Happy Friday!

We had a wonderful Friday, but fall is definitely here.  It was CHILLY at recess today!

Lots of important information in this post, please take the time to read it :)

Next Week's Learning
Math

• Next week, we will continue working on skip counting.  We will focus on skip counting by 4, 5, and 10.  The students have done a fabulous job identifying patterns as they skip count.
• We will also continue working on money.  We will work on applying their knowledge of skip counting to money.  If you have change at home, it would be great practice to have your student count it.  
• Please continue to practice basic facts at home.  We have some students that are very close to becoming math wizards.  :)

Reading

• We will start working on summarizing next week.  We will use the strategy of Somebody Wanted But So Then.  The somebody is the character, then what they wanted, but there was a problem, so they solved the problem and then what happened at the end.  This allows students to include the important parts of the story, but not include too many details.  We will discuss that a summary tells what the story is about but isn't a full retell of the story.
• 

Writing

• This week, we identified our 3 main events.  Next week, we will start adding details to each event.  If we get all our details included, we will learn the different types of endings of a story.  The students worked very hard on their beginnings this week.  We are going very slowly with this personal narrative so the students know all the necessary parts.  

Word Study

• Next week, we will work on short and long i words.  These words will follow the same pattern as this weeks words.  The short vowel words are CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words and the long vowel words are CVCe (consonant vowel consonant e) words.
• Short i words are stick, gift, rich, swim, thin
• Long i words are five, life, nine, prize, drive

Social Studies

• We will be comparing two books next week Gloria for President and Duck for President and discussing the requirements to be president.  We will also be discussing how presidents and other government officials are chosen in the United States (through voting).

Bird Day
We have Bird Day on Wednesday!  The students are excited about the exhibits and activities that will be at Bird Day.  Please make sure your student wear tennis shoes on Wednesday because we will be walking around the Audubon Park.  Also, they will probably want a jacket because we will be outside for a couple hours and the temperatures aren't forecasted to be very warm.

Please remember your student needs to bring a lunch from home (unless you requested a lunch from school).  Please remember everything in the lunch (including the bag) will be thrown away at the park.  Please put their lunch in a Ziploc bag with their name on it.  If you don't have a bag, I have some at school.  Also, please no glass containers.  We will have our snack in the afternoon on Wednesday, so if they want a snack, they need to keep it in their backpack so we can have them in the afternoon.

Bird Beak Lab
In preparation for Bird Day, we did a bird beak lab today.  The students tested out different "beaks" on different types of bird seed.  They learned that a straw is similar to the beak of a hummingbird,  tongs are similar to beaks that are used to crack open seeds, slotted spoons are similar to a duck's bill because they scoop up water and plants and the water seeps out and they eat the plants, then tweezers are similar to beaks of birds that pull insects out of trees.  The students enjoyed getting to "be birds" this morning as they learned about beaks.   Here are some pictures.  :)

Adjectives and Adjective Parade
This week the students learned about adjectives and learned that they describe a noun.  They brought in objects today and other students used adjectives to describe the objects.  Then we created a Word Cloud of all the adjectives.  That is the first picture below.

In your student's Friday Folder you will find a form (link here) about our Adjective Parade.  On October 28, students can wear one item (hat, shirt, etc.) that represents an adjective.  They will wear their adjective around their neck throughout the day.  We will parade around for the other 2nd grade classes to see.  As it says in the sheet, this is not a Halloween costume, no masks and no make up please.  Also, the student needs to be bale to explain their adjective and how their item (hat, shirt, etc.) represents their adjective.  This will be a very fun way for students to show their understanding of adjectives.  If your student needs help creating their item for the parade, please let me know.

Chicken BBQ
In your student's Friday folder is a preview of some of the items available at the Chicken BBQ Silent Auction.  There are some fabulous items!  A copy of all the items will come home next Wednesday.  I will also post a copy of the list on the blog once it becomes available.  As part of the auction, you will be able to purchase a print of the entire 2nd grade for $5.  It will be printed the week after the BBQ and then put in Friday folders once the prints arrive.

If you would like to purchase tickets in advance and you haven't, you can send in your order next week.  Tickets are also available for purchase at the BBQ or through the Drive Thru.  This is PTA's big fundraiser and they do so much for our school.  Thank you in adance for your support.

Recess Attire
As it gets colder, please make sure your student is wearing or brings warm clothes for recess.  It was 52 degrees when we went outside this morning but felt a lot cooler.  The kids definitely came in with red noses and red cheeks.

As always, thank you so much for the wonderful support from home!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Ross