ATTENTION!

Due to a scheduling conflict, Lewis University changed the date of our field trip. We are now going next TUESDAY instead of Wednesday. Remember that this is a  morning trip , so we will be eating lunch at the school like usual. The children do not need to bring anything for this field trip. Class t-shirts or red shirts are encouraged. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Classroom Snap Shot

Dear Families,

I hope everyone had a great weekend and got a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather we had his weekend! Here are a few things that kept us busy last week!

• In Shared reading, we enjoyed reading several poems, as we dug into our poetry unit.
• In Writing, we focused on poetry writing! This is one of my favorite writing units because it allows students to express their feelings and to explore a variety of different styles of writing. Last week, we learned how to write an acrostic poem and a bio poem.
• In Handwriting, we learned and practiced the letters "e" and  "l" .
• In Math, we learned to identify and recognize coins. We also discussed tips on how to count coins efficiently. Many students have successfully mastered counting coins and we will begin learning how to add and subtract. Parent tip: If your child has a piggy bank, have your child count out their piggy bank, and role playing as a cashier, adding up the cost of items and then "paying" for the items.
• In Science, we are learning all about Ecosystems/ Habitats. Last week we began discussing the Woodlands. We learned all about the different plants and animals that live in the woodlands.
• In Word Study, we have learned all of our sight words for the year. We will now begin reviewing all the sight words we have learned this year. Students will no longer be given 5 sight words each week, but will be responsible for knowing ALL their sight words. Each Friday, for the student's word wall test we will be picking a random set of 5 words for students to spell. Please make sure your child is practicing daily. A good tip would be to focus on the words students are not secure in and really study and practice those. Click the link above for a list of all 80 words. You can also find a copy of the students sight words in their school binders.

 

• Autism Awareness: Last week, we celebrated Autism Awareness and it was truly a success! Students and I completed many activities throughout the week that really helped students to understand how people who have autism feel and what we can do as friends and good citizens to help friends or family members with autism. We had a lot of great discussions and I know based on our discussions that a lot of students benefited and learned many new things about autism they didn't know before.   

• Supplies: At this time of the year supplies tend to run very low. Please ask your child about supplies they are needing. In most cases, students have run out of pencils, white board markers, glue sticks, crayons and markers. Thank you!
• Events:
• Scholastic Book Fair, April 7th (bring money if interested)
• Scholastic Book Fair Family Night, April 8th 4:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
• Field Trip to Lewis University, The Anti Bullying Production, April 16th

• To the many families who were able to donate to our One for Books fundraiser which helps us raise money for books for our school library, as well as, to a few lucky classrooms. The winners were:
• 1st place- Mrs. Weber
• 2nd place- Mrs. Donahue
• 3rd place- Mrs. Kulaga and Mrs. Waller
• Congratulations to all the winners!

Classroom Snapshot

Dear Families,

I hope everyone had a great weekend and are beginning to adjust to our time change. I also hope everyone will get a chance to get out and enjoy this beautiful weather today. I wish it could stay longer! Here are a few things that kept us busy last week.

• In Shared Reading, we enjoyed several Dr. Suess books last week, in celebration of his birthday week. We read many classic favorites, as well as, a few unfamiliar Dr. Suess books. Students thoroughly enjoyed taking the time out to enjoy some great reading!
• In Writing, we focused on the different parts of speech including, nouns, verbs, and adjectives. We had a blast using our favorite Dr. Suess books to help us identify the different parts of speech.
• In Handwriting, we learned several new letters to practice at home. We learned the letters, x,y,z,m,n, and o.
• In Math, we wrapped up our unit on three digit addition and subtraction with and without regrouping. Many students have successfully mastered this skill and will now be movin on to geometry.
• In Science, we had a successful field trip where students were able to identify many living and non living things at the Shedd Aquarium. Additionally, we have begun discussing the differences between producers and consumers, and how they relate to the food web and chain.
• In Word Study, we have learned all of our third quarter words this quarter already; therefore, we will begin reviewing words from previous quarters until the end of the quarter.

 

 

Field Trip: We are going on another field trip to Lewis University for a anti-bullying production. We will be attending the play April 16th, and will need all permission slips and money by March 21st. Please, turn in both as soon as you can.
Spring Conferences: Conferences will be held the week of March 17th. If you did not receive a conference form or need another please email me using the contact me link to the right.
Third Quarter: Third quarter has been extended due to the many extreme weather days. Our new end of the quarter date is March 14th, which in turn means report cards will now  go home on the 18th of March.
Supplies: At this time of the year supplies tend to run very low. Please ask your child about supplies they are needing. In most cases, students have run out of pencils, white board markers, glue, crayons and markers. Thank you!
Events:
• Young Children's Book Club; March 10, 2014
• Picture Day; March 13th, 2014

• Many Thanks goes out to the parents who made our recent field trip a success! Thank you again!!!
• Thank you to Mrs. Simonic for coming out last week and giving our class the most interesting science lesson this year. They still have not stopped talking about Turbo! We look forward to another visit soon :)  

Reminders

Spring Conferences: Conference notes went home please return them as soon as possible in order to get the time that best fits your schedule. Conferences will be held the week of March 17th. If you did not receive a conference form or need another please email me using the contact me link to the right. If you have scheduled a conference, you should have received your scheduled time, if you are unsure contact me and I will resend.

Third Quarter: Third quarter has been extended due to the many extreme weather days. Our new end of the quarter date is March 14th, which in turn means report cards will now  go home on the 18th of March.

Supplies: At this time of the year supplies tend to run very low. Please ask your child about supplies they are needing. In most cases, students have run out of pencils, white board markers, glue, crayons and markers. Thank you!

Events:

• ISAT Spirit Week March 3rd- March 7th (School Wide)
• Monday- "We're Ready!"- Wear Red
• Tuesday- "Exercise Your Brain"- Wear Workout Clothes
• Wednesday- " Wear your Thinking Caps"- Wear Hats to School.
• Thursday- "Knock the Socks of the ISATs"- Wear Crazy Socks.
• Friday- "You "Blue" the ISATs away"- Wear Blue.
• Healthy Health- Tuesday, March 4th- Thursday, March 6th students will need their gym shoes for P.E. students who do not have their gym shoes will be required to si out of P.E.
• Shedd Aquarium- March 6th
• Comfy Walking Shoes
• Completely Disposable Sack Lunch
• Dress for the Weather
• No Money or Cameras for students

Cursive Handwriting

Below is a sample of the cursive formations we are learning this year in handwriting. Student's goal is to master all lower case letters please practice with your child at home. Thank you!

Classroom Snapshot

Dear Families,

What a crazy winter! I hope last night storms didn't keep too many families up last night. Despite the weather, we had  another week full of fun! Here is a look at some of things we have been up to this week.

• In Shared Reading, we have been reading a variety of non-fiction books about two great historical figures, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. We have continued to focus on Main Idea, Details, Facts, Opinions, and Author's Purpose as we share and learn about the lives of two of our great presidents.
• In Writing, we  continued to be researchers and have begun researching information about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. Students received the opportunity to choose one of the two Presidents  to further research, and had time to work on the computers to find three interesting facts to include in their informational paragraph about their selected president. Students have had a blast with the computers!
• In Handwriting, we continued to practice our cursive stroke and have learned three additional lower case letters, d.q.and,g. Please, ensure that your child is practicing all their lower case letter cursive formation as we learn them because students will be tested at the end of the year on their cursive handwriting.
• In  Math, we have begun working on understanding how to add three digit numbers with here digit numbers. Students will learn how to model such problems using manipulatives, pictures, etc. Additionally, we will begin teaching both traditional and non-traditional methods of adding with and without regrouping. Please continue to practice at home basic math addition and subtraction facts.
• In Science, we just began our unit on living and non-living things. We have already learned and discussed what living things require, such as, water, air, food, etc. Students have done an excellent job differentiating the difference between both living and non-living things, and explaining how they know an object is living or non-living. We also, took advantage of our slightly warmer weather Wednesday and went on a nature scavenger hunt where we observed living and non-living things in our environment.
• In Word Study, we have learned all of our third quarter words this quarter already; therefore, we will begin reviewing words from previous quarters until the end of the quarter.

• Field Trip: If you have not already turned in your field trip money please remember to do so this week!
• Spring Conferences: Conference notes went home last week. Please return them as soon as possible in order to get the time that best fits your schedule. Conferences will be held the week of March 17th. If you did not receive a conference form or need another please email me using the contact me link to the right. If you have scheduled a conference, you will receive your scheduled time this Friday, so be on the look out.
• Third Quarter: Third quarter has been extended due to the many extreme weather days. Our new end of the quarter date is March 14th, which in turn means report cards will now  go home on the 18th of March.
• Supplies: At this time of the year supplies tend to run very low. Please ask your child about supplies they are needing. In most cases, students have run out of pencils, white board markers, glue, crayons and markers. Thank you!
• Events:
• Fun Fair - February 22nd
• Shedd Aquarium Field Trip- March 6th

• A huge thank you to our wonderful Valentine's Party volunteers and the families who were able to donate. It was greatly appreciated by all.
• Thank you for the wonderful Valentine's cards, etc. They were greatly appreciated.

Classroom Snapshot

Dear Families,

We are back in action! My sincerest apologies for not staying on top of our classroom blog. We have been up to so much fun and I we have so much yet ahead. I will be sure to keep everyone posted on our fun happenings! Thanks for your patience!! :)

• In Shared Reading, we have been working hard reading a variety of fiction and non-fiction penguins books. With these books we have had a main focus on author's purpose, main idea, nd fact and opinion. Students have had a blast certainly working on Fact and Opinion. We have had had many lively debates about whether Barbie is the best toy or power wheels, and determining that those are opinions.
• In Writing, we have been working very hard on informational writing. Last week, we completed an informational writing piece on firefighters based on our own background knowledge. We put together a one paragraph informational piece about firefighters using a topic sentence, three facts with details, and a concluding sentence. Students did such a  great job with this that we will be creating a classroom book using these pieces that will available for viewing at our upcoming parent teacher conference. This week, we have begun a new informational writing piece about penguins. Students this week have been using a variety of resources to gather information about penguins such as internet articles, books, and magazines. Students have been phenomenal researchers. :)
• In Handwriting, we have been working very hard on developing our cursive. Students have so far learned the lower case letters, i, t, u, w, v, j, p, r, s, c, and a. Students have also begun joining the lower case letters they have learned to form words such as circus, sit, pit, suit, and etc. Please ensure students are also practicing at home to improve their stroke.
• In Math, we are working on understanding numbers up to the 1,000. In the coming days we will be learning how to add and subtract with and without regrouping up to three digits numbers.  
• In Social Studies, we have been working hard learning about many different historical black figures. Some of the individuals we have learned about are Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Ruby Bridges. We have had many discussions about how it is ok to be different, the importance of standing for what you believe in, and the importance of the individuals roles in our lives today.

• Field Trip: If you have not already turned in your field trip money please remember to do so this week! I will be turning in the money to the office this Friday.
• Spring Conferences: Conference notes will be going home today. Please return them as soon as possible in order to get the time that best fits your schedule. Conferences will be held the week of March 17th.
• Third Quarter: Third quarter has been extended due to the many extreme weather days. Our new end of the quarter date is March 14th, which in turn means report cards will now  go home on the 18th of March.
• Supplies: At this time of the year supplies tend to run very low. Please ask your child about supplies they are needing. In most cases, students have run out of pencils,white board markers, glue, crayons and markers. Thank you!
• Class Reward: We have earned a class reward! Students will be allowed to wear a hat to school tomorrow during the school day! Yipee!
• Valentine's Day: We will be having our Valentine's Day parties this Friday. Students may bring in pre-made Valentine's Day boxes or bags, otherwise, one will be provided for your student. Also, if possible wear red, pink, or purple. :)
• Six Flags Reading Logs: Six Flag's reading logs are due this Friday, February 14th! That is the final day, late reading logs WILL NOT be accepted after this date.
• P.T.O. Cape Awards: A green sheet for nominating individuals in the school for P.T.O. awards were sent home last week. These nominations are due February 21st.
• Events:
• President's Day No School- February 17th
• Young Readers Club- February 18th
• Fun Fair- February 22nd

• Thank you to the many parents who were willing to volunteer their time for our upcoming fieldtrip. I have randomly selected the parents who will be attending and I will be notifying you today. If you were not selected, no worries, we have two more fieldtrips planned in April and May, which will also require chaperones. Thank you again!!

Classroom Snapshot!

Dear Families,

Happy Friday!!! I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful Halloween. We had a blast here in school! Here are a few things we did this week:

• In Shared Reading, we read the book, The Ox Cart Man. We focused on using our background knowledge to help us to better understand what we are reading.
• In Writing, we worked on transition words, comma usage, and writing from pictures. Students were given 4 pictures that they had to sequence correctly. Then, students had to write a paragraph from the pictures remembering to use transition words and commas.
• In Math, we worked on problem solving using repeated addition. This is a foundational step of multiplication; however, we did not yet link their repeated addition work to multiplication; although, some second graders did explore the multiplication sign through the repeated addition.
• October pictures will be posted by this Sunday of all our October adventures!

• Thank you to all who have scheduled a parent teacher conferences. If you have not received a conference time, please contact me as soon as possible. Clicking the contact me link above will give you information on how to contact me.
• Conferences are next week, I look forward to meeting with everyone!

• Thank you to all the families who made our party a success by either volunteering their time or by donating items. We greatly appreciate it!
• Thank you to our Snazzy Snak Shoppers this month! Our snacks were yummy!!

Classroom Snapshot

What an adventure day we had today! Due to Electrical issues today, we spent about an hour today without power! However, like they say the show must go on! We continued with our day as usual and students handled the unexpected like real champs. We are all so proud of their flexibility today.

This week we had a lot of great learning adventures. Check it out!

Shared Reading

This week, we used our shared reading time to review everything we have learne this year in 2nd grade, and prepared ourselves to take our first outcome assessment in Language Arts. Students did a great job and worked really hard!

Math

This week, we continued our focus of subtraction strategies. Please, continue to practice subtraction facts with students at home.

Social Studies

This week, we continued our focus on communities, and even got an opportunity to go in a field trip to the fires station to learn how fire men help in our community. (PICTURES COMING SOON!)

Next Week:

• Monday and Tuesday, I will be out of the building again for assessment writing for our new math common core curriculum.
• Monday- Friday is Red Ribbon Week! Where we are Absolutely "PAW"sitively Drug Free!
• Monday: "Follow your dreams!" - PJ day
• Tuesday: "Say peace out to drugs!" - Tie Dye day
• Wednesday: "I'm too bright for drugs!" - Bright/neon colored clothing day
• Thursday: "Catch the wave of a drug free life!" - Hawaiian day
• Friday: "Team up for a healthy lifestyle!" - Sports Apparel day
• If you have not scheduled a parent teacher conference, please remember to do so. Conferences are available Monday- Thursday November 4th- 7th.
• Report Cards will be going home this Thursday, October 24th!
• Please remember to sign and return the signature sheet. 
• Monster Bash will be held this Friday from 5:30-7:30
• If you are interested in your child attending, Mystery Cafe will be held this Friday at 8:00 a.m.

That's it for reminders for now. Please check back throughout the week for any updates!

Thank you to Mrs. Czekala for assissting and volunteering her time to come in and chaperone our Fire Station Fieldtrip!

Have a great weekend!!

Classroom Snapshot

Hi Families! I hope everyone had a long and restful weekend. Last week we had a lot of fun things happening. Take a quick peek at some of the work we did.

 Shared Reading

we read The Remarkable Adaptable Turtle, this text was an informational non-fiction text. In this book, the students learned all the ways that turtles adapt to the enviornment around them. (Ask you second grader what adapt means.) In addition, we focused on the comprehension strategy of summarizing, main idea, and supportive details.

Writing

We read a cute book called, My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks. Students enjoyed reading this silly story of a little girl's description of her family using only similies ( a figure of speech, which uses like or as to compare to unlike objects). Students enjoyes so this book so much that we decided to create our own classroom book, where we described ourselves using only similies.

Math

we finished topic two and our focus on addition strategies, and we have begun topic 3 focusing on subtraction strategies.

Social Studies

We continued our focus on communities.

This Week:

• Book Fair- We attended the book fair as a class today, Tuesday, October 15th ; however, we the book fair is open through Friday.
• Field Trip-We will be taking a walking field trip to the fire station this Thursday!Please, turn in the field trip slip as soon as possible so that your child may attend.
• Professional Development- This Wednesday, I will be out of the building for a planning committee to train staff on a piece of the new Math Common Core. I will see your kiddos on Thursday
• CogAT- Thank you families for being very flexible as we experienced many technological glitches with our online assessment system for cogAT testing.We will be picking up testing the week of October 21st- November 1st.
• Be on the look out for Conference Schedules! They will be sent out this Thursday. I will do my best to accomodate families with their first and second time choices; however, with 31 students scheduling may be very dificult. Please, be as flexible and patient as possible as we schedule this years fall conferences.
• Wednesday, C day, students will have a healthy health class; therefore, please make sure your child has gym shoes to wear the p.e. tomorrow!

UPDATE!

Tomorrow we will be taking the first of three batteries of our CogAT testing. Please, make sure students get a good night sleep and they eat a healthy breakfast in the morning!

Classroom Snapshot

Dear Families,

We have been very busy in room 005 in the last week! 

Last week we...

Math

continued to work on a variety of addition strategies through exploration. Students discovered patterns in mathematics through the explorations of double math facts and near double facts. Students also discovered that no matter how you add the addends in an addition fact, the sum always stays the same. 

Shared Reading

worked on strategies for solving unfamiliar words. Students learned that we can use our context clues or clues around a word to discover meaning. 

Writing-

began writing a poem or a song about a tradition that is special in our families. Many students chose Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, and Christmas. Ask you child what they chose.

Social Studies

continued our focus on citizenship and what good citizens do for their community. 

Students had a blast creating their apple smiles!! 

Thank you to the many families who came and supported second grade on our first family outing to Haunted Trail! It was an absolutely awesome experience and I loved being able to spend time outside of school with my students and their family. I look forward to the next time. Plus, there are a couple students who I need to rematch at laser tag because I swear the red team won. :)

Also, thank you to the families who were able to supply donations to our first snazzy snack, "Apple Smiles", as you can see above the students loved it and it was a great way to end our Johnny Apple Seed Unit. 

Finally, thank you to the families that have been able to participate in our Mystery Readers. The kids have been extremely excited and have looked forward to Fridays to see who will be coming in next. Remember we would love to have you next! If you are interested you can click on the Mystery Reader form above and  sigh up electronically or be on the look out this week for a new sign up sheet for the next two months! 

This Week:

• One for Book Coin Drive will be taking place all week. This is an opportunity for our school to earn new library books at our upcoming Book Fair. In addition, the classroom who earns the most money will be able to purchase the amount they raised in books for their classroom. Last year, our class earned upwards of $600 in new books thanks to One for Books. That meant, at least two- three new books per student that was able to be added to our classroom! It all starts Monday with Pennies!
• Tuesday- nickles
• Wednesday- dimes
• Thursday-quarters
• Friday- All Denominations
• Classroom T-shirts are on the way! Yay! They should be arriving by next week.
• CogAT testing begins this Friday, October 11th. Parents and Students: This test is extremely important! This test will determine your child's placement in regards to the Gifted and Honors program that is available beginning in 3rd grade. Please, Please, Please, make sure your child is prepared to begin the first battery of test on Friday. The tests are an hour and fifteen minutes long with small breaks in between. This year the CogAT will be taken on the computer but will be proctored/read by me. Please, be sure your child has a yummy breakfast, sleeps well the night before, and has on comfy clothing. Also, if you are able, please avoid doctor's appointments on this day and if at all possible make sure your child is in attendance. The second and third battery of test will be completed on October 21st and October 22nd.

Classroom Snapshot

Hello Families!

Our second graders have been very hard at work since the beginning of the school year building their stamina for reading, writing, word work, and reading to someone. We have successfully built our stamina for 15 minutes independently in all of the above centers, which means we are ready to begin our guided reading small group instruction! It is the most exciting and most important part of the day as we begin to really grow as readers and writers. Please make sure to ask your child about what books we are reading in class.

This week:

• I will be out of the building Monday and Tuesday to work on Common Core Math Curriculum for the district. 
• in Shared Reading, students will be able to use a variety of questioning techniques to better understand what they are reading. 
• in Math, students will be learning a variety of addition strategies.
• in Social Studies, we will continue to discuss communities and good citizenship. 

Reminders:

• Please remember we are always looking for Mystery Readers! If you are interested in being a mystery reader for our class, please send a note or email and I will get you all set! If you would like, you can also click the mystery reader tab above, and you can sign up electronically. 
• Please return Community Helpers forms if you are interested in sharing with our classroom about your work in the community. 
• Don't forget our 2nd Grade Party at HAUNTED TRAILS!!!! Everyone is invited! Included but not limited to Siblings, moms, dads, neighbors, grandmas, grandpas, etc. We hope to see everyone for an epic laser tag 2nd grade tournament this Thursday, September 26th!

Catch you later!

Welcome!!!

I am so thrilled to be able to connect with all my families this year through my classroom blog. What can you expect to find here? You can expect to find, weekly updates of what we are doing in our classroom including fun pictures of some of our classroom adventures! Additionally, you will find many reminders and things I would like you to be on the look out for as they come home. I hope families find this to be a useful tools, and I am definitely open to suggestions. If you have any suggestions to make our classroom blog more useful, please let me know. 

Reminders:

- P.T.O. meeting tonight at 6 p.m. hope to see you there!

- Please return handbook signature page if you have not done so already. 

- Remember to check out your child's monthly behavior calendar, and sign student homework logs nightly. 

Be on the look out:

- Students will be bringing home homework this week, please be sure to give students support in the beginning of the school year. Make sure your child has a quiet and consistent space to complete homework. 

- Daily Homework is as follows:

           Monday Math- Worksheet Inside Folder (IF)

           Tuesday, Totally Sight Word Tuesday- Inside Notebook (IN)- Nothing comes back to school just            

           a signature of completion at home is required.

           Wednesday, Wonder Writers Wednesday- Inside Notebook (IN)- 3 sentences to given prompt.

           Thursday, Thinking Thursday- Inside Notebook (IN)- reading plus 3 sentenes to given prompt. 

           (Monday- Friday- 20 minutes of reading daily)

- Homework Journals will be where Tuesday- Thursday homework will be stored. 

- For information regarding Star Students.

- Above you will find a running list of our weekly sight words in case students lose or forget. 

Thanks so much!

 Hello families! I hope everyone had a wonderful and restful spring break. I love seeing the students come back from spring break they look so refreshed, rejuvinated, and ready to tackle the remaining 7 weeks of school like champs!

Well this first week back from break was absolutely AWESOME! We have been involved in a lot of fun activities this week and I can't wait to share.
This week's snapshot...

In Math, students have totally up for the challenge of learning how to add and subtract double digit numbers! Students have been extremely successful at learning this new and challenging concept and I am very proud of them. We've had a lot of fun learning about being precise in our mathematical language and the importance of place value when working with addition and subtraction. You will find that in the new Common Core Standards, there is a major emphasis in an understanding of place value; which, is why I gave students the assignment of challenging their parents and teaching you the importance of how numbers work, and that a number in the tens place is not just 7 but 7 tens. The kids thoroughly enjoyed teaching you all :)

This month begins Poetry Month! Therefore, in shared reading we have explored a variety of different poems and practiced the very important skill of visualizing which is when readers make a mental picture in their heads. This is a great skill to work on at home. Especially as students begin to really delve into pictureless chapter books. Make reading fun by having them read a chapter and then have them draw a picture of what they see in their head.  

Classroom Snap Shot

We're back! My sincere apologies for not keeping up with this blog and popular demand :) we are back in action! Although, we have been away for some time we have still been very hard at work. Learning about 3D shapes, 2D shapes, measurement, graphing, research writing, expository writing, taking notes on fiction and non fiction text, cursive, presidents Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, Martin Luther King, Black History Heroes, celebrating Dr. Suess' Birthday, learning all about contractions, and so much more! I am so happy to be back to keep you all informed of our happenings here in room 005!

Today We:

• Continued our discussion on telling time to the nearest five minutes. Sudents have been very successful with telling time so far! For the last couple weeks we have taken a new approach to our math lessons and it has proven to be very succesful in cementing learning of new and old mathematical concepts. As apart of the Common Core Math Committee in the district I have received a lot of training on Common Core and its rigourous expectations. Therefore, I have began implementing the standards of Mathematical Practice. The standards of Mathematical Practice supports the why or how of math. We've always learned the what, but have often forgotten that students also need to understand the why behind math and how it works, instead of just memorization of math practices. Each Week or the remainder of the year I will introduce to you one of the matematical practices and how we used it in our classroom for math that week or day.
• This Weeks' Mathematical Practice:
• Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
• Throughout our math lesson I ask the question  how. How do you know that? How can you convince me? Convince your partner that your logic and thinking is valid. Did you convince me? How do you know? The use of these questions alone have sparked so many ah!ha! moments in our classroom. It has truly given me goose bumps to watch students debate back and forth with classmates and teams on their reasoning of how mathematic concepts work. A quote from a student today, " At first I thought that it was a correct display of time; however, after speaking with my partner I am convinced that it is not a correct way of showing 1:50 beause...." the student went on to elaborate their NEW thinking successfully. I love this and students enjoy it too... getting an opportunity to debate with one another and proving their thinking using a variety of arguments including modeling. It is amazing!
• Learned the lower case letter f in cursive. So far we have learned all the lower case letters of the alphabet except the letter b, which is our lesson tomorrow. Please continue to practice students cursive writing at home, as they will be assessed on cursive handwriting in the fourth quarter.
• Have just completed our unit of Expository Writing and our writing piece, How Mrs. Szurek Helps Our Shool. Up next is our unit on Directional or How To Writing, which is one of mt favorites.
• Continued our discussion of plants in our Living and non living unit.

Reminders:

• If you have not scheduled a parent teacher conference please do so as soon as possible! Scheduled times will be sent home today if scheduled.
• Report Cards will be sent home this Thursday.
• Spring Picture Day is scheduled for this Thursday.
• We are in need of Guest Readers, remember this can be a family member, family friend, parent, older brother or sister, etc. We'd greatly appreciate it! Just click the guest reader link up top to schedule.
• Continue practicing math facts!
• Practice Cursive writing (lower case letters only)!

Goodness Me! It has been a crazy couple of weeks since being back from Thanksgiving. We have been up to so much fun these last few weeks and I can't wait to share with you some of the fun an exciting moments we have been having!
Science: In science we wrapped up our unit of matter, and had an absolute ball! We had trail mix to help us to identify the properties of matter and to discuss what a micture was. Then we had lemonade to talk about what a solution was and how it was diferen

Classroom Snapshot, Thanks and Reminders

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving filled with lots of love and family! I had a great Thanksgiving with my family, and enjoyed getting to spend 5 days with my little guy. We also had a great time listening to Christmas music and putting up our trees and decorations. My favorite tree in the house has to be sons tree that he picked out last year. If you didn't know my son is truly a basketball guru and can tell you anything you want to know about basketball including, every team Shaquille Oneal has ever played on! He's 4! Crazy! I know, but what can you expect when you have Varsity Assistant coach as a dad. Anyway, his tree happens to be my favorite because it is the Fighting Illini colors, which is his favorite college basketball team and has basketballs as ornaments!  Maybe we have a future Illini Alum? Who knows! So, I said all that to say, I hope your Thanksgiving Holiday was also filled with laughs, memories, and joy.

So it was great seeing all the kids today, and they came in ready to learn, which was great because we had a pretty busy day. Here are few things we did today:

Today we:

• took our pretest on geometry because that is our next focus unit, which I am super excited about. I love Geometry!
• practiced our reading responses during writing time. We practiced answerinf who, what, when, where, and why questions from our text. Then we put them altogether to make what we call a sentence stretcher.
• introduced a new shared reading book called His Majesty, the King, which is an excellent folktale about a king who wanted to go to moon, and decided to command all his subjects to bring a box so they could stack them as high as the moon. The King did all this at the dismay of the Queen.He finally had almost reached the top, but sadly he was one box short to his desination of the moon. So what did he decide to do.... he commanded his servants to take the box from the bottom of the tower and place it on the top. Everyone warned him that was a bad idea, but he is the king! As you probably guessed the tower came falling down with the King landing on top. With this book, we are working on Story traits, such as characters, setting, problem, solution.Funny side story: I think this was one of the abosolute cutest thing I have ever seen. As I read to the students the part about the King commanding the servants to take a box from the bottom and place at the top, one of our classmates facial expression was absolutely priceless! Her face started off as look of concern, ho wis he going to reach the moon. When she heard the King's not so brilliant idea her face slowly began to turn into a quizzical frown, as she began to realize that his idea was not going to work. I truly wish I had a camera because it will defintely be a memorable moment everytime I read this book in the future.
• began reading a great book by Dr. Suess called Batholomew and the Oobleck, during science. This book is excellent because it lends itself well to a discussion on Solids, liquids, and gasses. Additionally, tomorrow we further our discussion as we experiement with matter and make our own Oobleck! (Pictures to come tomorrow!)

Overall, we had an excellent day, and I am really excited about tomorrow!

Thanks:

• Our Thanksgiving feast was a success because of the great families we have here. The students had a wonderful time. Thank you to all the families who were able to contribute. Everything was so yummy!
• To Mr. Petty for coming in and being a mystery reader this past week! I I think I may have forgotten Mr. Flores who also came in to be a star reader a couple weeks ago! Thanks again we can't do it without you!
• To all the families that offered to donate an item towards our Science Experiments. It is truly appreciated.

Reminders:

• Naglieri Test Scores went home today.
• We are in need of Mystery Readers! Please click the link above if you are interested. We have three full weeks left before Christmas break and we would love to have some mystery readers! So far we have had moms, dads, aunts, and grandmas. Remember to pass the word on to family memebers too! Thanks!