Didgeridoo!

What's a didgeridoo????

Ask your second grader, they should know!

If not, you are in luck! Students will be making their own didgeridoo on Friday during our Australia Day. 

Please send $1.25 to cover the cost of the didgeridoo. 

Thanks! We can't wait to play some music for you on our didgeridoo!

Class Reminders

-Friday (12/11) is our last day to bring in toys for the Kids 2 Kids Toy Drive

(Thank you to all who have donated!)

-On Friday (12/11) students can bring $1 to donate and wear a hat to school

-On Friday (12/11) we will be having our Kids 2 Kids Toy Drive Assembly so students are encouraged to wear red and green

-For an upcoming Australia project students will need to bring in a brown grocery size paper bag. Please do this by Tuesday 12/15.

Questions about spelling homework??

Check the orange newsletter that was sent home today....if you still have questions, let me know!

Don't forget our toy drive is happening here at Thorson. Students can still bring in $1 to buy an ornament this week.

Ocean Zones

As a class we have been studying four ocean zones. On Wednesday students will be tested on these zones. Their job will be to put these zones in order: sunlight zone, twilight zone, dark zone, and abyss. For each zone they will need to write at least three facts about that specific zone. 

Here is a picture of the notes we took together in class after reading Exploring the Deep, Dark Sea by Gail Gibbons.

Students took notes in their science notebook along with me. They have been given the option of taking their notebooks home to help them study.

In addition to their own notes, here is a document I created in case their notes are a bit hard to read! Of course, this is only a few ideas to get them started.

Ocean Zone notes

As part of our Jaguar Jumpstart Meeting on Monday, November 30 we will be highlighting the citizenship of the boy and girl scouts. Students are encouraged to wear their uniforms on Monday to school. 

If they are not a part of these groups, students are encouraged to wear their Thorson spirit wear or the color blue.

Jaguar Jumpstart

Monday, November 16 is our first all school meeting!

These Jaguar Jumpstart meetings will be taking place every Monday morning, first thing in the morning.

Remind your child to wear their Thorson Spirit Clothes or Blue!

Also, please try to make sure your child is here at school no later than 8:42 so we can promptly start our Jaguar Jumpstart!!

Word Work

We are officially starting spelling words! Yes, we have been working with spelling all first quarter, but now we well be starting testing on specific words.

Each week students will be given 4 high frequency words to study for the week. In addition to these 4 words, your child will bring home a word sort sheet. On this sheet there will be different words that fit into categories or word families. Students will be working with these word sorts all week and then they will be tested on some of the words on Fridays. 

This week, our whole class has the same word sort. We are learning and practicing our routines with these words for the week. For some students, these words may seem too easy, others just right, and some a little difficult. For this week, that's okay because we are working through this sort as a group.

In the upcoming weeks, your child will be given words more appropriate for their spelling level. With this model, not all students will have the same words as their classmates. We are excited to get this new spelling program up and running! 

Thanks for your patience and understanding. Watch for more information next week.

Party Time

We are having a party!

Our class worked hard to earn all their marbles again and we did it!

On Monday, November 9th we will be having a pizza and movie party!! 

We are looking for any G rated movies that we could show for the party. Any that you can send would be much appreciated! DVD or VHS :)

Also, your child will still need to bring their own lunch or take hot lunch. Our pizza will be arriving around 2:00 and we will each have 1 slice.

Now we have to work towards earning 20 marbles!!

Grammar improves our writing!

All quarter long we focus on specific grammar skills. We do a lot of practice as a class, in groups, and independently. We take a formative assessment on each topic and then a summative assessment at the end of the quarter which covers all our topics.

This quarter's topics are:

Common and Proper Nouns

Collective Nouns 

(school of fish, bunch of bananas, forest of trees)

Types of Sentences 

(Statements, Commands, Questions, Exclamations)

Writing a friendly letter

(Date, Greeting, Body, Closing, Signature)

Past Tense Verbs

Here is a Past Tense Verb Sort that we did today! This quarter we learned about the four rules to remember when changing a verb to it's past tense.

Red Ribbon Week Spirit Days

Tuesday: Wear something that makes you happy

(pajamas, jerseys, hats, etc.)

Wednesday: Wear Team Apparel 

Thursday: Wear crazy socks

Friday: Bring your costume for our Halloween party and parade!

USA Map Tips
As we get closer to the Maps and Globes assessment, check if your child can identify these places on a map of the USA.

-Pacific Ocean
-Atlantic Ocean
-Canada 
-Mexico
-Wisconsin
-Mississippi River
-Great Lakes
-Rocky Mountains
-Appalachian Mountains

Here is a picture of the map we did together in class. For the assessment they will need to label these places. Don't have this sheet anymore? Any map of the USA will work!

 

Don't stress out too much about the exact states for the mountain ranges; give or take a little bit and they will be fine. 

 

More Tips for the Maps and Globes Test

Your child should have brought home their Zoom book they created in class. This book can help them study by looking at the maps.

For the test, your child will need to be able to locate all 7 continents and 5 main oceans. They will be given a word bank and will have to match letters to each name of continent and ocean. Don't worry about learning how to spell them all; just focus on their location!

Here is a cut and glue map we did together as a class earlier this week:

Hopefully, your child still has this map or you have access to a different map to use when preparing for the test. If not, have your child ask me for something on Monday to send home with them to practice.

You can help quiz them using this map or have them quiz you too!

We plan to test this unit on Wednesday!

Maps and Globes

How can you help your child prepare for the Maps and Globes Assessment?

We have been studying a compass rose and using North, East, South, and West to describe the location of things in our room and objects/places on a map. Your child should be able to label a compass rose with these 4 cardinal directions as well as the intermediate directions: Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest.  

Here is our compass rose we have in class:

 

Keep watching for more tips in the next few days to help your child prepare. Our assessment will be next week!

Just a reminder that tomorrow (10/21) is picture retake day. 

If you want your child's picture retaken, please send their picture package back to school with them tomorrow.

October 1st Reminders!

Reading Calendars are due tomorrow (10/1)

• Students need to complete the back book report
• A parent signature needs to be on the front
• Their minutes for the month need to be totaled and written on the front
• Their name should be on the front!
• Minutes should be written in throughout the month

We earned our first class party!

We will be having a Pajama Party tomorrow (10/1)

Students can come to school in their pajamas or comfy clothes.

They may also bring one small stuffed animal that fits into their backpack.

Great job class earning your first party by having positive jaguar behavior at school!

Wonderful Writing!

On Friday we wrote all about what we saw, learned, enjoyed, and did on our field trip to Riveredge. There were so many great things to write about!

Wow, we saw a lot of critters!

We visited a lot of different habitats!

Today, Mrs. Hepner showed us the story Diary of a Worm. We watched this story on Book Flix, an awesome resource online that shows us fiction and nonfiction paired books. We even got to eat some gummy worms today!

After our story, we created our own diary entries! Our second graders wrote from the perspective of the worm for a day. It would be an interesting life as a worm! Here are two examples:

That would be a sight to see!

I'll stick to pizza for dinner!

We had a wonderful field trip to Riveredge!

Check out our Classroom Photos Page for more pictures from our adventures yesterday!

Exploring Mealworm Habitats!

Ask your child which type of food their

mealworms preferred?

-Oat bran

-Cereal flakes

-Cornmeal

Weekly Math Facts

Every Wednesday we will be having a two minute addition or subtraction fact check. Students need to complete as many facts as they can in two minutes. Their goal is to get at least 24 correct to receive a score of secure (SC). It will switch from addition and subtraction weekly. When it's graded it will be returned with only the ones filled in that they completed in the 2 minutes. Their grade will be at the bottom. If we don't have math class on a Wednesday due to a field trip, assembly, or special event, we will try to do it on another day of the week or we will skip that week. Here's what it looks like:

How can you help your child at home with these fact checks? 

*Have them practice flashcards.

*Eventually, we will be sending home some mini-flashcards that they can practice with you. 

*If they only completed 20 problems, give them two more minutes at home to see how many more they can finish. 

*Switch roles and you complete as many as you can in two minutes and then they have to grade your paper. (Then they are still doing the math work, but it's more fun!)

*Try to make it fun! 

Reminders:

Tonight (9/16) is curriculum night from 5:30-6:30

We hope to see you there if you are able to make it. 

If not, we will be sure to send our handouts home with your child tomorrow.

Tomorrow (9/17) is our MAPS math test.

Be sure your child gets enough sleep and eats a healthy breakfast!

 On Wednesday, September 23 we are heading to 

Riveredge Nature Center.

Please make sure your child is dressed for the weather!

Also, they will need to bring their own bag lunch that day to eat in the classroom before we leave for our field trip.

I am in the process of contacting parent volunteers to help chaperone. I will contact you soon if you are needed. Thanks for all the volunteers, I will keep you in mind for next time!

Reading is Thinking!

Look at all our great readers this morning during our read to self time! We are working on building our stamina up to 30 minutes....today we read for 18 minutes!!

Good Fit Books

Today during our Communication Arts time, Mrs. Hepner talked to us about choosing "Good Fit Books" for our read to self time. In the classroom, students each have their own book bin where they can put books they are interested in reading from our classroom library, home, or from the school library. These are self-selected books. Throughout the year, we will add some guided reading books to their book bins as well. 

What does a "Good Fit Book" mean? Here is the poster we created:

As students start to add more books to their book bins they will need to keep in mind, I PICK. Hopefully this can help you when your child is selecting books at home to read or from the public library!

Welcome to our 2nd Grade Blog!! 

What a wonderful start to our year! Students have been working hard on getting back into school mode.

We are very excited to update you with the events in our class and school. Our hope is to update the blog a few times a week.

These past few days we have been working on learning to be independent readers. We remind the students that there are three ways to read a book:

• Read the pictures
• Read the words
• Retell the story

We hope that you keep encouraging reading at home!