Reggie Comes for a Visit!

Every student got to read with Reggie today... very exciting for all! Students brought their "good fit book" and Reggie was "all ears"!!

Week of 11/26

What a fabulous long weekend - I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and restful time with family and friends. The holiday break is just around the corner, but we will still be busy little school elves in Room 208! 

Here is a look at our week ahead:

Language Arts:
This week's story: Cat Traps
Strategy: Drawing Conclusions
Skill: Realism vs. Fantasy
Phonics: initial r/l blends; -et, -en; plural nouns
Writing: adding detail sentences, complete sentences, capitalization, punctuation, 4-square organization of writing (these skills are ongoing)

Math:
We will begin a new unit in math - FRACTIONS! (SOL 1.3) Students will learn to identify parts of a set/region that represent fractions for halves, thirds, and fourths.

Social Studies:
We'll continue our study and comparison of past/present/future times this week, and finish with an assessment on Thursday. 

Important reminders/notes:

• The Toys for Tots drive is actually going on through THIS Friday (I incorrectly stated last week that it ended last Friday). The SHS Band is coming to CAES to collect the toys and play some music for us Friday afternoon!

• The Holiday Shop begins next week - volunteer forms are going home in the red folder this week. If you can volunteer your time, it would be greatly appreciated!!

Week of 11/19

Happy Thanksgiving to all! We will be focusing on the first Thanksgiving this week, as it is a goes hand-in-hand with our study of past and present (Social Studies SOL 1.1). We'll be reading and discussing Thanksgiving books, creating a Thanksgiving graph, a turkey glyph, Thanksgiving bracelet, and much more!

Due to all these fun activities, we will not be doing our regular Language Arts format (strategy, skill, writing, phonics, etc.). Rather, we will be integrating many review skills this week when we do all of our Thanksgiving-themed activities.We'll also be incorporating various review math skills into our Thanksgiving activities. 

Remember the last day for the Toys for Tots drive is this Friday!

I'm looking forward to a really fun, yet short, week! 

Some shots from last week (11/12)

We used these pattern blocks to create patterns.

Then we switched places with our shoulder partners 

and extended our partner's pattern. This was a lot of fun!

Below are some pictures from Read Your Heart Out Day. 

Mrs. Novak stopped by to read us A Plump and Perky Turkey!

Some students even took AR tests on the books they read!

Friday was also our Pattern Day to wrap up our patterns unit. Apparently, it was a long day because this was the only picture I got - no group shot of all of us dressed in our patterns!! =(

Week of 11/12

I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Veterans Day with your family. The children learned all about who veterans are and why it's so important that we honor them. Hopefully you had a chance to view the video on this blog that shows our class doing a choral reading of the poem, "Veterans Day". 

Notices went home last week about the food drives going on at school. Old Point National Bank in Carrollton, as well as Girl Scout Troops 179 and 1401 are collecting food for these drives through Friday. 

Toys for Tots is collecting toys through Friday, 11/30. The hallway who collects the most toys will get a special treat. The goal is to "fill a school bus" to support the Smithfield High School Band as they collect toys to distribute to children in the Isle of Wight/Surry area. The SHS Band will come to CAES to collect the toys and maybe even put on a little show for us! They are also taking monetary donations.

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is next week??!! I don't know about you, but that sure snuck up on me! 

Here is a look at our week ahead:

Language Arts:
This week's story: The Little Red Hen
Strategy: Summarizing
Skill: Compare and Contrast
Phonics: initial short e and double-consonant endings (-ell, -ess, -ill, iss)
Writing: complete sentences, capitalization, punctuation, 4-square organization of writing (these skills are ongoing)

Math:
We'll continue our patterns unit this week and wrap it up with an assessment on Friday. If your child could please wear things that are patterned on Friday (i.e. striped shirt, socks, anything that has a pattern on it), I thought it would be fun to have a Pattern Day as a culminating activity.

Social Studies:
Our trip to Chippokes last week gave us some great background about what life was like long ago. This week, we'll continue our comparison of life long ago to life today. We'll even look at what life might be like in the future!

Important reminders/notes:

• Book Fair ends Friday! If you send money in for your child to purchase books, they are able to go in the mornings before 9:05. It will also be open during the Second Grade Chorus performance/PTA meeting tomorrow night. 
• Have a great week! 

Happy Veterans Day!

We salute and thank all of our veterans!

Grand Lunch

Field Trip to Chippokes Plantation State Park

We had a gorgeous day at Chippokes today - the weather was just perfect! The children learned so much about what life was like long ago. This was a fabulous introduction to our study of life in the past compared to life today (Social Studies SOL 1.1). The students were able to make butter and see many of the tools and ways of life from 100 years ago. Many thanks to the chaperones who were able to join us - I appreciate all of your help! 

Enjoy some of the pictures captured from our trip: 

 Mr. Brian showed us how to make butter. He filled a jar half-way with cream and added a clean marble and the lid. Then each student got to help shake the jar - 30 shakes for each student!

Making some butter!

 Mr. Hal showed us how peanuts grow! 

 Each student got to try a peanut from the shell... 

...some liked it more than others!

 After our museum presentations and lunch, students got to taste the butter that we made. It was very tasty! 

 They certainly enjoyed it!

 This was taken in front of the Farm and Forestry Museum

 When we got back to school, students generated this list of words that told about what we saw, did, learned, or enjoyed from Chippokes. We used this list as a word bank to write a sentence and illustration about the trip in their journals. 

They did a great job!!