Fall Newsletter

Hi, parents!

We have been working hard and having fun in second grade. Thank you for coming to conferences to discuss your child's progress and make an action plan.  The kids have been getting faster at their math facts, and their reading keeps improving.  Our new math unit will be mental math with two-digit numbers.  Our big idea in language arts will be creative ideas. 
Our class has been studying weather and animals in science.  We will move into units on plants and citizenship.  

We had a wonderful Veterans Day assembly on Monday, where we honored the veterans in our families and in our community.  It was nice to have kids in our class bring pictures, letters, and even family members. 

Our money day was a big success.  The kids brought unique and interesting coins that we all enjoyed seeing.  We will have a rock day next Friday where they can bring a couple of their favorite rocks.  

Thanks for helping your child remember their homework each Friday.  Please make sure they do three spelling tic-tac-toe activities each week.  Remember you can cross them out and make your own activities like doing a practice test, writing them in paint or markers, or drawing a picture of each word.  Try to tap into your child's interests.

Here are some of the fun activities we have been doing in class:

We had a fabulous time on our rock field trip.  We had five different stations that included mining for minerals, learning about fossils, and seeing erosion in action.  It fit in perfectly with our rock unit!

Mining

Learning about Fossils

Erosion Table

Classifying Rocks

The PTA made it a great Red Ribbon Week for us.  Here we are on Friday wearing our red clothes.  Some of us even had red hair!

Halloween was lots of fun.  We decorated our room, and our fabulous room mothers planned a great party for us.  Everyone had a great time!

Halloween Game

Snack Time!

Witch's Broom Art Project

Pumpkin Game

The second-grade teachers

Look at all those great costumes!

Congratulations to all of our Reflections participants!  They were honored at an assembly on Thursday.

The kids loved our Friday assembly about the arts.  They learned about the history of the theater and heard lots of great music.  Some of our students got chosen to be volunteers and go up on stage.  They were fabulous actors!

I love teaching your children.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Thanks for everything you do! 

Kristen Adams

kristen.adams@canyonsdistrict.org

Back to School Newsletter

It’s hard to believe we are finishing our second week of second grade!  We have a wonderful class, and they are quickly learning all of our routines and procedures.

It was great to see so many of you Back to School Night.  I appreciate all your support, and I will email a volunteer schedule soon.  If you wanted to volunteer and didn't get to sign up, just send me an email.  If you didn't return the green disclosure statement yet, please do so as soon as possible. 

We jumped right into Reading Streets, and we've learned about communities and outer space.  In math we are working on addition and subtraction, especially story problems.  We used the link at the right called eManipulatives to make up our own story problems.  We are doing rotations for content enrichment at the end of each day.  Our class is currently studying geography with Ms. Wilson.  

We have been reading books by Kevin Henkes.  Some of our favorites are Chrysanthemum, A Weekend with Wendell, and Lily's Purple Plastic Purse.  Check out the link to his website on the right.  You might also want to look for his books at the library.

Thanks for helping your child remember to bring back her or his homework today.  Please keep track of the minutes your child reads on the reading calendar.  It is fine to read extra one night if another night is busy, as long as the student reaches the goal at the end of the month.

The work from this week is going home in a red take-home folder.  Your child can use it each week to bring home his or her papers, but I will not collect it.

Our book order is due next Friday, September 6.  Online orders are quick and easy and earn us extra books for our classroom.  There is also a greater selection online.  Of course, regular orders are fine, too.  If you order online, use our class code GYPDT.

I appreciate you signing your child's planner every night.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Thanks for all you do!

Kristen Adams

kristen.adams@canyonsdistrict.org

Winter Newsletter

We have been working hard the last couple months.  We have been learning two-digit addition and subtraction.  We practiced a lot and got better and better.  We are doing a fun geometry unit now.  Please make sure your child is practicing math facts for at least five minutes each day.

We have read some very interesting fiction and nonfiction stories in our reading books.  We learned about frogs, pumpkins and soil.  We read a fable about frogs and a legend about the first tortilla.  We used adjectives to describe how pumpkin seeds and corn tortillas look, smell, feel and taste.

Please help your child remember to read every day and fill out their reading calendar.  This month we also have a book report due on April 1.

We have had some fun activities.  We had a great time at our Valentine's Day party.  Thank you to our mom helpers who helped everyone have a fabulous time! 

Thank you so much for valentines, chocolates and gifts!

We loved our field trip to the natural history museum.  Some of our favorite things to see were the dinosaurs, rocks, and animals.  Thank you to our parent helpers who chaperoned. 

We had fun making dragons for Chinese New Year.  We learned a song and had a parade for a few of the other classes.

I'm looking forward to seeing you at parent teacher conferences on Wednesday and Thursday.

Mrs. Adams
kristen.adams@canyonsdistrict.org