Onward to 3rd

Congratulations 2nd Graders!

You did it! Have a wonderful summer! Remember to read every day (scholastic.com/summer) and practice your math (xtramath.org) every day. Please call the office with questions. Miss Debbie has all of the login information.

See you in August! I can't wait to hear all about your summer adventures!

Books, shaving cream, and a visitor

We have had a really great past few days leading up to our last day of school (Friday). I am really proud of how the students are following directions and doing their best work up to the end. We are also cleaning up quite a bit. We are excited for summer, but we're going to miss second grade!

Here are some photos from the past week: end-of-the-year gifts (books), shaving cream spelling, writing assignments, the fire fighter's visit, and the book swap:

Stretch those brains over the summer by reading!

So much fun they wanted to do this during recess too...

Writing pieces going in their portfolios for third grade

Most of them memorized their addresses and phone numbers so the fire fighter came back for another visit!

Showing off their book swap books - such eager readers!

Reminders:
*Friday = Field Day, last day of school, and report card pickup
*Please log on to scholastic.com/summer with the username and password provided
*Math login information (for xtramath.com) will go home in this week's Thursday folders

Websites and Resources

Here are a couple of websites to check out:

1. First Communion Photos - Click on the link to see photos on a Shutterfly account. Many thanks to Miss Clare and Miss Longton for taking the photos and for uploading them to the site!

2. Scholastic Summer Reading - Click on the link, sign in (using your username and password that went home in your child's Thursday folder last week), and start logging those reading hours! It's important to read every day!

Forgot your child's username and/or password? Need assistance? Email me (foyleolu@gmail.com).

3. FREE Summer Reading Programs for Kids - Check out this website for deals from the library, Scholastic, Barnes & Noble, and more!

Fire Fighter Visitor

Our class loves visitors, and we were excited to have a fire fighter (parent of a pre-K student) come to talk with us about fire safety on Monday. He told us three main tips in case of a fire:

1. Get up!

2. Get low!

3. Get out!

He reminded the students about the importance of having a safety plan for getting out, as well as making sure their homes have smoke detectors. He let me try on his fire fighter outfit, and he promised the students that if they all memorize their addresses and phone numbers (another safety issue) and check with their parents about smoke detectors and safety plans, he would come back and let them try on the outfit. How cool! (I will send home a letter about this in Thursday folders this week!)

In other news, we are learning about perpendicular lines in Math. These lines come together to form right angles- see the photos below. Usually they are a horizontal and a vertical line intersecting (or meeting), but they can also be two oblique lines intersecting to form a right angle.

We also made our favorite book titles into cookies as we compared the joy of reading to the joy of following a good recipe. We put all of our key ingredients together for reading success!

Mmm! Cookies and reading!

Spring Break and Recent Learning

With Terra Nova testing finished, we resumed our normal routines this week.

Among many wonderful read aloud stories, we read a magazine about Dr. Seuss! We "celebrated" his birthday about a week late (birthday = March 3rd) with goldfish (One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish) and Dr. Seuss erasers.

In Religion, we talked about ways to be peacemakers in our school and in our homes. Our ideas are written on outlines of our hands and are hanging on the door as reminders to us for ways to act like Jesus.

In Science we've been learning about animal habitats. Check out the group posters about the rainforest, forest, desert, and arctic.

We finished our after-lunch read aloud The Tale of Despereaux, and we compared it with the movie- we found some similarities and also quite a few differences. The students were already asking what great book we are going to read next... They'll have to wait and see!

In writing, we finished up our class report about the Statue of Liberty. I was proud of how the students took the chart with notes and transferred it to an outline/paragraphs. They even added some illustrations and made a simple bibliography to cite their sources. After spring break, the students will get a chance to work on their very own research projects about a topic of their choice! (The picture below is the model I made while the students were working on their own papers.)

Please remember:
Next week is spring break (March 17th-21st). I look forward to seeing your children again on March 24th. Enjoy the time off! Please remember to have your child(ren) read every day. It is very important!

Remember to Read

My Dear 2nd Graders,

Please don't forget to read every day.

The library is a great place to find books if you don't have them at home: http://www.chipublib.org/

I look forward to seeing you in August as 3rd Graders. (Wow!)

Sincerely,

Miss Foyle

Keep an Eye Out

Second grade families- Keep an eye out to the mail in the upcoming week. Your children should be receiving a surprise they made for themselves at the end of the school year. (I hope they all get to their destinations!)

Remember to read every day!

Dig In

Tuesday was a busy day for us. We started the morning with the morning work problems. Then we transitioned to Phonics, where we studied words with ou (examples: out, shout, loud) and ow (examples: cow, flower, tower).

During Reading, we really stretched our brains as we read Wumbers (Amy Krouse Rosenthal).

.

Wumbers = Words + Numbers

The students deciphered some words like cre8 (create), sh80 (shady), 2th (tooth), and 4give (forgive). Then a few students even made up some of their own. I love their creativity!

Then they spent some time Working on Writing, Reading to Self, and Reading with a Buddy while I met with some reading groups who started new books. They are moving up levels and really enjoying the books they are reading. It is a beautiful thing to see!

During Writing the students started transferring their biography facts from note cards to an outline. It was challenging, but they stuck with it, and they finished up their introduction paragraphs for their research reports.

We read about the church season of Easter and Jesus' rising from the dead in our Religion books before heading outside (a little early) to enjoy the fresh air for recess.

After lunch, we read from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and took a math quiz before starting Science.

First, we read a book about rocks and soil.

Then, we examined samples of soil.

Next, we completed a chart about attributes (properties) of soil.

We then discussed the three layers of soil: (1) bedrock (bottom), (2) subsoil (middle), and (3) topsoil (top). We labeled a diagram.

Finally, we made edible layers of soil.

Bedrock = marshmallows (bottom)

Subsoil = Cheerios (middle)

Topsoil = Cocoa Krispies (top)

We even added a gummy worm because worms live in the soil.

And VOILA! Our very own edible layers of soil. They each labeled their cup according to the different layers, and then we prayed grace before we were able to...

Dig in!

Yum!

The students packed up and went to Spanish... then it was time for announcements and dismissal... My, oh my, time flies when you're having fun...

Earth Day and OK

We celebrated Earth Day with 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades this afternoon in the gym. The students took recyclable items (boxes, cans, plastic bottles, etc.) and built a variety of objects including robots, boats, rocket ships, and more. They had a lot of fun. Check out a few photos:

The 2nd graders have also been reading nonstop. We enjoyed a book the other day called The OK Book. We noticed from the book that the letters OK (which we also learned in sign language) when turned sideways looked like a stick person.

The character in the book was "an OK pancake flipper" and "an OK tree climber" among other things. The students made their own journal entries. They looked something like this:

I'm an OK driver

I'm an OK climber.

I'm OK at playing with my dad.

It was fun. They are so creative!

Enjoy the weekend! Good luck to our soccer teams on Saturday.

Reminders:

*1st Communion Practices- 

Thursday, May 2nd - 7:15pm in the church

Thursday, May 9th - 7:15pm in the church

*Please take your child to church every Sunday (or Saturday evening).

*Help make sure your child completes his/her Reading log each day, including over the weekend.

Library Field Trip

Today's field trip was a lot of fun! We ventured downtown to the Harold Washington Library. (I wish I had taken some pictures!)

The students explored the Children's floor, listened to a couple of books about the library, and checked out some books.

*Please note the students' books are due back to the library by May 15th. You can either return them to any of the public library branches (http://www.chipublib.org/), or you can send the books to school, and I will return them to the library.

This class loves reading. Please keep encouraging them to read at home. Remember with their library cards they can go and check out more books. This will be especially helpful in the summer when they do not have daily access to our classroom library.