November 3 - 7

Dates to Remember...

No School on Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 3 & 4

Return Reading logs no later than Wednesday, Nov. 5
Mon. Nov. 10 - Picture Retakes
Thurs. Nov. 21 - 2nd Grade Concert
Wed. Nov. 25 - 28 - No School  Thanksgiving Break

Positive Paw Winner - Filip N.
Estimation Jar Winner - Ashlyn M.

Thank You for meeting with me during Parent Teacher conferences!  It was wonderful to be able to share your child's progress and hopefully I answered some questions you may have had.  

Math
We will continue working with Mental Addition this week.  We'll Look for patterns to solve problems, review, take a chapter test on Friday.  Our next chapter will focus on Mental Subtraction.  

Fast Facts will be a review this week of doubles, near doubles, 2s, 3s. and 4s. 

Reading
As we continue working with our text, Owen and Mzee, we'll work on summarizing this week.  Please remember to return October reading logs by Wednesday, Nov. 5.  Our class voted to have lunch in the room as their reward this month!

Science
We are focusing on the Essential Question, What are Rocks, Sand, and Soil?  We have done investigations observing weathering, comparing the physical properties of minerals, and this week we'll learn about the many different types of soils.  

 Halloween Fun

Thank you to Mrs. Harvat for planning a great Halloween party for us!  The kids decorated pumpkin buckets, played games, and had yummy treats! Thanks to Mrs. Doudourekas, Mrs. Peterson, Mrs. Urias, and Mrs. Jonauskas for helping with games and refreshments.  Thanks also to Mrs. Barowski, Mrs. Mesker, Mrs. Bende, and Mrs. Butterfield for sending in juice and paper goods, and treats. Arianna brought in fun goody bags for the whole class!  We had a great afternoon!

Enjoy the long weekend!  

October 27 - 31

A Trip to the Fire Station!  Fireman Jamie gave us a great tour of the DWFD this week!  We even heard the alarm and watched as a fire truck responded to a call.  Thank you to our local fire department for a great afternoon!

Musical Reminder ~ Ms. Wyse would like each student to bring a small flashlight to use for the program next month.  The students are using them now to practice.  It will be returned after the concert.  Thank You!

Dates to Remember

Week of October 27 - Parent Teacher Conferences
Thurs. Oct. 30 - Spooky Story Day  Wear black or orange and bring a Halloween
                        book from home if you have one.
Friday, Oct. 31 - Halloween Costume Parade  1:45
                         Classroom Party  2:00
Mon. Nov. 3 - No School due to Parent Teacher Conferences
Tues.  Nov. 4 - No School  Institute Day
Mon. Nov. 10 - Picture Retakes

Math 
This week we'll begin Topic 6, Mental Addition.  We'll begin by adding tens, then ones using the strategy mental math.  Next, we'll add 2 digit numbers using a hundreds chart.  This can be a difficult concept for some 2nd graders.  Please check your child's homework while they are working and help them if needed. Fast facts this week are +4.    

Reading
We're continuing to work with the text, Owen and Mzee this week.  Our focus will be on text features, which we will record in our booklets.  We'll discuss the author's message in the book and relate it to the essential question, "How can stories help us learn life lessons?"

We'll use a Venn diagram this week to compare the characters Owen and Mzee. Remember to return October reading logs on Friday, October 31.  

Grammar lessons will focus on Irregular and Collective Nouns.  

Halloween Reminder
We will have an all school costume parade around the building (weather permitting) at 1:45 on Friday.  Everyone is invited.  Our classroom party will follow at 2:00.  Due to limited space, only parents who have volunteered to help with games at the party will be allowed to stay.  

Halloween costumes should be brought to school in a bag and should be easy to put on over clothing.  No make up will be applied at school and toy weapons are not allowed.  

Positive Paw Winner - Aleck 
Estimation Jar Winner - Mikella
New Student of the Week - Arianna

October 20 - 25

Dates to Remember

Tues. Oct. 21 - Field trip to the Darien/Woodridge Fire Station

Friday, Oct. 24 - PTO Family Halloween Party  6:30 pm

Week of October 27 - Parent Teacher Conferences

Thurs. Oct. 30 - Spooky Story Day

Friday, October 31 - All school costume parade  1:45
                              Classroom Party  2:00

2nd Grade Concert  
Please remember to send a flashlight for your child to use during the concert.  It will be returned after the program!  

Reading 
Next week we will discuss the author's purpose for writing.  We'll learn to look carefully at the unlikely friends in Owen and Mzee.  Owen, a frightened young hippo was separated from his family during a tsunami, and bonded with a tortoise named Mzee. 

Grammar lessons will focus on possessive nouns.  

Writing - We'll be writing Halloween stories about our costumes or scary stories.  
Math 
We will continue to work on place value and numbers to 100.  This week we'll identify and write numbers that are 10 more and 10 less than given numbers. We'll identify odd and even numbers and use data from a chart to solve problems.   

Fast facts are "+3" this week.  Continue to practice math facts at home!  

Estimation Jar Winners - Arianna and Charlie
Positive Paw winner - TJ Harvat
New Student of the Week - Gage

Reminder ~ Progress Reports should be signed and returned as soon as possible.

October 13 - 17

Parent Teacher Conference Sign Up!!

Parent Teacher Conferences are the week of October 27.  Sign up will be online through Sign Up Genius. You should have received an email and link earlier today.  If you did not, please let me know.  

Progress Reports were sent home with all students today.  Please sign and return it to school on Tuesday.  

Dates to Remember

Monday, Oct. 12 - No School  Columbus Day

Tuesday, Oct. 21 - Field trip to DWFD  12:45  Please return permission slip asap

Friday, Oct. 24 - PTO Halloween Party

Week of Oct. 27 - Parent Teacher Conferences

Friday, Oct. 31 - All School Parade 1:40  Everyone is invited! 
                        Classroom Halloween Parties  2:00 - 3:00

Musical  Our 2nd grade musical will be held in the Lakeview gym on Thursday, November 20.  Ms. Wyse is asking each student to bring a small flashlight to school to be used for the concert.  I will store them in our room and they will be returned after the concert.  

Math  We finished the week with a topic test on subtraction strategies.  Our next topic will focus on Place value to 100.  We'll start by modeling tens and ones, then look for different ways to read and write the same number.  We'll also use symbols to compare numbers ( <, >, and = ).  

Reading  This week we will read Owen and Mzee.  It is a story about 2 animals that formed a bridge of friendship, that also helped them live happier lives. Students will learn to look for information to determine the author's purpose. We'll discus context clues and different strategies to find the meaning of unknown words in a text.  

Grammar lessons will focus on plural nouns this week.  

Estimation Jar Winner - Lindsy
New Student of the Week - Sean
Positive Paw Winner - Gage

Have a great fall weekend!

It's October!

Reading
We're going to do our first close read this week using the text, Weird Friends: Unlikely Allies in the Animal Kingdom.  Close reading is a careful and purposeful rereading of a text to "dig deeper".  We'll read the text 3 times and look for a different purpose each time.  

Grammar lessons will focus on proper nouns.  

I'm so proud of our class!  Almost every student returned their September reading log!  They enjoyed having a Show & Tell Day today!  Next week we'll vote on a reward for October!  Thank you for your support in filling them out at home.  

Thank you for filling out the Name Jar information this week.  We had some wonderful conversations about the origin of the students' names!  Students wrote in their journals about their names!

Math
We have been working on Subtraction Strategies.  This week we'll continue to relate addition to subtraction as well as to problem solve with 2 step problems. We'll have a topic review near the end of the week, then begin Topic 4, Working with Equal Groups.

Dates To Remember:

Tuesday, October 7 - Literacy Night at Ide  5:45 pm
Wednesday, Oct. 8 - Picture Day
Friday, Oct. 10 - Early Dismissal  12:00
Monday, Oct. 13 - No School  Columbus Day
Tuesday, October 21 - Field Trip to the Fire Station
Friday, October 24 - PTO Family Halloween Party at Ide


New Student of the Week - Ashlyn

Positive Paw Winner - Alyssa

Estimation Jar Winners - Lindsy, Sean, Cam, and Gio

Have a great weekend!