Halloween:

On Tuesday, we will have our school costume parade at 9:30. We will have a small class party at 11:15 when the kiddos come back from lunch. The party will be over around 12:15. 

Costumes: 

If your student is planning to wear a costume on Tuesday, please send them to school already wearing it. We will not have much time to change/get ready before the parade starts. 

Students may wear a school appropriate costume, and may not wear face paint or costume masks. They also may not bring any kind of fake weapon (guns, swords, axes). I would also recommend sending your student with a change of clothes. Students can wear their costume the whole day as long as it is not a distraction. 

As a reminder, we do not have school on Friday. 

This week in:

Math: We are continuing to learn double digit addition, as well as different strategies and ways to use estimation. We will take our math quiz on Thursday.

Reading: We are starting Unit 3: Government Working for Us. This unit will discuss our government, and why we have laws. In phonics we will be focusing on the long u spelling patterns (u, u_e, ue, ew). We will NOT take a pre quiz this week, and will take our spelling quiz on Thursday. We will continue to practice our words at school, and any practice your student can get in at home is wonderful! 

October newsletter

Upcoming events/dates

Picture day retakes: 10/25

Spookfest: 10/27

Candy drive: 10/23-10/27

Costume Parade and class party: 10/31

Here is the signup link for volunteering at our party:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084BAEAA2CA2FAC16-45201746-fall#/

This week:

Spelling- We will take our spelling pre quiz on Monday as usual. If your student was absent the Friday before break, they can makeup the last spelling quiz this week.

Math- We will do a test review on Monday and will take our Unit test on Tuesday. Please remind your student to bring back their test review on Monday, even if they did not complete it. We will use it in our review. After the test, we will review double digit addition and subtraction strategies before starting Unit 2. 

As always, feel free to message me if you have any questions! 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084BAEAA2CA2FAC16-45201746-fall

Oct 9-13 news

Hello everyone! 

This year is flying by! We are 1 week away from Fall Break! 

Announcements for this week:

We will go to the bookfair to shop as a class on Monday at 11:20. Students can use cash to buy books, or they may use funds from their e-wallet. I have attached instructions on how to set up e-wallets. Below is the link to our classroom e-wallet, if you would like to contribute. Teachers will also have a "wishlist basket" at the fair as well. 

https://shop.scholastic.com/ewallet/fund?lang=en_US&walletId=4b71e271-37e5-453c-864c-7f63832c6b71

The book fair will be open to families on Mon and Tue from 4:00-5:30, and Wed from 4-7. 

If you scheduled a virtual conference on Tuesday, I will send you a google meet link on Monday. I will send your student home with copies of the papers and work we will be discussing on Monday as well. Please make sure you have them with you during our conference. 

Your student is welcome to join you for conferences, but it is not a requirement. 

Reading: This week we are continuing to discuss fictional texts and how characters respond to challenges. Our phonics focus this week is long e (ee, ea, ie, y, e_e). 

Math: This week we are working on solving 2 step word problems using addition or subtraction. 

Science: Last week we finished learning about our final animal habitat. This week, students will each pick an animal and research its habitat, and what it needs to survive (food, adaptations). 

October 2-6 News

Weekly reminders:

-We will have library tomorrow. Please remind your students to bring their books to school, so that they may check out a new book. 

-Please sign up for a conference if you haven't already! 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yD0Ux_VtiTN9mb_EqLnh1mPJbUyBGk-JUUSjmQpWn7A/edit?usp=sharing

-Our book fair is next week! Students should have brought home a flyer with dates and information on how to set up their "e-wallet". Below is the link to our class e wallet. All the funds are used to purchase books for our classroom. Please do not feel pressured to contribute!! This is absolutely optional! 

https://shop.scholastic.com/ewallet/fund?lang=en_US&walletId=4b71e271-37e5-453c-864c-7f63832c6b71

Reading: This week we are starting Unit 2 in Benchmark. Unit 2 will cover fictional texts and we will examine how characters learn and grow in stories. 

Our phonics focus this week is long "o" patterns (o, oa, ow, o_e, oe). We will take our spelling pre quiz on Monday, and our quiz on Friday. When helping your child study, it is important that they are practicing writing the words, along with spelling verbally. Our quizzes are written, so this practice is very helpful. 

Math: We are starting lesson 4, which covers using and making bar graphs and picture graphs. We will be looking at data and using the information to make our own graphs. 

Science: This week we are learning about ocean habitats. We will be learning about the different zones/layers of the oceans and how different animals adapt to survive these extreme conditions. 

September 18-21 News

We will go to the library on Monday. If your student checked out a book 2 weeks ago, please make sure they bring it to school on Monday. If they do not return their book, they can not check out a new one. 

This week, we are continuing our Benchmark Unit on habitats. Our focus this week is on Polar Regions. We will read about Polar habitats, and will complete a writing assignment related to Arctic animals. 

Our phonics focus this week is "long a" (ai,ay,a_e). 

We will not take a spelling pre quiz this week. Because we have a short week, we will take the spelling quiz on Thursday. We will practice our words throughout the week, and students should be practicing at home as well. A few minutes of practice each day can really help your student nail down these spelling patterns. Students will take home a physical copy of their spelling list on Monday, and I will put the words on our class website. 

In math, we are starting Lesson 2, which covers mental math strategies for subtraction. If you would like your student to complete extra practice at home, please let me know! 

One last note, if your child has a sporting event/extra curricular that they would like me to attend, please let me know the date/time/location. Several of them have asked me to come see them, but they aren't always sure of the details . 

September 11-15 News

Reading:

We are continuing in Unit 1 of Benchmark. This week we will be studying and researching desert habitats. In phonics, we are learning about open and closed syllables and multisyllabic words.

Spelling: 

Our spelling pre quiz is Monday, and the actual quiz is Friday. Your student will bring home a paper copy of their spelling words, as well as their pre quiz tomorrow. The words for this week are also posted on our class website.

Math: 

We are officially starting Unit 1 of Ready math. Lesson 1 covers using mental math strategies for addition. We will take a quiz on Friday over this weeks content. 

On Friday we went to our first library session. Students were allowed to check out 1 book. We will go to the library again on September 18. If your student checked out a book and brought it home, please make sure they have it with them on September 18th. 

September 5-8 News

We have a busy week coming up! 

Reading: 

We are starting our first Benchmark Unit. Unit 1 is all about habitats! We will be reading about different animals, their habitats, and what they need to survive. We will tie in our writing with animal habitats as well. 

In our phonics instruction, we are reviewing short vowel sounds and digraphs. 

We will have our second spelling pre quiz on Tuesday, and the actual quiz on Friday. 

Math:

We are starting lesson 14, which covers comparing 3 digit numbers. 

We will have a quiz over lesson 14 on Friday. 

On Thursday, we will have picture day! Please be sure to look at/fill out the form that was sent home last week. We will take pictures at 11:30. 

Finally, thank you so much for all your support this last week with Boosterthon! We exceeded our school goal of $47,000, and our class raised over $3,000! 10% of what we earned goes directly back to our classroom, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you! 

August  28-Sep 1 Newsletter

This week in 2nd grade we have our Boosterthon Obstacle Challenge! Please make sure to register your child on MYBOOSTER.com

It is so important that everyone is registered so we can reach our goal! As a school, we are 50% of the way there! In our class, we are about 35% of the way to our goal of $150 per minute. So far we have earned a teacher treat, extra recess, crazy hair day, shoes off, and tech time! We will have our shoes off/silly sock day on Monday. If your student would like to have their shoes off, they must be wearing socks or slippers. Please no bare feet! We will have a crazy hair day on Tuesday. 

The obstacle course event will be on Friday. 2nd graders will be doing the run at 12:30. Please make sure your student has tennis shoes/athletic shoes with them. 

This week in the classroom:

Spelling:

We will have our first real spelling test on Friday. On Monday, students will take a "pre test" to see what they already know and what they need to work on. The spelling list is already uploaded on our class website, and I will send home a physical copy on Monday.

Reading:

This is our last week of Benchmark Launch in both Reading and Phonics. We are using this time to finish up iReady diagnostic testing, and catching up on work. Our phonics focus is on long vowel patterns.

Math:

We are currently on lessons 13 and 14 in Ready math. We are working on place value and using 3 digit numbers. 

Science/Writing:

Last week we planted morning glory seeds and started our plant observation journal. We have seen so much growth! Students have had such a great time observing the changes in their plant each day. We have been recording these changes in our journals. 

August  21-25 Newsletter

We will begin our iReady diagnostic testing on Tuesday.

Math: In math next week, we will be skipping to Lesson 12 in the Ready math curriculum. This lesson covers place value. We decided as a grade level to cover lessons 12,13, and 14 before lesson 1. This will allow us to cover some fundamentals before moving to new content. 

Reading: During our phonics instruction, we will cover consonant blends (bl, sl), digraphs (ch, th), and trigraphs (tch). We will continue to practice our high frequency words. In reading we are continuing Benchmark Launch. Next week we will practice having constructive conversations while reading, as well as reading with a partner. 

Science: On Monday we will be planting seeds! We will study the different parts of a plant as well as what plants need to survive. Students will keep a plant journal that will tie in with our writing time.