Sunday, December 18, 2016

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!


Merry Christmas ...
                                                                                      December 19, 2016

Dear Second Grade Families,

We are down to the last 4 days before Christmas Break!!  I know that everybody has busy households as we finish all our Christmas preparations, yet stay caught up with our day to day activities.  Easier said than done--but try very hard to enjoy some peace within this busy time of year.

Important Reminders
Music Program-December 19th
... Music 11 ...The musicians in Mrs. Bloomfield’s class will be presenting their performance on Monday, December 19th in the High School Hang-Out and 3:15 pm.  Mrs. Manse and the class have worked very hard on this program.  You will not want to miss it!
2015-2016 Great Results on Assessments Celebration-December 22nd
On Thursday, December 22nd, students will have a curriculum based fun activity day.  In the 1st and 2nd grades, we will be learning about winter holidays around the world as students will explore the countries of Mexico, Australia, Germany, and Sweden.  This exploration will include reading, writing, math, and geography standards.  On this special day students do not need to wear their uniform--time to wear some fun holiday clothes of your choice!!


Along with being the last 4 days until break it is also the last 4 day of the 2nd quarter.  Our week will be spent completing report card assessments.  The second quarter report cards will go home in January.

This past week in math has been all about reviewing place value.  Students spent time showing numbers up to 1,000 using base ten blocks, drawing pictures, and writing numbers using standard form, expanded form, and word form.  We finished the week comparing two 3-digit numbers using the greater than (>), less than (<), and equal to (=) symbols.  

This week we will review gathering data, tally charts, picture graphs, and bar graphs on Monday.  The rest of the week will be spent working on using a number line to add and subtract postive and negative numbers.

Here’s our math homework for the week.
Monday
R.3 Which Bar Graph is Correct?
Tuesday
A.14 Counting Patterns Up to 1,000
Wednesday
G.7  Addition Input/Output Tables up to 2-Digits
Thursday
No Homework--Happy Christmas Vacation

As we close out the year 2016 and the 2nd quarter, we’re wishing all Second Grade Families a wonderful, restful, and safe holiday season!

Sincerely,
Anne Bloomfield
 and
Shannon Garcia

3 Stockings Free Stock Photo ...

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Christmas is Just Around the Corner!!

winter holiday snowman season ...

 December 12, 2015
Dear Parents,

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is going soooo fast.  Students are very excited about all the holiday activities that are going on around them.  Many students have been coming to school so happy to share about all the fun family activities whether it be attending the tree lighting ceremony, going tree hunting, trimming the tree, or about the "Elves" that have been visiting them.  It is such a magical but busy time!  
Free DownloadReminder--
The students in Mrs. Bloomfield’s class will be presenting their music program on December 19th.  The performance will take place in the High Hangout at 3:15 PM.  We hope you can join us.
Math
Our work in math centered around composing and decomposing shapes and identifying and extending patterns.Students spent quite a bit of time cutting out shapes and putting them together to compose another shape from the orignal shapes.  Students got very creative with their composed shapes!  

We also spent some time decomposing a square (tangram) into 7 shapes, (5 triangles, 1 parallelogram, and 1 square) called "tans".  After cutting them apart students had to try form different shapes using some or all of the tans.

Finally, we worked on reading, naming, extending, and creating patterns.  Students used shapes to create a pattern with a pattern unit of 3 or 4.  We practiced with patterns that used orientation  and students were encouraged use that attribute in their own pattern.
▲▲▶▼▲▲▶▼▲
This pattern is an AABC pattern.  It's repeating unit is 2 triangles pointing up, 1 small triangle pointing to the right, and 1 triangle pointing down.

Here is the homework for Week 17...
Monday
Workbook pg. 24
Tuesday
Worksheet pg. 11-12
Wednesday
Workbook pg. 25-26
Thursday
IXL M.3 Place Value Models Up to 1,000

Writing
Write, Writing, Compose, Draw, ...Second grade writers are continuing to work on opinion writing.  Students have completed a group opinion piece about whether restaurants should be allowed to ban children.  This led to some great discussions about the pros and cons on the topic.  At the end of last week students were introduced to another topic to discuss and write on--Should All Children Participating in an Activity Recieve a Trophy/Award.  We have spent time listing pros and cons for this topic.  Students have decided whether they are pro or con and have completed a flee map in preparation to write their rough draft.
Language Arts
In Language Arts students finished up our unit on capitalization.  Students assessed on capitalization this week.  Although students did quite well on the assessment overall, we will still be working hard to make sure that the capitalization skills learned carries into our daily writing.
Projects
Work on matter projects continue...students in partnerships have selected the form of matter that they will heat and cool.  Student scientists are working on lab reports.  They have written a question, formed a hypothesis, listed materials, and have worked on writing a procedure.  This project will be wrapped up next week.  

As the time until Christmas gets shorter, we all get so busy!!  My hope for all my 2nd grade families is that even within the "holiday rush" you are able to step away and enjoy the beauty of the season.  Here's to a peaceful week.

Sincerely,
Anne Bloomfield        
      and
Shannon Garcia

Snowman ...

Sunday, December 4, 2016

December Here We Come!

20161202_131220.jpg
                                                                       December 5, 2016

Dear Bighorn Parents,

Open ...December seems to have snuck up on us.  Miss Garcia and myself hope that everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday.  This is an extremely busy time of year--Christmas decorating, parties, and other treasured holiday traditions, please remember with all the fun festivities to try to keep a “regular” homework and sleeping schedule for your child.

... Female, Girl, Winter, CapWith the end of November and beginning of December has come some bitter, cold weather.  Students are on the playground before school, outside at snack recess, and outside again at lunch recess.  Although it has been warming up by the afternoon, students need to have appropriate outerwear for the weather.  

Every year our Student Council selects a local group to support with donations.  This year the Student Council has been collecting money for the Fallon Youth Club.  The class that brings in the most donations will be awarded with a movie and a Taco Bell snack.

Heart Music NoteThe students in Mrs. Bloomfield’s class will be presenting their Music Program on December 19th at 3:15 PM in the “High School Hang-Out”.  They have been working hard with Mrs. Manse throughout the 2nd Quarter learning many music standards.

Oasis Academy is sponsoring a Food Drive. The National Honor Society is running this Food Drive that will go to Out of Egypt. Students may bring in canned food through Thursday, December 15th. Any class bringing in at least 150 items will be rewarded with doughnuts!!

Math
Last week we started some work in geometry.  Our focus was categorizing 3-dimensional shapes.  We worked on this in whole group as students suggested different ways to sort the solids.  Students came up with many different ideas such as color, shape, and size.  Eventually student sorted them by solids with curved faces and solids with flat faces.
Counting faces, edges, and vertices
20161128_111911.jpg  20161128_111855.jpg

During the week students also made 3-dimensional shapes.  We are focusing on identifying the 3-dimensional shapes by name (sphere, cube, cone, retangular solid, triangular solid, pyramid, and cylinder.  Students are describing the 3-dimensional shapes by talking about their edges, vertices, and faces.

Building 3-Dimensional Shapes with Pipe Cleaners
20161129_111241.jpg  20161129_111448.jpg
We are also very busy with working with our "high number".  Students are working with their "high number" daily and are assessed 2 times per week.  The goal for students is to complete 50 mixed problems (addition and subtraction) correctly in 4 minutes.  Students graph their progress twice a week.
Here's the homework for the upcoming week.

Monday
IXL U.5  Identify Faces of 3-Dimensional Shapes
Tuesday
IXL  U.7  Shapes of Everyday Objects (Part 1)
Wednesday
IXL T.5 Flip, Turn, and Slide
Thursday
No Homework (due to assessment)


Language
Students are focusing on capital letters in language.  We are using the acronym MINTS (M=months and days of the week, I=the pronoun “I” anywhere in a sentence, N=the names of people, places, and things,T=titles, and S=start of every sentence) to help us to remember words that need to be capitalized.  Our work with capitalizing will continue into this week.  We have made a resource for our room to help us remember when we need to capitalize.

Writing
The writers in 2nd grade have completed a persuasive piece trying to convince their parents to get something or allow them to do something.  Students had to come up with reasons and examples to support their “want”.  These pieces will be up in the hall for you to enjoy.  
Our writing is now moving more towards opinion writing.  Students having been taking sides on whether or not restaurants should be allowed to ban children.  They have listed reasons with examples for “pro” and “con” on this topic and have used those reasons and examples to fill out a flee map.  This information will be used write together an opinion paragraph.

Projects
Students are ready to experiment by cooling or heating their chosen matter (solid or liquid).  They will work through the scientific method with a partner creating a science board.  

Wishing you peace as you prepare for the holidays!!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Bloomfield
 and
Miss Garcia

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Week 14 (November 21st) and Week 15 (November 28th)

          ... Thanksgiving Dealies | by ...
                                                                      November 21, 2016
Dear Parents,

It's the week of Thanksgiving and thankful, thankful, thankful is how Miss Garcia and myself feel!!   We give thanks for the amazing students that we get to teach and learn from everyday.  We are thankful for the wonderful parents that support their children in the educational process.  And of course, we are thankful to be a part of the Oasis Academy Staff.
... Thanksgiving 2 ...

Since this week is only 2 days, this blog will include the homework for this week (Week 14) and next week (Week 15).

Math
Last week in math we continued our work with graphing.  Students reviewed tally charts, picture graphs, and bar graphs.  Second graders also learned about line plots.  We collected lots of data including the length of various books in the classroom, the amount of children in our families, and the amount of pets each child has.  This made for some interesting line plots.
                                                                                 X
                                                             X
                                                                       X       X
                                                           X         X       X
                                                           X         X       X         X                
                                                 X        X         X       X         X        X        X       
_______________________________
  1      2      3      4      5      6      7      8      
Amount of Children in Families    

This week we will spend 2 days working with money.  The following week second grade mathematicians will be starting their work on our geometry unit.

Since we have a short week, students will only have homework on Monday.  Enjoy the Thanksgiving Break!

Here's the homework...
Week 14

Mon.  (11/21)
IXL P.4 Count Money Up to $1.
Tues.  (11/22)
No Homework--Enjoy your Thanksgiving Break

Week 15

Mon.  (11/28)
IXL T.3  Count Sides and Vertices
Tues.  (11/29)
IXL  T.4 Compare Sides and Vertices
Wed.   (11/30)
IXL  U.3  Count Vertices, Edges and Faces
Thurs. (12/1)
IXL  U.4  Compare Vertices, Edges and Faces

Writing
In writing students have been working on a persuasive piece.  In this writing students are asking parents for something or to be able to do something.  This writing will be completed this week.  From there students will continue with some short opinion writing pieces.

Language
Our work in language this week was all about adverbs.  Students learned that an adverb can tell how something happened, when something happened, or where something happened.  The work on adverbs will continue this week.  We will review adjectives and advervs on Monday, November 28th and assess on Tuesday.
Projects
Students have been working on lab reports that follow the scientific method. They will be determining how the solid or liquid they selected will change when heated and cooled. They will also be experimenting to see if the changes are reversible or irreversible.  

As we make our way to Thanksgiving on Thursday, Miss Garcia and myself wish you a Happy Thanksgiving that is filled with special memories.

Gratefully yours,
Anne Bloomfield                
and
Shannon Garcia
cake, sweet, goodies, dish, ...
Here’s some reading information from Mrs. Loop…
Hello Second Grade Families,

This week I will not be meeting with students in reading groups due to the short week, instead I will be completing report card assessments.  Students will be comparing and contrasting two different Thanksgiving books that will be read aloud to them, we will be reviewing author’s purpose, and students will be finding the main idea in multiparagraph articles.  

Important:  Second graders will be bringing home a reading log to complete during the week of Thanksgiving which will begin Monday, November 21 and continue through Sunday, November 27.  I would like to encourage your child to read, read, read!  If they choose to complete the reading log and keep track of their minutes that they read they may earn a prize when they return to school on Monday, November 28.  This is completely OPTIONAL but if your child reads 80 minutes during this week they will be eligible for a prize.  Be on the lookout for the reading log that they will bring home with them Monday night.

Happy Thanksgiving and happy reading,

Mrs. Loop