February 21, 2014 Update!

Dear Parents,
Thank you for visiting today!  We've had a great and very productive week, even with our two missing days!  I'm so proud of the students' hard work. It's so exciting for us to see the amazing growth.  It really seems to show up about this time of the year. We are definitely behaving more like third graders than 2nd graders.  Check out below to see what we've been doing in class and make sure to check out the Class News section at the bottom.

Phonics/Grammar:  We practiced spelling some challenging contractions. We played SPARKLE. We also reviewed rhyming words with a fun "I have, who has?" game.  

Reading: We read several chapters in James and the Giant Peach. We wrote about our favorite event in the story so far.  We read a realistic fiction story called The Bat Boy and His Violin about a boy whose father was a manager of the Dukes Baseball team in 1948.  We completed a close reading of this story, helping develop our vocabulary.  We worked in small groups to finish up our first round of our book clubs!

Math: We worked on two different strategies for adding up to four two-digit numbers (decomposing and place value).  We watched two math videos that illustrate these strategies, and we took an assessment to show our understanding of this more complex math skill.

Health: We began our unit on Dental Health. We labeled the parts of a tooth, we brainstormed a list of healthy "teeth" foods, we began an experiment to show the effects of sugary drinks on teeth, and we wrote a lab report about our experiment.

Class News and Reminders...

Thank you to the Nortons for babysitting Joe over the extended winter break!  They learned exactly what the word "NOCTURNAL" means!

Thank you to Mrs. Newlin and ALL the parents for making our Teacher Appreciation week so special. (But our thighs do NOT thank you...how far away is spring break?)

Your child received a homework pass from us for Valentine's Day. It can be used for any homework assignment, but it must be turned in when the homework is due.  

Make sure to encourage nightly reading!  When children begin to gain momentum with reading (NOW!), it's vital to really allow that time to practice!