Dear Parents,

I hope you had a restful weekend with your family. This is the second week of our fourth quarter. Our scholars had a wonderful start to the new quarter. Thank you for getting them ready every day.

Here is a quick look at our 30^th week:

LANGUAGE ARTS

SPALDING –We will continue our spelling words this week. Encourage your scholars to continue to practice writing their cursive. We will continue practicing in class as well. Students are not mandated to write in cursive now.

List 1: dollar, evening, plan, broke, feel, sure, sugar, least, sorry, press

List 2: God, god, teacher, November, subject, April, history,  study, himself, matter

READING – READING STRATEGY: In comprehension, we will focus on Main Idea and Details: Students will look for the central ideas or messages in their story. They also find details that best support the main idea. We will make the reading and the writing connection here as we begin writing paragraphs this quarter. We will continue to review all comprehension strategies learned so far. Please, have your child bring in “The Little House in the Big Woods”.

POETRY: Title: “Lincoln” by Nancy Byrd Turner. Students will be assessed this week.

SAYING: Our saying this week is, “Eaten out of house and home."

GRAMMAR/VOCABULARY – We will begin working on dictionary skills for development of word meaning. I will suggest you buy a William Webster’s dictionary for your child to speed the process. I will email the ISBN of the reccomnded dictionary (It’s not compulsory to buy your child a dictionary). Our focus will be on alphabetization. We will continue to practice all parts of speech.

WRITING – As we continue working on Writing With Ease, students will continue to develop narration, dictation and copy work skills. Students will review letter writing this week as well.

LEVELED READERS – Your scholar will bring home a chapter book to read. Please, encourage them to continue to write their reflection logs.

MATH

This week, we will review addition and subtraction of money. We will work more on converting money from dollar to cents and vice versa. We will begin fractions this week. They will focus on identifying halves.

SCIENCE

We will do a review  of the importance of eating healthy. Students will be able to explain the importance of vitamins and minerals to the body. Students will plan a balnced diet meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

HISTORY

  In History, we will review our unit on Westward Expansion. Student will take their test on Wednesday.

VIRTUE OF THE MONTH – Honesty

The quality of being truthful, sincere, upright, and fair; free from deceit or fraud.

Always speak the TRUTH.

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

                                      - Thomas Jefferson

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• We will resume reading and math groups this week.
• Save the date for our grade wide event on Friday April 10th at 6pm. 
  Come meet other 2nd grade families at Peter Piper Pizza to enjoy some dinner. It will afford the kids a chance to play together too.
• Our wish list is still active:

-       Sani hand wipes

http://www.amazon.com/Sani-hands-instant-sanitizer-wipes/dp/B002TVRO20/ref=pd_sim_sbs_hpc_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=19W974CVZHMDA15NXF0N

Thank you for all you do to support our class!

Have a great week.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Toyin and Ms. Peterson

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to our final quarter! I hope you all had a great spring break. I am so excited to see our scholars tomorrow. Thanks to all the parents that made our field day a success!

Here is a quick look at our 29^th week:

LANGUAGE ARTS

SPALDING –We will resume our spelling words this week. Encourage your scholars to continue to practice writing their cursive. We will continue practicing in class as well.

List 1: wonder, pair, pear, pare, check, prove, heard hear, inspect, itself

List 2: always, something, expect, need, thus, woman, women, young, fair, fare

READING – READING STRATEGY: In comprehension, we will focus on Main Idea and Details: Students will look for the central ideas or messages in a story. They will also find details that best support the main idea. We will continue to review all comprehension strategies learned so far. Please, have your child bring in “The Little House in the Big Woods”.

POETRY: Title: “Lincoln” by Nancy Byrd Turner.

SAYING: Our saying this week is, “Eaten out of house and home."

GRAMMAR/VOCABULARY – We will begin working on dictionary skills for development of word meaning. Our focus will be on alphabetization. We will continue to practice all parts of speech.

WRITING – As we continue working on Writing With Ease, students will continue to develop narration, dictation and copy work skills. Students will review letter writing this week as well.

LEVELED READERS – Your scholar will bring home a chapter book to read. Please, encourage them to continue to write their reflection logs.

MATH

This week, we will review addition and subtraction of money. We will work more on converting money from dollar to cents and vice versa. We will begin fractions this week. They will focus on identifying halves.

SCIENCE

We will learn about the importance of eating healthy. Students will be able to explain the importance of the different food groups. Students will explain the importance of eating a balanced diet, classify foods as healthy or unhealthy, and plan a balanced diet meal.

HISTORY

  In History, we will continue with our unit on Westward Expansion. Students will be able to recognize the challenges faced by cowboys, farmers, and miners in the West. They will also learn about Sequoyah, a native Indian that helped the native Indians write their own language.

VIRTUE OF THE MONTH – Honesty

The quality of being truthful, sincere, upright, and fair; free from deceit or fraud.

Always speak the TRUTH.

We learned about honesty and integrity - that the truth matters... that you don't take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules... and success doesn't count unless you earn it fair and square.
                                                                                          - Michelle Obama

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• We do not have reading or math groups this week.
• Save the date for our grade wide event on Friday April 10th at 6pm. 
  Come meet other 2nd grade families at Peter Piper Pizza to enjoy some dinner. It will afford the kids a chance to play together too.
• Our wish list is still active:

           - Sani hand wipes

Thank you for all you do to support our class!

Have a great week.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Toyin and Ms. Peterson

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the final week of our third quarter. I hope we all had a great weekend. Third quarter is ending this week. I wish you and your family a happy spring break.

Here is a quick look at our 28^th week:

LANGUAGE ARTS

SPALDING – We will continue with our cursive practice this week; your scholars will learn how to write cursive letters in upper case. Here is a great article the headmaster shared with us about the importance of learning cursive: http://thefederalist.com/2015/02/25/ten-reasons-people-still-need-cursive/. We will resume our spelling words this week. Encourage your scholars to continue to practice writing their cursive. We will continue practicing in class as well.

READING – READING STRATEGY: In comprehension, we will focus on Nonfiction text features and visual information. Students will look at text features, such as headings and captions, to better understand how all these elements work and their function. They will discover how pictures charts, graphs, and other visual elements expatiate more on a topic. We will continue to review all comprehension strategies learned so far. Please, have your child bring in “The Little House in the Big Woods”.

POETRY: Title: We began a new poem “Lincoln” by Nancy Byrd Turner. Your scholar should memorize this poen and get ready to recite at the end of March.

SAYING: Our saying this week is, “Better late than never”.

GRAMMAR/VOCABULARY – We will continue to practice all parts of speech, the focus will still be on prepositions this week.

WRITING – As we continue working on Writing With Ease, students will continue to develop narration, dictation and copy work skills. Students will review letter writing this week as well.

LEVELED READERS – Your scholar will bring home a chapter book to read. Please, encourage them to continue to write their reflection logs.

MATH

This week, we will continue to learn about money. Our focus will still be on the addition and subtraction of money. We will also review place value; it’s important for them to understand the value of money in dollars as well as cents.

SCIENCE

We will finish our study of the digestive and excretory system. Students will come home with their study guide for Science. Science test will be on Friday.

HISTORY

  In History, we will begin a new unit on Westward Expansion. Students will learn about why the pioneers moved west and how they moved west. We will look at different modes of transportation used to move west.

VIRTUE OF THE MONTH – Honesty

The quality of being truthful, sincere, upright, and fair; free from deceit or fraud.

Always speak the TRUTH.

“Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving.” ― James E. Faust

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• We are pleased to announce that our Greek Olympics-themed athletics field day will be held on Thursday, March 12th! Students should wear athletic clothing for this event. We also recommend athletic shoes (of any color), a hat, sunscreen, and a water bottle. Please see page 59 of the Family Handbook for the full Athletic Practice and Outdoor Field Day Dress Code.
• We will have guided reading on Tuesday, but there will be no guided reading on Wednesday. We will have Math groups as well.
• Class picture order forms must be returned by Tuesday, March 10^th. Please, send your child in their complete school uniform, well groomed.
• Our wish list is still active:

           - Sani hand wipes

Thank you for all you do to support our class!

Have a great week.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Toyin and Ms. Peterson

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the ninth week of our third quarter. I hope we all had a great weekend. The quarter is moving to an end so fast.

Here is a quick look at our 27^th week:

LANGUAGE ARTS

SPALDING – We started our cursive instruction last week, and I am so impressed with the progress our scholars are making. We will resume our spelling words this week. Encourage your scholars to continue to practice writing their cursive. We will continue practicing in class.

READING – READING STRATEGY: In comprehension, we will focus on Nonfiction text features. Students will look at text features, such as headings and captions, to better understand how all these elements work and their function. We will continue to review all comprehension strategies learned so far. We still have scholars missing their: Sarah Plain and Tall.

POETRY: Title: From Monday- Friday this week, students will recite their preamble by heart. Their performance will be graded. We will also be starting a new poem Lincoln by Nancy Byrd Turner.

SAYING: Our saying this week is, “Better late than never”.

GRAMMAR/VOCABULARY – We will continue to practice all parts of speech, the focus will still be on prepositions and verbs this week.

WRITING – As we continue working on Writing With Ease, students will continue to develop narration, dictation and copy work skills.

LEVELED READERS – Your scholar will bring home a chapter book to read this week. Please, encourage them to continue to write their reflection logs. I have observed an admirable love of reading in our class. I am trying as much as possible to create 10mins of independent reading time in the class library, and students are taking advantage of this.

MATH

This week, we will continue to learn about money. Our focus will be on the addition and subtraction of money. We will also review place value; it’s important for them to understand the value of money in dollars as well as cents.

SCIENCE

We will continue our study of the Human body. This week, we will learn about the digestive system and the excretory system. Students will learn about the journey their food takes the moment it get into their mouth to the time it leaves their body as waste.

HISTORY

  In History, We will review the unit on “The War of 1812”. Students will do a unit test on Wednesday. We will begin a new unit on the “Westward Expansion.” Children will learn about various systems of transportation used by the pioneers.

VIRTUE OF THE MONTH

(Will be updated when virtue is announced on Monday)

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Special thanks to the Andrade, Everhart, and Thomas family for providing lunch for the four birthdays taking place tomorrow: Ms. Peterson, Adele, Aleena, and Alan.
• Congratulations to Aubrey Antoniello for winning the virtue award for friendship in the month of February.
• We are pleased to announce that our Greek Olympics-themed athletics field day will be held on Thursday, March 12th! Students should wear athletic clothing for this event. We also recommend athletic shoes (of any color), a hat, sunscreen, and a water bottle. Please see page 59 of the Family Handbook for the full Athletic Practice and Outdoor Field Day Dress Code.
• We will continue with guided reading and Math groups this week. I look forward to seeing all our wonderful parent volunteers.
• Students may begin to wear shorts to school this week.
• Our wish list is still active:

           - Sani hand wipes

Thank you for all you do to support our class!

Have a great week.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Toyin and Ms. Peterson

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the eighth week of our third quarter. I hope we all had a great weekend. The quarter is moving to an end so fast.

Here is a quick look at our 26^th week:

LANGUAGE ARTS

SPALDING – We will continue with our spelling list this week. Students will get their first introductory lesson to cursive this week. Our Spalding coordinator, Mrs. Clouse will come in to introduce how to write lower case letters. We are all so excited about this development. I will have to confirm tomorrow if we have spelling words for the week.

READING – READING STRATEGY: In comprehension, we will revisit identifying main idea and supporting details. We will continue to review all comprehension strategies learned so far. All scholars should bring in our next Literature: Sarah Plain and Tall. We will begin this literature on Monday.

.

POETRY: Title: For the rest of the quarter, students will memorize the preamble of the constitution. We read through the preamble, and we discussed meaning of difficult words so that children can have a better understanding of the vocabulary in the one paragraph preamble.

SAYING: “Two heads are better than one” is our saying. Students learned that a task becomes easier when more than one person gets it done. Please, encourage your scholars to practice using it through meaningful use.

GRAMMAR/VOCABULARY – We will continue to practice all parts of speech, the focus will still be on prepositions this week.

WRITING – As we continue working on Writing With Ease, students will continue to develop narration, dictation and copy work skills.

LEVELED READERS – Your scholar will bring home a chapter book to read this week. Please, encourage them to continue to write their reflection logs. I have observed an admirable love of reading in our class. I am trying as much as possible to create 10mins of independent reading time in the class library, and students are taking advantage of this.

MATH

This week, we will focus on division with remainder. Students should be reviewing their multiplication table every day at home still.

SCIENCE

We will continue our study of the Human body. Students will describe the relationship among cells, tissues, organs, and systems.  We will explore how cell relate to tissues and how tissues form organs and how organs make systems.

HISTORY

  In History, We will begin the unit on “The War of 1812”. They will learn about what caused the war, and the role of the native Indians in the war. They will also learn about the burning of Washington and Dolley Madison’s role in saving government papers. They will learn the story of the “Star Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key and why the Battle of New Orleans was fought after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.

VIRTUE OF THE MONTH - FRIENDSHIP

To be attached to another by sincere feelings of affection and care for their well-being.

Be the BEST for others

Friendship involves many things but, above all the power of going
outside oneself and appreciating what is noble and loving in another.
                                                                          - Thomas Huxley

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Congratulations to McCahey Fuerst for representing the school in a Chess tournament, we are so proud of you!
• We will continue with guided reading and Math groups this week. I look forward to seeing all our wonderful parent volunteers.
• Scholars will not be allowed to return to class after their teacher has led them to the MPR at the end of the day. It means that if they forget their homework, they cannot return to the classroom to pick it up. Please, let me know if you have questions about this.
• Students should remember to bring in their graded cell presentations. Students that received low scores will be taught the concept again. Thank you for helping out with this initiative.
• Students may begin to wear shorts to school after March 1^st.
• Our wish list is still active:

- Sani hand wipes

- Pencils

Thank you for all you do to support our class!

Have a great week.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Toyin and Ms. Peterson

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the seventh week of our third quarter. I am sure you all had a wonderful three-day weekend. Special thanks to all our parents that sent in treats for our Great Hearts day celebration; it was us such a beautiful day to discuss friendship and great heartedness. We thank Mrs. Gerson, Mrs. Bruns, Mrs. Schuster, and Mrs. Everhart who stopped by to help. We are so blessed to have you all.

Here is a quick look at our 25^th week:

LANGUAGE ARTS

SPALDING – We will continue with our spelling list this week. Please, review homework as they come home. This week, we will have only two days of spelling.

List 1: understand, follow, charge, member, case, while, also, return, office, great

List 2: Miss, miss, who, died, die, changing, change, few, pleasant, please

READING – READING STRATEGY: In comprehension, we will revisit story elements we will look at setting and characterization. We will continue to review all comprehension strategies learned so far. All scholars should bring in our next Literature: Sarah Plain and Tall

.

POETRY: Title: For the rest of the quarter, students will memorize the preamble of the constitution. We read through the preamble, and we discussed meaning of difficult words so that children can have a better understanding of the vocabulary in the one paragraph preamble.

SAYING: “Two heads are better than one” will be our next saying. Please, encourage your scholars to practice using it through meaningful use.

GRAMMAR/VOCABULARY – We will continue to practice all parts of speech, the focus will be on prepositions this week.

WRITING – As we continue working on Writing With Ease, students will continue to develop narration, dictation and copy work skills.

LEVELED READERS – Your scholar will bring home a chapter book to read this week. Please, encourage them to continue to write their reflection logs.

MATH

This week, we will focus on division of 5s and multiplication and division of 10s. Students are doing much better with multiplication and division. Lets encourage them to keep doing their mental Math.

SCIENCE

We will continue our study of the Human body. Students will describe the relationship among cells, tissues, organs, and systems. We will make cell samples using cookie dough and several other candies to represent a cell structure this week.

HISTORY

  In History, we will finish our unit on the US Constitution. Students will do their test on Wednesday. We will begin the unit on “The War on 1812” this Friday.

VIRTUE OF THE MONTH - FRIENDSHIP

To be attached to another by sincere feelings of affection and care for their well-being.

Be the BEST for others

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity. – Khalil Gibran

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• We will continue with guided reading and Math groups this week. I look forward to seeing all our wonderful parent volunteers.
• Scholars will not be allowed to return to class after their teacher has led them to the MPR at the end of the day. It means that if they forget their homework, they cannot return to the classroom to pick it up. Please, let me know if you have questions about this.
• Our wish list is still active:

- Sani hand wipes

- Chapter books

- Pencils

Thank you for all you do to support our class!

Have a great week.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Toyin and Ms. Peterson

 Please join Headmaster Gillingham for coffee this Thursday, February 12th.
Please, follow the link to sign up.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e084da5a929aa8-coffee