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
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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!