Wednesday

Thank you to all who provided feedback on homework. I'm still waiting for a few more replies and will let you know the outcome.

We read a book, Crickwing, yesterday about cockroaches and ants. We learned some interesting things today about ants. I love how curious second graders are!  It's fun to have discussions with them. Yesterday, our discussion was about endangered animals.

We are singing patriotic songs after the Pledge of Allegiance each morning. So far, we've done This Land is Your Land and the National Anthem. It's a nice start to our day.

In math, Mrs. Jones did some mental addition with us. We also worked on some papers about money.
We learned how to do an activity called, Look Say Cover Write Check in word work. During writing, we are writing an opinion piece with a clear introduction, an opinion, and reasons with details. We are writing it step by step to ensure understanding.

We ended our day with keyboarding.

Tuesday

I hope all of you had a nice, restful break.  I surely did! We are back in full swing now. Today was a great day. We've started something new during work jobs. Each work job has a timer attached so students have a certain amount of time to complete the job. If they finish early, they read to themselves. This seems to be more productive today! Everyone knows what to expect and it is working well.

We are also doing something new for word work. Yesterday I sent home personal spelling lists where students picked their own 10 words to focus on for the week. We will do lots of activities with these words this week. I will test them on the words on Friday. If you can help your child learn their words, that would be fabulous.  These words come from their writing, old spelling tests, etc.

In science, our next unit is insects. We will learn a lot about insects and our unit ends with a trip to the Montshire Museum.  If you would like to chaperone, the date is June 11.  Let me know.

Please send water bottles in with your children. With the water fountains only downstairs working, it takes a lot of time away from class when students need to constantly go get a drink.

In math, we are learning about coins and dollars. Students are enjoying this unit so far.

We continue to study opinion writing. Today, we looked at a piece of writing and identified the parts of opinion writing: introduction, opinion, reasons, details, and the conclusion.

May is a busy week.  Let me know if I can help in any way.

Tuesday

We went to the computer lab today and discussed Digital Citizenship. A paper went home about it as well. In math, we took a test on fractions. In word work, we are working on homophones. We read about the danger of plastic bags in Scholastic News. We also put things into our portfolios and had fun looking at them.

Tomorrow we have an assembly first thing in the morning.

Monday

We brushed up on some fraction skills in math today. I will test this concept tomorrow and we will move into some review of multiplication for the rest of the week. I hope you can join us at Math Night on Thursday from 5 to 6PM. We went to keyboarding during computer lab time. We are making good progress in this area!  In writing, we read I Wanna New Room and students wrote letters to people at home (get ready!) about something they wanted. The letters are pretty convincing! We read a Langston Hughes poem about April rain (how fitting!) and talked about personification. After work jobs, we read a book about how we have days and nights on earth.  Great discussion there!

Our Fun Fair basket is birthday items.  It would be great to have more contributions. Thank you!

Wednesday

We had fun watching the video of us on TV!  Kevin Skarupa's visit was fun. In math, we reviewed fractions from yesterday. We are working quarters, halves and thirds. Mrs. Jones did some problem solving with us.  In writing, we wrote opinion pieces about Rainy Days vs. Sunny Days. This afternoon, we did some keyboarding and then we did work jobs.

Monday

We had a nice visit with Mrs. Maynard today. She read some books and talked about things happening at the library. After morning meeting, we took a math test on measurement. We went outside for a snack break. In writing, we told our opinions about bananas vs. pineapples and which fruit was better. We even ate some of each fruit to seal the deal! We got our new word wall words:
can't, you're, enough, only, and city. This afternoon, we did our weather journals, drew the tree that we've been observing and had keyboarding.

Jump Rope for Heart

Jump Rope for Heart

Second and third grade classes have just started a fitness unit in their P.E class. Students will be

introduced to various types of activities that include jump ropes, medicine balls, agility ladders,

stretch bands, balance disks, etc… During this unit, students will have the option to participate in

a Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser. This program was designed by the American Heart

Association to raise money and awareness for heart disease and stroke. Students may collect

donations online through the website: www.heart.org/jump or hand in the donation folder with

checks made out to the American Heart Association.

Knowing that every detail may not make its way home, here are some answers to commonly

1.) No, it is not mandatory to collect donations.

2.) There is no “event” that your child has to sign up for.

3.) If you choose to collect donations, the money must be brought back by 4/17/15

4.) Your child does not have to keep track of their jumps to receive donations.

Donation folders will be sent home with your child this week and for those families who choose

to collect money, please convert all cash to checks (payable to the American Heart Association).

As a thank you for your support, the AHA will provide students with small prizes for

raising money. You can read about other details on the form itself. Thank you so much

for your consideration and support of this great event

Tuesday

Breaking News: Snowpants are no longer needed for recess!  They still need boots, though. It is really muddy outside.  They should still be bringing jackets, though.  Thanks!

We began reading biographies today. Students are reading them independently during work jobs. I started reading a book called The Man Who Named the Clouds. This is a good kick off to our weather unit. After recess, we started weather journals. We will report out in these journals on the weather right after recess. Students were excited about these!

We are still measuring using feet and inches. We are learning words with the au/aw dipthong.

Monday

This morning we started our day with Morning Meeting, always a good transition from the weekend. In math, we did some estimating and measuring with feet and inches. We had no computer lab because of testing so instead, we finished the centers that we started on Thursday. They were: water color of our favorite weather, Moby Max, a game about sequencing and iPads with a money app. We read Dear Mrs. LaRue, a book about a dog at obedience school. This gave us a good opportunity to talk about words and different forms: obey, obedience, obedient. In writing, we finished making our Weekend News from last week an opinion piece. For word work, we have new words. We learned a new game too where we act out the letters of word wall words.

This afternoon, we read a poem about the Water Cycle. We talked about the words: evaporation, condensation, precipitation and their verb forms (evaporate, condense, and precipitate). Finally, we did work jobs and went to keyboarding.

Please note that a permission slip about Kevin Skarupa's visit went home today. Check your homework packet for that.  If you could send that back as soon as possible, that would be great! Thank you!

Thursday

In math this morning, we began talking about standard units of measurement: feet and inches. Students had fun going around the room with rulers and measuring objects. We caught up on a lot of unfinished work in math as well.

We had a spelling test and read Scholastic News about service dogs. This afternoon, we did centers. Students always love these.  We played a sequencing board game. We worked with money on the iPads. We worked on math through Moby Max. We painted a picture of our favorite weather with watercolor. I also read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Reminder that there is no school tomorrow.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Monday

We started the week with a bang today.  Lots of great stuff happening in 2F.  During math, we compared he lengths of many strings and found the difference between the lengths (shortest and longest). This was a cooperative activity that we did in small groups.  So many great skills there!

In computer lab, we went to a site called Into the Book. This site works children through comprehension strategies used when reading a book. Today we worked on synthesizing. It was challenging but fun. We stayed in the lab to work on keyboarding.

In word work: we learned our 5 new words: food, good, room, such, and until. We talked about the vowel dipthong "oo" and the 2 sounds it makes. Then we played Read my Mind.

This afternoon, we did Writing Workshop. Normally on Mondays we write about one thing that happened during our weekends. Today, since we are working on opinion writing, we read a book about adjectives and picked one adjective to describe our weekends. Students had to come up with 3 reasons to support this opinion and then write about it. After this was work jobs.

We read the poems, "Sick" and "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout" by Shel Silverstein. I have fond memories of these poems being read to me as a child!

Homework went home today.

Tuesday

In math, we are comparing the lengths of different objects. We also learned how to measure with a ruler when you don't start at zero.  Students had fun on Think Central (the math website) with an interactivity with this concept.

In writing, we finished up Weekend News and then looked at each other's blog entries about memorable characters. Comments were made on these. In word work, we did a Making Words activity that compared words with "ow" that made two different sounds.  (snow and plow).

This afternoon, we read a few different books with strong characters. Students filled out a sheet finding evidence of the characters' traits.

Monday: a little late!

Mondays are busy days. Seems like we go, go, go! Our day begins with Morning Meeting. It is a nice transition from the weekend into our school day. We worked on telling time and counting money in this meeting. After that, we move into math. I read a book today about a king and his queen and measurement. We worked on "more than" and "less than" a meter and what this means. In computer lab, we did a cool activity with symmetry. I was amazed at the figures students built which had symmetry!  Later, in writing, we wrote Weekend News. It has been awhile since we've completed this so I will be interested to have students look at the progress they've made.  Our new words for word work this week are: down, found, outside, house, and own.  As you can see, we are working on the vowel dipthongs that make the /ow/ sound.

After lunch and recess, we read a poem about the wind. We found rhyming words, contractions, and words with vowel dipthongs. We did work jobs and finally ended our day with keyboarding.

Homework went home tonight. Let me know if you have questions.

Friday

We began talking about measurement in math today. We are working with metric measures, namely meters and centimeters. We measured and estimated the length, height and width of some things in the classroom. We even measured the length and width of the MPR!  So fun!

This morning, we also did our portfolios, worked on our letters to each other about favorite characters, and completed work in our table folders. We had a spelling test and went outside for recess!

This afternoon, we did centers: iPads (new app: Popwords), Games on the computer and 2 board games.  It was a fun day!

Wednesday

Today, we talked about symmetry in math. Students  built figures that were symmetrical and their partners copied them to show symmetry. Mrs. Jones taught us about time as well. In writing, we explored unforgettable characters in books. Students read books with memorable characters and wrote down what made those characters that way. Tomorrow we will write letters to each other about these characters. This is the beginning of our opinion writing.

I had a meeting this afternooon, but a substitute named Mr. MacLeod came in. We did Scholastic News and wrote our own version of A House is a House For Me.  We ended with keyboarding.

Report cards went home today. Let me know if you have questions. Please sign and send back the envelope.  Thank you! Also, Reach for the Stars assignments went home today.

Monday

We had some fun with tangrams this morning. I introduced the word perseverance to the children this morning. We talked a lot about not giving up if it doesn't come right away. We read a book called Grandfather Tang's Story and built various shapes out of tangrams....fun!  In computer lab, we continued working with geometry by filling in some snowmen with different pattern blocks.

In writing this morning, we began thinking about opinion writing by talking about which pet is best: a dog or a cat.  Students talked with each other about their reasons for selecting the animal they did. We will write about this tomorrow. I also introduced an app called Write About This. This is a place where students are given a prompt and they answer it on the iPad. Eventually, we will put these on our Kidblogs.

In word work, I introduced the 5 words of the week. I sent them home for children to study: boy, catch, even, every, and change. Thanks for your help with that.

This afternoon, we learned about limericks and the rhyme and rhythm patterns in them. We also read a book A House is a House for Me.  We ended our day with keyboarding.

Homework went home today.  It is due Monday.  Have a great week!

Thursday

We had a delightful trip to St. Paul's School to watch the play, "Goldilocks and Three Pigs". The students were so well behaved. It was a pleasure to take them to the theater!

With the field trip, this left us with a very zigger zagger day. We did do a lot of geometry today. I'm looking to end this unit on Tuesday with a test.  Students have done well. It's been a nice break away from all of the hard-core computation that this math program stresses in the beginning of the year. It is still important to stay fresh with those skills, though. I will send home exercises to practice addition and subtraction occasionally for homework.

We also had a spelling test today. This week seemed to have a lot of interruptions and switches in schedules. I am hoping to get back on track next week with a full 5 days!  Have a great weekend!

Tuesday

In math, we worked on attributes of shapes: size, color, thickness. In writing, we worked on our Kidblogs. We will continue to put entries in there this week. If you want to send me pictures that your children can write about, feel free! In word work, we played a bingo game with r-controlled vowel words (ar, er, ir, or, and ur). Kiddos loved this.  This afternoon, we did work jobs and worked on our own verses of The Day the Goose Got Loose. Also, we talked about fluency and what it means to read fluently. Students practiced reading their poems at the end of the day.

Monday

Thank you to all who have returned the permission slip for Thursday's trip. If you haven't yet, tomorrow would be great!

We are working hard on geometry. Today, I introduced words like parallel, perpendicular, intersecting.  Wow!  Students were able to use their geometry sense in the computer lab to do a patterning activity on Kidspiration.

In writing, we changed our avatars on Kidblog. Students wrote about their weekends here as well. In word work, I introduced the new words: girl, different, never, under, winter. We also started making a bingo board that we will use tomorrow in word work.

This afternoon, we had Morning Meeting! Because Mrs. Maynard came in, we didn't have enough time to do this so we made it Afternoon Meeting. We also talked about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb and what that means. Finally, we did keyboarding.  Kiddos are working really hard on their keyboarding skills.

Homework went home today.

Thursday

We are still working on our Kidblog entries. Today we learned about editing and what that means. Students went back into posted entries and edited them (checked for word wall words, capitals and periods). All of the writing comes through me so I do my best to check what was missed. Along the lines somewhere there may be a mistake that was overlooked. I also monitor all of the comments being made on others' blogs. I'm not quite ready to go public with this blog. I will let you know when that will happen.

In math, we worked with solid shapes like cubes, rectangular prisms, cones, pyramids, spheres, and cylinders. We are using language like flat surfaces and curved surfaces.  Geometry is a good break from all of the computation that we've been doing all along.

Permission slips went home today for a field trip next week.  Please fill it out as soon as possible and send it back.

Wednesday

Today felt like spring!  We did a money activity with Mrs. Jones and we made placemats for the senior citizens at the Slusser Center. In writing, we were able to do an activity with opinions and supporting details. Then, we learned how to comment on our friends' blog posts on Kidblog.  In word work, we did an activity called Guess the Covered Word.  This afternoon, we read a book called My Brother Dan's Delicious.  We had great conversation after! It was work jobs next followed by keyboarding practice.

Monday

Welcome Back! It was a jammed packed day of lots of good things! We began to learn keyboarding in computer lab this morning. Students are using a web based program called Dance Mat. They are welcome to try it at home as well. Practice is key here. They enjoyed it and did a nice job.

We wrote about our vacations on Kidblog. Nobody finished but we got a good start on it. In math we took a pretest on geometry: our next topic.  In word work, we learned about what r-controlled vowels are and I introduced the new words of the week: car, part, favorite, story and more.

This afternoon, we did an activity where we found problems and solutions to certain read aloud books. After that was work jobs. We ended our day with the Dr. Seuss assembly... always so fun.

All throughout the day, we shared our bird books. They will go into our portfolios.

Homework went home today.  It is due Monday as always, with the exception of the March reading calendar.

Friday

Wow, I can't believe the entire week went by without a blog post.  It's amazing how busy we get!  Apologies!

This week we did a lot of Dr. Seuss activities. I read a lot of books and we are ready for our assembly on Monday when we come back.  We finished up the unit on picture graphs. Next, we move into geometry. Mrs. Jones has been working with money too so we've done some activities with that.

We've learned about suffixes in word work, particularly making words plural or in past tense. In writing, we finished up our bird books. Our next unit will be on opinion writing and we will talk about the weather.  That is certainly a topic that will keep the discussion going.

When we come back from break, I will move back into reading fiction books in guided reading. We've been doing nonfiction which has been fun. We will focus on the skills required in reading fiction.

We had 4 fun activities today to end our week: iPads, a board game and 2 math games. We rotated through them.

Have a great week ahead!

Monday

Delayed opening today. We did some assessments in math for the report card as well as the monthly
math test. Next, we worked on more picture graph activities. For word work, I introduced last week's words as well as this week's words. We will focus on 10 this week (apologies).  I will do some work with past tense forms.

This afternoon, I was in a meeting but the children had Mr. Hill as a substitute. Students worked on an umbrella prop to get ready for the Read Across America Day Monday, March 2. Next, they learned about Abe Lincoln in Scholastic News. After that, they finished their math packets and worked on table folders. Mr. Hill read them a Dr. Seuss book to end the day.

No homework this week except to read.

Tuesday

Another shortened week! We are talking a lot about friendship and kindness this week as we get ready for Valentine's Day. In math, we began to talk about picture graphs. We learned a lot about how to interpret a graph and information you get from a graph.  In writing workshop, we are working on putting our research about birds into books.  We learned the "change the y to i and add es" rule for making words plural. Finally, we read a poem called Our Classroom Has a Mailbox.

Friday

It's been a wild week. When we have snow days and delays, it takes a bit to reorganize my brain! Anyway, in math this morning, we worked on solving division and multiplication word problems. There is a special message from Mr. G about PE next week:  2nd and 3rd graders will need their outdoor clothes during PE next week for snowshoeing.  I've also mentioned to the kids that (if they remember) they could bring in snowshoes from home. If the temps next week are well below 20, we'll be inside. Please remember to send your child with the appropriate clothes for outside.  Thank you!

In social studies we read about the elephant seal. We got really excited about a National Geographic TV special about leopard seals that Mrs. Guay saw last night so we put the video up on the screen. I did not preview the video first (my fault) and wanted to let you know that the man narrating the video said the H word. I'm very sorry about this.  We truly apologize about it. We did, however, see some great photos of a leopard seal up close.

In writing, students did a 3 minute prompt which I do monthly. It's fun to compare the writing each month. In word work, we learned how to make words plural by using 's' or 'es'. We talked about the rules to determine which one to add. 

This afternoon we did workjobs and catch up work. We ended our day with some fun reading games.

Valentine's Party is Friday, February 13.  You should be hearing from Mrs. Westover soon regarding this.  Thank you!

Tuesday - late start

Today felt like Monday but was really Tuesday! We missed PE this morning. We began with snack and morning meeting. Lots of people were 10's because of the Super Bowl outcome (including me!). In math, we began our 10's times tables. We are pros! In word work, I introduced the new word wall words. They are difficult this week: another, about, again, above, and around.  A little extra help at home on these words would be great.

After lunch and indoor recess, we learned about the nonfiction text feature of labels. Students found examples of labels in nonfiction books. Then we did work jobs and finally learned about the Snow Moon tonight as well as some different birds.

Homework went home with a class list for the Valentine party.  There is a new reading calendar as well.

Friday

We had a great day today! We learned about Fairy penguins and how they use sweaters to keep the oil from oil spills off of them. We also identified more Nonfiction Conventions within the Scholastic News. In math, we did some work with the 5's multiplication tables. In word work we had a test on our spelling words and then we did catch up work jobs. We ended reading with a game about Fact and Opinion and then another team building exercise called, "Excuse Me, What are you Doing?"  It was very fun!
Have a fabulous weekend!

Thursday

We had the STAR reading test today.  At this point, I think we are done with assessments for the mid year.  Students did a great job on this test in the computer lab.  In math, we worked more with 5 tables for multiplication. In word work, we did an activity called Making Words. Work jobs happened this afternoon and we ended our day with a short movie about birds in our backyard.

Football gear tomorrow!

Wednesday

After a late start, we did some multiplication with the fives tables. Students seem to grasp this concept nicely.  Using the 100s chart helped them see the patterns. In word work, we worked with white boards and wrote words that have the long i using y and also igh words.  This afternoon, we typed our rough drafts. We also learned about bird watching from Mrs. Guay.

Monday

Happy Monday!  We finished up our research today about our birds. Mrs. Marino showed us how to research on line. Students are very excited about the research.  We had a spelling test that we missed on Friday and I introduced the new words for the week: funny, happy, sky, try, and right. Students wrote sentences for these words on their own. This afternoon, we did work jobs, read about birds and did one more assessment.

Enjoy the snow!

Friday

We had a wonderful day today! It was fun doing research about the backyard bird that we chose! Some of us didn't get to go today but we will all finish up by Monday.  Mrs. Marino in the library taught us how to take notes. Mrs. Guay helped us with all of the information that she has too.  We are loving learning about birds!

We also took a STAR assessment in the computer lab. I am very pleased with the outcome of this assessment. Students worked hard. We did our portfolios and had some catch up time too.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Wednesday

In math today Mrs. Jones came in to work with money.  We are still learning what the coins are and how much they are worth. Any help with this at home would be appreciated!  In writing, we worked on our rough drafts. We learned to reread our writing to make sure it makes sense and make it flow. It's coming along. During word work, we came up with words with the long o sound. There are lots of ways to make long o. We read a poem called Winter Dark in shared reading. We talked about metaphors and similes as this poem had metaphors in them. Mrs. Guay taught us more about birds this afternoon. We even heard some bird calls.

Tuesday

It was another busy day in 2F! In math, we are focusing on multiplication tables: twos, fives, and tens. We skip counted today by all of those numbers. We worked a lot today on the twos tables. Students are seeing the relationship between counting by twos and doubling the number. In writing this morning, we we turned our planning sheets about our areas of expertise to rough drafts. We learned to write introductions, facts with definitions, and conclusions. This was a bit tricky so we will keep working on it all week. During word work, I explained the new word work job for this week.  We also learned the words of the week: also, almost, goes, snow, and old - all long o words. This afternoon, we discussed the difference between fiction and nonfiction. We did a life-sized Venn Diagram comparing the components of both. To end our day, Mrs. Guay read to us about birds. We are learning a lot about birds we might see in our backyards!

Friday

We had a busy day today: lots of catch up work time since so many friends were out this week. We watched a movie about MLK Jr. and made a timeline with important events from his life. During word work, we had a test on this week's spelling words. This afternoon, we worked on Expert pieces and finished the brainstorming paper.   After that we learned about glossaries and found some books with glossaries.

Have a nice weekend!

Wednesday

This morning, we played a game called Back to Back in math. It was about students figuring out sums and addends.  Also, Mrs. Jones came in to teach us about money. We learned some fun facts!
In writing, we learned about dictionaries and all the things you can find in one!  Students had to look at their areas of expertise and figure out what terms they would need to define for the reader of their piece of writing about this topic. They had a ton of fun looking at the dictionary! In word work, I finally introduced this week's words. This afternoon, we read The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett and we talked about how it was the same and different from Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Students did work jobs while some read about Martin Luther King Jr. Finally, our nonfiction convention of the day was Sidebar.

Tuesday

Today we only had 3 friends out sick. We are hoping for a full boat tomorrow.  We miss our friends who've been out. There is a lot of sickness going around. We are washing our hands like crazy!

In math this morning, we did our Chapter Review for the first chapter on multiplication and division. I may spend a little more time on word problems tomorrow after Mrs. Jones comes into our class.
During word work, we worked in partners and completed a Cloze activity where we filled in ee and ea words into a story.  In writing, we listed facts about our areas of expertise. Tomorrow we will think of definitions to enhance our topics.

After indoor recess, we read a poem called In Winter I'm Rounder.  It was a funny poem about how "big" we get after we put on our winter clothes - something we can all relate to!  We did some work jobs and then did our scavenger hunt looking for books with bullets in them.

Monday

  It was very quiet in our room. We reviewed multiplication and division word problems and did some in our math journals. In computers, Mrs. Pond came to us and showed us some apps on the iPads!  It was so fun.  We highlighted words from our word wall on the list that we keep in our table folders.  This afternoon, we worked on Storybird and read about Martin Luther King, Jr in small reading groups.

Homework went home today.

Friday

We made it outside today for recess! We also did a fun digital storytelling activity with a website called Storybird.  In math, we worked on problem solving with multiplication and division. We had some catch up time and a spelling test. Finally, we read Scholastic News.

Have a great weekend!

Thursday

We learned division today!  Students learned how division means equal sharing as well as repeated subtraction.  That was our morning and in the afternoon, we learned about captions and read a fun book called The Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett.  Tomorrow will probably outdoor recess so send your children with snowpants and boots please!

Wednesday

Even though it was cold outside, students were able to get out for outdoor recess at noon.   Yipee! It makes a big difference when kiddos can get some movement.

In math, Mrs. Jones came in to do an activity building number sense. We are still getting those cobwebs out from a week and a half off! In writing, we wrote about what we are experts about... this was fun! I'm still learning more about each of my students. This afternoon, we had work jobs and are beginning to focus on Nonfiction Text Features.  Today's focus was Table of Contents.

Tuesday

We have settled nicely into our routine today. In math, we looked at multiplication as "Groups of", repeated addition and a multiplication problem.  Students love this.  They feel very grown up! Tomorrow we tackle division!

In writing, we took some Super Sentences that we wrote and revised them to be like one of the ways we know we can start our writing: action, dialogue, setting, shocking statement or a question. This was tricky, but we are learning how to begin our writing with good leads.  In word work, we learned about ways to make the long a sound in words. We did a word sort with words that have a and magic e, ai, ay, or other patterns that make the long a sound.

This afternoon in work jobs, we learned a new way to Read to Someone involving checking for understanding. Some students worked on this while other met in reading groups. We ended our day reading another Jan Brett book called The Umbrella.

Happy New Year!

Welcome back! We had high energy today which surprised me based on earlier wake up times.  We began our morning with Morning Meeting because everyone had LOTS to share!  We also played a game Find Someone Who... depending on what we did over the vacation. We learned about people who ice skated, went sledding, and had parties at their houses.

In math, we began talking about multiplication in terms of equal groups. We are thinking of multiplication right now as repeated addition.  In computer lab, we took a virtual tour of MLK's house.  Then we compared it to our houses.  During Writing Workshop, we wrote about one thing that happened to us over the holiday break.  In word work, I introduced the 5 new words for the week: rain, say, today, way, and wait.

This afternoon, I read the first Jan Brett book called Gingerbread Friends. Students will be using this book for their Write about Reading job during the week. We also are finding as many words out of Happy New Year as we can for work jobs.

It was a busy day!  Homework came home today. Please send back the December reading calendar as soon as possible, thanks!