Pajama Day!

It was PJ Day today!!  The kids looked adorable in their comfy pajamas. 











Elizabeth Ide Book Drive
Families are being asked to donate any gently used books to our book drive!  All books will be donated to Whitehead Elementary School, Mr. Lazar's former school.  We will accept donations until Feb. 27th.  What a great way to not only clean out your bookshelves, but share literacy with others.  

Scholastic Book Order
If you plan to order books from Scholastic, I will finalize the order on Wednesday, Feb. 11.  You may order online, or send a check to school with a paper order.  

Dates to Remember

Wed. Feb. 4 - Jumprope for Heart Assembly
Feb 9 & 10 - Parent Teacher conferences
Thurs. Feb. 12 - Classroom Valentine Party  2:00
Fri. Feb. 13 - No School due to P/T Conferences
Mon. Feb. 16 - No School  Presidents' Day
Fri. Feb. 27 - Dr. Seuss Day - Wear backwards or mismatched clothes and 
                    bring your favorite Dr. Seuss book to read.

Volunteers are needed for the Valentine Party on Thursday, Feb. 12.  If you would like to help with the party, please contact  Mrs. Harvat.  We would love to have you join us!

Valentines - The students will be exchanging valentines on Thurs. Feb. 12. Please have your child sign their name to the back of 19 valentines.  No need to address them.  Send them to school anytime.  

Six Flags Reading Logs - If you are participating in Six Flags Read to Succeed program, remember to record your reading on the gold student reading log. They must be returned by Monday, Feb. 23, to qualify for a free ticket.  Any questions, let me know.  

Our class has won the Boxtop Treat Day Reward - We collected the most boxtops of all the 2nd grade classes!  YEAH!!  We have earned a treat, and the class has voted to have donuts next Friday, Feb. 6.  Thank you for sending in boxtops and remember ~ the contest is not over.  Final winners will enjoy a pizza party!  Keep collecting!  

Volunteers are needed for the Valentine Party on Thursday, Feb. 12.  If you would like to help with the party, please contact  Mrs. Harvat.  We would love to have you join us!

Valentines - The students will be exchanging valentines on Thurs. Feb. 12. Please have your child sign their name to the back of 19 valentines.  No need to address them.  Send them to school anytime.  

Positive Paw Winner - Gage
Student of the Week - Charlie
Estimation Jar Winners - Joseph, Alyssa, Ashlyn, and Ariella 

Google Maps - Our class used Chrome Books again and this time we searched National Monuments as a follow up to our Social Studies lesson on monuments. The kids enjoyed exploring some of our nation's famous monuments up close! 

Math 
We will continue to work with adding and subtracting three digit numbers this week.  We'll practice this skill in vertical format, with mental math, and by estimating sums and differences.  

Reading
This week we'll be discussing an article titled, Little Free Libraries.  Our Essential Question for the week is, Can small acts bring a community together?  We'll be doing a close read of the article, looking for text evidence to support our answers, and working with new vocabulary:  stunning, encourage, contain, public and variety.  

Jan 26 - 30

Dates to Remember                                                                     

Thurs. Jan. 29 - Literacy Night
Fri. Jan. 30 - Reading Incentive Pajama Day 
Feb. 9 & 10 - Parent Teacher Conferences
Thurs. Feb. 12 - Classroom Valentine Parties
Fri. Feb. 13 - No School 
Mon. Feb. 16 - No School  Presidents' Day

Valentine Mailboxes
Each child will be decorating a shoe box for our valentines.  Please send in a shoe box (and an extra if you have one) and put your child's name on the inside. Thank you!  

Estimation Jar Winner - Cam
Positive Paw Winner - Marifer 
New Student of the Week - Aidan

Math - This week we'll move on to topic 11, Three Digit Addition and Subtraction.   Fact Fluency, as you know, is very important.  Students who need to improve their subtraction accuracy and speed will have additional homework sent home to practice during the week.  Heads up for that paper to come home from time to time.  It doesn't need to be timed at home, just completed and returned as homework.  

Several good websites are listed on our classroom blog under Student Links (to practice math facts). Any of them are great practice.  

Website - This week we went on a new math site, Jonnie's Math Page, and the kids asked me to share the link.  It's also linked to our blog under Student Links.  It has tons of games to practice different math skills.

Social Studies - We'll begin the week with a review and chapter test over our unit Our Country Today.  We've been learning about our local, state, and federal government.  

Reading - We'll be doing a writing workshop this week and focusing on Opinion Writing.  We'll be reading Hey, Little Ant and I Wanna Iguana.  We'll learn how to write an opinion statement and support it with reasons and details.  Our final activity will be to write a paragraph after choosing our favorite canine character, Gloria or Aero.  

                    

Jan 19 - 23

Dates to Remember

Mon. Jan. 19 - No School  Martin Luther King b-day
Tues. Jan. 20 - Sign up online for Conferences
Fri. Jan. 23 - *  Progress Notes 
                          sent home with students not meeting grade
                          level expectations
                           *  PTO Trivia Night
Thurs. Jan. 29 - Literacy Night at Ide 6 - 7:30 pm
Fri. Jan. 30 -  * Pajama Day
                    * PTO Bunko Night

Parent Teacher Conferences
Conferences are held on an "as needed" basis.  If you receive an invitation email on Tuesday, Jan. 20, please follow the link to sign up at your convenience.  If you have any questions, let me know.  

If you are not sent an invitation, that just means that I don't have any specific concerns right now.  As always, if you would like a conference or have a concern, feel free to contact me.  

Valentine Mailboxes
We will be decorating valentine mailboxes in a few weeks!  Each student needs to bring in an empty shoebox, preferably one with a separate lid.  Please write your child's name inside the box and send it anytime.  Thank you!

Math
This week we will be skip counting by different amounts using a number line as well as using patterns to identify the next number.  We'll also be comparing 3 digit numbers and we'll end the week with a topic review.  

Fast Facts - We will now move on to subtraction fast facts.  Continue to work on fact fluency at home with all the math facts.  Timed tests are given to the students weekly.  
This week's fast facts:     12 - 2       11 - 2       10 - 2       9 - 2
                                      8 - 2          7 - 2        6 - 2        5 - 2    

Reading
Our story this week is Officer Mike and Aero.  It is a nonfiction story about a police officer and his canine companion.  Our comprehension strategy is inferencing.  Grammar focus will be on prefixes and suffixes.  


Positive Paw Winners - Lindsy & Ashlyn

New Student of the Week - Alyssa

Estimation Jar Winners - Gage, Aidan, and Alyssa

January Birthdays - Alyssa  Jan. 4
                             Mikella - Jan. 29

Let It Snow!!

Dates to Remember

January 12 - 16 - Benchmark Testing ~ Reading and Math
Thurs. Jan. 15 - Vision and Hearing Screening
Fri. Jan. 16 - Early Dismissal  SIP Day
Mon. Jan. 19 - No School  MLK b-day
Thurs. Jan. 29 - Literacy Night at IDE  
Fri. Jan. 30 - Reading Incentive Pajama Day

Reminder

If your child wears boots to school, please send gym shoes in their backpack to change into.  We have PE each day and gym shoes are necessary.  

Reading

We'll continue our story, Officer Buckle and Gloria, this week.  We'll focus on summarizing, main idea, and contractions.   Students will also be taking the Benchmark Reading and Math tests this week.  Please be sure they get appropriate rest and eat a good lunch/snack this week.  

Math

Our week will begin with a new topic, Place Value to 1,000.  We'll begin by determining the value of a digit in a 3 digit number.  We will also read and write numbers to 1,000 and add tens and hundreds to a given number.  

Fast facts this week will be "Add 9".  After this week, we'll move to subtraction fast facts.  

Positive Paw Winner - Lindsy
Estimation Jar Winners - TJ and Filip