We had a lot of fun this week, especially with our Fall Party on Thursday!

The skills we covered on Tuesday were:

• place value (to the thousands place)
• proofreading (for capitalization, punctuation, spelling)
• pronouns

Because Thursday was a party day, we did some special activities:

• We wrote cinquain poems about spiders.
• We estimated the weight, height, and circumference of pumpkins, then found their actual measurements.
• We then painted the pumpkins.
• We made a tally chart of pumpkin shapes.
• We identified odd and even numbered leaves.

Here is a picture of our class combined with the first grade class.  (I am dressed as Harry Potter, and Mrs. Williams is the Paper Bag Princess.)  Enjoy!

This week, I have implemented our Two Minute Warning.  This is a short, 2-minute drill to practice our math facts.  Some of the students were a little nervous to be timed, so we started out with some very easy problems.  The students earn a sticker for every day that they complete all of all of their facts correctly.  Once they fill up their sticker charts, they will get to visit the treasure box! 

Here are the skills we practiced this week:

• probability (more/less/equally likely)
• consonant blends
• coordinate grids
• continents
• proper nouns

Reminders:

Scholastic Book Orders are due by Nov. 1st!  These make great gifts for the holidays or any other time.  (It's easy to order and pay online with a credit card.)

If your child is attending our Book Character Day/Fall Party, please RSVP!  We also have treat sign-up sheets outside the room.

Book-It! is in full swing!  Our goal is to read 20 minutes/day, 5 days/week.  We have punch cards here in the classroom-- students get one punch for every day they have filled in on their Book-It! calendars.  If they fill up the card (20 punches) by the end of the month, they will earn a coupon for a free mini Pizza Hut pizza!  (Please keep these calendars in your child's take-home folder so that they can earn their punches.)

Is your child a fan of the Lemony Snicket series?  Do you live in the Pittsburgh area?  You're in luck!

Daniel Handler, author of the Lemony Snicket series, will be speaking Friday at the Carnegie Library in Oakland as part of the Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures Kids and Teens series.  He will also be signing books afterwards.

You can find more information at the following links:

http://pittsburghlectures.org/section.php?pageID=108

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/books/lemony-snickets-dark-humor-appeals-to-children-708559/

http://www.carnegielibrary.org/events/details.cfm?event_id=96284

If you haven't already heard of it, RAMP is our weekly online Reading And Math Practice session.  It's a great way to review some important skills throughout the year!  

My class meets on Monday afternoons at 3:00 pm.  (On days when students do not have school on Mondays, I will reschedule our session for another day that week.)

Our class has had a lot of fun in RAMP!  This past week, we even watched a video and played a board game to review cause and effect.

I hope you can join us next week!  We will be reviewing symmetry.
Click HERE to enter my virtual office.


I would also appreciate an RSVP if you are coming!
[email protected]

See you soon!
Mrs. Lee

P.S.-- If you cannot make it to my RAMP session, please try to attend another teacher's session!  Here is the second grade schedule:

Grade 2 RAMP Sessions

Little Lincoln
Monday - 3:00
Welcome to the office of Mrs. Lee
Click to email Mrs. Lee

Wednesday - 9:00
Welcome to the office of Susan Imbriale
Click to email Susan Imbriale

Wednesday - 11:00
Welcome to the office of Jordan Canavesi
Click to email Jordan Canavesi

Thursday - 1:00
Welcome to the office of Marci Wojtas
Click to email Marci Wojtas

Calvert
Tuesday - 10:00
Welcome to the office of Darlene Radanovich
Click to email Darlene Radanovich

Yikes, I just realized I never posted about last week!  I apologize.  I think all of my Halloween preparations are throwing me for a loop!  My daughter just turned 1, and we are going to dress her up as a minion.  I will have to share a photo with you next week!

Here are the skills we worked on:

• antonyms
• consonant blends
• making singular nouns plural
• graphing-- LOTS of graphing!  (pictographs, tally charts, pie graphs, bar graphs)

Don't forget to RSVP for Book Character Day and the Fall Party!

The kids were SO EXCITED to start ArtReach classes this week!  They are taking quite the mixture of classes, including History of Pirates, hula dancing, and more!  The Mad Science workshop will begin the last week of October.  I wish I could take some of these classes!

We only had classes on Tuesday this week because of our field trip to the Carnegie Science Center.  The topics we worked on were:

• math fact families
• subtraction with missing subtrahends
• pumpkin life cycles
• a-z alphabetical order classroom scavenger hunt

Here are some pictures from our Science Center trip.  Enjoy!

What is your favorite part of fall?  The crisper, cooler weather means that it is now football season, hockey season, and time to get ready for winter.  I think my favorite part of fall, though, is the delicious food!  I have to say that I really like pumpkin flavored treats:  pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin rolls, yum!  Did you know that you can even eat the seeds?  The next time you carve a pumpkin, save those seeds!  Not only are they a yummy, crunchy snack, but they are rich in fiber, too.  Here is a simple recipe from www.food.com for roasted pumpkin seeds.  You can experiment with the seasonings to create your own unique flavors!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds
2 teaspoons melted butter (olive oil or vegetable oil work well) or 2 teaspoons melted oil (olive oil or vegetable oil work well)
salt
garlic powder (optional)
cayenne pepper (optional)
seasoning salt (optional)
cajun seasoning (optional)

Directions
1.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.  (Ask an adult for help!)
2.  While it's OK to leave some strings and pulp on your seeds (it adds flavor), clean off any major chunks.
3.  Toss pumpkin seeds in a bowl with the melted butter or oil and seasonings of your choice.
4.  Spread pumpkin seeds in a single layer on baking sheet.
5.  Bake for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown.

Wow, I can't believe it is already October!  I hope your students are off to a good start this school year.  This month's Parents' Corner topic is Writing Tips & Strategies.  Let's face it, most kids dislike writing.  I've even heard whisperings that Mrs. Walden is their least favorite Little Lincoln teacher.  While writing might not always be the most exciting subject (we can't all be as fun as Dr. Algae!), it is very important.  Here are some links to websites with strategies to improve your student's writing.