Newsletter & Mystery Reader Info 🔎

Hello Everyone! 

I hope you've had a great weekend! It's so beautiful with the leaves starting to change! We have a lot going on in second grade and a lot that is to come! Homework resources were sent home for your child to log onto IXL, Xtra Math, and Spelling City. Their sort words can be sorted at home as well and don't need to come back to school! We will also be starting word sort homework options and sight word practice this week as homework! Along with Teacher/Family Conferences, we also have some other opportunities for you to come into our classroom and enjoy some of our learning with us! If you haven't signed up for a conference yet, please do! I can't wait to  meet with you!  On October 26th we will be having a fall celebration as a class and we would love for you to join us! Here are the details:

Fall is in the air, which means leaves are gradually changing from various shades of green to bright yellows, reds, and oranges. We are planning on making animals out of leaves to tie in our study of plants and earth materials along with our study of animals in our community!

The first step in making leaf animals requires you to collect some leaves! Please take a walk with your child to go on a leaf hunt. Look for leaves of different colors, shapes, and sizes. All leaves are welcome!

Once you find the leaves, please prepare them so they are ready to use when they come into school:

• Soak the leaves in warm water for 5-10 minutes
• Blot the leaves dry
• Layer the leaves between several pieces of newspaper (make sure leaves are not overlapping)
• Put something heavy on top of the leaves (I usually use a few cook books!)
• Let leaves press for 5 days
• Place leaves in a baggie with your child’s name on it and return the leaves to school.
• Please return leaves to school by Thursday, Oct. 25th.

We invite you to join us in our classroom on Friday, Oct. 26th from 1:00-2:00pm to help your child complete their leaf creature and to celebrate the fall harvest together!

 

Since these leaves take a few days to prepare please have your child collect leaves as part of their homework this week and next! 

Another way we would love for you to get into our classroom is by being a mystery reader! Mystery Readers are such a great surprise for the students and it is an easy way for you to get involved in our classroom if you have a busy schedule! We are flexible with times and it doesn't take too long! Here is some information if you are interested:

MYSTERY READERS!

I would like to invite any parents, grandparents, relatives, or other special people to surprise your child by being a “Mystery Reader” this year in our classroom.  Students LOVE having their family, friends, and relatives visit the classroom to share in our learning by reading a favorite story aloud to our class.  Mystery Readers will visit us usually on Fridays from 11:10-11:35 a few times a month.  Readers are asked to bring a picture book to read.  If it is a short book, bring in two!

If you can find a date that works for you (Mondays,Tuesdays, and Wednesdays work best for us), please email me to sign-up to be a Mystery Reader for the remainder of 2018 and the start of 2019! Please email at least two dates (if possible) that will work for you so that I can accommodate with others. You can either e-mail me your preferred dates at sdonlon@sau16.org or send your top three choices in a “top secret” envelope to school with your child.  I will get back to you as soon as possible to confirm your official Mystery Reader date. 

Remember, you are a mystery to the class, so try not to tell your child when you will be coming!

To be a mystery reader you need to come up with five clues about yourself that I can read to the class as hints on Friday during our morning meeting.  You can e-mail the clues to me at any point!

Here is a sample set of clues written by a former mystery reader

1. My favorite book when I was in fourth grade was Charlie

    and the Chocolate Factory.

2. I was the youngest child in my family growing up.

3. My family has one dog as a pet.

4. I love to play Monopoly with my family.

5. My favorite family vacation is visiting our family cottage in York, Maine every summer.

I start with clue #1 and end with clue #5.  As you get closer to clue #5, you should make your clues a bit more revealing so that your child starts to recognize some of the information in the clues.  It is so fun when students realize that their family member is the one who has written the clues and will soon be reading to our class!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Please write me a “secret” note or e-mail if you have any further questions.  We can’t wait to meet our 2018-2019 Mystery Readers!

Whew! That's a lot of information for a Sunday night. Here are some pictures to make up for the wordiness of our learning in 2D. These students work so hard every day and they bring such a great attitude to their learning! We have been working on a lot of new fun concepts in all academic areas and I know you will be blown away when you see what we have been up to at conference time! In math we are working on place value and representing number values. In reading we just celebrated our first unit and all of the reading strategies, good habits, and ownership of our reading since the beginning of school. For writing we are now publishing our first story and including all of our good habits in writing as well as the craft we have learned from our first unit! We have also learned how to organize a story, hook a reader, monitor self writing goals, and write about problems people can relate to. Science has been all about nature and curiosity as we have gone outside to observe and ask questions about the world around us. We now dive into our new unit of earth materials and animals around us. For social studies we will be learning about the community of Stratham and our place in it!