Winter Highlights and Monthly News

SECOND GRADE McMONTHLY NEWS

February, 2014

 

 

100 Day and other

Notable Events in February

 

 Incredibly, the 100th day of school should arrive on Friday, February 7th! (date updated after Wednesday's snow day) The second graders will be cheering on the first graders, as the first graders dress up as if they were 100 years old!  (The 2^nd graders enjoyed that last year!)

The second graders continue with their efforts to bring in 4 cans of rice (each student) if they are able by Thursday, February 6th.  This will help our whole school’s effort in contributing 100 of several items to those in need.

Last week, we jumped back into the science principles of Matter with a wonderful presentation entitled “What’s the Matter?” by the Stamford Nature Center.  We thank Lisa Piersol and Karla Schimmeck for helping us on such short notice.  The students learned about the properties of Matter and performed many cool experiments!  We are thankful to the Enrichment Committee for making the event possible. 

 

 

VALENTINES DAY

 

With Valentines Day just around the corner (Friday, February 14^th), all students are encouraged to make/buy Valentines for one another.  We will be celebrating in school.  Feel free to bring in Valentines early if they’re ready.  Please try to have all Valentines in by Wednesday, February 12^th.  A class checklist is included in today’s student mailboxes.

 

LANGUAGE ARTS

 

We have had a few changes with our Word Study spelling words.  Due to our inconsistent New England weather and our fast-paced schedule, several groups will be practicing lists for 2 weeks.  This extra practice with our tricky patterns will help us with writing as well as reading.  

*Please remind children to check their work – remind them that when they re-read words they’ve written, they need to be sure to have at least 1 vowel in every syllable of a word.

 

In reading, we have recently wrapped up our character unit, but will continue to dig deeper into our books – both fiction and non-fiction, paying close attention to the author’s message for the characters, the bigger lessons that we can learn,  retelling important parts, and the text features  of non-fiction books.  We will also work on word accuracy and fluency.

In writing, we are thoroughly enjoying starting to write convincing letters about some of our favorite books, real-life interests or opinions in our Writing About Reading/Persuasive Writing unit.  We actually do a lot of persuading without even realizing it!  Most importantly, we are learning to prove, or explain why we feel a certain way. 

MATH

 

We continue with work “reading” tables and charts and recognizing shapes in our unit of “How Many Floors/How Many Rooms” unit.  Your children will use architecture skills as they create cube buildings and sketch floorplans in our current unit, focusing on growing patterns with ratios and equal groups  (our secret -  A hint of repeated addition/ multiplication concepts) and repeating patterns and number sequences.



BIRTHDAYS

Thurs., Feb. 6:   Ashley Stockdale

Mon., Feb. 10:  Connor Harwick

 

REMINDERS

 

 

Fri., Feb. 7:  100^th Day of School

Fri., Feb. 7:  Scholastic Due

       So orders will arrive before break

Fri., Feb. 7:  100^th Day Can contributions

Fri., Feb. 14:  2^nd marking period ends

Fri, Feb. 14: Valentine Celebration

Feb. 17 - 21:Presidents Week/ Vacation

Mon., Feb. 24:  Conference sign-up notes home

Fri., March 7^th:  Progress Reports Home

Wed.,Feb. 26:Author Visit, Brian Pinkney

SPECIAL NOTES

 

·         Please remember to include all your classmates when you make/write your Valentines!

·         We will be making 100^th Day creations in class; no need to send in any goodies.

·         When the chilly/snowy weather comes, please label all cold weather gear and send to school with your child in some kind of “snow gear bag.”  Thank you for helping the children stay organized with their belongings!

·         Thank you for your support in sending in the “Box Tops for Education.” Please keep them coming!  This year, the Student Council is not counting by classes; they are having a school-wide goal of collecting box tops!

• Continued thanks to our Room Moms, Elizabeth Svedlund and Jane Glassmeyer, and for all Volunteers!

 

 

January McMonthly News

***Please send in one old shoebox with a lid.  Thank you!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

It’s so nice to be back with the children again!  In Social Studies, we will focus on our own classroom community as we begin Superstar of the Week and learn new tidbits about one another.  We will also continue promoting STAR traits and will start “catching” people doing random acts of kindness in our classroom as well as the whole school.

LANGUAGE ARTS

This month, we continue to dig deeper into literature as we study characters, the deeper meaning of stories, and what important lessons we can learn from some authors.  We will do this in reading as well as writing our Realistic Fiction stories.  We will also start practicing cursive handwriting!

MATH

We have been working with tens and ones, in trying to understand place value concepts.  We soon will work on being scientific mathematicians as we collect data, organize information, and set our info to equations.  Along the way, we’ll dabble in basic clock concepts, coins, and fact families.

JANUARY BIRTHDAYS 

We will be celebrating all summer half birthdays this month!

 

July 11:  Rigs Conze

July 7:  Sydney Du

July 26:  Ryan Girlamo

August 1:   Jack Wood

REMINDERS

Mon., Jan. 13:  Scholastic orders due

 

Mon., Jan. 20: Martin Luther King Day/

 

                No School/No Word Study

 

Fri., Jan. 24:  Shoeboxes due

 

Thurs. Jan. 30:  Activity Afternoon

SPECIAL NOTES

• Please label any extra gear, such as boots, snowpants, mittens, and hats.  
• “Box Tops for Education” are being collected by the Student Council.  You will see the red and white rectangular shapes on certain types of packaged food boxes.  Please check the expiration date, cut them out, and send them in with your children so they can help earn $$ for our school or a worthy need connected to Darien Public Schools.
• Thank you, Volunteers, especially during our busy month of December!  Thank you in advance for this exciting, second part of the year!
• SUPERSTAR OF THE WEEK  is a chance for the students to have a portion of a week that is special for them, so the rest of their classmates can honor them (and perhaps learn something new about their friends).  The students are picked at random the week prior and a letter will be sent home that describes what it’s all about.  Basically, it’s a chance for them to bring a treasure or two from home to school for 3 days of a week.  It’s a good idea for the Superstar to have 2 or 3 reasons why it’s a special treasure (perhaps a notecard will help, but they don’t have to do that, nor do they have to do a poster.) 
• Regular Friday sharing will only take place if students write out a few sentences on their treasures.
• New Year Student Tip to Build up Vocabulary and Word Study Patterns:  Keep track of your words by writing them down in a notebook at home and then reviewing old words as each new week begins.  You will feel proud of all you know!
• Beginning this month, all children are encouraged to take more pride in their work in not rushing, being careful, neat, and checking their work.  Our homework packet is expected to be turned in on Fridays, but children can earn homework passes if they feel they need to skip a night.
• I feel very proud of your children!  They work hard, and they are kind, compassionate students!

 

 

December McMonthly News

 

Students are welcome to bring PJs, bathrobes, and slippers for the Holiday Party 12/18

Reading and Writing

The second grade readers and writers have had a blast with our non-fiction units.  They’ve discovered that they are experts at many things and have been writing lots of “How-To” and “All About” informational books.  We are sure that some of them will continue with their interest in their spare time!

In reading, we will start to pay closer attention to what characters want and need.  We are noticing their traits, feelings, and are learning more about everything that happens in a story by closely following characters and their adventures throughout a book.

We will soon begin Realistic Fiction writing, where we can write about characters that face real-life problems.  We can even take something that happened and stretch that story a little bit, and then can “try out” different ways the problems can get solved. 

 

Math

We have been working so hard with numbers:  problem solving with tricky number stories, adding more than two numbers at a time, learning how to combine numbers differently and split them up, in order to make addition and subtraction a little easier. We will now work more with skip counting by twos, fives, and tens, odds, evens, and place value with tens and ones.

 

Social Studies and other News

We have concentrated on our nation’s events and respect in our school community.  With the election, we have learned what communities in U.S. states do, along with our own town community.  In Science, we’ve dipped into matter and experimented with different objects in force and motion.

 

DECEMBER BIRTHDAYS

Fri., Dec. 27:         Griffith Crouse

Sun., Dec. 29:           Riley Meyer

 

REMINDERS

Tues., Dec. 2:  Author Visit, Peter Lourie

Dec. 3 – 6:     Conferences, short days

Mon., Dec. 9:   Scholastic Orders due

Wed., Dec. 18:  Class Holiday Party

Students are welcome to bring PJs, bathrobes, and slippers

Fri., Dec. 20:  Early Dismissal

12/21 – 1/1/14 – December break, no school

 

DECEMBER CAMPAIGNS 

• Toys for Tots – Sponsored by; U.S. Marine Corps  - bring in unwrapped toys for needy children  (toddlers through teens) through Dec. 13^th.

• Gingerbread Classes are 12/9-12/13.  Lots of fun!

• Scholastic Book Clubs: I only received one catalog in the mail this month, but there are still many other catalogs from which to choose online.  This month’s deadline is the morning of Monday, Dec. 9^th so that those books will arrive before we depart for Dec. vacation (you can still order after that, but your books might not arrive prior to the break.)  Each month, there are many other wonderful book choices listed in specialty catalogs, in addition to the usual 2 or 3 catalogs which are sent home in the children’s school mail.  If any catalogs for which you are searching do not appear as the top recommended, they are still available by selecting the “Shop By Flyer” option at the top of the Parent’s page next to your child’s name.  (For example, if you’d like to order from a previous month’s catalog, you can still do so.)

 

SPECIAL NOTES

 

·         I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

·         Thank you in advance for your time during Conference week!

• Continued thanks to our Room Moms, Elizabeth Svedlund and Jane Glassmeyer!
• Continued thanks to all volunteers and for all the work you do with your children at home!
• Thank you for your new Playground support!

 

 







NOVEMBER MCMONTHLY NEWS

      ***Please wear Patriotic colors this Thursday, Nov. 7^th

       and next Monday, Nov. 11^th to honor our Veterans***

         ***BOOK FAIR this Wednesday through Friday***

 

 

We welcomed Halloween with open arms and had a fantastic time celebrating!  Now, our thoughts focus on being thankful and embracing this wonderful time of year.

 

 

 

Writing

We have been working on Informational writing, beginning with “How To” books.  We are experts at many things, so we’re excited to continue writing “All About” books revolving around topics we know well, as well as topics which we will research.  (Many of us have been doing this already during our extension block as a special interest!)

Reading

Our reading also takes us to non-fiction topics.  We continue working on strategies for tricky words, but we’re also paying attention to non-fiction features and how we can learn so much more than we imagined by really paying close attention!

Math

 

2-D and 3-D shapes have been our recent focus, and we’ve made some cool creations with pattern blocks (geoblocks).  We’re also adding to our vocabulary, as we learn about quadrilaterals, measuring the area of a rectangle (by pretending it’s a chocolate bar!), the difference between rows and columns, and much more!  We are moving on to more sophisticated work and explaining our thinking with adding “strings” of numbers, breaking apart bigger numbers to add and subtract, and using real-life story problems to help us understand and think through these concepts.

Social Studies, Science,

and other News

We have begun our Time for Kids issues and love learning about some important current events (and ways to understand magazines and other non-fiction text.) 

Our recent science enrichment program was fantastic, with many experiments with force and motion.  We learn more about composting soon! Spanish is also muy bien! There’s so much going on!

 

 

NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS

 

Wed, Nov. 20:  Gregory Garabet

Fri., Nov. 22:  Bo Vrooman

Sat., Nov. 30:  Sofia Schimmeck

 

 

REMINDERS

Tues., Nov. 5:  Election Day,

No School for Students; Staff Dev.

Wed. – Fri., Nov. 6-8:  Book Fair

Thurs., Nov. 7:  Veterans Day Program

Fri., Nov. 15:  Scholastic Orders due (just in case you didn’t find anything at the Book Fair!)

Wed., Nov. 27:  Progress Reports Home; Early Dismissal

Thurs. – Fri., Nov. 28 – 29:  Thanksgiving Break, no school

SPECIAL NOTES

 

• Thank you, Everyone, for participating in Fall for Math last month!
    
  
• Thank you for helping with the Soldier Care Packages, Unicef collection, and Unicef Boograms!

 

 

 

·         Thank you, Families, for your help in making our Halloween celebration a success!

• Continued thanks to our Room Moms, Jane Glassmeyer and Elizabeth Svedlund!
• Continued thanks to all volunteers and for all the work you do with your children at home!
• Scholastic Book Clubs: There are many other wonderful book choices listed in specialty catalogs, in addition to the usual 2 or 3 catalogs which are sent home in the children’s school mail.  If any catalogs for which you are searching do not appear as the top recommended, they are still available by selecting the “Shop By Flyer” option at the top of the Parent’s page next to your child’s name.  (For example, if you’d like to order an older catalog, you can still do so.)
• Dreambox Info is attached from Central Office

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a Terrific Team!

BOO!

Halloween is just around the corner!
Boograms are due this Friday, October 18th!

MR. FORSHAW'S INFO

Please check The Hoot for Mr. Forshaw's link to some information on our Investigations program!

A free parent workshop is being offered at Teachers College for project schools on Tuesday, October 29^th.   If you're interested, please contact Jean Clinton or Jackie Doty.  Here is a link to the event description: http://readingandwritingproject.com/workshops-study-groups/event-details.html?id=523

Overview of K-5 Curriculum

Meet the Literacy, Math and Technology Curriculum Coordinators for the elementary schools.  Learn how curriculum has been adjusted for the Connecticut Common Core State Standards, how instruction is shifting to prepare students for the Smarter Balance assessments in 2014-15, and how technology is supporting students in this learning.

Sponsored by
Darien Public Schools K-5 Parent Workshop Series

Save The Dates

Darien Public Schools K-5 Parent Workshop Series 2013-2014

OVERVIEW OF K-5 CURRICULUM October 15 at 7:00 PM* & October 16 at 9:30 AM Hindley School *note change in date

STANDARDS OF PRACTICE IN MATHEMATICS November 20 at 9:30 AM & December 11 at 7:00 PM Holmes School

READING & WRITING CONNECTIONS January 8 at 9:30 AM (snow date 1/22) & January 29 at 7:00 PM (snow date 2/12) Royle School

TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT LEARNING March 26 at 9:30 AM & April 2 at 7:00 PM Ox Ridge School