What a Start to December!

Hello 2D Families!

As I'm sure you are hearing at home- we have been quite busy in 2D! December has been off to a great start with new units and preparing for our upcoming events. Don't forget that 2D's Got Talent is this Friday- December 16th at 1:15! Donations to the students' choice of Boston Children's Hospital are welcomed but not required! We can't wait to see you!

Reading

We celebrated our non-fiction knowledge and made some very impressive posters for the hallway! We are now moved on to being character detectives and working on partner talking during reading time. We will also begin comparing and contrasting various Gingerbread Man stories.

Writing

We have been working SO hard on our non-fiction writing about our expert topic and these books are surely something for the dragonflies to be proud of! The expectations were high and the students definitely rose to the occasion. The students wrote five pages of facts, table of contents, glossary and an about the author page. I was blown away watching them work so hard and accomplish so much!

Math

We have been working on telling time, AM and PM, and elapsed time. We have also been working on our knowledge of place value- learning the diference between the place and the value of a number, showing the number in expanded form and with base ten blocks. Understanding place value is crucial when moving into more complex math strategies and when using traditional methods for adding and subtraction. Place value is the key ingredient to "borrowing" from numbers. We will be spending some extra time on this so we feel good before we leave for our Holiday Break!

Social Studies

On December 20th, we are having our rotating community day with the second grade. Our classroom will be teaching what the police do for the commuinty. The students have decided we will create a song and music video to show the other second grades when they come to visit! On this day we will learn about important places in the Stratham community.

Growth Mindset

We all know as adults when we get stressed we try to train our brains to look at the positives or to take a deep breath and slow down. In 2D we have been working on these strategies and working to train our brain. The growth mindset approach has five stances that we focus on- flexibility, empathy, persistence, optimism and resilience. We have been learning different phrases we can say when we feel like giving up. We have been working on taking breathing breaks when we feel frustrated. Most importantly we have been celebrating our mistakes because we know that mistakes are how we learn best. This positive way of thinking has helped many students when we come across something more difficult in our day. Instead of looking at  mistakes like failures, we look at them as a learning opportunity and there is no need to be upset at a learning opportunity! The students wrote down one mistake they made that they remember learning from on a sticky note, we put on some fun music and we paraded around our classroom, celebrating our mistakes. One student said "This is so liberating!"

Great books for empathy- Gaston, Nerdy Birdy

Snow Gear

It is that time of year and the students are coming to school with a lot of extra belongings for their fun in the snow. Please label all of your child's belongings. We are trying our best to keep everyone's things together with their own individual mitten bag, but the labeling will definitely help! Children must have snow pants and boots if they are to go off of the asphault during recess during the snowy months. 

Upcoming Events!

Friday December 16th at 1:15- 2D's Got Talent

Tuesday December 20th- Community Day

Thursday December 22nd- Gingerbread House Decorating

We would love to see you, if possible, at both 2D's Got Talent and for decorating gingerbread houses! :)