January News!

Reading:  We have two more weeks of lessons in our basal before we take another reading test.  Please take some time to review your child’s test that was in the report card envelope.

We spend 20-25 minutes every morning working on phonics and grammar skills. Ask your child about the work he/she does in his/her notebook.  Then we spend 30-40 minutes for independent reading.  Another activity that 2^nd graders do is “intervention block.”  All of the 2^nd graders are grouped according to their phonic needs.  The groups will be changed this week based on the spelling inventory that the children took two weeks ago.

The phonic sounds for this unit are: or, ore, oor, our and oo. The phonic skills for this unit are contractions, inflected endings (-ed, -ing), comparative endings (-er, -est) and subject/verb agreements.

Math: Our new chapter will focus on adding more than two numbers and reviewing adding and subtracting numbers.  We will solve a variety of number stories as well.  We will work on new strategies and review previously taught strategies.  The children will also be introduced to multiplication through arrays.

 Science:  We’ve begun a new unit on matter.  The children will learn the three states of matter and do various experiments and activities involving them.  We’ll end the unit by making root beer floats, which combines all three states of matter.

Valentine’s Day:  We will have our classroom Valentine party in the afternoon of Thurs, Feb. 13.  The children are encouraged to bring a valentine for each of his/her classmates.  Their names are as follows:

         Girls                                                                   Boys

Jaclyn           Hayley                                           Caleb         Karsten

Makayla      Brekken                                           Jordan       Claydon

Dakota        Alyssa                                              Hayden      Landen

Mariah        Blair                                                Nathan       Chantry

Adison         Janet                                               Logan         Carson

Abby            Leah                                              Michael     Jeremiah

Ali

After the children hand out and read their valentines, we’ll enjoy ice cream sundaes! I’ll send home a copy of the list if you signed up to bring something for our party.

100^th Day of School:  We are planning to celebrate the 100^th day of school on Feb. 19.  In 2^nd grade, the children are expected to bring in a collection of 100 items.  We’ve talked about some examples, and the children recalled some of the collections they saw last year when we toured the 2^nd grade rooms.  Last year, some students brought in ball cards, beads, matchbox cars, bracelets, pennies, Legos, candy, etc.  If your family collects something already, perhaps your child could bring it in if there are 100 items in that collection.  We will display the collections and invite the kindergarteners and 1^st graders to view them that day.

Also, we will plan to do a “100th day trail mix” for a snack that day.  Please have your child count 100 snack items, put them in a bag and bring it to school.  We’ll mix these items all together for a yummy trail mix.  Snack items suggestions:  cereal, peanuts, pretzels, candy, marshmallows, gummi bears, chocolate chips, teddy grahams, etc.