For the past few months, Mrs. Lee’s 5th grade class has been visiting our room  Tuesday afternoons.  The students have been paired up with a fifth grade student to be their Reading Buddy.  During this time, all students get to read some of their favorite books to each other.  The students have been writing reviews of these books as well.  We look forward to continuing this throughout the year.

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We can not believe it is already time to start the 2nd Grade ABC Countdown!  Starting this Thursday, May 3rd, the 2nd Grade begins the countdown to the last day of school.  Each day has a corresponding letter that goes along with an activity.  We start with A (Athletic Day) and end with Z (Zip up your bags and go home)!  On Monday, your child brought home a list of all the days, letters and activities. There is also a list posted on the 2nd Grade page.  It is a great and fun way to end the school year!

This week our class learned all about contractions.  To help the students better understand the concept, they became surgeons and performed surgery on words.  For example, the students took two words such as do and not.  They removed the o from not and bandaged them back together.  This left them with the word don’t. They used a bandage as their apostrophe.

Be sure to ask you child what words they operated on today!

Most of our Flat Stanleys have returned and it has been so exciting to read about all of his adventures. He has traveled all around the world and has been to many different urban, suburban, and rural communities.  Our students have been able to learn so much about the world from this activity.  Thank you for your cooperation and support.

This week we are reading non-fiction stories in Language Arts.  Feel free to pick up a non-fiction story to read at home with your child.  Make sure to ask about all the non-fiction text features we discussed in class.

Spring MAP testing will be:

Math- Tuesday, April 24

Reading – Tuesday, May 1

It is so exciting to see all the fantastic places Stanley has visited.  He has been to rural Wisconsin, the suburbs of New York City, and even right here in downtown Chicago.  He has gone from coast to coast and comes back with exciting stories to tell.  We can’t wait to see where else he has been!   Hopefully all the Stanleys will return by this Friday, March 16.  The children are so excited when their Stanley has returned.

Welcome Home, Stanley!

This past Wednesday was Leap Day!  The second graders had a great day participating in various Leap Day activities in each classroom. In Mrs. Bader’s classroom, the students made frogs out of paper bags and construction paper.  In Ms. Koerber’s room, they read Leopold’s Long Awaited Leap Year Birthday and asked questions about the story.  In Ms. Levin’s room, the students thought about where they will be on the next Leap Day and what they will be doing.  They wrote a paragraph on this topic. In my room,we discussed the number four and things that come in fours. Then the kids skip counted by four on a 200 hundreds chart.

All in all, they had a great time!

Our Flat Stanley project is underway.  We are hoping to get more pictures in everyday. If you have not yet sent out your Flat Stanley, please do so as soon as possible.  We are beginning to receive some back and are hoping that all will return safely by March 16, 2012.

Happy travels to Flat Stanley!  Looking forward to seeing where you have been!

Happy Valentine’s Day to All!

Thank you so much for sending in cards and treats for everyone in our classroom.  We will enjoy them this afternoon when we have our class party.

Just a reminder about the school schedule for this week:

Wednesday, February 15 – Noon Dismissal.  Parent/Teacher Conferences

Thursday, February 16 – Noon Dismissal.  Parent/Teacher Conferences

Friday,  February 17 – No School for the children – Institute Day for Teachers

Monday, February 20 – No School – President’s Day

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Wow! Congratulations to all the second graders for a wonderful performance last night. Each student worked hard on perfecting their singing, dancing, music playing, and speaking parts and it showed.  I hope all families enjoyed this performance.

Since the new year began, the class has been busy learning various reading strategies and center expectations. The whole grade has been working on implementing “The Daily Five”  into our classrooms. This program fosters literacy independence in elementary classrooms. Students are learning how to “Read to Someone” while checking for comprehension. They are also focusing on “Listen to Reading,”  “Work on Writing,” and “Word Work.” The students are gaining more independence in their reading abilities as they “Read to Self.” A huge factor in the success of The Daily Five is reading “just right” books.