Notice: Is your child missing a pair of black bib snow pants? There has been a pair hanging on the hook in our room for over a month and nobody will claim it.

Field Trip: 
Please check your child's home folder for a field trip permission form. Signed forms and fees are due on the date shown on the form. (I left my form at school, so I don't have the dates in front of me right now.)

Art Awareness: 
This week, Mrs. Huang presented the 2BR students with a lesson about Faith Ringgold's Tar Beach. Each child created a unique quilt square from paper to make a beautiful class quilt. Please scroll to the bottom of this post to view a You Tube video about the art we learned about in class today.

Reading:
Open book assessment on Monday.

Banner Days - Theme 1: Imagine That!

Your child is reading Cool Ali, by Nancy Poydar. In this story, a girl named Ali takes her chalk outside to draws on a very hot day. Soon she is drawing things that make other people feel cool—a lake, the North Wind, and snowflakes, for example. In this way, Ali’s drawings help people beat the heat. Then it starts to rain. Everyone is happy except Ali—the rain is washing away her drawings. But the crowd thanks Ali by cheering and lifting her onto the tallest shoulders.

Please encourage your child to read Cool Ali over the weekend. Vocabulary Power precedes the story.

Focus Skill:  Antonyms (See Link List:  Reading Target Skills>Antonyms)

Vocabulary Power:
admired-noticed something and liked it
fussed-showed unhappiness, complained
haze-misty, smoky, or dusty air; mimicked-copied
notice-be aware of
pale-light color

School-Home Connection:
You and your child may enjoy reading these books about art and imagination: Landscapes, by Claude Delafosse; Author: A True Story, by Helen Lester
Scroll down to the VERY bottom of this blog page. You can watch some YouTube videos about street/chalk art and watch how it is done. 

Writing:
We are continuing our work on persuasive writing. This week we read the book Hello Little Ant which gives two perspectives on whether a child should squish an ant or not. We talked about the two perspectives, wrote our own opinion and then did a class vote. Then we talked about how you might change your opinion depending on the situation. You may not think you should squish ants on the sidewalk but what if they are in your bed?

Math:
This week we had fun measuring our arm spans and how far we could jump. We then took that data and taught the children about the minimum, maximum, range, median, mode and about how to graph the data on a line plot. It is amazing to see them learning these terms I didn't learn until high school. We will finish up the unit this week and assess on Tuesday.

Science:
We have been continuing sink and float this week. The children had fun testing different items to see what would sink and what would float. Then the students had a chance to see if they could make a chunk of clay float. Lastly, they had the chance to create a clay boat and see how much cargo it could carry.

Technology: 
Students have learned how to look up word definitions and spelling using the on-line Merriam-Webster Dictionary. For easy access to this site, I have posted it on the blog under Language Arts. Students have been using this tool to edit their writing and to look up words they con't understand in their reading. 


Valentine's Day:

Following is a list of 2BR students for Valentine Cards. Please have your child bring his/her Valentines to school on Friday, FEBRUARY 11th in a ziplock bag. Your child’s name should be on the ziplock bag. The school party will be on Monday, February 14th--but I ask that Valentines come in a day early so I know who is/is not participating in this activity. Students who choose to participate should make a valentine for EVERY student in the classroom. Your child can practice his/her handwriting skills by writing classmate’s names on each envelope. Don’t forget to sign the card, so recipients know who the Valentine is from! This activity is optional.

Please do not attach candy to Valentine Cards.

Student List:
  
Yegor
Angela
Jack
Nickolas
Anushka
Medha
Lauren
Spandan
Brian
Akash
Gabby
Elizabeth
Henry
Michael
Jyothika
Connor
Clarke
Maya
Emma
Sumedha
Jacob
Caden
Dominic
Ana
Zaire
Mrs. Boddu - T.A.