April 25 - 29

Open House was Spectacular!

I really enjoyed seeing all of you again last night at our Open House!  The students were so happy to show off their hard work, buy some new books, and experience our first Art Show! What a great evening!  

Dates to Remember

Fri. April 29 - Reading Incentive Fuzzy Friend Day
Week of May 2 - MAP Testing
Mon. May 2 - April Reading Logs due
Week of May 9 - Aimsweb Testing
Wed. May 11 - Field Trip to DuPage Children's Museum
Fri. May 13 - Early Dismissal
Wed. May 18 - Career Day at Ide
Thurs. May 26 - Poetry Cafe 9:15am

Reading
This week we will focus on retelling as we read 2 selections about ants.  Two Bad Ants is a fiction story about two ants who decide to leave the safety of their home and explore a kitchen.  Ant is a non fiction story about the life cycle, habitats, and different types of ants. We'll compare and contrast the two selections and work on the reading strategy of visualization.

Math - We will be working on 3 digit subtraction this week.  We will also be adding and subtracting money as well as working on problem solving skills.

Positive Paw Winner - Sara
Estimation Jar Winner - Alyssa


Field Trip - The 2nd graders are taking a field trip on Wed. May 11 to the DuPage Children's Museum in Naperville.  We'll be exploring the museum as well as learning about GeoSpace in the learning lab.  A fee of $5 is required along with the permission slip, which will come home on Monday, April 25.  Our PTO has generously donated money to help pay for a portion of the fee for the trip.  

April 18 - 22

Dates to Remember                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                               
Tues. April 19 - Wear blue or green for Earth Day
                          A special "All School" picture will be taken!
Thurs. April 21 - Open House, Book Fair, Art Show at Ide  
                           6:30 pm  Everyone is Welcome!
Fri. April 29 - Reading Incentive Fuzzy Friend Day
Week of May 2 - MAP Testing
Week of May 9 - AimsWeb Testing
Wed. May 11 - Field Trip to DuPage Children's Museum
Fri. May 13 - Early Dismissal

Open House - Our Spring Open House is this Thursday, April 21 from 6:30 to 8:00pm.  All family members are invited!  PTO is also hosting a Book Fair and Ms. Smeltzer has organized an Art Show to display your child's art work!  Please mark your calendar and plan to come!  It will be a great evening at Ide!

Science - Our butterfly larva have arrived and the kids are SO excited!  We're watching them eat and crawl around!  As they change over the next 2 weeks, we be recording our observations in butterfly journals.  Ask your child about it!

Reading - This week we'll read and compare 2 selections, Owls and Owl Moon.  One is realistic fiction, the other a nonfiction story.  We will discuss point of view and retelling.  At the end of the week we will be dissecting owl pellets!

Grammar focus will be on abbreviations.

Literature Circles -  All 2nd graders have been learning about literature circles this month.  We've started implementing them into our reading block.  Follow the link below for more information.  The students have done a great job practicing the roles and learning to read with purpose!

Literature Circles

Math -  We have started a new unit focusing on 3 digit addition.  We've worked on mental math and adding 3 digits with and without regrouping ones.  Next week we'll be regrouping tens, estimating sums, and problem solving.

Positive Paw Winner - Ben
Estimation Jar Winners - Jania, Sophia, Jack W.

April 11 - 15

Dates to Remember                                                      

                                                                                               
Wed. April 13 - Early Dismissal
Fri. April 15 - Animal Poster or diorama due
Thurs. April 21 - Open House, Book Fair, and Art Show

Reading - We will continue our work on Habitats this week. We'll be adding text features to our research reports.  We'll also begin our Butterfly unit this week.  We'll learn about the life cycle and our larva should be arriving!  The students will be keeping a journal to record their observations as the larva transform into Painted Lady Butterflies!

Math - We'll continue our chapter focusing on geometry and plane figures.  We'll learn about symmetry and practice dividing plane figures into congruent figures.  We'll then review and take a chapter test.  Next up is adding three digit numbers!

Remember - Animal Posters or dioramas are due next Friday, April 15.  Any questions, please contact me.  Several students have brought their projects in and they are amazing!  I'm so impressed with their creativity.  Thanks so much for helping with this fun project!

Positive Paw Winner - Grant
Estimation Jar Winner - David

April 4 - 8

Dates to Remember                                                                           
Mon. April 4 - School Resumes
Wed. April 13 - Early Dismissal                                          
Fri. April 15 - Animal Poster or Diorama is due
Thurs. April 21 - Spring Open House at Ide

Reading - We'll continue our study of habitats this week.  The students will also be working on writing their research booklet.

Animal Project - Students should be working on either a poster or diorama at home.  They can be brought in whenever your child has finished it.  Any questions, please let me know.

Reading Logs Students voted this week to have a Show and Tell Day for completed reading logs.  Please encourage your son/daughter to read 20 minutes each night and to return their completed log on April 4.

Math - We'll continue our Geometry unit this week, but switch our focus to plane shapes (hexagons, quadrilaterals, etc).  We'll start by describing and classifying plane figures by their attributes (sides, vertices, and edges).  We'll explore combining plane figures to make new figures, and also identify congruent figures.

Estimation Jar Winner - Jack B.
Positive Paw Winner - Jake

Feed My Starving Children Event - Elizabeth Ide families are invtited to participate in an event to help children in malnourished countries around the world.  The event will take place at their Aurora location on Thurs. April 7.  To find out more about the event and to register, please follow the link below.  Registration is now open to the first 90 participants.  The code to register is 781058.    

In addition to participating in wrapping food to be shipped, Feed My Starving Children is also in need of money to pay for shipping the food.  We'll be collecting money at school on through April 7.        

Feed My Starving Children Event

Kane County Cougars Tickets - All students received an order form for a free ticket to attend a Kane County Cougars baseball game.  This is a reward for returning completed reading logs this year.  You have a choice to attend a game on either April 24th or May 6.

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.