give thanks

I'd like to give thanks to all of our families in 2So. I am grateful for all my students and families. Your support at school and at home is tremendously appreciated. Please enjoy your time with your child this Thanksgiving break and be thankful for eachother. See all you kiddos on Monday, November 30th! Gobble, gobble!

planting marigolds

To go along with our Life Cycles Unit in Science we were each able to plant some marigold seeds today. (Thanks Mrs. Austin for getting dirty with us!) We have them in a little "green house" under a light and each of us is keeping a Plant Log recording observations as we watch our plants grow. Next we wait. We wait to see how many days it takes for our seeds to germinate.  We'll also be keeping a log of their growth. Finally, we'll be bringing home our fully grown plants!

mystery reader

Thank you, Mrs. Cussans, for coming in and reading for Mystery Reader last week. We enjoyed hearing Last Night at the Zoo, In November, and one of Alexa's favorite mermaid books! It was funny to see animals wearing clothes in Last Night at the Zoo! You are a wonderful model for fluent reading and hope you can visit again sometime!

plants

Students are being introduced to the life cycle of plants. After all of our pumpkin literature and stories and experiences we're extending into Science. In reading the past few weeks we've been working on Making Predictions and we've been able to connect Science to literature by working with nonfiction pieces like Gail Gibbons From Seed to Plant and The Secret Life of Trees and some fiction including The Enormous Turnip and Plantzilla.

What's even more exciting that you're probably hearing about is that we're beginning to observe and explore the stages of a plant's development including observations and experiments from the seed stage to the mature plant. We're growing three Amaryllis flowers and will be planting our own individual marigold seeds as well and keeping a planting log as we observe the stages in the life cycle of a plant.

stationary & envelopes

                                                                                                    November 19
Dear 2So Families,

          This month we've been focused on letter writing during Writer's Workshop. Lots of us are practicing what we've learned in our Writer's Notebooks during Work on Writing Independence, not just on our Writer's Workshop piece. If you have any old stationary or envelopes you'd be willing to donate to our classroom for writing we'd really appreciate it! Just send it in with your child!

                                                                                                   Sincerely,
                                                                                                   Mrs. South

family reading night: story teller linda gorham

Tonight is Family Reading Night at Young. Join in the story telling fun here at school at 6:30. Linda Gorham tells updated folktales with spunk and draws you in to every story she tells. We loved her memorable and interactive performance of an Anansi story and more at this morning's assembly. Come tonight to hear different tales or click on the link to view her website and "Hear Me Tell a Story" to listen or see her perform on your computer at home!

sorting words

It is very important that we are sorting our words and following this routine for Word Work homework during Words Thier Way:

1. SAY THE WORD
2. SAY THE SOUND
3. NAME THE PATTERN
4. PUT IT DOWN

mystery reader

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Mrs. Bolger! You were a great Mystery Reader today. We were predicting as she read I Need My Monster, a story about a picky boy rejecting five substitute monsters while his regular monster Gabe was on a fishing trip. We also love the cool book 1001 Unbelievable Facts by Helen Otway. We plan on picking a couple every day to discover weird and wacky things about the world around us! Who knew "if you're right-handed, you tend to chew food on the right side of your mouth; if you're left-handed, you tend to chew on the left." Both books were generously donated to our classroom and will no doubt be enjoyed during Read to Self and Read to Somone!

Nicholas and his mom, Mrs. Bolger

friendly letters

This month's writing genre focus in on friendly letters. We've been immersed in reading letters and heard books with letter writing in them including The Jolly Postman and Other People's Letters, Help Me, Mr. Mutt! and Dear Mermaid. As writers we've talked about who we can write to and reasons for writing letters. We will be working through the writing process creating letters over the next couple weeks and for the rest of the year. Encourage writing letters to loved ones at home this month and be sure to focus on format including the date, greeting, body (message), and closing.

Alexa brought a favorite book, Dear Mermaid, from home as an example of letter writing!

water bottles

Since the weather is not hot hot hot we can keep our water bottles at home! They tend to spill and cause extra bathroom breaks to occur. I've assured the kiddos that we've got two drinking fountains nearby, so they are free to take a drink break whenever it's appropriate to leave (not during instructional time). Thanks for your support!

no more red folders

We no longer need our red folders for Math. We will ONLY be bringing home our Dolphin Folder with notes from the office or the teacher and our Yellow Homework Folder with our Weekly Homework Sheet, Reading Log, Math Homelink homework and any other assignments on a daily basis. One less thing to pack up and unpack each day! Thanks for understanding!

happy veteran's day

Happy Veteran's Day coming up on Wednesday, November 11th! At today's assembly we were able to honor men and women that have served or are still serving in our country's Armed Forces. Thank you to all the Veterans that are part of our Young Dolphins' families. A special thanks to a special man in Katie's family!

mystery reader

Thank you, Mrs. Sloan! Not only did Rachel's mom model fluent reading but she also donated a new book, Fletcher and the Falling Leaves, to our classroom library. The illustrations are amazing! We also heard Mo Willams' Elephant and Piggie book called There's a Bird on your Head. We loved that story.

lunch with the teacher

Today I had lunch with some wonderful readers! Alexei, Alexandria, Katie, Enya, Alyssa, Kara, Laurel, Bryce, Madison, Joaquin, Jake and Nicholas completed their At Home Reading Log reading EVERY NIGHT for the entire month of October!  We munched on our sandwiches and talked books - sharing our favorites and recommending titles to eachother. Thanks for working so hard at home on reading every single night! I look forward to having lunch at the beginning of December with all of you and more kids! Keep reading!