Mrs. Dallke's Classroom News
October 4th-18th 2019
What's Happening in 2D?
- What a wonderful two weeks we have had. This has been a great start to October and I look forward to it continuing! Our learning continues to grow every week and I am so proud of the students efforts. Encourage your child to keep up their hard work! I am seeing growth in all of them each and every day!
- Unfortunately we have had a lot of illnesses going around our classroom and all of second grade. We have talked as a class about keeping our hand away from our faces and mouths to help avoid germs, but it seems that this fall bug is still going around. :-( Please be sure to talk with your student about ways to keep healthy and feel free to send in a small hand sanitizer for their desk if you would like. Hopefully these fall germs will pass soon! Thank you for your help with this matter.
- Reminder: Friday Oct 25th will be the PTO Fun Fair! If you have not purchased wristbands or tickets yet- it's not too late! They are still available for purchase or you can purchase them at the door. I look forward to seeing everyone there!
- School Picture Retakes will be Tuesday Oct. 22nd
- Halloween: We will be celebrating Halloween at school on Thursday Oct. 31st. Please remember that there are no masks, weapons, props etc. allowed and please make sure that any face painting or hair styling is done at home prior to school. The parade will begin at 1:15 and our classroom parties will follow. This event would not be possible without our parent volunteers! Thank you so much for the work that you have put in. We can't wait for this fun day!
2D News Report!
What are we learning?
Math- These last two weeks we have begun to wrap up Unit 1: Place Value. This week we have practiced comparing two three digit numbers as well as use mathematical language to tell 1,10, and 100 more or less than a number. We will be wrapping up and reviewing the concepts from Unit 1, and will take our assessment next week. We will begin Unit 2: Measurement the following week. We will begin this unit by understanding the concepts of a ruler.
Reading- These last two weeks in readers workshop we have focused on Making Connections (text to self, text to text, and text to world) as well as going back into texts and finding text evidence to answer questions that are asked. To help us learn about connections we read the book "I Need My Monster" by Amanda Noll. We worked together to make connections as a whole class, as well as recorded connections into our reading journals. We also read the book "Crankenstein" by Samantha Berger. We practiced the reading skill of identifying character traits within the main character of this text. Our theme next week will be Bats! The students will learn all about bats through our whole group class instruction!
Writing- Yay! We are almost ready to publish our first personal narrative! These last few weeks we have been learning how to craft powerful beginnings and endings for our stories and also rereading our pieces to make sure that our writing makes sense and sounds right. Next week the children will work hard to "publish" and fancy up their piece. They will create covers for their books and add color and details to their pictures. They will also edit and revise their pieces to get them just right!
Science- This week in science we solved the mystery of “Why do trees grow so tall” (Answer: to hog as much light as possible!) Your child learned how badly plants need sunlight; without it, seedlings will even grow taller before dying, searching for the light.
Take a walk with your child sometime this week and together pay attention to the trees you see. Ponder aloud, “Why do trees put so many of their leaves up on top?” If possible, visit a forest when trees have all their leaves and observe how dark it is inside the forest. Why is it dark in the forest? (Trees are so efficient at spreading their leaves to catch sunlight that very few patches of sunlight reach the forest floor.)
Important Dates!
Don't Forget...
Tuesday Oct 22nd School Picture Retakes
Friday Oct 25th 5:30-7:30 PTO Fun Fair
Wednesday Oct. 31st- Halloween Parade 1:15 (Halloween parties will follow the parade)
Friday Nov. 15th- School Improvement 1/2 Day and End of First Trimester
Home-School Connection!
Here are some fun strategies to help support your child at home!
Reading Tip: Book Reviews- Make reading rewarding by asking for your child’s ideas and opinions about his books. You can even help your child create a video “book talk” about a favorite book. Just turn on the camera, and ask him/her to say the title and author and to describe the story. Then, ask him/her to explain what he/she did and didn’t like about the book. When he/she doesn’t know what to say, ask him/her a question like, “What was your favorite part?” or “What could the characters do if the story kept going?”
Math Tip: Do you have a lot of change to sort? Ask your child to make equivalent amounts in other coins for a given number of pennies. For example if you have 135 pennies, he/she could make an equivalent amount using one dollar and 35 pennies, or 13 dimes and 5 pennies, or one dollar, 3 dimes and 5 pennies. How many different combinations can he/she come up with!?
Meet our Star of the Week!
Click on link below to view a video about our star of the week!
We have not had any stars of the week, due to short weeks! We will pick back up where we left off next week! :-)
October Birthdays!
We have no October Birthdays :-(
Firefighter Classroom Visit
Bus Evacuation Drill
Contact Me!
Email: rdallke@geneva304.org
Location: Williamsburg Elementary School, Williamsburg Avenue, Geneva, IL, United States
Phone: 630-463-3120
Twitter: @MrsDallkeWES