Week ending 12/23/16

Hi families!  This is the last post for this 2016 year!  Amazing how far we've come this year so far and how much more we have to go!  Friday is our 73rd day in school.

3, 2, 1 things you should know...
3 read aloud we read during the week were Animal's Santa, Potato Latkes, and Kwanza.  We know that many of the students are celebrating this upcoming week.  As a class, we've talked about what the holidays have in common and how they may be different.  This is not done in a religious way, but light is a theme through each holiday as well as joining with family and friends.
We know some students will be celebrating holidays in January as well and we look forward to sharing what that looks like then!
**Ask your child what they're most looking forward to over the winter break!

2 social studies activities we worked on were Luis on the Map (comparing Luis's story to our Me on the Map story) and watching a DVD on the geography of Mexico.
**Ask your child about 1 item they saw in the video today that stuck with them.

1 writing workshop unit we have started is writing an informational book on their own chosen topic.  We started with brainstorming, moved on to writing a table of contents to help us think of chapters, and then we began the writing.  They are very proud of their work so far as they are the experts in these topics and will be able to share with the class when complete.
**Ask your child which topic they have decided to write about and to tell you two chapters they've decided on.

I hope everyone has a wonderful break and enjoys their holiday if you are celebrating!
Rest, relax, enjoy this time with family and friends and cherish the memories.
Mrs. DeKing

Week ending 12/9/16

Hi Families!
Only 2 more weeks left before the holiday break!  I'm sure everyone is looking forward to it!
This has been a busy week and we've been involved in finishing up our Social Studies unit and beginning our reading unit of determining what's really important when we read.

Important Information:

• Don't forget to start sending in the warm clothes and perhaps extra pants and socks for when we get out during lunch, and sometimes snack, in case they get wet.  
• We will continue to be in school through December 23rd.  If you're child will be out, please let us know.  Thanks in advance. 
• The Heritage Bears look fantastic!  I can't wait to start hearing about each child's bear next week as they start to share with the class.  
• Please visit this sign up to help us collect materials for a winter project we'll be working on before vacation.
• Link: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4ea8a928a20-2ndgrade

3, 2, 1 things you should know...

3 non-fiction reading skills we've been working on this week are determining what's important versus interesting, paraphrasing important information into our own words, and identifying what we've learned, still question, and think were "WOW!" parts of the text when reading.  * Ask your child, when they're reading with you, if they still have any questions.  Asking questions after we read is a great strategy to help readers retain what they've read, think beyond the text that's right in front of them, and to help them predict what will happen next.

2 math addition strategies we've been working with in this unit are adding 10 on an open number line and splitting numbers.  * Ask your child to add 34+57 = ?  Encourage them to solve it by splitting numbers and ask them to explain how they solved it.  Explaining their thought process and steps, helps to solidify their learning of this skill.

1 new thing we started today was "Stump Mr. DeKing'!  We call and ask him a question based on what we've been learning this week and see if he can answer it.  We like to challenge him!  

Today we asked him "What does the landform "plains" look like?  *Ask you child that questions or better yet, have them ask you! ;)

Week ending 12/2/16

Hello Families!
I hope everyone enjoyed their longer weekend last week and it's back to business in our classroom!

Important information:

• Thursday, December 8, is an early release day with dismissal at 12:30.  
• Heritage Bears are due on Friday, December 9.  
• We continue to go out at recess so please be sure your child has a jacket and anything else necessary for the weather. 
• As the 2nd grade team begins to think about field trips in the Spring, we want to let you know that to even be considered for a field trip, you must be CORI'd and have a current one on file.  This is very important but easy to do.  You can do this by seeing Ms. Sheehan in the office.  Please do this month if you need to.

3, 2, 1 things we've worked on this week.  

3 social studies activities we worked on were brainstorming and sharing what we thought we knew about the United States of America and what we wanted to learn about, learned about important landmarks in our country, and began to learn a little bit about our Constitution.  

2 reading workshop activities we worked on were completing our writing of our own book about non-fiction features and then sharing the books with our peers.  Ask your child to tell you two non-fiction features and their purpose. 

1 homework we've sent home is Heritage Bears.  Here's the scoop...

As part of our Social Studies curriculum, we will soon embark on a journey to learn more about a few of the many countries and cultures that make up our world.  The Heritage Bear Project is designed to help students reflect on their own cultural heritage and help them make connections to the world cultures we will study for the remainder of the year.  The project also helps us celebrate the diverse cultures that make up our classrooms.
Templates for the heritage bear project went home this week.  Please work with your child to cut out and "dress" the bear template in a way that reflects the traditional clothing of your child's heritage.  Be creative.  Use scraps of fabric, ribbon, or paper to collage together an outfit if you can. You should only dress the front of the bear.  Please help your child to complete the bear's fact card which also went home.  Thank you!

Here's some pics of us working on our new math unit, Measuring for the Art Show. We've measured paper with cubes but today we worked on using our ten strips we made and measured with that.  It's important we work as a team when measuring and that we remember our strategies for measuring carefully.  This unit will help us build on our knowledge of place value and we will use an open number line to show our addition strategies.