Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We had a GREAT day - everyone ended the day on perfectly pink!

Thank you to Mrs. Schanen for hosting a fun afternoon with a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving movie and some Thanksgiving feast snacks. We had a great time!

As we look to Christmas break, we'll be learning quite a bit. In math, one of our units is measuring using measuring cups, tablespoons and teaspoons. As you are doing your holiday cooking or baking, it would be a great idea to get your second grader's help in the kitchen with measuring. It would be a good introduction to measuring so that they will know a little about it when we get to that unit closer to Christmas.

Our homework for class is to read as much as you can each day - at least 15 minutes, but hopefully more. Everyone has guided reading homework. Children can also work on www.sumdog.com or www.raz-kids.com for extra work. Mrs. St. Louis gave the school TWO homework assignments: 1. On Thanksgiving day, tell your family two things you are thankful for; and 2. Start thinking about Advent and how you can let Jesus into your life.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone - we'll see you on Monday!

One More Day...

We are excited that Thanksgiving is almost here!

We had our Religion test today, so no more tests until after our break. Today we started researching extreme weather in Science, we talked about fractions in Math, and we looked at more possessive nouns in Language Arts. We also had a tornado drill, and we were ready!

Tomorrow Nathan's mom is bringing in a movie and Thanksgiving feast (snacks) for us to enjoy in the afternoon with the 1st grade- thank you!!!

There is an e-mail being sent home this afternoon - please take time to read it if possible. Thanks for your help!

So Much To Say!

Where do we start? Well, a favorite activity today was Gummy Bear Graphing - we had fun counting, graphing, and then eating our gummy bears for math! In Science, we finished our weather unit and watched a weather forecast to see what we could learn. We had our school-wide vision screening this morning, and also got to visit the 7th grade room to see some of the beautiful instruments that our middle-schoolers made.

This week we also practiced a tornado drill (just as a class) so that we're prepared if the school has a drill. The entire school also had a fire drill this week. Both went very well!

There's no spelling test next week since it's a short week. We do have a religion test on Monday. All of the students were given a study guide today and I suggested they take it home to study. The test is open book and open notes, which means they can use any of their notes as well as their religion book.

As I mentioned, next week is a short week. We fell a little behind in math due to our safety drills, vision testing, and our middle school instrument visit. Therefore, on Monday we'll learn how to name a fractional part of a whole, how to start comparing fractions, and how to write fractions. On Tuesday we'll learn how to trade in pennies for dimes.

ONE MORE NOTE:  Free dress down day on Monday for 2nd grade - yay!!! We earned it by having our wing bring in the most food for the Student Council food drive. Congratulations!

Have a great weekend!

Land Ahoy!

We had a great time finishing up our social studies project today! We recreated the Pilgrims' voyage from England to the U.S. Here's a peek at one of our maps (thanks Paiton!) with several model boats, too:


Feel free to ask your child about what they've learned - they're happy and eager to share what they know! We also started comparing and contrasting the life of the Pilgrims with the life of the Wampanoag Indian tribe. They have lots of wonderful information to share.

We have our math test tomorrow. We completed a practice test today in class and they all did great. We're looking forward to a strong finish to the week!

Tuesday updates

Yesterday I wrote about a new computer program we used called www.sumdog.com and we use this program for extra math practice in addition to our daily lessons. The kids enjoyed it so much that they asked if they could do it at home. I taped everyone's login information to the inside of their OCEAN binder today. Feel free to keep that information taped there, or keep it at home. It's great extra math practice in game form.

Tomorrow is $1 dress down day and library day - please remember your library books!

Also, there is a yellow survey in your child's take-home folder today. The survey asks for your opinion about our blog. Please take a minute to complete that survey and send it back to school with your child. You don't need to put your name on it - we're just using it for informational purposes. Thanks for your help!

We won! We won! We won!

Congratulations to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade wing for collecting the most food during the Student Council Food Drive!!! Our entire school collected 670 items, which is fantastic! As a reward for being the wing to bring in the most food, we won a free dress-down day next Monday, November 25th. Yay!!!

Today in computers we introduced a new program called www.sumdog.com to our class. It's a program to help build math and reading skills, and the kids really enjoyed it. Speaking of math and reading, this week in math we are learning about identifying the tens and ones position of a 2 digit number, identifying halves, fourths, and eighths of a whole, we'll introduce measuring items using 1 inch tile squares, and we'll start learning how to name fractional parts of a whole (1/4, 1/2, 1/8). Our math test is on Thursday with a practice test on Wednesday.

In Language Arts and Reading we're starting to edit our writings, we're talking about possessive nouns (Jessie's cat, the dog's bowl), and we're learning how to tell the different points of view of characters in fiction books. Also our spelling test (long A sound) is on Friday.

The First Thanksgiving is the topic in Social Studies right now. Last week we talked about the Pilgrims' voyage and this week we're talking about the differences in food, housing, and daily living of the Indians and the Pilgrims. We're finishing up a unit on atmosphere in Science.

Dress warm!

Next Week's Spelling Words

Back by popular demand...here's an early look at our spelling words for next week (long "A" sound):

away   brain   main   paint   play   raise   say   stay   tail   today   tray   wait

Our challenge words are:    brought    everybody    lumbered

Our test is Friday, Nov. 22nd. Happy studying!

Have a great weekend!

We had a wonderful week and second grade is ready for some rest!

We were going to have three tests next week (spelling, math, religion), but after seeing the looks of panic across second grade, we've changed that! Our math test is Thursday 11/21, our spelling test is Friday, 11/22, and our religion test (on Praise and Worship) is Monday, 11/25.T hat should make it easier to study.

Our writings for this week (If I had one super power it would be...) were fantastic! They wrote very creatively. Next week we will edit these writings.

Our homework for the long weekend is to read, read, and read some more. They all have guided reading assignments and those assignments count as their daily 15 minutes.

Have a fun weekend - see you on Monday!

A short week!

This week is a short week - there's no school on Friday. Second grade is looking forward to a long weekend!

Tomorrow we have our spelling test. We practiced using the Spelling Sparkle game today and they did very well! Tomorrow we'll also read our "Superpower" writings to the class.

As the snow and cold arrive, please remember that if there's snow on the ground, children need both boots and snow pants in order to play on the grassy area. Otherwise they need to stay on the blacktop.

Next week is full of learning! As we're looking ahead, we have a math test, a religion test, plus our regular spelling words to study. We'll spend time preparing in class, but it will be a good idea to study at home, as well. Our religion test is on Worship & Praise, and our math test will cover the last two weeks of our lessons. We'll do a practice math test together in class to prepare.

We had 100% attendance for our conferences and that is great - thanks to all of your for attending!

It's Snowing!

Even though we had indoor recess today, the snow was a great reminder to bundle up. We talked about remembering to bring hats and mittens to school, and before long we'll need boots and snow pants, too!

We enjoyed a brownie points snack today for earning 12 compliments on our classroom behavior - congratulations to second grade!!!

This week in math we are learning the difference between horizontal, vertical, and oblique lines. We are also studying how to divide a whole into halves, fourths, and eighths. Finally, we'll find out how to fill in missing numbers on a 100's chart and how to divide objects into groups of two.

As a reminder, Friday is a teacher in-service day so there is no school. We'll have our spelling test Thursday morning and we'll be sharing our Writer's Workshop writings on Thursday, as well. This week's writing topic is, "If I could have one super power, it would be..." and we're writing five sentences to tell about our super power! Also, last week we began learning how to correct and edit our writing.

Thank you for a great turnout Saturday night at Mass - it was fun seeing all of you there!

A Beautiful Mass

Most of you already know this because you were there, but second grade did a wonderful job at Mass this morning - I am so proud of all of them! They did such a great job that they earned lots of compliments - more than enough to earn a brownie party for Monday! Great job everyone:)

Since next week is a short week, the class asked me to post our spelling words for next week so they could have a little extra time to study. Our test is Thursday, Nov. 14th. Our words are:

baby    babies    lunch    lunches    note    notes    story    stories    switch    switches   tune    tunes

Our challenge words are:   bought    pleasant    musicians

I hope to see many of you at 5:00 pm Mass on Saturday. Have a great weekend!

A Fun Day Off (Hopefully!)

Well that was fun! I hope everyone had a nice day off yesterday!

Due to our unexpected "no school" day yesterday, we've changed our math lessons and homework. Please see "This Week's Happenings" for an update.

Report cards are going home today. After you have had a chance to look at your child's report card, please sign the envelope and send it back to school. Thanks!

Conferences are tonight - I hope to see everyone either tonight or next Tuesday.

Second grade is really looking forward to their 8:00 a.m. Mass tomorrow - please attend if you can. Children may dress up if they want.

Also, Saturday is the 5:00 pm 2nd grade Liturgy Mass. Although not mandatory, it is encouraged. I will meet students at 4:45 in the gathering area outside of church. Parts will be assigned then.

Finally, tomorrow is our spelling test. Let's start second quarter strong!

Welcome to Second Quarter

We're all off and running in second quarter, and ready to learn! In class, we talked about working toward our goal of becoming more independent in our work. First quarter was generally a collaborative (group) effort with our work (with the exception of math homework). Second quarter will see us striving to become more independent in our work. We're up for the challenge!

Saturday is St. Joe's parish/school 2nd grade Liturgy Mass at 5 PM. A note was sent home in your child's binder today. This Mass is not mandatory, but it is encouraged. Parts will be given out upon arrival at 4:45 pm on Saturday. It will include school and parish member second graders.

We practiced our Friday Mass today. We did a good job with our readings, and all agreed to remember our respectful behavior in church.

Please remember - we have library tomorrow so we'll need our library books!!

Lots of information!

There's a LOT happening this week! Our spelling test is this Friday (Nov. 8th) and here are our words:

birth     curb     curl     dirt     her     nurse     person     purse     serve     skirt     turn     turtle

Our challenge words are:  enough     challenge     embarrassed

In Math, we're studying addition and subtraction fact families (2 + 7 = 9 and 7 + 2 = 9. 9 - 7 = 2 and 9 - 2 = 7). We're also starting a money unit, so there's lot of information coming their way. Today we remembered that a penny is worth 1 cent and a nickel is worth 5 cents. Then we talked about dimes and quarters.

We start our Thanksgiving unit in Social Studies this week and will talk about the pilgrims' voyage here. In Science we did a fun rain experiment with shaving cream. For Religion, we will practice this week for Friday's second grade Mass service, and in Writing we're working on, "Our Favorite Fall Activity" and we're starting to edit our writings.

October reading logs are due by this Wednesday, Nov. 6th. Completed, signed and returned reading logs earn students a free pizza from Pizza Hut.

Student Council is sponsoring a school-wide non-perishable food drive from today through Nov. 18th. See today's flyer in your child's binder for more information.

Don't forget - there's a First Communion informational meeting this Wednesday night at 5:00 pm in the Day Chapel, and conferences start this Thursday evening. Let me know if you have any questions!

Happy November

I hope everyone has recovered from Halloween!

As mentioned earlier, second grade has the 8:00 am Mass next Friday, November 8th. Reading parts were sent home today. Please have your child practice their part so they are comfortable reading it next week. We will also practice our parts in school during the week.

Our homework for the weekend is to read 15 minutes each night. Have a great weekend!