Hello Students and Parents,
Welcome Back from the Thanksgiving Break! I know that I thoroughly enjoyed relaxing with my family and eating a lot of turkey and dressing. Hopefully you all did also. The only bad thing about having such a great break is that we are all going to have to work very hard over the next month to cover everything before our Christmas Holiday Break.
This week in fundations we are learning all about the suffixes s/es/ing/ed. This will cause a natural conversation about tenses in our writing. Please be ready to point out to your student the present tense is happening right now (with -ing) where as past tense is represented with -ed. This can be hard for Second Graders to understand at this time in the year but continued support ensures that they will all understand this by the end of the year. Don't forget that we will be having our Unit 4 assessment on December 7th so be ready.
In Writing this week your student is learning about "How To's" such as how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or how to walk in the hall. Later this week we will write down how to wash your hands and even how to get ready for school. The main concept for "How To's" is that students use precise language and to write in a sequence. Encourage your child to experiment with the words "next," "first," "finally," etc. Not only will this get your student to think in a logical process but this will also impact their writing as the begin to write with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
For Reading, we are continuing to explore non-fiction texts. This week, some students are reading about how dogs find homes when they are in the pound, the impact that insects have on the world, how animal senses help them survive, and trees. Be sure to ask your student which book they are reading so that they can tell you all about it.
We are also going to be having a short Tradition project sent home next week. Your child will have the opportunity to share about a tradition that your family has and discuss how long you have been celebrating it. They can even explore why your family has that tradition. For example, my family eats homemade lasagna and Italian delicacies on Christmas. This is a tradition that my family has done since 1954 and which I hope to continue forever. My family does out of reverence for my grandfather who came from Italy after World War II. Please do not stress this but enjoy it and hopefully make some terrific connections with your Immigration project from the beginning of the year.
You all have a terrific week and please contact me with any questions you have.
Sincerely,
Mr. H
Big Events!
*Our Unit 5 Math Test will be Thursday
*Our 2nd Grade Spelling Bee is this Friday at 12:30pm. If you are able to make it, please feel free to come and support your student as well as their classmates. It will be in the Media Center and the words will be from the list sent home a few weeks ago. I would love to have a Harvey Hero win so be ready to bring it!
*The 2nd Grade Canned Food Drive officially kicks off on Thursday! Every canned food item brought in will recieve 1star ticket with a class goal of 150 items. The top two students who bring in the most items from my class and from Ms. Durzich's class will be invited to attend an all expense paid afternoon at the IMax. These lucky students will be treated to lunch and a movie one weekend in January 2012. I can't wait to see who wins from the Heroes!
*Unit 4 Fundations Assessment will be on December 7th
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
November 21st-22nd
Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope that you all are ready to enjoy the LoNg weekend. It may be a short week but there is a lot of information that we will continue to cover over today and tomorrow. Then there is also our celebration tomorrow where we will create some Thanksgiving crafts, learn a little more about the history behind the holiday, and do some nonfiction writing.
Unlike many weeks, today I am sending home a homework packet which will be due on Monday, November 28th. There are several review sheets within the packet. I am also sending home a review from Math Unit 4 (area/perimeter/geometry) and some word problems from Unit 5. This review has multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and two essay questions. If your student does nothing else, please make sure that they review this packet as it is taken directly from the Math Expressions Curriculum and will enable your student to perform better on our 2nd Quarter Math Assessment and our Unit 5 Math Test (which will be next Thursday).
The new spelling packet is also coming home today. It is for Unit 4 and we will have an assessment on that unit on December 7th. This is so that we can begin Unit 5 on December 8th and have our assessment for Unit 5 on December 21st which is the last school day before Christmas Break. This may seem a little hectic but we are supposed to cover about four spelling units each quarter.
I look forward to seeing many of you tomorrow as you help with our Thanksgiving educational celebration. If you have any questions please feel free to email me as usual. We are about to enter one of the most hectic times of year but I know that together we will be able to push through while giving each student some amazing memories and meaningful learning experiences. Thank you again to all the volunteers for KITS, Math Tiles, and our learning experiences. Have a terrific Thanksgiving Break!
Sincerely,
Mr. H
**Also, December is the month where all 2nd grade classrooms will be collecting canned goods for the Hunter Food Pantry. The food pantry provides food for over 50 families each weekend through the bookbag buddies program. Due to the current economic climate more families than ever need our help and yet many of us are in less of a place to help than ever before. Please consider buying two or three canned/nonperishable food items next time that you are at the store (or Walmart) so that we can share the love with the needy families of our amazing school.
I hope that you all are ready to enjoy the LoNg weekend. It may be a short week but there is a lot of information that we will continue to cover over today and tomorrow. Then there is also our celebration tomorrow where we will create some Thanksgiving crafts, learn a little more about the history behind the holiday, and do some nonfiction writing.
Unlike many weeks, today I am sending home a homework packet which will be due on Monday, November 28th. There are several review sheets within the packet. I am also sending home a review from Math Unit 4 (area/perimeter/geometry) and some word problems from Unit 5. This review has multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and two essay questions. If your student does nothing else, please make sure that they review this packet as it is taken directly from the Math Expressions Curriculum and will enable your student to perform better on our 2nd Quarter Math Assessment and our Unit 5 Math Test (which will be next Thursday).
The new spelling packet is also coming home today. It is for Unit 4 and we will have an assessment on that unit on December 7th. This is so that we can begin Unit 5 on December 8th and have our assessment for Unit 5 on December 21st which is the last school day before Christmas Break. This may seem a little hectic but we are supposed to cover about four spelling units each quarter.
I look forward to seeing many of you tomorrow as you help with our Thanksgiving educational celebration. If you have any questions please feel free to email me as usual. We are about to enter one of the most hectic times of year but I know that together we will be able to push through while giving each student some amazing memories and meaningful learning experiences. Thank you again to all the volunteers for KITS, Math Tiles, and our learning experiences. Have a terrific Thanksgiving Break!
Sincerely,
Mr. H
**Also, December is the month where all 2nd grade classrooms will be collecting canned goods for the Hunter Food Pantry. The food pantry provides food for over 50 families each weekend through the bookbag buddies program. Due to the current economic climate more families than ever need our help and yet many of us are in less of a place to help than ever before. Please consider buying two or three canned/nonperishable food items next time that you are at the store (or Walmart) so that we can share the love with the needy families of our amazing school.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
November14th-18th
Hello Parents and Students,
Thanksgiving Break is fast upon us. Please keep in mind when you make your holiday plans that we do have school next Monday and Tuesday (but not Wednesday-Friday). While we will only be in school for two days next week I still plan on having your student work very hard on some critical thinking questions as well as reading passages.
This week in Math we are continuing to work on word problems that come in multiple steps. This is a time when math can become very difficult for your student without them realizing it. Two step questions may seem to give the reader too much information when in fact every little items is important. I have already seen more than a few students get mixed up. When doing homework, please remind your student to slow down are read the question twice. Then develop a plan for how they will attack the problem. It is also critical that every student show their work. I have seen some students write just the one step for the solution but it is critical that they show all of their work so I can see their thinking and fix any problems that I see. I would like to send a Kuddo's to all of the students that continue to do their Math Stars! I have not been blind to who does them and how often. Math Stars is a terrific extension opportunity for all of the students. Please encourage you child to try at least one or two of them.
For Reading and Writing we are going to working on our Non-fiction texts and research. We will be exploring life for the Pilgrims and hopefully creating some indian/pilgrim village maps (SS objectives), writing some journal entries from the perspective of an indian/pilgrim (Writing obj), and reading various books about them (Reading obj). As you can see, there is a lot of synergy in Second Grade!
Major events coming up...
*Book Fair Family Night-Tuesday, November 15th from 4:30-6:30
(We buy our books as a class on Friday from 12:45-1:15pm)
*Hunter Orchestra Concert-Wednesday, November 16th @ 7pm
*Hunter Band Concert-Thursday, November 17th @ 7pm
*Raleigh Christmas Parade-Friday, November 19th @ 9:30am...look for me on the Falcon
Engineering Float kids:)
*Class Thanksgiving Activities, Tuesday, November 22nd
**Also, December is the month where all 2nd grade classrooms will be collecting canned goods for the Hunter Food Pantry. The food pantry provides food for over 50 families each weekend through the bookbag buddies program. Due to the current economic climate more families than ever need our help and yet many of us are in less of a place to help than ever before. Please consider buying two or three canned/nonperishable food items next time that you are at the store (or Walmart) so that we can share the love with the needy families of our amazing school.
Thanksgiving Break is fast upon us. Please keep in mind when you make your holiday plans that we do have school next Monday and Tuesday (but not Wednesday-Friday). While we will only be in school for two days next week I still plan on having your student work very hard on some critical thinking questions as well as reading passages.
This week in Math we are continuing to work on word problems that come in multiple steps. This is a time when math can become very difficult for your student without them realizing it. Two step questions may seem to give the reader too much information when in fact every little items is important. I have already seen more than a few students get mixed up. When doing homework, please remind your student to slow down are read the question twice. Then develop a plan for how they will attack the problem. It is also critical that every student show their work. I have seen some students write just the one step for the solution but it is critical that they show all of their work so I can see their thinking and fix any problems that I see. I would like to send a Kuddo's to all of the students that continue to do their Math Stars! I have not been blind to who does them and how often. Math Stars is a terrific extension opportunity for all of the students. Please encourage you child to try at least one or two of them.
For Reading and Writing we are going to working on our Non-fiction texts and research. We will be exploring life for the Pilgrims and hopefully creating some indian/pilgrim village maps (SS objectives), writing some journal entries from the perspective of an indian/pilgrim (Writing obj), and reading various books about them (Reading obj). As you can see, there is a lot of synergy in Second Grade!
Major events coming up...
*Book Fair Family Night-Tuesday, November 15th from 4:30-6:30
(We buy our books as a class on Friday from 12:45-1:15pm)
*Hunter Orchestra Concert-Wednesday, November 16th @ 7pm
*Hunter Band Concert-Thursday, November 17th @ 7pm
*Raleigh Christmas Parade-Friday, November 19th @ 9:30am...look for me on the Falcon
Engineering Float kids:)
*Class Thanksgiving Activities, Tuesday, November 22nd
**Also, December is the month where all 2nd grade classrooms will be collecting canned goods for the Hunter Food Pantry. The food pantry provides food for over 50 families each weekend through the bookbag buddies program. Due to the current economic climate more families than ever need our help and yet many of us are in less of a place to help than ever before. Please consider buying two or three canned/nonperishable food items next time that you are at the store (or Walmart) so that we can share the love with the needy families of our amazing school.
Monday, November 7, 2011
November 7th-11th
Happy Veterans Week Parents!
That's right, this Friday is Veterans Day so we do not have school. It'll be another short week but sometimes those weeks are the most difficult. Let's buckle up for a fast ride this week because we have a lot to cover! One thing to keep in mind is that our Unit 3 Fundations Assessment is this Wednesday so please be sure to look over the words and sorts on Tuesday night!
In Reading, we revved up the challenges with the Literacy Cafe. I am pleased to say that almost all of the students rose to the heightened expectation. We are tracking all that we are done in Cafe this week on a menu sheet. I can tell you that we read various books in small group, practiced our spelling words in word work, and worked on our writing (small moment stories about either Halloween or something else). This coming week will be working on writing bio-poems and poems about an event in our day (such as dinner). Hopefully these will be some fun (and funny) writings for us to enjoy creating and you to enjoy reading. For our reading component we will continue to work on reading non-fiction texts (think Turkeys).
In Math we are wrapping up our second mini-unit in Geometry. We have delved deeper in our understanding of quadrilaterals (4 sided shapes). Your student should be able to tell you all about the sides and angles of squares, rectangles, rhombuses, trapezoids, and even triangles (which are not a quadrilateral but rather a polygon). Your student will have a short assessment on Wednesday to help me see what I can teach better. It will only be a few questions so please don't fret. I will be able to grade them over the weekend and have them returned to you on the following Monday.
Please continue to complete your Cloud graph each day until the 24th so that all the Heroes can have some exciting discussions when we all come back from Thanksgiving Break. I can't wait to hear your student share their rationale as to why the clouds did or did not vary so much during October and November. This is also a great reinforcement for math! In Social Studies, we will begin discussing the Pilgrims next week. We will specifically explore what brought the Pilgrims to America and how their lives changed. Your student will have an assignment where we examine the manifesto of the Mayflower and then the attendance at the First Thanksgiving. We will discuss any change in attendance (and man is there one!) and make predictions as to why this may or may not have occurred. My hope is that you will also be able to learn some exciting things that you may never have known or just have forgotten about. If any of you parents have any ancestors who can trace their linage back to the Mayflower or are authorities on the Pilgrims please let me know. I would be more than happy to have you come in and share your wisdom with the Harvey's Heroes.
Don't Forget...
*No school on Friday
*The Hunter Book Fair starts next week!
*We have assessments on Wednesday for Math Unit 4 & Fundations Unit 3
Have a terrific week and please let me know if I can do anything to help you or your student!
Sincerely,
Mr. H
That's right, this Friday is Veterans Day so we do not have school. It'll be another short week but sometimes those weeks are the most difficult. Let's buckle up for a fast ride this week because we have a lot to cover! One thing to keep in mind is that our Unit 3 Fundations Assessment is this Wednesday so please be sure to look over the words and sorts on Tuesday night!
In Reading, we revved up the challenges with the Literacy Cafe. I am pleased to say that almost all of the students rose to the heightened expectation. We are tracking all that we are done in Cafe this week on a menu sheet. I can tell you that we read various books in small group, practiced our spelling words in word work, and worked on our writing (small moment stories about either Halloween or something else). This coming week will be working on writing bio-poems and poems about an event in our day (such as dinner). Hopefully these will be some fun (and funny) writings for us to enjoy creating and you to enjoy reading. For our reading component we will continue to work on reading non-fiction texts (think Turkeys).
In Math we are wrapping up our second mini-unit in Geometry. We have delved deeper in our understanding of quadrilaterals (4 sided shapes). Your student should be able to tell you all about the sides and angles of squares, rectangles, rhombuses, trapezoids, and even triangles (which are not a quadrilateral but rather a polygon). Your student will have a short assessment on Wednesday to help me see what I can teach better. It will only be a few questions so please don't fret. I will be able to grade them over the weekend and have them returned to you on the following Monday.
Please continue to complete your Cloud graph each day until the 24th so that all the Heroes can have some exciting discussions when we all come back from Thanksgiving Break. I can't wait to hear your student share their rationale as to why the clouds did or did not vary so much during October and November. This is also a great reinforcement for math! In Social Studies, we will begin discussing the Pilgrims next week. We will specifically explore what brought the Pilgrims to America and how their lives changed. Your student will have an assignment where we examine the manifesto of the Mayflower and then the attendance at the First Thanksgiving. We will discuss any change in attendance (and man is there one!) and make predictions as to why this may or may not have occurred. My hope is that you will also be able to learn some exciting things that you may never have known or just have forgotten about. If any of you parents have any ancestors who can trace their linage back to the Mayflower or are authorities on the Pilgrims please let me know. I would be more than happy to have you come in and share your wisdom with the Harvey's Heroes.
Don't Forget...
*No school on Friday
*The Hunter Book Fair starts next week!
*We have assessments on Wednesday for Math Unit 4 & Fundations Unit 3
Have a terrific week and please let me know if I can do anything to help you or your student!
Sincerely,
Mr. H
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
November 1st
Welcome to November!
I hope that everyone enjoyed the three day weekend! I have to say that it was great to see all the parents that were able to make it for our conferences this past weekend and yesterday. If you have not been able to conference with me please get with me as soon as you can so that we can either schedule an in person or email/phone conference. This coming week has a lot going on (as always) so please be sure to read below carefully and feel free to email me with any questions that you may have.
The first thing that you may notice is that your child's sticker chart is now directly related to if they write down their homework. I still go over it in class for five minutes and encourage some students to write down everything during the morning work time so that everyone can write it down. While this is a challenging task it will make your child more independent and help make their transition to 3rd grade that much easier.
One item that your child will notice is the progress monitoring component of "Literacy Cafe." We piloted it today and it went smashingly. I feel that the students will be better able to manage their time now that they now they are being held accountable. I am also excited to see how this will push the students toward academic success and help them to further develop their reading and writing skills.
That being said...we are working hard on "Small Moment" stories again this week. This time I am stressing adjectives as well as indenting and punctuation. Each week I will push one grammatical skill hard and there forth hold the student accountable for using it. The topic of each small moment story this week relates to one thing that they did on Monday (Halloween). For instance, a student may write about one house they visited while trick-or-treating or even a conversation that they had with someone. The main thing is to keep in mind that while a small moment story should be full of details, it should be limited to one action or event that took place within 15-20 minutes at most.
Adjectives will hopefully be easier for your student to remember because of us focusing on Poetry for the next two weeks. We are reading a variety of poems and will begin exploring the concept of writing poems with various rhyming patterns. It is important to remember that while we will be working on poems that rhyme it is also completely alright for your student to write poems that do not rhyme if that falls within the scope of the assignment.
We are back to Social Studies (but don't forget to fill out your cloud graph each night) and will be discussing the election process and explore the roles that we have in improving our community. Please be sure to share any way that you have impacted your community with your child not only so that they can appreciate you but also so that they can make text to world connections. Please feel free to have your student use any articles about the elections in their current event assignments.
Although we are not studying Science for the next few weeks, please be sure to have your student work on their cloud graph each night and to continue reading about animals and their life cycles. This week we do have one assignment where students will draw a diagram of an insect that they have discovered in the Amazon Rainforest (it should be imaginary). We will carry this assignment a few more steps before we are done and I am excited to see your student connect concepts that we have discussed with real life scenarios. Please continue to encourage your child to read Non-Fiction texts as that is the focus in literacy for 2nd quarter and Science is such a great segway into Non-Fiction reading.
Finally, in Math we are digging deeper with our exploration of shapes. We are exploring the attributes of squares, rectangles, and triangles as we use a variety of fun classroom supplies to explore. You may have your child tell you about playing with straws and pipe-cleaners, dry erase-boards, and tangram pieces. Rest assured that it's all academic (as well as fun)!
Things to Remember...
1. Literacy Night is Thursday from 5:30-7:30 (hurray!)
2. Picture Day is Friday!
3. PBIS Celebration Day is also Friday (no Math Tiles).
4. There is a PTA meeting on November 7th at 9:30am in the Media Center
5. This is the last week of 1st Quarter electives.
As always, please let me know if there are any concerns or issues that I can help with. Have a terrific week and welcome to the 2nd Quarter of 2nd Grade. I'm already getting a little sad that we only have three more quarter to go.
Sincerely,
G. Harvey
I hope that everyone enjoyed the three day weekend! I have to say that it was great to see all the parents that were able to make it for our conferences this past weekend and yesterday. If you have not been able to conference with me please get with me as soon as you can so that we can either schedule an in person or email/phone conference. This coming week has a lot going on (as always) so please be sure to read below carefully and feel free to email me with any questions that you may have.
The first thing that you may notice is that your child's sticker chart is now directly related to if they write down their homework. I still go over it in class for five minutes and encourage some students to write down everything during the morning work time so that everyone can write it down. While this is a challenging task it will make your child more independent and help make their transition to 3rd grade that much easier.
One item that your child will notice is the progress monitoring component of "Literacy Cafe." We piloted it today and it went smashingly. I feel that the students will be better able to manage their time now that they now they are being held accountable. I am also excited to see how this will push the students toward academic success and help them to further develop their reading and writing skills.
That being said...we are working hard on "Small Moment" stories again this week. This time I am stressing adjectives as well as indenting and punctuation. Each week I will push one grammatical skill hard and there forth hold the student accountable for using it. The topic of each small moment story this week relates to one thing that they did on Monday (Halloween). For instance, a student may write about one house they visited while trick-or-treating or even a conversation that they had with someone. The main thing is to keep in mind that while a small moment story should be full of details, it should be limited to one action or event that took place within 15-20 minutes at most.
Adjectives will hopefully be easier for your student to remember because of us focusing on Poetry for the next two weeks. We are reading a variety of poems and will begin exploring the concept of writing poems with various rhyming patterns. It is important to remember that while we will be working on poems that rhyme it is also completely alright for your student to write poems that do not rhyme if that falls within the scope of the assignment.
We are back to Social Studies (but don't forget to fill out your cloud graph each night) and will be discussing the election process and explore the roles that we have in improving our community. Please be sure to share any way that you have impacted your community with your child not only so that they can appreciate you but also so that they can make text to world connections. Please feel free to have your student use any articles about the elections in their current event assignments.
Although we are not studying Science for the next few weeks, please be sure to have your student work on their cloud graph each night and to continue reading about animals and their life cycles. This week we do have one assignment where students will draw a diagram of an insect that they have discovered in the Amazon Rainforest (it should be imaginary). We will carry this assignment a few more steps before we are done and I am excited to see your student connect concepts that we have discussed with real life scenarios. Please continue to encourage your child to read Non-Fiction texts as that is the focus in literacy for 2nd quarter and Science is such a great segway into Non-Fiction reading.
Finally, in Math we are digging deeper with our exploration of shapes. We are exploring the attributes of squares, rectangles, and triangles as we use a variety of fun classroom supplies to explore. You may have your child tell you about playing with straws and pipe-cleaners, dry erase-boards, and tangram pieces. Rest assured that it's all academic (as well as fun)!
Things to Remember...
1. Literacy Night is Thursday from 5:30-7:30 (hurray!)
2. Picture Day is Friday!
3. PBIS Celebration Day is also Friday (no Math Tiles).
4. There is a PTA meeting on November 7th at 9:30am in the Media Center
5. This is the last week of 1st Quarter electives.
As always, please let me know if there are any concerns or issues that I can help with. Have a terrific week and welcome to the 2nd Quarter of 2nd Grade. I'm already getting a little sad that we only have three more quarter to go.
Sincerely,
G. Harvey
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