Week of June 1

My daughter’s wedding, and all of the family festivities in California were so beautiful and meaningful! I did, however, think of my students when I saw fascinating cloud formations and rainbows, which I wished I could show them as part of our recent weather unit!

Wow, the last week of second grade is here!!! Graded papers and your child’s “Second Grade Big Book” will be coming home throughout this week. Meanwhile, we’re finishing up the capital cursive letters! The math books & spelling books will come home with extra pages to work on for those “rainy days” of summer when your child has “nothing to do”.

Please keep those registration forms coming in for Longfellow’s Super Summer Math! Plan to also join the “Be Creative”” summer library reading program, 6/5 – 8/7! I strongly encourage all of my students to plan a weekly visit to the library, to participate in both of these programs, which combine fun with great incentives to keep reading and math skills fresh & active!

Dates to remember
* This evening: Longfellow’s end-of-the year picnic, 5:30 – 7:30. (If I hadn’t just been gone for 9 days, I’d be there!)
* Thursday, June 4: Our end-of-the-year 2nd grade picnic –see the back for more details
* Friday, 8 – 9 AM: the last hour of 2nd grade; final report card comes home

Thank you, parents and guardians, for the fine ways you have supported your children’s learning, and for the enriching ways you have contributed to our classroom this year. I wish you and your family a relaxing, renewing summer, filled with education outside of the classroom: at museums, in nature, in the kitchen, on the road to wherever, and of course at Maze Library for Super Summer Math, and the “Be Creative” reading program!
fondly, Ms. Lambshead

2nd Grade End of the Year Family Picnic!

Who: All 2nd grade students – families are welcome also

When: Thursday, June 4, 9:30 – 1:00
(leave school at approximately 9:00 AM; return at approximately 1:30 PM – check with your child’s teacher for specific details for your class)

Where: Fox Park, corner of Oak Park Ave. and Jackson Blvd.

Transportation: We will walk to the park

Activities: Kickball, playground equipment, fountain pool, slip-n-slide, group games

What to bring: Lunch in a disposable container
Optional:
Swim suit for water activities
(Please wear your suit under our clothes)
Equipment for outdoor activities
(You must be able to carry whatever you bring)

All activities are contingent on the weather.

Week of May 26

I hope everyone enjoyed the long Memorial Day weekend. I’m sorry I’m not here with the students this week, but gee, when my family planned a b’day celebration for me, how could I say “No”??!! And the students are in good hands w/ Mrs. Holt! I have not planned much homework for this week, but parents, please encourage your child to stay focused & work hard during school hours! And please find and return all library books—they’re due on Thursday!!

Our Dinosaur research is complete!! Each child read his/her report to the class, the students’ writing and artwork is now hanging in the hallway outside our room (thanks to Mrs. Warren), and it’s on the internet!! The link to the dino reports is right next to the newsletter! (Do you remember how to find my newsletter online?? Go to Longfellow’s homepage, then to staff, then to second grade, find my picture & click on web.) I am sorry I didn’t get these wonderful big projects graded and back to you before I left.

Last Wednesday, Mrs. Pearce had a special time with the 2nd grade classes. Due to technical difficulties, they ran out of time watching the DVD 5 Children and It. This movie relates to our courage unit. See if your child wants to check it out from the OP library to see the end.

Please keep those registration forms coming in for Super Summer Math! Plan to also join the “Be Creative”” summer library reading program, 6/5 – 8/7!

We’re finishing up our Reading Unit, spending time reviewing all 7 stories we’ve quickly read. In math we’re doing some probability (ask your child what the base word of that is!) and measurement (inches, cm, yards, weight (mainly in pounds) and perimeter.

May book reports are due any day this week; cursive papers are due the next morning.

Dates to remember
Thursday – All library books due!!
Larks’ concert at noon & 7 PM
vocabulary test on words from our “Our Country & its People” reading unit
Friday – Math measuring test,
Social studies test on Unit 3, “Ways of Living” (orange vocabulary words sent home a week ago)
Thursday, June 4 - Our end-of-the-year 2nd grade picnic at Fox Park (Jackson & Oak Park Ave) from 9 – 1:30. Parents & younger sibs are welcome to join us. A chaperone or 2 is helpful as we’ll walk to & from the park. You’re welcome to bring playground equipment to share, and if it’s a hot day, wear a bathing suit under your clothes.

Note – the next newsletter to come home will be next Tuesday, as my return flight was rescheduled & I won’t be back in town until the wee hours of Monday, 6/1.

Week of May 11

The students are continuing to do some very fine writing! Apparently not all the Mother’s Day letters made it home for you for yesterday, but you should get it today. We are moving along well in the computer lab typing our dinosaur research papers now, as well as continuing to edit & finish some of the paragraphs!

Our Reading & Social Studies We’re learning about immigration with various stories, including “Butterfly Seeds” in our reading book. Does your family have an immigration story you can share with the class? Is there anyone with an ancestor who came through Ellis Island, like the main character, Jake, in our story? This week’s vocabulary words are: tossed, passengers, inspectors, alley, vendor. This week’s spelling words have the suffixes, -less, -ful.

Math Most students are doing very well on the 2-digit addition, having “graduated” to 3-digit for tomorrow’s 10-minute quiz!! Next week the quiz will be on 2-digit subtraction.
Fractions—notice all the fractions you use in everyday life. Following a recipe is a great way to use them! Fractions are used for parts of a whole (eg pizza) or parts of a group (eg. The # correct in a spelling test). The important thing to remember in fractions is that the bottom number tells the number of equal parts! We will also learn about equivalent fractions (ie. 2/4 = ½).

Weather In addition to recording & graphing the temperatures, this week we’re learning about wind and clouds.

Homework: do cursive & homelinks the night you get them
Tomorrow: 2-digit (or 3-digit) addition quiz
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook, pages 126-129 (suffixes)
Friday: spelling, vocabulary & reading tests
Next Monday: story map (plan for your May book report! – ask for a nonfiction form if needed)

Extras:
* Warm weather is on the way—keeping a water bottle in the classroom with your name on it is healthy!
* Our class helped the CROP Walkers by contributing $73.48. Thank you to all who contributed!
* Dinosaurs! To further enhance your child’s understanding of dinosaurs, visit Brookfield Zoo’s special dino traveling exhibit, here through 10/31; and/or go to the excellent permanent exhibit at the Field Museum.
* On Friday we’ll cheer on Aidan, Sophie, Kevin & Elise at the school Spelling Bee!
* Friday, 5/22 is Olympic Day. Volunteers are welcome for this worthwhile day.
* Our end-of-the-year 2nd grade picnic will be on Thursday, June 4 at Fox Park (Jackson & Oak Park Ave, from 9 – 1:30. Parents & younger sibs are welcome to join us. A chaperone or 2 is helpful as we’ll walk to & from the park.

Week of May 4

The students were so captivated by the interesting things they saw and heard during our Naper Settlement field trip, I barely heard any complaints about the soggy weather! The docents at each of the sites of this “living museum” did such a great “show & tell” using authentic artifacts. Ask your child why capital letters are also called “upper case”! Not surprisingly, the schoolhouse was the biggest hit. Then on our Pioneer Day, Friday, what great creativity went into students’ outfits & authentic pioneer-type lunches!! We cancelled last Friday’s reading test so we could focus on writing about what we learned at Naper Settlement.

We are doing a lot of writing this week! We’re all busy writing & editing our various paragraphs of our dinosaur research papers. We are also doing creative writing based on what we learned during our study of pioneers. Each student is making up a story or a pretend letter written by a fictious pioneer that incorporates many of the facts learned during our pioneer study and Naper Settlement field trip.

Our Country & its People—the theme of our reading! Thank you to Mariama & Marin who have brought in pictures of ancestors and stories about their countries & culture – who else has some ancestral heritage to share with us?? This week we’re reading, and will be tested on, “The Story of the Statue of Liberty”, an interesting & informative piece of nonfiction. The vocabulary words to learn are: ferry, monument, independence, voyage, harbor. This week’s spelling words all contain the prefix un- or re-: redo, retake, rename, retry, retest, uneven, unpack, unlock, unroll, unsure.

Math Having hit the important lessons of Unit 7, we are now in Unit 8: Fractions. Review & keep the EDM newsletter on this unit for easy reference during our study. The important thing to remember in fractions is that the bottom number tells the number of equal parts!

Weather In addition to recording & graphing the temperatures, this week we’re learning about wind.

Book Reports It was wonderful having so many informative book reports, based on the nonfiction books you’ve been reading! Our final book report is due the week of May 26. Start thinking now what book you will read for it.

Homework
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook, pages 122-125 (prefixes)
Friday: spelling, vocabulary & reading tests;

This week is Health & Fitness Week – see how many things you can participate in this week, especially the Fun Run at 8 AM on Saturday!
Tue: Wear red & bring a healthy snack for Healthy Heart Day
Wed: Wear gym shoes, for ACES
Thurs: sports hat day
Fri: bring a vegetable for a snack

CROP Walk—let’s help the 3rd graders reach their goal of raising $2009. for CROP, to help hungry people locally & world-wide! (This is the last school-sponsored fund-raiser of the year; you have been very generous for all our previous food drives, Kindness Market, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. I hope our class can raise at least $80. For CROP, which is our “share” of helping reach this goal.)

Week of April 27

Research We are moving along well on our research; again, thank you to the parents who are able to come in and provide such valuable support to individual students for this challenging activity! This week I am editing Some students have finished writing the first paragraph on the topic of “body recognition” and edited with me; they are now ready to write about their dinosaur’s habitat & behavior. Other students are finishing note-taking and organizing their facts on index cards.

Our Reading & Social Studies We continue to read historical fiction about the 19th century – pioneers, and this week about a slave family that was set free, and made a new life for themselves in the North. We didn’t have a reading test last Thursday, but will this Friday, on “A Place Called Freedom”. This week’s vocabulary words, from the story are: fretted, weary, sturdy, plantation, settlement. This week’s spelling words are the –er, -est suffixes used to compare 2 or more things. Pay attention to when changes need to be made in the base word when adding these endings. Regular words: higher, highest, slower, slowest, happier, sillier, bigger, silliest, biggest, happiest.

Math Starting tomorrow is our weekly, 10-minute timed quiz on 30 2-digit addition problems. A student who masters the 2-digit problems will move on to 3-digit problems. Today the students demonstrated good use of the partial-sums algorithm. They also did well on our last math test (coming home either today or tomorrow)! The most challenging thing we’ll do in math this week is work on “doubling” or “halving” a number. We are also continuing to practice mentally adding 2-digit numbers, with various games like “Hit the target”.

Weather Our final science unit is Weather. This week we are observing the weather, recording the temperatures at different times of the day. At week’s end, we will look for patterns, and like good scientists, we’ll look at our data & draw conclusions about spring weather & temperature patterns. We are using math skills in making bar graphs of the temperatures.

Homework
Due any day this week: April Book Reports
Tomorrow: the last day turn in optional book order money
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook, pages 114 – 117 (suffixes indicating comparison)
Thursday: Be ready for Gymnastics and our trip to Naper Settlement. Remember to eat a healthy breakfast, wear appropriate clothing for the weather, and bring a totally disposable drink & lunch.
Friday: spelling, vocabulary & reading tests; Pioneer Day (optional) – wear pioneer-type clothing, bring a lunch that pioneer children might
Saturday– Ethnic Festival at Whittier School – Join the parade! Meet me at the Longfellow Banner at 9:45; we’re in position #8! Come at 2 to the Whittier Auditorium to see/hear Mariama, Audrey, Courtney & Margaret perform!

Next week is Health & Fitness Week, culminating in a Fun Run at 8 AM on Sat, 5/9
Some students were very generous with donating to the Oak Park Food Pantry last week, the class raised over $30.! Now Longfellow’s 3rd graders are hoping to raise $2009. in the CROP Walk to fight world-wide hunger, as well as support our local food pantry.

Week of April 20

Despite the variable temperatures, the lovely spring flowering trees, bushes & bulbs tell us spring is here. That means many extra events will fill our days & evenings as we go zooming towards the end of the school year. Parents, your help is requested to read this newsletter so you can offer your child guidance in completing his/her homework on time, and in being at school on time.

Homework & event calendar
We’re expanding Earth Day to “Earth Week”; Longfellow staff & students are involved in various activities to promote a healthy earth & environment. Join in! Today: wear green; tomorrow: bring a book to exchange with a friend; Wed: pack a zero-waste lunch! Thurs: walk or carpool to school.

Tomorrow:
* the last day to help our class & school support the Feinstein food drive for the OP Food Pantry – bring cash &/or non-perishable food or toilet paper.
* PTO hosts a guest speaker to talk about Internet safety—open to all, 7 PM in the auditorium.
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook, pages 110 – 113 (plural form)
Thursday: Gymnastics for the next 3 weeks in PE, so girls need to wear shorts or pants, and have their hair tied back! Also--Reading & spelling tests
Friday: No school for the students, as the teachers will be in meetings all day!

Next week:
April Book Reports are due any day; make your preparation easier by doing your oral report and creative project on the book you used for your recent story map.
Tue, 4/28: Optional Scholastic Book orders & payment due. There are many topics available: humor & poetry; character & compassion themes; colossal nonfiction.
Thurs, 4/30 – bring totally disposable lunch for trip to Naper Settlement
Fri, 5/1 – Pioneer Day in Room 203. Students are invited to wear pioneer-type clothing (dresses or skirts for girls), and to bring a lunch like they would have eaten, in pioneer-type containers.
Sat, 5/2 – Ethnic Festival at Whittier School
Then, the week of May 4 is Health & Fitness Week, culminating in a Fun Run at 8 AM on Sat, 5/9

Research The students are working hard learning about their own dinosaur. Last week we practiced measuring (& skip counting) as each student drew a line on the blacktop as long as his/her dinosaur. The range was from 18 inches to 90 feet!! This week we continue writing facts on note-cards, filing the cards in the appropriate category (body recognition, habitat & survival (including diet & predators). Tomorrow we will learn how to organize our cards about the dinosaur’s body and then how to use the cards to write a paragraph describing our dinosaur. Thank you to the extra help we’ve received from parent helpers: Aileen Gomez-Torrez, Meg Lewis, Ruth Schoenmeyer, and Andrea Warren.

Our Reading & Social Studies this week and next focuses on the Pioneer Movement. We’ll read “New Hope”, historical fiction about a Danish immigrant family moving to the northern plains, and having the town of “New Hope” grow up in the place where they settle. We will also read a true story of an African-American family after the Civil War who moves west to settle on the free land in Missouri. This is wonderful preparation for next week’s field trip to Naper Settlement, where we’ll see a covered wagon, a log cabin, and then different stages of the settlement of Naperville through the 19th and into the 20th century.
Reading vocabulary: recycling, ferried, brisk, bustling, invitation, citizens.

Math
Starting next Tuesday we will have a weekly,10-minute timed quiz on 30 2-digit addition problems. A student who masters the 2-digit problems will move on to 3-digit problems. This is to encourage automatic recall of the basic addition facts as well as practice of the “partial sums algorithm” (see re-print on the back).
Today we begin Unit 7, Patterns and Rules. We will practice skills and concepts we have already learned, and extend them into more complex situations. The 3 themes are number patterns, computation and data analysis. We should be able to move quickly through this unit.

Week of April 13

Thank you for getting to school on time! Our research is off to a fine start. The students have found internet sources for the dinosaur they are each researching; today we filled out a simplified bibliography form, and learned how to take notes. Tomorrow starts the individual research; this is when parent volunteers are especially valuable, helping kids sound out the big words they read, and to think about which facts they read should be included on note cards (see schedule below).

We start our final unit in Open Court reading today: Our Country and Its People; this includes history and the various waves of immigrants. Throughout this unit, students are invited to bring to school anything related to their ancestry, when their ancestors came to this country, and from where; these things will be mounted on our Concept/Question board. This unit coordinates well with our social studies reading of history & cultures. This week’s story starts at the beginning of our country’s history, “The First Americans”. The vocabulary words to know are: warrior, tundra, herd, cleared, wampum. Our spelling words this week are all past tense verbs.

In math we are finishing up Unit 6 on: trade-first subtraction; our introduction to multiplication & division; and using charts to help us sort out information from story problems. Our test will be Fri.

Homework
Daily: As part of Longfellow’s “Non-fiction Book Week”, read a non-fiction book for your story map; do cursive, remembering to trace, & home links the night they come home.
Library books can be returned as soon as you’re ready; choose a new one during our Research time
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook, pages 106-109.
Due Thursday: study guide for Math test
For Friday: Math, as well as the regular spelling, reading & vocabulary tests;
Due next Monday: Story map on a non-fiction book

Coming:
This Thursday, 4/16: excellent seminar for Parents: Setting Healthy Boundaries with your Child, 6 – 8 PM (dinner & childcare also provided)
Naper Settlement Field Trip on 4/30—thanks to all who have sent in their $10 with the permission slip

Parents who can volunteer to assist in our research, here’s our schedule:
Monday & Tuesday: 8:10 – 9:10
Wednesday: 11:30 – 12:30
Thursday: 12:20 – 1:20
Friday: 1:10 – 2

School News
* Welcome, to our new school secretary, Mrs. Taylor, who was an active parent volunteer during the years when she had children at Longfellow School!
* Our school library catalog is now online. To view it, go to the district webpage http://www.op97.org. On the right side of the page, under Students, you will see K-5 Resources. Click this. You will then see a link to the library catalogs of all the schools. Click on this, then on Longfellow.
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More from Room 203, Ms. Lambshead’s Second Grade Class

* Thanks to Longfellow’s Green Committee, we have some fabulous plans for next week!

Monday, 4/20 Wear green
Tuesday, 4/21 Book exchange day - bring a book you are done with to trade with another student (for keeps.) Whoever brings a book can participate. Teachers, if you'd like to combine with other homerooms for greater selection, that's up to you. If students want to bring a few extra books so others without books can participate, again it's up to your discretion.
Wednesday, 4/22 Zero Waste Day in the lunchroom
Thursday, 4/23 Walk or carpool to school

* Remember the Feinstein Challenge from last week’s Thursday Packet??
Longfellow has taken the challenge, and is eager to help raise funds and gather food for the Oak Park Food Pantry. All students are invited to bring in any non-perishable food, toilet paper, or cash, to donate to the Food Pantry, between now & Next Tuesday, April 21. Let’s see what our class can do!