Happy Friday!

Happy Ugly Sweater Friday!

Wow!  We were quite impressed with the holiday sweaters and outfits today.  It's amazing how kids can make ugly sweaters look cute.  :)

It's crazy to think that next Thursday is our last day of school before Winter Break.  There is information below about special activities planned for next week as well as our learning for after break.

We will not send home Friday folders next week.  Sometimes they get lost over long breaks.  :)

Important Upcoming Dates

• Wednesday, December 19: Grinch Day
• Students may dress as their favorite Grinch character.
• We have fun Grinchy activities planned.
• Thursday, December 20
• Library Check Out (please make sure students have their library books)
• PJs for Positives Day
• Students may wear PJs to celebrate our first 100 positive office referrals before the 100th day of school.
• Please make sure they have shoes for recess and their pajamas will keep them warm.  
• Winter Party at 1:45 p.m.
• https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0b4fa5ac2eab9-winter
• 
  
• Friday, December 21-January 2: Winter Break
• Thursday, January 3: School Resumes

Student Bragging!

• Our goal is for 80% of the students to get 80% or better when we give an assessment.  We don't expect all students to get 100% as we all have off days or need some clarification on a topic.
• We took the STAR Reading winter benchmark this week and ALL the students' scores have gone up since the beginning of the year!  We know the students are growing as reader and it is always nice to see that carry over.
• On the Mid Year Assessment in math which covers all the topics from 2nd grade so far (it's long and covers a lot), 85% of the students received an 80% or better.  
• We bragged earlier this week, but will brag again over 80% of the students received an 80% or above on their Unit 4 math assessment over time, measurement and place value.  ALL the students showed huge growth in this unit.  It is amazing to be writing the pre and post test scores on the cover sheet and see their huge improvement!

Our Learning After Break

Math

• We will be continuing with Unit 5.  This unit reviews money and introduces making change.  It also covers word problems and various strategies and models to solve the problems.  The students ROCKED the pretest over Unit 5 so we will be pushing them even more with explanations and variety of ways to solve a problem.  One thing to continue to work on at home is basic addition and subtraction facts.  As we get into harder addition and subtraction problems, we don't want them to get hung up on the basic facts.
• The students all did very well on our time unit, but this is not a skill that we will hit much more this year.  We will continue touching on it here and there, but please continue practicing telling time at home.  It can be something as simple as randomly having your student look at the clock and tell you the time.

Writing

• We started writing our informational piece this week.  The goal is to have the rough draft written before break.  It all depends on scheduling as to whether this happens.  :)
• When we return from break, we will pick up where we left off.  They will finish writing if needed, then edit and revise their writing and then publish.  With their informational writing, they will also be including text features in their books.  This will help their reader understand more about the topic.

Fundations

• We are in the middle of Unit 7 which introduces open syllable words.  We are continuing to review all syllable types as we introduce new ones.
• We will wrap up Unit 7 after break and start Unit 8.  Unit 8 covers r controlled vowels.  
• Please continue practicing the trick words at home.  These are words the students just have to memorize.

Science/Social Studies

• The students became an expert on volcanoes, floods or earthquakes this week and were able to teach classmates about their topic.  We will also be learning about landslides before break.
• After break, we will switch back to social studies.  We will be focusing on geography for the month of January.  They will be identifying landforms and creating maps to show the landforms.

Reading

• We finished learning about text features this week.  They will use these text features in the publishing of their informational writing.
• When we get back from break, we will briefly review the concepts we have covered in the first half of the year.  Then we will move on to making connections between different books as well as between books and events occurring in the world.  

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

We have had a wonderful week!  Check out what we will be working on next week, as well as important information for the next few weeks.

Important Upcoming Events/Information

• Please remember to send in snacks with your student each day.  We have snack each day at 9:55 a.m.
• Ugly Sweater Day: December 14
• Grinch Day: December 19
• We will have "Grinchy" activities all day.  Students may dress up for Grinch Day if they would like.
• Winter Party: December 20 at 1:35 p.m.
• The All School Sing Along will be before the parties so parents can set up for the party.  Due to the size of our gym and number of students we have at RBE, we do not have room for parents to attend the Sing Along.  
• Winter Break: December 21-January 2

Box Tops

• We are doing another school wide Box Top collection this month.  Please cut out your box tops and send them in with your student.  There is a sheet in your student's Friday folder where you can tape/glue the Box Tops.  Our goal is 200 box tops for the entire Team Moss class.  

Homework Bingo

• We have had our first 2 Homework Bingo Black Outs!  If your student wants to eat lunch with us, they simply have to bring in their Bingo Board with a Bingo.  We check daily and we eat lunch with them most Fridays (we let the students know if it is a different day than Friday).

Math

• Unit 4 Test on Tuesday (covers time, measurement, place value)
• We will start Unit 5 next week.  This unit covers adding 10 and 100 to numbers.  It also reviews counting money and introduces finding change.

Reading

• We learned about table of contents, heading, photographs, captions, diagrams, labels and types of print this week.  The students are getting an opportunity to learn about the text features and create their own.  We will use these text features in their informational books that they will write.  
• Next week, we will continue working on text features.  As you're reading at home, encourage students to read informational or nonfiction books and ask them to locate text features and how they help them as a reader.  

Writing

• This week, we worked on researching our topic.  We talked about the importance of putting the information in our own words.  They can use the information, but cannot use someone else's words.
• Next week, we will wrap up our research and then start using the information to write an informational book about their animal.  

Science

• This week, students researched about volcanoes, earthquakes and floods.  They learned what causes them and how they change the earth's surface.  
• Next week, they will take the information they learned and create a poster.  They will use the poster to teach other students about their natural disaster.  

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Ross

We cannot believe that December is right around the corner!  The students are doing such an amazing job.  This week was full of special events!  

• On Wednesday, we celebrated the end of our Colonial America unit, we had Colonial Day.  A HUGE thank you to those who sent in supplies and helped run a station - this would not have been possible without your support!  
• Then today, to celebrate all their hard work during first trimester, we had a pizza party!  The money that you sent you at the beginning of the year paid for the pizza, and families provided a healthy side, chips and dessert.  The students had a blast today with an extra long lunch, pizza, and short video!

Upcoming Events

• December 5 - RBHS Planetarium field trip (we will be out of the building from 9:15-10:45)
• December 14 - RBE Ugly Sweater Spirit Day 
• December 20 - RBE Holiday Sing Along - due to the size of our school parents are not able to attend this event.
• December 20 - Winter Party (1:45-2:25)
• December 21-January 3 - No School Winter Break

Student Teacher Next Semester!

We are super excited to be hosting a student teacher from MU next semester!  Sam Easter will be with us next semester.  She is planning on coming by to introduce herself to the students during December, and in January, you will receive a letter from Ms. Easter introducing herself. 

What We're Learning!

• Math
• Your child should be able to tell time to the nearest 5 minutes, and use a.m. & p.m. appropriately.  Please continue to reinforce this skill with your child.
• We are now working on place value.  Your child's goal is to be able to read and write 3 digit numbers in all forms (standard, word, base ten, and expanded form).
• Writing
• We finished publishing our second personal narrative.  Make sure to ask your kiddo what s/he wrote about!
• Your child will also be publishing their personal narrative using the iPad and making an electronic book.  We are super excited about this, and can't wait to share these books with you!
• We are starting informational writing.  Your child chose an animal that they wanted to research, and next week we will be starting to research.
• Reading
• To go along with our informational writing unit, we are learning about text features that authors use to teach their readers.  Over the next few weeks, we will be learning about the different text features.
• Fundations
• We took our Unit 6 Fundations test today.  Your child should be able to tell the difference between a short vowel and a long vowel.  
• In Unit 7, we will learning about open syllable word patterns (a word that ends with a vowel).  Examples of this pattern are go and cry.
• Trick Words are word that do not follow the pattern that students just have to memorize.  Please be practicing these words with your child to make sure that know these words.
• Unit 6 Trick Words: only, house, move, right, place, together
• Unit 7 Trick Words: eight, large, change, city, every, family, night, carry, something
• Review Trick Words: some, come, would, could, should, say, between, each
• Social Studies
• We finished up our Colonial Unit of study this week.  Your child should be able to tell you what Colonial life was like, the jobs that Colonial people had, and the clothes that they wore.  We also worked on comparing Colonial life to present day life.
• Science
• Our next science unit will be focusing on comparing the Earth's surface changes over long and short periods of time.
• Next week, we will be focusing on quick changes, such as volcanoes and earthquakes,  We will also be discussing flooding and landslides.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy (Short Week) Friday!

The students put on an AMAZING performance at our Veterans Day Assembly!  If you were not able to make it - check out our Twitter feed because we tweeted out the three songs that were sung by our class!  As a reminder, you can always find lots of pictures from the week on Twitter.  If you don't have Twitter - all you have to do is look on the right sidebar of our classroom blog.

Some Friendly Reminders! :)

• Food Drive: Service Club is having their yearly food drive.  Second grade is collecting smooth peanut butter.  If you would like to donate any peanut butter, you can send it in with your student.  

• Book Fair: The book fair will be open during the week of November 12-16.  This is a great place to get some books for your students to read at home.  The book fair schedule is below.
• Monday 7:30 AM-5:00 PM
• Tuesday  7:30 AM-5:00 PM
• Wednesday  7:30 AM-5:00 PM
• Thursday  7:30 AM-7:00 PM
• Friday 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM

• Conferences: This week we started Parent/Teacher Conferences, and next week we will finish them up.  This is one of our favorite times of the year to be able to show the growth that your child has made!  We are looking forward to meeting with every family!

Look What's Happening in Moss World!

• Math: On Wednesday, we reviewed Unit 3 (subtraction) and took our end of the unit test.  We will be sharing this assessment with you at your child's P/T Conferences.  We also started Unit 4 (time, measurement and place value).  We started learning about how to tell time on an analog clock and will be continuing to practice this skill during the next couple of weeks.  Your child's goal, at the end of this unit, is to be able to tell time to the nearest 5 minute using AM and PM.  This would be something that would be super helpful for you to practice on at home!

• Writing: We have started writing the middle of our second small moment stories.  This week, we broke our story down into three events and worked hard on adding important details to each event.  Next week, we will finish writing our middle and add the lead paragraph. 

• Reading: This week, we started working on visualizing.  Visualizing is an important skill for readers to have.  When a reader visualizes what they are reading, they are able to better comprehend what's happening in the story.  As students continue to grow as readers, the books will have less and less pictures, and visualizing will become more and more important.  We will continue practicing this skill next week.

• Fundations: This week, we reviewed two Fundations rules that we had learned earlier this year.  
• Do you know the rule when to use -ick or -ic at an end of a word?  Your child does!  Ask him/her the rule.  If they need a hint, remind them about syllables and short vowel! :)
• You can also ask your child about when to double the f, l and s at the end of a word.  In Fundations this is called a bonus letter that happens in short vowel words. 

• Social Studies: This week, we started learning about Colonial times.  We learned that the Colonial period is between 1607 (Jamestown colony established) and 1776 (the end of the American Revolution).  We also discovered why all the 13 original colonies were on the east coast of the United States.  We started learning about what Colonial men, women and children wore.  Next week, we will also be learning about what the work that men, women and children did in Colonial times.  Your child's goal, at the end of this unit, is to be able to compare the life of a person from Colonial times to their life.

• As a celebration of our learning about Colonial America, we will have Colonial Day on November 28!  We need your help to make this fun learning experience a success!  We need parent volunteers (8:00-10:30) and a few supplies.  Please click here to be able to look over our SignUp Genius to see what is needed.  We appreciate all your support!

 Upcoming Events

• November 16 - No School (P/T Conferences)
• November 21-25 - No School (Thanksgiving Break)
• November 28 - Colonial Day (8:00-10:30) ***new event***
• November 30 - RBE Spirit Pajama Day

This trimester is flying by and I cannot believe that it is already November! 

Parent/Teacher Conferences

We start Parent/Teacher Conferences next week.  Ms. Mottaz and I try to do all conferences together, so we spread them out over two weeks.  If you have not already sent back in your blue form confirming you P/T Conference time, please do so as soon as possible. 

Upcoming Events

• November 5 - No School (Teacher Work Day)
• November 6 - No School (Election Day)
• November 7 - PTA Meeting at 6:00 in the Media Center
• November 9 - Veterans Day Assembly in the gym at 9:30 ***correct time***
• November 16 - No School (P/T Conferences)
• November 21-25 - No School (Thanksgiving Break)
• November 30 - RBE Spirit Pajama Day

Food Drive

Service Club is having their yearly food drive.  Second grade is collecting smooth peanut butter.  If you would like to donate any peanut butter, you can send it in with your student.  

Book Fair

The book fair will be open during the week of November 12-16.  This is a great place to get some books for your students to read at home.  The book fair schedule is below.

• Monday 7:30 AM-5:00 PM
• Tuesday  7:30 AM-5:00 PM
• Wednesday  7:30 AM-5:00 PM
• Thursday  7:30 AM-7:00 PM
• Friday 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Veterans Day Assembly

The students have been working extremely hard with Mrs. Sharp to put together a Veterans Day Assembly.  Our students will be performing at 9:30 on November 9 (next Friday).  Please have your child wear red, white & blue on Friday!  The wrong time was reported in the Bear Facts - so please make sure that you have the correct time on your calendar!

Bear Facts

If you have not already had a chance to look through the Bear Facts, make sure you check out it - especially the section on Zones of Regulation because there are several pictures from our classroom in this section! :)

What We're Learning in 2nd Grade!

• Math: 
• This week, we finished up Unit 3 on Subtraction.
• Next week, we will review and take the end of unit test.  Our next unit will focus on time and measurement.
• Writing: 
• This week, we started our second small moment story.  The students are working so hard on this piece of writing!
• Next week, we will continue to work on our story!
• Reading: 
• This week, we talked about what to do if you come to an unknown word.  We reviewed decoding strategies (picture below) and how to use context clues
• 
• Next week, we will be talking about how visualizing helps us understand what is happening in our story.
• Fundations: 
• This week, we finished up Unit 5 on suffixes and took the end unit quiz.
• Next week, we will be reviewing the rules that we have learned so far in Fundations and trick words.  The following week, we will be starting Unit 6 - we sent home the introduction letter to this unit in your child's Friday Folder.
• Science & Social Studies: 
• This week in Science, we finished up our Properties of Materials unit and took the CPS district assessment on Physical Science.  We are super proud of the students! 
• Next week, we will be starting our Colonial Unit in Social Studies.

We are looking forward to meeting with everyone over the next few weeks at conferences!  I hope that your child enjoys their 4 day weekend!  

Happy Fall Party Day!

Happy Friday!

What a great party today!  Thank you to all our wonderful parents who organized the party, set it up, attended the party and sent in items for the party.  The kids had a lot of fun!

Pumpkin Book Reports

• Wow!  The pumpkin book reports were amazing.  Thank you so much for helping your students create such fabulous book character pumpkins!

Book It

• October Book It is due by Wednesday.  Students must read and record at least 2 hours of reading and bring in their reading log.  This is completely optional.  If they did not get a chance to fill it out for October, they can always try to earn their pizza for November.

Homework Bingo

• The kids keep getting Homework Bingos.  
• Once students get 8 activities in a row, they can bring us their Bingo Board and eat with us the following Friday.
• This is not required, but it is a fun way for them to practice skills at home.

Food Drive

• Service Club is having their yearly food drive.  Second grade is collecting smooth peanut butter.  If you would like to donate any peanut butter, you can send it in with your student.  

Conferences

• We will be scheduling next week and be sending home conference times next Friday.
• Our goal is to meet with all parents and we do our best to schedule all conferences during the time you requested.
• The book fair will be open during conferences as well.  This is a great place to get some books for your students to read at home.  The book fair schedule is below.
• Monday 7:30 AM -5:00 PM
  Tuesday 7:30 AM - 5:00 PM
  Wednesday 7:30 AM - 5:00 PM
  Thursday 7:30 AM - 7:00 PM
  Friday 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
• If there is anything specific you want to discuss at conferences, please let us know.

Veterans

• If you know a veteran who would like to come talk with our students about their service (in 2nd grade words), please let us know. 

Next Week's Learning

Math

• Next week, we will focus on different subtraction strategies.  We will be working on counting up to 10 and counting back to 10.  We will also be looking at using doubles strategies to solve subtraction problems.  
• Our plan is to text the week of November 5.  We sent home Home Links this week in Friday folders for Unit 3.

Reading

• We wrapped up our study of theme this week.  This is a difficult concept for students to grasp.  Yesterday, we listened to 4 different songs and the students identifying the theme.  We talked about the lesson the author wanted you to learn and how you could use things from the book to make you a better person.
• Next week, we will start focusing on strategies to use when coming to an unknown word.  It is important for students to identify unknown words instead of just skipping over them because when they skip over them they often do not understand what they have read.  One of the strategies does recommend skipping the word, but then to come back once you have figured out what would make sense in the sentence.

Writing

• We will start our 2nd personal narrative next week.  The students will have a graphic organizer to help them organize their thoughts.  This personal narrative will be more independent than the first, but we will still review what to include in each part.

Science

• We will be working on identifying the purpose of a materials based on its characteristics.
• Students will then classify materials and determine the best use of the material.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

Hopefully you have had a wonderful week!  The kids have been working hard this week!

Pumpkin Book Report

• We got our first 2 Pumpkin Book Reports today!  Please remember the pumpkin, book report and book all need to be finished and brought to school by Tuesday, October 23.
• We will share the pumpkins on Thursday, October 25.

Conference Request

• In your student's Friday folder is a conference request form.  Please look over the times and mark your top 3 choices with a 1, 2, or 3.  We offer additional times as we have more students to meet with.  If you want a back-to-back time with another teacher at RBE, please make sure the time is offered by both teachers.  If you have additional students at RBE, but don't need a back to back time, please let us know that as well.  These forms are due back by October 26 and we will be meeting with other teachers on October 30 to schedule sibling conferences.  Conference times will be sent home on November 2.  

Book-It

• We have had a few students earn their Book-It Pizza for October.  As a reminder, students must read for at least 2 hours, fill out the form, have it initialed by a parent/guardian and bring it in to their teacher.  We will then give them a coupon for a free personal pan pizza.
• This is not required at all, just a reminder if your student is working towards a free pizza.  

Homework Bingo

• We have had a group for Homework Bingo each Friday so far.  We enjoy eating with the students.  Please encourage your student to earn a bingo so we can eat with them also.  

Fall Party

• Our Fall Party is next Friday, October 26 from 1:45-2:30.  Below is a Sign-Up Genius from our head room parent if you would like to sign up to send in supplies for the party.
• https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0b4fa5ac2eab9-fall

Weather

• Welcome to Missouri weather!  Some days when students come to school they are needing a heavy coat, but then by recess the weather has warmed up a little.  Please send a light jacket or a sweatshirt with your child.  Some students are getting warm at recess.  Thanks!

Math

• We started Unit 3 this week.  This unit cover subtraction and subtraction strategies.  This week, the students learned about creating fact families.  This group of students has been rocking math this year and fact families was no different!  They were able to take the numbers and create 2 addition and 2 subtraction problems.  YEAH!  One misconception that can happen, especially if they are in a rush, is when creating the subtraction problem, the problems are not always written correctly.  They will often switch the numbers around as you would with the addition problems which makes the subtraction problem not true.  This is a great skill to practice in the car.  You can give the student 3 numbers that can be turned into addition/subtraction problems (example: 4, 3, 7) and then they give you the 4 problems (3 + 4 = 7; 4 + 3 = 7; 7 - 4 = 3; 7 - 3- = 4).  We also learned about counting up and counting back to solve subtraction problems.  Students learned a new game called Salute that can be played at home to practice basic facts.
• Next week, we will continue working on various subtraction strategies.  Often with addition facts, the students are able to quickly add them without a strategy.  The subtraction strategy definitely are used more often as students do not have their subtraction facts memorized yet.  

Science

• This week, students wrapped up their study of birds and their adaptations by creating their own bird.  Be sure to check them out in the hallway if you are at school.
• They also went back to their student of the properties of matter.  The properties are the characteristics of an object that describe it.  This week the students completed a science lab that had them thinking about the color, flexibility, strength, texture and absorbency of an object/material.  The goal of this unit is for students to be given characteristics and be able to pick out the object based on the characteristics and also be given an object and be able to describe it with specific characteristics or properties.  

Reading

• This week, we learned about the theme of a story.  We started with learning about the moral of a story and how to identify it.  Then we moved more into the theme.  We discussed that the theme is the overall message the author wants you to take away from the story.  The theme is often one or two words.  It is not as much something the author wants you to learn, but a skill you could use to be a better person.  
• Next week, we will continue our study of theme and be looking at songs and having the students identify the theme of the songs.  We will also start to focus more on identifying and supporting the theme of the story or song.  

Writing

• Almost everyone finished publishing their first personal narrative!  There are just a few that are finishing up illustrations.  The students have worked very hard on their first piece of writing.  We can't wait to share it at conferences.  
• Next week, we will jump right into our next personal narrative.  We will still be guiding the students through the process, but it will be more independent so the students have an opportunity to show us what they have learned about writing a personal narrative and the components to include to make it the best personal narrative.
• We will also be using some of our writing time to have the students do some self-reflection over the first trimester of school.  These self-reflections will be shared at conferences.

Fundations

• This week, we continued to work on identifying syllables in multi-syllabic words and marking up the syllables.  The students learned about 4 different ways to identify a work as multi-syllabic.  
•    
  
• We have also added 10 additional minutes of Fundations practice each day.  During this time, students will be independently practicing either trick words or a skill that way learned the week before.  This week students worked on adding the suffix of s/es and knowing when to use which one.  They also had an opportunity to practice trick words.  Please practice these trick words at home.  Trick words are words that cannot be tapped out and the students simply have to memorize.
• Next week, we will continue learning about multi-syllabic words and other rules that go along with identifying the syllables.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Ross 

Happy BBQ Friday!

Chicken BBQ is TOMORROW!

• Our HUGE PTA Fundraiser is tomorrow, October 13 from 4 p.m.-8 p.m.!
• PTA provides the school with so many amazing opportunities for the school.  This is their main fundraiser for the year.
• Come by to have a yummy chicken dinner, do some shopping at the silent auction (the list came home yesterday) and play some games!
• Game tickets and meal tickets are available for purchase tomorrow if you weren't able to pre-order.
• If you're short on time, we have a drive thru that is very efficient.  
• Ms. Mottaz and I will be working at the drive thru from 4-6, so be sure to stop by and say hi.

Early Dismissal: October 16 at 12:10

• Please let us know if your student is getting home a different way than normal.

Veteran's Day Pictures

• Our Veteran's Day assembly is next month.  Mrs. Sharp is collecting pictures of veterans that are family members of RBE faculty, staff and students.  If you would like to send in a picture of a veteran for the veteran's wall, then I will send home the information sheet for you to fill out to go with the picture.  

Runge Field Date Change: May 10

• Due to Truman Day, we had to reschedule our Runge Field Trip.  Our new date is Friday, May 10.  Parents are welcome on this trip, so we want to get the date to you as early as possible so you can take off work if needed.  

Math Test

• Your student's Unit 2 Math Test came home on Wednesday.  If you haven't done so already, please review the test with your student, then sign and return it to school.

Pumpkin Book Project

• We sent home information this week about our pumpkin book project. Please be talking with your student to identify a  book character they want to create using a pumpkin.  Next week, we will be sending home a paper where students will tell us the title of the book for their character and the name of their character.  We will also be asking if they have a pumpkin.  Please help them fill this out when it comes home next week.

Friday Folders
Family Eat Out

• Our next Family Eat Out Night is at Jersey Mike's on October 16-17.  This is a great excuse to not make dinner while supporting RBE at the same time.  
• 30% of the profits will come back to RBE!

Dental Screening

• Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and RBE are offering dental screenings again this year.  If you would like your student to participate, please fill out the form and return it to school.  

Unit 3 Parent Letter

• We started Unit 3 in math today.  Unit 3 covers subtraction strategies.  We will teach the students a variety of strategies to use and then they can use the strategies that work best for them.  
• Please continue practicing basic facts at home with students.  Students are learning strategies for addition and subtraction facts, but it is important as students progress in math for them to know the facts in a snap.  

Unit 5 Fundations

• We started Unit 5 in Fundations today.  It focuses on multi-syllabic words.  We will be learning about different ways to identify where the syllable break occurs as well as how to mark up multi-syllabic words.
• Please continue to practice trick words with your students at home.  If you need another copy of trick words, please let us know.  Trick words are words that do not follow a pattern and students are expected to be able to read and write.  

Next Week's Learning
Math

• We will be learning how to use addition sentences to help solve subtraction problems as well as the counting up and counting back.  We will also be learning about different type of subtraction problems.  We will be building fact families which is creating 2 addition and 2 subtraction problems with the same 4 numbers (4+5=9; 5+4=9; 9-5=4; 9-4=5).  

Reading

• Next week, we will be learning about the theme of a book.  We will talk about what the author wants us to take away from the book.  Students at Hickman High School wrote children's books in their creative writing class and we will be using these to discuss the theme.  This can be a more difficult concept for students so we will be working on theme for the next two weeks. 

Writing

• We are on the tail end of publishing our first personal narrative.  Yeah!!!  Next week, we will finish it up and then start our second personal narrative piece.  Our goal is to have the second one finished by parent teacher conferences so we can share both with you at conferences.
• We worked on editing and revising this week.  We talked about the importance of capital letters and punctuation on our sentences.  The students have a lot of good ideas, but often write them as one giant sentence.  We are talking about finding the nature breaks and making them separate sentences.  

Science

• This week, we continued to talk about birds and their adaptations.  Today, the students were able to create their own bird, but had to justify their choices by telling how their adaptation choices would impact what their bird eats, what their bird does, and where their bird lives.
• Building a Bird: http://projectbeak.org/adaptations/build.htm
• We showed this website to students today.  They started to design a bird today from their imagination.  If they wanted to play with this website over the weekend or next week to build their own bird, they enjoyed doing it today as a whole group and some students played around on this website during inside recess.
• Next week, we will go back to learning about properties of materials.  Your child should already be able to describe the three states of matter.  We will now be diving deeper into properties and the students will be describing different materials (metal, plastic, wood, ceramic) by their properties (color, texture, hardness, flexibility, strength, absorbency and shininess).

Have a fabulous weekend and hope to see you at the BBQ!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

Important Upcoming Events
Bird Day: October 10

• Please check the weather so students are dressed appropriately.  They can wear boots or tennis shoes.  Please have them wear older tennis shoes as the forecast for the next week has a chance of rain each day.  They will also want a jacket or sweatshirt so they don't get chilly.
• If they are bringing a lunch from home, it needs to all be in disposable containers/bags.  We will not be bringing anything back to RBE with us.  Please put their lunch in a gallon size Ziploc bag labeled with their name.  

Western Day: October 12

• In celebration of the Chicken BBQ on October 13, October 12 is Western Day.  Students can dress up and participate if they would like. Please remember even though weapons were used in the Old West, weapons of any kind are not permitted at school.  

Chicken BBQ: October 13

• We are still looking for volunteers and need some more pies.  If you are able to volunteer or donate pies, please use the links below to sign up.
• Volunteers: www.signupgenius.com/go/rbechicken
• Pies: www.signupgenius.com/go/pielist
• You can still order ticket next week if you want them in advance.  Tickets are also available for purchase at the BBQ.
• If you're unable to stay for long at the BBQ, you can always use the drive thru to get dinner on the go.  Team Moss will be working the drive thru.  Ms. Mottaz will be taking orders and Mrs. Ross will be delivering food to the cars.

October 16: Early Dismiss at 12:10

• If your student is going home a different way, please let us know either the day before or early on the morning of October 16.  

October 17: Picture Retakes

• Pictures are coming home in Friday Folders.  If you would like your student to retake pictures, please send back in the original package on October 17.  

November 5: Teacher Work Day (No School)

November 6: Election Day (No School)

Cooler Weather

• Please make sure your student has a light jacket with them each day at school.  Even though we still have some warmer days in the forecast, fall is definitely on its way.  It can be chilly at morning recess.  If the "feels like" temperature is below 60, the students need to have a sweatshirt or light jacket.  

Next Week's Learning
Math

• This week, we continued working on addition strategies.  This week, the students learned how to "name" numbers.  This means they find multiple ways to represent a number. 
• 
• Next week, students will test over Unit 2.  Homelinks were sent home on Monday if students wanted additional practice.  We will also start Unit 3 next week.  This unit is over subtraction strategies.  The goal of both unit 2 and 3 is to introduce students to multiple strategies to use to solve a problem.  

Science

• Next week, we will wrap up our study of birds.  They will get to use what they know and their creativity to make their own bird that includes all the necessary components of a bird and then explain the diet of the bird based on its beak.  They will also consider the appearance of the bird and how it relates to the habitat of the bird.  
• We also have Bird Day next week.  We are excited about this, the kids always have a lot of fun on this field trip!

Reading

• This week, students worked to identify character traits in books as well as character traits that describe them.  Next week, we will continue to work on identifying more specific character traits through our independent reading as well as read aloud books.

Writing

• The students worked so hard this week rewriting and adding.  Next week, we will edit and revise using CUPS and ARMS.  Then we will start publishing.  We will keep these to share with you at parent teacher conferences next month. 
• 
• After we finish our first personal narrative, we will start a second one that will be done more independently and students can use what they have learned throughout our first personal narrative.  We will still be reviewing each section before students write.  We also have a graphic organizer for them to use which will help them keep their writing organized.  

Fundations

• This week in Fundations, students worked on adding suffixes.  We talked about about adding -ed to the end of words and how it can make the /d/, /id/ or /t/ sound but it is always spelled -ed.  It has been awesome to see the students adding suffixes to the end of words in writing.  They are using the suffix cards from Fundations as a resource.
• Next week, we will learn new vowel teams.  At this point, the students are expected to be able to read with the vowel teams, but not use them in spelling.  We will start unit 5 next week.  This unit teaches about identifying syllables in words.  

Have a fabulous weekend!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

What a wonderful week it has been for Team Moss!  The students have been working very hard!

Friday Folders

• Home Links Unit 2
• Unit 2 Test will be the week of October 8.  The Home Links are extra practice to do at home if you would like.  They are not required at all.  They are on the bingo board though, so if they do one, make sure to put the date on the bingo board box.  
• Fundations Unit 4
• We started Fundations Unit 4 on Tuesday.  We have been focusing on suffixes this week.  There is practice on suffixes in the packet.  There is also practice on vowel teams.  These also are not required, but can be used as extra practice if your student would like to practice at home.  
• Book It
• From October-March, we will be participating in the Pizza Hut Book-It program.  
• In your student's Friday folder is a letter about the program.
• For student's to receive a free personal pizza coupon, they must read for at least 2 hours each month.  There is a reading log included in the Friday folder.  The log must be filled out each month and initialed by parents.  To receive their coupon, they need to bring us the filled out reading log by the first day of the following month (For example: To receive the October pizza coupon, they need to bring their log to us by November 1).  Students may bring in their reading log anytime during the month once they have 2 hours of reading completed.
• This program isn't required, it is just another way to encourage reading.  
• Chicken BBQ Gift Card Donation
• PTA is going to be selling gift cards at the Chicken BBQ Silent Auction again this year.
• Each class is raising money for the gift cards.
• If you would like to donate money to purchase the gift cards, please put it in an envelope labeled "Gift Card Donation."  Please only send in cash, no checks.
• This is simply a donation if you would like, it is not required. 

Important Dates

• October 2: Flu Clinic (forms were sent home in Friday folders a few weeks ago)
• October 10: Bird Day Field Trip
• October 12: Western Day
• October 13: Chicken BBQ
• October 16: Early Dismiss at 12:10
• October 17: Picture Re-takes

Spirit Days

RBE will have a special Spirit Day each month.  This is an opportunity to encourage school spirit and a fun time for the students.  Below are the list of Spirit Day for this school year:

• October 12 - Western Day
• November 30 - Pajama Day
• December 14 - "Ugly Holiday Sweater Day"
• January 18 - Hat Day
• February 8 - Decade Day
• March 22 - Sport's Team Day
• April 12 - RBE Shirt/Color Day
• May 17 - Crazy Hair Day

Temperature

• As the temperatures start to cool down (well for this week, not as much next week), it is time to start thinking about jackets.  
• At RBE, we have a temperature guide for when students are expected to wear coats.
• We reviewed the guide with the students this week and have started to tell them the feels like temperature before we go out to recess.  You can click here to see what to wear expectations.
• Please make sure your student has a light jacket with them each day.  Once winter is here, please make sure they have a winter coat.
• Many times, we have not reached the high temperature at our recess time, so students can get cold at recess.

Veteran's Day Assembly-From Mrs. Sharp

Here is the blurb you will see in the newsletter:

**

This year, to honor Military Veterans who are family members of our current RBE staff and students, we will be creating a “Wall of Honor”.  Please see the instructions below to know how to submit a photo to be included in the RBE “Wall of Honor”.

1. Paper copies of photos of Veterans (5 x 7 or smaller) will be accepted as they will not be returned to you. NO ORIGINAL PHOTOS PLEASE!  
2. All paper copies of photos must be turned in to your child’s classroom teacher, Mrs. Sharp or the office by 3:00 p.m. on November 5th, to be included for the “Wall of Honor”.
3. The following information must be written on a “Veteran’s Information Sheet”. These are available in this newsletter (print and fill out), from your child’s classroom teacher, Mrs. Sharp or the office.
4. Please attach the “Veterans Information Sheet” to the photo with a paperclip and place them in an envelope to return to school.
5. If a paper copy of a photo comes in and the “Veterans Information Sheet” is not attached, it may not be included on the “Wall of Honor”.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Our Learning

Reading

• This week in reading, we worked on defining the word "character."  The students decided that characters are the "who" of a story.  They are the important people, animals or things in a story.  They were also able to identify examples of characters that were people, animals and things.
• Next week, students will be identifying character traits.  We started this discussion this week.  Next week, they will get with a partner and identify character traits for characters in books that have been read aloud books.  

Writing

• We continue to move along with our personal narrative.  This week, we made a descriptive setting, identified characters and wrote our 3 main events.
• Next week, we will rewrite our story to allow us room to add details.  We will also work to add transition words and a conclusion.
• Our goal is to finish our first personal narrative the 2nd week of October.  

Science

• We have been focusing on students being able to describe the three states of matter.  We have learned that states of matter have shape, mass and volume.  Your child should be able to draw what the molecules look like in a solid, liquid and gas.  One of the "I can" learning objectives on our proficiency chart is "I can describe the three states of matter."  The students are doing really well with this objective! 
• Next week, we will be talking about what makes a bird a bird to help us get ready for our Bird Day field trip in a couple of weeks!

Math

• This week in math, we learned about the turn-around rule.  Students learned that the turn-around rule works for addition, but they proved that it doesn't work for subtraction.  Students were able to count backwards on a number line into the negative numbers.  
• Next week, students will come up with multiple ways to represent a number by creating "Name Collection Boxes."  They will also get to identifying what "rule" applies when given a group of numbers and how they have been changed.  
• We will be testing over Unit 2 the week of October 8.

Fundations

• We started Unit 4 in Fundations this week.  We have been focusing on adding suffixes this week.  Students learned when to add -s or -es to a word.  They also learned that -er and -est are used to compare.  They learned that you add -ed and -ing to the end of action words.
• Trick words were sent home in their Take Home Folder with the bingo board, please be practicing these trick words at home.
• Trick words learned so far this year are: please, again, animal, goes, they, said, full, pull, both, one, was, talk, walk, pretty, you, your, done, shall.

Intervention

• Reading intervention starts on Monday.  Be sure to ask your student which teacher they go to for intervention.  Below is a brief description of what his group is working on.
• Ms. Mottaz and Mrs. Ross: We will be working with students on Sound Partners.  This is a program that focuses on phonics and decoding skills.
• Mrs Blumberg: She is using a program called Read Naturally.  This program focuses on reading fluently and comprehending what is read.
• Ms. Holbrook: She is working with the students to think deeper about what they have read.  They will also be working on researching topics to create projects to teach others about what they learned.  

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

We have had a wonderful week!  Be sure to check Twitter for pictures!

Flu Clinic

• The student flu shot clinic is October 2.  Flu clinic forms went home last week, if you would like your student to get the flu shot at school, we need the form back by next Wednesday, September 26.

No School on Monday-September 24

Friday Folders

• Unit 3 Fundations Information
• We started Fundations Unit 3 this week.  In the Friday folder is the parent letter as well as some activities for the students if they choose to complete them.  They do not have to do these activities, but they can be used on their homework bingo.  We send them home so parents have an idea of what they are working on in Fundations.  
• Zones of Regulation Sort

• We have been reviewing the Zones of Regulation this month.  This is a program we started teaching last year.  It allows students to monitor their emotions and identify which zone they are in and how to get back to the green zone.  This week, they did a sort with different actions and emotions and put them in the correct zone.  I recommend going over this sort with your child and having them explain the zones to you.  
• 
  
• School Eat Out Night
• September 25 is the first RBE Eat Out Night at Chipotle from 4 p.m.-8 p.m..  This is a great excuse to not cook dinner and also support RBE.  33% of the profits from the night come directly back to RBE and our PTA uses the money to support the school in a variety of ways.

Chicken BBQ

• Chicken BBQ is October 13 from 4:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.
• Pre-sale ticket information went home last Friday.  If you would like to order meal tickets or game tickets in advance, you can send in the order form and payment and we will send the tickets home with your student.
• This is PTA's fundraiser for the entire year.  We are very lucky to have such a wonderful and supportive PTA, so please come out and support them at the BBQ.
• Ms. Mottaz and I will be working at the drive thru from 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.  Be sure to stop by!

Next Week's Learning

Math

• This week, we worked on different addition strategies.   They learned about doubles facts (both addends are the same; 4 + 4 = 8), combinations of 10 (the two numbers add up to 10; 4 + 6 = 10), making 10 (break apart one number to make a 10 with the other number; 9 + 4 = 9 + 1 + 3 = 13) and helper facts (finding doubles facts near the problem to help solve it; 9 + 8, you can use 9 + 9 = 18 - 1= 17, 9 + 8 = 17).
•   
  
• Next week, we will learn about the Turn Around Rule or the Commutative Property of Addition.  This property says that you can switch the addends around in an addition problem and still get the same answer.  The students will then have an opportunity to test if the turn around rule works with subtraction.  This lesson will be the two day re-engagement lesson.  This allows for students to go back and correct their work after a discussion.

Reading

• This week, we learned about making predictions.  The students learned that when making a prediction, you need to support it with information from the book (we focused on the cover this week) as well as information you already know about things you see on the cover or that you know from reading other similar books.  We also talked about the importance of your support matching your prediction.  We then read the books they made predictions about and told them that even if their prediction wasn't correct, that doesn't mean it was bad.  It is a good prediction as long as it is supported.
• Next week, we will focus on characters.  We will discuss the difference between main characters and supporting characters.  Then we will learn about character traits and how we use the character's actions to identify the traits.  We will make a list of positive and negative characters traits.  

Writing

• This week, we focused on the setting of our personal narrative.  On Tuesday, the students wrote their setting and had a partner draw a picture of their setting.  They learned it is very important to have good details in your setting because the pictures their partners drew didn't match the setting the students thought they were describing.  We went back and added more details to their setting.  On Tuesday, students will have an opportunity to pair up again and draw each other's settings.  These pictures should match the setting much better because they worked hard to add extra details.  
• Next week, after we finish their setting, we will focus on the characters.  We will be discussing the character traits the students want to show in their personal narrative and find actions that match the character traits.  
• The students have really been enjoying their free write notebooks lately also.  Be sure to ask your student what they have been writing about in their free write notebook.

Science/Social Studies

• This week, we introduced proficiency scales.  This is a chart (pictured above) for students to know and understand the learning objectives for the unit.  It has it broken into different levels of understanding.  The teaching will mainly be in the level 2 and students apply this knowledge in activities to be a level 3.  A level 4 is going above and beyond what is expected of a 2nd grader in this unit.  Students were reintroduced to states of matter this week.  They turned their bodies into each state of matter (see twitter for pictures).  They also were introduced to vocabulary that will be used in the properties of matter unit.  This week, they wrote what they think the words mean and will make corrections throughout the unit.
• Next week, students will continue learning about states of matter.  Students will learn that matter has state, volume and mass.  They will be testing out different objects to determine their state.

Intervention

• We will start Reading Intervention next week.  We are doing grade level wide intervention this year.  Students will be going to one of the four 2nd grade teachers to work on specific reading skills.  We will have intervention for 25 minutes each day.  Next week, we will practice traveling to different classrooms (all 4 2nd grade classrooms will be used) and reviewing expectations.  We will start the reading intervention instruction on Monday, October 1.  Be sure to ask your student next Wednesday which teacher they have for intervention.  

Have a fabulous weekend!

Happy Friday

Happy Friday!

We have had a wonderful week!  We had Dot Day and our first field trip of the year!  The students had SO much fun at the MU Volleyball Elementary Day event and we want to say thank you to our AMAZING RBE PTA for providing funding for the buses.  

We are definitely off to a great start for the #BestYearYet!  If you haven't started following us on Twitter, make sure that you check out all the pictures from this week - you can look at the sidebar on the right of this blog. 

Curriculum Chat

• 2nd Grade Curriculum Chat is Tuesday, September 18 from 7:45 a.m.-8:15 a.m.
• We look forward to sharing all the awesome work your students have done since the beginning of the year.  They have even written a book to share with you about "A Day in the Life of a 2nd Grader."
• We sent home an RSVP form on Wednesday.  This just lets us know about how many people will be attending.

First Math Test

• We took our first math test this week.  It came home yesterday and we would like them signed and returned.  This lets us know that parents reviewed the test with their student.  If you haven't seen your student's test, be sure to ask them about it.  
• We do have a pretest and post test score.  The pretest is yellow and the post test is green.  This allows for you to see the growth of the student throughout the unit.

Homework Bingo

• We have enjoyed eating with students the past 2 Fridays (we didn't this week due to our field trip) who have completed 8 homework activities in a row to get a Bingo.
• As a reminder, homework is not required in 2nd grade.  If students would like to work on their Bingo board, they may do so.  There are a variety of activities on the board.  There are academic activities as well as activities to help them be a good citizen.  Once students get 8 activities in a row, they can bring in their board and we will eat with them the Friday of that week. 
• As a reminder, students may only do one activity per night, but they are allowed to do activities on the weekend as well.  
• Homelinks and the Fundations practice sheets will come home for students who would like to complete them, but they are not required.  This is more information for parents to know what the students are working on at home and if they want to do extra practice, they can.  The Homelinks are on the Bingo board.  

RBE Chicken BBQ

• The RBE Chicken BBQ is coming!!  It is Saturday, October 13 from 4:00-8:00 pm.  
• Coming home in your child's Friday Folder is their RBE Chicken BBQ Bag.  Inside the bag, there are a variety of information - make sure to look through it!  You can order meal & game tickets, buy raffle tickets (included), and donate pies.
• There are also a variety of ways to help out to make the RBE Chicken BBQ a success!
• Volunteer for a variety of shifts
• Donate & bid on auction items
• Donate items to the country store
• Sell meal & raffle tickets
• Donate pies
• Invite friends and family
• The Moss teachers & Ms. Holbrook will be working the drive-thru during the 4:00-6:00 shift & would love to see you there!

Bird Day

• We had our first field trip today and we are already planning our next field trip.  Our next field trip is October 10 and we will be going to Audubon Bird Park off Fairview.  
• This field trip is funded by the CPS Science Department as well as the Audubon Society.  Since it is funded by these sources, we will not be taking chaperones on this field trip.
• Students have the opportunity to observe different birds in their natural habitat while      traveling to different stations.  
• We will be eating lunch at the Audobon Bird Park, so students will need a sack lunch (or they can order from the cafeteria) like they had for volleyball.  All containers needs to be disposable as we will throw everything away.  
• The Bird Day permission slip will be sent home on Monday with additional information.

Our Learning Next Week

Reading

• In reading, we will be working on predictions.  This week we introduced the idea of predictions.  We talked about using clues from the book (the cover or what they have read) and also their schema (background knowledge) about the book or the topic of the book.
• We will practice this in whole group read alouds and then students will transition to making prediction in their independent reading books.  

Writing

• We took a break from our personal narratives to write our "A Day in the Life of a 2nd Grader" books.  Next week, we will pick up where we left off with our personal narratives.  We will be working on giving good character descriptions as well as giving a detailed description of our setting.  We have a fun activity for the students to do with a partner to practice their adding details to their setting.

Math

• We started Unit 2 today.  Unit 2 focuses on addition strategies.  The students will be learning different ways to solve an addition problem and picking their favorite strategy that works best for them.  When practicing facts at home, have the students explain the different strategies they use to solve the problems.

Science/Social Studies

• Science
• We started observing caterpillars.  When we got the caterpillars they varied in size.  We talked about what caterpillars need to survive and went on a trip to the Butterfly Garden in the Outdoor Classroom at RBE.  
• We also worked on writing like scientists.  This means that are pictures are realistic, colorful and have labels.  Also, we explain what is happening in the picture using scientific words.  This is something that we will continue to work on writing like a scientist for the rest of the school year.
• Social Studies
• We finished up learning about what a good citizen does by researching a famous person of our choosing.  Each student made a "baseball card" fact sheet.  On this sheet the students wrote about what their person did to make them a good citizen.  
• We then introduced what a timeline is and talked about where each famous citizen's birth year would fall on the timeline.  Our timeline with the famous citizens  "baseball cards" are on display on the bulletin board outside of our classroom.  When you are at RBE for the curriculum or the next time - you have to check out all of our hard work!  
• We started learning about different U.S. Symbols, what they mean and why we have them.  You need to ask your kiddo what they have learned about the flag, Liberty Bell, bald eagle, Statue of Liberty, White House and U.S. Capitol - you will be impressed!
• Monday, September 17 is Constitution Day.  We will talking about the U.S. Constitution.  We will be learning what it is and why we have it.   

Have a wonderful weekend - it's going to be a beautiful one for mid-September - so enjoy!