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.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
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”.
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”.
Monday, February 8, 2010
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!
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!
Monday, February 1, 2010
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
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
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