Read Across America Week

Read Across America Week
at PLES!  Hooray!!

This week we will be celebrating Read Across America Week at PLES.  We will have dress up days all week. 

Monday:  Celebrate the Freedom to Read Across America!
                Wear red and blue or Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Tuesday:  Fox in Socks
                Wear crazy socks or mismatched socks.
Wednesday:  Today is the Day for My Many Colored Days!
        Wear as many colors as you can for Wacky Wednesday.
Thursday:  Oh the Places You'll Go
               Wear something that shows a place you have been.
               (You can wear a PLES t-shirt!)
Friday:  Grab Your Hat and Read with The Cat in the Hat!
              Dress as your favorite Dr. Seuss character OR wear
              black and white clothes and your "Cat
              in the Hat" hat.

"Cat in the Hat" hats will be on sale every morning next week before school for $5, until we run out of hats.  We can take cash or checks made out to Pine Level Elementary School (PLES).  Students will be able to wear these hats Friday, February 28.

 

We will be reviewing skills from unit 4 in reading.  We will start our unit testing on Tuesday.  Please review the homework sheet with your child.  Please make sure your second grader is present for this test.  We have no story this week, and we will have NO spelling test this week.

In math, we will continue counting coins.  We will have our Topic 13 test Thursday or Friday.
 
We are continuing our animal characteristics unit in science.  We will be researching animals in the computer lab at the end of the week.  We will be working on animal projects when our research is done.  I cannot wait to see how these turn out!  I will be sharing them on the blog when we are finished!

 

I am looking forward to another week of learning your child!


Hugs from Room 403!

Last week my kids and I enjoyed a LOVEly Valentine party!  My kids know how to have a great time!  Take a look for yourself...

We made Valentine bags...

 

 

 

 

 

We also made yummy sundaes! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We passed out Valentine cards and sweet treats to our friends...

 

 

 

 

A HUGE Thank You to these wonderful moms!  They were such a big help in making this an enjoyable day for the children!

 

I also want to thank my sweet children for the precious candies and thoughtful gifts that were given to me for Valentine's Day.  I cannot thank you enough for thinking about me on this special day!
I also want to thank Mrs. Lizz Pearson for the Lindor White Chocolate Truffles she brought me Friday...I had a battle with the dust bunnies in room 403 Saturday morning, and those truffles helped pulled me through!  BTW I won the battle!!  LOL!!!

 

Now let's look at what lies ahead for this week!  We will be working on plot and theme for another week as our comprehension skill. 

 



 

We listened to the read aloud, Rainbow Fish, and completed a tri-fold where we wrote and illustrated the plot of the story.

 

 

 

 

 

We then extended this activity with a comparing a contrasting writing activity.  We listened to the read-aloud, Big Al, and compared and contrasted the characters from both stories.

 

We first completed a Venn Diagram about the two characters.

 

 

 

 

Then, we used our Venn Diagram and wrote two paragraphs about our two characters.  The first paragraph tells our readers how the characters are different.  The second paragraph tells our readers how the characters are alike.

 

 

 

(Click on the pictures for a better view!)

 

 



 

 

 

 

In grammar, we are still learning about adverbs.  Last week, we learned how adverbs can tell when and where.  This week, we are learning how adverbs can tell how.

 

 

 

In math, we are learning how to count money.  The children absolutely love learning how to count money!  They are able to use manipulatives in order to learn how to count money.  Please make sure when you help your child with homework, you only work a few problems each night.  Having your child count coin combinations each night will help so much! 

 

In science we are continuing our unit on animal characteristics.  I have some really great activities that we've completed in class to share with you really soon! 

 

 

We will be having our reading/language arts assessments on Friday due to the 4 day week! 

 

 

If you ever have any questions or concerns please feel free to call the school office and leave a message for me. I will return your call as soon as I can.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!





 

 

 



 

 



 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



AWeSomE AdjeCtiveS and MoRe

This week we finished learning about adjectives.  The children completed an activity of drawing a picture of an animal and writing 4 or 5 adjectives to describe it.  Take a look at some examples of their outstanding work.  The details and creativity absolutely amazed me!  I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I do!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



We also worked on comparative and superlative adjectives last week.  We completed this sorting activity I downloaded from the Teachers pay Teachers website.

 

 

Our vocabulary skill last week was suffixes.  We completed this activity sheet with suffixes -ly, -ful, -ness, and -less.

 

 

OH MY!  6 more weeks of winter!!  My children and I were not happy to hear that!  My children listened to the read - aloud, Geoffrey Groundhog Predicts the Weather, by Bruce Koscielniak.  We then connected this story to our comprehension skill, fact and opinion, for last week.  We completed a groundhog sort in partner groups!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next week I will be out for trainings on Monday and Thursday.  Although I will miss my children, I am looking forward to learning new strategies that I can incorporate into my classroom teaching to benefit my students.  Testing will still be on Thursday.  Here is the learning line up for next week:

 

Phonics skill:  compound words and syllable patterns

Reading:  The Night the Moon Fell with the comprehension skill plot and theme

Vocabulary skill:  multiple meaning words
Math:  working with subtracting with three-digit numbers
   ** Test on Topic 11 Adding and Subtracting Three Digit Numbers will be on Friday, February 14
Science:  Animal Characteristics

 

I am so excited about our unit on animals.  I have a lot of great activities planned for this unit.  Keep checking for these activities posted on our blog!  

 





 

Don't you just love Charlie and Snoopy!!  Just a reminder that our Valentine Party is not scheduled with the other classes at PLES.  Since I will be out for training on Thursday, our class party is scheduled for Wednesday, February 12 at 12:15.  Children are allowed to bring Valentine cards to exchange on this day!  I am really looking forward to enjoying this day with my students!

WheRe WiLL yoUr ImagInAtioN taKe YoU?

I hope everyone had a nice little break last week!  BBBBRRRR!  Talk about some cold weather, right?  It was great getting back to school to see my sweet kids! 
Last week we finished up our inventors unit.  The children thought about a toy they would like to invent.  They completed a toy invention application form. Then they designed an ad for their toy.   I was blown away by their awesome ideas!  Here are just a few of their toy inventions...be prepared to be absolutely amazed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazing!!!!

 

We have been learning about adjectives in grammar.  We learned how adjectives describe nouns.  We worked with adjectives that use our senses.  Adjectives that describe how a noun sounds, smells, tastes, looks, and feels.  We also worked with adjectives that tell about number, size, and shape. 

Each table worked together to complete these really fun sheets I found on the Teachers Pay Teachers website!  The children had to name adjectives that described the feet or shoes on their sheet.  They then had to write a story about their feet or shoes using their adjectives.  Some of the students got to read their stories to the class.  Here are some of the students' work...

 

 

 

 

 

We have also been working on comparative and superlative adjectives.  When we compare 2 nouns we add -er to our adjective (comparative).  When we compare more than 2 nouns we add -est (superlative).  Here is an activity where the children chose an adjective, wrote the comparative and superlative forms, wrote a sentence using each form, and drew pictures illustrating each sentence.  WOW!!!  That's a lot of great skills compiled into one activity.  That's a piece of cake for the children in room 403!!

 

 

Our comprehension skill this week has been fact and opinion.  I read the story, Stellaluna by Janell Cannon.  We then read statements about the story and sorted them by fact and opinion.  The children worked very hard on this activity.  Fact and opinion isn't an easy skill, but my children seem to be understanding it!

 

 

 

 

                                                   

 

 

I have much, much more to share with you!  I will be back hopefully tomorrow to share even more activities from our classroom! 

 

Some important notes I want to share with you before I sign off...

 * My second graders will be taking the performance series test this Friday (Feb. 7th) beginning at 8:15.  Please make sure your child is present and on time.  If your child cannot be present on this day, I will make arrangements for her/him to take the test before the testing window closes.

 *  I will be absent from school on Monday, February 10 and Thursday, February 13 for training.  The trainings I will be attending will be wonderful opportunities for me to learn new teaching strategies that I can utilize in my classroom to help benefit student learning. 

 

ALSO...

 

       

Our Valentine's party will be on Wednesday, February 12 at 12:30.  If you can send in an item for this party please send in the red sheet signed with your child's name on it as soon as possible.  I will be sending item requests home by Friday (Feb. 7th).  Thank you all for helping with our parties this year!

 

Please check our classroom blog again very soon to see other activities we are working on in our room!