Cookieologists One of our lessons in science talked about paleontologists and fossils. Today we became "paleontologists" when we tried to dig fossils(chocolate chips) out of rocks(cookies) using special tools(toothpicks). Everyone had to work very carefully to not break their fossils while trying to get them out of the rocks.

Published Authors!!

Our book Journeys Through Time arrived this week. The kids have been very excited to read their personal stories in a real book. Those that did not order will be given a black and white copy. If you would still like to order you can. Look for information to come home next week for ordering your copy online from the company.

Reader's Theater

Once again the ladies from RSVP put on a fantastic reader's theater. Today they performed The Bremen Town Musicians.  The kids really enjoyed it. We are looking forward to their next performance.

Trimester Three

Math:  We are currently working on measuring. We have discussed the importance of standard units and measured using yards, feet, inches, decimeters and centimeters. This week we will learn about perimeter. This spring we will  focus on telling time to the five minutes and distinguish between a.m. and p.m. Counting and creating coin combinations will also be a skill that we will work on. Be sure to keep practicing math facts at home.

Reading: We will continue to work on our comprehension and fluency. The best way for your child to become a better reader is to read. Please make sure you are encouraging them to read every day at home. They should be filling out their reading logs and returning them every Friday morning. As your child reads take a moment to listen and ask them questions or to retell the story to you. The sight words are very important to be practicing at home. Many kids have brought back their booklets that I sent home at conferences. A few have brought back more than one and our top sight word reader just took home the 700 list!

Social Studies: This month we will be learning about maps. Our study will begin with the compass rose and then we will learn about the continents, oceans, and our country. The end of the unit will focus on our state. The kids will learn to draw the outlines of our country and state. I'm always amazed at how well they do!

Spirit Week

The first week of March will be "Lakeview's March Madness".  We'll be celebrating the great year that we've had and all that we have learned.  The student council has planned special dress up days for us to participate in.  I talked with the class about how important it will be for them to be using their self-control next week as we still have LOTS to learn about this year.  The dress up themes for the week are:
          Monday: Hat Day
          Tuesday: Sports Day (wear something with a favorite team on it)
          Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday (wear mismatched clothes, dress backwards, create a funny hairdo)
          Thursday: Pajama Day
          Friday: Tiger Pride Day (wear cherry and blue)

Tune in for pictures of our fun days during Spirit Week!

Guest Readers

Wow! We were very lucky today to have five guest readers in our classroom for Read Across America Day. Our first reader was Kim Nelson. She is a school board member and read Oh the Places You'll Go.  Then Mr. Hudspith read Hop on Pop which is a favorite at his house.  Jill Marin, another school board member, and her son also visited us. They talked about how important reading is to being successful in the world.  Mrs. Marin's son will be visiting Africa soon and he shared how he would use his reading skills to travel.  They each read a book to the class. The kids had a great time helping to read, Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? Our last guest reader was Amy Lundell, Annabelle's mom, and she read The Digging-est Dog.  She also brought us an extra treat-licorice!Thank you to all of our readers!!

Puppy Class

What an exciting morning! We had two students from the high school's animal care class come and visit us with four puppies. The puppies are called bugs. They are a cross between a boxer and a pug. We learned that it is best to choose a puppy when they are at least five weeks old because you can tell what their personality will be like. However, they can't leave their mothers until they are eight weeks old. If anyone is interested in buying one you can contact the high school. Some of the kids were very interested and thought maybe they could ask you to just write a check.....girl puppy: $250.00
                                                             boy puppy: $200.00
                                                             carpet cleaning: $150
                                                             your child's face when you say yes: PRICELESS!

2nd Grade Read-In

On Friday, March 2nd the 2nd graders will be having a Read-In to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday.  Students should come dressed comfortably.  They may bring a blanket or beach towel, pillow, or stuffed animal.  Look for a letter coming home with more details.

Valentine's Day

We had a very busy Valentine's Day.  We worked on our reading comprehension when we read a passage about Valentine's Day and took a quiz.  Then we did some writing with candy hearts.  The kids were clever and did a nice job. Here are few examples:

During the afternoon we collected data by sorting candy hearts by color and then used the data to create a graph. We even made some cool heart glasses!!

We all had a fantastic time at the party!  Thank you to our room moms for a great party!!!

100th Day

Monday, February 13th was the 100th day of 2nd grade!! Everyone looks great with their 100th day crowns on.

Valentine's Day

Our room parents are busy working to plan our Valentine's Day party.  It will be held on February 14th at 1:45.  If  your child would like to bring valentines to share with their classmates they can bring them to school on Monday the 13th to be passed out.  Please make sure that they bring enough for each student in our class.  We have 26 students. 

Conferences

Our 2nd trimester conferences are coming up quickly.  Your child received a letter with your date and time to meet with me.  Please sign and return the form as soon as possible to let me know if you are able to make the scheduled time.  During conferences we will discuss the progress your child is making in 2nd grade.  We will also look ahead and plan for the rest of the trimester.  I hope to see everyone!!

January News

We are always working on being better readers and writers.  We are currently reading about plants and trees. We have read two non-fiction stories. We are working on our own non-fiction writing as we work on research reports. We will hopefully use our ipads to publish our writing and can share at conferences. Our winter benchmark testing for guided reading and fluency will be done this month and will be another thing shared at conferences. Please keep reading at home and be sure to turn in reading logs.

Second grade has decided to start giving a spelling test on Fridays.  The list of words for the week will come home on Monday. It is the same list you have seen come home on all other Mondays, but now we will be testing.  The reason to begin testing is that we believe the students need to focus more on word chunks and writing patterns.  This will not only help them to be better writers but readers as well.

In math class we continue to work on addition and subtraction facts. I have really been pushing that they use the strategies we have learned and not use fingers to count.  Two great websites are Math Magician and That's a Fact. You could work on these at home (they are listed on side of the class blog) or use flashcards. The Dollar Tree always seems to have flashcards-I love a good deal! We are also working on our trimester standards.  We have tested 2 and 3 dimensional shapes but are still working on estimating to the nearest ten and then using the estimates to add and subtract.

Our class is working on a science unit about matter. We've learned about the different ways to classify based on properties and are now learning more about the three states of matter-solid, liquid, and gas. We will be learning about maps for social studies.

Christmas Dinner

On Monday, December 19th we had our annual Holiday Dinner.  Mr. Hudspith served a tray of crackers to those waiting in line for hot lunch. The lunch tables had red tablecoverings and were decorate with holiday ornaments.  Colorful lights hung from the ceiling and Mrs. Irons played the piano.  This was my first Lakeview Holiday Dinner and it was a great time-I was very surprised when everyone started singing while Mrs. Irons played a favorite song.

Christmas Around the World in Germany

On Thursday and Friday we visited Germany.  We learned about

Christmas trees and about the shopping and celebrating done in the villages.  On Thursday we used our ipads to make a tree out of tangram pieces using the app Tanzen.  Then everyone had to transfer their completed puzzle to one on paper.  This was a challenging project that really made them think!!!

On Friday morning we made a tasty Christmas tree! Some of the students ate their tree so we took pictures of all of them.  Everyone also got a copy to bring home.

Christmas Around the World

Welcome Aboard the Holiday Express! All of our flights leave from gate 219 at Lakeview.  We travelled to Mexico on Dec. 5th and learned about Los Posados and read Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie DePaolo.  Then we made our own verson of the Flower of the Holy Night. 

We travelled to Isreal and learned about Hannukah on Dec. 12th.  We read stories about the Festival of Lights and played the dreidel game.  A recipe for potato latkes was sent home for families to try.  I haven't heard that anyone tried them.  Let me know if you try it and like them.

On Dec. 13th we visited Sweden for St. Lucia Day.  We found Sweden on our travel maps and then enjoyed cocoa and cookies while the girls wore their crown of candles and the boys wore their star boy hats. Cassie is our oldest girl so she was chosen to serve the goodies just like the oldest daughter in Swedish families.