Sunday, February 19, 2017

Feb. 19th News

What a magical week we had here in 2H! Although our week was another short one, we truly made the most of each second together. The all time highlight of our week was definitely our celebration of Valentine's Day. We were reminded that Valentine's Day is about being with the people you love and showing kindness to others---something the Owls have no trouble doing!
*Valentine's Day: A huge thank you for your help in sending in valentines. Each child had a chance to exchange these nice gifts with their friends. What a treat!!
Starting our day with a two-part heart greeting! <3
These adorable owl bags were ready to be filled with valentines!

 
Enjoying all of the goods!
I got SPOILED this Valentine's Day!! Thank you for always thinking of me :) 
*Writing: The Owls did a TON of writing work this week! We finished painting the pictures for our animal poetry books, began writing poems filled with silver-dollar words, and finally celebrated the magnificent fiction stories they drafted! Being in a room full of writers is such an inspiring thing. I am *SO* impressed by the writing work they continue to do each day! Keep up the great work!
"Silver-Dollar Words" help create vivid images in our reader's mind!
 We'll enjoy finishing up these amazing books this week!
Our  fiction story celebration took on a different style this time around. Each Owl read their story to their table team and then received verbal compliments. This required bravery for the writer and careful listening by the audience. Everyone did a terrific job as these stories were shared.
*Science Magic: Science Magic took them to Ms. Donlon's classroom this week. Students had fun exploring the flow of different liquids. As always, I encourage you to talk with your child about this engaging experiment! Next week, we will visit Ms. Riley's classroom for our last Science Magic rotation.
*Reading Buddies: This week the Owls met with their fifth grade buddies to complete their FOURTH STEM challenge! I think I speak for all of them when I say it was their hardest one yet. Working with a mystery bag of assorted materials, they had to work with a larger group to design a bicycle. When debriefing after, we quickly learned that the hardest part wasn't the building, but rather the collaboration. It can be difficult to work with a larger group to share ideas and materials! All in all, despite the difficulties, both classes did a nice job with this challenge. Check out their finished products below!

 Have a great weekend! Hopefully you can get outside and enjoy all the snow we have!

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Coming Up:
-Read Across America Week: Monday, Feb. 20th-Friday, Feb. 24th (See Above Post for Theme Day Information)
-Winter Break, No School: Monday, Feb. 27th-Friday, Mar. 3rd

Next Week: SMS Celebrates Read Across America Week

 Starting tomorrow, we will be celebrating Read Across America Week! SMS will honor Dr. Seuss and his love of reading by dedicating each day of the week to a different Dr. Seuss theme. Students (and teachers!) are encouraged to dress up as they participate in many literacy activities throughout the week. It's going to be great! Check out the theme schedule below:
Monday, 2/20-Fox in Socks Day: wear crazy socks and show them off!
Tuesday, 2/21-Cat in the Hat Day: wear your favorite hat!
Wednesday, 2/22-Wacky Wednesday: wear mismatch clothing!
Thursday, 2/23-Theodore Geisel Day: dress up as your favorite book character!
Friday, 2/24-Curl Up and Read Day: wear PJs and bring a pillow/stuffed animal to curl up for our school-wide Drop Everything and Read Event!

Have a great week & happy reading!!

Monday, February 13, 2017

Feb. 13th News

I think it's safe to say that winter has arrived! As short as our week was, we did manage to squeeze quite a few things in! I hope you are all enjoying all of the snow---we certainly got enough of it! Please remind your child to pack snow pants and boots for recess. It's bound to be tons of fun on the playground this week!
Image result for owl in snow funny
Highlights from our week:
*Writing: While we didn't get as far as we'd hoped on our picturing writing books, we did have a blast beginning some of our beautiful paintings. Experimenting with crayon resist techniques, each Owl began creating illustrations to represent zoomed in views of their animal. They began with the closest image, capturing their animal's fur, feathers, skin, or scales. Zooming out just a bit, after reading the book Eye Guess, they were challenged to create a picture illustrating their animal's eye. 
I hope the Owls are as excited as I am to begin the writing pieces that will accompany their beautiful artwork! We'll work hard on these poetry books this week.
*Reading: Our class always gets SUPER excited when they learn a mystery reader will be visiting our classroom. We've had SO many visits already this year! From Mr. Goldsmith and Mr. Fosher to Ben's mom, Madeline's mom & dad, Seth's mom, Elyza's mom, Gavin's mom, Richard's mom, Laney & Sam's mom, James' mom, Ryan's mom, Nina's mom, and Jacoby's mom. Wow! And what great stories they have shared!
After listening to all of our wonderful readers, many Owl students were left wondering when they could have a chance at being a mystery reader. Well, as promised, it's time! Talk with your child. If they are interested in being an Owl Mystery Reader, select a time and sign them up here. Just like with adult mystery readers, I will email you a week prior to their scheduled date to remind them to create their clues and begin practicing the story they'd like to read. It's a great opportunity for these budding readers to show off their great fluency! I encourage them all to sign up! Please let me know if you have any questions. We will begin adult mystery readers again towards the end of our school year. Thanks!
*Science Magic: This week's science adventure took the Owls down the hallway to Mr. Saltus' classroom. Continuing with the states of matter, the Owls explored the effects of oxygen on a flame. Ask your scientist about this exciting experiment. 
*Scholastic Book Order: Looking for some new books for February break? February book order forms were sent home early last week, and Scholastic's full catalog is available online. Orders are due by the end of the day today, Feb. 13th, so they arrive before the vacation week!
*Valentine's Day: Our class will be having a small Valentine’s Celebration tomorrow, Tuesday, February 14th. Students are encouraged to exchange valentines with their peers. Homemade ones are best! Please be mindful of our classroom food allergies (peanuts and eggs) and remind your child that if they are bringing in valentines, they must bring one for every member of our class.
Our class of 19 includes:
Alyssa, Anton, Ava, Ben, Elyza, Gavin
Jacoby, James, Laney, Madeline, Madison, Nina
Richard, Ryan, Sam, Seth, Sophie, Tate, and Teagan

Enjoy your snow day!


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Coming Up:
-Valentine's Day Class Celebration (kids only): Tuesday, Feb. 14th
-Early Release: Wednesday, Feb. 15th
-Winter Break, No School: Monday, Feb. 27th-Friday, Mar. 3rd

Thursday, February 9, 2017

"We're 100 Days Smarter!"

Monday, Feb. 6th, marked our 100th day together as a second grade class. It's hard to believe we have less than eighty days left together. As I always tell our class, time sure flies when you're having fun!
     Students did a wonderful job completing their 100 days homework assignment---thank you for your help! It was fun to put all of our letters together and proudly proclaim:
 Our morning meeting activity had us seeing just how many things we could do in 100 seconds (which your mathematicians quickly discovered was 1 minute 40 seconds!) We set the timer and we were off!
Counting their jumping jacks, the Owls quickly realized 100 seconds was a lot longer than they thought!
Our math workshop had us doing lots of work around our favorite three-digit number! 
Many friends work together on different ways to make or represent the number 100
A few Owls challenged themselves to solve 100 subtraction facts!
Playing 'Roll to 100' was a fan favorite in our room!

Later in the day, as a fun 100th day challenge, the owls worked together to complete some collaborative "100 Post-it Posters!" After calculating the math (including myself, each person would need to add 5 post-its to each poster in order to reach 100), we set off in coming up with  100 books we love, 100 places we'd like to travel and 100 things to do before we're 100 years old! After stretching our thinking, we got the job done! Everyone had a blast reading all of the post-its when we were through!
Happy 100th Day, Owls! Here's to an amazing rest of our year together!