Mrs. Ross's Classroom Blog: Happy Friday!

So the craziness of Missouri weather has begun. With Martin Luther King Jr and a snow day this week, we have had a shortened week, but LOTS of learning went into our three day week!

100th Day of School

I cannot believe that we will have been in school for 100 days next week! Thursday, January 25 will be school day 100. We will have a few fun activities planned for this day. If you would like for your child to design a t-shirt or something special to wear on this day you can. Below are a few options. Also, your child can bring in a fun snack of a 100 of something. It can be a junky snack, but it still needs to peanut/tree nut free.

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Since we are getting close to the 100th day of school, it is also time to start thinking about 2nd trimester Parent/Teacher Conferences. Coming home on Monday in your child's homework folder, will be a Parent/Teacher Conference request sheet. We are extending our conference times over two weeks (like we did in November) to allow both of us (Mottaz & Ross...aka Moss) to meet with every family. Please make sure to read the directions and mark your first three choices. Also, if you have multiple siblings at RBE, please mark all your children's name. If you would like conferences on the same night with all your children, Thursday, February 15 might be the best option.

Box Tops

Remember to keep sending in Box Tops with your child. Please make sure that you are clipping all the way around the box top and double check the expiration date.

Field Trip

On Wednesday, we went to the planetarium at Rock Bridge High School. We got to watch a short movie called "Earth's Wild Ride" and learned about how water flow can impact the Earth's geography, and also got to experience what a solar eclipse looked like from the moon - a great connection to what happened in August! We also got to look at the night sky. We learned about the constellations Orion the Hunter, the 7 Sisters, Taurus the Bull, Big Dog, and Little Dog. Tomorrow (Saturday, January 19) will be the next public show at the planetarium, and the schedule of events is below. You can reserve tickets for the show and check out the planetarium's website by clicking here.

2:00 pm - Magic Tree House Space Mission (for younger audiences)
3:15 pm - Hubble Vision (for older audiences)

What's Happening in 2nd Grade

Math: This week, we learned about adding 10 and 100 to numbers, and using an open number line. What is great about an open number line is that you do not start at 0 but you can start at your first number - which is a good thing as we are adding bigger numbers! We discovered today that the kiddos liked this number line because you also do not have to make all the hash marks in between the numbers. Below are an example of an open number line. Next week, we will be working on solving word problems or number stories.

Writing: This week, we started publishing our informational writing for our animal research project. We will continue to work on publishing next week also.
Reading: This week, we introduced the idea of making inferences by having the kids dig through "trash" (it was actually just pictures). The kiddos had to think about the evidence that was in the trash bag to infer where the trash bag came from. Some examples are: a trash bag that had a diaper and a baby food jar you could infer that that a baby lived in the house, or a trash bag that had a popcorn bucket, candy boxes and drink containers you could infer that the trash bag came from a movie theater. We talked about to make an inference that you have to use evidence from the text and schema from your head. Next week, we will focus on making inferences while reading difference texts.

Word Study: Next week, our focus will continue to be on long o vowel patterns of "oa", "ow" and CVCC. Next week's words: loan, road, glow, slow, poll, told, cold, ghost, both & bold.
Social Studies & Science: This week, we focused on learning about Martin Luther King Jr's life and accomplishments. We read two different books on his life My Brother Martin by Christine King Farris and A Picture Book of Martin Luther King Jr. by David Adler. We compared these two books as a whole class. Then today, the students partner read another book about his life. They had an opportunity to make a reading response either about what they would do if they met Martin Luther King Jr. or to tell about his life. Next week, we will focus on learning about the different ecosystems that animals live in. We will be tying in our ecosystem project to their animal research.