Pajama Day

Check out the video I made with the Pajama Day photos.
Click on the link:
Pajam Day

Winter Party Fun!

We sure had fun at our holiday party today. A special thanks to Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Manson for organizing the party. Thank-you to all the parents who helped with the different activities today. Here's a few photos of fun.

Buddy Time

We had some time to get together with our 5th grade buddies today. We played Buddy Bingo and had some fun with our IPads.

Sammy the Summarizer

This week Sammy the Summarizer taught us how to summarize. He's the last of the Fabulous Four. Good readers predict, clarify, ask questions, and summarize. When reading students should be switching through all of these strategies as needed. Summarizing is difficult but the students have been working hard. Summarizing is shorter than retelling. Students should use their own words and they should tell the main ideas. We use time order words like first, then, next, and finally. Check out these summaries that we worked on together yesterday.

Pajama and Stuffed Animal Day

We sure had a fun day learning with our stuffed animal friends. It's fun for me to see how much my students love being with their animal friends. Here's a few pictures of our day.

Money, Money, Money

We've been working hard learning to count groups of quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. The students would benefit from extra practice at home. They learned how to play "The Trading Game" and a price tag match game with me. Many students are comfortable adding dimes, nickels, and pennies. It's the quarter that gets a little tricky for some students. The students also played a few counting money games on the IPads.

Holiday Book and Sing-along

Mr. Jobst's dad came today and read a holiday book to the whole second grade. He brought his guitar and played a few holiday songs for us to sing-along with him. What fun!
Also, Santa wrote back to all the students today. It was very exciting when Dr. Parker delivered our letters that were still cold from the North Pole.

Dashing Around the World in December

Last week we traveled to six different countries and learned about their customs and cultures. It fits perfectly with Unit 3 in Social Studies. We visited Mexico, England, China, Germany, Sweden and Ethiopia. I'm sending home the travel journals today. The students took home their suitcases on Friday. Here's a few pictures from our travels.

Math News

Congratulations Peyton! She finished addition on Xtramath and is now on subtraction.
We finished Chapter 11 and we're moving on to counting money. You can help at home by having your child count groups of coins.

Thumbprint Stationery

We raised $50 for Angels' Arms by selling this stationery to our family and friends. Thank-you to all who donated!

The IPads are Here!

Wow! What a surprise we had today. Our iPads arrived and the students were eager to get started. We started the day with the students reading some ebooks on Storia from Scholastic.  While the students were at Technology class, I downloaded a few more apps. If you know of any good educational apps, please let me know.  Also, it would be great if every student could bring their own earbuds.  Check out our eager readers.

Math Review

We're reviewing adding and subtracting 2 digit numbers. We will have a math test on Friday, December 14th.

Elfie

We are so excited that we have an Elf on the Shelf. We named him Elfie and on Monday he watched over the class from the top of the doorway. On Tuesday and Wednesday Elfie hung from our class flag. Where will he be tomorrow?

Thumbprint Stationery

We made thumbprint stationery today. We're selling 10 sheets for $1.00 and the proceeds go to Angel's Arms.

Math News

Chapter 11 is on adding and subtracting 2 digit numbers with regrouping. We've been reviewing adding this week and next week we will go back to subtraction. The chapter 11 test will be on Friday, December 14th. Our next chapter is on counting money.

The students are doing great with Xtramath too! Hazel completed subtraction and is working on multiplication! Congratulations Hazel.

Winter Writing

We've been writing winter poems this week. The students also wrote why they would make a good reindeer on Santa's team. Check out these cute reindeer!

Collecting Stuff

We are collecting empty toilet paper rolls for an upcoming project. Please send them in by next Friday.
Thanks!

The Fabulous Four

Last week I introduced the class to Paula the Predictor. Like all good readers, Paula predicts before reading a book by looking at the title and the picture. Also, while reading Paula continues to predict what's happening in the story. Good readers change their predictions as they read when they find out more information.
Another part of the Fabulous Four is Clara the Clarifier. She rereads words or reads on to figure out words. She also collects words to clarify. Students look for words that they can read but aren't quite sure what they mean. By rereading the page and using context clues students clarify what words mean. You can help your child clarify words at home too. It's a great way to build your child's vocabulary.

Xtramath Math News and Test Reminder

Congratulations to Lucas and Julia! Julia completed addition and Lucas completed multiplication. I'm so proud of their hard work!  Tomorrow we will have a math test on 2 digit subtraction with regrouping! We reviewed today in class. Your child's review sheet was graded and sent home. Please look over any errors he/she made and practice for about 5 minutes tonight.

Math News

The students have been working hard as they learn to subtract 2 digit numbers with regrouping. This is a difficult concept for some students. Today we learned how to check our subtraction with addition and that was tricky for some students as they had to remember how to add 2 digit numbers with regrouping. Your child might need a little extra practice at home. We will be finishing the chapter this week and the test will be on Tuesday, December 4th. Since we were working on this hard concept, we were using gel pens to make it more fun! A special thank you to those who donated the gel pens!

Making Fossils

The students enjoyed making fossils with play dough and seashells. We reviewed for the test tomorrow with our Activotes too.

Science Review

We reviewed Chapter 5 today and we will review again tomorrow. I sent the review sheets home today and the Chapter 5 test will be on Friday, November 30th.

Flat Stanley Update

Flat Stanley has been traveling all over the United States. We enjoy getting the postcards, pictures and news of his travels. We're learning about so many different places in our country.

Xtramath News

Wow! Gabe finished addition yesterday and is on subtraction. Kai and Brian finished multiplication on Xtramath and are now on division. I'm so proud of my hard working students. Many students are still working away at addition and that's great. Our class goal is for all students to finish addition by March. Keep up the good work!

Library Skills

Mrs. Czaicki showed the students the nonfiction area today. She read the story "Librarian on the Roof" about a real librarian. The students also made some crazy pictures on the computer.

Silly Turkey Stories

The students wrote a silly animal story about a turkey. They also made a little turkey too.  Of course, we're adding adjectives to make the story more interesting. We're also capitalizing names of people and places.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!