November 14th

We have had a great week in class. I have recently checked reading levels and am so excited to see the levels of progress! Please remind students to always do their best work, especially with capitals and periods. We are working on a specially designed handwrwiting curriculum called Handwriting without Tears. It should be helpful in developing fluency and cognitive structures of the writing process.

As the year goes on (really, Thanksgiving in a week and a half - wow) I cannot believe student growth and how much they are independently working and developing an interest in reading and writing, math, science and social studies. I feel so lucky to see this progression.

In our room, we do have a few wish list items:
dice (ours are disappearing)
cheap card decks (these are falling apart)
Pokemon cards (go figure) and other treasure box items - I have varied toys but they are getting bored of my supply :)

Thank you for your continued support and feel free always to contact me with any concerns and I promise to get back to you as I quickly as I can. The quickest route of communication is email, as I cannot call parents with kids in the room, but may have an opportunity to answer a quick question via email. I feel very lucky to have the student and parent community that we have. I am one lucky teacher.

From First Grade:
Parents and family members we were so happy to see those serving and protecting our country at the Veteran's Day assembly. What a great day to share Tiger and American Pride together. For our third grade siblings, what an amazing job you did!

Reminders:
Please send a jacket with your student as weather sometimes can be unpredictable. Please also write students' name inside so that they will be easier to locate if lost.

Remind students that rocks are not to be thrown at recess, nor are trees to be harmed, or holes dug. These acts, though innocent in nature can cause other students to get hurt,

Please remember to send a healthy snack that your child knows is designated for snack time. Students have been known to graze through the morning and then their lunchbox maybe empty at lunch time. Remind students when to eat snacks (they may bring multiple snacks). Please be sure that they are neat and all liquids are water.

Thank you for all of your continued support!


Curriculum:

Language Arts: Non-Fiction Text Features
Leader of the Week: Francis Scott Key
Social Studies: Maps and Holiday Traditions (Please hear share with teacher if there is a special day you celebrate. we would love to hear about it)
Math: Patterns including (AD, AAB, ABC, etc) and continuing with addition concepts and additive patterns(working specifically with +1 and +2 facts) and subitizing (recognizing dot patterns such as on dice and dominoes); Problem Solving

• read the problem
• circle important numbers and info
• underline question
• ask youself: bigger or smaller answer? are you combining numbers or comparing them? (operation)
• draw a picture representation (base ten blocks, circles, actual pictures, tally marks, etc.)
• use tools to check your work (cheerios, lego blocks, any item that can be counted easily)
• explain/justify your answer by telling what you did - First, Next, Then, Finally
• Put a box around your answer and label it (ex: 13 pumpkins)

Science: Patterns of Movement

Dates to remember:

November 14th: TAG Nomination window opens
November 18th : Second Grade Living Museum

November 18th: PTA Meeting and Chili Cook Off and Bake Off
November 22nd: Literacy Leadership Celebration Day

November 23-25: Thanksgiving Break
November 29th: Student Council General Meeting
December 7: Early Release

December 6-8 Book Fair

December 7: Early Release Day

December 16: Last day of 2nd Nine Weeks