Happy Friday!

Happy Ugly Sweater Friday!

Wow!  We were quite impressed with the holiday sweaters and outfits today.  It's amazing how kids can make ugly sweaters look cute.  :)

It's crazy to think that next Thursday is our last day of school before Winter Break.  There is information below about special activities planned for next week as well as our learning for after break.

We will not send home Friday folders next week.  Sometimes they get lost over long breaks.  :)

Important Upcoming Dates

• Wednesday, December 19: Grinch Day
• Students may dress as their favorite Grinch character.
• We have fun Grinchy activities planned.
• Thursday, December 20
• Library Check Out (please make sure students have their library books)
• PJs for Positives Day
• Students may wear PJs to celebrate our first 100 positive office referrals before the 100th day of school.
• Please make sure they have shoes for recess and their pajamas will keep them warm.  
• Winter Party at 1:45 p.m.
• https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0b4fa5ac2eab9-winter
• 
  
• Friday, December 21-January 2: Winter Break
• Thursday, January 3: School Resumes

Student Bragging!

• Our goal is for 80% of the students to get 80% or better when we give an assessment.  We don't expect all students to get 100% as we all have off days or need some clarification on a topic.
• We took the STAR Reading winter benchmark this week and ALL the students' scores have gone up since the beginning of the year!  We know the students are growing as reader and it is always nice to see that carry over.
• On the Mid Year Assessment in math which covers all the topics from 2nd grade so far (it's long and covers a lot), 85% of the students received an 80% or better.  
• We bragged earlier this week, but will brag again over 80% of the students received an 80% or above on their Unit 4 math assessment over time, measurement and place value.  ALL the students showed huge growth in this unit.  It is amazing to be writing the pre and post test scores on the cover sheet and see their huge improvement!

Our Learning After Break

Math

• We will be continuing with Unit 5.  This unit reviews money and introduces making change.  It also covers word problems and various strategies and models to solve the problems.  The students ROCKED the pretest over Unit 5 so we will be pushing them even more with explanations and variety of ways to solve a problem.  One thing to continue to work on at home is basic addition and subtraction facts.  As we get into harder addition and subtraction problems, we don't want them to get hung up on the basic facts.
• The students all did very well on our time unit, but this is not a skill that we will hit much more this year.  We will continue touching on it here and there, but please continue practicing telling time at home.  It can be something as simple as randomly having your student look at the clock and tell you the time.

Writing

• We started writing our informational piece this week.  The goal is to have the rough draft written before break.  It all depends on scheduling as to whether this happens.  :)
• When we return from break, we will pick up where we left off.  They will finish writing if needed, then edit and revise their writing and then publish.  With their informational writing, they will also be including text features in their books.  This will help their reader understand more about the topic.

Fundations

• We are in the middle of Unit 7 which introduces open syllable words.  We are continuing to review all syllable types as we introduce new ones.
• We will wrap up Unit 7 after break and start Unit 8.  Unit 8 covers r controlled vowels.  
• Please continue practicing the trick words at home.  These are words the students just have to memorize.

Science/Social Studies

• The students became an expert on volcanoes, floods or earthquakes this week and were able to teach classmates about their topic.  We will also be learning about landslides before break.
• After break, we will switch back to social studies.  We will be focusing on geography for the month of January.  They will be identifying landforms and creating maps to show the landforms.

Reading

• We finished learning about text features this week.  They will use these text features in the publishing of their informational writing.
• When we get back from break, we will briefly review the concepts we have covered in the first half of the year.  Then we will move on to making connections between different books as well as between books and events occurring in the world.  

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

We have had a wonderful week!  Check out what we will be working on next week, as well as important information for the next few weeks.

Important Upcoming Events/Information

• Please remember to send in snacks with your student each day.  We have snack each day at 9:55 a.m.
• Ugly Sweater Day: December 14
• Grinch Day: December 19
• We will have "Grinchy" activities all day.  Students may dress up for Grinch Day if they would like.
• Winter Party: December 20 at 1:35 p.m.
• The All School Sing Along will be before the parties so parents can set up for the party.  Due to the size of our gym and number of students we have at RBE, we do not have room for parents to attend the Sing Along.  
• Winter Break: December 21-January 2

Box Tops

• We are doing another school wide Box Top collection this month.  Please cut out your box tops and send them in with your student.  There is a sheet in your student's Friday folder where you can tape/glue the Box Tops.  Our goal is 200 box tops for the entire Team Moss class.  

Homework Bingo

• We have had our first 2 Homework Bingo Black Outs!  If your student wants to eat lunch with us, they simply have to bring in their Bingo Board with a Bingo.  We check daily and we eat lunch with them most Fridays (we let the students know if it is a different day than Friday).

Math

• Unit 4 Test on Tuesday (covers time, measurement, place value)
• We will start Unit 5 next week.  This unit covers adding 10 and 100 to numbers.  It also reviews counting money and introduces finding change.

Reading

• We learned about table of contents, heading, photographs, captions, diagrams, labels and types of print this week.  The students are getting an opportunity to learn about the text features and create their own.  We will use these text features in their informational books that they will write.  
• Next week, we will continue working on text features.  As you're reading at home, encourage students to read informational or nonfiction books and ask them to locate text features and how they help them as a reader.  

Writing

• This week, we worked on researching our topic.  We talked about the importance of putting the information in our own words.  They can use the information, but cannot use someone else's words.
• Next week, we will wrap up our research and then start using the information to write an informational book about their animal.  

Science

• This week, students researched about volcanoes, earthquakes and floods.  They learned what causes them and how they change the earth's surface.  
• Next week, they will take the information they learned and create a poster.  They will use the poster to teach other students about their natural disaster.  

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Ross

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!  

Happy Fall Party Day!

Happy Friday!

What a great party today!  Thank you to all our wonderful parents who organized the party, set it up, attended the party and sent in items for the party.  The kids had a lot of fun!

Pumpkin Book Reports

• Wow!  The pumpkin book reports were amazing.  Thank you so much for helping your students create such fabulous book character pumpkins!

Book It

• October Book It is due by Wednesday.  Students must read and record at least 2 hours of reading and bring in their reading log.  This is completely optional.  If they did not get a chance to fill it out for October, they can always try to earn their pizza for November.

Homework Bingo

• The kids keep getting Homework Bingos.  
• Once students get 8 activities in a row, they can bring us their Bingo Board and eat with us the following Friday.
• This is not required, but it is a fun way for them to practice skills at home.

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.  

Conferences

• We will be scheduling next week and be sending home conference times next Friday.
• Our goal is to meet with all parents and we do our best to schedule all conferences during the time you requested.
• The book fair will be open during conferences as well.  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
• If there is anything specific you want to discuss at conferences, please let us know.

Veterans

• If you know a veteran who would like to come talk with our students about their service (in 2nd grade words), please let us know. 

Next Week's Learning

Math

• Next week, we will focus on different subtraction strategies.  We will be working on counting up to 10 and counting back to 10.  We will also be looking at using doubles strategies to solve subtraction problems.  
• Our plan is to text the week of November 5.  We sent home Home Links this week in Friday folders for Unit 3.

Reading

• We wrapped up our study of theme this week.  This is a difficult concept for students to grasp.  Yesterday, we listened to 4 different songs and the students identifying the theme.  We talked about the lesson the author wanted you to learn and how you could use things from the book to make you a better person.
• Next week, we will start focusing on strategies to use when coming to an unknown word.  It is important for students to identify unknown words instead of just skipping over them because when they skip over them they often do not understand what they have read.  One of the strategies does recommend skipping the word, but then to come back once you have figured out what would make sense in the sentence.

Writing

• We will start our 2nd personal narrative next week.  The students will have a graphic organizer to help them organize their thoughts.  This personal narrative will be more independent than the first, but we will still review what to include in each part.

Science

• We will be working on identifying the purpose of a materials based on its characteristics.
• Students will then classify materials and determine the best use of the material.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Ross

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

Hopefully you have had a wonderful week!  The kids have been working hard this week!

Pumpkin Book Report

• We got our first 2 Pumpkin Book Reports today!  Please remember the pumpkin, book report and book all need to be finished and brought to school by Tuesday, October 23.
• We will share the pumpkins on Thursday, October 25.

Conference Request

• In your student's Friday folder is a conference request form.  Please look over the times and mark your top 3 choices with a 1, 2, or 3.  We offer additional times as we have more students to meet with.  If you want a back-to-back time with another teacher at RBE, please make sure the time is offered by both teachers.  If you have additional students at RBE, but don't need a back to back time, please let us know that as well.  These forms are due back by October 26 and we will be meeting with other teachers on October 30 to schedule sibling conferences.  Conference times will be sent home on November 2.  

Book-It

• We have had a few students earn their Book-It Pizza for October.  As a reminder, students must read for at least 2 hours, fill out the form, have it initialed by a parent/guardian and bring it in to their teacher.  We will then give them a coupon for a free personal pan pizza.
• This is not required at all, just a reminder if your student is working towards a free pizza.  

Homework Bingo

• We have had a group for Homework Bingo each Friday so far.  We enjoy eating with the students.  Please encourage your student to earn a bingo so we can eat with them also.  

Fall Party

• Our Fall Party is next Friday, October 26 from 1:45-2:30.  Below is a Sign-Up Genius from our head room parent if you would like to sign up to send in supplies for the party.
• https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0b4fa5ac2eab9-fall

Weather

• Welcome to Missouri weather!  Some days when students come to school they are needing a heavy coat, but then by recess the weather has warmed up a little.  Please send a light jacket or a sweatshirt with your child.  Some students are getting warm at recess.  Thanks!

Math

• We started Unit 3 this week.  This unit cover subtraction and subtraction strategies.  This week, the students learned about creating fact families.  This group of students has been rocking math this year and fact families was no different!  They were able to take the numbers and create 2 addition and 2 subtraction problems.  YEAH!  One misconception that can happen, especially if they are in a rush, is when creating the subtraction problem, the problems are not always written correctly.  They will often switch the numbers around as you would with the addition problems which makes the subtraction problem not true.  This is a great skill to practice in the car.  You can give the student 3 numbers that can be turned into addition/subtraction problems (example: 4, 3, 7) and then they give you the 4 problems (3 + 4 = 7; 4 + 3 = 7; 7 - 4 = 3; 7 - 3- = 4).  We also learned about counting up and counting back to solve subtraction problems.  Students learned a new game called Salute that can be played at home to practice basic facts.
• Next week, we will continue working on various subtraction strategies.  Often with addition facts, the students are able to quickly add them without a strategy.  The subtraction strategy definitely are used more often as students do not have their subtraction facts memorized yet.  

Science

• This week, students wrapped up their study of birds and their adaptations by creating their own bird.  Be sure to check them out in the hallway if you are at school.
• They also went back to their student of the properties of matter.  The properties are the characteristics of an object that describe it.  This week the students completed a science lab that had them thinking about the color, flexibility, strength, texture and absorbency of an object/material.  The goal of this unit is for students to be given characteristics and be able to pick out the object based on the characteristics and also be given an object and be able to describe it with specific characteristics or properties.  

Reading

• This week, we learned about the theme of a story.  We started with learning about the moral of a story and how to identify it.  Then we moved more into the theme.  We discussed that the theme is the overall message the author wants you to take away from the story.  The theme is often one or two words.  It is not as much something the author wants you to learn, but a skill you could use to be a better person.  
• Next week, we will continue our study of theme and be looking at songs and having the students identify the theme of the songs.  We will also start to focus more on identifying and supporting the theme of the story or song.  

Writing

• Almost everyone finished publishing their first personal narrative!  There are just a few that are finishing up illustrations.  The students have worked very hard on their first piece of writing.  We can't wait to share it at conferences.  
• Next week, we will jump right into our next personal narrative.  We will still be guiding the students through the process, but it will be more independent so the students have an opportunity to show us what they have learned about writing a personal narrative and the components to include to make it the best personal narrative.
• We will also be using some of our writing time to have the students do some self-reflection over the first trimester of school.  These self-reflections will be shared at conferences.

Fundations

• This week, we continued to work on identifying syllables in multi-syllabic words and marking up the syllables.  The students learned about 4 different ways to identify a work as multi-syllabic.  
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• We have also added 10 additional minutes of Fundations practice each day.  During this time, students will be independently practicing either trick words or a skill that way learned the week before.  This week students worked on adding the suffix of s/es and knowing when to use which one.  They also had an opportunity to practice trick words.  Please practice these trick words at home.  Trick words are words that cannot be tapped out and the students simply have to memorize.
• Next week, we will continue learning about multi-syllabic words and other rules that go along with identifying the syllables.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Ross