SPRING HAS ARRIVED!

Thank you to everyone for making our "International Day" a huge success! The children presented their travel journals, research, and artifacts while sampling recipes from around the world. We tried a delicious sun-dried tapas dip from Spain, vegamite sandwiches from Australia, Israeli chocolates, Egyptian baklava, healthy Greek salad, and so much more! There was so much, in fact, that we shared all the dishes with the teaching staff! The class especially enjoyed celebrating Austin's birthday by breaking a pinata (He had research the country of Mexico). SHHHHHHHH! WE ARE WORKING ON A MOTHERS' DAY SURPRISE! Although it is top secret, we know everyone will love the special handcrafted gift their child is creating. I have purchased all of the materials. However, If you have not already, please be sure to send $6 with your child to class to cover the processing and shipping fee. THE WEEK OF APRIL 14TH ALL 2ND GRADE STUDENTS WILL TAKE THE IOWA ACHIEVEMENT TESTS. Please be sure that your child has a good night's sleep, a healthy breakfast, and is at school on time. We really want to shine! April 15th is a 90 minute delayed start! April 18th Interim Reports go home. April 22nd is the 1st/2nd Grade Choir Concert (7:00 at the High School)

Busy Monkeys!

As the second trimester comes to an end, we are spending a great deal of time on reviewing the essential parts of any story: setting, characters, beginning, middle, and ending. Children will re-tell stories that they read, giving supporting details (orally and written). We continue learning about our community through Junior Achievement. Erica's mom has taught us so much about assembly and production, goods and services! We even pretended to manufacture doughnuts! Unit 9 Mathematics focusses on measurement. We revisit some of the standard units of measurement taught in1st grade, adding larger standard units such as yards, meters, miles, and kilometers. We just finished a unit on fractions, and are beginning to apply these newly learned skills as we measure fractional units of length. We are calculating the perimeter and area of a given space. An easy way for them to differentiate between the 2 concepts is to think of perimeter as a fence and area as everything inside the fence. EVERYONE SHOULD BE VERY SOLID WITH THEIR ADDITION MATH FACTS! WE WILL BE MOVING ON TO SUBTRACTION TIMED TESTS! PLEASE CONTINUE TO REVIEW WITH YOUR CHILD AT HOME. YOU CAN'T IMAGINE WHAT A DIFFERENCE THE CONTINUED PRACTICE MAKES! In Science, we are discussing SOUND, HEAT, and LIGHT. The children have experimented with making sounds (vibrations) by striking, blowing, and plucking objects. Conferences are scheduled for Thursday, February 21st and Tuesday, February 26th. If you have not yet turned in a request for a conference, please do so. If you would NOT like to meet, please just send a note saying this.

SO MANY THINGS HAPPENING IN JANUARY!

2008 is off to a very busy start! I have sent home a calendar to help everyone keep track of deadlines, fun events, delays, etc. Scholastic Book orders are due this Friday, January 11th. Monday, January 14th, is a P.T.O. Skate Party. Tuesday, January 15, is a delayed start. Famous American reports are due on January 25th. Also on 1/25 is the P.T.O. Family Fun Night. Last week,each child received the name of the famous American they must research. We will have discussed each of these individuals together as a class prior to the due date (January 25th) of the written reports. Students may use library books, the internet, or books they have at home to complete their report. PLEASE DO NOT HELP WITH THE WRITNG OF THE REPORT. It must be approximately one notebook page long. This assignment is an assessment of both Social Studies and Language Arts/Writing skills. All students have been given 3 weeks to complete their reports. Therefore, NO LATE REPORTS WILL BE ACCEPTED. If your child is having difficulty finding additional information about their famous American, please contact me. I'm happy to give them a helping hand.

Week of December 17-21st

Please make sure your child is reviewing math facts DAILY! By spending only 5 minutes a day, he/she will improve speed and accuracy! We have been having weekly timed tests. If your student is unable to complete the page (accurately), he/she is not staying on grade level. Please, please make this part of your evening routine. This week in Language Arts we are wrapping up Unit 3 "Around Town". This is an opportunity to review all the different strategies used for becoming fluent readers: clarify/monitor, summarize, infer, compare/contrast, and predict. We continue writing every morning in our writing journals. The children enjoyed practicing their persuasive writing! Each student was to convince their family to purchase the ultimate holiday gift, an elephant! These children can be very, very persuasive! The stories and rationalization are hysterical! Please be sure your child shares his written argument with you. This week's spelling words are: write, of, do, to, time, went, myself, what, name, too, little, been, right, thought, cannot, pretty, very, knew, new, coming, getting. They are high frequency words that we often misspell. As usual, the practice test is on Wednesday. The real test is on Friday. Unit 6 Math test will take place on Wednesday afternoon. We will be spending Monday & Tuesday reviewing. In Social Studies we continue learning about famous Americans. Your child can tell you many interesting things about Rachel Carson, Dr.charles Drew, George Washington Carver, Thomas Edison, and Harriet Tubman. We'll be learning about so many others! Remember, materials for our "Bottle People" project must be at school by January 2nd, when we return from break. If you would prefer that I purchase materials for you, please send $6 in an envelope with your child's name on it BY FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21ST.

OUR FIRST "MONKEY IN THE BARREL" REWARD TOOK PLACE THURSDAY! Be sure to ask your little monkey what he/she earned.