Newsletter 11-23-16

Parents,

After a week of review, our class did so well on our second language Arts CFA.  Everyone worked hard and did their very best!

We’re still learning strategies for mental subtraction in math.  Reflex Math has been helping with our math fluency.

We’ve been doing some fun Thanksgiving activities.  We wrote about what we are grateful for, made a graph of our favorite foods, and did a turkey art project. Ask your child which president proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday.

 We filled up our marble jar and earned a party!  We’ll have popcorn and watch a Reading Rainbow tomorrow.

Congratulations to William and K.C.!  They were winners in the Reflections contest this year.  William's project is moving to the district level!

We had a terrific Scales and Tails assembly.  Conner got to be a helper!

 

If you are ordering books from the Scholastic book order, please send it in with the money tomorrow.  If you want to order online, please have it in by Wednesday night.  Let me know if you want me to keep the books a secret for Christmas gifts.

Thanks for all you do.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break!

Mrs. Adams

Newsletter 11-16-15

Parents,

We finished unit two in language arts, so this is our review week.  We are practicing reading skills like cause and effect, compare and contrast, and fact and opinion.  We are also working on nouns, contractions, and homophones.  We’re finishing our informative writing essays on Abraham Lincoln this week.  We all practiced speaking and listening skills when each reading group performed a play for the class.

We don’t have our regular homework packet, but please have your child keep reading and practicing math facts with Reflex Math.  We had our first student reach 100% fluency on math facts 0-10 in Reflex Math.  Way to go, William!

We finished our math unit on mental addition and will begin mental subtraction tomorrow.  We are learning many strategies to do two-digit math problems in our heads. 

Our kids were awesome at their RAD Kids graduation!  I was so proud of them!

We’re excited about our field trip to Alta tomorrow to see Cinderella.  Thank you to everyone who volunteered to be a parent chaperone, but we could only bring two this time.  We will have other field trips later this year.

Book orders will go home tomorrow, but you may also order online, where there is a much larger selection.  If you would like to order books for your child for Christmas, just send me an email, and I’ll make sure they don’t see them.

You should have received an email recently from Canyons School District asking you to fill out a brief survey about our school.  If you get a chance to do that, we would appreciate the feedback.  Thanks!

Have a great week, and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Mrs. Adams

  

Newsletter 11-3-15

Parents,

We are moving through unit two in Reading Streets.  Last week we read “Scarcity” and talked about consumers and producers, as well as needs and wants.  We continued to work on plural nouns and informative writing. 

This week we’re reading “The Bremen Town Musicians” and acting it out as a play.  We’re learning about irregular plural nouns and practicing homophones.  We’re also learning about fairy tales and folk tales.

We finished our unit on place value in math and are starting topic six, mental addition.  We are learning different strategies to add two digit numbers in our heads.  Its fun to see all the different ways the children can find the correct answer.

We are so excited for our RAD Kids graduation this Friday from 8:30 to 10:00.  The students have been working hard and learning many safety rules.  We hope you will be able to join us.  Thank you to our moms who have helped!

We’re looking forward to our field trip to Alta to see Cinderella on November 17.  If you haven’t returned the permission slip, please do so as soon as possible.

We had a fabulous Halloween party!  Our room moms had crafts, games, stories and treats; everyone had a great time.  The kids looked terrific in their costumes!

  

It’s been nice seeing so many October reading calendars come back this week.  Our students who met the goal got a Pizza Hut book-it coupon.  Keep up the good work with the November calendar!

Thank you for reminding your kids to bring their homework back on time each week.  It’s been nice seeing which spelling activities they are doing.

Thank you for your help and support at home and in the classroom.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Mrs. Adams

kristen.adams@canyonsdistrict.org

Newsletter 10-22-15

Parents,

It was great meeting with so many of you at parent-teacher conferences.  Thank you for making the time to look at your child’s progress and set goals.

We are in unit two in language arts.  Our big idea is “How can we work together?”  We are enjoying our story about Abraham Lincoln and learning about how he changed history.  We have been reading books and gathering information about Lincoln.  Ask your child why Abraham Lincoln grew a beard.J  We are also studying nouns and beginning informational writing.

Our students did great in math topic four, Repeated Addition.  We are studying place value now.  The test will be next Friday.

We are so excited to be in RAD Kids!  If you can help the next two Tuesdays from 12:15 to 1:15, our teachers will really appreciate it.  They can also use help the next two Wednesdays from 9:15 to 10:15.  Please email me if you can volunteer at any of these times.

Book orders are due tomorrow for paper orders or by Sunday at 8:00 for online orders.

Our Halloween party will be next Friday at 10:15.  Thank you to those of you who have volunteered to help with it.  I will send home more information about Halloween next week.

Thank you for making sure your child has his or her planner signed each day and homework turned in on time each week.  It’s nice for me to see the spelling activities students have completed.  If it’s not a written activity that they can attach, please mark the square with the day it was completed.

Reading charts are due Friday, October 30.  Children will receive a Pizza Hut coupon if they meet their goal.

Keep sending in box tops with your student.  Not only does it earn money for our school, we could win a pizza party!

Thanks for all your support.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  

Mrs. Adams

kristen.adams@canyonsdistrict.org 

Newsletter 9-27-15

Parents,

Our story in language arts was a drama called The Strongest One.  We choral read it, reread it and answered questions, then assigned parts and practiced.  On Friday we acted it out in our classroom.  It was a lot of fun and a great way to practice expression!

We have learned several strategies for subtraction and have been practicing them this week.  Subtraction tends to be more difficult than addition for most kids, so please practice fluency at home by using Reflex Math or flashcards.  You can also practice orally in the car, while making dinner, or any time you have a few extra minutes.

We practiced logging in with the computers in the lab this week.  We took our first weekly test online and explored the Pearson website.  The kids did an awesome job and had fun playing all the songs and games that come with our reading program.   

Thank you to all of you who attached spelling activities to the homework packet this week.  Next week is a review week for unit one in language arts.  We will practice our concepts all week, then we will take the CFA to test our skills.  I will share this information with you at parent-teacher conferences.  Because it is a review week, we will not have a spelling test, and there will be a smaller homework packet.  Reading calendars are due this Thursday, October 1.

Please see the attached parent guide to find out how you can access your child’s test scores on Pearson.  Whenever a student misses a concept on a test, it will show what it is and link to a skills page that you can print to have your child review the concept.  This is a great resource for you to use at home.    

If you haven’t signed up for parent-teacher conferences, please do so as soon as possible.  I look forward to meeting with you and your child and setting goals for the new school year.

Thanks for all you do.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Mrs. Adams

kristen.adams@canyonsdistrict.org

Newsletter 9-19-15

Parents,

We’ve had a terrific week in second grade!  We read about the desert in language arts and learned about plant and animal adaptations.  We made crayon-resist, watercolor cactus pictures.

Spelling tests will go home on Monday.  To achieve mastery, students need to be able to apply the spelling rule to words that are not on the weekly list.  The activities in the homework packet can help with this application level.  Please have your child attach the three spelling activities they practice that week and also attach the words in a baggie or envelope, so I can see that they have done the spelling sort.  

We finished Topic 2 in math, Addition Strategies.  We made some fun flip-flop facts and cool doubles dudes.  We will be starting Topic 3, Subtraction Strategies, on Monday. 

We’ve had a lot of students get on Reflex Math at home.  Way to go!  The log-in information is in the packet I sent home on back-to-school night.  We’ve also had a couple kids get on our Pearson Success Net website and check out our language arts and math lessons and activities.  The log-in information is in the packet I sent home on back-to-school night.

Picture day is Tuesday, September 22.  If you want to purchase pictures, please send your child’s envelope that day.

Thank you for reminding your child to bring their take-home folder and signed planner to school each day.  Homework is always due on the last day of the week.

Thank you to our wonderful parent volunteers.  We appreciate your help so much!

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. Adams

kristen.adams@canyonsdistrict.org

Newsletter 9-6-15

Parents,

We’ve had another great week in second grade!  We have learned our rules and procedures, and we’ve been working hard in all our subjects.  

We read “A Day in the Life of an Astronaut” and learned about outer space.  We talked about whether we would like to take a journey into space, and we learned more about our galaxy.  We performed a readers’ theater about the solar system.  

We finished our first math unit, Understanding Addition and Subtraction.  Our new unit is Addition Strategies.  Ask your child about the doubles rap we learned in class!

I am going to extend the time on book orders, since some kids thought they still might want to order.  Please send your in order or place it online by Tuesday.

Thank you to those of you who have sent Kleenex, dry erase markers, and other classroom supplies.  We appreciate it so much!

If you haven’t returned the school disclosure form or our classroom disclosure form, please send it as soon as possible.

Remember to keep signing the planner and reminding your child to use her or his take-home folder.

Our latest volunteer schedule is below.  If you still want to be on the schedule, please email me.  I would like to start this coming week.  Please let me know in advance if you won’t be able to help at your scheduled time.

Thanks for all you do.  Your kids are wonderful!

Kristen Adams

Volunteer Schedule (10:30-11:30)

Monday

 (1^st week) Megan Cassidy

 (2^nd week) Katie Rasmussen

 (3^rd week)

 (4th week) Katie Rasmussen

Tuesday

 (1st week) Robyn Burningham

 (2^nd week)

 (3rd week) Sarah Anderson

 (4^th week)

Wednesday

 (1st week) Leslee Douglas

 (2nd week) Tamara Jones

 (3^rd week) Leslee Douglas

 (4^th week) Tamara Jones

Thursday

 (1^st week)

 (2nd week) Jen Pappas

 (3rd week)

 (4^th week)

Friday 

 (every week) Joni Anderson