October 31st

Greetings,
    I was thrilled with meeting all of you at conferences last week. I truly enjoy the time I get to spend with your child in class. Thank you for being a great partner in helping your child to be successful at school.
   We want to thank the PTA for sponsoring our fall party. We had so much fun on the slides and bounce houses last week. I think the face painting was also a big hit.
    Last week we learned all about land forms. Our salt dough land forms turned out really good. We are going to paint them on Monday. Students will make a short video to describe what land forms they created. We will post them on See Saw once we are finished with them. 
    This week we will continue doing research on the upcoming presidential election. Students are writing a paper that describes what they would do if they were president. We are still planning to hold our own private election for the next presidential election.


Importan Events:

10-31 Coins for Costumes (Students bring coins to vote for favorite teacher costume.)

11-1 PTA Meeting 6:30 p.m.

11-2 Godfather's Pizza Night

11-8 No School (Teacher Workday)

11-15 Veterans Day Assembly

11-23 to 11-25 Thanksgiving Break (No School)

11-29 Respect SOARing Assembly

12-5 to 12-9 Santa Store

12-21 Sing Along/Polar Express Day

12-22 Big Event time TBD

12-23 to 1-2 Christmas Break

October 24th, 2016

Greetings,
     This week is Red Ribbon Week. Students are invited to participate in different dress up and themed activities each day.
Let's be drug free!!!

• Monday: Your Future is So Bright! Wear your SUNGLASSES!
• Tuesday: Be STRONG - Just Say No! Wear your exercise clothes!
• Wednesday: No sweat for us to say No! Wear your sweats!
• Thursday: Wear your RED in honor of Kiki/Red Ribbon Week!

Parent teacher conferences are this week. Please email or call me if your schedule changes and you need to find a different time to meet. I will be happy to work something out for you.

Our fall party will be on Thursday of this week from 2:30-3:20 p.m. Parents are welcome to come help. The fall party is sponsored by our PTA. All of the activities will be held in the FEMA gym. Sorry, but no costumes for the fall party are to be worn. The teachers will be dressing up in a costume on the 31st to help raise money for our new Exploratorium! Students may bring pennies, nickles, dimes or quarters to vote for their favorite teacher costume.

This week we will be learning about the duties of a president. We will be setting up our own presidential election. Students will vote for their favorite president. Students will also write a narrative on what they would do if they were president.  

In science we will be learning about land forms. Students will research the different types of land forms and create a land form out of salt dough. 

During math we will continue solving word problems and learn about estimation.

Important Dates:

10-24 to 10-27 Parent Teacher Conferences

10-25 SOARing Assembly for Self-Control

10-27 Fall Parties (2nd grade 2:30-3:20 p.m.)

10-28 No School

10-31 Coins for Costumes

11-1 PTA Meeting 6:30 p.m.

11-2 Godfather's Pizza Night

11-8 No School--Election Day--Teacher Workday

11-15 Veterans Day Assembly

11-23 to 11-25 Thanksgiving Break--No School

12-5 to 12-9 Santa Store

October 17, 2016

Greetings,
    Wow! What a great week! We had so much fun at our Big Event on Friday. We played games with the high school football team, had our faces painted, and saw the high school drama team perform. Every student in our class earned at least 10 Soar Bucks and was able to attend the Big Event. For second quarter students will need to earn at least 15 Soar Bucks.
     On Thursday we had so much fun with designing a roller coaster on our devices. After we designed a roller coaster, students worked together in small groups to create a roller coaster with spliced pool noodles, tape and marbles. Students worked together to create the appropriate incline planes so that their marbles would run across their entire roller coaster. It was so much fun watching their excitement when a marble made it all the way across their roller coaster.
     Parent Teacher Conferences are next week. It is our goal that 100% of all families sign up for a conference. If you have not been able to sign up on Sign up Genius please email me aimeenoskowiak@nixaschools.net. I will send confirmation notes home this week for conferences.
     This week we are starting a unit on Laura Ingalls Wilder. We will also tackle word problems in math and continue to work on addition and subtraction fluency. In writing, students will work on editing their work and learn the importance of rereading what they write. Students will continue working on improving their reading levels in Guided Reading groups. We are working hard on reading with fluency.  
     This week is the Book Fair. Students will have an opportunity to purchase books on Monday during library or throughout the week. Students were told that they could dress up like a pirate on Monday to help promote the Book Fair.
    
Important Dates:

10-17 to 10-21 Book Fair

10-18 Picture Retakes

10-20 NED Assembly

10-21 Mile Run

10-24 to 10-27 Parent Teacher Conferences

10-25 SOARing Assembly for Self-Control

10-27 Fall Parties (schedule to be announced)

10-28 No School

October 10th, 2016

Greetings,
    This Friday will be our Big Event Celebration. Students will be celebrating SOARing behavior with some fun and exciting activities. Students have been working hard on earning 10 SOAR bucks so that they may attend the Big Event.
     We have finally earned our 50th marble for showing great expectations at school. We will be welcoming our new hermit crab to our classroom on Monday. We will vote on a name for the hermit crab and do some research on how hermit crabs live.
      Last week we had a lot of fun with our fall activities. We started by writing a persuasive letter to a tree. Our goal was to convince the tree to keep his leaves. So if you see several trees with their leaves this year, you will know that our class had something to do with it. We also had fun writing the recipe for making applesauce, using transitional words. After we wrote the recipe, we made the applesauce together, and we licked the crockpot clean. Not one drop of applesauce left. Originally we were going to make apple butter. However, we learned that it takes more hours than what we have in one day to make. So we decided to make the applesauce. 
       We also had a great time participating in our force and motion activities on Friday of last week. We used marshmallow shooters to learn about force and gravity. We used incline planes to learn how gravity and friction works. We also pulled cars with magnets to learn about the different types of force.
      This coming week we will continue learning about force and motion by designing and creating a rollercoaster.  On the 13th students may bring in small toys with wheels to celebrate "Wheels Day".
      We will also be working on writing a persuasive paper about which animal makes the best pet by using facts and opinions. Students spent time last week writing their opinions about their animals and looking up facts about their animal on their devices. This week they will take their opinions and facts and put them within a persuasive paper.   
      In math this week we will be working on addition and subtraction fluency. The first quarter goal for fluency is 70% accuracy within a 5 minute time limit. Our goal is to be at 85% or higher by 4th quarter. We will also continue working with measuring and greater than/less than. 
      Don't forget that Friday is a half day. Students will be dismissed at 12:40. Please make sure you have transportation arrangements made for your child. 




             Important Dates: 

10-12 Principal's Advisory Committee (open to anyone who wants to attend) 2:30-3:30 p.m.

10-13 Wheels Day (force and motion celebration--students may bring a small toy on wheels)

10-14 Big Event (end of quarter PBIS celebration--schedule to be announced)

10-14 End 1st Quarter-1/2 Day of School--12:40 Dismissal

10-14 to 10-20 Book Fair

10-18 Picture Retakes

10-24 to 10-27 Parent Teacher Conferences

10-25 SOARing Assembly for Self-Control

10-27 Fall Parties (schedule to be announced)

10-28 No School

October 3rd, 2016

Greetings,
     Can you believe first quarter will be ending in just a few short weeks. I sent out a sign-up sheet for Parent Teacher Conferences last week through Sing-up Genius. You should have gotten an invite through your email to sign up. If not, please let me know.
     This week we will be learning the difference of a fact and opinion. Students will learn to write an informational paper that includes facts and opinions this week. They will also focus on including a beginning, middle, and ending to their papers.
      In math we will continue working on number bonds and greater than/less than. We will begin a new unit on measurement this week. Students will learn to measure to the nearest centimeter and inch.
     On Thursday of this week we will do some special fall activities. We will write opinions about fall, use apples to measure objects in the class and use centimeters and inches to measure the size of apples. We will also make apple butter. Yum! Yum!
     On Friday students will participate in some special force and motion activities. Students are learning how gravity and friction works. They will design a road and use magnets to pull cars, make marshmallow shooters, and design incline planes. 


*****We are in need of a few items to help us with apple butter and our force/motion activities. Any donations would be appreciated!


>1 bag of apples - need by Wednesday of this week. Please email me if you could send a bag.
aimeenoskowiak@nixaschools.net
>1 bag of regular size marshmallows - need by Thursday of this week. Please email me if you could send a bag. aimeenoskowiak@nixaschools.net
>25 Large plastic cups - need by Thursday of this week. Please email me if you could send in a bag of cups. aimeenoskowiak@nixaschools.net
>Black electrical tape (two rolls) - need by Thursday of this week. Please email if you could send in a roll of tape. aimeenoskowiak@nixaschools.net
>Sandpaper - need by Thursday of this week. Please email if you could send in sandpaper.
aimeenoskowiak@nixaschools.net
>25 Styrofoam bowls - need by Wednesday of this week. Please email if you could send in bowls.
aimeenoskowiak@nixaschools.net
>25 plastic spoons - need by Wednesday of this week. Please email if you could send in spoons.
aimeenoskowiak@nixaschools.net


Important Dates 

10-5 Godfather's Night

10-12 Principal's Advisory Committee 

10-13 Wheels Day (force and motion celebration--students may bring a small toy on wheels)

10-14 Big Event (end of quarter PBIS celebration)

10-14 End 1st Quarter-1/2 Day of School, Early Dismissal Time is 12:40

10-14 to 10-20 Book Fair

10-18 Picture Retakes

10-24 to 10-27 Parent Teacher Conferences

10-25 SOARing Assembly

10-27 Fall Parties (more information to come)

10-28 No School