3/15 to 3/19

 Hello,

If you did not get a chance to sign up for the upcoming conferences, please do so ASAP. Here is the link.

Also, I would love to prepare for the conferences using this survey to make the conferences as meaningful as I can for you. Here is the link to the survey to fill out by the end of this week.

Spelling Words this Week:

• thought
• whose
• their
• Mr.
• Mrs.

Upcoming Events:

3/14: Daylight Savings Time

3/17: Wear Green

3/19: Book Orders Due. You can also order online at https://clubs.scholastic.com/home Our class code is: QJMYM

Sorry for the quick ordering time. But I figured if you wanted books to put into Easter baskets I should put the order in soon so that they get to you in time!

3/19: Fill out survey for conferences

3/23: Protective Behaviors Talk

3/23 and 3/25: Virtual Conferences

3/26: Early Release

4/2: No School

4/5: No School

We have a busy week this week! We are starting a bunch of new units. Exciting things ahead!

In math we will be taking our Unit 5 test on Wednesday. That unit was on graphs and telling time. We will then start Unit 6 at the end of the week. Which will focus on place value up to 1000 and starting to add and subtract with 3 digit numbers.

In reading and writing we will be going back to nonfiction.  In reading students will be working in clubs to study different topics and share everything they learn around that topic with each other.  We are going to try some digital text for this unit.  These 2nd graders are 21st Century Learners and we are going to work to help them gain digital literacy skills. 

In writing we students will be exploring different structures of text that are written to teach the audience.  They will explore narrative text, comics, question and answer books, and more.  Then each writer will get to decide what structure they want to write their nonfiction text in.  

Both of these units will be highly motivational for students and a great way to “spice” up reading and writing this time of the year!!  

In researcher’s workshop we will be heading into a new unit, as well.  We will be exploring the states of matter!! 

3/8 to 3/12

 Hello,

Spelling Words this Week:

• thought
• won
• son
• whose
• head

Upcoming Events:

3/8-3/12: Last week of roller blading!

3/14: Daylight Savings Time

3/17: Wear Green

3/23: Protective Behaviors Talk

3/23 and 3/25: Virtual Conferences

3/26: Early Release

4/2: No School

Things to know:

Soon there will be a survey sent out about conferences.

This is to help me plan for conferences and make sure that we

discuss topics that you want to cover. I am excited to have the

opportunity to meet soon and update you on your child’s 2nd grade year.

That being said there will also be a link sent out soon to sign up

for conferences, be on the lookout for that as well!

Math: 

We will continue to practice telling time on both analog and digital clocks this week. But we are also adding in more work with data and graphs. We are learning that mathematicians collect data but then need to organize it and be able to answer questions about their data. We will collect some of our own data this week and get it ready to share!

Writing:

This week we are going to have an extra week of opinion writing. But now put it into practice! Kids can change the world! They have a lot of impact! We will be writing letters this week to authors to tell them our opinions about books and mail them out. It will be a fun way to wrap up opinion writing.

3/1 to 3/5

 Hello,

Happy March! 

Spelling Words this Week:

• favorite
• school
• reason
• great

Upcoming Events:

2/22-3/12: Bring in helmet and pads for gym class (we will keep these things at school)

3/1-3/5: Read Across America Week

3/2: Wear USA colors

3/3: Cozy Day

3/4: Virtual Family Night (see below)

3/5: NDLC Wear

3/26: Early Release

Math:

This week we are starting a new unit about telling time to the nearest 5 minutes and organizing data. This week we will focus on clocks, both analog and digital. We will look at how clocks are organized and have games that practice telling time. Any extra work you can do at home with clocks would be great! There are some great apps for practicing telling time but also talking to your kids about it and having them practice reading time at home is all great!

Writing:

This week we will start to wrap up writing our opinions about books. We have been working hard on convincing others to read books that we love. Giving our opinions about the characters, the lesson of the story, and our favorite parts. Then strengthening our opinions with quotes from others and comparing it to other books. Lots of great opinions!

Researcher’s Workshop:

In researcher’s workshop we are working on our geography unit and finding our place in the world, we are going to study our Kaukauna community. We will look at historic pictures of Kaukauna and ask questions about how it has changed and stayed the same. 

March Madness and Read Across America:

This first week of March we will celebrate Read Across America.  Each classroom picked a different author and read many books written by the author.  We studied Kevin Henkes.  Ask your student about this author and his books.  We also made a poster to share what we learned about him.  Each class did this for their author.  These posters will be displayed this week for classes to explore. 

Additionally, each classroom has nominated a book to be entered into our March Madness Competition.  The brackets are being created and we will read lots of books, voting for our favorites.

2/22 to 2/26

 Happy Monday!

It is about that time of the year where we start to dwindle on our supplies here at school. We are in need of a few things for our classroom at this time. We are in need of black dry erase markers and post-its. If you are willing to donate an item, that would be great!

Spelling Words this Week:

• favorite
• reason
• great
• away
• nothing

Upcoming Events:

2/22-3/12: Bring in helmet and pads for gym class (we will keep these things at school)

2/24: Wear yellow or purple

3/4: Virtual Family Night (see below)

3/26: Early Release

Math:

This week in math we will be finishing our big unit that included: subtraction, story problems, solving with money, and number families. We will take the test on Wednesday and be reviewing for a few days.

Social Studies:

We have started our new unit: Our Place in the World. We are studying our community including it's history and geography. We will study what makes our community unique from others.

Photos from February:

2/15 to 2/19

 Hello,

We had a busy couple of days but lots of fun! It was fun to celebrate 100 days at school and have a Valentines celebration. 

Spelling Words this Week:

• Earth
• different
• learn
• answer
• dear

Upcoming Events:

2/15: No School

2/16-2/19: Penny War: Bring in coins

2/19: Dress like your future job

2/22-3/12: Bring in helmet and pads for gym class (we will keep these things at school)

2/24: Wear yellow or purple

3/26: Early Release

Writing

In writing we continue to write opinion pieces focused around the books we read.  We have talked about how you can share your opinion about the characters, favorite parts, and pictures.  We often talk about our audience. We want to give them enough information but not tell them everything.

Ways to talk about this at home:

--What book did you recommend today in writing? Why did you recommend it?

--After reading a book together at home you could say, “Boy this would be a good book to recommend.  What might you share with your audience to get them excited to read this book?”

Reading

Last week we learned all about the characters in our books.  Getting to know them, identifying how they respond to different situations, noticing similarities and differences of a character across a series, and using what we know to predict what our characters might do. 

Students started their book clubs and had so much fun talking about the same book together!

Ways to talk about this at home:

--What book did you read today?  Are there more books in that series?

--Tell me about your favorite character in your book?  Would you want to be friends with them? Why or why not?

--What book is your book club reading?  What was something new you are thinking about from your book club conversation?

Math

In math we are starting to work on transferring our skills of adding and subtracting multi digit numbers into story problems.  Story problems tend to present more of a struggle for students. We working on stopping to study a problem before trying to solve.

2/8-2/11

 Hello,

Hope you are staying warm this week!

 Spelling Words this Week:

• Earth
• different
• learn
• answer
• dear

Here are a few fun ways to practice spelling words at home:

Upcoming Events:

2/10: 100th Day of School! Students can dress like they are 100!
2/11: Wear red or pink
2/11: Valentine Celebration: Students will not be able to bring valentines from home but we are doing something as a school to help make the celebration special!
2/12: No School

2/15: No School

2/16-2/19: Penny War

2/19: Dress like your future job

2/22-3/12: Bring in helmet and pads for gym class (we will keep these things at school)

2/24: Wear yellow or purple

Writing

We are starting an Opinion Unit in writing.  This unit will have students reflecting on their reading, writing letters to others to recommend books, and helping them be able to build reasons for their opinions. 

Reading

We are also starting a new unit in reading.  This next unit helps students dig into series book clubs.  Students will work with peers to converse and grow their knowledge about the books they are reading.  We will also work to stick with a series to get to know the characters and use what we know to be able to predict what will happen.

I want to encourage you students to continue reading 20 minutes a night.

2/1-2/5

 Hello,

Thank you for doing the weekend homework of interviewing your family. If you did not get a chance to do it this weekend, please try to get it done soon! We are going to put together a Family Slideshow!

And I am sure you heard at home but if you didn't... we welcomed a new pet to our classroom. A fish! We named him Silver Cutie Tuma. There is a picture of him below!

We also welcomed back some students from virtual school these past few weeks. It is so nice for students to have more friends to play with and to fill up our room a little more!

 Spelling Words this Week:

• world
• different
• down
• answer

Upcoming Events:

2/1: Report Cards Sent Home (check for these in folders)

2/10: 100th Day of School! Students can dress like they are 100!
2/11: Wear red or pink
2/11: Valentine Celebration: Students will not be able to bring valentines from home but we are doing something as a school to help make the celebration special!
2/12: No School

2/15: No School

2/16-2/19: Penny War (see below)

Penny War

It’s a Penny War! 

Student Council is sponsoring a Penny War from February 16th-19th to raise money for Pillars Warming Shelter. Students can bring in pennies to earn points for their own class and silver coins to subtract points from other classes. 

Photos From January: