Here we are, Friday already!

With our shortened week, I really guided the students through our grammar check up and spelling test today.  In fact, I did not include them as a graded item.  I know most of the students studied their words at home and did fantastic, as usual!  However, I did not feel it was fair that we lost some structured time in class to build these skills and patterns.  

They looked adorable in their pajamas today!  I hope you continue to have a cozy afternoon.

Next week we start our second semester homework.  This is a weekly writing lesson.  You will be able to help your child go through the writing process.  Have them think of their topic, generate three or four supporting details regarding the topic, then write it out.  You can guide them through the editing process where you find spelling errors, grammar, punctuation, and capitals.  Then ask them to write it again using their very best printing.  Your child is assigned the same day each week.  You have an entire week to complete the writing and practice reading it for fluency and voice (volume).  Thank you for the support!

I will be holding conferences Thursday, February 7.  I have heard from some parents that you would like to meet.  I will send a note home with your child next week if I feel we need to meet..  If you do not hear from me, then please note that I feel your child is developing as expected thus far in second grade.  Report cards will be sent home via email and powerschool on Tuesday, February 5.

​Have a wonderful and safe weekend.

I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable long weekend.  My family enjoyed some skiing and then we gave back to our community yesterday by donating food at Gleaner's Food Bank.  

Jenavive had back to back missing teeth!  One on Friday and another today.  What fun!  She also turned in a coupon to read a book to the class.  She chose a classic tale, Peter and the Wolf!  She did a fantastic job, lots of expression and fluency!

We had some fancy hairdos last week.  Jennifer had several inches taken off and Andrew spiked his hair into a mohawk!

Some important dates:  Thursday and Friday are half days.  Thursday is a class reward day, they are welcome to bring in a piece of technology from home.  Friday is a school wide student spirit day:  wear your pajama's to school!

​Have a great night!

It is a day of celebration!  After several weeks of exceeding the expectations of working hard and being kind, the class pulled off the final reward.  I really did think we would have had two reward days during this marking period, but we are still developing social skills in second grade and it takes practice.  These rewards were given not when they met the daily exception, it was given when they (as a whole class) exceeded the exception.  They had so many great ideas on what to do.  After several rounds of voting, it was determined by popular vote that we will have a technology reward.  

The day of celebration will be Thursday, January 24.  This is a half day, we will not spend the entire day on technology, but I will incorporate it into our day for some fun times together.  With your permission only, they can bring an iPad/tablet, a gaming device like a Nintendo Switch or another hand held type game.  If they have a globe that is electronic or a book that is, those are welcomed as well.  They much only bring one electronic that day.  Please label who it belongs to.  You can tie a tag on it, or use a permanent marker.  But several look alike and it would be such a shame if something got mixed up.  This is a choice between you and your child.  The school cannot be held responsible for the safety of this item.  I must make that clear.  

With that said, if you do not want your child to bring something from home, do not worry!  We have iPads, laptops, and our white board projector for everyone to use!  

Be safe this weekend if we get the snow.  

Reminders:  School Winter Dance tonight, NO SCHOOL MONDAY in observance of Martin Luther King Day, half days on Thursday and Friday next week.

​

Today went by very quickly!  The students worked really well together.  I'm so proud of them.

Jennifer was recognized school-wide going above and beyond the expectations of our Eight Keys of Excellence.  I have to say, this week, our class turned in about 15 tickets.  That is wonderful!  

We went back to visit the dictionary today.  This is a skill of alphabetical order, organization skills, and reading comprehension.  It may seem old-fashioned to ask kids to use a paper dictionary when we all have Siri...however, it is a valuable skill to be able to manipulate a dictionary.  I would encourage each of you to buy one and have it on hand for something fun to do daily.  Perhaps, choose a new word while having breakfast and challenge yourselves (you and your family) to try to use that newly acquired word throughout the day.  The vocabulary expansion is endless!  Harvard would have some scholars from Morgan for sure!

Students worked in teams this afternoon to complete a math review packet.  Several students completed it with very few errors.  Hip-Hip-Hooray!  Keep up the dedication to learning.

Congratulations Jenavive for losing a tooth here at school this afternoon.  

Tomorrow is our reading NWEA.  We also get to visit Star Lab!

​Have great night!

Today was a hard working day for our students.  Once the class completed their warm up brain lesson, they traded papers and became a teacher.  I told them they had to be very careful with details when checking someone's paper.  Each child was asked to put their name at the top in a crayon or colored pencil.  (some did not follow that oral direction, so your child's paper does not show a second name).  Then while checking they had to carefully follow along with me to see if that paper had all the corrections.  If not, they were asked to correct them.  This gave every child great responsibility!  I was able to celebrate Elllyana, Amjad, and Giorgio today for taking the time to see every detail while being the teacher.  Congratulations!

In addition that them trading papers, I also paid out some Excellence Dollars to those students who were very responsible with getting their work completed in our timeframe and for the correct answers.  We all learn from our mistakes, but if do  not put those lessons learned into practice, it's all just a waste of time.  So we are practicing how to prove that we are learning from our mistakes.  Keep up the great work, second graders!

This morning, during our writer's workshop time, the students were asked to write a narrative piece about going on a rocket to the moon.  Once they were finished with the writing, we practiced some peer editing skills to check each other's work.  They partnered up with a classmate, read their writing, and talked over any spelling corrections or grammar that might have been missed.  Then, we switched partners again.  This time if was for some fresh eyes to see if anything else might have been missed.  Lastly, the students were asked to read their writing piece one more time before turning it in.  Taking time to peer edit is an important step in the writing process.  This is a developing skill in second grade.  You can watch for that to be marked on the upcoming report card.

Tomorrow, during ISM, the class will be finalizing their unit of states of matter with a root beer float!  I will have the materials ready for the fun when they are in ISM.  Mrs. P. will also be sending me the work they have been accumulating during this marking period.  I will look it over then send it home.

​Have a wonderful evening!