What a FUN and FABULOUS Friday!

Happy Friday!

We had an amazing day!  The adjective parade was amazing and so was our party!  Lots of links to pictures in this post.  Please take the time to look through them all.

Adjective Parade
We had a very descriptive adjective parade today.  :)  It was so fun to see the students careateive sides come out with their adjectives.  They really enjoyed parading around the school for everyone to see.  The 5th graders all gave high fives as we walked by and the 4th graders cheered as we walked in the door.  It was so awesome to have the support of the entire school!  We are very lucky here at RBE!  Here are some pictures from the parade and here are pictures of all the adjectives.

Fall Party
A HUGE thank you to all the parents who helped with party.  The students had a lot of fun.  We had yummy snacks, a fun (and tasty) craft and a fun bowling game.  It is always fun to see the kids let loose at the parties.  :)  Here are some pictures.

Candy Corn Taste Testing
Our class along with Ms. Mottaz's class got together with our buddy classrooms today which are Mrs. Reynolds and Ms. Ragsdale's classes.  We have 7 different types of candy corn to taste test and then they created a graph of the favorite flavor and also listed adjectives for candy corn.  The winning flavor was the original candy corn.  Here are the pictures.  Here are all the flavors we tried.

Reading
Next week in reading, we will work on asking questions before, during and after reading.  It is important as a reading to ask questions because it helps you to think about what you are reading.  It helps you to stay focused.  Also, especially with questions before reading, they then try to find the answers as they are reading.
Writing
Next week, we will finish our 1st personal narrative.  Most students are at least half way through publishing.  After we complete it, we will start our 2nd personal narrative.  It will be significantly more independent and the process will go faster.  We will reivew all the parts of a personal narrative and still work together, but they will be expected to include all the necssary parts and include everything we learned about through our first personal narrative.

Math
In math, we will review everything we have learned in 1st trimester.  The students have been working very hard in math and making connections between the different things we are learning.  They seem to be realizing math builds on itself.  Please continue practicing math facts.  We have a Math Wizard board outside our classroom with pictures of all the students who are addition, subtraction and mixed addition/subtraction wizards.

Science
We will be learning about spiders in science next week.  The students will be researching about spiders during reading and then on Friday, we have a fun science experiment for students to learn how spiders eat.

Junior Achievement
We will start Junior Achievement next week.  This is a program where local business people come in and teach the students about economics.  They will come 5 times over the next few weeks.  They will learn about different parts of running a business.

Parent Teacher Conferences
In your student's Friday folder is your Parent Teacher Conference time confirmation sheet.  Please make sure the time works for you and return the sheet on Tuesday.  If the time doesn't work, please let me know and we can reschedule.  My goal is to meet with all families.

Book Fair
The Book Fair will be the week of conferences.  This is a great place to get books for your students to read at home.  The Book Fair will be open Monday and Wednesday from 7:30-6:00 p.m. and Thursday 7:00a.m.-7:00p.m.  We will be going on November 7 for the students to make their wishlists.

Emily Arrow
Just a reminder about the RBE Literacy Night.  It will be at Woodcrest Church on December 7 at 6:00 p.m.  This event is for RBE families only due to space.  Emily Arrow will be at the event and then will be here at school on Friday, December 9 for an assembly during the day.  In your student's Friday folder is the order form for CDs if they are intersted in purchasing one.

STEAM Bus Fundraiser
If you are out shopping at Barnes and Noble tomorrow, be sure to take the flyer in your student's Friday folder about the STEAM Bus Fundraiser.  A percentage of purchases made at Barnes adn Noble tomorrow will go towards the STEAM Bus.  We will be having the STEAM Bus come out to RBE later this year for our class.

No School
Just a reminder there is no school on Monday, October 31 for a Teacher Work Day.  We don't have school on Tuesday, November 8 due to election day and on Friday, November 11 for conferences.

Halloween Pictures
Please email me pictures of your student dressed up for Halloween.  It's always fun to see the fun costumes!

United Way
WOW!  2nd grade did an amazing job with the United Way fundraiser.  We raise $382.09 in two weeks.  That is amazing!  Thank you to everyone who donated money.  It is going to a very good cause!

Veteran's Day Assembly
Our Veteran's Day Assembly is November 9.  Our class will be performing at the 9:30 assembly.  Students are encouraged to wear red, white and blue for the assembly.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  The weather is supposed to be beautiful.  I can't remember the last Halloween I didn't have to wear a coat.  Crazy Missouri weather for sure!  I hope you get a chance to enjoy it!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Ross

Adjective Parade TOMORROW and Last Day of United Way Fundraiser!

Happy Thursday!

I hope you have had a fabulous day.  I'm loving this weather!  It was gloomy this morning, but the the sun is out this afternoon!

I just wanted to post some pictures of the kids working hard today and just a few reminders.

United Way Fundraiser
WOW!!!!  2nd grade is ROCKIN' the United Way fundraiser.  As of today, second grade has raised $354.27.  Tomorrow is the last day to donate.  I wonder we can reach $400.  This has tied directly into our math and counting money this week.  Each day, we have been counting the money raised for that day and adding it to our total.  The kids are excited about the possibility of earning an ice cream social, but we have also talked about the importance of raising money for a good cause.  I'm extremely proud of the students and thankful to all the families that have donated to our fundraiser!

Adjective Parade
The Adjective Parade is tomorrow!  I loved all the "items" brought in for the parade today.  It is going to be an awesome parade!  We made signs today for the students to wear as we parade around the school.  I will take pictures and post them tomorrow.  The students have worked so hard, this will be a great way to celebrate their hard work!

Veteran's Day Assembly
Mrs. Sharp and the students have been working very hard on the Veteran's Day assembly.  It will be on November 9.  There will be 2 assemblies, our class will be performing at the 9:30 assembly.  All students are encouraged to wear red, white and blue for the assembly.

Fall Harvest Party
Our Fall Harvest Party is tomorrow at 1:45 p.m.   Thank you to everyone who has signed up to bring in items or help with the party.  The kids always love the parties!

Halloween Costumes
Students are not allowed to wear their Halloween costumes to school, but if your student does dress up for Halloween, I would love to see a picture.  I talked to the kids today and told them I would love to see pictures of them.  If you have printed copies, you can send them in or if you have electronic copies, you can email those to me.  I just love to see the kids all dressed up.  :)

Parent Teacher Conference Times
In Friday folders tomorrow will be conference times.  Please check to make sure the time works for you and return the bottom portion of the confirmation sheet.  If the time doesn't work, please indicate that and we can schedule a different time.  I am looking forward to meeting with everyone!

Have a fabulous evening!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Tursday!

We had a great Tuesday!

Here is some information about important events coming up and what we have been working on so far this week.

Math

We talked about how you can use repeated addition to solve an array.  

This array has 3 rows of 6.  The repeated addition sentence for this array would be 6 + 6 + 6 = 18.  We also, continued to practice counting coins.  

The homework this week has the kids practicing writing the skip counting for 2 different amounts of change, and identifying the rows and columns of an array.  We have talked about "Rows go side-to-side" and "Columns go up-and-down."  

Reading

• The students are creating a Story Element Haunted House for the book The Ugly Pumpkin.  The students are working on identifying the characters, setting, problem, solution and major events in the story.  
• The kids also are being costume designers and had to draw a costume of what I should be for Halloween.  Then they were using all their knowledge of adjectives and describing their costume.
• We also learned about short and long u words for our spelling this week.  We also discovered that put is an oddball word (word that doesn't fit the vowel pattern).  Our words this week are cut, plus, shut (short u), June (J MUST be capitalized to get full credit), rude, flute, huge, tune, cute (long u) and our oddball word of put.
• The kids are also completing research on bats.  Yesterday, the students watched a short video on bats (we found out LOTS of information) and then they read about bats.  They practiced taking notes on what they learned.

Writing

Yesterday, the students worked on editing our small moment story by making sure that all of our sentences start with capital letters and end with punctuation.  We then had a partner read through our writing to make sure that each piece of writing had correct capitalization and punctuation.  Today, the students worked on revising (adding, removing, moving, substituting) their small moment story.

Tomorrow, we will start publishing!  I will share these at Parent Teacher Conferences.

Picture Retake Day is TOMORROW

Your student should have brought home their picture packet yesterday.  Picture retake day is TOMORROW (October 26).  If you would like for your child to retake his/her picture and you ordered pictures you MUST send back in the pictures.  If you would like for your child to retake his/her pictures and you did not order pictures the first time you MUST send in an order form and money.  

Fall Harvest Party 

As a reminder, our Fall Harvest Party is this Friday, October 28, at 1:45.  Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to send in items or come to our party.  It should be a lot of fun!  

Snacks

As a reminder, we are a peanut free classroom.  This means all snacks need to be peanut free.  Also, as a reminder, snacks need to be healthy.  This is our brain food to get us through to morning until lunch.

Adjective Parade

As a reminder, we have our Adjective Parade on Friday, October 28.  Please send in your student's "item" (hat, shirt, etc.) on Thursday.  This way we can make sure everyone is ready for the parade on Friday.  We will be parading around the school, so please encourage your child to make their "item" look fabulous.  :)

Parent Teacher Conference Forms

Thank you to everyone who has sent in their Parent Teacher Conference request forms.  If you haven't done so yet, please do so.  We schedule conferences on Thursday and they will come home in Friday folders this week.

Have a wonderful evening!  The weather this afternoon is absolutely BEAUTIFUL - so I hope you have a chance to get out enjoy it tonight!! :) 

Mrs. Ross

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

I hope you have had a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather today.  Typical Missouri weather, 38 degrees this morning and sunny and 60 now.  :)  This will be a slightly longer post, but it has a lot of important information!

United Way Fundraiser
WOW!!!!!!!  Thank you to you and your kids for being so generous.  Just in two days, we have raised $142.25 for United Way.  We will be collecting money through next Friday if you would like to donate money.  It is a wonderful cause that does a lot for people in our community.  Also, we have been practicing counting money with the change that has been brought in.

Adjective Parade
Just a reminder that our Adjective Parade is next Friday, October 28.  We will be parading around the school.  Your student needs to create their item (hat, shirt, etc.) at home.  If you need help coming up with an idea or creating the item, please let me know.  Please have your student bring their item on Thursday.  This way we know if anyone needs assistance getting their item completed.

Parent Teacher Conferences
I can't believe it's already time to start planning 1st Trimester Conferences.  This year is flying by.  Conferences will be the week of November 7.  In your student's Friday folder is the form to request times.  Please send it back as soon as possible so I can get the conferences scheduled.  If you aren't able to come at any of the times offered, please let me know and we will set up a different time.

Missouri Credit Union
In your student's Friday folder, you will find information about a contest being put on by one of our Partners in Education, the Missouri Credit Union.  If student would like to participate, they can go to any Missouri Credit Union branch and get a mini Hank (it's a small piggy bank).  Then they decorate it and ask a parent kindly to upload it to Instagram, after the deadline, Missouri Credit Union will have a random drawing and one winner will get a $250 Kirby Savings Account.  There are more specific directions in your student's Friday Folder.

Fall Party
Our Fall Party is next Friday, October 28 at 1:45 p.m.  Our party theme is mummies and it sounds like it is going to be a great party.  As a reminder, students are not allowed to wear a costume.

No School on October 31 or November 8

Homework
Thank you for your continued support with homework.  Please have your student do their math homework in pencil.  This way if they make a mistake, it can be erased and corrected.  Even though homework isn't collected until Friday, I do check it each morning.  I have told the students it is their responsibility to bring their homework to their parents to have it signed.  Again, thank you for your support!

Weather Expectations
As the weather gets cooler, please remember our expectations for recess attire.  We use the feels like or windchill for the expectations listed below.

• 60 or above: t-shirt
• 45-59: Light jacket or sweatshirt
• 44 or below: Winter coat and any mittens, hat, gloves, etc. they brought.

Picture Retake
Pictures will be coming home on Monday or Tuesday of next week.  The office has been in contact with the photography company since we have retakes next week.  If your student is doing picture retakes, they will need to bring their pictures back and retakes will be on Wednesday, October 26.

Next Week's Learning
Reading
Next week, we will be reviewing story elements (characters, setting, problem, solution).  We will be enjoying some Halloween books and having students identifying the story elements.  Then they will create a story elements haunted house.

Writing
We will be working on CUPS and ARMS next week in writing.  ARMS are used to revise a story and then CUPS are used to edit a story.  The students have worked really hard on their personal narratives so next week we will put the final touches on them and get them published.  I will be sharing these at conferences.


Science
We will be doing research about bats next week.  The students will be identifying important information from book and then writing this down to use for a bat project later in the week.

Math
The students have been getting a lot of practice with counting money through our United Way fundraiser.  We will finish up counting money and arrays next week.  We will work on counting with dollars and coins next week.  Then we will work on drawing arrays and making matching addition sentences.  Please continue to practice facts at home.  It is important for them to know their facts "in a snap."

Spelling
Our spelling skill for next week is long and short u words.  We will be using the same patterns of CVC anc CVCe words next week.
Long vowels: June, rude, tune, flute, huge, cute
Short vowels: plus, shut, cut
Oddball (means it fits the spelling pattern, but doesn't follow the rule of the vowel sound): put

Music Celebration

The students enjoyed their celebration in music today.  I'm very proud of their hard work to earn the celebration.

MakerSpace

We had MakerSpace today and the students got to play with Ozobots.  These are small robots that are coded to change colors based on the color of the marker used to make the path.  The students really enjoyed it.

A few kids got to play with the Dash robots, but not everyone, so I will be setting up a time for Mrs. McKinzie to bring them into the classroom so everyone can enjoy them.

It sounds like the kids have some wonderful weekend plans whether it be MU homecoming activities or other fun things to do.  Enjoy this beautiful weather and have a great weekend!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Thursday!

Just a quick post with a few reminders for tomorrow!

Music Celebration
The student's have their celebration in music tomorrow.  They can bring a snack (so 2 snacks if they want a snack during read aloud and for their music celebration) and a stuffed animal.  They will also be having a little extra time to play on the playground.

Western Wear
Tomorrow's Spirit Day is Western Day.  If your student would like to participate, they can wear Western attire to school tomorrow.

United Way
The United Wear fundraiser has been extended to next Friday, October 28.  We counted the money collected so far this morning and so far 2nd grade has raised $48.38.  Ms. Benson will provide an ice cream social for the grade level that earns the most money.  This money will go to help members of our community.  It also ties in with what we are doing in math right now since we are learning to count money.  Thank you to everyone who has donated so far!

Have a wonderful evening!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Beautiful Monday!

Happy Monday!

I hope you are getting a chance to enjoy this gorgeous weather we are having today!  I'm not ready for fall, so I'm really enjoying these last few days of warm weather!  The kids were happy to go outside without jackets for both recesses today!  Just a few things to pass along today.  :)

Grade Level Pictures
If you weren't able to make it to the BBQ and would like to order the 2nd grade picture (or any grade level picture), please send in $5 per print with your student tomorrow and I will add them to the list.  Please make sure you send in the money as only prepaid orders will be printed.

United Way
This week we are raising money for United Way by collecting change.  The campaign is call "It Makes Cents To Give to United Way."  If you have any spare change that you would like to donate, we would greatly appreciate it.  A friendly competition has been set up between grade levels and the grade level that collects the most change (money) will receive an ice cream social.  We are only collecting through this Friday.  Any donations are greatly appreciated!

Spirit Day
Our next spirit day is this Friday.  It is "Western Day."  If your student would like to participate, they can wear plaid, boots, cowboy hats anything "Western."  It's always fun to see the kids showing their school spirit!

Early Release
As a reminder, we have early release on Wednesday.  We will dismiss at 12:10.  If your student is going home a different way than normal, please let the office and myself know in the morning on Wednesday.

Emily Arrow
In your student's Friday folder was information about a family literacy event for RBE families on December 7.  Emily Arrow will be performing at the literacy event.  It will be at 6:00 p.m. on December 7 at Woodcrest Church.  Due to space limitations, this event is for RBE families only.  Emily Arrow will still be coming to RBE on December 9.  On the sheet that came home was also an order form if you would like to order an autographed copy of her CD.  These are due back by November 18.  The kids are really enjoying all the Emily Arrow songs!

Chicken BBQ
WOW!!!!  Thank you to everyone who came to the BBQ or volunteered, donated items.  It was a HUGE success!  I worked the drive thru from 4-6 and we were busy the entire time.  We don't have final numbers on the ticket sales, but the silent auction raised over $14,000.  That is amazing.  We have such wonderful families who support our PTA and our school.  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!

Have a wonderful day!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

I hope you have all had a wonderful week.  The students have worked very hard this week and we are all very excited about the BBQ.  :)  There is a lot of information in this post, so please take the time to read it!

Chicken BBQ is TOMORROW!
The auction list came home yesterday.  The auction is over at 6:30 p.m.  As a reminder, we have a class picture and a pizza party in the Teacher Town section of the BBQ.  Also, the Day on the STEAM Bus will be up for auction also.  This is going to be a fabulous opportunity for whichever class has the winning student in it.  :)

The Chicken BBQ is tomorrow!  The RBE PTA has put in a lot of work for a fabulous BBQ tomorrow.  I will be working the Drive Thru from 3:30-6:00 and then will be walking around to the games afterwards.  I look forward to seeing everyone there!

Next Week's Learning
Math
Next week, we will be working on counting coins.  We had planned to get to that this week, but they were working so hard on their T-Shirt factory posters (presented yesterday), that we pushed it back to next week.  We will also start working on arrays.  These are ways to group numbers.  It will be a very basic introduction into multiplication, but knowing that connection between repeated addition, grouping and multiplication will be very helpful to them in 3rd grade.

Please continue practicing math facts at home.  We have some kids that are very close to becoming Math Wizards!

Writing
The students created a bird this week and wrote a description.  We decided to do this because we weren't able to go to Bird Day as planned.  They created some very fun birds and did a nice job describing them as well.  Next week, we will be writing our middles and endings of our personal narrative.  The goal is by the end of next week to be reading to edit.  We have a fun acronym for editing and revising.  It is CUPS and ARMS.  We have very briefly introduced this to the kids and will go more in depth once we are ready to edit and review our stories.

Reading
The students did a fabulous job with summaries this week using the strategy of Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then.  Next week, we will learn about retells and the differences between summaries and retells.  The main difference is in a retell, you give a lot more details than in a summary.

Social Studies
Today, the students enjoyed 3 books about presidents, Grace for President, Duck for President and So You Want to Be President.  Then they wrote about what they think they would be a good president.  Next week, we will be revisiting what they would do as president and discuss the importance of it being what is best for the entire country.

Spelling Words
We will continue to work on CVC and CVCe words next week.  We will be focusing on long and short o words next week.
Long o words: joke, stove, broke, hope, those
Short o words: clock, chop, rock, job, spot

Adjective Parade
Please be thinking about what adjective your student would like to represent for our Adjective Parade on October 28.  They can create one article of clothing (hat, shirt, etc) to represent their adjective.  Their article of clothing should be created at home.  If you need assistance getting it created, please let me know.  It should be a fun day to show everything they have learned about adjectives!

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the BBQ tomorrow!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Wednesday!

Happy Chilly Wednesday!

Chicken BBQ
The Chicken BBQ is 3 short days away!  The PTA and the Chicken BBQ committee have been working very hard to get everything organized.  It should be a fabulous event!  Tomorrow the list of all the auction items (over 200+) will be coming home so you can see which items spark your interest.  We have some amazing items.  Also, there will be the class picture and my pizza party in the Teacher Town section of the auction.  Please see the information below about the Grade Level Pictures that are available for purchase at the BBQ or through Tuesday if you aren't able to make the BBQ.

If you haven't purchased tickets and would like to purchase tickets before Saturday, please send in your order form and money with your student.  Adult tickets are $9, youth tickets are $7 and child tickets are $5.  Each meal has chicken, green beans, apple sauce, a roll and pie.  If you don't have the order form, but would like to order, you can simply send in a note with how many tickets are needed and money and we will get the tickets sent home.  I will be working the drive thru from 3:30-6 and then going to the auction and having some delicious chicken after that.  I look forward to seeing everyone there!

STEAM Bus
Craig Adams has graciously donated a Day on the STEAM Bus for the auction at the RBE Chicken BBQ.  The winning student’s entire class will get to spend a day on the STEAM Bus doing fun activities.  If parents in your student’s class would like to pool their money together so they have more to bid, this is completely fine. Here is the website for the STEAM Bus if you would like to learn more about it.  http://www.cpsk12.org/steambus

Grade Level Pictures
If you would like to order a grade level picture and aren’t able to come to the BBQ or weren’t able to get your name added to the list at the Chicken BBQ, please have your child bring $5 (per print) to Mrs. Ross’ classroom by Tuesday, October 18 and you will be added to the order.  The order will be placed Tuesday afternoon, so we can’t accept any late orders.  Prints will be sent home in Friday folders once they have been printed.  This is a great memento to add to your student’s memory box.  Thank you for your support!

Weather Expectations at Recess
Please make sure your student has a jacket with them when they come to school.  Fall has definitely arrived (at least for a few days, even in the forecast does have some warmer weather, good ol' Missouri weather, right?).  As a reminder if the "feels like" temperature is below 60, they are expected to wear a jacket.  It is very breezy on our playground and even when they are running around the kids can get chilly.

RBE Literacy Night
Emily Arrow will be performing at an RBE Literacy Night.  She will be giving a concert for RBE families,  faculty and staff on December 7.  This event will take place at Woodcrest Church to accommodate for all our families.  This event was planned by Mrs. McKinzie, Mrs. Selle and Mrs. Godier for RBE families and sibilings of RBE students so they too can enjoy Emily Arrow.  Due to seating capacity, this event is only open to RBE families.  It is free of charge.  I will let you know what time the concert will take place closer to the event.

Math Posters
The students finished up "working for" the T-Shirt factory by creating a poster to show how they added up the total number of t-shirts.  We had a discussion that they haven't learned how to stack and regroup when adding, so they had to use another strategy.  Some groups used place value blocks, while other groups grouped the hundreds, tens and ones and then added.  The pictures below show them presenting their posters.

Picnic
Even though Bird Day was postponed, we still enjoyed a picnic in the classroom.

Summaries
We have continued to work on summaries this week using the strategy of Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then.  After your student reads at night, I encourage you to have them summarize what they read.  They may not have all parts depending on how long they read, but they should be able to identify what their character wanted and a problem the character had in the book.  Today, they wrote a summary independently about Three Hens and a Peacock which is a very funny book.  :)  It was interesting to read the different summaries because some students wrote about the Peacock and others wrote about the three hens.

Adjectives
We have been working on adjectives last week and this week.  The students have learned that adjectives describe a noun.  The students identified adjectives of items in the classroom and then created a Word Cloud (http://www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm) with all the adjectives that describe the items.  In a Word Cloud, words that are used more often appear larger.  We then created a large poster with the Word Clouds and pictures of the items.  The poster is hanging across from our room so if you're in the building, check it out!

Have a wonderful evening!
Mrs. Ross

Happy Friday!

We had a wonderful Friday, but fall is definitely here.  It was CHILLY at recess today!

Lots of important information in this post, please take the time to read it :)

Next Week's Learning
Math

• Next week, we will continue working on skip counting.  We will focus on skip counting by 4, 5, and 10.  The students have done a fabulous job identifying patterns as they skip count.
• We will also continue working on money.  We will work on applying their knowledge of skip counting to money.  If you have change at home, it would be great practice to have your student count it.  
• Please continue to practice basic facts at home.  We have some students that are very close to becoming math wizards.  :)

Reading

• We will start working on summarizing next week.  We will use the strategy of Somebody Wanted But So Then.  The somebody is the character, then what they wanted, but there was a problem, so they solved the problem and then what happened at the end.  This allows students to include the important parts of the story, but not include too many details.  We will discuss that a summary tells what the story is about but isn't a full retell of the story.
• 

Writing

• This week, we identified our 3 main events.  Next week, we will start adding details to each event.  If we get all our details included, we will learn the different types of endings of a story.  The students worked very hard on their beginnings this week.  We are going very slowly with this personal narrative so the students know all the necessary parts.  

Word Study

• Next week, we will work on short and long i words.  These words will follow the same pattern as this weeks words.  The short vowel words are CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words and the long vowel words are CVCe (consonant vowel consonant e) words.
• Short i words are stick, gift, rich, swim, thin
• Long i words are five, life, nine, prize, drive

Social Studies

• We will be comparing two books next week Gloria for President and Duck for President and discussing the requirements to be president.  We will also be discussing how presidents and other government officials are chosen in the United States (through voting).

Bird Day
We have Bird Day on Wednesday!  The students are excited about the exhibits and activities that will be at Bird Day.  Please make sure your student wear tennis shoes on Wednesday because we will be walking around the Audubon Park.  Also, they will probably want a jacket because we will be outside for a couple hours and the temperatures aren't forecasted to be very warm.

Please remember your student needs to bring a lunch from home (unless you requested a lunch from school).  Please remember everything in the lunch (including the bag) will be thrown away at the park.  Please put their lunch in a Ziploc bag with their name on it.  If you don't have a bag, I have some at school.  Also, please no glass containers.  We will have our snack in the afternoon on Wednesday, so if they want a snack, they need to keep it in their backpack so we can have them in the afternoon.

Bird Beak Lab
In preparation for Bird Day, we did a bird beak lab today.  The students tested out different "beaks" on different types of bird seed.  They learned that a straw is similar to the beak of a hummingbird,  tongs are similar to beaks that are used to crack open seeds, slotted spoons are similar to a duck's bill because they scoop up water and plants and the water seeps out and they eat the plants, then tweezers are similar to beaks of birds that pull insects out of trees.  The students enjoyed getting to "be birds" this morning as they learned about beaks.   Here are some pictures.  :)

Adjectives and Adjective Parade
This week the students learned about adjectives and learned that they describe a noun.  They brought in objects today and other students used adjectives to describe the objects.  Then we created a Word Cloud of all the adjectives.  That is the first picture below.

In your student's Friday Folder you will find a form (link here) about our Adjective Parade.  On October 28, students can wear one item (hat, shirt, etc.) that represents an adjective.  They will wear their adjective around their neck throughout the day.  We will parade around for the other 2nd grade classes to see.  As it says in the sheet, this is not a Halloween costume, no masks and no make up please.  Also, the student needs to be bale to explain their adjective and how their item (hat, shirt, etc.) represents their adjective.  This will be a very fun way for students to show their understanding of adjectives.  If your student needs help creating their item for the parade, please let me know.

Chicken BBQ
In your student's Friday folder is a preview of some of the items available at the Chicken BBQ Silent Auction.  There are some fabulous items!  A copy of all the items will come home next Wednesday.  I will also post a copy of the list on the blog once it becomes available.  As part of the auction, you will be able to purchase a print of the entire 2nd grade for $5.  It will be printed the week after the BBQ and then put in Friday folders once the prints arrive.

If you would like to purchase tickets in advance and you haven't, you can send in your order next week.  Tickets are also available for purchase at the BBQ or through the Drive Thru.  This is PTA's big fundraiser and they do so much for our school.  Thank you in adance for your support.

Recess Attire
As it gets colder, please make sure your student is wearing or brings warm clothes for recess.  It was 52 degrees when we went outside this morning but felt a lot cooler.  The kids definitely came in with red noses and red cheeks.

As always, thank you so much for the wonderful support from home!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Ross