Happy Holidays

A fun week planned with the students teaching one another about different holiday traditions they researched last week. We also will have visits from our reading buddies, make gingerbread houses, paint glass candle holders, play the dreidel game (thanks to Ethan and his mom), visit various countries on Thursday for our International Festival (which parents have organized) and make a Kwanzaa fruit salad for snack on Friday. Remember it is noon dismissal on Friday, which gives you an early start to the holiday period. If I don't get to see you all, I wish you a wonderful holiday and joyful new year. Thanks for all your kindest and support. See you in 2012!

If your child has not already brought in a shoe box, please have him/her do so on Tuesday. This will be used to carry home the gingerbread house. Also, we are making a fruit salad on Friday and so each child will need to bring in a piece of fruit for the salad. Your child will have a note about this in his/her Take Home Folder today.

Thursday is our International Festival (which starts at 1:00pm if you are helping out). The students in my class will begin rotating from one second grade classroom to the next from 1:45-2:30. On this day, your child can wear to school an outfit representing a different country/culture, or the flag t-shirt they made and wore for the Second Grace Show. The afternoon is about celebrating different cultures and having fun.

Friday is our Lower Division Sing-a-Long and you are welcome to join us at 11:00 in the Janet Root Theater. Please come sit with us if you can.

Our field trip to Fresh Food Hydroponics (http://ffhydro.com) was a big hit. If you have some time, I would encourage you to visit to pick some fresh produce. The strawberries and beans were delicious.

Thanks to Mav's mom and sister for coming into class last Friday to steam fresh cauliflower from our second grade garden. Most students became big fans of this tasty vegetable once they took a risk and tried it with melted cheese or butter.

We are reviewing spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and handwriting this week in language arts. A copy of the review words was sent home today (Monday, Dec. 12). The students will share their holiday stories with their reading buddies, that they have been working hard on editing and publishing. We will be reading various holiday stories including Kyle's First Kwanzaa by Angela Shelf Medearis, The Chanukkah Guest by Eric A. Kimmel, The Black Snowman by Phil Mendez, and Pippin the Christmas Pig by Jean Little.

In math, the students will measure lengths and distances to the nearest inch and centimeter, explore area by tiling surfaces, develop paper-and-pencil strategies for adding 2- and 3 digit numbers and demonstrate using estimation to check if answer are reasonable. After break, we will finish off this unit with learning about The Parial Sums Addition Algorithm.

In social studies, the students will share the posters they created about the holiday traditions they have researched and be involved in various hands-on activities on Thursday during the International Festival.

In science, the students will mix granulated sugar with water of two temperatures - cold and warm and discover that warm water dissolves the sugar much faster than cold water does. We did not get a chance to work on this experiment from last week, seeing we were on our field trip to the farm.

Have a terrific week.

Ms. O'Mullane

December 5-9 - Zdravstvuj (zdrah-stvooy; hello in Russian)

I can't get over this lovely weather we are having. I hope you enjoyed it over the weekend, as much as I did. Current Events begins this week and we are looking forward to hearing about what has been going on in the world of news. We have our first Field Trip on Tuesday to Fresh Food Hydroponics (http://ffhydro.com/) from 10:00-11:00. If you are interested in visiting with us, please meet us there. (-:

We are currently collecting gifts for the Holiday Gift Drive. Please wrap and label each gift with the Family number and Child's name. A post it or peel away label on the gift with gift content is helpful. If you are planning on giving, please have these in by this Thursday, December 8th. On Friday, Dec.9th, the students will carry the gifts to the gym to be sorted by family. Thanks for your generosity for this family in need.

The next two weeks we will talk about holiday traditions around the world including Hanukkah, Las Posadas, Chinese New Year, Kwanzaa, Santa Lucia Day, Christmas Day, Diwali, and Winter Solstice. The students will be researching one of these traditions as part of homework and presenting these in class next week. They will also create a poster in class depicting the holiday tradition.

Other reminders:
* Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates - Dec. 6 at 1:00 for students in grades 1-4.
* Lower Division Sing Along will take place on Friday, Dec. 16th at 11:00am for grade K-4 in the JRT
* Second Grade International Festival - Thursday, December 15 at 1:00pm. If you are interested in helping out or presenting an activity from your own country/culture, please get in contact with Zeina Kropf (zkropf@tampabay.rr.com) or Chris Chen (kuai_zi@hotmail.com)
* Winter Break - Dec. 16 (noon dismissal) - January 3
* Current Events - Tuesday: Gabby, John; Wednesday: Lucy, Connor; Thursday: Quentin, Skyler; Friday: Lucile, Ethan
* Parent Reader - A. Held

Here is our week at a glance. Remember to encourage your child to read each day and fill in his/her log. These are due each Monday. Today we had our first celebration for students who have read over 500 minutes at home. (-:

Language Arts
* Phonics - r-controlled vowel/ ur/ir, er, ear
* Spelling - purple, serve, earning, heard, circle, skirt, thirsty, birthday, surprise, perfect, earthquake, learn, blurb, continent, traditions
* Vocabulary - muffler, hauled, thrashing, imitations
* Reading - Jeremy's Muffler by Laura F. Nielsen
* Fluency - Phrasing
* Comprehension - Fiction/Nonfiction; Monitor comprehension by rereading
* Grammar - Pronouns
* Handwriting - Sentences - Punctuation; "U u" (down, travel, up)
* Writing - Revising holiday stories; Holiday poems

Mathematics - Unit 4
* Estimating costs
* Develop strategies for adding 2-digit numbers mentally and provide experiences with calculating the total cost of two items
* Demonstrate making change for whole-dollar amounts up to $100
* Exploring length, area and attributes

Social Studies
* Exploring Europe
* Locating countries on a map; Scavenger hunt using reference material
* Researching holiday traditions around the world

Science - Changes - A Dissolving Race: Warm and Cold Water
* Students will observe what happens when they mix granulated sugar with cold and warm water
* Share observations and discuss the relationship between water temperature and the speed at which sugar dissolves

Have a wonderful week - (-:

Ms. O'Mullane