Reminder: Friday, March 3rd, is Book Character Dress-Up Day for 2nd grade. Your child can participate by dressing up like a favorite book character. Please have your child bring a book with that character in to share that day. Your child can check out a library book to match a particular costume.
– Remember your child is wearing the costume all day, make sure it is comfortable and not cumbersome.
– Come dressed in the costume, no changing at school.
– No face paint.
– No pretend weapons.
Last week our class was awarded the Golden Circuit Board from Mr. Larkin for having an excellent S.T.E.M. class. S.T.E.M. class stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. I’m so happy to hear our homeroom is making such great behavior choices when at special!
Brecknock’s annual spaghetti dinner is on March 24. Each year the PTO has a basket raffle. Our class is putting together a Gardening basket for the raffle. We need your help to fill the basket.
You might choose to send in items for the basket: seeds, bulbs, gardening books/magazines, gardening tools, etc. Feel free to be creative!
You may also donate money if you do not have time to shop. Please send in your cash in an envelope marked “attention Lori Thompson” and I will pass it on to her.
All donations are needed by March 15th.
This week we heard some exciting news. Our homeroom class won 2 Golden Special Awards. Golden Special Awards are given to classes that have excellent behavior while at special. We won the Golden Hockey Stick for PE and the Golden Warm Fuzzies for our Guidance Lesson. This is the first time I’ve ever had a class win 2 golden awards in the same week!! Way to go!
Happy Valentine’s Day! Today we had some Valentine fun at school. It started in Physical Education class. Mrs. Jackson wasn’t here today and there was no substitute available so I got to teach P.E. class! We played 3 different Valentine themed games: a heart relay race, a heart smart game, and Valentine tag. The kids loved Valentine tag. All the kids were “hearts” and they ran around to get away from the 2 “arrows” who were trying to tag them. Once tagged they had to stand on 1 foot to show they were a broken heart. That’s when “Cupid” came to the rescue. He/She brought a basket with 3 paper hearts that had actions to complete. The broken heart selected an action to complete and then he/she was cured and could run around again. We played multiple rounds to give lots of students the opportunity to be arrows or Cupid.
Next it was time for our party!! Students handed out their Valentines and then visited the snack table to get some delicious treats. There was time to eat and peek at our Valentine cards. Thank you to all the families who donated supplies and food for the party!
In math we have been learning to tell time for about a week now. Today Mrs. Ringler lead our math class in a time scoot for Valentine’s Day. Students looked at a clock on their desk and recorded the time on a paper. Then they got up and “scooted” around the room to sit at other desks and record the times for those clocks.
Second graders need to learn to tell time to 5 minute increments (1:20, 3:45, 7:50, etc.). We tell students to first look at the hour hand. They know it’s the little hand and the little hand always goes first. Students decide if the hour hand is pointing directly to a number (for an o’clock time) or is in the number’s “front yard”. That’s how we describe the hour hand when it’s between two numbers. Next students count by 5’s to determine the minutes. Telling time is challenging for many students. Please help your child practice at home by looking at an analog clock and telling you what time it is. If possible you can even spin the hands to show different times for your child to practice.
This week we are learning about contractions in Language Arts class. At Mrs. Franks’s table today students were able to perform “contraction surgery”. They learned how to cut out the letters not needed in the two words (example: is not= cut out the o) and connect the finished contraction with an apostrophe band-aid. Look for these finished books to come home later this week.
Our students have also been singing a contraction song to help them understand these words. Ask your child to sing it to you (to the tune of Did You Ever See a Lassie…see words below).
My Language Arts class has been writing stories with Mrs. Miller that tell how to build a snowman. The stories use transition words (first, next, then, last) to tell the steps in sequence. At the Collaborative Station students made snowmen with Mrs. Ringler to match their stories. The finished stories are hanging in the hall for you to check out next time you are at Brecknock.
Our February author is Cynthia Rylant. You will probably recognize some of the characters she has created. Poppleton, Henry and Mudge, and Mr. Putter and Tabby are popular with second graders and are at an appropriate level. Cynthia Rylant has written over 100 books for children. She was honored with a Newbery Medal for Missing May, a story of love and coping with the death of a loved one. A Fine White Dust was also a Newbery Honor Book.
You can learn about Cynthia Rylant by watching a video about her on Brain Pop Jr. You will need to log in with the username: brelem and password: spartans. https://jr.brainpop.com/readingandwriting/authors/cynthiarylant/ Click on “Reading and Writing” and then select “Authors.”