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!