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Week of May 2th

5/24/2013

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It's hard to believe that we are almost done with the school year.  I have really enjoyed working with all of your children this year!  This week we will be reviewing all the math concepts we have learned throughout second grade.  We are creating a few things to send home for the summer including a math game that has problems from each standard we have covered this year. 
We finished up our earth materials unit in science last week and will be taking a look at sound systems and different musical instruments and how they make sound. 
We also have our end of the year field trip/party to central park on Friday.  Feel free to meet us there to enjoy the morning celebration as a whole second grade. 
Please let me know if you plan on leaving early.  If you know your child won't be attending the last few days I'd like to know as soon as possible.  We will try to send home most of their things at the end of this week, but there are a few things that will be sent home June 4th and we'll try to accommodate as best we can.
Have a great long weekend!
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Week of May 6th!

5/3/2013

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Hi everyone!
Can you believe it is already May?!  We only have 20 more school days left until summer break, I can't believe how fast it is going by.  We've had two wonderful field trips in the last few weeks...both of which occured in mostly snow!  We've had the art show, money projects, literacy book publishing...I could go on and on!  It seems like the end of April and May have so many events we can hardly keep them all straight!  To help you out I've put all the events I know about on the schdule tab, so keep checking there to help you out!  Coming up this week throughout the school is the book fair and father daughter dance. 
In our class, we will be finishing up Unit 10 this week.  This was our unit about money and story problems.  The students are doing a great job of distinguishing the types of operations the questions are asking as well as borrowing and carrying.  This is a very important skill for third grade and most of them have already mastered it!
In science we will be continuing to work on our rock unit.  We've just completed another experiement about erosion and will be looking at the rock properties and the way geologists use information about rocks to help in various ways. 
I hope you
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Week of April 15th!

4/15/2013

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This week we are starting unit 10.  We are reviewing money concepts and refining our skills in money notation.  This includes a lot of place value work as well as counting money.  Students will be getting new math grouping again to help focus on skills they need to develop and work on.  We will also be using our 'SMART' goal work to help them begin creating goals during our independent time.  I will be supporting them in continuing to write, work on and finish goals. 
In science we are working on rocks still.  We have been working on a new thinking routine called "The Explanation Game."  If you'd like more information, please see my write-up about it in the Early Release section on the website.  It's been a lot of fun and the students have taken a liking to it. 
Don't forget we have our field trip on Thursday!  Please make sure to send a lunch with your child and a warm jacket as it is supposed to be cold. 
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Week of April 1st!

4/1/2013

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Welcome back! I hope everyone had a great Spring Break!  This week we will be continuing our unit about measurement.  The specific skills we are working on this week are perimeter and capacity.  The students will be making a 'capacity bot' to help them remember the equivalencies.  If you have a chance, a great way to practice this is to have your child help you cook some recipes as they have lots of volume measurements. 
Looking for a simple, fun and great way to use up all those plastic eggs from spring celebrations?!  I found some really discounted ones and bought a bunch because I saw a great idea on pinterest-and the students are LOVING it!  :)  What you'll need is a sharpie, and the eggs- that's it!!  All you do is seperate the eggs and write a math problem on one end, and the answer on another.  The kids can time themselves to practice their math facts and see how long it takes them to match them up. In our classroom I did multiplication, but you could use addition, subtraction, even division (whichever facts you think would most benefit your child).  I also color coordinated them so they could easily find the ones they were practicing.  For a real challenge you could make it so the colors don't match at all, or if you don't have all the sets of eggs you can put extras in to make it really hard!  Here is a photo of our class set.
Picture
In social studies we are continuing our study of rocks and minerals.  We are eager to share the rocks we are finding (even ones over break!)  and reading books and articles to learn about the huge variety found on earth.  We are also going to begin experiementing to discover about hardness, substance, streaking, and other rock properties. 
Don't forget that next Monday, April 8th are tryouts for
Have a great week and let me know if you have any questions!
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Week of March 18th!

3/16/2013

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One more week before Spring Break!  This week we are beginning a unit about measurement, specifically capacity.  Students will also be moving around in their math groups to help them work more closely with students working on the same goals.  Their individual goal writing is coming along really well.  It is wonderful to see such thoughtful second graders make goals about specific skills and work hard each day to get closer to attaining them!  Please take a moment to look through your child's folder to see the feedback they are receiving each week from both me and Jaime in reference to these goals.  We feel that feedback is so important in helping support them in creating and making goals for their individual learning. 
In science we are continuing to learn about rocks, but this week we are starting experiments! Students will be using various tools to test streaking, hardness, and other reactions that rocks can have with certain properties.  As they practice being scientists I expect they will start noticing rocks more and more outside of our classroom.  Feel free to encourage them to bring them to class!  I'll let you know when we have an abundance and can't hold anymore. :)
As always have a great week and I hope you have a lot of fun family time planned for spring break.  My family and I are planning a trip to welcome my new nephew who is due to be born that week, our fingers are crossed that we will be there when he arrives! 
 
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Week of March 11th!

3/10/2013

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Thank you to everyone who was able to join us at the auction this weekend!  It was fun seeing everyone bidding to win the pizza party and class project!!  Congratulations to those of you that won! 
This week the students will be finishing up our fractions unit by working on some fun projects and activities.  We will be taking our unit test on Friday and I'm sure they will all be ready!  This is one of my favorite units as it is so interactive.
In science we are learning all about earth materials, but specifically the rock cycle and layers of the earth.  We will be trying a new thinking routine called "See, Think, Wonder".  We will be starting a new rock museum, so many of the students might start collecting them to bring to class.  We will also be learning about rock properties and ways to d
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Week of March 4th!

3/1/2013

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This week in math we are continuing unit 8 which focuses on fractions.  We will be doing some fun projects surrounding fractions.  The vocabulary words we are focusing on are numerator and denominator.  The most important thing for the students to remember when working with fractions is that we are dividing the shapes or objects into equal groups.  Their homework this week will be focusing on this. 
In science we will be continuing our look at earth materials.  We have been studying the layers of the earth (inner core, core, mantle, and crust) and the rock cycle.  Many of the students have been bringing in rocks to show us, I love when they start to notice things we are studying outside of our school and class time! :) 
Don't forget about the school auction!  Both Jaime and I will be there, so we hope to have a great turn out from our class.  You can even bid to come have your child hang out with us at our school movie night!  As always have a great week and let me know if you have any questions.
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Week of February 25th!

2/23/2013

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First off, I'd just like to thank all the families that helped support the basketball teams by coming to our games!  It was a lot of fun seeing so many 2nd grade families cheering them on!!  The girls were able to end their season as Southeast Regional Champions and Runner Ups in the District Championship, which is the first for Roberts!  The boys were also Runner Ups in the District Championship!  They also received our first school trophies.  Very exciting!
This week in math we will be finishing up unit 7, and moving on to unit 8. If you'd like the family letter or vocabulary for the unit, please download them using the links below, or the buttons on the math homepage.  We will mostly be focusing on fractions and data collection.
Unit 8 Letter
Unit 8 vocabulary
In science we are beginning our earth materials unit.  We began the unit last week by writing down what we already knew about them and four questions we had in relation to earth materials.  This will help guide our study as we experiment with rocks and other types of earth materials.
My homeroom will be finishing up their class project for the auction, I'll post pictures when its done so that you'll know exactly what to look for!! :)  Remember the auction is coming up on March 9th, I look forward to seeing many of you there.
We had a lot of fun last week finishing up our study of germs.  We'll be creating a bulletin board in our classroom to show our results-some of them were kinda gross, but very cool!  Hopefully the kids remember to wash their hands more often...! 
Finally, expect some information to come home this week about your childs growth.  If you have any question or would like a conference in addition, please let us know (there will be directions included in the information!).  Have a great week!
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Week of February 20th!

2/16/2013

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Last week we had a really fun assembly about rhythm.  The kids really loved listening and participating-some even said it was their favorite assembly yet!  We also were able to celebrate some students who were able to raise a lot of money for 'Jump Rope for Heart'.  Ryan in our homeroom has been one of the top fundraisers for the school!  Way to go!
This week we are continuing our look at double-digit addition and subtraction as well as strategies for adding 3 or more numbers together.  We are also reviewing measuring in inches, centimeters and meters.  We are continuing to practice our basic multiplication.  In 2nd grade we try to master multiples of 0, 1, 2, 5, 10 and 11.  Many students are already well on their way to accomplishing this and working on multiples of 3, 4 and 6.   
In science we will be starting a unit on earth materials.  This unit has a lot of hands on activities in which we will study and experiment on various rock types.  Although this is a new unit, we will be building off of our last study of water and landforms. 
We were lucky last week to have Dr. Mouchantat visit our classroom and help us conduct an experiment on germs.  This week we will be concluding that by looking at what we were able to grow...I can only imagine!! :)
Even though this is a short week, it should be a lot of fun.  If you have any questions, please let me know.
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Just a few things!

2/9/2013

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Hi everyone,
I just wanted to let everyone know about a few things going on at the school.  First, we are getting ready for our big school auction!  This year it's changed a bit and we have a fabulous new logo and it's called 'BELIEVE".  Click here to get to the auction website!
There is a classroom contest for the auction.  The class that donates the most season tickets to sporting events, theater tickets, movie and concert tickets will win a pizza party!  You have to register them online.  You can do that by clicking here. 
We are also having a 'Box Tops for Education' contest and the class that brings in the most will get a special treat.  We were very close the last time, so please send them in!
Don't forget Wahoo's fish taco family night on February 21st.  Tell them you are from Bill Roberts and they will donate a portion back to the school!
Finally, next week will be our 'Jump Rope for Heart' week.  Our class is already starting to raise a lot of money!  Please check out the windows by the gym to see students who have raised a lot (we even have some from our homeroom, do you know who? -guess you'll have to look to find out!) 

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