October News

The kids are really getting into the routines of second grade!  They are gaining independence and working together to follow the classroom rules to earn a class party!

In Math, we are finishing up our first book which is mostly a review of first grade concepts.  We reviewed story problems (both combining and separating), number sentences, greater than/less than, and money.  We are need of coupons for an upcoming math lesson.  If you have any store circulars/coupons that you can send in, please do so asap.  Thank you!

Our social studies unit on mapping is coming to an end.  The students worked together to create maps of outside of the school.  Check out our maps on the windows inside of Room 9.

Our current read aloud chapter book is Stuart Little.  The kids really enjoy listening and imagining the story as I read aloud to them.

On Thursday, we started our first science unit-Frogs!  We watched some videos on youtube.com to begin to learn about the life cycle of a frog.  The kids loved watching the videos and I'm excited to continue to use technology throughout the year. I promised the kids that I would post the links on here so they could watch them again at home.
Claymation  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNd2z43Ofas
Frog Spawn Time Lapse   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YV1QhYn1S8&feature=related
Intro Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GGuEr-MQf4


We had our first official day of Writer's Workshop with Lisa (Benjamin's Mom) and Jenny (Christos's Mom).  We'd love to have other parents come in to the classroom to help us during morning work, writing, work board, math mix-up. If you have a time that you'd be able to commit coming in for, please email me. 

There are always copying/laminating/prep jobs that can be done. Email me if you have a time that you can commit to or a free morning/afternoon that you'd like to come in just once in a while to help out.  Thank you to Lisa (Benjamin's Mom) and thank you in advance to Peter (Lolitas's Dad) for starting to copy/organize the Think Tank.  Thank you to Elizabeth (Corbin's Mom), Karen (Keely's Mom), and Kathy (Conor's Mom) for taking on the big project of copying/printing/organizing the leveled library.
There are some at home jobs that can be done.  If anyone is interested in doing some cutting/project prep, please email me.  I'd love to have all of the Open Circle parent letters scanned on to the computer so I can email the documents and save more paper.  Let me know if you have access to a scanner and can take on this project.  I couldn't survive without the help of parents!!  Thank you!