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