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.