Wow! Where has March gone? I can't believe that April is right around the corner! I am looking forward to our portfolio conferences this week and the chance to share your child’s growth so far in second grade.   

What's Coming Up?

Tuesday and Thursday - Portfolio Conferences from 4:00-7:30. If you ordered Gas Cards, please pick them up from the book fair table at conferences.

Running club starts this Monday. It is typically on Mondays and Wednesdays after school. If your child joined, he/she will get a calendar at the first practice.

Wednesday, March 29th - Crazy Hat or Hair Day

Friday, March 31 - PAC field trip slips and payment due

April 3-7 is KAT Week! Please continue to practice questions at home.These special events are planned for that week:

• Monday, April 3 - Sports Day 
• Tuesday, April 4 - Question or Answer Dress Up Day - Dress like a question from the KAT
• Wednesday, April 5 - Pajama Day
• Thursday, April 6 - Super Hero Day
• Friday, April 7 - Knowledge-A-Thon in the morning and field trip to the PAC in the afternoon

Wednesday, April 12 - Monday, April 17 - No School

Curricular Updates:

Math - We will begin Unit 6 this week. In this unit, students will work toward building fluency with addition and subtraction within 1,000 and mastering all addition and subtraction word problem subtypes. Visual models and real world situations are used throughout the unit to help children understand the meaning of addition and subtraction.

Reading - We continue to work in topic book clubs. We are analyzing texts, comparing and contrasting across several texts, and recording the main ideas and key details. Students have been doing the hard work of recording main ideas and key details of subtopics using boxes and bullets and using these notes to teach others in their clubs. It’s a fun unit full of learning!

Writing - Writing like a scientist continues this week as we learn how to use academic vocabulary to help teach others. Forces and motion will be the subjects and vocabulary themes we will be using to push ourselves as writers.

Word Study - We have our next high frequency word test this Friday.


Have a GREAT week!

We sure have a busy week ahead of us! We will be preparing for our spring concert; the kids are getting so excited to perform for you! Also, Friday marks the end of the third quarter. Where is this year going? I look forward to meeting with you at conferences next week!

A few important notes:

-If your child hasn't brought their black concert clothes to school yet, please send them as soon as possible.

-Please have your child to school by 6:10 on Thursday night. The concert will begin at 6:30 in Gym A.

-Running club begins next Monday, March 27. If your child is planning on participating, please send the permission slip back with him/her.

-Next Wednesday, March 29th, is Wacky Hair or Hat Day.

-The Knowledge-a-Thon (KAT) is approaching quickly (April 7th). Please continue to practice the 50 second grade questions at home.

Curricular Updates:

Writing - This past week, we started a new informational unit in writing. We conducted a science experiment and wrote our first lab books together. In the coming weeks, we will continue writing like scientists, beginning with conducting experiments and writing about them in lab books. What fun!

Reading - We are reading from nonfiction during our Readers Workshop time. Students are working on analyzing all the parts of their nonfiction books to see how they go together. They are also working on comparing and contrasting two different books or two different parts of a single book and determining what is important in their reading.

Math - We will finish our data and graphing unit in math this week and will begin 3-digit addition and subtraction next week.

Social Studies - The students are learning so much about the history of Kaukauna in Social Studies. Perhaps your child has told you some interesting facts. If not, ask him/her what they know about Kaukauna's history. You might even learn something new! :)

Word study - New high frequency words will come home this week. Please continue to practice these words at home.

Have a GREAT week!

Lisa

Clocks have sprung forward and we are in the final week of winter!  I am hoping that the saying is true - If March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb.  I am really looking forward to taking advantage of warmer, longer days.

The end of this blog post contains many, many school-wide updates and links for parent volunteer opportunities.

This week at school:
Tuesday - Junior Achievement with Mrs. Bodenheimer
Wednesday - No School for students
Friday - St. Patrick's Day - wear Green

Just a reminder that our portfolio conferences are the last week of March - Tuesday the 28th and Thursday the 30th. Specific dates and times were sent home last week. If you didn't receive your child's conference time, please let me know.

Curriculum Updates:
Reading - Students began their nonfiction topic book clubs last week. The room was buzzing with excitement and learning. Students will continue learning and teaching about their topic this week by transferring our minilesson strategies to their independent reading. Main idea, key details, summarizing, and putting everything together are our focuses for the week.

Writing - Parents were able to enjoy our 2nd grade poetry collection at our Author's Breakfast on Friday. Those collections went home Friday. This week we begin our new writing unit, Lab Reports and Science Books. This is a very hands-on unit that teaches students the scientific process and how to write like a scientist.

Math - Our next focus from Unit 5 is graphing. Students will be learning to create picture graphs and bar graphs, how to read a graph, and how to answer compare questions using the data on graphs.

Word Study - Students will be tested on their current high frequency words this Friday. We continue to work on contractions and homonyms, along with our word sorts, in class.

March is finally here! Spring is right around the corner (hopefully!) and we are beginning to prepare for our last Portfolio Conferences of the 16-17 school year.  This is an exciting and busy time of the year!

A few dates to take note of:

Monday, March 6 - PSC meeting

Tuesday, March 7 - 2nd grade yoga - please dress cozy

Friday, March 10 - Author's Breakfast 7:15-7:45 

Wednesday, March 15 - No School for students

Friday, March 17 - St. Patrick's Day - wear green

Thursday, March 23 - 2nd grade concert 

March 28 and 30 - Portfolio Conferences - dates and times coming home on Monday

March 29 - wacky hair/hat day

If you are participating in the Fang Reading Program, the first two weeks ended this past Friday. Please turn in your Fang cutout for those dates to redeem the first prize.  

Curriculum Updates:

Reading - This week we switch genres to nonfiction. In this upcoming unit, we will continue our work with book clubs. However, students will be in clubs based on topics instead of reading levels. Students will use the talking skills they learned from the previous unit to share new learning with their clubs.  

Writing - We will be finishing our poetry unit this week. Students will be publishing their poetry by word processing on Chromebooks! The end result will be shared with families at Friday's Author Breakfast. The collection of Room 95 poetry will be sent home with each student, so don't worry if you can't make it on Friday morning.

Math - We took our Unit 4 assessment last week and began Unit 5.

• In Unit 5, students will "... read and show time to the 5 minutes, display data in bar graphs and picture graphs, and interpret the data in graphs to solve problems. Visual models and real world situations are used throughout the unit to help children understand the concepts of time and graphing." (Math Expressions)

Content - We finished our study of Kaukauna and Wisconsin's geography. We will now study the history of Kaukauna. We will also begin Junior Achievement, in which we will study community economics, next week.

Word Work - New words will be stapled in agendas by Tuesday. Students may have some review words from earlier in the year. The test for these words will be Friday, March 17. We will also continue studying contractions and homonyms in class.

Have a great week!