We survived!

Having Halloween on Monday is a challenge all week with 2nd graders.  Monday they couldn't wait for the parade and party.  Tuesday the sugar low sets in.  By the end of the week we are all dragging from the busy week.  We made it, it's Friday and we are ready for a nice weekend!

A huge THANK-YOU to all the families that helped make our party a success!  The kids had a blast!! They loved the donut eating contest and the trick or treat bags are adorable.  The food at this party was so cute (probably thanks to pinterest)!  Here are a few pictures from Monday's party!

This week we read a called The Ugly Pumpkin.  This is story about not fitting in and how that can make you feel.  The pumpkin takes a bit of a journey in which he finds out he is actually a squash, and finds a place were he fits in.  After reading the story the students wrote about a time "They felt squashed..." and designed their own ugly pumpkin.  We had a lot of great discussion about feelings and how we can make others feel apart of a group.

In Literacy we read fables this week.  We learn that fables are stories mostly with animals that teach a lesson or moral.  We read "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and then we read another version which is told by the wolf called "Wolf! Wolf".  This gave us a great opportunity to compare the two pieces of text and also to discuss that a story can have more then one version.  Next week with it being a short week will will take a break from Wonders and work with comparing different version of Cinderella stories.

In math students took their topic 3 assessment.  I will be sending those home to be signed and return over the weekend.  We started topic 4 with learning about partial sums.  We will continue with this next week then move onto learning how to regroup.  Students are learning many addition strategies and I know that it can be overwhelming, the hope is that one of these strategies will work best for them.  All of these strategies focus on learning how to add mentally.

In Social Studies this week we took some time to learn about the election process.  We thought with election day being next week this would be a good time to discuss this process.  A book was read to students and discussed.  Students will have the opportunity for a school wide election on Tuesday.  We will be filling out voter registration cards and voting on the candidates.  I'm interested in seeing who the students vote for.

We will be working on a memoir project.  I'm going to send home a letter describing the assignment.  Students need to interview a family member about an interesting story from their childhood.  They will take notes on the interview and then use those notes in class to write a memoir.  We will need the interview and notes to be completed by Nov. 15 so that we can begin writing.  Thanks for you help with this project.

Have a wonderful weekend!