What a fun week! We celebrated A.K.'s birthday, visited the Book Swap, had a lovely family potluck, enjoyed playing in the snow on the roof, and became engaged in our new read aloud, Gooseberry Park by Cynthia Rylant!
CHANGE 4 CRANES FUNDRAISER AND UPDATE
The cranes are still in Cumberland County, Illinois with one more stopover in our state before they reach Kentucky. They have now flown a total of 345 miles with several hundred ahead of them before they reach Florida. We were so fortunate to have a visit from Operation Migration on November 6th and the kids more eager now to make a difference and help save the endangered whooping cranes!
We are getting ready to launch our Change4Cranes fundraiser before the Thanksgiving Holiday. We are asking each family to send in a sturdy container from home that we can reuse as a donation container. In our effort to “go green,” we do not want to purchase new containers and are hoping to reuse containers you would be recycling to throwing away. Some ideas include 24 oz. yogurt tubs with lids, oatmeal cylinders, plastic baby wipes boxes, etc. Containers need to be able to keep coins and paper money secure. We have Change 4 Cranes decals to decorate our containers. Please send in as many as you can. We have extended the deadline. Please send containers in by this Thursday, November 21st. Also, let us know if your child does not have a container so we can plan accordingly. Thanks for you support. We'll send home more details at the end of the week! Please let us know if your child will be leaving early for the Thanksgiving Break so we can be sure to have his/her container ready.
Below is a wonderful 4 minute video produced by the National Fish and Wildlife Service describing Operation Migration's important mission. Your child could use this video to teach others about our fundraiser and why we are trying to help the cranes. Also, here is a link to previous year's fundraising efforts. You and your child may find some ideas there for your own fundraising activities at home! Our fundraising efforts are not a competition (between students or between previous classes) and no matter how much we raise - every penny counts!
CHANGE 4 CRANES FUNDRAISER AND UPDATE
The cranes are still in Cumberland County, Illinois with one more stopover in our state before they reach Kentucky. They have now flown a total of 345 miles with several hundred ahead of them before they reach Florida. We were so fortunate to have a visit from Operation Migration on November 6th and the kids more eager now to make a difference and help save the endangered whooping cranes!
We are getting ready to launch our Change4Cranes fundraiser before the Thanksgiving Holiday. We are asking each family to send in a sturdy container from home that we can reuse as a donation container. In our effort to “go green,” we do not want to purchase new containers and are hoping to reuse containers you would be recycling to throwing away. Some ideas include 24 oz. yogurt tubs with lids, oatmeal cylinders, plastic baby wipes boxes, etc. Containers need to be able to keep coins and paper money secure. We have Change 4 Cranes decals to decorate our containers. Please send in as many as you can. We have extended the deadline. Please send containers in by this Thursday, November 21st. Also, let us know if your child does not have a container so we can plan accordingly. Thanks for you support. We'll send home more details at the end of the week! Please let us know if your child will be leaving early for the Thanksgiving Break so we can be sure to have his/her container ready.
Below is a wonderful 4 minute video produced by the National Fish and Wildlife Service describing Operation Migration's important mission. Your child could use this video to teach others about our fundraiser and why we are trying to help the cranes. Also, here is a link to previous year's fundraising efforts. You and your child may find some ideas there for your own fundraising activities at home! Our fundraising efforts are not a competition (between students or between previous classes) and no matter how much we raise - every penny counts!
GLOBAL READ ALOUD
For our last class read aloud, we participated in reading the same book, Marty Maguire by Kate Messner, with first through third grade classes all over the country and world. While the beginning of the year adjustment to Earl Shapiro Hall did not leave us as much time to connect to these classes as we had hoped, we were able to share some of our ideas and predictions.
As a part of this project, the author posted weekly videos and answered questions about the book that were posted to her blog. This was a wonderful way for us to connect to the author, Kate Messner, and gave us some real insight into the decisions she made as she wrote this book. Our second graders were eager to post their questions and while we knew that Kate Messner couldn't possibly answer all of them, we crossed our fingers! Below is one of Ms. Messner's weekly video Q & A's and she did choose one of our questions! It's the second question she answered at about 1:05. The kids were so excited and Matt even exclaimed, "We're famous!" Kate Messner has turned her story about Marty Maguire into a series and we hope your children we look for the second book, Marty Maguire Digs Worms! to read on their own or with you.
For our last class read aloud, we participated in reading the same book, Marty Maguire by Kate Messner, with first through third grade classes all over the country and world. While the beginning of the year adjustment to Earl Shapiro Hall did not leave us as much time to connect to these classes as we had hoped, we were able to share some of our ideas and predictions.
As a part of this project, the author posted weekly videos and answered questions about the book that were posted to her blog. This was a wonderful way for us to connect to the author, Kate Messner, and gave us some real insight into the decisions she made as she wrote this book. Our second graders were eager to post their questions and while we knew that Kate Messner couldn't possibly answer all of them, we crossed our fingers! Below is one of Ms. Messner's weekly video Q & A's and she did choose one of our questions! It's the second question she answered at about 1:05. The kids were so excited and Matt even exclaimed, "We're famous!" Kate Messner has turned her story about Marty Maguire into a series and we hope your children we look for the second book, Marty Maguire Digs Worms! to read on their own or with you.
FAMILY MESSAGE JOURNALS
Your child brought home his/her Family Message Journal on Friday. Please read the letter from Ms. Harrison on the first page and follow the directions. Then write a letter back to your child and return the journals to school tomorrow or early in the week. It's fine if you need an extra day or two to respond. This writing activity was the first one we've done this year in which the children were able to choose the topic of their writing. Topics for previous writing activities in our science journals were chosen by the teachers. For this first letter home, we did not worry about spelling and did very little editing. We wanted the children to become comfortable with the process: brainstorm their ideas, choose which ideas to write about and initiate and sustain writing without getting hung up on spelling. As the year progresses, you will notice that the children will be held accountable for spelling certain high frequency words correctly and we will attend to punctuation and capitalization. For many children, it is still difficult to decide where a sentences ends. For this first letter, we really wanted to see what each child could do. As a part of this activitiy, children are also learning the 5 parts of a friendly letter (heading/date,greeting, body, closing and signature). We hope this Family Message Journal will be a wonderful way for you to connect with your child about his/her experiences at school. Please let us know if you have questions.
Be sure to ask you favorite second grader about using the spring scale and pan balances in math. They were surprised to learn that many ordinary classroom objects weigh less than one ounce!
Enjoy your week.
Your child brought home his/her Family Message Journal on Friday. Please read the letter from Ms. Harrison on the first page and follow the directions. Then write a letter back to your child and return the journals to school tomorrow or early in the week. It's fine if you need an extra day or two to respond. This writing activity was the first one we've done this year in which the children were able to choose the topic of their writing. Topics for previous writing activities in our science journals were chosen by the teachers. For this first letter home, we did not worry about spelling and did very little editing. We wanted the children to become comfortable with the process: brainstorm their ideas, choose which ideas to write about and initiate and sustain writing without getting hung up on spelling. As the year progresses, you will notice that the children will be held accountable for spelling certain high frequency words correctly and we will attend to punctuation and capitalization. For many children, it is still difficult to decide where a sentences ends. For this first letter, we really wanted to see what each child could do. As a part of this activitiy, children are also learning the 5 parts of a friendly letter (heading/date,greeting, body, closing and signature). We hope this Family Message Journal will be a wonderful way for you to connect with your child about his/her experiences at school. Please let us know if you have questions.
Be sure to ask you favorite second grader about using the spring scale and pan balances in math. They were surprised to learn that many ordinary classroom objects weigh less than one ounce!
Enjoy your week.