Week of June 1, 2010

To my dear students and their families… What great children you have! It has been a treat getting to know your wonderful children and you. I hope to see you around Oak Park in the coming months and years! Keep in touch! Love, Ms. Lambshead
(jlambshead@sbcglobal.net)
Coming home this week:
• math book… to explore/work on when it’s a rainy day
• Logic booklet… have fun finishing the pages we didn’t get to
• “My 2nd Grade Big Book” – your child’s portfolio of special writing
• writing journal & “Let’s Chat” book – more pages to fill this summer with facts & fantasy
• assorted school supplies that have made it through the year

Tomorrow: 2nd grade picnic:
• Please let me know if you can walk with us to & from Fox Park, leaving school about 9, returning about 1:30
• Remember to bring a totally disposable sack lunch; dress for the weather & wear good walking shoes.
• Optional: wear a bathing suit under your clothes, bring playground toys to share, families are welcome to join us

Thursday: Dismissal at 9 AM
• Flip-Flop Day
• if you’d like, bring some finger food for a class breakfast
• report cards come home
• PBIS pool party

Learning outside the classroom…
• Super Summer Math & the Library Summer Reading Program
• Chicago Museums!! A great way to escape the heat & humidity! Some museums have a free day each week. The Chicago Children’s Museum, at Navy Pier (our dino field trip) is free for students on the first Monday of each month, and free for all every Thursday from 5-8 PM.
• When traveling, take in the unique offerings of different places (eg, Dinosaur Park in NW Colorado where you can see fossils in the ground!)

Week of May 24, 2010

Olympic Day was well-run & well-appreciated by students & staff alike – Thanks to Mrs. Patterson and the wonderful parent volunteers! Those students who didn’t get their fill of rock climbing can go climb for free, in River Forest, S. of Lake St at Forest.

Our year together is quickly coming to a close. Tomorrow the students will hear about 2 of the best ways to not lose the reading & math skills gained this year: the Public Library Summer reading program, and Longfellow’s own Super Summer Math. Both are housed at Maze Branch library, so you can make 1 stop there weekly, to get fun incentives for reading and doing math all summer long. I highly recommend participating in these programs!!!

Reading & Social Studies We continue learning about immigration, culture & national traditions. Our stories this week are: “A Piece of Home” about a child having to chose 1 small treasure to bring to America from his home in Russia; and “Jalapeno Bagels” about a boy who the blend of cultures of his parents in choosing what to bring to school on International Day. Our spelling words are homographs, those interesting pairs that have the same spelling but different pronunciations & different meanings. These should be easier to spell than last week’s homophones!

We will do a number of activities in math this week: increasing our skill in measuring with a ruler, finding area & perimeter, estimating measurements, as well as learning about the area of mathematics called probability: using what we know to make predictions. Quiz Fri.

Homework
Daily: Do a cursive page, read for 20 minutes, practice spelling, vocabulary & math skills
Due tomorrow: commitment form for our class talent show (performing is optional)
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook, pages 138-141
For Thursday: final timed test on 100 addition and 100 subtraction basic facts
Friday: Mrs. Kulick Day~~wear green to honor her 34 years of service to Longfellow’s students in the lunchroom! Also… it’s Tie-Dye Day! Be ready for tests & quizes: spelling, social studies, math (measurement to the nearest ½ in. or cm., area, perimeter, probability; with up-date on median, partial sums addition, & trade-first subtraction)
Optional: share about your family’s culture and/or immigration stories with the class

Coming…
Next Monday: Happy Memorial Day—No school!
Next Tuesday, 6/1: our class Talent Show; parents are welcome to join us at 10 in the auditorium
Next Wednesday, 6/2: Walking field trip to 2nd Grade Picnic at Fox Park (see back)—families are welcome to hang out with us, enjoy the park, & help supervise the children.
Next Thursday, 6/3: Last hour of 2nd grade! We’ll have a light breakfast together – I’ll provide juice & paper goods. Students are welcome to bring finger food (fruit, muffins or quick breads) to share. PBIS Pool Party from 9:45-11:45 for all whose permission slips are in now.

Week of May 17, 2010

We’re celebrating our hard work… view our dinosaur writing & artwork online; and come tomorrow at 6 to see & hear about the Village we have constructed & designed; you’ll also get to meet Ms. Greve, our ArtStart artist from the F.L. Wright Education Foundation!
Three ways to access our dinosaur writing:
* Go to the Student section of the Longfellow website, click on Student Projects, then click the Lambshead listing in that index.
* Go to my webpage (via Longfellow→staff→Lambshead) & see link on right
* Go to http://www.op97.org/longfellow/onlineproj/0910/Dinosaurs.html
Congratulations are also in order for our 4 Spelling Bee winners,
and for Kai, the over-all 2nd grade winner!
In both Social Studies & Reading we are learning about immigration, valuing different cultures, and holidays of our country. Learn these vocabulary words for a test on Friday: ferry, monument, independence, voyage, harbor, vendor, passenger, tossed, harmonica inspectors. This week we will read “The Story of the Statue of Liberty”, and “Butterfly Seeds”, a tender story of bringing seeds from “the old country” to feel at home in the new country. Our spelling words are homophones, words that have the same sound but different spellings & meanings (two, sea, rode, road, meet, meat, to, see, piece, fourth).

In Math we’re working to really understand fractions & their equivalencies. See below for computer games we’ll play in school & you can play after school to get ready for Fri’s test.

Homework:
Daily: read for 20 minutes, practice spelling, math facts & vocabulary
For Tomorrow, 6 – 7 PM--Families come to our Open House, to see & celebrate our Young Architects, Builders & Urban Planners !
Due Wednesday: all library books! Spelling workbook, pages 134-137
Due by Thursday: final book report (bring book & creative project, tell a summary)
Due Thursday: order form & payment for End-of-the-Year School Picnic (form attached)
Friday: Sports Day & Olympic Day! In the morning are tests on vocabulary, and fractions & median; dress for an active afternoon having Olympic fun!
Coming: Tue, 6/1: Lambshead class Talent Show (see attached form on blue paper)
Wed, 6/2: All 2nd Grade Field Day & Picnic at Fox Park
Thurs, 6/3: Last day/hour of school. Dismissal at 9; PBIS Celebration at Rehm Pool
Kudos to all who have turned in your Super Summer Math registration!!

Instead of a paper study guide for our fraction test, have fun practicing fractions and equivalencies with these computer fraction games!
• Fraction Flags (http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/fractionflags/fractionflags.html) - Design a flag using halves and quarters
• What Is a Fraction? (http://www.jamit.com.au/htmlFolder/app1001.html)- Game in which you have to identify the fraction pictured and color in a given fraction.
• Pizza Party (http://www.primarygames.com/fractions) - Tell what fraction of the pizza is left

Week Of May 10, 2010

ArtStart! This is the week we build houses and public buildings, using the assortment of boxes I’ve asked you to collect. Our Architecture ArtStart program has enhanced learning in so many ways. For last week’s lego hourses, and this week’s box buildings, we are practicing how to determine the perimeter and area of each. Next week we will be urban planners, and design a community using all of our buildings.

We are at the final stage of our dinosaur research writing process: sharing! The students have done a fantastic job, having had consistent, dedicated support from Kai’s and Julian’s moms!!! Most students did their own typing, and we now we can share our published work in 3 ways: reading aloud to the class, making a class Big Book, publishing on the internet! I hope to have it linked on both my blog as well as the school webpage.

For reading and social studies on the different cultures within our country, this week we read “The First Americans”; this nonfiction work is full of interesting information about the native people of different regions of our country. Vocabulary: wampum, tundra, tepees, warriors. Our spelling words are all prefixes: redo, retake, rename, retry, retest, uneven, unpack, unlock, unroll, unsure.

Math: Our work with fractions continues. The most important concept for the students to master is that the bottom number (denominator) tells the total number of equal parts, and the top number (numerator) is the number of parts we are talking about. Parents, look for real-life situations at home where you use fractions, especially in the kitchen.

Social Studies: We finish our study of Government by studying the national government, democracy, and nations working together around the world. Test on Friday.

Homework
Daily: read for 20 minutes, plan now for your final book report (Kudos to Jane who has already done hers!), do cursive & home link the night they come home; practice spelling, math facts (for mental math quizzes) and vocabulary
Due by Wednesday: 10 or more boxes, no larger than a shoe box; also, Spelling workbook, pages 122-125 (or substitute challenge sentences for 124-125).
For Friday: twin day; be ready for tests: social studies (Government), spelling, reading, vocab.

Coming…
Tue, 5/18, 6-7 PM: Mark your calendar for the special Room 203 Open House, celebrating creation of “Our Town” (note change of date)
Thurs, 5/20: Last day for book reports
Fri, 5/21: Olympic Day! Last day to turn in PBIS Pool Party permission slips.
Wed, 6/2: 2nd Grade End-of-the-Year Picnic at Fox Park
Thurs, 6/3: Last day/hour of school. Dismissal at 9 AM; PBIS Pool Celebration at Rehm Pool from 9:45 – 11:45.

For Parents to do….
* Please call Lori Bradford if you can help spray paint our buildings this Thursday or Friday!
* Please fill out the survey of our PBIS (Positive Behavior Incentive System), either online
(http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MXJWFF5) or, pick up a hard copy in the office, which is due to the office Wednesday morning.
* Also, do your kids like Tasty Dog? My adult kids still do, so I’m treating them to Tasty Dog this Thursday, because Longfellow will receive a percentage of all sales designated as Longfellow friends or families. The district elementary school with the highest participation will also receive $200. Come out and support Longfellow School on this easy, tasty Fundraiser!

My Classroom Blog: http://d97lambshead.blogspot.com/
Digital backpack: http://www.op97.org/longfellow/digitalbackpack/ Mrs. Dolezal’s Blog: http://d97dolezalsdesktop.blogspot.com/ PTO: http://www.longfellow-pto.org

Week of May 3, 2010

Lice are still being found on heads; Check your child’s head frequently, & if still needed, do the lice treatment and buy a $2. narrow-tooth comb at Petco to remove nits!

Congratulations to our classroom spelling bee winners, who will represent us in the 2nd grade Spelling Bee on May 14: Eleanor, Nina, Sydney, and Kai!

The students really enjoyed learning about pioneers last week, and did fine writing about it!! Naper Settlement, with its excellent docents, gave us an authentic experience of life in the 1800s. On Friday, those bringing a “pioneer lunch” had a terrific conversation about the different items in the lunches, ie, what parts a pioneer would have grown or made or bought. They really did some great thinking!

We will read another story about an African-American pioneer family this week, “A Place called Freedom”. The vocabulary words are: plantation, fretted, settlement, sturdy, weary. Our spelling words are all compound words: maybe, inside, bedroom, lunchroom, myself, nobody, sunrise, himself, railroad, everyone.

We are reviewing math Unit 7, and will have our test on Wednesday. Skills include: using complements of 10 to do mental addition; number-grid puzzles; counting by 2s, 5s, 10s and describing the pattern; measuring length (cm/in); plotting data on a bar graph; finding the median. Then we’ll start Unit 8 on Fractions (parent letter is attached.)

The students have done a fabulous job researching “their” dinosaur, and writing 3 paragraphs describing it. Today we wrote a generic group introductory paragraph. Now that the editing is complete, we’re hard-at-work typing on the computers, trying to finish by the end of the week. We’ll produce a class big-book (ie, Dinosaur Encyclopedia!), and I hope to mount their work on the internet as well.

In ArtStart this week we make Lego houses, next week is each student constructing a house or building out of boxes. Please let me know if your schedule enables you to help us out both Wednesdays (5/5 & 5/12) from 12:30 – 1:45.
Homework: It’s Fitness Week!
Daily: read for 20 minutes; study basic math facts for Mental Math quizzes; cursive.
Due Wed: Math test, Spelling workbook, pages 130-33 (& wear sweats for ACES).
Thursday: 6:30 – 7:30 PM, Come to Family Math Night at Longfellow;
Friday: spelling test; PJ day
Saturday: Fun Run at Lindberg Park
Due next week: at least 10 boxes here by Wed, 5/12, to make your Art Start building; Book Report due date has been pushed back to Thurs, 5/20,
All parents: let your voice be heard, and fill our Longfellow’s SIT parent survey sometime this week: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MXJWFF5

Week of April 26, 2010

Our 2 main themes this week: Pioneers (reading & social studies), and Dinosaurs (research, writing, science art).

Pioneers: We will read Wagon Wheels, based on a true story of an African American pioneer family, and “New Hope” historical fiction by a Dane, about a Danish pioneer family (& probably based on some of his own family history). “New Hope” is part of our final reading unit: “Our Country and Its People”. Learn to use these vocabulary words: ferried, recycling, brisk, invitation, citizens, bustling. Our field trip on Thursday to Naper Settlement will enable us to walk through history, noting the sequence of pioneer life, from the covered wagon, to a log cabin, to a community with a one-room schoolhouse, blacksmith shop & post office, to an elegant mansion. Each year, the students’ favorite site is the schoolhouse, and they want to have a pioneer school day. So that’s what we’ll do (as much as possible) on Friday. (See Homework section below.)

Math: We will explore the use of numbers and measurements in more real-life situations—arm spans, long jumps, weighing things. We will also collect & organize our data to find the median (middle value). We’ll finish up and review this unit early next week, then move on to Fractions.

Homework
Daily: read for 20 minutes (Have you chosen the book you’ll do your final book report on?); study those basic math facts for our Mon/Wed/Fri Mental Math quizzes, carefully practice cursive.
For tomorrow: rescheduled vocabulary test on courage words
Due Wed: Spelling workbook, pages 126-9.
Thursday: Naper Settlement Field trip – mostly outdoors – dress for walking & the weather!! Bring your lunch & drink (ecological lunchboxes are welcome!)
Friday: spelling test; no reading or vocabulary test. Optional Pioneer Day! pack lunch that pioneers would have eaten; see if you can bring it to school in pioneer packaging (ie, no plastic!); girls wear skirts or dresses & bring “hand-work” to school to do at recess time.
Saturday, 10 – 3:30: Ethnic Fest at Whittier School, starting with the Parade; come and go as you your schedule permits.
Due next Monday: final Story Map (4 total due since spring vacation).
Thursday, May 6, 6:30 – 7:30 PM: Come to Math Night at Longfellow; see digital backpack for more info. The class with largest % turnout wins a prize

Wonderful causes, worthy of your donations:
* Oak Park Education Foundation (funds our ArtStart program)
* Help third grade meet their goal of $2010. Tax-ded. checks can be written to CROP/CWS.
* Longfellow’s technology fund-raiser: candy sale.

Week of April 19,2010

News from Ms. Lambshead’s Second Grade Class
Week of April 19

I know of 2 students from our classroom who found head lice last week. Please check your child’s scalp today, especially above the ears & in the back at the neckline. Do not send your child to school until fully treated, because spreading lice to someone else means you may get it again yourself! Attached is a letter from Nurse Pam, with excellent instructions for each family affected.

The students are learning so well in so many areas!
~~ Learning architectural features from our Art Start artist, Ms. Greve! Has your child told you or showed you some of the architectural features s/he learned?
~~ Excellent work on last week’s math test (attached)– most mistakes were careless.
~~ Our research is moving along well, as we use our note cards to organize & write paragraphs describing the dinosaur, then describing its habitat.
~~ Spelling unfamiliar words well in our classroom Spell-off, to see who would represent us at the 2nd grade Spelling Bee on Fri, 5/14. Our winners are: Sydney, Kai, Nina & Eleanor!

This 4-day week is packed full!
~It’s Earth Week at Longfellow (see schedule below in italics); we’ll celebrate Earth Day on Thursday with a daytime assembly and then Family Reading Night! Think of our environment and walk or carpool to school; bring in gently used books to exchange at the Family Reading Night!
~With ArtStart we build with Froebel Blocks, as Frank Lloyd Wright did (Tuesday); then on Thursday we’ll tour his famous home and studio, see other home he designed, and compare them with Victorian homes.

Language Arts We will review our Courage stories, and then take the series of Unit tests. Therefore, we will not have our regular spelling or reading tests. As time allows, we’ll begin our next unit on “Our Country and Its People” by reading a few non-fiction selections, one on Native Americans (“The First Americans”, an appropriate selection for Earth Week, since the Native Americans showed so much respect for nature & the environment.) and one about an African-American Pioneer family (Wagon Wheels).

Today’s math lesson will include measurement of your child’s dinosaur. See if s/he can describe its size to you, as well as tell you how many feet long it is! We are also extending our learning of “complements of 10” and doubles, and measuring.

In Social Studies we’re reading about Laws & Leaders, and solving conflicts.




Homework:
What book are you thinking of using for your final book report?
Have you begun collecting boxes for your ArtStart building (on 5/12)?
Daily: read for 20 minutes; practice cursive, math facts, home link
Optional: Think about the architectural features Ms Greve taught us; think about the geometric shapes you know, and draw the front “elevation” of your house or apartment.
Today: Last day to turn in Spring picture orders!
For tomorrow: wear blue to show the power of recycling; preferred deadline for bringing in books to swap.
Due Wednesday: Pack a lunch with reusable containers
For Thursday: Courage Vocabulary test. Wear walking shoes & dress for the weather for our FLW field trip; Come to Family Reading Night, 6:30 -7:30, with your book exchange coupon to get “new” books to enjoy!
Friday: NO SCHOOL! Enjoy learning outside of school!!
Due next Monday: story map

Coming:
~~next Thursday, 4/29: all-day field trip to see pioneer life at Naper Settlement
~~Friday, April 30: Pioneer Day in Room 203 (optional: dress like a pioneer, bring a pioneer lunch, in pioneer containers/wrapping.)
~~Saturday, May 1: The Ethnic Fest—take a trip around the world at Whittier School (Harvey & Augusta! Join Longfellow friends walking in the Parade at 10; throughout the day enjoy great music, dance and food from many cultures. Hang out with friends in the sunshine!
~~Saturday, May 8: Fun Run for kids at all the schools, at Lindberg Park (on Marion at LeMoyne Parkway). Check out the Longfellow website for a sign up form, for this free, fun event!

Donate to:
CROP: to help 3rd grader walkers raise funds for hungry folk near & far.
The Feinstein Challenge: The Student Council is also collecting money & non-perishable food for the OPRF Food Pantry because Mr. Alan Shaw Feinstein will match all donations.
The PTO to support updating Longfellow’s computer technology (or buy at the candy sale.
Trade: bring in gently used books so you can get “reused” books on 4/22
Bring: in a water bottle with your name on it (April’s theme of hydration. Nourish to Flourish also emphasizes handwashing & wearing a bike helmet.)

Keep up-to-date on all of this and more by using the school & district digital backpack! (See Longfellow’s homepage.)

Can you help supervise our ArtStart building? If so, please let me know!
~~Lego houses on 5/5 at 12:30
~~Cardboard houses & public buildings on 5/12 at 12:30

Week of April 12, 2010

It’s TV Tune-out week! (check out: http://tvtuneoutweek.wordpress.com/)

Coming home this week: Social Studies vocabulary cards & “Math Grid” (your child’s answers to a quick quiz on the next set of math facts your child needs to memorize. Each student works at his/her own level, and has 5 seconds to correctly write the answer. I dictate the same number—they add it, subtract or multiply it according to the number inside the circle!)

Social Studies If your child told you s/he got to meet the President last week, it was the truth! Village President Pope spent about 15 minutes with us during our interesting tour of Village Hall. In fact, I’ll post the photo Ruby’s dad took online as soon as I can! With interest piqued in government, the class decided to vote for our own president. Kai was elected for a 2-week term! This week’s lessons focus on laws and leaders.

Language Arts We had a great time reading & discussing “Hole in the Dike” last week; then took a break from taking the Friday test. This week’s story takes us to a contemporary Native American reservation; the problem in the story is a boy’s fear of being in the school spelling bee. This is another very relevant story, as in a month we’ll have a 2nd grade spelling bee here! Vocabulary words to know: reservation, dread, qualified, gymnasium, swirling. The spelling words all have the comparative/superlative suffixes er, -est. Think & remember the rules for changing the y to i, or doubling the final consonant!
The students are doing a great job on research! With the encouragement of our parent helpers, they are now beginning the writing of their expository paper!

Our Unit 6 math test is tomorrow, then we move onto “Patterns & Rules” as we extend our learning into 3-digits. Keep the “Family letter” handy for easy reference at home.


Homework:
Daily: read for 20 minutes (aloud!??); practice cursive, math facts, home link
For tomorrow: be ready for Unit 6 math test (we reviewed the study guide today)
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook, pages 114-117 (or substitute 5 challenge sentences for pgs 116-117). If you did not spell your dinosaur’s name correctly on Friday, write it correctly 10 times in the margin on page 117;
For Friday: “Blast from the Past” Day; Naper Settlement field trip $ and permission due; Get ready for the Ethnic Festival by turning in your t-shirt order today!
Spelling, reading & vocabulary tests!
Due next Monday: story map


Lots is coming this month!
~~Thursday, Apr. 22 is Earth Day & also a morning assembly, afternoon field trip to tour the FLW Home & Studio. Then it’s Longfellow Reading Night: Read, Recycle, Recite! 6:30–7:30 PM (See “Trade” below)
~~No School for students on Fri, 4/23—Institute Day for teachers
~~Thursday, April 29: 2nd & 5th Grades go back in time with the pioneers to Naper Settlement (all-day field trip)
~~Friday, April 30: Pioneer Day in Room 203
~~Saturday, May 1: The Ethnic Fest--join Longfellow friends walking in the Parade!

Donate: to CROP to help 3rd grader walkers raise funds for the hungry.
Trade: bring in gently used books so you can get “reused” books on 4/22
Bring: in a water bottle with your name on it (April’s theme of hydration)

Week of April 5, 2010

Note Longfellow’s online, environmentally-friendly info:
~~Dolezal’s Desktop is now a blog at: http://d97dolezalsdesktop.blogspot.com/.
~~The direct link to my newsletter is: http://d97lambshead.blogspot.com/
~~Our student newspaper: https://sites.google.com/a/op97.org/the-longfellow-bearnecessities/home
~~The PTO has a new website. Its address is www.longfellow-pto.org. Soon to be linked to the Longfellow homepage.
~~ Geared Up (engineering with Legos) for students NOW in grades 2, 3 & 4. Design and build machines that work using Lego Motorized Mechanisms kits, sponsored by OPEF
http://oakparkeducationfoundation.org/BASECamp.pdf or contact Deb Abrahamson at (708) 524-3023, or dabrahamson@op97.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With less than 2 months left of second grade, these next 9 weeks will zoom by. I hope that the exercise & fun of baseball season and other outdoor enjoyment strengthens, rather than detracts from academic focus! We have a lot of important work to complete!

Book reports The March book reports on women were excellent, reminding us of the value of hard work and dedication to one’s goals! For these next 2 months, there will be weekly story maps due in April, and 1 more required book report, due by May 20. The genre is your choice! If you do an extra book report, you will earn 5 Bear Necessities!

Art Start is an enrichment program in our second grade classrooms, funded by the Oak Park Education Foundation. Our class welcomes Shannon Greve, from the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. Her work with us will embrace many disciplines: art, architecture, geometry (2-D and 3-D), and urban planning. On May 12 each student will construct a building from boxes, so you may want to start saving them now (small ones are great; no bigger than a tissue or shoe box). But please keep the boxes at home until May 10!! The following week, 5/19, we’ll have an Open House, for our families to come see the village we’ve created with our buildings!

Research We are well into the heart of our research – taking notes and then organizing that information to create an essay about our dinosaurs. Thank you to Kai & Julian’s moms who have helped in this grown-up process! Thanks also to other parents who plan to join us; just remember to let me know when you plan to come.

Our Courage stories are spanning the cultures. This week’s folktale, “The Empty Pot” is set in China, and is about courage at a 2nd grade level: a young boy being honest. Great discussion question: why (& when) does it take courage to be honest? In class we will work on the skills of summarizing and making inferences (noticing what is suggested but not explicitly stated). The vocabulary words are: admire, succeed, courage, worthy, proclamation. The spelling words are plurals—remember when to add –es instead of just -s. Also, make sure you know how to spell your dinosaur’s name.

Cursive-The students are working carefully & doing a great job! We’ll finish up the lower case letters this week. Pay particular attention to those “magic c letters”!

Unit 6 of Math has included the important skills of “trade-first” subtraction & introducing multiplication and division. We’ll finish up this week; review the study guide next Monday; & have our test on Tuesday.

We’ll study our Government this month: This week we’re learning about local, state & national governments, and about the rights and responsibilities of citizens. We’ll get “hands-on learning” about our local government on Wednesday AM, as we take a walking field trip to tour Village Hall & the Oak Park Police Department.

Homework/information: We had 11 Homework Stars last week; Let’s all be homework stars this week!!!

Homework:
Daily: read for 20 minutes (aloud!??); practice cursive, math facts, home link
Due tomorrow: Lambshead Book It Calendar for March, FLW field trip permission form
Due Wednesday: Be here on time for our field trip to Village Hall! Also, spelling workbook, pages 110-113 (or substitute 5 challenge sentences for pgs 112-113). If you did not spell your dinosaur’s name correctly on Friday, write it correctly 10 times in the margin on page 113; 2nd Grade Book It All-Star Pizza Luncheon
Due Thursday: (This may be dictated to a parent) A written account of what you noticed and learned on Wednesday’s field trip to Village Hall, especially about our local government.
Friday: "Future 3,000 Day" (What will the future bring? Jet backpacks, television watching you, anti-gravity sneakers? Show off your imagination and design sense!)
Meanwhile, be ready for the present: spelling, reading & vocabulary tests!
Saturday: Longfellow’s Outdoor Ed Fund-raiser & great deal for bike owners: Spring Bike Tune-up, 10 – 2
Due next Monday: Story Map & Math Unit 6 study guide. For gymnastics in PE, these alternatives to gym shoes are acceptable: gymnastics slippers or no-slip socks. No-slip socks are the kind with the rubber on the bottom. Long hair needs to be tied back.
Next Tuesday: Math test

Lots is coming this month!
~~ TV Tune-out week is 4/11 – 18; for more info: http://tvtuneoutweek.wordpress.com/
~~Thursday, Apr. 22 is Earth Day & also a morning assembly, afternoon field trip to tour the FLW Home & Studio. Then it’s Longfellow Reading Night: Read, Recycle, Recite! 6:30–7:30 PM
~~Thursday, April 29: 2nd & 5th Grades go back in time with the pioneers to Naper Settlement (all-day field trip)
~~Friday, April 30: Pioneer Day in Room 203
~~Saturday, May 1: The Ethnic Fest--join Longfellow friends walking in the Parade!

Week of March 22, 2010

Congratulations to all of our Young Scientists, and a giant thank you to all the parents who encouraged each step, including celebrating with us last Thursday night!! Your work & learning were very impressive!!!

Research: We have gotten our dinosaur names, organized our thinking & folders, gathered our sources, and learned how to take notes! Tomorrow we start taking notes on 3x5 cards, and putting each card into its proper category: body description, food chain or habitat.

Language Arts: You may be familiar with this story adapted from Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates, “The Hole in the Dike”, in which a boy courageously saves his village from being flooded. Ask your child why that took courage; also ask about the setting of this story.
Our spelling words are all past tense verbs; we are practicing identifying base words.

Math: We have spent a good amount of time really getting secure using the Partial Sums Algorithm to add big numbers; we’re also writing & illustrating some creative, fun multiplication stories for a class book patterned after Each Orange Had 8 Slices. Now we’re ready to focus on subtracting 2-digit numbers, starting with the concrete base 10 blocks, as well as dimes and pennies. While we call this Trade-first, it looks very like the traditional “borrowing” method.

Homework
I need to practice my ______ math facts for our mental math quizzes!
Join Longfellow’s fun with eating healthy fruits & vegetables:
Daily: Build your reading fluency by reading aloud to a parent several times a week; mark your Lambshead Book It Calendar; practice reading vocabulary (gurgling, trickling, gushing, numb, rumbling, and hero). And carefully do the cursive & Home Links the night they come home! Finalize your preparations & practice for giving your oral Women’s History book report. Include the character traits that made this woman so successful.
Tomorrow: Eat and wear White
Due Wednesday: Eat and wear Red; All Women’s History Story Maps (for inclusion in our class Big Book); Spelling workbook, pages 106-109 and/or the challenge word sentences
For Thursday: Eat and wear Yellow and Orange
For Friday: Eat and wear Green; It’s Mismatch Day – wear clothing that does not match! Spelling (10 past tense verbs + your dinosaur’s name!), vocabulary & reading tests; last day for Women’s History book reports
For next week: Have a wonderful vacation, take your learning outside of the classroom by being good observers and thinkers about all you do; find some good books to take you on adventures; be kitchen scientists and/or cooks!!

4/10: Longfellow’s Outdoor Ed Fund-raiser & great deal for bike owners: Spring Bike Tuneup, 10 - 2
Don’t forget Census 2010!

Week of March 15, 2010

Tomorrow is Spring Picture Day!
This is a light homework week, so you can prepare an attractive presentation of your Science Experiment, and practice at home telling about each step you did, using the Scientific Method. There will be no spelling, reading or vocabulary tests to prepare for.
Due tomorrow: your signed report card envelope & your lavender Women’s History Story Map on the book that you’ve been reading for your Women’s History book report
Due Thursday morning at 8 AM: your science fair experiment! Please do not bring it before Thursday, but you may bring it as early as 7:15 AM on Thursday.
Thursday evening from 6:30 -7 PM we need all students here at their “station”, explaining to our guests what you did and learned. All families are encouraged to come celebrate & encourage our young scientists! An added bonus that evening is seeing your child’s photo & writing about our dinosaur field trip, in a Power Point slide show!

Looking ahead… Due by Friday, March 26: Your March book report presentation/creative project. Remember, your project can be dressing up as her, and telling about her in the First Person Point of View!

Language Arts: Our Courage reading this week is a Frog & Toad fantasy: “Dragons & Giants”, and also a biography, “Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr”. The vocabulary words are: avalanche, puffing, trembling, leaping, cried, fell (“Dragons…”) and protests, demanding, fair, riots, prejudice (MLK).
This week we also begin a big project: Research!
Our topic is dinosaurs, which is our “life science” unit for the spring. We start today learning what research is, and will then develop the framework we will use to classify the information we gather. By the end of the week each student will have a book as well as internet information on his/her own dinosaur work. Next week we will start taking notes on 3x5 cards, and organizing them by topic.
Starting next week, can you volunteer to help Mrs. Pearce and me for an hour (once, or regularly?) Mon: 8-9; Tue, 1:30 -2:30; Wed, 12:50-1:50, Fri: 8-9??
Also, while we are doing research, we will not have a regular library story time or book check-out…students may return and check out library books whenever we’re in the library.

Math: We are focusing on improving our understanding and skill this week on operations: basic math facts, the partial sum algorithm, multiplication and division!

Week of March 8, 2010

Yea for the warmer weather! I saw daffodil shoots and Snowdrop flowers in bloom on my jog yesterday morning! Let’s stay healthy, which means that even when the mid-day temperatures seem warm, I don’t allow bare arms outside. I encourage students to keep a fleece or sweatshirt in their lockers for mid-day recess, to wear outside when the winter coat you needed in the morning is too heavy.

Homework
Daily: Build your reading fluency by reading aloud to a parent several times a week; mark your Lambshead Book It Calendar; practice vocabulary & basic math facts!! And carefully do the cursive & Home Links the night they come home! Read the biography of the woman you chose for your March book report. Discuss at home the character traits that made this woman so successful. Include this information in your book report.
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook, pages 102-105; library books to return??
For Friday: Spelling, vocabulary & reading tests
Due next Tuesday, 3/16: Lavender-colored Biography story map due on the woman you will present for your March Book Report.
Due any day by March 26: Your March book report presentation/creative project


Reading The fossil unit was quite challenging for many students. Today we start reading stories having the theme of Courage, which shouldn’t be so challenging. This is also an excellent unit to follow up on the many stories of courage and heroism in our February as well as March book reports! Many of the stories we’ll read are about 2nd grade kind of courage, including this week’s: “Molly the Brave and Me”. Ask your child how the main character, Beth, learned that she was brave. Know the meanings of these vocabulary words: guts, homesick, wimp, swatted, creepy. Our spelling words are verbs, all in the present tense.

Math: Some students have demonstrated a good understanding & use of the Partial-sums algorithm to add 2-digit numbers; I will work with them on using this concept to add larger numbers. I will also give extra focused help for the bulk of the class to master this important skill. Everyone needs to practice basic math facts, to learn them more automatically (see the addition/subtraction inventories coming home today!) To assist this, we will do “Mental Math” (a bit like Rocket Math) on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays to work on building our skill and speed, progressing from addition, to subtraction, and then multiplication
We also continue to work with sorting out the information from story problems, choosing a helpful graphic organizer.

Coming…
Friday: Report cards come home
Sunday: “Spring ahead” with your clocks!
Thurs, 3/18: Science Fair – during school, and for families, in our room from 6:30 – 7 PM (come at 6 to see the exhibits in Creticos’s & Naber’s rooms)
Fri, 3/26 at 2:55 – Spring vacation begins!

Attached: many tests & papers – review them together; rejoice in your successes, pay attention to what you need to work on.

Week of March 2, 2010

March is here, bringing Women’s History Month and the Science Fair! For Women’s History Month, the book report is to be on a biography of a woman. You many choose any of the suggested creative, but think coming in character as the woman you learned about is a great way for your classmates to “meet” her.
The February book reports were well-done and enhanced our social studies’ learning!

Homework
For March there will be 1 Story Map due, by Tuesday, March 16 (It’s lavendar, coming home today.) on a biography of a woman. Your oral report & project are due any day in March.
Daily: Build your reading fluency by reading aloud to a parent several times a week. Practice vocabulary & basic math facts!! And do the cursive & Home Links the night they come home!
Due Thursday: Spelling workbook, pages 98-101
Discuss at home: What work are you doing on your Science Fair this week?

Reading & Social Studies Our learning about the Colonial Period continues this week, as we continue reading a biography of Paul Revere, then read Six Silver Spoons, historical fiction in which the main characters encounter Revere on his famous ride. We’ll also learn about another hero of the American Revolution, Casmir Pulaski, in whose honor we had yesterday’s holiday. Eleanor, Ava, Sydney, Nina, Jane and Jeremiah will bring to life the culture & political tension of the pre-Revolutionary days as they present a little play “Tea for Felicity”.
Our spelling words work with the rule about when to double a final consonant before adding a suffix that begins with a vowel---this is an important rule to learn!
In the computer lab we are typing up our writing about our Dinosaur field trip. We hope to have it into a power point slide show available for you to see when you come to our Science Fair on 3/18!

Math: We continue to work with addition and subtraction of 2-digit numbers; for story problems we are using excellent graphic organizers to sort out the facts we know, so we can see more clearly which operation to use in solving the problems. We will work with base 10 blocks to build a better foundation of understanding how we can do short-cuts such as “borrowing”, now called “trade first”.

Science: Sink & Float. We will make boats of different size, shape, weight and capacity as we continue to explore the properties of buoyancy.

Attached: Lavendar Story Map form for March biography; Home Link 6.2, new spelling words; vocabulary & social studies tests.

I was so sorry I was sick last week and had to miss both Wednesday’s and Friday’s evening performances by our students, but I hear that they did an excellent job both evenings!! I’m glad so many of you were able to come too!

Week of February 22, 2010

Science Fair: What wonderful hypotheses your students have made—I can’t wait to see their experiments and results at our 3/18 Science Fair!

This is a light homework week (again, no spelling), because I am hoping you will come back to Longfellow for our Wednesday & Friday evening events (parents, see below). The main homework is to study for the reading test tomorrow, Wednesday’s fossil vocabulary test, and Friday’s Social Studies and basic facts math tests. Practice vocabulary & basic math facts!! And do the cursive & Home Links the night they come home!
Due Friday: Science Fair Planner; oral book report if not already done
No school next Monday, honoring General Pulaski’s contribution to the American Revolution.
Due next Tuesday, 3/2: February Book It calendars (optional)

This is a busy week at school, finishing up the 2nd Trimester, with end-of-unit tests in Reading and Social Studies. If there’s time, we’ll read together Jean Fritz’s fascinating biography, And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? We’ll not only learn about this American hero, but we’ll learn a lot about Colonial Life, and the start of the American Revolution. This book provides wonderful background knowledge for many of the book reports we’ll hear this week as well.

Math: As you can see from the attached Parent Letter from EDMath, we are back to focusing on computation. This week we’ll collect data & put it into bar graphs; we’ll also work more with the challenging concept of comparisons in story problems, and work with graphic organizers.

For Parents
Tonight at 7 PM: Special Board Meeting regarding possible referendum
Wed: Come to the Arts Fiesta! Your child’s performance on stage highlights work in Music and Spanish classes; see his/her artwork displayed in the hall! Students are to meet at 6:15 in the mini-gym—call a classmate if you need a ride.
Fri at 6:30: Night at the Museum; Come enjoy the dance and oratory performances, which include many of your classmates.

Attached: Parent letter--resource for Unit 6 math; vocabulary flash cards for Social Studies

Recipe for “Peanut Butter Smoothie”
~~part of Rowan’s creative project about George Washington Carver
You will need:
2 cups chocolate ice cream
2 cups milk
5 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter

First, measure out the ice cream, put it in a big bowl, and leave it to get soft.
Add the milk and peanut butter.
Mix everything together with a wooden spoon or whisk until smooth and creamy.
Pour into a glass, add a straw and sip.

Nourish to Flourish News – February is exercise month. On Tuesday, there will be a trivia contest for 2nd grade students set up on the playground. On Wednesday, all students and staff are encouraged to jog or walk around the field at recess time. Wear workout clothes on Thursday and participate in the all school cha-cha slide at the end of the day.

Week of February 16, 2010

Longfellow (Spring) Arts Fiestas, are opportunities for the "Arts" at Longfellow to showcase what they do with students in class throughout the year. Visual Arts, Spanish and General Music put together a presentation for each grade level in the building. On the night or day of the Fiesta, the galleries (hallways) are filled with student art from the featured grade level and all the students in Spanish and Music present a program in the auditorium. I hope every family can be here on Wed, 2/24, for the 2nd grade performance at 6:30. This enables your child to participate with classmates; and, hearing your praise for his/her hard work means so much to your child!

In class this week we have some very special “visitors” for Black History Month! Bessie Coleman, Langston Hughes, Mary McLeod Bethune, Henry Brown, Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King will all be impersonated by our 2nd graders who will also be “performing” at the “Night at the Museum” on Fri, 2/26!

Our final “Fossil” story is “Let’s Go Dinosaur Tracking”. We will focus on identifying the main idea and the supporting details for each section. This skill really helps when reading as well as writing expository pieces. The vocabulary words to know are: tracks, analyze, canteen, limestone, paleontologist. In class we’ll also work on synonyms & antonyms. No Spelling homework this week!

Math: we are finishing Unit 5 on geometry, focusing on symmetry and the attributes of solid figures. We are making pyramids from straws, and we will compare the different kinds of pyramids. Note the Study Guide: students are expected to know the names & characteristics of flat and solid geometric shapes, and be able to demonstrate understanding of geometric vocabulary: line segment, square corner, parallel, symmetry, vertex, face, edge.

Social Studies: Unit 5 is on “America’s Past”. This week our focus will be on the Colonial and Revolutionary War period. Next week’s book reports on that period will augment our class reading & discussions!

Science: The students will get use the Scientific Method as they have fun molding clay to explore shape as a factor of buoyancy!

Think Science Fair… how will you collect your data? Will you use a list or a chart? To display it, will you use a bar graph? This week I will teach students how to make a bar graph.

Homework: Have you read through the questions to prompt your hypothesis for our Science Fair??
Daily: read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your February Book It calendar; There will be Home Links most every night, due the next day; practice your spelling, & vocabulary (for both reading & geometry); practice your basic math facts (use flash cards??)
Due tomorrow: any Feb book report story maps that weren’t turned in today! Home Link 5.9
For Friday: be ready for reading, vocabulary & math tests (no spelling this week!); Turn in your Science Fair hypothesis (the back page of green packet)
Saturday, come with friends & family to Longfellow’s Fun Fair, noon – 4! (It’ll be the first one I will miss as I have out-of-town company for the weekend.)

Due next week: If you didn’t give your book report this week, we’ll expect it next week.
Tests next week: Wed—Fossil vocabulary; Thurs – Social Studies, Unit 5 (vocabulary flash cards are also attached, but memorizing these is less important than the reading & geometry vocabulary, since the social studies test will be open-book); Friday – Timed test on 100 basic addition and basic subtraction facts, Science quiz on “Sink & Float”.

Week of February 8, 2010

I enjoyed the time last week to meet with you & your child; we had good progress to celebrate, and set some fine goals. I have typed them out and attached them to your child’s take-home folder, for easy reference and frequent reminder.

This week we read “Monster Tracks”, a “how to” book… we will read, and then follow the directions to make our own fake (or simulated) fossil. Then together we will read and discuss biographies of both Lincoln and Washington. Therefore, we will not have a reading test on Friday. However, all students will be expected to know the vocabulary words for our Unit Test: instructions, mold, clue, prehistoric. All of this week’s spelling words use the consonant blends /br/ & /fr/. The workbook includes some fun work with analogies.

Math: I’ve noticed that some of the difficulty students are having in our geometry unit is that they are not reading the questions carefully. Parents, it would help if you would check over your child’s Home Link, to make sure s/he is reading & thinking carefully. Thank you to all who brought in 3-D objects for our “Shape Museum”! We are moving into solid, ie 3-D, geometry, learning even more new vocabulary: vertex, face, edge, as well as prism, sphere, cylinder, sphere, pyramid, cone.

Social Studies: We will discuss history & culture as together we read biographies of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. [Happy B’day to both as we have no school next Monday!]

Science: We will do a number of science experiments this week, practicing for the Science Fair! We’ll make hypotheses, design experiments, collect data and draw conclusions… mostly about buoyancy.

Homework: Have you read through the questions to prompt your hypothesis for our Science Fair??
Daily: read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your February Book It calendar; There will be Home Links most every night, due the next day; practice your spelling, & vocabulary (for both reading & geometry); practice your basic math facts (use flash cards??)
Due tomorrow: “Lambshead Home Link”; bring in a small item you would like to use to make a fossil
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook pages 90-93 (&/or challenge sentences)
For Friday: be ready for spelling test
Due next Monday: Story map on the book you are reading for your February book report. Let me know whether you are reading fiction, biography, or other nonfiction, so I can give you the appropriate story map. Orators for the Black History Museum need to do their oratory for their book report by Fri, 2/19.

Coming… busy weeks as we go through February:
• Fri, 2/19: due date for Science Fair hypothesis (the back page of green packet)
• Sat, 2/20: Longfellow’s Fun Fair, starting at noon. Please consider donating items for the 2nd grade raffle basket, which has a theme of Family Reading.
• Wed, 2/24, at 6:30 PM: Spring Arts Fiesta for 2nd graders; Note: 2nd graders are performing & need to be here by 6:15… parents’ bonus is to get a good seat in the auditorium, or to browse the 2nd grade artwork in the hallways!
• Fri 2/26: due date for Science Fair planner
• Fri, 2/26: Night At the Museum – come see a number of students from our class participating in the Oratory (telling us about a notable African-American, “in character”); Julian & others will also be performing African dancing and drumming.

I’m glad the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl… and my favorite spectator sport is just ahead, the Olympics!

Week of February 1, 2010

This is parent-child-teacher conference week; your conference is scheduled for 2/____
We’ll review the fall goals, celebrate growth and set new goals. Parents, this is also time for you to share insights or questions.

Many thanks to Olivia’s mom, who organized, cooked & chopped for our delicious & healthy breakfast on Friday, and for all who assisted her and/or sent in food & supplies!! Let’s all continue our Wellness theme of getting a good night’s sleep & eating a healthy breakfast every day!

The students did a fine job on their book reports, becoming more skilled in their oral communication! This month’s book report is due any time this month—just let me know when you are ready. Choose a book related to Black History Month or President’s Month. It can be fiction or nonfiction, about Africa, African-Americans, George Washington and the Colonial Period, or Abraham Lincoln & the Civil War period. Ask me if you’d like to borrow a book from my own collection or if you’d like help students finding a book of interest to you. If you read a biography, your project can be coming “in character”, ie, presenting your book report as if you were that person coming to our classroom. Tell us about your life, and what you did that was so great that a book was written about you! It’s probably not too late to decide to be an orator at the “Night at the Museum” (Longfellow’s cool Black History program) on Friday evening, February 26; you would do a practice presentation in our room as your Feb. book report. (If interested, see me for the “commitment” form.)

I’m quite sure you heard an enthusiastic account of your young paleontologist’s adventure last Thursday… digging up suchomimus’ bones, and learning to test hypotheses about the location & function of each bone! This week’s story is about a popular question: “Why Did the Dinosaurs Disappear?” This scientific review continues our learning about how studying fossils gives clues to the past. We will read the various theories, and do some hard scientific and cause-effect thinking! I encourage everyone to read this story at home, discuss the different theories, and form your own opinion. The vocabulary words are more familiar than recent weeks: starve, climate, eruption, moisture, discovery. The spelling pattern is the “bossy R” sound & spelling, with the /er/ and /or/ sounds. Ask your child… to tell you the 3 different spellings for the /er/ sound.

Our writing this week will involve blending what we have learned on our field trip with our fossil reading to describe how to get fossils out of hard rock. It is a challenge for 2nd graders to really think through all the steps to explain “how to”. Try it at home orally; in class, we will start with “How to make a peanut butter & jelly sandwich!
Cursive writing is progressing nicely; we are having fun finding words using the cursive letters we now know.

Math: We focus on 2-dimentional work this week, learning these important geometry vocabulary words: point, endpoint, straightedge, line segment, parallel, square corner (ie right angle).


Social Studies: Throughout this month, in preparation for and during our book reports, we will read together & discuss history & culture related to Africa, African Americans, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

Science: We are investigating the properties that affect the buoyancy of objects; this week we are looking at size as a factor.

Homework
Daily: read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your February Book It calendar; There will be Home Links most every night, due the next day; practice your spelling & vocabulary
Due tomorrow: January Book-It calendar (opt)
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook pages86-89 (&/or challenge sentences)
For Friday: be ready for reading, vocabulary & spelling tests
Due next Monday: Capture 5 recording sheet of your moves in the game you play with an older member of your family. On Monday, not before, please….bring in cylinders, spheres, rectangular prisms, cones, pyramids and/or cubes for our Shape Museum. Anything you’ll want to take home after a week needs to have your name on it.

On Friday, 2/12 we will have a little Valentine’s Day party from 2:15 – 2:45, to celebrate friendship. If you want, bring a Valentine for each of your classmates; Monday’s news will include all the names. Please let me know if you can coordinate or assist at our party.

Coming home today: Pink February Book It Calendar, home link 5.3, spelling tests

Week of January 26, 2010

It’s the online computer age… In case you didn’t see last week’s Thursday packet… we will now save paper by publishing it online at: http://www.op97.org/longfellow/digitalbackpack/. If you do wish to continue receiving paper copies you need to let the office know.
Also, you can fill out the optional Scholastic Book order online… go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs → parents →You’ll need to register & use our class activation code: 1FFAG. I’ve extended the due date to this Thursday, 1/28.

This short week will fly by, with Thursday’s field trip, and all the students’ wonderful book report presentations! Another special event is Friday’s celebration of the Wellness Committee theme for January: to get a good night of sleep and eat a healthy breakfast. So sleep in a bit on Friday morning and come to school in your PJs, for a healthy breakfast in the classroom! Olivia’s mom is organizing a potluck breakfast; please contact her (528-4032) to arrange what healthy food your child can contribute.

In reading this week we will finish our story map summaries of the book, Kate Shelly & the Midnight Express. Then we’ll learn more about individual dinosaurs by reading Dinosaur Time, and make a chart organizing the characteristics of these different dinosaurs. During our field trip we’ll “dig up” dinosaur bones in “the field”, and also work “in the lab” studying the bones to determine where they fit in the skeleton of a suchomimus. Back at school we will use what we experienced, as well as our fossil reading, to write about being a paleontologist. This week’s spelling words all use the consonant blends of wh or sh.

Math: As you can see from our last Home Link, we are learning to be observant of shapes, and notice how things are alike and how they are different. This is foundational to seeing & understanding how shapes are classified. This week we will study polygons (closed shapes with many angles or corners) and learn the difference between a line and a line segment.

Science: While we’re loving our Sink & Float study, this week our science is being paleontologists!

Homework
Daily: read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your January Book It calendar; Home Links and cursive papers are due the next day; practice your spelling
Due any day this week: January book report
Due Thursday: Parent-teacher conference confirmation forms; Field trip – wear comfortable Paleontologist’s clothes & bring a healthy snack as well as your lunch. Final day to submit paper or on-line Scholastic Book Orders & money; Spelling workbook, pages 74-77 (or meaningful sentences if you have challenge words).
For Friday: Spelling test; PJ & breakfast in the classroom day! Also, this is the last day for contributions for the St. Jude’s math-a-thon, and the Longfellow blanket drive.
Due next Monday: January Book It Calendar;
Capture 5 recording sheet of your moves in the game you play with an older member of your family.

Coming home: reading, spelling & math tests! The last reading test was quite difficult; and many students did very well on the last math test! Keep the important green packet about our March 18 Science Fair in a safe place for frequent referral. Also, parents, please note your conference time, attached, and return the confirmation slip!

Week of January 19, 2010

In addition to teaching the concrete skills of adding, subtracting, sounding out words to read, we are teaching thinking skills… using what we know to figure out new things. In reading we predict; in math we estimate; in science we make a hypothesis. These are not wild guesses, but are predictions based on clues that we know. This week we start a fun physical science study: Sink & Float. This is an excellent unit for our students to learn the scientific method of investigation. The sequel to this unit will be each student using the scientific method on his/her own science experiment (more information to follow) for our 2nd grade science fair on March 18!

Parents, it will really help your child if you can monitor his/her cursive homework practice, especially the pencil grip, posture & letter formation. Remember, these practice sheets are due the next day, (or asap). Reminder: these are due the next day! [See last week’s newsletter for more details.]

We’re reading 2 nonfiction pieces this week, Kate Shelly & the Midnight Express, and Dinosaur Fossils. While Kate Shelly is a historical character, this account of her heroism reads like a hair-raising adventure story! As the title suggests, Dinosaur Fossils deepens our understanding of fossils while providing information about a variety of dinosaurs.
This selection provides excellent background knowledge for next week’s field trip during which we will simulate doing the work of a paleontologist! Know these vocabulary words: dinosaurs, hardened, chance, difficult, scientist. Our spelling words provide practice with the vowel sound of /ar/. Working with the graphic organizers help build understanding and remembering the facts we learn.

Math: After months of working with numbers, and today’s math test, tomorrow we start a different kind of math: geometry. This is a refreshing break for many; there are many hands-on activities to explore 2- and 3-dimentional shapes. This is not a break from thinking though – we will learn and use new vocabulary words to do critical thinking as we note similarities and differences. We will also continue to review and practice the skills we’ve learned thus far, especially adding & subtracting.
I suggest reviewing & keeping the attached Family letter, a companion for our Home Links.
Homework
Daily: read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your January Book It calendar; Home Links and cursive papers are due the next day; practice your spelling & vocabulary words; use the vocabulary words in your conversations!
Due Thursday: Spelling workbook, pages 82-85
For Friday: Parents-return conference request form; To prepare for the reading test, take your reading book home, and reread the story with a parent; then summarize it, by identifying the main ideas. Be ready for spelling, reading & vocabulary tests;
Due next Tuesday: Capture 5 recording sheet of your moves in the game you play with an older member of your family.
Due next Wednesday: optional book orders (many good book possibilities for Feb. book report);
Due any day next week: your January book report
Reminder: no school next Monday
Many graded tests are coming home today: review them and “learn from your mistakes”.

Week of January 11, 2010

Congratulations 2nd graders—you hard-working students & supportive parents raised $685.35; on Wednesday a PADS representative will come visit our classes, collect this wonderful check, and talk with us about PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter)!

The exciting thing this week is starting to learn cursive writing! In order that students not practice bad habits, or incorrect formation, my rule is that students are not to write in cursive until I have taught them the letters. Once I’ve taught all the letters in their name, they may begin signing their name in cursive on their papers. Learning a new skill like this takes a lot of practice, so practice sheets will come home about 2 times each week. These are due the next day! Parents, your support at home during the cursive practice time is very valuable, to help establish good writing habits and letter formation! Please encourage your child to sit with good posture, and hold the pencil with the thumb and forefinger, allowing it to rest on the middle finger. This is a secure, but relaxed grip, which promotes efficient writing in the future, minimizing writer’s cramp. Please also watch to see that your child forms the letter correctly. Most letters start on the base line, and have a fluid motion and the pencil stays on the paper until the word is completed, then it is lifted to dot i’s and cross t’s: many students have a hard time learning to do this! The complement to handwriting is typing – the students are making good progress during our weekly Touch Typing lessons in the computer lab; and some are consistently practicing at home as well!

Another new thing we are starting is Logic lessons. This is an un-graded enrichment activity for those who get to their seats quickly in the morning.

Fossils and Dinosaurs: This week we read a fun piece of imagination: The Dinosaur Who Lived in my Backyard; the vocabulary to know is: hatched, neighborhood, swamp, rescue, sprinkler. Each student will also read a biography on Martin Luther King. Our spelling words provide practice with the important consonant blends: ch and th.

Math: We are finishing Unit 4 in math this week, with our test next Tuesday. My focus has been for the students to develop sensible, thinking strategies to do figure out these 2-digit addition and subtraction problems. Today’s Home Link gives an excellent explanation of the different strategies I have been teaching. I suggest you keep this in a safe place where you can refer to in from time-to-time, since the ability to use these different strategies is a life-long tool. This week I will also teach the partial sums algorithm (the Everyday Math clarification of the “carrying” method most of us learned for 2-digit addition), but mastery of that is not expected yet. FYI, there is a movie explaining the partial sums algorithm on the Everyday Math website. Go to https://www.everydaymathonline.com then to Free Family Resources, then to Algorithms in Everyday Mathematics and select Grade 2 and Addition, then click the Partial Sums Addition. We will start by working on 2 digit plus 2 digit numbers.




We will finish our Economics unit in Social Studies this week, with a test on Friday. Know this vocabulary: income, price, trade, wants, goods, factory, scarcity, bank, shelter, producer. For extra credit, know what a capital resource is (we’ll discuss it in class). Vocabulary flash cards are attached if you want to practice at home.
Homework
Daily: read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your January Book It calendar; Home Links and cursive papers are due the next day; practice your spelling & vocabulary words; use the vocabulary words in your conversations!
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook, pages 78-81; also bring your library book;
For Friday: be ready for social studies, spelling, reading & vocabulary tests; instead of a Mad Minute math packet, the Unit 4 Math study guide is due on Friday!
Due next Tuesday (No school Monday~~Happy Birthday, Dr. King!): Be ready for Unit 4 math test; gym shoes! story map (start thinking what book you’ll do your January book report on.)
Coming…
January book report will be due the week of Jan. 26 (no school the 25th)
Looking ahead… The February book report needs to relate to Black History Month or President’s Month. The book can be fiction or nonfiction, about Africa, African-Americans, George Washington and the Colonial Period, or Abraham Lincoln & the Civil War period. I offer to lend books from my own collection and/or to help students find books from the library if they wish. If you read a biography, your project can be coming “in character”, ie, presenting your book report as if you were that person coming to our classroom. Tell us about your life, and what you did that was so great that a book was written about you! Students who do their report on an African American can also be an orator at the “Night at the Museum” (Longfellow’s cool Black History program) on Friday evening, February 26.
Mark your calendar!
No School – 1/18, 1/25, 2/15, 3/1
Parent-Child-Teacher Conferences: Wed, 2/3 & 2/4; No school in the PM on 2/4 & 2/5.
Family Fun… consider using one of our days off school to take a family field trip to the Field Museum to enjoy their extensive dinosaur exhibit, which includes the awesome tyrannosaurus rex, Sue! I expect there won’t be much of a crowd there on Jan. 25, because it’s not a holiday.
Winter is here: please remember warm clothing & boots for outside, and shoes & sweater for inside. Keeping a water bottle here is also important.

Week of January 4, 2010

I really appreciate the group class gift you gave me before the vacation! I spent the whole VISA gift card from you at the Spa at my health club – relaxing, being refreshed & renewed; Thanks so very much to all of you!! From the students’ comments, it sounds like the 2-week vacation was a wonderful, enjoyable change of pace for everyone.
Thank you too [spelling word] to Lori Bradford who coordinated my helpers & details for our Kindness Market and our classroom Holiday Party, and to all you other parents who were so supportive and helpful at these special events!

Today we began a new unit in reading: Fossils. This is a great sequel to our science study of rocks and soil in the fall. What makes this topic so interesting is that all we know about dinosaurs has been learned from studying fossils, so it’s also a Dinosaur unit! This week we read “Fossils Tell of Long Ago” by Aliki. The comprehension skill we work on is sequence, because the sequence, or order in which things happen, is so important in the formation of fossils. Tomorrow is our first venture into being a paleontologist… digging up “fossils” from the “Dirt Cups” Jackson’s mom is bringing in. The vocabulary words are: amber, fossil, extinct, peat, mammoth, seeps. Our spelling words all have the /oo/ sound, spelled in different ways. The spelling workbook gives good practice with the suffixes -ly, -ing.

With this Friday’s deadline for Longfellow submissions to the District writing contest, we are working this week on elaborating, revising, and editing our best writing.

Math Unit 4 is on developing strategies to do more complex addition and subtraction in our heads. The attached newsletter explains this well, and shows some excellent diagrams to help students organize their thinking, and visualize how to solve math word problems. You can reinforce what your child is learning in school by prompting him/her to use these strategies & tools at home. Also, please do not teach your child how to do pencil & paper vertical addition/subtraction of 2-digit numbers. In this unit your child will be learning other more concrete, 2nd grade level of thinking & understanding as s/he works with these bigger numbers (eg. tally marks, the 100 chart).
In Social Studies we continue our “People at Work” reading, learning about the difference between goods & services, and of the history of “work” (the first farmers). At home, see if you can explain your work to your child – do you produce goods, or provide services?
Homework
Daily: read aloud for 20 minutes and fill in your January Book It calendar (it’ll hopefully come home tomorrow), Home Link as needed, practice your spelling & vocabulary words; use the vocabulary words in your conversations!
Due tomorrow: report card envelope; optional Book It calendar.
Due Wednesday: Spelling workbook, pages 66-69; also bring your library book;
For Friday: spelling, reading & vocabulary test; Dino Field Trip permission slip & $10.
Due next Monday: play Capture 5 with an older person; turn in the paper of number models showing how you moved on each turn.
Coming…Dinosaur field trip to Children’s Museum on Thurs, 1/28; a few chaperones needed
Winter is here: please remember warm clothing & boots for outside, and shoes & sweater for inside. Keeping a water bottle here is also important.
Ask your child: Tell me what you learned from reading about fossils; [by the end of the week] show me with dimes and pennies how to add 47 to 39.