Monica Ros School

February 4, 2008

Dear Parents,

What a wonderful Arts Month we had! The children delved into sculpture, painting, and construction.  Weren’t the skyscrapers and all the artwork impressive? The dust has settled a bit and we are back to our daily routine, although this month promises to be a busy, fun-filled one. Here is just a general overview of the subject areas we’ll be focusing on in the coming weeks.

Language Arts: We continue to meet in reading groups three times a week and in grammar we are using antonyms/synonyms, adjectives/nouns, going on dictionary word finds (a second grade favorite) and mastering “friendly letter” writing.  We are reviewing our poems in class and will become poets ourselves as we continue writing our own poetry.

Math: We have officially started our 2-digit addition unit and will be starting our 2-digit subtraction unit in the next week or two.  As always, we encourage you to practice and review number facts to make 2 and 3-digit operations painless. We are enjoying more rotations in math this month, from Money/Time Bingo, to “Rolling Dice” for 2-digit math and Marcy Cook.

Science: On Thursday, February 7, Dr. Finch will be visiting our classroom at 1:45 to share her veterinary knowledge with us as we wrap up our unit on animals.  This week the children will give their animal reports.  A schedule will be sent home on Tuesday.  Thank you all for helping with this project. The props, posters and dioramas are terrific.  The final reports should be very interesting.  The work the students have completed for the animal unit will be sent home at the end of the week.  On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday we will have worm observations in class.

Social Studies: We will begin our unit on Native Americans next week.

Important Dates to remember: 

Tuesday – Feb. 12 @ 7pm: Poetry Night

Thursday – Feb. 14 @ 11am Special Persons Day. The Second graders have each chosen a “special person” in their life to invite to school on Valentine’s Day.  They will be reading a letter to their special person in class.  (Invitations will be coming home this week).

Feb. 18 – Feb. 22: President’s Vacation

Thursday – Feb. 28^: SB Botanical Gardens Field Trip

Tuesday – March 5: 2^nd Grade Play/Musical of “Lifecycles”

Saturday – March 8: Art Auction (Our themed class basket is the “Smart Family.” Please help us to make this basket a success by bringing in anything that might make a family smarter! Some suggestions: maps, games, globes, etc.) A box will be in the classroom for collecting all items until Feb. 28^th. Thank you in advance for your help!

April 28 – May 1: Standardized Testing

As always, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Warmly,

Mrs. Roe

Mrs. Ockerman

October 2007

Dear Parents,

Well, we are off and running in the Second Grade!  September blew right by us and we are anxiously awaiting the start of Theme Week this month. We have been working hard in all areas of the curriculum.

In math, we have wrapped up our math fact unit and are studying place value (i.e., ones, tens place) and number recognition (spelling numbers and identifying order - first, second, third, etc.) Thank you for your help with studying math facts as part of the daily homework assignment. The time spent memorizing these crucial facts will be time well spent as we start 2 and 3 digit addition/subtraction. We are reinforcing these facts in class through our Marcy Cook tile work, timed tests, and math games.

In Language Arts, the children have been mastering the “rotation”. They are becoming independent and self-motivated to work through their seatwork and center work. In grammar, we have studied compound words and are now focusing on contractions. In the weeks ahead, we will be identifying the parts of speech.

Science has been action packed this month. The students enjoyed numerous experiments to test their senses of sight, touch and smell.  We enjoyed our field trip to Ojai Olive Oil Co. Mr._Asquith was a wonderful tour guide and taught us many interesting facts about olives, olive oil, and the history of olive trees in our beautiful Ojai Valley. (A special thank you to our drivers!)  In the weeks ahead, we’ll be studying the body systems (skeletal, muscular, and nervous). Dr._Brooks will be speaking to the students on Thursday about these systems.  We will also be having a “casual” reader’s theater presentation of “The Case of the Spreading Germs”. A very simple presentation will be given for parents this Friday afternoon (Oct. 5) at 2:30. (This is a science learning experience more than a drama experience).  We hope you can join us!

In Social Studies, we begin our unit on Community, focusing on our school and the greater community of Ojai. Unfortunately, our trip to Mano Farms was cancelled but we look forward to mapping our town on the Ojai Trolley in the weeks ahead.  Also, keep an eye out for our Second Grade “Ghost Community”. We’ll be creatively renaming our local community workers into ghoulish characters with interesting job descriptions. We may need some parent participation in the mornings for our Ghost Town. Please let us know if you can help.

We are thoroughly enjoying our time with your children. They are a wonderful, considerate, hard-working, thoughtful class and we are delighted to be their teachers. As always, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Sincerely,

Mrs._Roe                                                                     Mrs._Ockerman

October 2007
Dear Parents,

Well, we are off and running in the Second Grade!  September blew right by us and we are anxiously awaiting the start of Theme Week this month. We have been working hard in all areas of the curriculum.

In math, we have wrapped up our math fact unit and are studying place value (i.e., ones, tens place) and number recognition (spelling numbers and identifying order - first, second, third, etc.) Thank you for your help with studying math facts as part of the daily homework assignment. The time spent memorizing these crucial facts will be time well spent as we start 2 and 3 digit addition/subtraction. We are reinforcing these facts in class through our Marcy Cook tile work, timed tests, and math games.

In Language Arts, the children have been mastering the “rotation”. They are becoming independent and self-motivated to work through their seatwork and center work. In grammar, we have studied compound words and are now focusing on contractions. In the weeks ahead, we will be identifying the parts of speech.

Science has been action packed this month. The students enjoyed numerous experiments to test their senses of sight, touch and smell.  We enjoyed our field trip to Ojai Olive Oil Co. Mr. Asquith was a wonderful tour guide and taught us many interesting facts about olives, olive oil, and the history of olive trees in our beautiful Ojai Valley. (A special thank you to our drivers!)  In the weeks ahead, we’ll be studying the body systems (skeletal, muscular, and nervous). Dr. Brooks will be speaking to the students on Thursday about these systems.  We will also be having a “casual” reader’s theater presentation of “The Case of the Spreading Germs”. A very simple presentation will be given for parents this Friday afternoon (Oct. 5) at 2:30. (This is a science learning experience more than a drama experience).  We hope you can join us!

In Social Studies, we begin our unit on Community, focusing on our school and the greater community of Ojai. Unfortunately, our trip to Mano Farms was cancelled but we look forward to mapping our town on the Ojai Trolley in the weeks ahead.  Also, keep an eye out for our Second Grade “Ghost Community”. We’ll be creatively renaming our local community workers into ghoulish characters with interesting job descriptions. We may need some parent participation in the mornings for our Ghost Town. Please let us know if you can help.

We are thoroughly enjoying our time with your children. They are a wonderful, considerate, hard-working, thoughtful class and we are delighted to be their teachers. As always, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Sincerely,

Mrs. Roe

Mrs. Ockerman