Meet A 2nd Grader: Mark

Mark was our Owl of the Week last week!

Mark describes himself as smart! Mark wants an X-box 360, dislikes homework, and can't wait to ice skate.

His favorite things are his Wii, computer, brother, sister, mom, and dad.

Mark brought in two action figures that box each other. He said he loves to play it with his brother and lets him have red since it's his favorite color.

He also brought in some fun pictures of his family for us to see and even one of him swimming with a dolphin!

Thanks for being the Owl of the Week, Mark!

Nonfiction Writing

This week we got to start something fun in Writing! It's research writing! We spent some time looking through some nonfiction books about all different kinds of animals. We talked about what we were interested in, what animals we might want to know more about, and some of the things we learned about at our table groups.

We get to move into learning how to write a research report, what our steps are to set it up, and then move into picking our own animals and writing our own reports. I am super excited to get to do this and I think they are really excited to start something other than writing stories of their own!

Here's a couple pictures from our Book Pass activity where we learned a little about nonfiction and lots of different animals! We got realllllyyy excited and our room got very loud when we saw all of these amazing books about all of these animals!

Daily Class Goal!

If you are hearing your child talking about percentages, and have no idea what's going on! Let me tell you!

We use Class Dojo, as you know, for our behavior goals and rules in our room and school.

We have decided to do a Daily Class Goal regarding our positive percentage as a class. We review our percentage all day long, usually at transition times, so they can see how they are doing and how they can improve.

You can see percentages too! If you click on reports on your child's Dojo, you are able to see their individual percentage if you want to know what that is daily, weekly, monthly, or all time.
                **I am still unsure if you can see the entire class percentage as I do not have a student log in, but if you can, great! 

It's been super fun, they are learning tons about percentages, have figured out if they get negative points it hurts our class percentage, as well as the opposite, if everyone is getting positive points, it makes our percentage go way up! I think they are really enjoying it and are really motivated! Our highest was actually during the week before break and we got 90%! Our goal is 80% right now, and we have been at a consistent 73% - 75% so we are trying hard.

Now you know what they might be talking about with Daily Class Goals. It would be super fun if they had individual goals at home for their points or percentages as well!

Book Orders and Snowboots

Just a few things..

Book orders came home today in Wednesday folders! But there was not a due date on them. If you log into scholastic, our class code is MCN7Q and the due date for these orders is January 14th!

We try to go outside for recess every chance we get, but obviously that can't happen if it's freezing outside! But when we do go outside, I always tell the kids they have to have two pairs of shoes to be able to go into the snow.

That might mean a pair of snow boots and a pair of tennis shoes, or two pairs of tennis shoes, etc. I know not everyone has snow boots, but if they wear boots to school, and then wear those outside, when we come back in and sit on the rug then they are soaked, our carpet is soaked, and they are uncomfortable! So we just say bring two pairs of shoes!

If you have any questions, definitely let me know! Happy almost Friday!

Handwashing

Coming back from break we started our Nutrition unit! It started out with a lady coming from the University of Nebraska Extension Office to demonstrate handwashing. We got a special lotion to mimic fake germs and rubbed it all over our hands. Then we put our hands under a black light to see all the germs, washed properly, and saw how many germs were left and where we might have missed when washing!  

We get to keep learning about all kinds of different things dealing with Nutrition for the next couple of weeks! It's one of my favorite units to teach about because I learn just as much as the kids do!

Meet a 2nd Grader: Dominic

Dominic is the Owl of the Week this week.

Dominic's favorite things are hunting, xbox, and animals. If he could have one wish it would be to have a sperm whale and a giant squid. He wants a Wii and he can't wait to go hunting.

Dominic loves to learn about new things and always has information to share with the whole class!

He brought in two of his favorite books and something from Minecraft that he loves! He also brought in a bag and a ton of pictures of his trip to Disneyland and even one of him and Ms. Schlegel from a haunted house they saw each other at!

Thanks for being the Owl of the Week, Dominic!

Happy 2nd Semester!

Welcome back to 2nd Semester of 2nd grade! So hard to believe that we are already halfway done! It has flown by!!

I managed to take almost zero pictures of all of the holiday and winter stuff we did before break, but here are a few random ones to share!

I hope everyone's break was fantastic! I know it was MUCH needed. I am excited to be back and for all of the fun things we have coming up!

We are jumping right back into all of our curriculum. Starting with nutrition, finishing up time with a math test at the end of this week, and starting a new unit in Literacy! We get to have a ton of fun with research writing during our writing time as well. We are all excited!

Spelling this week is TOUGH! It is on silent letters. The pre test was pretty difficult, so don't be worried when you see your child's score. We will work on these silent letters all week long in literacy, phonics, and during guided reading time. But keep practicing at home other wise this weeks test will be a hard one! 

As always, if you have any questions about anything, feel free to contact me!

Happy Monday!