Nov. 6th News

A big thank you to all those who made it out to parent conferences. The home-school connection is such a vital piece of a child’s education. I am committed to keeping you involved as we work together for the remainder of the school year. We're set up for a wonderful rest of our year together!

*Election: As we gear up for our country's presidential election, we had a lot of fun this week envisioning what we would do if we were president! 

I wouldn't be surprised if one day one of our Owl students will grow up and lead our country! I have no doubt they'd do a wonderful job! On Friday, along with hundreds of other NH students, 2H participated in a mock election. While we did not discuss the candidates and their policies, each student took a ballot, headed to the polling booth, and was able to cast their vote. Ask your child about this process and check out NH's student voting results here.

All this election buzz got us thinking (a LOT!) about what it means to be a leader, how to help others, and being respectful of all ideas. We enjoyed watching several Kid President videos, but this one seemed to sum up all our learning:

                
If possible, I encourage you to bring your child with you to the polls this week so they can see the voting process first hand!

*Writing: On Friday, we had a BLAST celebrating our Kevin Henkes-inspired stories! Students demonstrated their ability to write just like our mentor author while creating their own interesting, realistic problem and solution! Bravo, writers! Their amazing stories were sent home on Friday along with all the compliments and praise they received from their peers. I hope you enjoy reading them!

*Math: As we make our way through Unit 3, we continue to practice our addition and subtraction facts. We have been working hard on the relationship between addition and subtraction and building fact families (when you know one math fact, you really know four!). We have learned some fun games, such as Addition and Subtraction Top-It, and the class favorite: Salute! Directions for this fun game will be sent home next week. In addition, to continue the math learning at home, these IXL skills mirror the lessons being taught in class:

      -E.13: Complete the addition sentence: 1 digit
      -F.1: Review - subtract one-digit numbers - up to 10
      -L.1: Add and subtract numbers up to 20
      -K.3: Fact Families

*Science: It goes without saying, science ROCKED this week!! Exploring the question, "What's inside a rock?", the owls quickly realized there was only one way to find out....

It was a lot of work, but a ton of fun. They put the hammer to it, and were in for quite a surprise! Each rock contained a unique geode!! These scientists quickly went to work carefully examining their treasures and drawing detailed drawings in the science notebooks.

We'll be continuing our earth science unit over the next several weeks. We look forward to an exciting culminating activity: Wildlife Encounters will be coming to present to SMS second graders right before our holiday break! They will be bringing some animal friends along to talk about the animals who use soil and rocks to help shape our earth. It's going to be an epic finale to our science unit!!

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Important Dates (always available at the top of the blog page for convenience) :

- No School (Election Day): Tuesday, Nov. 8th

- Disguise a Turkey Homework Assignment Due: Wednesday, Nov. 9th

- No School (Veteran's Day): Friday, Nov. 11th

- PTO Spaghetti Dinner and BINGO: Friday, Nov. 18th, 6:00pm

- No School (Thanksgiving Break): Wednesday, Nov. 23rd-Friday, Nov. 25th