Second Grade – February News
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
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