Field Trip to Vermont International Festival

The second grade class had an amazing time at the Vermont International Festival! Here are some pictures of performances, jewelry, artwork, and other artifacts that were made and sold there during our trip.

Winter Wonderland (Weekly Update)

Hello Second Grade Families,

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.  The class has had quite a busy start to our week, both academically and also weather wise.  I hope families were able to travel safely with the snow with the two hour delay.  The kids loved recess today-it was perfect snow for building snowmen!

Event Reminders:

·       The second grade students created their gingerbread creations with Mrs. Krom yesterday (Monday).  These go on display during the Annual Gingerbread House Festival which I believe is this Saturday, December 1^st.

·       We have our field trip to the Vermont International Festival this Friday.  I have everyone’s permission forms and money!  Thank you to everyone for getting those in.

·       Next week, Thursday December 6^th is the Winter Concert, which will start at 6:30 pm.

·       Next Week, Friday December 7^th is when report cards go home in blue folders.  There will also be a guide to help explain the new report card grading system.

·       We have a box in our room for students to donate apple sauce.  If families can support this cause, please buy and bring in apple sauce cups.  We cannot take jars because we are dividing these up to go to people in need.  Thank you so much!

·       The last day of school before the December break is Friday, December 21^st.

There are 3 groups of spelling words this week. Some students are working on ea, ay, ey, and ei words that have LONG A sound.

great, steak, break, play, tray, sway, stay, hay, hey, they, obey, prey, vien, freight, sleigh, weigh, and eight.

Some students are working on words that have ick, ack, uck, and ock.

Kick, tick, sick, pick, chick, truck, duck, tuck, back, sack, pack, black, and tack.

Some students are working on identifying words that have blends of fl, fr, dr, and cr.

The class has been working in partners to create slide show presentations of their butterfly designs and prototypes that they made in the fall.  They will be presenting these very soon to other classes. 

The class has also been learning about EROSION in science.  Please ask your child what this means.  They should be able to tell that “water travels from high points to low points.  Rivers carry large rocks (that get broken into tiny pieces) and soil down from mountain tops and into the lower regions of land or to the ocean.”

Reading groups have been going well, and the students have been getting used to transitioning to different classes and teachers for this small group instruction.

The students have been doing a wonderful job on their formation and sequencing during their narrative writing time.  The students are in the process of writing a Thanksgiving Narrative this week.

The second grade class will be able to skype with Micah (our traveler from India) two more times before winter break.  We have been enjoying learning about the Indian customs, traditions, and daily life during social studies.

In math students are continuing to practice forward counting, backwards counting, skip counting by 2’s 3’s 5’s 10’s 100’s from any number, telling time, adding double digit numbers, using number lines to solve problems, learning place value, and learning coin value when working with money.

I hope everyone has a great night and if there are any questions please feel free to email me.

Sincerely,

Ms. Mac

Interesting Insects

The Growing Change students from Dartmouth College taught their last lesson about insects to our second grade class.  We were sad to see them go, however we will work with Growing Change again in the spring. 

Weekly Update

Hello Second grade families,

I hope everyone had a fun and restful weekend after the Halloween festivities.  I had a wonderful time talking with each family during parent conferences last week, and I am very appreciative of the time that parents dedicated in order to meet with me. 

JUST SOME REMINDERS FOR THE UPCOMING HOLIDAYS:

Next Monday (November 12^th) there will be no school for Veterans Day.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of the following week (November 21^st, 22^nd, and 23^rd) is our Thanksgiving break, so there is no school on those days as well.

The students are going to start their WIN reading groups this week.  These reading groups will go from now until the end of the year. Throughout the year, the grouping may change as skill development progresses. WIN is a mix of 2^nd and 3^rd grade.  These are just the second graders in my class in the groupings. I have not added the other students in the third grade classes or the other second grade class in this listing.  Here are the groups in no order whatsoever.

Mrs. Shepard

Ethan

Sophie

Beatrix

Malia

Mrs. Poissant and Mrs. Tierney

Shane

TJ

Keegan

Mrs. Wood

Christina

Emily

Mrs. Underwood

Loren

Ms. Mac

Payton

Mrs. Laramie

Kaiden

Bella

Mrs. Thorburn

Connor

Kellin

The spelling words this week focus on long U. The words have a spelling of either: U-silent e, ew, and ui.

Mule

Dune

Tune

Flute

Rude

Use

Dew

Knew

New

Drew

Stew

Chew

Cruise

Bruise

Fruit

Juice

Suit

The picture sorts are focused on words that are starting with letters V, Y and Z.

Vest

Vase

Vine

Violin

Van

Yoyo

Yogurt

Yawn

Yoke

Yard

Yarn

Yell

Zoo

Zebra

Zap

Zero

Zip

This week the students are going to incorporate their writing skills by writing letters that will be going to New York City and Washington D.C.  The students will be explaining why the Reach the World program is a great tool and resource to help schools learn about different countries, landscapes, animals, and cultures that we cannot immerse ourselves in, living in the United States.  The class started their letters today and did a fantastic job with the introduction.

On Friday, the students will get to have a video conference with Micah-our traveler from AZ who is in India right now.  The kids are excited and eager for our first video meeting with him, and have lots of questions for him.

The class will also have the Dartmouth students coming in to teach a plant life-cycle, water cycle, and composting lesson in the afternoon. 

In math the students are continuing to practice:

-addition and subtraction equations from 0-30

-double digit equations using number lines

- Perimeter

-telling time (hours and minutes)

-Place Value

-Coin Value

-making groups of 100

-skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, 10’s, and 100’s

I hope everyone has a great night and week.   Feel free to email back if there are any questions about our schedule or events this week.

Sincerely,

Ms. Mac

Happy Halloween!

In celebration of Halloween, the class was learning about some of the biggest spiders in the world from the lessons of Mystery Doug and Mystery Science. In the pictures below, you can see how the students created spiders walking up a "water spout". Our second graders also learned about the number of bones we have in our hands.  We took part in creating a nice window reflection of our hand and wrist bones, using oil and crayons.