Happy Dot Day!

Happy Dot Day!

We have had a wonderful day celebrating Dot Day!  Check out all our pictures here.

We decorated cookies this morning for the surprise visitors, which were firefighters , who brought the truck over and allowed the students to tour the truck and learn about everything on the truck.  We gave them cookies and a Happy Dot Day poster.

We also used the iPads and the Quiver app with special papers to make our pictures look 3-D.  The app is free and so is the paper if your students want to try it at home also.  The kids also enjoyed eating the Dot Day trail mix and cookies.

Thank you to everyone who donated items for Dot Day.

Hurricane Relief
We have collected 158 items in our room so far for Wedgewood Elementary.  Monday is the last day to donate supplies.  Rhonda sent out an email today with information about supplies still needed if you would like to donate.

Curriculum Chat
Curriculum Chat is Tuesday, September 19 from 7:45 a.m.-8:15 a.m.  The students have been working on a book to share with you to tell you all about "A Day in the Life of a Second Grader."  We will also have pictures of the kids working and share some information about what to expect in 2nd grade.  We hope to see everyone here.

Homework
The students did a nice job with homework this week.  Thank you for your support at home and signing each night.  The math section has changed slightly.  Each night students can decide between facts or games.  They aren't required to do one or the other on any night, but are still expected to do math, reading and spelling words each night.

Here is what we worked on this week and will be working on next week.

Word Study
We continued to work on no excuse words this week.  The words from this week are now words we expect the students to spell correctly in their writing.

Next week, we will continue adding words to our list of words we expect students to spell correctly.  The words for next week are because, come, friend, have, good, again.  Students are expected to practice these words for at least 5 minutes each night.

Reading
This week, we continued working on predictions.  We made predictions on The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Violet the Pilot and The Gruffalo.  Then we read the books to see if our predictions were correct.  The predictions are displayed in the hallway.  Make sure to check them out when you come to Curriculum Chat.

Next week, we will work on asking questions while reading.  We will be asking who, what, when, where, why and how questions.  We will be asking questions about the book as well as asking questions about why authors made certain choices within the book.

Writing
This week in writing, we wrote our The Day in the Life of a 2nd Grader book for curriculum chat.  We worked on writing complete sentences with capital letters and correct punctuation.

Next week, we will pick back up with our personal narrative.  We have written our first event, next week we will write our second and third event and then go back and write the beginning.  We have learned that students are more successful writing their middle and then going back to write their beginning so they don't tell their entire story in the beginning.

Math
This week, we worked on quarters, odd and even numbers, both identifying them and noticing patterns, then we ended the week by working on comparing numbers.  We also learned a new game.  It is called Number Top It and will be coming home next week as another homework game option.  The goal is to make the largest number possible, but also works on comparing numbers to identify the winner.

Next week, we will be wrapping up unit 1.  We will be exploring with base 10 blocks, dominoes and pattern blocks.  This will be working on adding groups of tens and using squares, triangles and circles to fill in rectangles.  We will be taking an assessment next week.  In Everyday Math, the assessment is taken over 2 days.  It includes a self-assessment, a written portion and an open response portion.  We will be doing the assessments on Wednesday and Thursday.  In your student's Friday folder is a letter about Unit 1 as well as some sheets you can do (completely optional) if you would like to review.  There is also an introduction letter for Unit 2 which we will begin on Friday.

Social Studies
We started Junior Achievement this week.  This is a 5 week program (they come once a week) that teaches students about their community and the different types of jobs in the community.  Junior Achievement is taught by local business people.  Our community member is Ellen Dent from Callaway Bank.

We will also start our Geography and Culture Unit.  We will talk about how a community's physical environment affects the ways its members live and how the values, beliefs and experiences are shared by people in a community.

Science
We observed our caterpillars this week and sadly 2 of them didn't make it.  We were fortunate to get a chrysalis that was about to turn into a butterfly on Thursday (my step-mom had one that she let the class have to see the whole process).  This morning after recess, the butterfly came out of the chrysalis, the kids were very excited and enjoyed watching it spread its wings and have them dry out throughout the day.  I released the butterfly into our butterfly garden this afternoon.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Friday

Happy Friday!

This week may have been short but we have been working hard!  We earned our 25 compliment this afternoon, so our class earned a classroom celebration.  The students chose Show and Tell!!  Please make sure that you look at the flyer below or in your child's backpack to see when your child is scheduled to bring in his/her item for next week (September 11 - 15).

We Are Now On Twitter! 

If you have a Twitter account be sure to start following @MossRBE (get it - Mottaz & Ross combined 😄)!  We are excited about our new venture out on Twitter as a classroom and hope that you follow us to see what's happening in the classroom world of Moss everyday!

Student Verification Forms

Coming home is some Friday Folders are Student Verification Forms that have not been turned in from families.  It will be on the left-side of the folder ("Return to School" side).  If you have one of these forms, please look it over this weekend and return it to school on Monday in your child's Friday Folder.

Homework

Next week will be our first week of homework.  Our homework may look a little different than homework your children have had in the past.  This year we are focusing in making sure that your child has a love of reading and is reading every night for at least 15 minutes.  We will be having a small list of Word Study (spelling words) that we will be focusing on each week and we want to make sure that your child is practicing these words.  In math, we are focusing on your child enjoying math through games and math fact practice. 

This is an example of what your child's homework sheet will look like every week.  We included explanation and arrows so that you can have this as a reference in case your child needs help filling it out.

We will be reviewing homework with the class on Monday, but we wanted to give you a heads up that homework will be starting on Monday.  On Monday, your child will be coming home with a homework folder.  This folder will be where each week's homework is kept. 

What you will find in your child's homework folder:

• In the inside pocket is where your child's homework will be kept.  There in one homework sheet for the ENTIRE week, but we check homework everyday for completion.  It is your child's responsibility to bring the homework folder back and forth from home to school.
• A page protector that has a salmon paper called "Homework Cheat Sheet."  This paper is to help you with ideas for math games, and how to access online math games.
• The next page protector will be a where games that we have played at school will be kept.  Inside the page protector you will find games and directions.  If a game board was needed we included that also.  You may need a few items from home to play (example: dice, coins, etc.).  We have been sharing these games with the kids and they are super excited to be able to play these games at home with you!
• Stapled on the back cover of the folder is a Ziploc bag.  Inside this Ziploc bag you will find a set of Fact Triangles.  These triangles can be used for fact practice (if you want to know what to do with them - check out the "Homework Cheat Sheet!"  

Hurricane Harvey Relief

Many children in Texas lost their homes and belongings due to Hurricane Harvey.  RBE is partnering with Wedgewood Elementary School in Friendswood Texas.  RBE 2nd grade families are being asked to donate dry erase markers and 24 pack of crayons.  Other items that are needed are: new children's shoes, new backpacks, new children's books.  The donated items need to be brought to the classroom.  Please have all items delivered to our classroom by Monday, September 18.

What's Happening in 2nd Grade?

Math

• This week: We have talked about skip counting patterns for 5's and 10's and counting mixed amounts of coins of pennies, nickels & dimes).  We have also been working on making number combinations to add up to a certain number.  
• Next week: We will introduce counting quarters when counting money.  Also we will be looking at number patterns with even/odd numbers and different skip-counting patterns.

Writing

• This week: We started talking about what makes a great small moment story (personal narrative).  The kiddos had a chance to share a few small moment stories with a partner and then chose the BEST small moment story to write first.  The students had a chance to think about the 3 BIG events that happened in his/her story and sketch a picture of these events. 
• Next week: We will be starting with writing the middle of our small moment story on Monday.  Each of the three BIG events will be turned into a paragraph throughout next week with lots of details!  

Reading

• This week: We have been working on making predictions before, during and after we read.  This week our predictions were centered around the book Yoda Gets a Buddy.
• Next week: We will continue to work on making predictions.

Social Studies

• This week: After learning all about different U.S. symbols last week, the kiddos were able to choose their favorite symbol and design a poster to share what they learned.  These will be displayed in the hallway - so the next time you are at RBE - come check them out!!  
• Next week: We will be focusing on learning about the life cycle of a butterfly and making scientific observations of the caterpillars.

Science

• This week: We had three new visitors join our classroom on Wednesday...caterpillars!!  The kiddos were super excited.  The caterpillars are at three different stages of development.  We have a "little guy" who is currently living in a small container and two larger caterpillars living in a butterfly cage.
• Next week: We will be focusing on learning about the life cycle of a butterfly and making scientific observations of our visitors.

Word Study

• This week: We focused on six trick words that are now No Excuse Words and are expected to be spelled correctly in any writing.  This week's words were: new, now, your, like, being & some.
• Next week: We are going to continue to work on learning trick words for the next few weeks.  After the students are confident in completing the Word Study activities each week, and have several more No Excuse Words under their belt, we will be starting to focus in on different word patterns within words.  Next week's words are: they, I (focusing on when the word "I" is written it always is capital), were, it, was & went. These are words that the class is using in their small moment stories and we want to make sure that they are spelled correctly as we write!

Book Talks with Mrs. McKinzie

Today was our first book with Mrs. McKinzie (RBE's Media Specialist).  The kiddos were SUPER excited to hear about 3 new books that are in our library!

Variety of Pictures From the Week - Enjoy! :)

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

I hope you have had a wonderful week.  We have been working very hard in Rooms 26 and 27.

Important Things to Remember

• No School on Monday, September 4
• Wednesday, September 6: Picture Day
• Friday, September 15: Dot Day (wear polka dots and we will celebration giving back to others)
• Tuesday, September 19: Curriculum Chat (7:45a-8:15a)
• Please look through your student's Friday folder, fill out any necessary forms, then sign the checklist and return it with your student on Monday (next week on Tuesday)
• Be sure to check the email from Rhonda Ball with important school related information
• Please check with your student to see if they need earbuds.  We will be using laptops next week and they will need earbuds.

Math

• This week, we worked on counting money, creating a number scroll (we counted all the way to 1,000 as a class!) and also worked on perseverance when filling in a number grid.
• Next week, we will revisit our number grids and make any necessary corrections as well as make sure our explanation for how we filled in the number grid is specific.  We will also be learning how to login to Every Day Math on the laptops.  There are a lot of games they can play both at school and at home.We will also be creating multiple number models for one number (example: 11 + 6; 20 - 3 and 8 +8 + 1 all are equal to 17).

Reading

• This week, the students continued working on reading stamina and reading station expectations.  The students have been creating bookmarks as they finish a book.  
• Next week, we will continue building stamina at our independent reading station.  Our skill for next week will be making predictions and discussing how to use our schema (what we already know) as well as clues from the book (pictures, what they already read, title, etc.) to make predictions.

Writing

• This week, the students chose their topics for their personal narrative.  They chose 5 topics.  After they did the checklist themselves, then met with a writing partner and shared their stories that received all 5 check marks and with their partner, they decided which story was the best. They worked SO HARD with their writing partners.  It was amazing.  The checklist included
• Was the story true?
• Was the narrator the main character?
• Were there a lot of details?
• Did it have a beginning, middle and end?
• Did it take place in 2 hours or less?

• Next week, we will start writing our personal narrative.  They will have to include 3 detailed events.  We will also start on a secret project for curriculum chat.  :)

Social Studies

• This week, students read American Symbols which gave them more information about the Bald Eagle, the American Flag and the Statue of Liberty.  They took notes about facts they learned from the book.
• Next week, students will use the notes they took to create a poster about their favorite symbol of the 3 they learned about. 

Word Study

• We will continue to practice trick words as we are practicing word study activities.  Next week's words are new, now, your, like, being, some.  
• Please practice these words with your students at home.  

Guest Readers

• Dr. Link read to us on Friday.  He read I Want My Hat Back and This Is Not My Hat.  He had his children choose books that they really enjoyed.
• Tristan, Noelle and Kanyinsola chose to read to the class as their sticker chart reward.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Ross