Monday, May 29, 2017

May 29th News


Happy Memorial Day Weekend, Owl Families!
What a busy week we had here in 2H!  After many rehearsals, I'm sure each Owl is enjoying the long weekend :)
Sneak peek of our final rehearsal last week!
Trying out our bandannas!

As you know, it is almost time for the Second Grade Musical Production of Can’t Stop the Seedling! We will be having our dress rehearsal in front of a live, SMS, student audience on Tuesday, May 30th. Please have your child dressed for the rehearsal: brown tops and denim bottoms (shorts, skirts, jean pants, etc.). Our student performance will take place at 8:45 AM,  so if students would like to bring a change of clothes for after the performance, that would be okay (and encouraged as we have P.E. later in the day!). ​On Wednesday, May 31st, we will be performing for family and friends at our 6:30 PM evening showing.​ Please have your child (dressed again in their "costume") meet me in our classroom at 6:15 PM. We’ll put on our bandannas and face paint and prepare to walk on stage. Immediately following the performance, I will be walking our entire class back to our classroom where you can meet them for a safe and easy pick up! We hope to see you there!


(Other!) Highlights from our week:

*Math: We enjoyed some more measuring this week (they're getting quite accurate with their use of tape measures!) and began to explore ways to share our measurements. Using graphing techniques, we looked closely at the measurements we collected from standing jump distances and arm spans.
Comparing shoe sizes!
Learning to graph our measurement data!
On Friday, we completely switched gears and started to explore FRACTIONS! While we will spend a lot of time reviewing all the wonderful math concepts we've worked on this year, fractions will be our last major unit of our school year. There is a lot of great IXL practice for fractions if you're looking to continue the fun at home. Unfortunately, our trial period of ReflexMath has ended, so we will be unable to use that resource. Thanks for your help reinforcing math fact practice! We received a lot of great information about the program and I have noticed a dramatic increase in student fact automaticity. Keep up the great work (third grader teachers will be SO impressed!)
*Science: Our plant discovery continues in full swing. We had a great time manipulating our root viewers throughout the week. By changing the direction of the viewer, after several days we were able to make the conclusion: roots will always grow down to find water and sprouts will always grow up to reach the sunlight! Root viewers were sent home midweek. I hope your second grader was able to tell you lots about it!
With the root viewers sent home, we decided we needed to do some more planting. Taking all we learned about roots and the growing direction of sprouts, we created some "grass heads" and, based on the direction we wanted their hair to grow, made predictions on how to place the heads to get the desired results! We had a blast making these heads and look forward to seeing the grass start to grow over the upcoming week.
*Writer's Workshop: We began our final major writing unit of the year: persuasive! We launched this unit by exploring restaurant reviews written on Yelp!. Each Owl Student then chose a restaurant and wrote an award-winning review to try and convince others to eat there. Our own Yelp! wall will be on display later this week. We will then move in to book reviews, followed by a culminating project of creating a travel brochure (this final project will feature an "at home" component, so be on the lookout for information being sent you way later this week! Thanks in advance for your help!)
*Field Trip: Second Grade is  FINALLY headed onto another field trip! Permission slips for our upcoming field trip to Great Bay Discovery Center on Monday, June 12th will be sent home on Tuesday, May 31st.

Please have the permission slips signed and returned to school with $4 by Friday, June 2nd.
If you are interested in chaperoning this trip, we would love to have you! Please send in an additional $4 for each chaperon in your family when the permission slip is returned. Unfortunately, because we will be close to open bodies of water and taking part in several different scheduled activities, we ask that siblings remain at home for this field trip. This trip will take place from 8:45-11:55 am rain or shine, so make sure to wear appropriate clothing as well as sunscreen and bug spray! Reminders will be sent home as we get closer to our trip. Thank you for your support, we can't wait for our trip! 


Hope you have a great, long weekend!


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Coming Up (Lots, and lots and lots of things!):

-Musical Dress Rehearsal: Tuesday, May 30th (school performance)
-Plant Musical: Wednesday, May 31st, 6:30pm
-Volunteer Appreciation Day: Friday, June 2nd
-Grand Luncheon: Monday, June 5th
-Field Day: Friday, June 9th
-Great Bay Field Trip: Monday, June 12th.
-Stratham Hill Park End of Year Grade 2 Picnic: Monday, June 19th
-Last Day of School: Tuesday, June 20th

Sunday, May 21, 2017

May 21st News

Hello, Sunshine!!! What a wonderful, warm, sunshine-y week we enjoyed!
Highlights from our week:
*Science: Each week, we dive deeper into the world of plants. This week, we continued learning about the parts of a plant. While it wasn't news to the Owls that all of the vegetables they enjoy (or maybe don't enjoy!) come from plants, they did encounter a few surprises when they tried to figure out which part of the plant each vegetable came from. After enjoying a favorite picture book, they began placing each vegetable into categories of plant parts: seed, root, stem, leaf, or flower.
As a reward for all of their hard work, each student was then challenged to see if they could eat a WHOLE plant! Many could!
In addition to this yummy discovery, we began a new Mystery Science lesson which had us create root viewers! We carefully documented our observations over the course of the week and will anxiously check them tomorrow morning!
Day 2
Day 3
*Math: Our math unit took an interactive and engaging turn this last week, as we began revisiting measurement. Students have been becoming experts at using various measuring tools and have been having a lot of fun measuring lengths and heights of classroom objects (although they've been having the most fun exploring the tape measures and finding lengths of body parts!). We'll wrap up this mini-unit next week and begin an exploration of fractions.
For extra practice with measurements skills, try some of these activities at home:
IXL - S.3, S.9, S.15
Measurement Weebly -collection of measurement games
*Reading: As we continue our work in series books, we had a great time taking our reading to the next level with BOOK CLUBS! Each student was place in a club and given a new series to try. 
 We learned that "Same Book Partnerships"...
1. Make plans for stopping and checking in after reading a section.
2. Come prepared to TALK!
We'll continue this AMAZING reading work next week! Ask your child about the series their group is reading.
*Wish List: With our year winding down, we've nearly used up our supply of tissues, spoons, and disinfecting wipes! If you have an extra box or container you're able to donate, we would greatly appreciate it! Thank you in advance :)

Have a great week!
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Coming Up (Lots, and lots and lots of things!):

-Memorial Day, No School: Monday, May 29th
-Musical Dress Rehearsal: Tuesday, May 30th (school performance)
-Plant Musical: Wednesday, May 31st, 6:30pm
-Volunteer Appreciation Day: Friday, June 2nd
-Grand Luncheon: Monday, June 5th
-Field Day: Friday, June 9th
-Great Bay Field Trip: Monday, June 12th.
-Stratham Hill Park End of Year Grade 2 Picnic: Monday, June 19th
-Last Day of School: Tuesday, June 20th

Sunday, May 14, 2017

May 14th News

Wishing all you wonderful mothers a very special day! Thank you for sharing your fabulous children with me each and everyday. You've done a great job! I hope you enjoy the special presents they created for you!
Highlights from our week:
*Wellness Walk: We were very fortunate that in a week of rain, the sun came out for our Wellness Walk! In honor of Physical Fitness and Sports Month, the Wellness Committee planned this wonderful event to help promote walking as a fitness activity. It was a great afternoon to get our bodies moving! We enjoyed walking with our reading buddies as well as several parents, grandparents, and siblings! Thanks to all who were able to join us :)
Later in the week, we got to visit with our 5L buddies for a SECOND time! We took on some interesting Lego challenges---check out some awesome, creative work!
*Poetry: Our poetry unit continues in full force! Students published one of their poems to help build turn our Owl tree in to a "Poet-tree" !!
 We also learned our last form of poetry this week: haiku! Next week, students, choosing from one of their many drafted poems, will contribute one to our classroom poetry anthology! Be on the lookout----a copy of this classroom anthology will be coming home!
*Plant Musical: We've been very busy preparing for our play Can't Stop the Seedling, which we will perform for families on Wednesday, May 31st at 6:30pm. Students will be asked to wear a simple costume for our play: brown (any shade!) tops and jean bottoms. We'll also be wearing brown bandannas, which I have available for each child. Let me know if you have ANY questions!
*Science: We had a TON of fun designing and building our hand pollinators this week! I'm (as always!) continually impressed by their ability to plan, build, test, and improve their designs. We definitely have many future engineers in our classroom! Ask you child about the pollinator they designed.
*Teacher Appreciation Week: A Huge THANK YOU for the amazing luncheon on Tuesday. The food was INCREDIBLE and it was so nice to enjoy it with friends we don't see as often as we like. Mrs. Nash and I had a great time, felt VERY appreciated, and LOVED reading all of the beautiful notes and pictures from the students! Thank YOU for all you do! It is truly a gift to be a part of the SMS community :)
 
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Coming Up (Lots, and lots and lots of things!):

-Early Release: Wednesday, May 17th
-SMS Maker Fest & Spring Art Show: Thursday, May 18th
-Memorial Day, No School: Monday, May 29th
-Musical Dress Rehearsal: Tuesday, May 30th (school performance)
-Plant Musical: Wednesday, May 31st, 6:30pm
-Volunteer Appreciation Day: Friday, June 2nd
-Grand Luncheon: Monday, June 5th
-Field Day: Friday, June 9th
-Great Bay Field Trip: Monday, June 12th.
-Stratham Hill Park End of Year Grade 2 Picnic: Monday, June 19th

-Last Day of School: Tuesday, June 20th