Welcome back and Happy 2017!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and winter break! Thank you so much for all the Christmas gifts. You are amazing parents. That must be why you've sent wonderfully amazing students into our class.  

We're off to great start this week beginning with our math unit "Money".  We are looking at coins, discussing how much they are worth, how many it takes to make a dollar, and learning to count money by skip counting.  We will use what we're learning in our social studies unit "Economics".  At the end of the quarter we will have an economics fair where students will manufactor items to sell.  They will be able to purchase other students' products by earning Dojo points which will be turned into school bucks for use at the Economics Fair.  This will be later in the quarter and details will come home closer to the actual event.  

In reading, we're looking at how the character reacts to events or crises that happen in the story and how they change as a result. Next week, we will have a writer in residence come work with 2nd grade. We had her come last year and had a very positive experience.

Finally, on Thursday evening, Feb. 16, we will have student-led conferences. Each student will be prepared to share their Leader in Me notebook, explaining their academic goals and strategies to achieve them. They will show where they are now and how they are working to improve.  This will be a very exciting time. Please mark your calendars now so you can come. I will send out a sign up for you to schedule a time slot for the conference. There will be other things to do that evening as well. More details will be coming in the next few weeks.

While we were sad to say goodbye to Josiah as he moved to another school, we are excited about our new student, Jamarius Vaughn. Tuesday will be his first day and we look forward to getting to know him!

We're also excited about our progress so far this year. Please encourage your child to write about what they read at night. It makes so much difference!  Have a great week!