Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Monday Updates

• There will not be a spelling and vocab list this week. I did post the new spelling words beginning Dec. 2 if you want to get a jump start on them. This is a review of units 1-6. There are a lot of words on this list, but they are all familiar words. 
• Our next unit is Culture for social studies. Ms. Salas will lead this unit in social studies in Spanish. In our English class, we will be reading a lot of literature about different cultures. Our main activity for this unit is the presentations the students will be giving at the end of December before break. We will send dates home next week telling you when to bring all of your artifacts for your presentation day. These interviews papers went home two weeks ago and were due today. I'm sending home a new sheet today if they didn't turn it in. These are due tomorrow. I'm collecting 5 horseshoes each day they are not turned in. I shared some examples of the presentations today so the children have some ideas of what to do. I will try and find some pictures from last year to put up on the blog to help you out. This is an example of one student who shared his Philippino heritage and another student who shared her Italian heritage. We are looking for any artifacts (poster of pictures, maps, etc) and anything from this time that you can share. You can even dress up like the person you interviewed. This person has to be someone from another country than USA. Children will stand up and share their interview. This must be written in the child's handwriting. You can use note cards or read from a piece of paper. Please help your child prepare for it but let them do the work. Good luck, and please let us know if you have any questions. 
  
• Congratulations to the Clydesdales for winning back the Mustang March trophy! This means we ran the most laps during the march out of all the second graders! Woohoo! Way to work hard Mustangs!
• We are collecting sock donations for our Woodstock Mistletoes! These socks will go to local hospitals to warm the toes and cheer up children in the hospital this holiday season. This is optional! 
• Ms. Salas and I have been out of the classroom at meetings this past week. We appreciate your talking with your child about appropriate behavior when there is a sub in the room. We still work hard, do our best, and treat the adult with respect. Family journals and poetry binders were due today also. 
• Have a wonderful week, and Happy Thanksgiving. We will be celebrating this week with our families. I hope you enjoy the time with your family. 

         Mrs. Montes

Updates

Happy Thursday everyone!

Today we planned to complete family journals and send them home tomorrow. However, we did not get to them. Tomorrow we will do family journals and send them home. Sorry for the confusion. 
We are very busy finishing up the nutrition unit in the Spanish class. As part of dual language, we bridge the languages by connecting the learning. What we do is not a translation or the same, but we are learning about nutrition and ways to keep your body healthy in both classes. In Ms. Salas' class, we are learning about ways to keep your body healthy by eating healthy foods and making good choices from the food groups. In my class, we are learning about healthy food choices, exercise, sleep, and Dr. visits as ways to keep the body healthy. The study guide for this will come home tomorrow and they will write about this on Tuesday. 

Culture-Today you will receive a culture survey. Please complete the survey and return it by Monday, November 25. Please find someone in your family who came here from another country that can share their heritage and experience. 

Operation Christmas Child-If you would like to participate in donating items for the shoebox please send them to school by November 21. I am looking for some parents to wrap 6 boxes for us in Christmas wrapping paper. Please let me know if you are available to help and I will send the boxes home. Thanks.

Thanksgiving Turkey-Please fill this out with your child. There are a few short questions about how your family celebrates. Thanks.

Measurement test is tomorrow. A study guide is coming home today. 

Thanks!
Have a great night. 
Mrs. Montes

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

• We were glad to honor our Veterans today in our Veteran's Day Assembly here at Olson. Thank you to those of you who had someone special attend our assembly. We thank you for your service!
• Next week we will finish up all things frogs. We will finish up comparing frogs and toads and the life cycle. Our test for this will be Monday, November 18. 
• We are also completing our Nutrition unit. Ms. Salas focuses on the Five Food Groups in the Spanish class. In my class, we are learning about the extensions to this and the ways we can keep our body healthy. A study guide for this will come home on Thursday. The written response will be on Friday. 
• Next week we will have a spelling list but no vocabulary list. The spelling list lasts for two weeks. 
• Look for our measurement test to be coming up soon too. We are learning about length: inches, feet, yards, centimeters, and meters. To continue measurement, we will learn about telling time next. 
• We have learned about nouns and adjectives in literacy. Look for ways you can extend these skills at home and "jucify" nouns with juicy descriptions. 
• In Character Ed, we have learned about cooperation, citizenship, respect, and responsibility this year. Please have discussions at home about how they are learning to be a good citizen. Sometimes we need reminders of how a good citizen behaves by making good decisions, solving problems, and showing respect. 

Have a happy three day weekend!

Mrs. Montes

Monday Notes

Happy Monday!
I apologize for the confusion of the family journals on Friday. I had a sub on Friday and the written response to a story went in the wrong journal. Thank you for responding twice in the family journal!
Spelling and vocabulary test will be Friday.
We continue to learn about the frog life cycle. We will have a test on this cycle next week. A study guide will go home over the weekend.
Thank you for all of your donations for the Fall Festival. We really enjoyed the craft and the treats. Thank you for your participation! If you did not have a chance to contribute this time, we will have another opportunity for the Winter Party in December. Thanks!
Have a great week!
Mrs. Montes

Happy Friday!

Next week:
Our next unit for math is Measurement.  We will learn about measuring in length on a ruler, measuring time with a clock and calendar, and money.  If your child doesn't have a ruler, please send one in on Monday. Thanks!
Tuesday is a half day. Dismissal is at 11:10. The cafeteria will be closed so breakfast and lunch won't be served. We will have snack in the classroom though in the morning if you want to bring one.
Thursday is our Fall Fest. We will have our classroom celebration from 11:50-12:50. At 1:00 we are having a school-wide fall fest where the children will be mixed up and going to different classrooms to do fall activities. There will not be a costume dress up day for Character Parade like in the past.
We are learning about nouns: common and proper, and singular and plural. Next week's spelling list will focus on this also. We continue to work hard on proofreading and being careful checkers of our work.
Please sign and return the report card envelope for 5 horseshoes on Monday. 5 horseshoes will be given on Monday only for this. Thank you!
Spelling Test will be November 8 but vocab test will be next Friday.
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Montes

Fall Party:
Thank you for your response to the Fall Party on October 31. I appreciate your help with sending items in. We have napkins, the craft, and juice boxes already. If you could choose something else on the list that would be great. We appreciate your donations and help washing and preparing the fresh fruits. Thank you. 

Non fiction Features:
Please remember to be looking for non fiction features in your magazines or newspapers at home. Please send in something that you can cut out. It should be an article clipping (newspaper, magazine, etc.) that shows a title, label, caption, photo, illustration, or diagram. These are the features that we have been working on so far. In the days to come we will learn table of contents, heading, glossary, index, etc. Cut out the article or artifact of whatever kind and label it with the correct non fiction feature. This is for 3 horseshoes. We continue to work on diagram this week and will learn about the life cycle of a frog. The test will be sometime next week on this diagram. 

This Week:
We will have our spelling and vocabulary test this Friday. The math test will either be Thursday or Friday. If we are ready, I will try for Thursday. This test will cover graphing. We learned about picture graphs, tables, bar graphs, line plots, and tallies. 

Have a great week. 
Mrs. Montes

Updates

Poetry Binders will not be going home today. The Family Journals take a little more time this weekend so we will not be sending home poetry binders. Hope you enjoyed the family scavenger hunt for the family journal. It is interesting to hear the results!
Please consider donating something for the fall party on October 31. Thank you to AM19's family for the craft donation.
Have a fantastic weekend.
Mrs. Montes