February Happenings

The month of February will be a busy one.  On Thursday of this week we will be celebrating our 100th day of school and will be spending the day doing various activities connected to the number 100 and hope to have a visit from Zero the Hero.  The Scholastic Book Fair will take place during the week of February 10th.  Monday, the 10th will be preview day.  Our class is scheduled to buy their books on Wednesday, February 12th.  In addition to that, the book fair will be open after school on some days if you would like to visit the fair to purchase books for your child.  On Friday, February 14th, we will have our Hands On Nature lesson in the morning.  Our Valentine's Day Party will be in the afternoon at 1:30 pm.  You will find a class list in this week's Friday Folder.  It is not mandatory that your child make valentines, but if they choose to do so please make sure they include a valentine for every student in the class.

Please remember to join us this Friday at 1:30 for our Portfolio Sharing Party.  Another reminder that parent/teacher conferences are scheduled for February 10th.  If you can not make a conference that day, please let me know by this Monday so I can set one up for this coming week.  The following two weeks are very busy and it will be difficult for me to set one up for those weeks.  
Have a great weekend!

Diving Into Non-Fiction Text!

With another week of cold weather upon us it has been difficult to get outside for recess.  We have been making the best of this time with indoor activities in our kiva space.  All of my friends have been doing a terrific job making this a fun and safe time.  We are hopeful that we will be able to get outside again sometime next week and do some running around!
Miss Blair has continued teaching us about non-fiction text this week.  We will continue this learning during Reader's Workshop and will also move into this during Writer's Workshop with the completion of our Opinion Writing unit this week.  Next week we will spend this time creating e-books about a topic we are an expert on using Ipads.  We hope to have those finished and ready to share with our families in a couple weeks.
A huge thank you to Melissa Makay for her work with Junior Great Books in our classroom.  Melissa is currently spending two weeks with one of our guided reading groups reading and doing activities through this program.  Our plan is for her to return sometime in March and help bring this wonderful program to all readers in our classroom. Melissa is a former classroom teacher and we feel very lucky to have her volunteering her time in our classroom.
Almost all of our Flat Stanleys have now returned from their adventures in the United States and abroad.  This week we had one return from Ireland and another from Sweden.  What a wonderful opportunity this has been for us to learn about other areas of the world!
Our new math unit focused on place value to one thousand is going well.  We will continue to work with manipulatives to gain a strong understanding of thousands over the next few weeks. 
Please make sure you sign up for a parent/teacher conference soon.  February is just around the corner.  These will be the last "official" conference I will be having with you before your child goes to third grade.  Because of this, I am requesting that you not bring your child with you.  I would like to have an opportunity to talk more openly about your child's progress with you and give you some good indicators of progress, strengths and areas for continued growth.  We will be having a portfolio sharing time the Friday (2/7) before this conference.  This is planned for 1:30 pm and will be an opportunity for your children to share their portfolios and the work they are proud of in second grade. 
Have a great weekend!

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Hands On Nature-Snowflakes!

This week we finished up our Physical Geography Unit, but have not received all of our Flat Stanley's back.  We will continue to share those over the next few weeks as they are delivered.  On Thursday we will begin a science unit called "Sticky Situations:  Building Walls".
We also finished our Measurement Unit in math and will begin a unit that is focused on place value to one thousand.  We will continue to learn about opinion writing and non-fiction text in literacy.
A huge thank you to Anne Marco and Maura Crawford for a terrific Hands On Nature lesson about snowflakes.  We learned about how snowflakes are formed and had an opportunity to make paper snowflakes.
We have been enjoying hearing about everyone's Hopes and Dreams for the next year during our morning share this month.  These shares have been very thoughtful and the ideas have been very attainable.
Miss Blair was very excited to receive the many letters that included book recommendations for this week's homework.  She has taken them home for the weekend so she can spend some time reading them and responding.  Miss Blair has been enjoying getting to know everyone and learning about our classroom.  She taught a terrific lesson about non-fiction text features that was greatly enjoyed by everyone.
Have a great weekend!

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