Happy Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday!  (It sounds so weird saying that in a blog post)

Thank you to all the wonderful parents who helped with the party or sent in supplies for the party.

Another thank you to all the parents who helped the students create their pumpkins.  They did an amazing job!  Check out Twitter to see all the amazing pumpkins!  If your student didn't bring home their pumpkin today, we will be at school from 8:00-10:00 a.m. tomorrow, please arrange to pick it up so they don't get funky over the long weekend.

We are looking forward to meeting with everyone over the next 2 weeks.  If you haven't confirmed your conference time, please do so.  Our goal is 100% attendance!

Costume Pictures

• We love to see the kids all dressed up!  If you want to send us pictures of the kids in their Halloween costume, we will print them and post them in the room.

Important Upcoming Events

• No School: October 31-November 1 (Teacher Work Day)
• Parent Teacher Conference: November 5-November 14
• 1st Trimester Pizza Party: November 8
• Your student may bring in a special drink from home.
• Each student will get 2 pieces of pizza, chips, healthy side and dessert.
• We will eat lunch at 11:45 a.m. this day, so please make sure they have a snack since they will be eating later.
• Veteran's Day Assembly: November 11 at 8:30 a.m.
• TRYPS Field Trip: November 19
• Pajama Day: November 22
• No Friday Folders this week or the week of November 25
• Early Dismiss: December 4 at 12:15 p.m.

Book Fair

• Here is the link to information about the Book Fair.  The flyer came home yesterday with some of the books that will be available for purchase.
• https://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bookfairs/cptoolkit/homepage.do?method=homepage&url=rockbridgeelementary

Snacks

• Please help your student remember to bring a snack each day to school.  We are lucky enough to have parents who have donated snacks to the class, but we have already gone through them.  

RBE Shirt Order

• PTA is doing a second t-shirt order with a quick turnaround. 
• Below is a link to the order form if you would like to order.  All orders are due by Tuesday, November 5.  
• https://drive.google.com/a/cpsk12.org/file/d/1fnX_DqKJODThSvZZeEpZ5jCuQi8l4fXS/view?usp=sharing

Next Week's Learning
Reading

• We will be moving onto fables next week.  We will be focusing on characters, settings, plot, problem and solution.  We will also be discussing the definition of a fable and how to determine if a story is a fable or not. 

Writing

• We are finishing up our expository books about animals and which habitat fits them best.  The students have worked really hard on them and had to do some good thinking to identify reasons an animal couldn't survive in another habitat.  

Math

• We will be wrapping up Unit 3 and finish learning other subtraction strategies.  We will be testing over Unit 3 on Monday or Tuesday of the following week.  We will then do the pretest for Unit 4, set goals for Unit 4 and reflect on our goals from Unit 3.  

Fundations

• We will be learning about "ic vs. ick" at the end of multi syllabic words next week.  Then we will move on to learning other suffixes of ful, less, en, ment, ness, able and ish.  They are expected to be able to read and write words with these suffixes.
• Our trick words for this unit in Fundations are against, knew, know, always, often, once, about and went.  

Have a fabulous long weekend and stay warm!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

We hope you have had a wonderful week!  We had a great week of learning and fun!

Important Upcoming Events

• Fall Harvest Party: Wednesday, October 30 at 1:45 p.m.
• Here is the link if you want to sign up to send in items.
• https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0c4fadac28a3fe3-team
• Pumpkin Book Character Due: Tuesday, October 29
• Please send your student's completed pumpkin and their book report paper into school on Tuesday.  We will do a gallery walk on Wednesday to see all their fun characters.  We will post pictures on Twitter.
• Here is the information sheet 
• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VJFs4pJrdU9-FY6c4cs6jEbP_E1utNeF_zg8Xs-i90w/edit?usp=sharing
• No School: Thursday, October 31-Friday, November 1
• Parent Teacher Conferences: November 4-November 14
• Times will come home next Tuesday.
• Veteran's Day Assembly: November 11

Coats

• Please make sure your student has a light jacket and a winter coat with them at school.  It has been chilly at recess this week.  If the "feels like" temperature is below 44, students need a winter coat. If the "feels like" temperature is between 45-59, students need a light jacket or sweatshirt.
• Some students have asked about borrowing a coat from lost and found, but due to health reasons and all the illnesses going around, we can't allow students to borrow coats/jackets from lost and found.
• If you need assistance getting a winter coat for your student, please let us know.

Friday Folders

• Unit 3 HomeLinks: These are optional practice if students would like to do them at home.  They are not expected to be completed or need to be sent back to school if completed.  They can be used for Homework Bingo activities.
• Unit 5 Fundations Letter:  This gives you information about what students will be learning in Unit 5 of Fundations.  As with the HomeLinks, there are activities students can complete if they would like, but they are not required and do not need to be sent back to school.
• Service Club Food Drive: 2nd grade is collecting smooth peanut butter.  If students would like to donate smooth (please no chunky) peanut butter, they can put it on the tables outside the office or they can bring it to the classroom and we will send it down.

Restorative Practice

• Kate went to Restorative Practice training on Wednesday and Thursday.  Restorative Practice is a program used to help students identify and express their feelings to others and help them with conflict resolution.  The goal of Restorative Practice is to be 80% proactive and community building with 20% of them being reactive, problem solving and repairing harm.  
• The following definition is from the International Institute for Restorative Practice, "The aim of restorative practices is to develop community and to manage conflict and tensions by repairing harm and building relationships. This statement identifies both proactive (building relationships and developing community) and reactive (repairing harm and restoring relationships) approaches."
• A key part of Restorative Practice is Affective Statements and questions.  These states express feelings.  For example: I feel happy when you stand in line quietly.  These help students to identify their feelings in different situations and then share their feelings with others who have harmed them (emotionally or physically).  This is helpful because often students struggle to identify how their actions affected others.  There are also questions that can be used that help students to identify their feelings such as How were you feeling when _________ happened? or How have you been feeling since this situation occurred.  Affective statements can be used at home when talking with your students.
• A large part of restorative practice is holding circles.  Initially, these circles are used to help build community and will consist of low level risk questions.  For example: If you could eat any ice cream, what would it be? or If you won a free trip, would you to go the mountains or the beach?  Once a community has been established and students are more comfortable with circles, we will use them for conflict resolution or to solve problems occurring within our classroom. 
• Mrs. Neale, Mr. Smith and Mrs. Kimble are all trained in Restorative Practice and uses it when debriefing with students after situations occurred.  

Next Week's Learning
*Since next week is a short week, our schedule will be slightly off, but here is what we will be working on.*
Reading

• Our writing is taking longer than expected, so we didn't get a chance to take our reading test this week or start fables.
• Next week, we will do a practice test in groups to learn the format of the Wonders test.
• We will also be reading Halloween books and comparing/contrasting the different stories to look for similarities and differences.

Writing

• The students set writing goals this week.  Be sure to ask your student what his/her goal is and how they plan to meet the goal.  
• We started our expository writing this week.  The students are learning to include transition words as well as topic sentences.  
• We will continue working on this next week with the goal to hopefully get the writing finished.  If we don't get it finished, we will wrap it up the first week of November.

Math

• We are continuing to learn subtraction strategies next week.  We have talked with the kids about the purpose of learning so many strategies.  This allows them to pick the strategy that works best for them when solving a problem.
• Please continue practicing math facts as home.  The strategies are helpful, but as the numbers gets larger knowing the basic facts is helpful.

Science

• We are continuing to compare/contrast habitats.  The students will be doing this in their expository writing as well.  They have to identify the needs of the animal and how those needs are met by their habitat.

Fundations

• We will start Unit 5 next week in Fundations.  This unit covers multi-syllabic words.  The students will be working on syllable division as well as identifying the syllable types in the word.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

Chicken BBQ is TOMORROW!

• Chicken BBQ is tomorrow from 4:00-8:00 p.m.
• Chicken is delicious, games are fun and auction items are awesome!
• The auction list came home yesterday and you can purchase game tickets and meal tickets at the BBQ if needed.
• Come see us at the drive through from 4:00-6:00 p.m.

Coats

• Please make sure our student is dressed appropriately for the weather.
• Please make sure they have a jacket and/or coat (depending on the temperature) for recess. 
• If the temperature is below 44, students are expected to have a winter coat.  If the temperature is between 45-59, they need a light jacket/sweatshirt.

Fall Harvest Party

• A huge thank you to JaKhia's mom for organizing our parties this year.  
• Here is a link to sign up if you would like to send in items or help at the party.
• Our party is Wednesday, October 30 from 1:45-2:30 p.m.

Friday Folders (LOTS of information below)

• Book Orders
• We are sending home our first book order this Friday.  
• Please order online here.  The class code HD3JG.
• If you are ordering a gift for your student, please let us know and we will make sure to send it home secretly.  
• Ordering is completely optional.
• Pumpkin Book Project

• Students will choose a book character and use a pumpkin to create this character. 
• You can find examples by searching on Google "Pumpkin Book Characters."
• On Monday will be a paper coming home for students to tell us the name of the book as well as the character they will be creating and if they have a pumpkin or need a paper pumpkin.
• Book Character Pumpkins are due on October 29.
• We will have a gallery walk for pumpkins on October 30.
• Fundations Reflection Sheet
• We took a Fundations Check Up this week.  We had students look over their check up and allowed them to reflect and identify something they want work on as we continue through this unit in Fundations.
• Conference Time Request Form
• Conference Week is the week of November 11, in an effort to meet with all parents, we extend our conferences over two weeks (Weeks of November 4 and November 11).
• In your student's Friday folder is a form to request times for Parent Teacher Conferences.  Please rank (use 1, 2, 3) the top 3 times that work best for you.  
• Please let us know if you have other children at RBE.  We will do our best to schedule them back to back.  Please make sure that if you want back to back conferences, you request a time offered by all teachers you need to meet with.  
• Please send the form back by next Friday, October 25.  We will meet on Monday, October 28 to schedule conferences.
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Next Week's Learning
Reading

• Next week, we will wrap up our study of expository text.  We will be doing the assessment as a group to practice how the assessment is set up so the students are prepared for assessments in the future.
• Our next genre study is fables.  We will be looking for themes and lessons in the fables.  We will also be discussing what classifies as a fable and how to identify a story as a fable.

Writing

• We started our research for our next writing this week.
• Students are researching 2 animals that live in different habitats.  They will then create a book about the two animals and at the end, they will explain why the animal will only survive in their habitat as opposed to the habitat of the other animals.  This writing activity will be related to both writing and science.  
• Be sure to ask the students what 2 animals they are researching.  

Math

• We started Unit 3 this week in math.  This unit covers subtraction strategies.  Please continue practicing subtraction facts at home.  This will make the subtraction easier for them as we focus on different strategies for solving subtraction problems.

Fundations

• We are continuing working on suffixes next week.
• The students struggled on the check in with trick words. Please continue to practice them at home.
• Here is a list of trick words to practice for 2nd grade.
• Here is a list of trick words to practice from 1st grade.

Science

• We are going to continue to compare habitats.  Will are working on identifying plants and animals that are in both habitats and which ones are only found in one.  They will then discuss the reasons why animals could not survive in a different habitat.
• This week, we also started an experiment relating to plants.  Students will be learning how water travels through a plant.  This will relate to habitats because certain plants can only survive in certain habitats based on the amount of water available.  

Happy Frosty Friday!

Happy Friday!

Wow!  When did summer immediately turn into winter, we skipped fall!  Thankfully, next week is supposed to be a bit warmer again. 

Be sure to read the blog to learn about important information from our classroom as well as our learning for next week.

Important Upcoming Events

• Through Sunday, October 13: Jersey Mike's Fundraiser
• Each coupon that is used gets $2 for RBE.
• Here is the flyer.  
• Monday, October 14: Intervention Starts
• There is a note in your student's Friday folder about their group.  
• Friday, October 18: Western Day
• Saturday, October 19: Chicken BBQ from 4:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.
• We will be at the drive thru from 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, October 30: Fall Harvest Party at 1:45 p.m.
• Thursday, October 31 and Friday, November 1: No School (Teacher Work Day)

Snack

• Just a reminder that we have snack each day in the morning.  If your child would like a snack for this time, please be sure to send them in.  If it is easier for you, you can put 5 snacks in on Sunday night and then they have a snack for each day.  

Winter Coats

• Please make sure your student has a jacket and/or coat with them next week.  We had some chilly kids at recess today.  
• When I picked them up at lunch recess, a lot of them were covering their ears because they were cold.  A hat or ear warmers might be helpful also.
• If you need assistance getting a winter coat, please let us know.  

Chicken BBQ

• One week from today is Chicken BBQ Eve.  We are so lucky to have such a supportive PTA and the Chicken BBQ is their HUGE fundraiser for the year.  
• Silent Auction/Gift Cards:  We have some amazing items in the silent auction.  This list will come home next Thursday.  Also, all the gift cards purchased with donations from parents (a huge thank you for that, we were able to purchase 5 gift cards!) will be available for sale as well.  Team Moss voted on Bonkers ($20), Chuck E. Cheese ($20), SkyZone ($20), McDonald's ($10) and Andy;s ($18).
• Games:  There are some fun games at the Chicken BBQ sponsored by local businesses.  Game tickets can be purchased in advance or at the Chicken BBQ.
• Chicken!:  In my opinion, the best part of the BBQ.  Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the BBQ itself.  We have adult, youth and child tickets.  We also have a very efficient drive thru if you're not able to hang around.  Team Moss will be working the drive thru from 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m., be sure to stop by and say hi!  

Our Learning Next Week
Reading

• We started Unit 2 this week and will continue working on it next week.  This unit is a more in depth look at expository texts.  The students are learning about how baby animals are similar and different from their parents.  We will also be writing an expository text comparing 2 animals and explaining how they get their needs met in their habitat.

Writing

• We will be using our first two pieces of writing to set writing goals next week.  We will then start researching two animals for our animal comparison book.

Math

• We took our Unit 2 test today.  It will be coming home next week.  We will be reflecting on our Unit 2 goals and setting Unit 3 goals.  
• Unit 3 covers subtraction strategies.  The students will learn a variety of strategies so they can decide which ones work best for them.  
• Please practice basic facts at home as this makes the subtraction much easier for the students.
• Also, ask your student about their progress on ST Math.  The students have been working really hard on ST Math and some students are already working on regrouping with addition and subtraction on ST Math.

Science

• We will be working on comparing habitats and identifying how animals get what they need from their habitats.  We will be using some of our science time to research for our animal comparison books.

Fundations

• Next week, we will look closer at the -ed suffix and the three different sounds it can make which are /d/, /t/ and /id/.
• Please continue practicing trick words at home.  We are still working on the trick words animal, again, please, sure, use, used, where, wear.

Happy Friday

Happy Friday!

We have had a great week with Team Moss!  Be sure to read the blog for a lot of important information about our learning and activities occurring in our classroom.

eReaders
Mrs. McKinzie came in this week to talk with us about eReader options. 

• Epic
• At school, students have access to Epic.  This is a free service for students at school as the subscription is funded by the district.  If you would like to subscribe at home, the cost is $8 per month, but there is currently a sale for 2 months for $5.
• https://www.getepic.com/pages/fallsale
• Sora
• Students can access Sora from school and from home through the Portal.  Books on Sora have to be "checked out."  They learned today how to know if the book is available.
• We talked with the students about only "checking out" books they plan to read.  They learned how to "Read a Sample" so they can preview a book before checking it out (borrow).  If they are interested, they can then check it out, if they are not interested, they can find another book. 

Jackets and Sweatshirts

• Please send your child to school with a light jacket or sweatshirt for recess.  It is definitely chilly in the morning.  We had kids in short sleeves this morning that were not enjoying recess as much as they could have because they were cold. 

Headphones

• Please check with your students if they need headphones.  Some students are saying they are broken or lost.  They need them in media, as well as when they are using laptops in the classroom.

Bird Day

• Bird Day is on Thursday, October 10.
• We will be outside all morning.  Please make sure they are dressed appropriately for the weather.  The current forecast is lows in the lower 50's and highs in the lower 70's.  More than likely it will be middle 50's so they will probably be most comfortable in pants with a sweatshirt or jacket.  They will also want comfortable shoes or boots for walking.
• If your student ordered a lunch from the cafeteria, we will send them down that morning to get their lunch.
• If your student is bringing a lunch from home, it needs to all be disposable as we will not be bringing anything back to school.
• We will try to have snack before we go to Bird Day, if not, we will have snack once we return.  

Chicken BBQ Auction Items

• We are collecting money to purchase a gift card to be sold at the Chicken BBQ Auction.  If you would like to donate a few dollars towards our gift card, please send it in by Wednesday, October 9.  This will give us time to vote on the gift card location and purchase it.
• Also, if you have a hidden talent or you're "famous" for baking/crafting and would like to donate items to the auction, please email RBEBBQAUCTION@gmail.com by next Wednesday to let them know what you would like to donate.  

Homework Bingo

• We got to eat with another group of kids today who got Homework Bingos.  We even have a few students who have already gotten more than one Bingo.  
• As a reminder, Homework Bingo is not required, it is just a fun way to practice skills from school and also be helpful and kind to others.  

Friday Folders

• RBE Eat Out at Jersey Mike's: October 7-13 using the coupons attached to the flyer
• RBE gets $2 for every coupon used.  
• Fundations Parent Letter
• We started Unit 4 this week in Fundations.  The parent letter is in the Friday folder.  Again, students are not expected or required to do these sheets.  If they choose to do for Homework Bingo, they can, but you do not have to send them back to school
• Unit 2 Math HomeLinks
• As with the Fundations sheets, the math HomeLinks are a resource.  If they want to use it for Homework Bingo or practice, they can, but they do not need to be sent back to school.
• Unit 3 Math Family Letter
• Our next math unit covers additional strategies for solving basic facts.  This is just an introduction letter for the unit.

Important Upcoming Events

October 10: Bird Day

• We will be going to Bird Day on Thursday.  
• Students need to bring a lunch (unless they ordered a lunch from school).  The lunch needs to be in all disposable containers as we will not be bringing anything back to school.
• The temperatures are going to be middle to upper 50's during our time outside.  Please make sure your student is dressed appropriately.  The park is shaded so it can be chilly.  Also, we will be walking around, please make sure they are wearing comfortable shoes.  If they want to wear boots for the field trip, they can do so.  
• October 7-13: RBE Eat Out at Jersey Mike's
• October 19: Chicken BBQ
• October 30: Fall Harvest Party at 1:45 p.m.

Next Week's Learning

Math

• We will be wrapping up Unit 2 next week.  This unit covers addition strategies.  In your student's Friday folder are some practice sheets if you want some additional practice.
• We will take our pretest for Unit 3 next Friday.  We will also be reflecting on our goals from Unit 2 and setting new goals for Unit 3 in math.  Unit 3 covers subtraction strategies and the relationship between addition and subtraction.

Reading

• We will be starting Unit 2 in reading next week.  The first 2 weeks of Unit 2 cover expository text.  The students will be learning about text features and how they help in expository text.  We will be also identifying the main idea and details from expository text also.  

Writing

• Students will have an opportunity next week to use iPads to create an electronic version of their published realistic fiction.  Once they have created their electronic version, we will send home QR codes.  

Science

• Next week, we will be setting away from plants for a week to prepare for Bird Day.  Students will be identifying the types of beak and how it determines what type of foods they eat.  
• We will be comparing the habitat of birds to other animals and how the habitat help the animals survive.  

Fundations

• We will continue working on adding suffixes to words next week.  We focus on how to spell with the suffixes as well as how the suffix changes the meaning of the word.
• Our trick words for next week are sure, use, used, where and wear.  Please practice these words at home with your students.