I'm not certain how many parents are still using this blog, so would you please write a note in your child's planner telling me if you do.  Thanks so much.

There are two important notes coming home from me today.  A letter on pink paper tells you about our valentines "stuff" and our new student from Lee University.  A half sheet blue paper is a permission form concerning second grade's next field trip.  We are not able to take parents on this this, but if you would like to make a donation for another child other than your own to go, that would be fantastic! 

Group pictures will be rescheduled, and I'll let you know as soon as I know!

Everyone will take the same spelling words this Friday:  guessing, laughing, chopping, petting, hugging, planning, hopping, hoping, smiling, voting, icing, writing, again, look.  PLEASE STUDY EXTRA HARD ON SPELLING WORDS because spelling grades have not been as good as they should be. 

We will have a storyteller visiting our school this Friday afternoon.

Yearbooks will be on sale the month of February.  I'm sure a letter will be coming home soon.

Everyone will take the five minute + and - practice drills this week.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO GIVE YOUR CHILD PRACTICE READING AN ANALOG CLOCK AND TELLING TIME TO THE NEAREST FIVE MINUTE INTERVALS.  ALSO, PRACTICE COUNTING GROUPS OF COINS (USE REAL ONES) UP TO A $1.00 AND THEN BEYOND.

New spelling words:

List B (14 words):  for, four, short, before, more, roar, board, poor, pour, door, floor, your, because, our
List C (20 words):  morning, northeast, explore, ignore, door, poor, pour, court, board, fourteen, borrow, tomorrow, because, our, symmetry, congruent, trapezoid, vertex, hexagon, octagon

Tonight's homework:  STUDY SPELLING AND + FACTS; COMLETE SPELLING WORKSHEET

The spelling grades have dropped overall.  That's why I'm giving the B list only 14 words.  Some of the words this week are homophones (sound the same, but have different meanings and are not spelled the same).  You'll need to work a little harder on these.

We are learning the poem "January Starts the Year" by Risa Jordan.  Your child will have to say it to me by the end of the month.  Ask your child to say it to you.  If he/she can't, tell them to bring home their poetry notebook each night--just send it back to school each day. 

We're working on + and - with regrouping, number lines, measuring length, points of view, plot, stating our opinion supported by a reason, telling time to the five minutes, word problems, and soooooo much more!

B spelling list (14 words):  were, after, mother, father, girl, first, third, circle, church, turn, hurt, picture, some, goes

C spelling list (20 words):  perfect, mermaid, gerbil, nervous, birthday, thirsty, circus, cursive, curtain, purchase, picture, some, goes, square, triangle, polygon, rectangle, corner, angle

There are spelling word sentences for homework :)  I won't do these unless I need to.

This Friday is the 100th day of school !

Report cards will come home tomorrow.  Let me know if you would like to schedule a conference.

It's hard to realize that it's the week before Christmas!  We're almost halfway through the school year!  Where has the time gone?

We're doing a lot of reviewing before assessing and even the kids are aware of how much they've learned since starting second grade.  Now if I can just figure out how to get them to apply what they've learned, we'll be in good shape!  PLEASE, if your child is not sick, have them at school from 8:15 until 3:30 the next three days because sooooo much is going on.  It is so hard to catch the children up on their assessments when they leave early or come in late. 

NO SPELLING TEST THIS WEEK :)

Tomorrow we shop at THE DOLLAR TREE from 10:30 until 11:30.  We will return to school by 11:45, take a bathroom break, and go to lunch at 12:10 UNTIL 12:40.  TOMORROW'S LUNCH IS OUR CHRISTMAS LUNCH, SO PARENTS WHO ARE HELPING TO WRAP MAY WANT TO COME IN AND EAT LUNCH WITH YOUR CHILD.  After lunch we will come back to the room, put in the movie "Prancer" and pull out one or two kids at a time to wrap their gifts.  We will also be having hot chocolate.

On Wednesday, we'll take our five minute addition facts test for the report card grade, and on Thursday we'll take the five minute subtraction facts test.

The Christmas party is Friday.  Early dismissal is at 11:30.  Your child must stay until 10:00 in order to be counted present.

I will be setting up conferences in January to discuss your child's progress thus far. 

I hope each of you has a wonderful Christmas!

This week everyone will be taking all 20 homophones on Friday's spelling test.  It is so important that your child knows the meaning of each word so that they can spell it correctly.  I am NOT giving extra spelling homework this week...just studying the words along with their meanings.

ate, eight, write, right, sum, some, there, their, they're, week, weak, by, buy, bye, cent, scent, sent, heel, hill, heal

Practice + and - timed facts each night.  Next week I'll take their five minute grades.

We enjoyed act I of The Nutcracker ballet today.  Ask your child about it!

I can not tell you how much we're enjoying making the ornaments with our moms who have volunteered!  The ornaments are all different, and all sooooo good!  Today Jackson's mom came.  Andrew Wenger's mom comes Friday, and Noah Harrell's mom comes next Monday.  I still have a couple of things to make, along with finishing up on standards, and assessments, assessments, assessments.  I need you child here all day, every day unless they are sick :)

There is a permission slip coming home today about our shopping trip to The Dollar Tree and how you may help out.

There should be a note coming home later in the week from our room mothers regarding the class Christmas party on the 20th.  That will be an early dismissal day.

Welcome back to three of the most hectic weeks of the school year!  I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my children and grandchildren, but I was ready to get back to my Whiz Kids!

New spelling lists are coming home today:

B13:  early, earth, heard, brother, sister, ear, fear, clear, dear, here, cheer, deer, use, where,
          volunteer, career, research, though, through, threw

C13:  early, earth, pearl, learned, sincerely, cheerful, clear, appear, nearest, here, deer, dear, use,
          where, volunteer, career, research, though, through, threw

Notice there are several homophones (words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings):  heard (the past tense of "hear"), dear (a term used to refer to someone close to us), deer (the animal), where (NOT the same as "wear;" Where is a question word.), here (a place close to you), through (finished; passing from one side to the other side), threw (past tense of "throw")

Tonight's spelling homework is to complete the worksheet.
Tuesday's homework will be to write sentences with the first seven words.
Wednesday's homework will be to write sentences with the second seven words.
Thursday's homework will be to write sentences with the six extra words.

The test will be Friday.  Several students are taking only 14 words until spelling test scores are improved.  I wrote a note at the top of the spelling paper.

Wednesday will be the five minute addition facts drill.
Friday will be the seven minute subtraction facts drill.

There is a permission form to be signed and returned for "The Nutcracker" next Monday morning.  There is no cost for this.

We started on our computer assessments today!  We will doing assessments (some paper and pencil ones, too) throughout the next three weeks.

We made a second Christmas ornament today with Caroline's mom and grandmother.  I'm loving it!
So far, I've talked with Alexa's mom, Caroline's mom, Jackson's mom, and Andrew W.'s mom about making ornaments.  If you're interested, please let me know as soon as possible.  Time is running out!

WE NEED SNACKS, PLEASE!

This week's spelling test will be on Thursday, and there will be only 14 words again.  (I've had several students tell me that they would not be here on Friday.)  Also, the only homework is tonight's--no sentences this week.

B List:  clean, cleaner, cleanest, small, smaller, smallest, cold, colder, coldest, loudly, useful, careless, say, says

C List: safer, bigger, funnier, carrier, hardest, littlest, easiest, wonderful, beautiful, closely, finally, sleeveless, say, says

As with last week's words, I suggested to the kids to learn to spell the base word first, and then add the suffix to it making changes to the base word when necessary.

Tomorrow we will have an eight minute subtraction practice

December 9--Second grade goes to The Nutcracker.   This will not cost us anything and only students may go. 

Thanks so much to all the parents who went on the field trip this past Friday.  We really enjoyed The Lost Sea!  Hope you did, too!