December Newsletter Mrs. Campbell’s Class News News from 2nd Grade! Welcome to our last month of school for 2015!! This year has flown by so fast! I am so proud of my students. They are doing an excellent job this year! They are very creative, hard working, and I’ve seen big improvements with their academic abilities! With only 3 weeks left, we are going to be busy, busy, busy! READING This week we will begin reading different holiday stories. Each is about how different countries/cultures celebrate the holiday season and traditions. We will also continue our small groups in the Comprehension Toolkit. We will be working on the strategies learning and wondering, wondering about new information, Using Questions as Tools for learning. Keep up the reading minutes!!! They are doing a fantastic job. Remember, reading is SO important to your child. He/she should be doing a combination of reading independently, reading out loud to one or both parents, as well as listening to you reading to them. Reading to your child is a great opportunity for them to read beyond their grade level and engage in conversation about the selected book topic. Give them the gift of your time and your commitment to their learning and being the best they can be. Social Studies We will begin our studies of traditions throughout the world. We’ll travel the continents and learn about the traditions of many countries. We have wonderful stories to read, Internet work to explore, crafts to make, and a lot to learn as we depart from Oklahoma and travel to Mexico, Spain, Sweden, England, Italy, and then finally return to the USA to learn about Hanukah, and Kwanzaa. If you have a holiday tradition, family heritage, or have traveled to different countries and you’d like to share with us please email me. We would love to have you come to school and talk with us, read a story, or share memories. In addition, we will be creating compliment stockings. Each of the students will create their own stocking and we will hang them in our classroom. However, they will not be filled with gifts, but instead kind words. Each student will be responsible for writing one compliment for each child in the class. On the day of our winter party, each student will open their compliment stocking and read their compliments written by their classmates. Hopefully, they will see the true meaning of the Holiday Season. Math Please continue to practice addition and subtraction at home. This is very important for the students to master. We are beginning Unit 3. In this unit we will be learning about measurement, money, and graphing. I think that the children are going to enjoy it. Language Arts We will review capital letters. We have learned about capitals in names, days of the week, months of the year, cities, states, and capitals, along with I, capitals at the beginning of sentences, in book titles, holidays, and after the speaker’s first word. We are working on the application of these in our work. We will also continue to practice correcting mistakes in sentences. We are continuing our work in homophones, and contractions. Writing We are going to be writing stories about an elf. The students are practicing and applying the various writing techniques and strategies we’ve been learning this year. They are also using onomatopoeias in their stories as well as a good beginning sentence that “captures the audience”. Dates to Remember: Collaboration Day: 12/3 School begins at 10:40. Winter Party: 12/17 at 10:45 Holiday Break: December 19th – January 3rd School Resumes: January 4th Happy December!