Classroom News- I am so excited to be back at school! I have missed all of the kids. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! I cannot believe that there is only 23 days until Christmas! Just a quick reminder, students will have off from Wednesday, December 24^th until Monday, January 5^th.

Here are a few other things that are coming up this month. The following points are for my homeroom students.

• We will be having a Holiday Party on Tuesday, December 23^rd. The party will be from 11-12:50. You will be receiving more information about possible volunteer opportunities as well as items we would love to have donated within the next few days.
• Our class had 3 chicks hatch! J Mrs. Snader will be taking one of the chicks to her friend’s farm. However, we are looking for someone to adopt the other two chicks. A permission slip went home today with your child. If you would like to adopt the chicks, please return the permission slip by Friday, December 5^th.  I will be putting all of the returned permission slips in a hat and drawing one lucky family at random to keep the chicks. I will send a letter home informing you if your family was chosen or not. You will need to pick the chicks up after school one day next week.
• Christmas Child Update- If you would still like to donate something for our Christmas Child, please remember everything needs to be turned in by Friday, December 11^th. Here is the updated information of donations. Thank you so much to everyone that has donated something as well as those of you who are still planning on donating something.

Language Arts- We are starting Unit 3 of our Reading Street Program. The theme for Unit 3 is creative ideas. Our Big Question for the unit is What does it mean to be creative? During unit 3 our phonics pattern will be focusing on long vowel patterns. This unit will focus on verbs.

This week: Unit 3, Week 1- Question of the week- When does support from others help with a creative idea?

Phonics Pattern: Long e sound- e, ee, ea, y

Comprehension Skills- Author’s Purpose and Questioning

Vocabulary- Antonyms

Conventions- Verbs

Writing- Informative Writing

Week of 12/8: Unit 3, Week 2- Question of the week- In what creative ways do we communicate?

Phonics Pattern: Long o sound- o, oa, ow

Comprehension Skills- Draw Conclusions and Visualize

Vocabulary- Prefixes

Conventions- Verbs with singular and Plural Nouns

Writing- Friendly Letter

Week of 12/15: Unit 3, Week 3- Question of the week- How can creative thinking solve a problem?

Phonics Pattern: Compound Words

Comprehension Skills- Compare and Contrast and Summarize

Vocabulary- Antonyms

Conventions- Verbs for Past, Present and Future

Writing- Informative Writing

Math- We are now working on Unit 3 for math. Unit 3 focuses on place value concepts, skip counting and comparing numbers. Currently, we are focusing on place value concepts.

Here are a few fun place value games that your students can play online to practice the skills:

http://www.abcya.com/second_grade_computers.htm

http://www.softschools.com/math/place_value/games/tens_and_ones/

http://www.softschools.com/math/practice/place_value.jsp

http://www.softschools.com/math/place_value/teaching_place_value/

http://www.softschools.com/math/practice/place_value.jsp

For some of the games you will need to make sure to set the maximum number to 999.

Science- We are going to complete our Force and Motion Unit this month. Our essential questions for the unit are: What are the different kinds of forces? How do forces change an objects motion? How can the action of a force be observed and described? How can force and motion be measured? Our vocabulary words for the unit are: Force, motion, gravity, wind, friction, magnet, magnetism, attract, repel. This unit is a lot of fun because we will be doing a lot of experiments!

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments!

Mrs. Henn

lacey_henn@elanco.org