January 4 - 8

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to each of you!  Have a wonderful, relaxing time with your family over the holiday break.

Thank you to all the parents who sent in cookies and appetizers for our annual cookie exchange.  The treats were delicious and I took home a wonderful assortment of yummy cookies.  Thank you very much!  

Reading - When we return from holiday break we will 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.  

Reading logs for December are due on Monday, January 4.  The students voted to have a Crazy Clothes Day as their reward for completing their home reading logs.

Math - Our next math chapter will focus on problem solving and story problems.  The students will be using drawings to create a story problems.  Continue to work on math facts over the holiday break.  Many students need lots of practice.  

Dates to Remember

Dec. 21 - Jan. 3 - No School  Holiday Break

Mon. Jan. 4 - School Resumes

Fri. Jan. 15 - Early Dismissal

Mon. Jan. 18 - No School MLK Holiday

Positive Paw Winner - Chistine

New Student of the Week  - David

Estimation Jar Winners -  Jack W. and Grant

Junior Achievement Day - Mr. Jose Gonzalez, a training facilitator for McDonalds Corporation, spent Tuesday morning with us.  He did a fantastic job not only telling the students about his interesting job at McDonalds, but teaching about jobs in the community, taxes, and money.  Mr. Gonzalez taught us about working together as a team and why that is so important.  

  

December 14 - 18

Dates to remember

Dec. 14, 16, 17 - Holidays Around the World                         

Tues. Dec. 15 - Jr. Achievement Day

                       Early Dismissal  11:30

Fri. Dec. 18 - Silly Sweater Day

                    Classroom Holiday Parties

Dec. 21 - Jan. 3 - No School Holiday Break

Holiday Traditions Project
The students will be sharing their holiday traditions next week!  Your child has been assigned a day to share.  If you have any questions, let me know.  

Holidays Around the World
During our Reading block this week, all 2nd graders will take part in a Holidays Around the World unit.  Students will be learning how people in different parts of the world celebrate holidays.  They will have a passport and travel to the different 2nd grade classrooms as they learn about holidays in Sweden, Israel, Mexico, France, and Italy.  Look for your child's Holidays suitcase to come home on Thursday!  

Students should continue filling in their reading logs through the end of December.  Return completed reading logs on January 4.    

No spelling lists or test this week.  We'll continue our Word Studies in January.  

Math - We will continue working on measurement this week.  We'll learn about area and perimeter.


December Birthdays - Aili  Dec. 17
                                Olivia  Dec. 21      

Estimation Jar Winner - Jack B. and Olivia

Positive Paw Winner - Jack B. 

Peppermint the Elf - Thank you to the Flannery family for bringing us some holiday cheer via our new elf, Peppermint.  If you haven't heard about his appearance, check out your child's iPad.  They've been taking pictures!

December 7 - 11

Fuzzy Friend Day

I'm so proud of these kids!  Everyone brought back their November reading log and was able to celebrate by bringing a stuffed animal to school!  We also celebrated earing 10 class PAWS and had a popcorn party!  Fun day in 2nd grade!!

Dates to Remember
Thurs. Dec. 10 - Holiday Shopping at Ide
Dec. 14, 16, 17 - Holidays Around the World
Tues. Dec. 15 - Early Dismissal and Jr. Achievement Day
Fri. Dec. 18 - Silly Sweater Day and Classroom Holiday Parties
Dec. 21 - Jan. 3 - No School  Holiday Break

Positive Paw Winner - Alyssa
Estimation Jar Winners - Caitlin and Ariana
New Student of the Week - Kenneth

Holiday Tradition Project
Students are bringing home information today about a holiday project.  The paper explains all about it as well as a page for the students to fill out.  This project is due on Monday, December 14.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

Reading - We will be reading Aero and Officer Mike this week.  It is a non-fiction story about a police officer, Mike, and his K-9 partner named Aero.  We will be comparing this selection to Officer Buckle and Gloria.

We will continue to work on recognizing the main idea and details in a story and we'll focus on identifying the author's purpose in stories we read.

Everyone has been given a December reading log.  The students voted to have a Crazy Clothes Day for their reading reward.  This should be interesting!

Grammar focus will be on irregular verbs.

Math - We have begun a new unit on Measurement.  This week we'll be measuring to the nearest inch, foot, and yard as well as centimeter and meter.  We'll also learn to make reasonable estimates.

Reminder - I'm still missing a few report card envelopes.  Please return it if you have not done so.  We'll use them again for next trimester's report card.