The End is Near...

As we approach our holiday break (which FINALLY begins next week), we have been really busy trying to finish up with "business" so we can have some fun next week.

This week we read a nonfiction story called At Play: Long Ago and Today.  This was a longer story with a lot of details, so it proved a little more difficult than some of the stories we have read in the past.  This is the first of the longer, more difficult stories.  Expectations are increasing as we look forward to third grade!  We continued with author's purpose this week.  We completed three separate writing assignments that addressed each of the three main purposes (persuade, inform, and entertain).  Students began with an paragraph written to inform - they wrote a paragraph full of facts about a bag of M&Ms I gave them (size, shape, colors, how many, etc.)  Then they wrote a persuasive paragraph about why you should buy them a bag of M&Ms.  Finally we wrapped up with an entertaining story about an M&M.  They turned out really nicely!  High-frequency words for the week were board, cook, enjoy, imagine, favorite, popular, year, and expensive.  Robust vocabulary words were recreation, leisurely, archaic, and ramble.  I was worried about these words because it seemed at the beginning of the week that these words were all brand new to the students.  BUT we used them like crazy all week long, and by the end of the week I think the students really had a good idea of what they mean and how to use them correctly.  We wrapped up abbreviations at the beginning of the week and didn't begin a new grammar skill.  This week was supposed to be singular possessive nouns, but I know that this is a very difficult concept for second graders so I decided to push it off until after break.  Hopefully we will have fresh minds at that point!  We finished up our snowman stories, and we wrote letters to Santa.  Our letters to Santa were not your typical Santa letter, though.  Students were asked to write a letter to Santa persuading him to put them on either the nice list or the naughty list.  They had to list reasons justifying why they belong on the list they chose.  Some of them were pretty convincing!  We will have Mr. Rethman judge our letters, and he will choose the top three most convincing letters in the entire second grade.  Those letters will be read on the announcements next week!  Stay tuned for winners...

This week we also made our holiday craft.  We used bricks to make snowmen, and boy are they cute!  I really meant to take some pictures while the kids were painting, and I completely forgot.  So sorry!  I'll try to get some of the kids with their finished projects and post them next week.

Next week we will be enjoying several activities that have to do with The Polar Express.  We will be reading the book, watching the movie, enjoying hot chocolate, and more.  Students will be allowed to wear their pajamas to school on Tuesday - the day we watch the movie.  Students will complete a sequencing activity as well as an activity detailing all of the story elements (characters, setting, plot).  A BIG thank you to the parents who have already sent in some of the supplies we will need for these activities.  We still need a few items, and any donations are greatly appreciated. 

We did manage to fill up all of the slots for donations for our Winterfest party on Wednesday.  We will be snacking and having a small gift exchange.  If your child is choosing to participate in the gift exchange, please remember the limit is $5.00.  Boys should buy for boys and girls should buy for girls.  Please make sure your child's gift is something ANY boy or girl in the class will like - do not buy for one specific student.  We will be playing a game to determine who gets each gift.

Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - library
Tuesday - music
Wednesday - computer

Enjoy your weekend - it's the last one before Christmas!!!

We've Been Busy Little Elves

Whew, what a week!  Things were a little out of the ordinary for a few days, but we survived.  Mrs. Lawniczak had a few meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we had subs for a little while each of those mornings.  We also visited the Santa Shop on Wednesday morning.

This week we were reading a story called Jamaica Louise James.  We started talking about author's purpose and thought a lot about why different texts may have been written.  We learned that the three main purposes spell P.I.E. (persuade, inform, and entertain).  Ask your second grader to give you examples of each.  When your second grader reads for his/her reading log next week, ask what they think the purpose of each text may be.  Persuade is the hardest, so look for examples in newspapers and magazines (such as advertisements).  High-frequency words for this week were draw, question, picture, minute, sure, especially, bought, and worry.  Robust vocabulary words were renowned, kin, original, and adorn.  We did really well with the word adorn - ask your second grader how Jamaica adorned the subway walls in the story.  Ask how some of the second grader teachers adorned their classrooms, and discuss the various ways you may have adorned your house for the holidays.  Our grammar skill this week was abbreviations.  We learned that most abbreviations begin with capital letters, and they all end with a period.  We focused on abbreviations for days, months, titles, and locations (street, road, etc.).  We wrote snowman stories.

Next week we will read a nonfiction selection called At Play:Long Ago and Today.  This story details many ways that toys, games, and recreational activities have changed from long ago to today.  It is a more difficult story than we have been reading so far this year, but the students usually seem to like it.  We will continue with author's purpose.  High-frequency words will be imagine, favorite, year, enjoy, cook, board, popular, and expensive.  Robust vocabulary words will be recreation, leisurely, ramble, and archaic.  Our grammar skill will be possessive nouns.  We will finishing our snowman stories and beginning letters to Santa.  In these letters we will be practicing our persuasive writing and explaining whether we think we should be on the naughty or nice list and why.  This writing assignment will be part of a contest!  Spelling words for next week will have the long e sound at the end of the word and will be spelled with a y or ey at the end.  Please note that we now have three different spelling lists between the two classes.  Your child's list may vary from week to week.  Please check the list in your child's folder on Friday for confirmation of which list your second grader should study for the week.  Words are:
very, messy, lady, happy, key, baby, money, funny, candy, sunny, chimney, nobody, breezy, twenty, keyhole, ask, went, men, read, need
Challenge list:
chimney, nobody, breezy, twenty, keyhole, activity, absolutely, monkey, family, anybody, probably, eighty, mystery, everything, crybaby, ask, went, men, read, need

Also note that reading logs are due early this month - December 20th.  Your second grader only needs to read 200 minutes for the month of December.  I will not accept late logs after break.

Next week we will be working on a holiday craft.  If you would be willing to help prepare materials in advance, please let me know.  You can do it at home - I just need someone to cut pipe cleaners and squares/strips of fabric so they are ready to go for the kids on Thursday.  Let me know if you can help us out!

I think we have all of the drink carriers we will need for the week before the break.  A big thank you to everyone who donated!

Our holiday party is scheduled for Wednesday, December 22nd at 2:30.  At some point next week I will be sending home a list of what everyone signed up to bring.

Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - music
Tuesday - computer
Wednesday - art
Thursday - music
Friday - gym

Didn't we learn this already?

This week was a lot of reviewing of skills from the previous four weeks.  We read a story called A Trip to the Fire Station.  This story is a Readers' Theater, which means each student had an assigned role in a script to practice reading using good fluency and expression.  We practiced Wednesday and Thursday and did our performances for the class on Friday.  With this story we reviewed making predictions and plot.  Our high-frequency words were also review for the week.  We had ten of them, which is more than a normal week, but since they were all review words, it wasn't too bad.  Our words were ago, caught, clear, enough, understand, lose, though, coming, idea, and learn.  Robust vocabulary words this week were new, but we really worked hard to use them throughout the week.  The words were hazard, efficient, instantly, and drench.  We reviewed nouns all week - what they are, as well as singular and plural, common and proper.  We began writing a new story about a snowman.  Ask your second grader to tell you about his/her story!

Next week our story will be Jamaica Louise James.  We will begin learning about author's purpose, which we will tie into our writing as well.  We will learn about three purposes of writing - to inform, to entertain, and to persuade.  High-frequency words will be draw, question, picture, minute, sure, worry, bought, and especially.  Robust vocabulary words will be renowned, kin, original, and adorn.  Ask your second grader to tell you about a renowned person that they like - why is that person renowned?  Discussing kin and ways you adorn your home for the holidays should be easy this time of year!  Point out original objects around your house or in stores as you shop for the holidays.  Our grammar skill for next week will be abbreviations.  Spelling words will have the sh, ch, tch, and th spelling patterns.  Words are:
lunch, shape, wish, chop, show, catch, then, each, bath, such, because, turn, here, why, shadow, bathtub, starfish, matchbox, sandwich

Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - computer
Tuesday - art
Wednesday - music
Thursday - gym
Friday - library

Please note that reading logs for December will be due before the end of the month due to winter break.  For this reason, your child is only required to read 200 minutes for the month of December.  Reading logs are due on Tuesday, December 20th.  This allows for one late turn-in day.  I will not return reading logs until after break.  Absolutely NO December reading logs will be accepted after break.

On Monday our school will begin a food drive.  Canned goods and non-perishables will be accepted.  Our class gets one point for each item donated and FIVE points each for peanut butter, full-sized boxes of cereal, and full-sized tubes of toothpaste.  The winning class for each grade level wins a class party!

Our class will be visiting the LEO Santa Shop next Wednesday morning.  Please send any money for the Santa Shop in a baggie or envelope clearly marked with your child's name.  Gifts will be wrapped at the Santa Shop and will come home with your second grader that day.

We have about 75 cup holders for our December project.  We need about 45 more, so keep sending them in!  We will need them the last week before break.

'Twas the Week Before Thanksgiving...

This week we read a story that many of the kids had read before - Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type.  It's a really cute story, and we really enjoyed reading it!  We focused on plot again and talked about characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end.  We even threw in a little bit of problem and solution this week as well.  Ask your second grader to tell you what Farmer Brown's problem was in the story and how the problem was solved by the end of the story.  High frequency words for the week were believe, brought, understand, impossible, quite, early, and enough.  Robust vocabulary words were request, negotiate, compromise, and improve.  The kids did great with request and improve, but negotiate and compromise were tricky, which was to be expected.  Our grammar skill for the week was proper nouns again, but this time we focused more on nouns that can't be touched but still qualify as proper nouns - days of the week, months of the year, and holidays.  

Next week will be spent wrapping up some loose ends from this week and working on a few Thanksgiving themed activities.  There will be no high frequency, vocabulary, or spelling words next week.  I will pass out new spelling lists next Tuesday so you will have them to study over break.  Lesson ten is a review list, so ten of the words will be words we have had before.  The other ten will be new sight words.

Our specials schedule for next week will be:

Monday - music

Tuesday - computer

*There is no school Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday for Thanksgiving break.

Our specials schedule for the week after Thanksgiving will be:

Monday - art

Tuesday - music

Wednesday - gym

Thursday - library

Friday - music

Keep sending in those drink holders for our December project!

Enjoy your weekend, and have a Happy Turkey Day!

Thank You!

I would like to thank everyone who attended conferences this week.  With it being our first year for student-led conferences, I was very impressed at how well the kids did presenting the material and information to you.  It's really special to see them taking ownership in their work and behavior!  It was really great to hear so many positive comments from parents as well.  We are curious to hear your thoughts, too, so if you could just jot me a quick note with any comments (positive or negative), it would be much appreciated.

We wrapped up with The Great Ball Game this week.  As I said before, this is a really unique story and the kids really seemed to like it.  We were focusing on plot again, with an emphasis on telling about the beginning, middle, and end of the story.  High frequency words were ago, accept, half, fair, though, and clear.  Robust vocabulary words were feud, superior, refuse, and insult.  Our grammar focus was proper nouns.  While we did a great job identifying the differences between common and proper nouns, it was easier for the kids to be able to tell whether a given noun was common or proper than to give examples.   But no worries because we'll be talking about them again next week.  Lastly, we wrote stories about what we would do if we were President.  The stories were displayed in the hallway during conferences, so hopefully you got a chance to read some of them.  They were good!

Next week we will read Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type.  I absolutely love this story, and so will the kids.  In fact, many of them have probably read it before.  We will continue to focus on plot - characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end.  High frequency words will be impossible, quite, understand, believe, brought, early, and enough.  Robust vocabulary words are request, negotiate, compromise, and improve.  If you are working on these words with your second grader at home, emphasize the difference between negotiate and compromise - these have proven to be confusing in the past.  However, these seem to be words that are really easy to use in casual conversation at home, so try to use them as much as possible over the course of the next week.  Our grammar skill will be proper nouns again.  We will focus more on abstract proper nouns such as days of the week, months of the year, and holidays.  Often the students don't think of these as nouns because they can't be touched (which is what our noun chant says makes a noun).  Go on a proper noun scavenger hunt with your child - look for them on signs when driving, in books, around the house, and even on TV!  Spelling words for next week have the long o sound spelled -oa and -ow.  Words are:
boat, snow, coat, grow, float, own, low, load, soak, bowl, also, around, form, three, small

Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - computer
Tuesday - art
Wednesday - music
Thursday - gym
Friday - library

* We will be needing about 40 drink carriers for a project we will be doing around Christmas, so if you get one from a fast food restaurant or think of asking for one when you are there, please send them in.

Have a great weekend!

Half and Half

This week was spent wrapping up our Gus and Grandpa lesson and beginning the next lesson, The Great Ball Game.  This is a fun story because it is a Porquoi tale - a kind of folktale that explains why something happens in nature.  This particular story is a Muskogee story that explains why birds fly south for the winter.  Ask your second grader what the story says and how it was decided that they needed to disappear for half the year.  Our focus skill for the week was plot - mainly beginning, middle, and end but also including characters and setting as well.  High-frequency words are ago, accept, half, fair, though, and clear.  See if your second grader can use them in a sentence, or if they can use more than one word in the same sentence!  Robust vocabulary words this week are feud, superior, refuse, and insult.  Ask who is having a feud in the story this week.  Challenge them to be superior to their siblings in some way this week - completing chores or finishing their dinner.  Use the word refuse at home (I know they will all refuse to do something at some point in the next week, so point it out to them and use the word).  Let them know if they have insulted you or a sibling, or talk about things that may be insulting and why they shouldn't be said.  Our grammar skill for the week is proper nouns.  We've given lots of examples.  Remind your second grader that a proper noun names a noun and begins with a capital letter - ask them to name some for you.  Lastly, we began narrative writing.  We are writing stories about what we would do if we were the president.  Hopefully these will be up at conferences for you to read - they are looking great so far!

Spelling words for the week have the -ar spelling pattern.  Words are:
car, art, barn, start, farm, card, yarn, part, dark, hard, boy, follow, came, want, show

Don't forget...conferences are next Tuesday and Wednesday.  Remember to bring your child with you so he/she can showcase all that we have been working on!  There is no school on Wednesday.

Tuesday is voting day.  Remember to exercise your right to vote.  Help keep us EXCELLENT - vote YES for Lake Schools!

Specials schedule for next week is:
Monday - music
Tuesday - gym
Wednesday - no school
Thursday - library
Friday - music

Enjoy the weekend!  Don't forget about Vendor Day on Saturday in the Lake Elementary cafeteria and tours of the new high school from 12:30-2:30 the same day.

Fall Festival Party

Our Fall Festival Party was a great time!  We had so many yummy treats to eat, and the kids were really excited.  They were making me laugh doing "cheers" with their juice boxes - "Cheers to Mrs. Lawniczak," "Cheers to the second grade teachers," "Cheers to the moms who sent in snacks!"  After we ate, we played a game in which each table group had to wrap up one person as a mummy using toilet paper!  What a riot!  A big thanks to everyone who brought in treats - we appreciate your helping make our party a success!  And now for some pictures...

Let the Second Quarter Begin...

We had a fun week this week.  It is always a good time when we get to have themed dress up days!  We didn't end up getting to accomplish everything I had hoped to this week.  It seemed like we had some conflicts that popped up here and there (mostly issues with completing assignments before grades had to be turned in and starting to get ready for conferences), so we are going to continue some of this week's focus skills into the first part of next week.

Our story this week is Gus and Grandpa and the Two-Wheeled Bike.  We are still working on making predictions before and during our reading.  Have your second grader do a picture walk before reading at night, or read the back cover of a chapter book before beginning to read, and then have your child make predictions as to what they think the story might be about.  Stop periodically while reading and confirm if their predictions were correct, and use what  they have learned about the story so far to make additional predictions.  High frequency words for this lesson are coming, curve, idea, knee, laughed, million, and world.  You should hear some of the sentences the kids can come up with using several of these words at once - they are hilarious!  Robust vocabulary words are romp, jubilant, defeated, and master.  We've been acting the words out this week, and the kids are getting really good at demonstrating their understanding of these words.  Ask them to demonstrate at home for you, or ask your child to name situations in which they might feel jubilant or defeated (ask about their report cards!).  Discuss with your child various tasks that they would like to master, and when and why they want to be able to do those tasks well.  We are focusing on singular and plural nouns in language.  Have your child point out examples of nouns for you, and ask if they are singular or plural.  We will continue with these skills through next Tuesday, when we will wrap up all of our assessments from lesson 7.

Beginning next Wednesday, we will switch to lesson 8.  We will read The Great Ball Game.  Our focus skill will shift to plot (beginning, middle, and end).  High frequency words will be ago, accept, though, clear, half, and fair.  Robust vocabulary words will be feud, superior, refuse, and insult.  We will continue discussing nouns, and we will explore the difference between common and proper nouns.  Spelling words will have the -ar spelling pattern.  Words will be:
car, art, barn, start, farm, card, yarn, part, dark, hard, boy, follow, came, want, show

We will NOT have a spelling test next Thursday.  I am still sending the list of new words home this Friday, but you will have two weeks to study.  Spelling test for lesson 8 will be on Thursday, November 10th!  The students have no school on the 9th due to conferences, so they can spend ALL day studying (haha!).

Speaking of conferences, many parents have not yet returned their confirmation of your conference time.  These are due on Monday.  Please check your calendars and let me know if you will be able to attend your designated time slot or not.  I do still have one or two time slots open on Tuesday and a few on Wednesday afternoon if anyone needs to reschedule.  Please note that we are trying something new with conferences this year.  We are attempting to switch to a more student-led conference meeting, with your child doing a lot of the talking and explaining their strengths and weaknesses.  For this reason, it is very important that you BRING YOUR CHILD WITH YOU TO CONFERENCES.  The students will be sharing their part for the first 5-10 minutes, and then we will have to last 10-15 minutes to speak privately if necessary.  This is a building-wide change, and we appreciate your patience and support through the change.  We do plan to send a feedback form home after conferences are over so we can hear your thoughts about the new format.

A big thank you goes out to all of the parents who helped out with our Fall Festival party.  This includes parents who sent in snacks and those who were in the classroom to help.  We couldn't have had a successful party without any of you!  The party was a good time.  I will be posting pictures as soon as I can - check back next week.

Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - gym
Tuesday - library
Wednesday - music
Thursday - computer
Friday - art

Enjoy the weekend - try to stay warm, especially on Saturday!

First Quarter Is Over Already!

This week we wrapped up first quarter (can you believe it?!) with a story called Winners Never Quit.  It is an autobiography written by Mia Hamm, a famous U.S. women's soccer player.  We introduced the skill of making predictions, and we talked about how we use what we know about a story plus what we know about real life to make predictions about what will happen next in a story.  The kids did really well with this!  Our high-frequency words for the week were brother, caught, cheer, learn, lose, and straight.  Robust vocabulary words were agile, spectator, competitive, and worthwhile.  These were difficult words for the kids because many of them had not heard of any of the words before.  I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly many of the kids are picking up on the words, what they mean, and how to use them correctly in sentences.  We are developing such grown up vocabularies!  Our grammar skill for the week was nouns.  We mostly focused on identifying nouns as people, places, animals, and things, but we did touch on singular and plural as well.  We finished up our letter writing unit.

Next week will mark the beginning of second quarter.  We will read Gus and Grandpa and the Two-Wheeled Bike.  We will continue to work on predictions.  High-frequency words for next week will be coming, curve, idea, knee, laughed, million, and world.  It's a longer list next week, but I am feeling confident that the kids will have no problems.  Robust vocabulary words for next week will be romp, defeated, jubilant, and master.  We will continue with nouns.  Our big focus for next week will be distinguishing between singular and plural nouns, and using the correct endings (-s or -es) for plural nouns.  We will begin a writing unit on narrative stories, and this will be our primary focus throughout second quarter (though we will continue to practice writing friendly letters and journaling as well).  Spelling words for next week have the long a sound (spelled ai and ay).  Words are:
pay, mail, paint, day, rain, stay, sail, way, train, tray, means, old, any, same, tell

Conferences are quickly approaching.  Several parents have not yet signed up for a conference time.  On Tuesday, I sent home a form to request a day/time for those parents who did not sign up at Fee Collection Day or Open House.  If you have not yet returned that form, please do so by Monday.  Parents who have not returned the form by Monday will be assigned whatever time slots I have left open.  Reminders will go home for all parents next Monday listing your day/time.

I would like to welcome a new student to our classroom.  Tyler joined our class last Friday.  He comes from Erie, Pennsylvania.  The students have done an outstanding job making him feel welcome.  He is a wonderful addition to our class and a great role model for other students!

Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - library
Tuesday - music
Wednesday - computer
Thursday - art
Friday - music

Enjoy your weekend!

A Week of Review

This week was our first review week, and it was also the first week we got to read a Readers' Theater.  A Readers' Theater is like a play, only without the acting and without the memorization of lines.  Students rehearse reading a script throughout the week and perform on Friday, with the main goal being fluent reading with expression.  Our Readers' Theater this week was called Neighborhood News.  We reviewed characters and main idea/details.  Our high-frequency words were all review this week, but we did have four new vocabulary words (penalty, location, excitable, and positive).  We reviewed sentences and continued writing friendly letters.

Next week will be the last week of first quarter.  We will read Winners Never Quit.  Our focus skill will be making predictions, and our strategy will be to use prior knowledge to help us make predictions.  High frequency words will be brother, caught, cheer, learn, lose, and straight.  Our robust vocabulary words will be agile, spectator, competitive, and worthwhile.  In grammar we will begin talking about nouns.  We already have a little bit of knowledge about nouns, and the students should know a noun chant.  Ask your second grader if they remember it, and if they do, have them do it for you.  And speaking of chants, have your second grader do the main idea chant for you as well!  We will wrap up our letter writing unit next week.

Spelling will be changing slightly beginning next week.  Due to inconsistencies between grade levels as far as how many words the students are required to learn how to spell, we are cutting our list down to 15 words.  The list will consist of ten words with the weekly pattern and five sight words.  Next week's pattern is long i words spelled with ie and igh spelling patterns.  Words are:
pie, high, tie, light, lie, night, bright, fight, might, tight, much, before, line, right, too
* Please note that the original list has "right" on it twice.  Please change one of those to "fight."

Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - music
Tuesday - computer
Wednesday - art
Thursday - music
Friday - gym

* I could use one more parent volunteer if you have the time to donate.  I'm willing to work with your schedule.  I am open any morning or afternoon except Monday and Wednesday mornings, as I already have two wonderful mommies volunteering on those days!

I hope your weekend is fun-filled and relaxing!

Good Things Are Happening!

This week we read our first nonfiction selection of the year.  It was a story called Dogs, and as I predicted, the kids really enjoyed it.  Our focus skill for the week was main idea and details, and I was surprised at how well we did with this!  It's usually a pretty difficult skill, especially this early in the year, but these kids are really getting it - great job!  Our high frequency words for the week were bicycle, sugar, exercise, sometimes, and special.  Robust vocabulary words were depend, responsibility, frisky, and affinity.  We learned about parts of sentences - the naming part and the telling part.  We also continued our letter writing unit.

Next week will be another first - our first week of Readers' Theater.  A Readers' Theater is like a play, only without the acting and without the memorization of lines.  The students will practice reading a part in a story all week in preparation for a performance on Friday.  The main focus of this type of reading is to increase fluency (the speed and accuracy) and practice using expression when we are reading.  We will discuss characters again as well as main idea and details.  It will be a review week for grammar skills - we'll be wrapping up sentences and reviewing the four types (statement, question, command, and exclamation) and the two parts (naming and telling).  We will continue letter writing as well.  High-frequency words will be a review from the past four weeks.  I don't anticipate any difficulties with these words, as the kids are doing a fantastic job with these!  Robust vocabulary words will be penalty, location, excitable, and positive.  Spelling words will also be a review.  The list will consist of ten words that we have already had as spelling words over the last four weeks and ten sight words.  The spelling words for next week will be:
has, win, spot, best, mud, same, broke, rule, clean, sleep, name, good, sentence, man, think, say, great, where, help, through

Our specials schedule for next week will be:
Monday - computer
Tuesday - art
Wednesday - music
Thursday - gym
Friday - library

Have a nice weekend - enjoy the weather!

MacQueen's Apple Orchard

Here are the pictures Miss Geddert was able to take on the field trip last Friday.  Looking at them makes me sad that I wasn't a part of such a fun day, but in the end I'm just glad the kids enjoyed it!  Thanks again to our chaperones!