March 21 - 25

Darien's Citizen of the Year - Mrs. Marian Krupicka

 We had a great visit with Mrs. Krupicka last Friday.  She told us all about her community involvement and things she continues to do to make our community a better place.  She was one of the volunteers who began what is now the Indian Prairie Library!  We are so glad that she came and talked to us!  

Dates to Remember

Mon. Mar. 21 - District Community Connection                          
Thurs. Mar. 24 - Spelling Test
Mar. 25 - April 3 - No School Spring Break
Mon. April 3 - March reading log due
Wed. April 13 - Early Dismissal
Fri. April 15 - Animal poster or diorama due

Reading - We will be working writing the final copy of our habitat reports this week.  We'll continue to learn about all 3 habitats ~ oceans, deserts, and rainforests.

Animal Project - Along with our research reports, students will be making a visual of their animal.  This part of the project should be done at home.  A note (on purple paper) detailing the requirements, came home on Wednesday. Any questions, please let me know.

Spelling Test will be on Thursday this week.

Math - Next week we will begin a unit focusing on Geometry.  We'll start by identifying figures and sort them by their attributes.  We'll work with information on tables to solve problems and find patterns.

Positive Paw Winner - Olivia
Estimation Jar Winner - Jania


March Birthday
Alyssa - March 27

March 14 - 18

Dates to Remember                                                                  

                                                                       
Tues. Mar. 15 - No School  Election Day
Fri. Mar. 18 - Monarch Munchie Celebration
Thurs. Mar. 24 - Wear bright colors for Reading Incentive Day
Fri. Mar. 25 - April 3 - No School  Spring Break
Mon. April 4 - March Reading Logs due

Report Card Envelopes - Please return the yellow report card envelope that came home on Tuesday.  Many of you have returned it ~ thank you!

Math - We will continue to work with patterns and numbers to 1,000.  A review and test will be given at the end of the week.  Our next focus will be geometry!

Reading - Students will begin to work on our final research project of the year.  They will be choosing an animal from one of the 3 habitats that we've learned about.  They'll work in school to gather information from both text and digital sources.

The written portion of the project will be done in school.  Students will be working to create a visual of their chosen animal.  This part will be done at home.  Look for a letter explaining this portion of the project to come home on Wednesday, March 16.

Estimation Jar Winners - Ava, Sara, and Sophia
Positive Paw Winner - Jack W.

March 7 - 11

Dates to Remember                                                    

Tues. Mar. 8 - Report Cards go home
Tues. Mar. 15 - No School
Fri. Mar. 15 - Movie Night at PV
Mar. 25 - April 3 - No School  Spring Break

Reading - We're beginning a new unit next week, Amazing Animals.  We'll start by reading the story, Fireflies.  We'll be learning about 3 different animal habitats in the next few weeks.  We'll continue talking about text features as well.

Vocabulary Words:  habitat, flickered, cellar, polished, dusty, dashed, flung

Math - This week we'll be reading and writing numbers to 1,000.  We will practice writing numbers in different ways as well as changing numbers by tens and hundreds.

Positive Paw Winner - Caitlin
Estimation Jar Winners - Ariana, Dane, and Ben

Spring Pictures were sent home today.  If you choose to keep them, either pay online or send a check back to school in the envelope provided.  If you choose not to keep the pictures, please send the packet back as soon as possible.

Feb. 29 - March 4

Dr. Seuss Day

Dates to Remember

Mon & Tues, Feb. 29 and Mar. 1 - COGAT testing

Mon. Feb. 29 - Jump Rope for Heart
Thurs. Mar. 3 - End of 2nd Trimester
Fri. Mar. 4 - No School  Instiitute Day
Tues. Mar. 8 - Report Cards go home
Tues. Mar. 15 - No School

Student of the Week - Everyone has had a chance to be Student of the Week! Moving forward, I will choose a student to fill the estimation jar each week. This is optional, but many students like the chance to get to do this again.  We have all enjoyed getting to know each other better and especially like seeing what our student of the week has to share each day!

2nd Grade Poetry - One last reminder to return the Poetry book order form as quickly as possible.  We need all parents to return the form, even if you're choosing to not purchase a copy.   

Reading - We will be working on the end of Unit 2 Assessments in our classroom.  Reading topics include story summary, main idea and details, and dictionary skills.  

Math - We will finish our chapter on time.  After a chapter test midweek, we'll spend the week learning strategies to add three and four 2 digit numbers.   

Positive Paw Winner - Aili
Estimation Jar Winner - Ken

February 22 - 26

Picture Day!!

What a great looking group of 2nd graders!!

Dates to Remember

Mon. Feb. 22 - COGAT testing in the am
Tues. Feb. 23 - Six Flags Reading Logs due
Fri. Feb. 26 - Dr. Seuss Day
Tues. Mar. 1 - February Classroom Reading Logs due
Thurs. Mar. 3 - End of 2nd Trimester
Fri. Mar. 4 - No School  Institute Day
Tues. Mar. 8 - Report Cards go home
Fri. Mar. 11 - Yearbook Orders are due

Reading - We'll conclude our unit on Neighborhoods and Community this week by reading The Big Orange Splot.  It is a funny story about a man named Mr. Plumbean.  Mr. Plumbean lives on a very neat street where ALL the houses look exactly the same. One day a seagull drops a can of orange paint on Mr. Plumbean’s roof. From that point on, nothing is the same in Mr. Plumbean’s neighborhood.

We'll be doing a close read of the story, discussing point of view and how words and phrases provide meaning to the text.  

Students will be presenting their digital slideshow this week.  We've worked on the Chromebooks several times and their projects look great!

Vocabulary words:  hawser, splot, mush, and belfry
Grammar focus: articles (a, an, the)

Math - We will continue our chapter on telling time this week. We'll be describing times of events as A.M. or P.M. as well as learning about elapsed time and learning about time relationships in terms of days, weeks, months, and years.

New Student of the Week - Ava
Positive Paw Winner - Ben
Estimation Jar Winner - Aili

Feb. 15 - 19

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a great party this afternoon!  Thank you to Mrs. Mastny, Mrs. Waitkus, Ms. Mueller, and Mrs. Hines for planning and helping with games, food, and fun!   The kids enjoyed a great snack provided by Ms. Williams, Mrs. Bauer, and Mrs. Hines.  The kids made a fun handprint craft and rotated through 4 game stations.  

Thanks also to the families that sent in supplies for our Valentine boxes.  The kids had such a fun time decorating their boxes and of course passing out Valentines!    

Dates to Remember
Mon. Feb. 15 - No School  Presidents' Day
Thurs. Feb. 18 - Spring Pictures
Sat. Feb. 20 - Snowflake Ball
Fri. Mar. 4 - No School  Institute Day

Reading - We'll be reading City Green this week.  It is a fictional text about citizens working together to improve their neighborhood.

Vocabulary Words -  excitement, schedule, area, heap, stems, halfway
  
Comprehension Strategy - Students will use a graphic organizer to retell the story.  We will also be writing a narrative about a time something happened in our own neighborhood using temporal words (first, next, then, finally) to describe the event.

Math - We will be working on telling time for the next 2 weeks.  Students should already know how to tell time to the hour and half hour.  We'll be focusing on telling time in 5 minute intervals as well as telling how many minutes are before the next hour.  

   

New Student of the Week - Dane

Positive Paw Winner - Dane

Estimation Jar Winner - Ariana

February 8 - 12

It's 100 Day!!                                           

Valentine Boxes - Thank you to Mrs. Durkin, Mrs. Waitkus, and Mrs. Kosinski for covering our shoe boxes. The kids can't wait to decorate them this week!!

Dates to Remember

Thurs. Feb. 11 - Valentine Classroom Party

Fri. Feb. 12 - No School

Mon. Feb. 15 - No School  Presidents' Day

Thurs. Feb. 18 - Spring Pictures

Wed. Feb. 24 - Erin's Law Presentation

Reading - We will continue to work on our research project this week.   This is a shared research project about a foreign country and how children in remote areas access books. We gathered our research from text as well as a digital source.  Mrs. Sulima is working to help us transfer our research into a slide show on Chromebooks.  When we're finished, we'll be presenting them to the class.

In addition to our research project, we will be learning about different kinds of poetry.  We'll spend time reading and writing poetry.

Reading Reward - We enjoyed lunch in the room on Thursday as our January reading reward.  We voted to work toward a Stuffed Animal Day for completed logs in February.

Remember to return your Six Flags Reading Log if you want your child to earn a ticket to Great America this summer.  The deadline is Feb. 23.  

Math - We will finish our chapter on money and take a chapter test mid week.  Our next focus will be on telling time.   Continue to work on counting collections of coins at home.

Estimation Jar Winners - Christine and Sophia

New Student of the Week - Jack W.

Positive Paw Winner - Jake