We're worn out!

The second grade had a really fun time roller skating today! They were a great example for St. Joe's school.

Our spelling words for next week are:
blind   bright   child   cry   find   flight   fly   myself   right   sky   spider   wild

and our challenge words are:
daughters   youngest   luckiest

Our test is next Friday, Feb. 7th. We took our pre-test today and brought our words home for the weekend since we don't have school on Monday.

We'll also have a math test next Friday. We'll take a practice test on Thursday to make sure we're prepared.

Have a GREAT day off on Monday, and we'll see you on Tuesday!

Jump Rope For Heart Fun

We all had a lot of fun at Jump Rope For Heart this morning - it was a great way to get some exercise! We also got to go outside for recess today - yay!!!

Don't forget that Friday (tomorrow) is Retro Day and roller skating. We'll have Mass right away, go roller skating, come back for lunch, and hopefully get some math learning done in the afternoon. Today we learned about Venn diagrams in math, and everyone did a great job.

There's no outdoor recess tomorrow, because roller skating is our recess. You can leave your snow pants at home, unless you need them to get to school.

I'm looking forward to seeing the retro looks tomorrow!

We're Back!

Wow - that was a long weekend! We all had fun wearing our pajamas today and watching Snow Buddies.

Report cards went home today. Please return the blue envelope by Friday, and let me know if you have any questions about your child's report card.

Because of the short week, there are no spelling words this week and therefore no spelling test. We'll get back to that next week! Also, I'm hoping everyone is doing their reading at home each night. Our guided reading groups start back up next week.

Second grade is collecting washcloths for the Hope Center in Waukesha. Please feel free to send these in by Friday.

I'm sure one of these days we'll get out for recess, so make sure everyone has snow pants, boots, a hat and gloves, just in case. Thanks for your attention to this.

Tomorrow is red dress down day (red shirt) and we'll be participating in Jump Rope For Heart in the morning. Friday is retro day, so feel free to use your imagination and have your child come dressed from the 1950's, '60;s, '70's or '80's! As I mentioned to the students, just remember that you have to skate in whatever you choose to wear!

Welcome back - have a great Wednesday!

Come See Us!

There's so much happening this weekend and next week!

1.  Come see us on Sunday! Teachers are attending 8:30 a.m. Mass and then heading to their classrooms for open house at 9:30. I hope everyone comes to visit!

2.  Book Fair is open on Sunday starting at 9:30 - feel free to shop.

3. There was an announcement in the most recent newsletter about a service project headed up by Mrs. Haftarski with help from her Girl Scouts. Each class is bringing an item to donate to the Hope Center in Waukesha. Second grade is asked to bring in washcloths to school as our donation. Please send them in anytime next week. Thank you to Mrs. Haftarski and our Girl Scouts for this wonderful idea!

4. Pajama Day is on Monday - we can't wait! Kids can wear their favorite pajamas and slippers for the day. We'll watch a movie in the afternoon. Tuesday is Career Day - kids should dress for the career they want.

Have a fun weekend, and I hope to see you on Sunday!

Looking For Movies

Monday is Pajama Day and Movie Day. If you have a "G" rated DVD movie that you would be willing to loan the class on Monday, feel free to send it to school along with your child.

Hopefully we're all ready for our spelling test tomorrow - compound words can be tricky, but our super-smart 2nd graders can handle it!

Don't forget tomorrow is Book Fair shopping. If you send money with your child, they will book shop at 10:30 tomorrow morning. You can also shop during our Open House on Sunday from 9:30 - noon.

Have a great Thursday!

Across the Continents and Oceans...

Today we learned that there are 7 continents (North America, South America, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, Africa and Europe) and 5 oceans (although we're only going to study 4- Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic). We started a fun continent project using blue paper plates as the ocean and we'll place our continents on there as we go along.

Math is challenging us these days! Today we learned how to add two (two-digit) numbers when you have to carry over. We need to remember that we always add right to left, and that sometimes we need to carry numbers over to the next column.

Today we also toured the Book Fair and made our wish lists. We can shop on Friday if we bring money, or we can shop on Sunday with our families during Open House from 9:30 - noon.

We're all looking forward to next week, starting with Pajama & Movie Day on Monday!

Beautiful Job At Mass!

Our 2nd grade students did a FABULOUS job at Parent Breakfast Mass this morning! I'm so proud of them, and I know you are, too! It was so nice to see all of the parents in attendance. Great job by everyone!

Today in Math we learned about congruent figures (same size and shape). Tomorrow we start learning how add larger two digit numbers. This means we have to learn how to carry over from the right column into the left column when adding.

Tomorrow we start learning about oceans and continents in Social Studies. In Writing, we're talking about parts of a story - the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. We're also making our way through the cursive letters.

BOOK FAIR: Tomorrow our students will be creating "wish lists" during library time so they won't need to return their library books this week. They will pick out items they want and write them down. Parents, if you want - you can send money with your child on Friday so that they can purchase things from the Book Fair, or you can shop the Book Fair with them this Sunday between 9:30 - noon at our Open House.

CAREER DAY is next Tuesday. Students are allowed to dress up for the job they want. We have several wanting to dress up in sports attire which is fine, but no hats or helmets, please. They are allowed to bring "props" along (such as a football) as long as it doesn't become a distraction.

Thanks again for your support at Parent Breakfast Mass - second grade is the best!

Parent Breakfast Mass Tomorrow!

We're ready for our Parent Breakfast Mass tomorrow morning! We're glad everyone can make it. We've practiced hard and we're going to do our best. Don't forget that your child should dress up for Mass (no money - it's a free dress up day for Mass).

On Wednesday we'll be creating our Book Fair Wish Lists during library, and then we'll book shop on Friday. Please remember to send money with your child on Friday if they want to purchase books. I'll also have a "2nd grade wishlist" of books if you're interested in purchasing a book for the classroom.

Jump Rope for Heart money and forms are due this Thursday. Thanks to everyone for raising money for a great cause!

If you haven't turned in your St. Joe's Intention form or the roller skating permission slip and money, please send it in tomorrow.

Our spelling test is this Friday and our regular list words are all compound words:

backyard    basketball    bathtub    bedtime    birthday    driveway    mailbox    raindrop    riverbank    someone    something    weekend

Our challenge words are: believe    tomorrow    delicious

We are approaching the end of 2nd quarter, and we've been talking a LOT lately about our classroom goal of being ready for 3rd grade. A big part of that goal is making sure we complete our math and reading homework each night. Thanks for your support with this at home!

Thoughtfully Thinking about Thursday (and other alliterations!)

Today we reviewed alliterations and prefixes, and we also learned about suffixes (-ful and -less). We've got those down! We practiced in the Day Chapel for Tuesday's Breakfast Mass, and we talked about fractional parts of a whole in math. It was another busy day in 2nd grade!

Please work with your child on their Mass speaking part so that they're ready for Tuesday. We're all so excited! Also, please remember to return your white intention form and your blue roller skating field trip permission slip form that went home on Wednesday.

Tomorrow is our spelling test and it's also another big test. Tomorrow is the first time our class will have a substitute all day. I know they'll be great role models, but it would be a good idea to review behavior expectations with your child and to remind them that the same rules apply in the classroom, even if I'm not there. I'll be back on Monday.

A math study guide will be going home on Friday so that everyone can look it over for Monday's test. I know we're ready! They are noticing that the math lessons are definitely getting harder and it's taking more time to learn things. Please have them come see me if there's anything they don't understand.

Enjoy your Thursday!

Our heads are BURSTING with information!

We learned so much today - where do we start? We now know what synonyms and antonyms are, and we can tell you all about alliterations, like, "Sam secretly saves silly string!"

We also had a fun brownie party today for snack because we earned 12 whole brownie points. It was yummy!

In Social Studies, we pretended to be newspaper editors. We paired up, looked through current newspapers, and decided which articles we would put in our own newspaper and which ones we would toss. We also watched a current event video on a fun Lego show in New York City.

We are Math superstars - we know how to add three or more numbers, and we can tell you about the Associative Property of addition!

Please look for conference forms, a skating permission slip, and an intention form in your child's binder today. We hope to have those items back as soon as possible.

Have a great Wednesday!

Tuesday Highlights

Thank you to everyone for sending in your Breakfast Mass forms. We drew names for parts today, and everyone has a Mass part to practice for next Tuesday. We'll be practicing at school, too.

For those who sent in newspapers - thank you! If you still have newspapers at home from the last week or so, please send them in. We start our current events unit tomorrow in Social Studies and we have fun activities planned!

Some of your children brought home classroom library book reminder notes today. We had several books checked out of our classroom on December 19th and they still haven't come back. If you received a note in your child's OCEAN binder today, please return the missing books as soon as possible so others can read them.

Thank you for all of your classroom book donations - they have been a huge help in building our class library and getting kids "hooked" on reading! A special thank you to Megan's mom for her huge donation today!

Lots of Learning in 2nd Grade

Here are our long o spelling words for this week - our test in on Friday:

ago     bowl     float     goat     hold     most     open     show     slow     toad     toast     told

Our extra-credit spelling words are:  answer     photograph     smudged

This week in Math we'll learn how to create a number line, how to measure to the nearest inch, we'll make polygons and identify the angles of polygons. We'll also start adding together three or more single digit numbers, and on Thursday we'll learn how to name a fractional part of a set. We have a math test next Monday, January 20th.

In Social Studies we're studying current events this week. It would be appreciated if you could send in a newspaper with your child tomorrow or Wednesday. The newspaper can be up to one week old. In Science, we learned about forests and deserts today, and we'll study ocean and rainforest habitats on Friday.

In Language Arts, we're learning about synonyms and antonyms this week, and in Writing we're journaling about "What Makes A Good Friend." It's a great connection to our school's January theme of reNEWal.

In Religion, we're busy! We are practicing for next Tuesday's breakfast Mass AND we're studying how God helps us make good choices. Mass parts are coming home tomorrow. We're so glad many of you will be there!

It's a busy week, but we're all ready for it!

Fab Friday

Second grade had a very good day today! We learned about measuring to the nearest foot in math, we learned how to describe ourselves using adjectives in Language Arts (some were very interesting!), and we continued our habitat studies in Science. We also finished our New Year's Resolution writings.

Thank you to the parents who responded for our Jan. 28th Career Day - we're looking forward to it.

Jump Rope for Heart $5 donations to earn a duck are due by Thursday, Jan. 16th. Remember, a parent signature is required on the $5 donation pledge form in order to get a duck. Forms went home yesterday.

Please remember to turn in your breakfast Mass forms no later than Tuesday.

Lastly, there are lots of important school notices coming home these days - please check your child's binder for information on the Brew & Chew, the Brewer's Concessions and other fun events.

Have a great weekend!

Thursday Updates

Hi everyone! We have two important items for today:

1.  Our parent breakfast mass is coming up on Tuesday, January 21st. There is a notice in today's OCEAN take-home binder with a form that needs to be completed and sent back to school ASAP. Thanks for your quick attention to this!

2.  Career Day is on Tuesday, January 28th at St. Joe's. If any parents are interested in talking to our 2nd grade class about your jobs, please let me know. We're hoping to have some parents describe their work and give the class an idea of what you do in an average day. You can plan on talking to the class for about 15 minutes and then taking questions for about 5 minutes. We can work around your schedule - just let me know via e-mail or a note sent to school.

Thanks for your help!

It's GREAT to be back!

Everyone is back safe, sound, and happy! I loved hearing the vacation stories - it sounds like everyone had a wonderful break. We're ready to learn and we had a good start to the year.

A reminder - if you haven't had a chance to send in your $10 for the classroom basket, please do so tomorrow.

There are no spelling words this week because of the short week. We'll have a new list next Monday.

Today in Social Studies we learned about immigration and started a family tree. This is a good time to talk about grandparents and great-grand parents at home. Everyone has a history! In Math, we're starting double digit addition. We'll spend a few days on that. Tomorrow we'll talk about New Year's resolutions, and we'll be writing all about them. In Language Arts we're reviewing adjectives, and we'll get to pick 5 or 6 adjectives that describe us. In Religion, we are starting our "We Can Choose What Is Good" unit, and we'll be practicing for our January 21st parent mass & breakfast. In Science, we're finishing up our unit on living and living living things.

I missed everyone over break and it's so good to have them back!