May 16th

Families & Friends,

This week is packed full!  We are going to the San Diego Zoo tomorrow...keep your fingers crossed that it won't rain!  The students are excited to visit the animals that they will be writing their animal reports about. 

Wednesday is the IA Talent Show.  It will take place in the 3,4,5 area from 10:30-11:30.  We have a few acts from 2nd grade.  It is open to all families and friends.

Thursday & Friday I will begin giving students the WRAT.  This is the end of the year assessment that IA uses.  It is important that your student is here on these days because this data will be used by their teacher next year and I will also want to go over it with you during conferences next week.

Thursday afternoon is the 2nd grade Birthday Celebration.  It will begin at 2:30 and go through the end of the school day.

This weeks words of the week are Zoo words:
animal, habitat, nature, captivity, offspring

NEXT WEEK:
Monday - Thursday are half days for conferences and presentations of learning.  The students will be focusing on their animal reports this week so even though it is half day, it is important that your child is at school.  We will also be working on our Pond Ecosystem this week and your student is part of a partnership.  Hopefully, they came home and told you what part of the ecosystem they are in charge of.  If not, ask them!

Friday there is no school for professional development...and the following Monday there is no school for Memorial Day.  Enjoy your long weekend! 

Thank you for reading,
Jenn

Thank You!

Dear 2nd graders and 2nd grade families,

THANK YOU for making Teacher Appreciate Week so special!  You have all been so supportive and generous throughout the year but this past week was above and beyond anything I could have imagined.  On Tuesday my desk looked like a garden had sprouted and the kind notes I recieved from you and your kiddos brightened my day on Wednesday.  I am also so appreciative of the thoughtful gifts of chocolates, books, and the Target gift card.  Not only were these such generous gifts but they were each so thoughtful.  I am so lucky to have families like yours and to be working with you and your students this year! 

We have started two new projects in our classroom.  The first was created by Esther (a big thank you to you!).  The students will be using their knowledge about money, adding, subtracting, measurement, writing, reading, and mapping skills to travel through magical lands.  They will have budgets to keep and adventure logs to record their travels within.  This is going to be a great project to have the students delving into their imaginations.  Ultimately we are hoping that the students will create their own magical lands for their friends to travel to.

The other project is based around Swimmy (our tadpole).  As Swimmy becomes a frog we are wondering what to do with him.  We are doing research on lakes, ponds, and streams to determine what frogs need to survive and what else is in their habitat.

In math we are continuing to explore addition, multiplication and division as well as their relationship to each other.  Today we played a game called "Left Overs."  The students played the game in pairs and used counters and dice to divide groups of objects.  Ask your student to teach you the rules!  Some students began to realize that division problems that had a remainder of 0 could also be turned into multiplication problems but division problems with a remainder were different.  This is something we are still discussing in class.

Broc is helping Ethan decide if he wants to place his role in the 10s column or the 1s column.

Javhi is adding up his total of the moment before he decided where he wanted to place his last role.

On Friday we played another great game called "101 and Out."  This is an addition game that is also played in pairs.  This game is about number sense and place value.  Again, all you need is a die and a sheet to record the scores on.  Please ask your student to play with you at home!  They can teach you the rules.

Words of the Week:  plural nouns where we drop the y and add ies

city - cities

party - parties

family - families

story - stories

baby - babies

END OF THE YEAR CONFERENCES AND POLs:  May 23rd-26th

Please sign up under the class bulletin board for your choice of date and time.  So far I only have 4 families that have signed up.  If any of the times do not work for you please let me know and we can schedule something before school or I can stay later to meet your needs.

SD ZOO FILEDTRIP:

If you have volunteered to chaperone for the Zoo Trip, thank you!  The students will have small assignments while they walk around the zoo so I will get a list of your group members as well as what their assignment at the zoo will be on Friday.  You will only have about 3 students in each group and I will probably be doubling up chaperones.  If you or your student has a preference of who they would like to be with please let me know by Thursday.

Thank you all again for a wonderful week last week!  I am blessed to be working with your students and to have the support of families like you!

Jennifer

May!

Dear Families and Friends,

Happy May!  Can you believe how quickly this year has flown?  There are many important upcoming events for this month:

Tuesday, May 17th Fieldtrip to the SD Zoo.  We will leave IA at 9:00am and return at 3:00pm.  We still need one or two more chaperones.  If you are interested please let me know.  The cost os $10 per adult.  The students are all free.

Wednesday, May 18th IA is putting on a Talent Show.  More details to come.

Thursday, May 19th will be our classroom Birthday Celebration for the month of May.  If your child has a birthday in May please coordinate treats on the sign up sheet on the door.

Monday, May 23 - Thursday, May 26th are half days.  In the afternoon your student will be assigned a time for a Presentation of Learning.  There is a sign-up sheet on the wall to schedule your conference time.

Friday, May 27th there is NO SCHOOL for professional development.

Monday, May 30th there is NO SCHOOL for Memorial Day

Thank you to all of the families that brought treats for the teachers today.  You truly brightened our day with a great breakfast and lunch.  We are so proud and honored to be your students' teachers!

Exciting news from the classroom - Swimmy is a froglet.  His tail has almost diappeared and he spends some time out of the water.  The kids were SO excited this morning when they saw him.

Most of the class has finished their personal narratives.  Please come by the room and read these great memories.

In math we are continuing to work on multiplication and division.  Some of the students are learning what to do with remainders.  Last week I gave the following problem:  There are 8 cookies that need to be divided equally by three friends.  Many of the students were stumped but a few came up with very creative ways to solve the problem.  Here is an example:

Isaac solved 8 divided by 3 by drawing plates for each of the three friends.  Then he gave them each an equal amount of cookies until there were not enough left to distribute equally.  The extra 2 cookies he split into three pieces because there were three friends to share with.  In the end each friend got 2 whole cookies and 2/3.

 In Social Studies the class is still learning about the economy and all the roles that people play within the economy.  Today with Kimberly, our Junior Achievement helper, we learned about campaigning and voting.  The class had an empty real estate location for rent.  Each group was given a business that they had to campaign for, to fill the space.  The class came up with the pros and cons for a pet shelter, skate park, and toy store.  They presented these pros and cons to the class and then the class voted, by ballot, on which business they would like in their community.  The pet shelter won.



Preparing a list of pros and cons to present to the class



Voting