I hope that your extended weekend was memorable and lots of fun! I spent the weekend visiting family in North Carolina. It certainly was nice to have a long weekend to recharge!

Here are some important dates for the upcoming month:

Thursday, December 1 - Book Orders are due

Tuesday, December 6 – Kaukauna Holiday Parade 

                      - Yoga Day (please wear comfortable clothing)

Thursday, December 8 – Pizza, PJs, and Publishing Family Night 5:30-7:00

                       - Pajama Day

Tuesday, December 13 - No School (inservice for teachers)

Thursday, December 22 – 2^nd Grade AM Field trip to Barlow Planetarium

December 23-January 1 – No School Winter Break

Tuesday, January 3 – classes resume

***Just a reminder that I will be leaving for a reading institute at Columbia on Saturday. I will be back to school on the afternoon of Wednesday, December 7. Although I will be checking email while in New York, please let the office know if there is something that needs immediate attention. Thank you!

Curriculum Updates:

Reading ~ This week will be spent learning how to connect information across books on the same topic. We will be noticing how information is connected, similarities and differences among books on the same topics, and how to use the information from several books to retell about the topics. 

Writing ~ Our informational writing unit has been an enjoyable one. Second grade writers have loved writing informational texts with lots of information and text features. This coming week will be spent fine-tuning, revising different parts of the text, editing, and adding the finishing touches to our published pieces. 

Math – Unit 3 begins this week. This unit focuses on length and shapes. Students will use measurement skills to collect and organize data as they display measurements on line plots.  They will analyze measurements given in different units to learn the relationship between the size of a measuring unit and the number of units. During the first week of this unit, we will be learning how to measure with centimeters and how to distinguish different shapes by their features. 

Word Study/High Frequency words ~ New high frequency words will come home on Monday. The words will be assessed next week Friday, December 9.

Science ~ It is an exciting week in science! Students will choose a planet to begin researching. Groups will decide what we would need to learn about each planet and will create a research template from there. This research will happen over the course of the next few weeks. 

Have a GREAT week!

Lisa

Whoa! What a change in weather we've had in the past few days. It is starting to feel like Thanksgiving is right around the corner!

Just a few updates for this week:

There is no school on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.

Book orders will be sent home on Monday. They are due by Thursday, December 1st. Books from the book orders make great Christmas gifts. If you would like to order for your child and want to keep the books secret, please let me know and I will hold them for you. We can arrange some way for me to get them to you secretly. :)

Square 1 Art will be available for pick up by the music room at the December 8th Pizza and Publishing Family Night. I will send the sign up for Pizza and Publishing in a separate email. We hope you can make it to celebrate your child's writing!

I have been accepted to attend the Foundational Reading Skills Institute at Columbia University in December! Therefore, I will be out all day on Monday and Tuesday, December 5-6, and during the morning of Wednesday, December 7. I can't wait to continue my learning and bring back a deeper understanding of how to best meet the needs of all readers at New Directions! Mrs. Desmond, an outstanding sub and former second grade teacher, will be in as my sub those days.

I hope your Thanksgiving is filled with family, relaxation, and lots of fun! I'll be anxious to reunite with your children next Monday. I am SO thankful to have each and every one of them in my class this year. I'm lucky to have such a great group of kids and families!

Lisa

There are a few reminders for this week: 

• Today is the final day to order Square1Art.
• Tomorrow is our final evening of parent-teacher conferences.
• Tuesday is the final day to order NDLC spirit wear through Eagle Graphics. You can order at https://eaglegraphics.itemorder.com/. The password is NDLCspirit.
• This Thursday is a half day.  Students will be dismissed at 11:30. 
• Thursday is the PSC-sponsored event at Funset Boulevard. 
• Friday is Badger Wear day (or wear red and white).

We are continuing to grow our knowledge through reading and writing nonfiction.  

Reading - This week students will be learning ways to compare and contrast their reading across different texts on the same topic.  

Writing - Editing, revising, and setting goals are the big topics for our writing lessons this week. Rereading our own writing to find places we can make our writing stronger is not always easy for second grade writers. Our lessons will break up this process and show students that all writers need to practice this skill. 

Math - We will be working on identifying each coin and knowing the values of pennies, nickels, dimes, and dollars this week. We will also work on recording the value of 114 cents as $1.14. Lessons will also involve counting mixed coins such as 3 dimes, 2 nickels and 3 pennies. This is a skill you can work on at home as well. 

Science - Orbit, rotation, and revolution are three key vocabulary words we will focus on this week. We will study what these words mean and how they relate to our solar system.

Word Work - Our next high frequency test will be next Tuesday, November 22nd.

Conferences are right around the corner! I am looking forward to meeting with you either Thursday or next Tuesday to share your child's progress and goals for 2nd grade. If you did not receive your conference time, please let me know. 


What's Coming Up?

Friday is Veterans Day. In honor of all veterans, we will wear red, white, and blue on Friday.

Thursday, November 17th is a half day. Kids are dismissed at 11:30 that day.


Curricular Updates

Reading - Nonfiction reading continues in second grade! This week, we will focus on reading and using the "lingo" (vocabulary) of the books we are reading.  Our goal is to 'Talk the talk! Read to Learn the Lingo'.  We will be learning to use the text features, everything on the page, and comparisons to better understand new keywords.

Writing - We are carrying much of what we are learning in our nonfiction reading unit into our informational writing. We will be looking at ways mentor author's elaborate through the use of text features and will try some of these craft moves out in our own writing.

Word Study - New high frequency words will be coming home later this week. The test on these words will be Tuesday, November 22nd. Please continue to work on these words at home.

Math - We will begin to learn strategies to add two 2-digit numbers this week. We will also begin working with money in the next couple of weeks. When you have some time, please review the coins and their value with your child.

Content - Second graders are learning about the solar system. We are also excited for our presidential election on Tuesday!


Have a great week! See you soon!
Lisa