We have had a great first full week of school.  We have continued to establish classroom routines and students are really doing a great job with learning our second grade expectations!

Reminders

• Upcoming Events: In your back to school folder there was a copy of the Activities Calendar for the school year.  You can access this calendar by clicking here.  I have also updated the Upcoming Events on the right side of the blog.  Please mark your calendar with these dates.
• If you have not already seen that 2nd Grade Curriculum Chat is September 18 at 7:45-8:15 am.  Please add this to your calendar!  This is an opportunity for you to hear about what we will be doing in 2nd grade this year.  You will also have an opportunity to talk with your child about what a typical day looks like in 2nd grade!
• Walking School Bus: If you would like your child to participate in Walking School Bus this fall, a form went home in your back to school folder that needs to be filled out and returned.  You can also click here to print a copy.  For your child to participate in Walking School Bus this form MUST be returned!
• Volleyball Field Trip on September 14: Your child brought home a field trip form on Tuesday (on yellow paper).  We will departing for Hearnes Center at 9:40 and will be returning to school around 2:00.  If you have not already sent in the bottom portion of this form, please do so by September 7.  You can click here to view the Volleyball Field Trip form.

Coming Home Today

• Library Books
• Today was our first library checkout day...Mrs. McKinzie & Mrs. Wood said we did an amazing job!  We will have library checkout every Friday.  So please talk with your kiddo about what books they checked out and help them remember to bring their books back next week.  If your child finishes a book, they can always return the book to our library cart earlier than Friday.
• Picture Day Reminder
• Picture Day is Wednesday, September 5.  You can  pre-pay for pictures online - please send in the receipt so we know that you are getting pictures.  Or you can fill out the form and send in money.
• Pizza Party
• At the end of first & second trimester, we have a tradition to have a class pizza party.  We are asking for a one time donation of $5.00 to help with the cost of pizza.  Be sure to check out the salmon sheet for more information! 
• RBE Sportswear
• If you would like to order RBE Sportswear the first order is due on August 31 and the second date is October 19.  You can order online or fill out the order form and return it to school.  You can click here for the RBE Sportswear order form.
• Transportation Paperwork
• There is a student conduct & safety information coming.  Please review these expectations with your child, fill out the form and return to school.  Even if your child typically does not ride the bus, they will be attending field trips with us, so please go ahead and return the form.
• Orientation & Unit 1 Fundations 
• Fundations is a process to teach reading and spelling with phonics.  Coming home with your child is an introduction letter to Fundations and a few activities that you can do at home.  It says "Homework Guide" on one of these sheets.  As a reminder, we do not have assigned homework that has to be turned in on a certain day, but these activities can be used for spelling practice for your child's Homework Bingo sheet.   

What's Going on Moss World!

• Math
• This week, we started Unit 1 of our Everday Math program.  This unit is an introduction of a variety of skills.  We introduced math resources that are in our classroom, counting coins and patterns when skip counting.  
• Next week, we will be learning about number grids (100's chart), number models (addition and subtraction problems with the answer), and different combinations of 10.
• Reading
• This week, we focused on story elements (the pieces or parts that make up a story).  These pieces are the characters, setting (in second grade we do the when and where), problem, and solution.  We are continuing to work on our reading stamina - having your child read at home nightly will help your child with this also!
• Next week, we are going to be writing two sentence summaries in both fiction and nonfiction books.  We will be making sure that our summaries are written in our own words.  This is a skill that beginning of the year second graders struggle with.  You can support this skill at home by talking with your child about his/her book.
• Writing: 
• This week, we started our small moment/personal narrative writing unit.  We had a class discussion about what needs to be included in our writing, and then we did our first try at a small moment story.
• Next week, we will be focusing on how to start off our story.  We will learn about different types of leads, and how the lead hooks the reader.
• Social Studies & Science
• In science, we have talked about what a scientist does, and learned about the scientific method.  We learned that a hypothesis is an educated guess or prediction of what will happen.  Today we did a fun experiment called Dancing Raisins...ask your child what their hypothesis was and what really happened!
• In social studies, we have learned about what the Pledge of Allegiance means.  We have talked about allegiance, republic, indivisible and liberty/justice.  You should ask your kiddo what they have learned!
• We started our Science & Social Studies notebooks yesterday.  These are a place for us to keep all of our learning throughout the year.  Next week, we will be adding to these when we talk about what makes a good citizen.
• Beginning of the Year Assessment
• We have been working hard on establishing classroom routines.  Next week, we will be starting to take beginning of the year assessments.  These assessments allow us to know how to guide our instruction.  

Twitter

We have been posting a lot of pictures on Twitter.  Be sure to follow us @MossRBE.  We have quite a few parents following us already.  We also have our Twitter feed on the blog.  

We have enjoyed this first full week of school with your child and we are excited for the rest of the school year!