It was SO nice to have a full week this week, and all the days were full of learning!

Student Banner!

The kiddos were so EXCITED to see the banner hung this week!  Thank you for taking the time to make your child's banner.  It is so neat to be able to see each child's personality or interests displayed in our classroom.

Read Week is Next Week!

We are super excited to celebrate Read Week next week!  As a reminder there are dress-up days each day next week (a flyer is also coming home in your child's Friday Folder).  As a reminder, if you (or a family member or friend) would like to come in and read to our class we would LOVE to have you!  The kiddos always love to have a special guest come during this week and this is an opportunity for you to share your love of reading!  We still have several open slots on Thursday - so if you are interested  you can click here to sign up. We are looking forward to an amazing Read Week!

With Read Week being next week, we are not going to have homework that the students have return.  Please continue to encourage your child to read.

What We Are Learning About:

• Math: This week, we finished up Unit 6 by taking our end of the unit assessment.  This test will be coming home next week.  Please remember to review this test with your child, sign on the line, and return to school.  By signing and returning, this just allows us to know that you have seen the test.  Today we started Unit 7.  The big focus of this unit is measurement.  Coming home in your child's Friday Folder is a Family Letter that tells more about this unit.
• Writing: Our Which is Better writing is coming right along!  The students have finished researching their two topics, and we have begun writing our rough draft.  This piece of writing is a lot less teacher guided.  The students will have a graphic organizer to help them with their compose their writing.
• Reading: This week, we have finished up talking about main idea within both nonfiction and fictional texts.  Next week, we will start to have a conversation of the theme of fictional texts.  We have also been talking about the why an author wrote a book or what was the author wanting to teach us.
• Word Study: We continued to focus on long i vowel patterns this week.  We learned that "igh" makes the long i sound.  We also discovered that the long i sound can be found in words that have VCC (example: child).  We will not have a new word study concept next week, but, the following week, we will be starting r-influenced words (ar, ir, or & ur).
• Science: We started our geography unit on Monday.  We started off by talking about what our ultimate goal of learning was for this unit.  We introduced a proficiency scale to the students (picture below).  We talked about that the learning target was a level three and discussed what we would be working on.  In our conversation, we listed out specific things that we will be learning about during this unit.  We discovered that we will be learning about water on Earth.  In this unit, we will be learning about: 1) maps and identifying where the water is on the map, 2) where water is fresh water or salt water, 3) where water is likely to be warm or cold, and 4) where water is likely to be solid or liquid.  We will continue to have great discussions about geography throughout the next few weeks!

 

Pretzel Class

What better way to learn about the importance of eating whole wheat than to have a pretzel class!  CPS Nutrition Services gave us the opportunity to learn through our bellies on Monday! :)  We learned about the importance of eating whole wheat flour because whole wheat flour includes the germ (we talked about this being the good type of germ) and bran.  The germ and bran have a lot of the good nutrients that are found in the wheat plant.  We also discovered that on grain and flour products we should be looking for yellow whole grain stamp.  After our lesson, we each got a section of pretzel dough and then we made a pretzel.  Our pretzels were cooked and then we had an opportunity to enjoy them.  They were yummy! :)

2nd Trimester Pizza Party

The kiddos enjoyed their pizza party lunch celebration today!  We worked a little longer this morning, but had an extended lunch this afternoon.  Thank you for your donation earlier this year to make this pizza party a success, and an extra thank you for families who donated chips, vegetables and dessert today to make the lunch a success!

Extra Pictures :)

Below are pictures of the kiddos at their Math Exploration Stations on Monday and playing math games on Wednesday.  We also got to visit Mrs. Kobermann's classroom to view their Ecosystem Projects - the kiddos enjoyed getting to see what they will get to do next year!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Friday!

We have had a different kind of week, but the even with school being a little out of routine, the kiddos did great!  Thank you for a wonderful Special Family & Friends Day.  I know that the students being able to show off what they are doing in Music & Media was a wonderful opportunity.

2nd Trimester Pizza Party

On Friday, March 2, we will have our 2nd Trimester Pizza Party.  Students will get 2 slices of cheese pizza, chips, fruit/veggie and a dessert.  They can bring a drink from home if they would like.  It needs to be 20 ounces or less and no glass.  If they do not bring a drink, we will have cups for water.  

Read Week!

We have a tradition at RBE that the first full week in March we celebrate the joy of reading!  So Read Week will be March 5-9.  We will have a different themed dress-up day as a school.  Students will have an opportunity to design a bookmark, and we have times throughout the week that we will "drop everything and read."  

Will You Be a Mystery Reader?

Another fun tradition is to have Mystery Readers come in to our classroom and read.  We would LOVE to have you (or other family members & friends) to come share a favorite book from your house (or we can provide one for you)!  We have a variety of openings throughout the week (Monday-Thursday) for readers to come in and read to the class.  Please check out the SignUp Genius with the dates/time slots that we have available - click here for the SignUp Genius.  Sometimes, mystery readers like to bring in a snack to share that goes along with the book - this is completely optional, but if you would like to do this please make sure that it is peanut/tree nut free.

Reminders:

• Yearbook: If you are wanting to order a yearbook for your child, you have to place your order by February 28.  Yearbooks are $7.00.  You can either turn in your form with money or you can order online - if you want to order a yearbook click here.
• Six Flags Read to Succeed: If your child is wanting to participate in Read to Succeed and earn a free 6 Flags ticket, the reading log is due on March 1.  Please make sure to sign the log at the bottom.  Remind your child that the form is in their folder, so that it gets turned in because no late forms will be accepted.
• Family Eat Out Opportunities to Support RBE:
• March 1-3 at Jersey Mike Subs - If you want more information check out the flyer by clicking here.
• March 6 is McTeacher Night at McDonalds on Nifong (4:00-8:00) - If you want to check out the flyer click here.
• Countdown to Kindergarten: If you have a child who will be entering kindergarten in the fall or if you know someone, check out the flyer about enrollment on March 8 from 4:00-6:00.  If you want more information click here.
• Summer School: If you are wanting your child to attend summer school, please fill out the enrollment paper that was handed out at conferences or you can enroll online by clicking here.
• Summer Enrichment:  If you are looking for additional summer opportunities for your child you can check out CPS Enrichment Summer School which is July 10-27.  You can check out the information by clicking here.
• March 1-3 at Jersey Mike Subs - If you want more information check out the flyer by clicking here.  Coming home in your child's Friday Folder is a Jersey Mike's Sub card for a regular sub with a donation of at least $2.00 for RBE PTA.  It says FREE Sub but we wanted to make sure that you knew that there has to be a DONATION to receive the sub.

What's Been Happening in 2nd Grade?

• Math: This week, we focused on different strategies of adding multi-digit numbers.  We talked about using base ten blocks to help us add larger numbers, and adding together partial sums.  Below you will find an example of both of these strategies.  Next week, we will be finishing up Unit 6 and taking our end of unit test.  We will also be starting Unit 7 which will work on adding numbers, data collection, and measurement.

This example shows using base ten (place value blocks) to solve a three digit plus a three digit number.

This example shows adding together partial sums to solve a two digit number.

• Writing: This week, we picked two topics that are similar (example: two animals, two people, two countries, etc.) for our "Which is Better" research project.  The students put their researching skills into practice on Thursday and Friday by researching not one but two topics!  If you aren't following us on Twitter (@MossRBE) you missed out on our Tweet & pictures about this - so start following us or look at the sidebar on the right of our blog page to see what you've been missing!
• Reading: This week, we have continued to focus on identifying the main idea of nonfiction passages and articles and the supporting details.  We talked about the main idea being like the surface of the table and the supporting details the legs of the table.  The students have a good understanding of this concept!  Next week, we will look at fictional texts and begin to have a conversation about theme.

• Word Study: This week, we looked at different long i vowel patterns (igh, y & CVCe words).  Next week, we will continue our conversation about long i vowel patterns.  Next weeks words will look at the patterns igh, icc, and y.  Next week's words are: light, sight, fright, fight, wild, kind, child, wind, fry & spy.
• Science/Social Studies: Next week, we will be starting to have a conversation about geography.  We will be looking at a world map and talking about temperature.  We will also talk about where water is found on Earth and by thinking of the location explaining why the water would be likely to be salt or fresh, warm or cold, and solid or liquid.

Informational Book Writing Celebration

This afternoon, we had an opportunity to share the informational books that we worked so incredibly hard on!  The students were placed in small groups and they read out loud their books.  The students shared out facts that they learned from what other student's studied.  Since there was a "hole" lot that they "donut" know about animals that they wanted to learn, at the end everyone had a chance to celebrate their hard work by enjoying donut holes!  The informational book that the students wrote are coming home in his/her backpack.

Free Read Friday

After library checkout, we always have an opportunity to read for 30 minutes.  Today they enjoyed their books, and just looked so cute reading that I wanted to share a few photos!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Ross