Happy Holidays!!

 What a great few days we had before beginning our holiday break! We took the time to enjoy our family and friends and worked hard to truly appreciate this season of giving. Our little owls worked hard on completing their family gifts (hope you loved them!), creating crafty cards for their fifth grade reading buddies, memorizing A Visit from St. Nicholas, and learning about the holiday traditions of others.
  A major highlight from our short week was the annual 2nd grade Gingerbread House Decorating Celebration! Thanks to all of you owl families for donating the many supplies to make this event possible! We had a BLAST! It was so fun to celebrate this season bringing so many families into our classroom.

                                     

 

I am so thankful for the families of 2AA! Your continued support and nvolvement in your child's education amazes me everyday. I wanted to thank you SO much for the generous donation to St. Vincent de Paul and the beautiful flowers. It means the world to me that we are able to help those in need. Thank you for your generosity!

Wishing your family a very, happy holiday and a safe, healthy, wonderful new year! Enjoy the holiday break and we'll see you in 2015!!

Dec. 14th News

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Ms. Arnold’s Classroom News (12/7/14)

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What We've Been Up To:

Welcome to December! It's hard to believe there's only one full week left before a short two days and then the holiday break!

*Gingerbread Unit: We've been having a blast reading a variety of Gingerbread tales---who knew there were so many! So far we've read: The Gingerbread Bear, The Gingerbread Man, The Gingerbread Baby, Gingerbread Friends, and The Gingerbread Girl. It's been great comparing and contrasting each story, and of course everyone loves chiming in for the refrains! We will culminate our gingerbread unit with the second grade tradition of decorating gingerbread houses. This celebration will take place on Monday, Dec. 22nd, at 2:00 pm. If you're free we would LOVE for you to join us! Thank you too all who are donating items to make this celebration possible. Lisa Anderson recently sent the signup genius form, but you can reach the link here if you'd still like to sign up: Gingerbread Houses Sign Up. We will be constructing the houses with graham crackers and frosting in class on Friday, so they will have time to dry for decorating on Monday. If you are donating frosting or graham crackers, please send in by Friday. Thank you for your continued help in making learning fun!! Please let me know if you have any questions :)

*Math: The 2AA Owls have been doing some fabulous math work lately! With a unit ranging from telling time to place value, they've had to do some super math thinking.

Students are working hard on telling time to the nearest 5 minute mark. ANY extra practice they can get with this is essential. In class, they each made their own paper plate clock manipulative which can be use to help with homework. For additional practice:

These skills on IXL directly correlate with in-class instruction:

1. Q.2Reading clocks - hour and half hour
2. Q.3Reading clocks
3. Q.5Match clocks and times
4. Q.6Match analog and digital clocks
5. Q.8A.M. and P.M.

As mentioned at conferences, a huge part of the Common Core standards is the ability to write about your mathematical thinking. On Thursday, our Curriculum Coordinator, Shannon DeLello, came in to teach us more about this skill. She was SO impressed with our class! Not one student said they couldn't do it!! Check out some of their awesome work!! Way to go mathematicians!!

*Mystery Readers: Our class always gets SUPER excited when they learn a mystery reader will be visiting our classroom. We've had visits from our vice principal (Mr. Goldsmith!), Lhana's mom, Reece's mom, Logan's mom, and Ryan's mom so far this year, and what great stories they have shared! We have two more readers joining us in January and then I'll be sending out another signup sheet for the remainder of the year. If you're interested in being a mystery reader, be on the lookout for that email!

Ryan's mom reading some stories from Frog & Toad!

Reece's mom reading a class favorite: Elephant & Piggie!

Logan's mom got her audience involved with a "Choose Your Own Adventure" story!

*Seacoast Family Promise: We want to make sure everyone has a happy holiday this season. This year, our classroom is teaming up with Ms. Riley's Giraffes to provide holiday gifts for a lovely young woman in need. All of the gifts must be gift-wrapped and the tag on the gifts should only say the recipient's name (in our case, Meghan!) Sign ups were sent last week. Thanks to your generosity, ALL gifts were signed up for :) Thank you for helping our community. If you signed up to contribute a gift, please make sure it is sent in by Tuesday, Dec. 16th. Happy Holidays!! To learn more about Seacoast Family Promise, visit http://www.sfpnh.org/. 

*Whiteboards/Headphones: An important part of our math routine includes starting our lesson with whiteboard warm ups. This allows engagement of all students to warm up, and allows for informal assessment. If you are looking for any holiday ideas for your child, new dry erase markers would be a great gift!

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Upcoming dates:
Wednesday, Dec. 17th: Early Release
Monday, Dec. 22nd, 2pm: Gingerbread Decorating Holiday Celebration
Wednesday, Dec. 24th-Friday, Jan. 2nd: No School, Holiday Break

So much to be thankful for!

Happy Thanksgiving, Owl Families!!!

This time of year is always such a nice time to slow down and reflect on all that we have in our lives to be thankful for. These second graders quickly realized just how much they truly were thankful for!

Wonderful job to all on our family homework assignment. I can proudly say that all turkeys have been saved! I can't seem to find a single turkey in the bunch....job well done!

    

Since the start of the school year, I have realized just how lucky and thankful I am to be a member of the SMS community. Thank you all for sharing your amazing children with me each day and for your support and collaboration during this second grade year! I couldn't do it without you!! As if all this wasn't enough, I was surprised with the most thoughtful "thankful" bouquet on Wednesday! Thank YOU all for this wonderful gift (and an extra special thanks to Lisa Anderson for putting it all together!). It is something I will cherish forever! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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Coming Up:

-SMS Book Fair Preview Date: Tuesday, Dec. 2nd

-SMS Book Fair Shopping Date: Wednesday, Dec. 3rd
-PTO Pancake Breakfast: Saturday, Dec. 6th, 8:00am-10:00am

*December Related ArtsSchedule:

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
30	1 PE	2 STEM	3 Library	4 Music	5 PE	6
7	8 Art	9 PE	10 STEM	11 Library	12 Music	13
14	15 PE	16 Art	17 PE	18 STEM	19 Library	20
21	22 Music	23 PE	24 NO SCHOOL	25 NO SCHOOL	26 NO SCHOOL	27
28	29 NO SCHOOL	30 NO SCHOOL	31 NO SCHOOL	1 NO SCHOOL	2 NO SCHOOL	3

Owl Pellet Dissection!

On Friday, our scientists put their skills to the test by dissecting owl pellets (a HUGE hit among our owl class!)!

Each student received their very own owl pellet to dissect. They quickly got to work digging out the bones!

 The room sure was buzzing as each scientist discovered more and more bones in their owl pellets! Collaboration was at its finest :)

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After they finished their dissection, the real work began! They were challenged to identify the type of animal the owl had eaten based on the bones they uncovered. It was hard work, but these scientists drew some excellent conclusions!

Check out this AMAZING website, Kidwings-Virtual Pellet, to learn all about owl pellets and to complete a virtual dissection experience with your child!

We love science!!