Back At It!!

Hello 2D Families! 

I hope you had a wonderful week back from the holiday break. We were so busy during this four day week. The students came to school excited to learn and dive into new units. In this week's photos you will see our fun from the week before break and hear all about our newest adventures. 

Reading

We are in a new unit where we are character detectives. We are looking at how we know what a character is like, without the author explicitly telling us. We are looking at how they react to problems and at their physical and personality traits. The students have taken notes and searched for inspiration for their own stories they will be writing in our fictional story writing unit. The students  are using so many skills from our growth mindset work to think about how complex characters can be- just like people. 

Writing

This week we have been brainstorming for our new fictional stories and starting with the planning of our main characters. We are keeping these stories simple but with more complex problems. We are thinking of how our characters would react and what that means for their behavior in the rest of the story.  We have talked about the importance of planning our stories and taking the time to think about these details. Before break we had a hip hop artist come in and help us write a rap for our community day music video to show to the other second grades. He taught us so many writing techniques such as rhyming and using synonyms.He also stressed the importance of brainstorming and planning before writing. The students wrote a rap about the police in the community and what they do for others. They were so great at expressing themselves and brainstorming all that they had learned about police work. 

Math

We are reviewing the math concepts we have covered for the first half of the year- such as, even numbers, number models, additional strategies, number lines, word problems, telling time, greater-less than- equal to, "in and out" machines, number patterns, place value and expanded forms. We have also been working on coins, money and figuring out coin puzzles. The students have done such a nice job with coin puzzles, as they are quite complicated! The students utilize subtraction strategies, counting up to solve these puzzles. Ask your Dragonfly to solve this puzzle:

Peyton has 27 cents and 6 coins. What coins does she have?

Science

We have started talking about the states of matter. We have talked about how matter is all around us in the form of solids, liquids and gasses. We will talk about their properties and begin experimenting in the following week! 

Social Studies

Our Community day was a hit and the students left with so many fun experiences, such as mailing letters throughout the school, creating licenses, going to school in the 1800's, chatting with Mr. Scammon from Scammon Farm and adopting pretend animals from the SPCA. We have been talking about civil rights and the important people in history who have helped make them equal for all people. We started learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks this week. and what their roles were in this movement. Some of our vocabulary has been segregation, peaceful protest, boycott, Civil Rights, inspire, and peaceful. The students were so curious if any children helped with this movement, so next week we will begin with research on Ruby Bridges. 

Dragonfly News

We are nearing our last container of disinfecting wipes.. DUN DUN DUN... Please send in wipes if you have a chance or would like to donate. We have kept sickness to a minimum in 2D amidst the rising flu season and we want to keep that up! We are super cleaners in 2D! 

Please make sure students are coming to school with labeled boots, hats, gloves, snow pants and jackets. It is very cold at recess and the students should be dressed warmly!
As concepts in math get trickier in the second half of the school year, occasional homework assignments may be sent home for extra practice. Please make sure your child completes these and gets the extra practice. We are cruising along until the end of the year now! 

Report cards will be coming home at the beginning of February. 

Thank You!!

-Hello Families-

Thank you for your help and generosity yet again with the gingerbread houses! The students had so much fun and it was great having so many families in our room! Tomorrow is going to be a pajama day. Students may wear their comfiest pajamas and bring in a stuffed animal if they would like! A newsletter of our latest learning adventures will be posted at the start of break!

Thank You!!!

Thank you, sincerely, for the generous group gift. I absolutely loved it and will definitely be using it during vacation! If you know me, you know that is the perfect gift for me! It has been such a pleasure working with all of you this year and I couldn't feel luckier to have each and every one of these kiddos in my life. It is great connecting with families and forming friendships for the future and I have enjoyed getting to know you all, so much. Thank you so much again, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday break with your families. 

THANK YOU!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Today was a very special day in our classroom and we were so lucky to share it with YOU! Thank you for your generous donations and support. The students had so much fun preparing for this charity event and sharing their talents with you. Sitting back and watching their self confidence and support in one another was my favorite part! Again, thank you! In a quick counting- we have raised roughly 500 dollars for Boston Children's Hospital! The students will take a picture with a large check on Monday with the exact amount. 

Have a happy and safe weekend!

*Reminder that gingerbread house decorating will be on Thursday, December 22nd at 1:00! We would love to have you back in 2D for this fun event!*

2D's Got Talent

Greetings!

2D's Got Talent is FRIDAY! We are all so excited here in 2D. You will be amazed to see what the students have come up with in their short rehearsal times and during indoor recesses. There are a few things to remember for this day. 

1. Please help your child come prepared with what they need. (soccer jersey, karate uniform etc..)

2. Arrive a little bit early! We will be starting right at 1:15 because we go to our encore subject right at 2:05. 

3. We are donating to Boston Children's Hospital if you would like to give a small donation. 

We can't wait to see you. :)

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! :)