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!