November 30- December 4

I hope everyone had a fun Thanksgiving and enjoyed being with family! We had a great Thanksgiving party on Wednesday. We made our own pies and also made a fun Tic-Tac-Toe game to take home. A big THANKS to Becky VanLehn, Laurie Caldwell, and Valorie Foster for putting our party together. Here's some pictures of the students doing our Thanksgiving Reader's Theater!

Last week we also made metamorphic rocks out of Starburst. The kids really had fun with this and also understood what makes these rocks metamorphic (heat and pressure)!

We miss you Caleb; have fun in Arizona!

This Wednesday the Second Grade is having Apple Day! Please send your child to school with an apple on Tuesday so I can get them peeled and cut. We will be doing fun apple activities and also using descriptive writing. As a class we will create a yummy apple treat!

Math: We will take our Topic 5 test on Monday.

This week's math focus:

• Use quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies to show amounts to 99 cents using as many quarters as possible.
• Use coins to show amounts equal to one dollar.
• Compare amounts to one dollar.
• Create, model, and solve problems that involve making change.
  

November 23-25

Happy Thanksgiving!! We have a short week this week. Monday and Tuesday we get out at the normal time, 3:30. Wednesday is a minimum day; we get out at 1:40. I hope you enjoy your break, and enjoy spending time with your family!

Writing: Last week we finished our descriptive writing about Thanksgiving. The students used their 5 senses to describe Thanksgiving. We completed the entire writing process: prewrite, 1st draft, revise and edit, and final copy. We also completed a rubric about our writing. I will be hanging these in the hall after school today if you want to take a look! We will be focusing on writing about things we are thankful for this week.

Reading: This week we will be learning and performing a Thanksgiving readers theater.

Math: We are focusing on carrying and borrowing with double-digit addition and subtraction. Please help students and work on this at home!

This week's math focus:

• Create, model, and solve subtraction problems that involve differences.
• Subtracting two-digit problems.
• Choose the appropriate operation (addition or subtraction) and use it to solve a story problem.
  

November 16-20

Here's some pictures of our Halloween party and our field trip to Snow Canyon High School. The kids absolutely loved Willy Wonka! Thank you for all the parent volunteers. I had a lot of parents offer to come to the play but I could only take one; thanks Laura Lewis for coming! Also thank you for the dollar donations to help pay for the bus.

Sorry I didn't update the blog last week. Thanks for coming to your SEP conference; it's so nice to meet with the parents and tell you all the wonderful things your child is doing!

Writing: We are writing a Descriptive paragraph, using our five senses, about Thanksgiving. Last week we focused on Prewrite. This week we will be focusing on our 1st draft, revising, and editing.

Language Arts: Contractions and Abbreviations

Science: Rocks

Math: We will be starting our new Math Camp on Place Value this week.

This week's math focus:

• Write a fact family of related addition and subtraction sentences.
• Use a variety of methods to add.
• Recognize, describe, and extend number patterns.
• Add two-digit multiples of 5.

These are your fun kids on Friday after our Halloween Parade! The students had so much fun dressing up and celebrating Halloween! A big THANKS to Becky and Ben VanLehn, Laurie Caldwell, and Heather Cobos for coming on Thursday and giving us a great Halloween party!

Congratulations Coral for winning 1st place in the Photography section of Reflections!

This week look for SEP notes coming home. I look forward to meeting with all of you next week, and discuss the great things your children are doing!

We will be doing a lot of Report Card Assessments this week for Language Arts, Math, Spelling, and Writing.

Phonics: Consonant clusters and syllables

Math: In math camp we are focusing on geometry, including symmetry and parallel lines.

This week's math focus:
- Read and write three-digit numbers.
- Write three numbers in order from least to greatest.
- Write the number that is 1, 10, or 100 more and less than a given three-digit number.
- Develop the position of whole numbers on a number line.
- Take Topic 4 Test.

Reading with our 5th grade buddies!

October 26-30

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween! Students wear your costumes on Friday for our Halloween parade! Parents you are more than welcome to come watch; our parade will be Friday morning.

This week is also Red Ribbon Week. Students will be writing about what they will do instead of doing drugs. They will also be making a pledge to not do drugs.

On Thursday night, October 29th, is our Math Night. Come have dinner and learn fun math games to play with your family.

I attached the Media Release Form to the homework last Friday. I figured that would be a better place for you to see it. Please turn those into me this week.

Science: Rocks

Language Arts: -ed endings

Reading: Students are creating non-fiction posters from books in their reading group.

Math: Our math camp on Geometry starts this week.

This week's math focus:
- Connect words and numerals for multiples of 100.
- Count by hundreds.
- Add multiples of 100.
- Identify a number as hundreds, tens, and ones.

October 19-23

Parents I will be sending home a Media Release Form on Tuesday. This gives me permission from you to include student pictures from activities we have done to put on the class blog. I did this last year and the parents loved it. I even had grandparents checking the class blog each week to see pictures! Sometimes I will include first names but never last names with student photos. Please sign and return this form by Friday. I already have pictures to include for next week's post!

Language Arts: Contractions and Abbreviations

Science: Rocks

Writing: Descriptive Paragraph

Math: We finished our unit on Measurement and Geometry. I was surprised by how well the students understood Geometry! We will be starting Minute Math. This is to help challenge students to get math facts quick.

This week's math focus:
- Develop understanding of the position of whole numbers (ones, tens, hundreds, thousands).
- Represent a number as different combinations of tens and ones.
- Trade 1 ten for 10 ones.
- Trade 10 ones for 1 ten.