Monica Ros School

February 24, 2010

Dear Parents,

I can hardly believe we find ourselves at this point in the school year.  The Wax Museum is just two weeks away on Tuesday, March 9.  The Art Auction will follow on Saturday, March 13.  Lastly, preparations for the Science Fair have begun!  Save Wednesday evening, March 31, to enjoy the science projects throughout the school.

 Please drop off items for our class baskets for the Art Auction anytime.   The last day to contribute to them is Tuesday, March 9.

 It was all about hearts and candy on Friday, February 12 just before our week away.  I want to thank Amber, Joanna, and Tami for hosting our Valentine’s party.  We decorated cookies and played a fun game of Valentine’s bingo!  Sorry about sending home sugar-filled children!

 Our fabulous camp-out is just three months away!  The Cornwell and Wachtell families are hosting our next barbecue this Friday, February 26.  Let us know if you are interested in hosting a barbecue in the next few months.

 Wax Museum!  The children have begun to write out their speeches on index cards in class.  The cards will begin to come home on Thursday to be memorized.  The cards need to travel to and from home in your child’s home folder each day.  We know this may be a tricky task!  Thanks for your help.  We will keep a copy of the cards at school just in case any pets are hungry!  

 The speeches should be memorized by Friday, March 5!  Costumes are due in class on Monday morning, March 8.  We will have our dress rehearsal on Monday, March 8 at 11:00 a.m.  Our final performance will be on Tuesday, March 9 at 11:00 a.m.

Science Fair! I’m sure you’ve heard the buzz about the upcoming Science Fair by now!  The children have begun to organize themselves in groups.  We will finalize the groups in class this week.   There is no need to decide on a project right now.  I want to encourage the kids to explore the many possibilities before making a final decision, hopefully by the beginning of next week.  Please find the list of Internet sites with many wonderful ideas.  We will also do some exploring in class. The most important thing to keep in mind is to choose a project that is testable at home and in class.   More detailed information will follow next week.

 Math! We have been learning about various graphs in class over the past few weeks.  We will put those skills to work by plotting the weekly high and low temperatures in the U.S.  we’ve been recording since September.  Keep practicing those math facts a little everyday.  We will continue to have math quizzes twice a week through March.  All the children should be working on their 7’s and 8’s by now. 

 Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Mrs. Buddhu and Mrs. Kirkmire

February 28, 2010

Dear Parents,

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is March 1st and we are approaching the seventh full month of school! As always, I want to thank you for sharing your incredible children with me. I am so pleased with each student’s academic and social growth at this point in the school year. I also want to thank all of you for your continued support with your child’s education both at home and in our classroom. Please accept my apology for the lengthy newsletter, but there are so many noteworthy items that I wanted to share with you.

Maureen McGrath, Children’s Book Author, March 1, 2010

Maureen McGrath, a local art gallery manager and children’s’ book author will be visiting our class at 10:30 AM. She will be sharing her book, Spunky’s Special Friend with the children. The story is about an unlikely friendship between a puppy and a butterfly. It also sends a touching moral message to children about how “unimportant” differences really are in regards to race, creed, and color. Ms. McGrath will also be discussing the steps she took to write and publish her book with our class. This should be a very exciting event! Thank you to Marc Larson for this nice referral.

Dr. Seuss’ Birthday, March 2, 2010

Dr. Seuss would have been 106 years old on March 2nd. We will be celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday with a “special surprise” morning snack in addition to all types of learning and craft activities in memory of him. If you would prefer that your child not eat Mrs. Griffee’s homemade “Green Eggs and Ham,” please let me know by Tuesday morning and I will have another snack available for them to enjoy.

Monica Ros Art Auction, March 13, 2010

Our Monica Ros Art Auction is less than two weeks away. Thank you for your contributions to our “Go Eco” class basket. It sure is coming together nicely! The last day for your donations is Monday, March 8th. The children will begin working on our class art auction project this Wednesday. I would like to thank Wanda Sakai and Donna Pope for all their hard work and creative/artistic efforts with this project.

Parent Conferences, March 15 – 19, 2010

I am looking forward to meeting with all of you to discuss your child’s progress at Parent Conferences. School will be dismissed at 12:00 noon during Parent Conference Week .

Science Fair, March 31, 2010

We will begin discussing the “Scientific Method” and our science projects for the Science Fair this week. The Science Fair is from 5:30-6:30 PM. Please mark your calendars for this exciting and enriching event.

Flat Stanley Project

As part of our integrated Reading, Writing, Language Arts, Social Studies, and Mathematics program, we have been reading a comical book named Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. The book is about a young boy named Stanley who is accidentally squished when a bulletin board falls on him. Stanley is “as flat as a pancake!” The story goes on to tell how Stanley discovers some real advantages to being flat. He is able to slide under doors, drop down into sidewalk grates, and even is able to fold himself up small enough to fit into an envelope. Stanley was mailed to California for an exciting vacation.

Each child will be sending out plain paper dolls that we call FLAT STANLEY to a host family (family friend or relative) of their choice. The host family can live anywhere in the United States or even in a different country. The students will be writing “Friendly Letters” to their host families in class this week. These letters will be sent to the host family with an information/questionnaire sheet and the FLAT STANLEY doll. We will be requesting that the host families complete the questionnaires, send photos or brochures about their city and the exciting things that FLAT STANLEY saw while he was there, and also “dress” or decorate FLAT STANLEY to reflect the season they are in, the activity that he did, or other clothing that would tell us more about where they live. Additionally, we will be asking the host family to let us know how far their city is from Ojai so that we are able to calculate the number of miles that FLAT STANLEY traveled. In our “Friendly Letters,” to our host families, we are requesting that FLAT STANLEY, the questionnaire, and photos/brochures be returned to Monica Ros School by Friday, April 16, 2010.

Please help your child complete the “Flat Stanley Host Family Contact Information Sheet” (included in this week’s homework packet) and return it to school by this Wednesday, March 3rd. THANK YOU!

Math

We are continuing to practice two-digit addition and will begin our exploration of two-digit subtraction this week. The children are working hard and are readily grasping the new mathematical concepts.

Language Arts

Up to this point in the year, the students have mastered writing the following types of poetry: a haiku, a couplet, an acrostic poem, and a clerihew. We will be working on limericks this month. We are progressing nicely with our “Parts of Speech” study and are concluding our study of pronouns. We will begin learning about adverbs beginning next week. We continue to work on sentence structure, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization through our daily D.L.R. (Daily Language Review) in addition to other writing activities. The children are progressing nicely in reading comprehension and fluency while working in their reading groups. The genre for the next “Book Celebration” is a biography. Please refer to the information sheet in your child’s B.E.A.R. Binder.

Science

The children have been enjoying our unit study of “Rocks and Minerals.” We learned all about our “pet rocks” last week during our science lab activities. I was impressed with each child’s creativity in designing their “cool tools” digging devices as well. All of the tools worked effectively during our demonstrations on Friday! If time permits in your schedule, the Ventura Gem and Mineral Society’s Annual Show is this weekend, March 6-7 at the Ventura County Fairgrounds. Please refer to their website for more information. Their website is www.vgms.org Jim Brace, the Ventura Gem and Mineral Society President will be a guest speaker in our class on Monday, March 8th. He will be presenting on “Fossils” at from 1:45-2:30. If your schedule permits, please let me know if you would like to join us for the presentation.

We are also continuing with our study of Nutrition. The children have been learning about the digestive system, the different vitamins and how they help our bodies, and how to read and analyze food labels.

Social Studies

We are concluding our study of our local community and are transitioning to learn about national and world communities. Our FLAT STANLEY project will be the primary focus in social studies. This project will assist in our learning about other communities and regions in the United States and in different parts of the world.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for your continued support, dedication, and collaboration in regards to your child’s education. I continue to feel so fortunate to be your child’s Second Grade Teacher at Monica Ros School!

Fondly,

Kerri Griffee Monica Ros Second Grade Teacher

Third Graders provide lunch for kindergarten through gradeschool students.  Should you choose to participate, the cost is $5.00  Funds raised at the BBQ contribute to the end of the year Third Grade overnight campout.

February 22-26, 2010

February 1-5 2010

January 18-22

In February we will be leaving Antarctica and penguins behind as we return to America for a month long look at famous presidents and the beginning of our county.  This month is traditionally a time when we celebrate the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, but we will also take this opportunity to learn about the important roles they played in history.  We will enjoy learning songs about our country in Music with Mrs._ Zonic.  This unit will culminate with an all school Assembly in which we will sing Songs of America on February 25^th at 10:30 a.m. all parents are invited to attend. 

 Language Arts:  We will be discussing and learning about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington with related writing and art projects. Children were valued members of the community in Colonial America and we’ll be learning what their daily life was like.  We will be playing old fashion games and be using old fashion toys.   We’ll be learning the story and history of the flag and its bright stars.  Laws and rules are important to kindergartners and they can begin to understand the importance of laws, so we will be looking at some of the ways government connects to their lives. 

 Math:  We will be introducing all of the coins along with the presidents on each of them.  Whenever you have spare change, try asking your child to identify the coin and then the amount for practice.  We will begin using the coins as a tool to skip count by five’s, ten’s and twenty-five’s. We are looking forward to our 100^th day celebration on Wednesday February 10^th.  Please have you’re children turn in their projects by Tuesday February 9^th. We know that the children have been working hard on their projects.  Please take the opportunity to come by Kindergarten on Wednesday to check out our 100 day Museum.  The projects will be up until lunch time on Wednesday.

Valentines Celebration:  Our Valentines celebration will be on Friday February 12^th at snack time 10:00.  Please have your children bring in their Valentines as soon as possible so that they can mail them in their friends bags.

Feb. 3rd, 2010

Dear Parents,

First we had all the rain and now we’re dealing with illnesses. It’s coming in the form of fevers, coughs and runny noses. The fevers have been lasting about 24 hours. Please keep your child home another 24 hours after the fever subsides. We are proud to say our group of children have learned about coughing into the sleeve of their shirts, it keeps germs from flying.

Thank you for ordering your scholastic books online, our class earned 936 points this month. If you didn’t order but want to, there will be another chance coming up.

Please check your child’s change of clothes box in the bathroom cupboard, some students are short on clothes. We are looking for any extra clothes you might have to add to our extra clothes drawer. Things you don’t want back. Items like sweat pants, socks, underwear, shorts, long pants, dresses and skirts.

Valentines day is coming up! We will be celebrating with two parties. One on Thursday, February 11th and the other Friday the 12th. Both parties will be after lunch. Bring the Valentine cards to the classroom the day of their party. Any questions please just ask.

Update on the Art Auction to come. March 13-get your babysitter!

Fondly,

Mrs. Simonds and Mrs. Drury