Math

As the year progresses, Math Home Links may become more challenging along with the work we are doing in class.  At this time, we have introduced making change back.  This is new to many children and becomes more concrete with hands on practice. We have been using our coin banks at school and I encourage you to play cashier and customer with your child at home.  Set up a little pretend store and have fun!

Another skill to practice at home is telling time.  We review it frequently at school and I encourage you to practice at home.  At this time we expect the kids to be able to tell time to the half and quarter hours.  Many kids are solid with this and even can tell time to the 5 minute or minute mark.

I appreciate your assistance with Home Links, hands on practice, and xtramath at home.  It really makes a difference!

Business Letters

Each student chose a person or business to write to for our letter writing unit.  We talked about reasons why people write business letter; to compliment, persuade, give a suggestion, or request information.  The kids enjoyed selecting an authentic reason to write and we look forward to responses from the businesses!  Our letters will be up in the hallway, so please read them when you visit for Parent Teacher Conferences.

Halloween Fun!

We had a great time at our Halloween party.  Thanks to the parents that were able to give support at our parade and party.  The kids did a terrific job rotating through game stations, eating snack, and listening to stories from our principals.

What Is A Scientist?

We have been learning about "Non-Fiction Text Features".  Non-Fiction text features help us understand what we are reading.  Captions are sentences that tell about pictures.  Please read the captions that the kids came up with for their work in science. :)

We are sorting items and comparing them.  Some are rocks and some aren't.  It is cool to see all sorts of different rocks. Some rocks are very smooth.  It looked like some rocks were stuck inside other rocks (one of the rocks had gold in it). Rocks are different shapes and colors.

We are sorting rocks and non-rocks.  We had questions about rocks.  How are rocks, rocks? Can you smash or crush rocks? Are rocks locatred in every part of the world? How do animals use rocks for homes and protection? We learned that they came from nature.  Rocks are made of minerals.  Melted rock is called magma. It was fun working together and deciding which group to put each thing in.  One rock was gold, but we are not sure if it is really a rock or fool's gold.  Some rocks can be fossils.

We are sorting rocks.  Not everything was a rock.  We learned that crstals can be in rocks. Some rocks are soft and can break easily and some rocks are hard. Rocks are different sizes, colors and shapes.  It was fun to look at all of the different kinds of rocks and sort them.  

These scientist are learning from their senses.  Jayna said that her rock smelled like shampoo.  Xander reported that he was feeling the texture of rocks.  Some were smooth, others were rough, bumpy, heavy  and light.  Anika and Ella wanted to draw the texture and colors to make it look realistic.  

We are carefully oberserving details of rocks.  Reese, Lauren, Andrea and Peter were looking for bumps and cracks with hand lens to magnify their rocks.

Megan is observing a rock with a magnifying lens.  She is looking for small colors in her rock.  Adi is making a scientific drawing.  She wants to show what the rock's color and texture look like.

These scientist are writing about what happens and what they see.  

Choosing A Leader - Class Mascot

In social studies we are talking about how leaders are chosen. We are working together to create a campaign to have others join us in selecting a Mexican Spotted Owl as our class mascot. We used the iPads to look up facts and a picture of the Mexican Spotted Owl. We learned that Megan is a good artist. Owls are smart, wise and see very well.

We have been writing about tigers because we think they would be a good class mascot. They are an up stander. They remind us of a panther. They are smart, quick and quiet.

We are planning and thinking about dolphins because we think they would be a great class mascot.  Dolphins are flexible and talented. They are smart, intelligent and not afraid to try new things. 

We think a butterfly would be a good mascot for our class. We are thinking of reasons why a butterfly should be our mascot. Some of our ideas are that butterflies are creative, colorful and smart. 

Book Orders are coming home tonight!

Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub

One-Time Class Activation Code: LD2Q9

Dear Families,

Encouraging reading is one of the most important things we can do to help your child succeed. It can be tough finding the right books to keep them interested, which is why I am so excited that our class will be participating in Scholastic Reading Club this school year.

If you wish to order books, please fill out the order form and payment online.  The directions are listed below.  Once the orders are submitted they arrive at school and we will send them home in your child's backpack.  Ordering online will also allow you to place orders from any of the catalogs that Scholastic offers. Sooo, you can order to all of your children on this one form. It is truly one of the most exciting days for the kids when the books arrive at school.  It is the best present ever! J   

Please submit the first orders by Friday, October 11th.  If you have any questions, please contact me. 

Thank you for your support,

Jean McLoone

If This Is Your First Time Ordering Online:

•    REGISTER at scholastic.com/readingclub

•    ENTER the Class Activation Code at the top of this letter

•    CHOOSE from thousands of print titles, value packs, and Storia eBooks

•    SUBMIT the order to me by the due date listed on the website

•    EARN FREE Books for our classroom too!

Community

We have just completed our first social studies unit. The unit title was Community (a place where people work and play together). We discussed the many wonderful places in our community.  We learned that we are citizens that belong to many groups.  We discussed the different groups or "communities" that we belong to: family, church, classroom, sports teams, choir, etc.  We made comparisons and contrasts between our neighborhood, city, state and country.  We connected our learning to a Google Earth activity in the LMC where we found our homes and made a map that showed our walking route from our homes to Patton School.  We also learned about basic needs vs wants.  The children reflected on their learning by posting their needs and wants on Kidblog.  Some of their other in class projects will be coming home soon.  I am pleased with the growth the class is making in building our positive classroom community.

Writing

We had a neat opportunity during writing this week.  The children were able to participate in a live webcast with the author Kevin Henkes. He gave a presentation about his life and explained how he was inspired to write different books.  This allowed the kids to see that authors are real people that write about real experiences in life.  Many of his books and characters are based upon people and situations in his life.  The kids really enjoyed seeing many books in his slide show like Chrysanthemum, Lily's Purple Plastic Purse,  and Julius the Baby of the World.  Mr. Henkes also introduced a new chapter book that he has just published, The Year of Billy Miller.  Several children seemed very motivated and ready to find this book and read it!!

We will use children's books very frequently as "mentor texts" which give examples for what we are going to write.  During our autobiography unit, which we are just finishing up, the children listened to Tomie dePaola's 26 Fairmount Avenue.  While we read this small chapter book, we discussed that Tomie was writing about his life.  He included facts about his family, his hobbies, where he lived, and many other facts.

One other topic we have explored in writing is letter writing. By the end of the year, the children should be able to correctly format and punctuate a letter including a heading, greeting, body, closing and signature.  The kids will have second grade pen pals in another class and we will write back and forth to practice formatting letters and writing with a purpose.

We look forward to beginning a bit of poetry writing in the near future!

Patton Tech Contract

As children come to school comfortable using technology in many different ways,  Patton School Staff felt it was important to have a consistent policy for everyone to follow.  We realize that at home, students may know how to change settings and preferences, and have more freedom on how technology is used. However, since our devices are shared among all students, we need to emphasize that settings should not be changed and that technology is used for learning purposes. 

Patton 2nd graders present....Rainforest Rescue

Thanks you for coming to our musical performance.  We are so proud of the 2nd graders.  They did a fantastic job with many roles including singing, soloists, narrators, off instrument players and animal actors.  It came together beautifully and was a wonderful showcase for all of their talents.

 The entire 2nd grade cast

 Our fantastic class

We are all roaring jaguars.

 Can you tell we are all the sleeping man?

Natalie and Sophie (Red Eyed Tree Frogs), Katie (Jaguar), Maya and Jenna (Tree Porcupines)

Thank you Mrs. Ruckstaetter!  We had a great time performing.

Practice Projects using the app Explain Everything

Throughout the year, we use the skill of retelling a story by focusing on the beginning, middle and end of the story.  This week we read a story and used the ipads and the app Explain Everything to help us retell the stories.  As you watch, keep in mind this was a practice project to work with several reading and technology skills.  Enjoy!

Arlington Heights Tour

We have been learning about the history of Arlington Heights.  The children are learning how life has changed over time and the way early settlers lived.  They have examined pictures from the town long ago and compared it to the way the town looks now. Next week we will do a project where the kids make a presentation slide about a place in the town that has changed.

Please feel free to take the tour or have your child go through the tour and explain what they have learned!

Second Grade Resources (Tour of Arlington Heights)

Cultural Arts Fair

 Today the kids visited a Cultural Arts Fair in the Commons.  Students from Harper presented information about various countries including sports, arts and crafts, holidays, language and many other topics.  The kids were very engaged and enjoyed the chance to mingle and learn!

Using The Ipads In Class

The following links are projects we have done in social studies during our unit on the earth and conservation.  The kids learned what natural resources are and how they are used by people.  Then we discovered ways the earth is being harmed and possible solutions to the problems.  We also did projects on endangered animals and some groups chose the pic collage app on the ipads, while others did posters with drawing.  This was a choice for the groups. Enjoy!

All About Books

During Writing Workshop, the children learned about writing non-fiction books.  Each child selected a country they would like to study and conducted research in the LMC utilizing both books and the computer.  They each created their own "All About Book" with a program called Pixie on the computer.  These special books have a cover page, table of contents, several sections with photos and captions, and a bibliography to cite their sources.  During this project, the computers in the LMC, as well as the laptops in the classroom were used very frequently.  We are proud of our writing!

Our Class Tree

Throughout the school year we have been observing a tree outside of the school to see how it changes during the seasons.  The kids have been recording their observations and writing sensory details about the tree during the Fall and Winter.  We will also observe the tree in the Spring.  The next time you are in the Commons, check out the beautiful tree art the kids completed with Mrs. Weres as a connection to our Science learnings

Pea seed transplanting

First, we opened Kidblog to write about the best environment for plants to grow.  We were to share our learning of the essential things all plants need to survive.

Then, we blogged about the worst environments that we could think of for a plant to grow.  Check out our blogs to see our ideas.

We looked at our mini greenhouse and talked about condensation that we saw at the top of the greenhouse.  Many of us remembered studying about condensation with the water cycle from first grade.

Next, we headed to the commons to transplant our pea plants from the greenhouse to our individual cups.

After transplanting, we added the steps we completed to our blogs.

We are excited to take care of our new plants and carefully observe the changes that will occur.