January 9, 2012
Happy New Year!

Here we are, getting back into the swing of Second Grade after a lovely Christmas Break!  I hope you all had a great Christmas with your families!

I am working on setting up a book order for this month.  It will be online ordering (which is super-easy!) and I will send home the details on that in a note attached to the book flier later this week!  This is a great way for us to get additional books for our classroom library and replace the over-loved ones for FREE!!!

This week at St. Joe:
1/9  Old Shawnee Pizza Night
1/10 Dress Down Day!
1/11 PTO Can Day!
1/12 PTO Meeting 7pm
1/13 PTO Skating Party

This week in 2-2:
Mrs. Schmidt and the kids of 2-2 are proud to present the one, the only...EMMA R....as our class star!!! (insert wild applause here!)  We are looking forward to learning more about her this week!

RELIGION:  Chapter 9: We Learn About God's Love.  We will learn about appreciating God's creation and recognize that God loves all his creation.  We will learn that the Bible has a special role in our faith.  We will identify ways of caring for God's creation.

READING: Along with continued practice in fluency, comprehension and vocabulary we will study vowels patterns oo, and ou and comparative endings -er and -est.  We will review drawing conclusions and practice summarizing. 

ENGLISH:  Verbs and writing activities. We will focus on verbs of being.

MATH:  Money and Time

Social Studies: Continent studies and Martin Luther King Jr.

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December 13
Third week of Advent

Mrs. Rezac does such a great job with the Christmas Concert!  I thought the kids did an amazing job!

Some weeks/days/minutes I am convinced that my computer is in need of an exorcism!  This is one of these weeks!!  Just when I think I am making headway, my computer starts flipping out and I loose it all!

This Friday is our field trip to see Seussical!  Please remember to send your child in uniform with money for lunch and a little extra for a small treat!  It is always a great day!

This week at St. Joe:
12/14 PTO Can Day
12/14 School Council 7pm
12/15 PTO Meeting 7pm
12/16 Field Trip

This week in 2-2:
Mrs. Schmidt and the kids of 2-2 are proud to present the one, the only...KOBE...as our class star!!! (insert wild applause here!)  We are looking forward to learning more about him this week!

RELIGION:  Advent

READING: Along with continued practice in fluency, comprehension and vocabulary we will study r-controlled vowels sounds or, ore, oor and our and changing y to i when adding inflected endings -ed and -es.  We will learn about using a table of contents.  We are focusing on the comprehension skill of character traits.

ENGLISH:  Verbs and writing activities. Subject/verb agreement. verb tense

MATH:  Money

Social Studies:  Continents.  We will take a trip around the world on the Polar Express.

HANDWRITING: We will work on the correct formation and spacing of the upper and lower case alphabet in print. We will work on our print until after Christmas break.


               
December 6
Second week of Advent
Feast of St. Nicholas

Oh my!  Snow!  Don't know if I am ready for snow but I guess it is that time of year!  Unfortunately, where there is snow...there is cold and burrrrrr! is the word of the day!  We are setting up for another crazy week!  The kids are practicing hard for Thursday's Mass and Sunday's Christmas program and somewhere in the middle of all that we have to try to learn stuff!!!  So, here we go!

This week at St. Joe:
12/8 The Feast of  the Immaculate Conception--8:15 Mass prepared by 2nd grade!
12/11 Christmas Program 6pm in the churchSocial Studies:  Continents.  We will take a trip around the world on the Polar Express.

HANDWRITING: We will work on the correct formation and spacing of the upper and lower case alphabet in print. We will work on our print until after Christmas break.

ENGLISH:  Verbs and writing activities. Subject/verb agreement. verb tense

MATH:  Money



This week in 2-2:
RELIGION:  Advent, Immaculate Conception Mass, Feast of St. Nicholas

READING: Along with continued practice in fluency, comprehension and vocabulary we will study vowel patterns ew, ou and oo and contractions.  We will review context clues and summary.  We are focusing on the comprehension skill of cause and effect.



November 28
First week of Advent!

This week at St. Joe:
Quiet week!

This week in 2-2:
Mrs. Schmidt and the kids of 2-2 are proud to present the one, the only...EMMA...as our class star!!! (insert wild applause here!)  We are looking forward to learning more about her this week!

RELIGION:  Gearing up for Advent!

READING: Along with continued practice in fluency, comprehension and vocabulary we will study r-controlled vowel: ar and inflected endings -ed and -ing.  We will review context clues. 

ENGLISH:  Verbs and writing activities. Subject/verb agreement.

MATH:  Using numbers to 100.  We will compare numbers, order numbers and continue working on place value.

Social Studies:  Continents.  We will take a trip around the world on the Polar Express.

HANDWRITING: We will work on the correct formation and spacing of the upper and lower case alphabet in print. We will work on our print until after Christmas break.









November 21
Happy Thanksgiving!

The weather is making a change!!  We have been so spoiled with the lovely autumn weather we've been enjoying but today we are reminded that winter is right around the corner!  Several children came in today with nothing more than a sweatshirt for recess and the temperature did not get above the 30's during the school day.  Please be aware that the kids will be needing coats, hats, etc. to go to recess when the temperature is  like today.  Without proper attire, children will have to remain inside the building instead of enjoying recess outside where they can run.  Please help them remember to grab these things when you are headed out the door in the mornings!  Thank you so much for your help!!!

This week:
Religion:  Prayers of Thanksgiving and fun Reconciliation review

Reading:  We will use the book THANKSGIVING ON THURSDAY to review reading and comprehension skills and built vocabulary.

Math:  Evens and Odds, skip counting review, number line work and singing!

Social Studies:  Thanksgiving

November 14
Woo-Hoo!!!  A normal week!  We have not had one since the beginning of October and I am just giddy about it!  I am looking forward to being back to a regular schedule and of course we get to do it for one whole week!  Just in time for Thanksgiving break!!!  This year is just going at lightning speed! 

This week at St. Joe:
11/16  School Council meets at 7pm
11/18  PTO Skating Party

This week in 2-2:
Mrs. Schmidt and the kids of 2-2 are proud to present the one, the only...ETHAN...as our class star!!! (insert wild applause here!)  We are looking forward to learning more about him this week!

RELIGION:  We will finish up our recap of Reconciliation then study saints.  We will pray and write prayers of thanksgiving.

READING: Along with continued practice in fluency, comprehension and vocabulary we will learn vowel diphthongs ou and ow and inflected endings -ed, -ing.  We will review reality and fantasy.  We will learn to summarize information from the stories we read.

ENGLISH:  Verbs and writing activities.

MATH:  Number patterns.  We are practicing skip counting by 5's, 10's, 2's and 3's.  We are spending time learning songs and working on our number lines.  We are also working on odd and even numbers, identifying patterns, and counting up and back by tens.  We will move onto our chapter on using numbers to 100 later this week and work on it next week before the break.

Social Studies:  Thanksgiving activities.

HANDWRITING: We will work on the correct formation and spacing of the upper and lower case alphabet in print. We will work on our print until after Christmas break.

November 8
Well, we are almost there!  Tomorrow night is coming and we are ready!  Since we practiced in the church, the kids are telling me that they are feeling a little better about what to expect and a little less nervous.  We will see how they are tomorrow!  The night of Reconciliation is always a mix of nervousness and excitement.  It makes for a bouncy bunch!!  It truly is the joy of second graders!

Tomorrow night we will need the kids to leave their coats with the parents and seat themselves in the front sections of the church.  Parents and guests will sit behind them for the prayer service.  Once your child has received his/her sacrament, please join them and go to the west side of the altar by the organ and get your child's paper pot half from our class's box.  As a family you will go onto the altar and "mend" your child's pot by matching the halves together on the banner.  Sit together as a family and remind your child to kneel down and say their penance and a prayer of thanks.
We will be sending this information home tomorrow in a note via backpack mail!

As for the academic portion of our week...we are getting done what we can!  Right now our week is revolving around our sacrament so here are the main academic objectives of the week. 

Reading:  We are reviewing and testing.
Spelling:  Unit Review.  Review the last five lists.  I will choose 25 words from the lists for the test.
Math: Number patterns.  We are skip counting by 10's, 5's, 2's, and 3's.  We are singing songs and using our number lines.
   


November 1
All Saints Day
What a beautiful Mass this morning!!!  It was a great way to begin the day and the rest of the week!

Thank you all for coming to conferences last week!  I enjoyed seeing everyone!

Beginning the week with Halloween...WHEW!!!  That is all I can say!  Now we really hit the ground running!  With the Reconciliation prep upon us, Thanksgiving right around the corner and Advent creeping closer I know that we are at the top of the landslide that will be our second quarter!   There will be a lot of things happening all at once and it will be a crazy couple of months so get ready!  Here we go!

This week is the Reconciliation Peace Day Retreat.  Come to the school at 6:30 pm. One parent should attend with each of the children.  Next week on Wednesday will be our sacrament.  Please be at church by 6:50 as we will begin at 7 pm.  We will be sending a note home next Wednesday and I will have a reminder in next week's newsletter.  To help your child prepare, please say the Act of Contrition with your child each night.  I will send this home Nov. 3rd.

This week in 2-2:
RELIGION:  Reconciliation prep!!!

READING:  Along with continued practice in fluency, comprehension and vocabulary we will work with words ending with -es, -ce and -ge as well as rules for making nouns possessive.  We will sequence events in stories. 

ENGLISH:  We will learn about singular and plural nouns and make them possessive.  We will practice and play games with antonyms.

MATH:  We will review and practice place value.  We are beginning our chapter on number patterns and skip counting. 

Science:  Life Cycle of a Plant and Spiders.

HANDWRITING:  We will work on the correct formation and spacing of the upper and lower case alphabet in print.  We will work on our print until after Christmas break.

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October 17
I did not send out the newsletter last week due to the fact that sometimes my computer is just a stinker and it irritates me!  Last week it was really acting up!  Sorry about that!

I think autumn is really here today.  Morning recess was chilly and even a little drippy at times! Please make sure that your child comes to school with a jacket this week!

Since it is fall, first quarter is coming to an end!  I am still trying to figure out where it went!!!  I am currently up to my eyeballs in grade cards and will follow by getting ready for conferences.  I am looking forward to seeing each child's pare
ENGLISH:  We will practice noun recognition in context and identify common and proper nouns.  We will learn about singular and plural nouns.

MATH:  We are working on place value to the hundreds place. 

Social Studies:  We will continue Columbus Day activities this week.

Science:  Light and Sound energy.

HANDWRITING:  We will work on the correct formation and spacing of the upper and lower case alphabet in print.  We will work on our print until after Christmas break.





This week in 2-2:
RELIGION:  We will practice the Rosary and study the prayers.  Please study the Apostle's Creed at home.

READING:  Along with continued practice in fluency, comprehension and vocabulary we will learn r controlled i, u and e as well as rules for making nouns plural.  We will compare and contrast information and characters in stories. 


October 3

Well, I think life at my house is starting to get a little more normal and I am finally starting to get caught up here at school too.  A couple more days and I will be there!! Thank you all so much for the prayers and words of kindness this last week.  The kids have been my saving grace!  They keep me smiling! 

This week at St. Joe:
quiet week!

This week in 2-2:
RELIGION:  We will finish up our chapter and take a break from the book.  We will be studying the Rosary.

READING: Along with continued practice in fluency, comprehension and vocabulary we will learn long a spelled ai, ay and a and inflected endings -es, -ing and -s.  We will compare and contrast information in stories.  We are also reading Arnold Lobel books and working on reinforcing our reading skills using these books.

ENGLISH:  We will continue our study of sentences and begin studying nouns.

MATH:  We are working on subtraction strategies.  We are comparing numbers, practicing fact families, relating addition to subtraction, using a number line and missing addends.

Science: Life Cycle of a frog.

HANDWRITING: We will work on the correct formation and spacing of the upper and lower case alphabet in print. We will work on our print until after Christmas break.




September 20
Do you believe how September is just flying by?  I feel like I am so busy that this month is just getting away from me!!!
We started today by writing in our journals.  The children shared what they did this weekend.  I love hearing about the things that are fun or important to them about their time off from school.  Sharing time in second grade is so much fun!  I really get to see their little personalities shine!

This week at St. Joe:
9/21 Dress Down Day!  Yeah for can day!
9/21 School Council 7pm
9/23 PTO Skating Party

This week in 2-2:
RELIGION:  We are reviewing our unit.

READING: Along with continued practice in fluency, comprehension and vocabulary we will learn long e spelled e and y and inflected ending -ed . We will review an author's purpose for writing stories, settings of stories and character traits.  We will learn about drawing conclusions.

ENGLISH: Complete sentences! We will identify what makes a sentence complete, the subject and predicate and practice writing complete sentences. We will identify the difference between statements and questions and introduce command and exclamation sentences. We will review homophones.

MATH: Addition with sums to 18.
This week we will use strategies that help us gain confidence learning addition math facts. We will practice doubles, doubles plus and minus 1, making tens, using ten frames for visual connections and strategies that help us add three addends. We will also do work on our number line. The number line will help us understand addition and subtraction strategies, skip counting and help us build number sense.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  Mapping activities.


HANDWRITING: We will work on the correct formation and spacing of the upper and lower case alphabet in print. We will work on our print until after Christmas break.





September 12
What a beautiful weekend!  This weekend I went camping out at Savior with the boy scouts...despite the rain, we had a great time!  When it was time for the outdoor Mass, the skies let loose again!  This time God gave us the most beautiful double rainbow with the bottom rainbow being a full arch!  Wonderful!!!

We are having a great Monday in second grade and I am looking forward to a great week!


This week at St. Joe:
9/12 Old Shawnee Pizza Night!  Yum!
9/14  Can Day
9/15  PTO Meeting at 7pm
9/16  Parish Fall Festival--See you there!

This week in 2-2:
RELIGION:  We will finish Chapter 3 and begin Chapter 4: We Praise and Thank God.
This week we will identify different types of prayer including sacred music.  We will compose prayers.

READING: Along with continued practice in fluency, comprehension and vocabulary we will learn long e spelled ee and ea and final consonant digraphs . We will review an author's purpose for writing stories.   We will identify settings in stories we read.  We will also practice with homophones and introduce onomatopoeia.

ENGLISH: Complete sentences! We will identify what makes a sentence complete, the subject and predicate and practice writing complete sentences. We will identify the difference between statements and questions.

MATH: Addition with sums to 18.
This week we will use strategies that help us gain confidence learning addition math facts. We will practice doubles, doubles plus and minus 1, making tens, using ten frames for visual connections and strategies that help us add three addends. We will also do work on our number line. The number line will help us understand addition and subtraction strategies, skip counting and help us build number sense.


HANDWRITING: We will work on the correct formation and spacing of the upper and lower case alphabet in print. We will work on our print until after Christmas break.






September 6
I hope everyone had a great weekend!  What beautiful weather!  A break from the 100+ degree temps is just what we need, however I am not sure that I'm ready for autumn just yet!

This week at St. Joe:
9/7 Picture day!!
9/9 Happy Bear presentation ( We need someone to volunteer to wear the Happy Bear suit...PLEASE!!!!!!!!!! )  Let me know if you would like to volunteer!!!

This week in 2-2:
RELIGION: We will study the Our Father. Please practice this prayer at home with your child. I will begin testing this prayer this week!
Chapter 3:  Our Church Shows Us How to Live
This week we will discuss the character traits of heroes.  We will identify saints as heroes of the church and recognize that they help us follow Jesus.  We will also learn that we are called to be good and holy and explore ways in which we can show goodness and holiness.

READING: Along with continued practice in fluency, comprehension and vocabulary we will learn long vowel sounds ending with a silent e and consonant digraphs ch, sh, th, and wh. We will study an author's purpose for writing stories.  We will also practice mapping skills.

ENGLISH: Complete sentences! We will identify what makes a sentence complete, the subject and predicate and practice writing complete sentences.  We will identify homonyms and explain what they are.

MATH:  Addition with sums to 18.  
This week we will use strategies that help us gain confidence learning addition math facts.  We will practice doubles, doubles plus and minus 1, making tens, using ten frames for visual connections and strategies that help us add three addends.  We will also do work on our number line. The number line will help us understand addition and subtraction strategies, skip counting and help us build number sense.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Labor Day

HANDWRITING: We will work on the correct formation and spacing of the upper and lower case alphabet in print. We will work on our print until after Christmas break.