Wacky Tacky Day

Today, we came to school  dressed in our wackiest and tackiest:

Class Store!

When we get back from winter break, we are going to be learning about Economics in Social Studies and we will be having a class store where students can sell an item of theirs--we have fake money that the class will be earning that they can use to buy at our store. 

I know how busy everyone is around the holidays, but I wanted to share this now, in case you were looking for an activity to work on during the winter break. This is an activity we will be doing about 4 weeks into the third quarter, however, I figured advance notice might be helpful. Below are some ideas of what your child can make to "sell" at our class store.

Ideas:

Popsicle picture frames or bookmarks

Painted rocks for paperweights

Noodle Necklaces/Bracelets

Decorated Pencils

Pet Rocks

Friendship Bracelets

Drawings

Greeting Cards

Paperclip art

● Origami ​for Kids - http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-for-kids.html

● How to Crochet a Flower​for Children -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWMlUGtfULw

● Building a simple soda can robot​- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4WLDAKZ5Kw

● Create a Cord Bracelet​- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8lQVJF6VQk 

● Create simple machine ​with batteries http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRSU4FnUSrA,

Our door is all set for the classroom door contest! Our class wanted to "make The Grinch grin." I can't imagine he wouldn't grin after reading all our grin-worthy ideas!

Spirit Week!

Spirit Week:  Spirit Week is coming!  If your child would like to come dressed in the following:

 12/14: Favorite Sports Team Shirt 

 12/15: Wacky Tacky  

 12/16: Blue & Green Day  

 12/17: Holiday Cheer (holiday colors, tacky sweater) 

 12/18: Pajama Day (no slippers) 

Lots of Updates!

Here are the updates that were sent via email this week:

Magazine Request: If possible, can your child please bring in one magazine by next Friday (12/18) for a project we will be doing? 

Holidays Around the World: This will occur next Friday 12/18! Thank you to all those who volunteered to bring something in! I'll send a reminder home next week for those who volunteered. I am still looking for one volunteer to come play a game with the class. If interested, please let me know and I can explain the details. It's simple, however!  

Report Cards: Quarter 2 report cards will go home Friday 12/18. I am not sending out a conference form for Quarter 2. If you would like to set up a time to meet to discuss Q2, just let me know. I will be sending out a conference form after the Quarter 3 report cards.

Field Trip Forms: Please return the field trip forms as soon as possible. I will send home new forms to those who have not, just in case they were misplaced. I will also send home a request for funding, if needed.

Middle-of-the-Year (MOY) Reading Assessments: MOY reading assessments will begin Wednesday 12/16 and continue through mid-January. These assessments help determine the reading level your child is currently reading at.

Case 21 Tests: Our class will take the Case 21 test next Monday (reading) and Tuesday (math). We take these tests in the morning. These tests are used to help determine how your child will do on their Third Grade assessments.

Yearbook: A note went home on Monday, the yearbook committee is planning a picture contest! If your child would like to submit artwork, one winner from each grade level will be chosen to be featured in the inside of this year's yearbook. The picture can be of whatever they chose to draw. The due date is Friday, December 18th. 

Scholastic Book Orders: These forms went home on Monday. If you are interested in ordering, please submit your orders by December 18th.

Track Out

Here are some suggested ideas for your child to work on during track-out, this is the same information that was sent in my email to you:

-Please READ as much as possible! Please have your child read, read with your child, and have them go on reading websites! Here is a link that has all the reading websites we utilize: http://edu.symbaloo.com/mix/readingresources88

-This week is "Week 7" and because it is only two days, I did not give homework. However, I will send home the Week 7 homework packet for track-out. It will be a good review, but will not count against you if you do not complete it.

-Math Practice: I sent home a packet that is good practice/review.

-Scholastic News. There is an article and questions on the back that go along with it.

Have a wonderful Track Out and Thanksgiving!

Holidays Around The World

The Second Grade Team will be celebrating "Holidays Around the World" on December 18th--that is our early release day before winter break. If you are able to either volunteer to help out that day or bring in an item needed, that would be wonderful and appreciated. Here is a link to the sign-up page: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f084fa4af2ca1f85-holidays

Field Trip Information

Field Trip Permission Forms: forms went home on Monday (October 26th)

 

We will have two field trips this year:

-Science is Fun (February 2nd) -This will be in school

-The Museum of Science (April 8th)

The cost for the field trips combined is $15.50 and that information will be sent home.  The payment options are:

1)Checks can be made out to Banks Road. The checks need to be the exact amount for the trip.

2) Cash

3) Money order.

 

There will also be a form for volunteers. Please consider volunteering, volunteers are needed and are extremely important and helpful in our field trips!

Please note for both field trips we will be having lunch back at school, so your child can bring lunch as they normally do and/or buy lunch as they normally do.

 

Geodomes

As scientists, we researched geodomes and wondered if we could make a geodome ourself with Dots Candy and toothpicks. Here are some of our results:

Timelines

In Social Studies we are learning about timelines and how they mark important milestones of a person’s life.  The students will be examining a couple historical figures timelines and then they will be creating their own!  To make our own timeline, we first have to gather important events and dates.  Please help your child record landmark events, making sure to include the year (and date if you remember).  Please include the following facts if possible:

-Birth (date and location)

-Pets (joining family)

-Vacations and trips

-Birth of Siblings

-Moving or changing schools

-Milestones such as first tooth, walking, first bike, etc.

This information is due by Wednesday. October 21st.

Thank you for your help!

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                

Math Links

This week in math we will be learning how to find the nearest "ten" to help us with addition problems and using 100's boards. The links below I hope will help you to see how your child is learning these methods:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj9TyS74a9Y&list=UUQaTtYud6Lv2fAQEYpOSPNw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J10YSF-670w&list=UUQaTtYud6Lv2fAQEYpOSPNw

What better way to practice your spelling words than in Halloween shapes?

Historians and Artifacts

Our class became historians for the day and observed their classmates' artifacts. The historians tried to learn as much as they can from their classmates by these artifacts. After they made their observations, we asked the owner of each artifact to explain their artifact's story. This was a great way to learn more about each other and we even found many things we had in common with each other that we didn't even know we had!

Our class worked with Ms. Lawrence's class to create posters for our wonderful custodians in honor of custodian appreciation week.

Social Studies Quarter 2

Starting next week we will be learning about different cultures and how various sources can help us learn about the past. Can your child please bring in one item that means a lot to them and is from their past on Monday, Sept. 28th? Please to not put your child's name on this item, we are going to try to use its clues to guess whose item it is and what it tells us about your child. If you can also put this item in a bag, so the other children won't see who brought it in. Can they also bring in a picture of their family as well for an activity we will do later on that week? If you or a family member is interested in being a "guest speaker" and would like to come in to talk about your culture and traditions, please contact me and I can go over specifics. Thank you for your help!
 

First Quarter Conferences

We are approaching the end of the first quarter. Report cards will go home on September 25th. Please see the link below to sign up for a time slot to discuss your child's progress this quarter.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f084fa4af2ca1f85-first

Solids, Liquids and Gasses

We created a poster today representing solids, liquids and gasses with cheerios.

Symbaloo

The link below will take you to our class's Symbaloo Page. This is a page that I created that has all the links we utilize in class and might be helpful to have handy at home:

http://edu.symbaloo.com/mix/secondgradewebsites7

For the reading section of the daily homework, your child is more than welcome to use any of the online reading resources our school has access to (Tumble Books, Achieve 3,000, We Give Books, etc.). Please make sure they are still filling out a written response to the story they have read.

Homework Passes

We are starting to have a few birthdays this year! When it is your child's birthday they will receive a homework pass. This pass can be used for one night's homework. They can choose any night they would like throughout the year to use their homework pass. Please staple the homework pass to the homework packet by Friday of the week they choose. If your child has a birthday over track-out, they will receive it once they return. If your child has a birthday over our very last track-out, they will receive one before we track-out.

Our Soap Experiment

We had a great first day back! What better to get back into the swing of things than a science experiment? Today we put soap into the microwave and predicted what would happen. We assumed the solid soap would turn into a liquid, but the results were surprising...

We observed the soap before the experiment by passing it around.

We predicted what will happen to the soap when heated in the microwave.

We predicted what will happen to the soap when heated in the microwave.

We were ALL surprised the soap did not turn into a liquid! The soap stayed a solid, but the shape definitely changed. We learned that this happened because this soap had air in it and that helped it keep its state of matter of solid.

We loved touching the soap and everyone got to take some of it home--it can still be used as soap.