Happy College Colors Day!

Happy Friday!

It was so fun seeing everyone representing their favorite college today.  We have a lot of important information in our blog post this week.

Friday Folders

• MU Volleyball Permission Slip
• Please make sure to read over the permission slip and return it as soon as possible so we can let the cafeteria know how many lunches we will need.
• Here is the permission slip.
• Pizza Party Forms
• The first 2 trimesters, 2nd grade has pizza parties to celebrate all their hard work.  We ask for a one time donation of $5 (cash only) to cover the cost of pizza.  
• Each student will receive 2 pieces of a pizza, a healthy side, chips and dessert.
• We ask for volunteers to send in a healthy side, chips or dessert for each party (this is on the form).
• Here is the form.
• Fundations Unit 2 Parent Letter  
• Students are not required to do any of this packet.  It is information for you to know what we are doing at school.  If they would like to complete the activities they can.
• Wonders Information Letter
• This is a letter from the district about the new literacy program.
• Chicken BBQ Information Sheet
• If you would like to help out with the Chicken BBQ, there are a lot of opportunities.  

Picture Day

• Picture Day in Tuesday, September 3.  All students will have their picture taken.
• Order forms were sent home last Friday.
• You can order online at www.WagnerPortraitGroup.com and the password is BEARS.  If you order online, please send in the confirmation email with your students.  

Homework

• We will explain our homework to students next week.
• They will be bringing home a BINGO board on Tuesday.  The BINGO board and homework are all optional, but encouraged.
• Students may pick activities to do off the board.  They can do ONE activity per night (they can do them on the weekends also).  Once they get a BINGO, they will get to eat lunch in the classroom the following Friday.
• Math HomeLinks and Fundations packets will come home.  Students can use this for some of the BINGO items if they would like.  These activities are not required and do not need to be sent back to school.  They are information for parents to know what is happening at school.  
• We will go over our BINGO again at Curriculum Chat.

Next Week's Learning

• Math
• Next week, we will continue working our way through Unit 1.  We will introduce quarters.  This is a harder coin to skip count.  Please practice counting coins at home.
• We will also be working on identifying odds and evens next week as well as other patterns we noticed when skip counting.  
• Reading
• We will continue working on realistic fiction stories.  We will be comparing stories and identifying similarities among the stories.
• We will also be looking at identifying the author's purpose for writing a story.  
• Writing
• We will be starting our first writing piece.  In Wonders, they will write a piece, then set it aside for a week and then come back to edit and revise it.  Their writing piece is based on the genre that we have just studied which is realistic fiction.  Students will have an opportunity to brainstorm ideas and then start drafting their story. 
• Fundations
• We tested over Unit 1 today.  These tests will come home next week.  
• Our next unit introduces bonus letters (f, l, s at the end of words) and r-controlled vowels.  
• Social Studies
• 
  

Important Upcoming Events

• No School: Monday, September 2
• Picture Day: Tuesday, September 3
• Order form went home last Friday.
• You can order online, please send in a copy of the confirmation receipt.
• PTA: Tuesday, September 10 at 6:00 p.m.
• MU Volleyball Field Trip: September 13
• Permission Slip in Friday Folders
• No School: Monday, September 30
• Wonders Parent Night: Monday, September 30 from 5:00-6:30 p.m.at RBE. 
• Presentation given by the Wonders Staff will be given at 5:00, 5:30 and 6:00 p.m.  
• We will be here that evening also.
• This will be a great time to learn about the new reading materials.
•  

Have a fabulous weekend!

Kate and Elizabeth

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!We have had a wonderful first full week of school!  We are continuing to work extremely hard on establishing routines and reviewing expectations.

Friday Folders

• Your child is bringing home his/her Friday Folder today.  This is a way for us to communicate with you.  We will send these home almost every Friday.  Please return them on Monday (or the next school day).
• On the front cover, there is the CPS Success Ready Skills.  There are skills for Work Habits, Interactions with Peers, Interactions with Adults, and Personal Growth.  For the first few weeks of school, we will not be assessing Personal Growth.  
• In the left inside pocket you will find your child's Friday Folder Checklist.  There will be a score for each of the areas (1-4). We have been talking with the students that our goal is to be Proficient (3).
• On the back of the checklist are Teacher Comments.  We will be writing comments every other week.  This week, your child made a personal goal to help them grow in the area of Work Habits.  This goal is written in the comments.  We talked with the students to share their goal with you this weekend and talk about ways to reach their goal.
• Underneath the Friday Folder Checklist, there is a place for Parent/Guardian Comments.  Do not feel that you have to write comments each week or at all. If you do need to write a comment, please date your comment.
• Also, coming home in your child's Friday:
• Picture Order Form
• School pictures will be on Tuesday, September 3.  You can order online or fill out the order form.  Please send in the order form or a receipt for an online order before picture day.
• RBE Sports Apparel
• There are a variety of RBE shirts for sale.  If you would like order shirts, please return the order form and payment by Monday, September 16.  There will be only one order placed this year.  It is helpful to put the order form and check/cash in an envelope or attach the check/cash to the order form.
• Everyday Math Family Letter
• This week we started Unit 1 in math.  There is an introduction letter about this math in second grade and a few practice sheets coming home.  Please know that the Homelinks that we send home are not expected to be completed and returned as homework. We send these home so that you can see what your child is working on in math at school.  These are a great resource to reinforce what is being taught.
• Fundations Family Letters (Orientation & Unit 1)
• Last week we started Fundations (reading and spelling with phonics).  There is an introduction letter and a Unit 1 letter.  The family letters explains what your child will be working on in each unit.  There are also a few activities that your child can do to reinforce what we are learning.  These are just like the Homelinks, and not expected to be completed and returned.
• Counselor Letter
• Mr. Smith is our counselor at RBE.  There is a letter from him that explains what he will be teaching in second grade.

Parent Goals

• Earlier this week, we sent out an email with a link for you to be able to share with us about your goals for your child's second grade year.  
• The questions are:
• At the end of 2nd grade, what do you hope your child says about their experience in 2nd grade?
• What do you want me to know as I build a relationship with your child and with you?
• Thank you if you have already shared your goals.  If you have not already filled out the form you can click here.  These are helpful to us as work together!

Friday Take Homes

• On Fridays, we send home Star Student and stuffed book character.  
• Star Student
• Each week, we will have 2 Star Students.  When your child is Star Student s/he will bring home a few items.
• There will be an information sheet explaining more about Star Students.  
• There will be index cards for your child to answer questions about him/herself (these questions are on the information sheet.
• Your child can bring in 5-7 pictures to share with the class on Monday
• As a parent, you can write a letter to the class sharing a special story or about your child.
• Stuffed Book Characters
• We do not have a classroom pet, but we do have classroom stuffed animals.  Each student will get an opportunity to bring home a book character and notebook.
• Please have your child write about the book character's adventures that weekend.
• There is a place for your child to draw a picture or include a photograph of the book character and the student.
• If your child brings home either Star Student or a stuffed book character, please have your child complete and return on Monday (or the next school day).

Look What We Are Learning!

• Math
• We have been learning about number lines, skip counting by 2's, 5's and 10's, and we started working on counting money.  We will continue to reinforce these skills next week.
• Please practice coin identification and counting at home.  We are currently working on pennies, nickels and dimes.  
• Fundations
• This week, we have been talking about digraphs (two letters that make one sound, example: th or wh).  Next week, we will continue to work on spelling words with digraphs and also learning about CVC words (Consonant Vowel Consonant).  The rule is that when there is a CVC word that the vowel will be a short vowel.
• Reading
• We have a new reading/writing program called Wonders this year.  Today, the students had an opportunity to look through their Wonders book.  Ask your child what stories that they will be reading this year!  
• Next week, we will learn the characteristics of realistic fiction stories.  They will read multiple realistic fiction stories and then compare them.  They will also be working on identifying characters, setting, problem and solution. 
• Writing
• Our first unit of study will be realistic fiction.  

PE

• Ross kids will have PE on Wednesday next week.
• Mottaz kids will have PE on Thursday next week.

Library Check Out

• We had our first library checkout today! The students were excited to be able to check out 3 books!
• Please help your students remember to bring their books back on Friday mornings so they can get new books each Friday.

Important Upcoming Events

• College Colors Day: Friday, August 30
• No School: September 2
• Fall Pictures: September 3
• PTA Meeting: September 10 at 6:00 p.m.
• MU VB Field Trip: September 13
• More information to come closer to date
• Curriculum Chat: September 17 from 7:30-8:15 a.m.
• No School: September 30
• Chicken BBQ: October 19 from 4:00-8:00 p.m.
• TRYPS Field Tip: November 19
• Yes, this is 3 months out, but just letting you know.  

We hope that you have a wonderful weekend and please let us know if you have any questions!

Happy First Friday!

Happy First Friday!

We had a wonderful first two days with the students.  We worked hard on learning expectations and routines.  We will continue working on this for the next few weeks also.

Please read the blog post below for lots of information about what is happening with Team Moss.  Be sure to check out Twitter (the feed also on the side of the blog) for pictures of all the fun activities and learning that occurs throughout the week.

What We Are Learning Next Week
Math

• We will be starting Unit 1 next week in math.  This unit covers addition strategies.  We will be reviewing basic facts as well as coming up with different ways to make numbers.  This helps students to look at deconstructing numbers which can help with mental math in the future.  
• In second grade, we take pretests before the units so that we can focus more on concepts where students are struggling.  We talk with the students about the pretest and that it is for us (Mrs. Ross and Ms. Mottaz) and if they don't know something, it tells us just as much as if they do know how to do something.  

Reading

• Students picked out books for their cubby tubby today.  Next week, we will work on building stamina as a reader.  We will increase our time reading independently a small amount every few days.  
• We will also work on having discussions about books.  We will be starting stations next week and students will be discussing characters, setting, problem and solution in their books.  
• We will be practicing these skills with our read aloud books as well.

Social Studies

• We alternate between science and social studies.  We will start with social studies.  The first unit is related to being a good citizen.  This works out very well for the beginning of the year as we are reviewing expectations at RBE.
• Next week, we will look at the Pledge of Allegiance and the students will have an opportunity to illustrate the words to help them better understand the meaning.  

Writing

• We will be start our first writing piece in a few weeks.  It will be a personal narrative.  The first few weeks, we give the students fun writing pieces to get them excited about writing.
• Next week, they will get to write a creative story about what Mrs. Ross and Ms. Mottaz did over summer vacation.
• We are working on remember capital letters and punctuation in our writing as well as using what we know from Fundations in our writing.

Fundations

• Today we did the orientation in Fundations.  Students practiced finding letters based on their sounds and also writing them with correct formation.
• Next week, we will start Unit 1.  This unit covers digraphs (sh, wh, th, ch and ck).  We will also be starting a mini dictionary of trick words (words that cannot be tapped out) in their "Monster Book."

Friday Folders

• We will start sending home Friday folders next week.  Please look through the Friday folder and initial the checklist inside.
• There is often a lot of important information in the Friday folder, so please make sure to look through everything and you can return any forms to school on Monday in the folder.
• The Friday folder checklist will look a little different this year.  Columbia Public Schools has created a rubric to be used with all students (the wording and expectations are slightly different at different ages) to focus on work habits, interactions with peers, interactions with adults and personal growth.  Below are the specific categories with indicators.  Students will receive a score of 1-4 based on their level of mastery.  The chart below also has the scoring criteria for a 1-4.
• A letter will be coming home from Columbia Public Schools next week with more specific information.

PE

• Mottaz kids will have PE on Monday and Friday next week.
• Ross kids will have PE on Thursday next week.

Library Check Out

• We will have our first library checkout next Friday.  Students will be able to check out 3 books.
• Please help your students remember to bring their books back on Friday mornings so they can get new books each Friday.

Important Upcoming Events

• No School: September 2
• Fall Pictures: September 3
• PTA Meeting: September 10 at 6:00 p.m.
• MU VB Field Trip: September 13
• More information to come closer to date
• Curriculum Chat: September 17 from 7:30-8:15 a.m.
• No School: September 30
• Chicken BBQ: October 19 from 4:00-8:00 p.m.
• TRYPS Field Tip: November 19
• Yes, this is 3 months out, but just letting you know.  

Have a fabulous weekend!

Meet the Teacher Night Information!

We were super excited to meet everyone at Meet the Teacher Night!

Below are links to the information that we handed out at Meet the Teacher Night.
Classroom Information
Let's Get To Know Your Teachers
What Is Co-Teaching?
Flexible Seating
Classroom Schedule

Please let us know if you have any questions.  If you would like to reach us you can email Kate Ross and Elizabeth Mottaz.  We are looking forward to a wonderful school year!

Kate & Elizabeth