Hello

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Your child should have brought home their turkey art project for your Thanksgiving table!

We have been very busy in second grade this week mastering double-digit addition with and without regrouping. We will soon be learning triple-digit addition. Next week I will send home your child's addition flash cards along with a practice minutes sheet. Please spend 10 minutes every night reviewing addition facts up to 20. This will ensure success for your child's mastery of facts, and it will be easier when they need to apply their knowledge to triple-digit addition.

Please make sure your child reads every night for 20 minutes as well.

We will be singing at the Christmas concert on December 15th at 7:00 p.m. This will take place in the Basilica. Please bring your child to the second grade classroom at 6:30 p.m. They have been practicing almost everyday. Looking forward to seeing everyone that evening!

The second grade is also in charge of our next school mass which is Wednesday, December 8 at 9:00 a.m. It is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Today I will send home what your child is reading at mass, if they are reading. Please have your child practice this at home. We will also be practicing in class.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Miss Julie

The pumpkin patch

Everyone had a great time at the Pumpkin patch. It was a warm day in Half Moon Bay, and we are all very fortunate for such a wonderful experience. Thank you Miss Lam for putting it all together!

Kidquake

Everyone had a great time at Kidquake. Here is a picture of one the authors, Sudipta Bardan-Quallen, who read to us from her book entitled, "Quakenstein." We all had a great time eating lunch and playing at the park. It was a great day in the community of San Francisco.

Meet the Authors

Yesterday the second grade class attended a free literary event called "Kidquake." We met 4 authors: Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, Nadia Krilanovich, Amy Novesky, and Deborah Underwood, who read to us from their latest children's books. We were also given a bag of books for our class.

Kidquake is the children's event associated with "Litquake." Litquake is the annual San Francisco Literary Festival that brings together a wide range of authors for a week of readings, panel discussions, and interactive events- a lively and inclusive overview of the Bay Area literary scene. Kidquake and Litquake were developed to foster interest in literature and perpetuate a sense of literary community.

The second graders will soon be on their way to being "published authors" in the classroom and will also have a chance to read their own literary creations to fellow students from all grades!

Today they are eager to hear a wonderful story by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, a beautiful hard-cover book she gave to our class entitled, "Quackenstein Hatches a Family."

We ended the day with eating lunch at the park and then the students had fun playing together. I will try to post the pictures soon.

ITBS TESTING COMPLETED SEPT. 24

Last Friday was our last day of ITBS testing. The students were tested in Social Studies, Science, and Sources of Information (how to read a simple map, looking at words from a simple dictionary entry, ect.)

I am happy to say everyone did a wonderful job!

The students were rewarded with a much needed movie break and hot popcorn too! They enjoyed watching Nemo last Friday!

ITBS Test Update

We are currently in our computer class taking a much needed break from all of the test questions.
Yesterday it was impossible to finish all of the scheduled tests, so we resumed testing this morning. The students were tested in Language in the areas of Capitalization, Punctuation, Usage, and Expression. We also were able to start our test of Math Concepts.

Tomorrow is a big day because the children have a ton of Math questions to answer. Actually they will be doing about 66 problems with very thought-provoking computations. As they sit and enjoy their computer lab time, I am grateful they are getting a "break."

Please be sure your child is getting a lot of sleep. They need a healthy, big breakfast and nutritious snacks to keep their energy level and minds going.

Wish us luck!!!!!!!

Miss J

ITBS TESTING

Dear Parents,

I am proud to announce we have made it through our first day of testing. The process is very new to the students, but they listened, followed directions, and did a good job of taking their tests. The students were tested in Vocabulary, Word Analysis, and Reading for a grand total of 99 test questions, plus sample problems that we do together as a class. I have to read the entire test to the students, so it is an exhausting process for all of us! We all did a great job!

The students are at P.E. at the moment, and when they return to class we will begin testing. We will begin with a Listening test for a total of 32 questions. The we have a Language:Spelling test for a total of 24 questions. Another Language test in Capitalization, Punctuation, Usage and Expression for a total of 24 questions which gives us a grand total of 80 test questions today. We must take it slow and see how far we get today. We may not get to all of these tests. Because the students are so young, many of them do have a difficult time sitting in their desks for long periods. We take stretch breaks and act a little silly (to wake them up of course), and then get back to work. Slow and steady wins the race.

Peace,
Miss Julie

Welcome to Second Grade!

We have been in school for 12 days counting today, and I am pleased to say that everything has been going very well. All the students have settled in, and we have been busy learning new routines, procedures, and we have also been learning about eachother. Welcome to all of the returning students, and I would like to officially welcome Dayvon and Jacob, two new students to second grade.

We have also started working very hard this year on many subjects.

1st & 2nd Grade explore the Exploratorium

Last week the 1st & 2nd graders went to the Exploratorium, a hands-on museum where kids TOUCH everything. Everyone learned something new and had a great time.

Dr. Seuss' Birthday

On March 2 the second grade celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss. He was born on March 2, 1904. Dr. Seuss wrote and illustrated over 40 books. His real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel and everyone called him Ted.

When he was in college, he signed his art with just his middle name, Seuss. He later added "Dr." to seem important. Dr. Seuss became his pen name name (that is a made-up name an author uses.

We enjoyed reading many Dr. Seuss books that day, and our own personal "Chef Lucy" made real green eggs and ham!