December 2023

 Happy December. We have so much going on this month so please read on for all that is happening in class and at Marshall.

Math:  We have decided to continue with our math groups through at least the end of this semester. Each group will be working on finding 1, 10, and 100 more than a given number as well as using this information to find sums and differences within 100. 

ELA:  We will be reading stories that will help us with our understand of the water cycle. This will be the end of our water unit. From here we will jump into our NatGeo unit on Citizenship. This unit includes some of Aesops Fables which we will use to launch our Gingerbread Stories unit. As part of our Gingerbread unit we will be reading different Gingerbread books, and studying various story elements with these stories. In phonics we are continuing learning unpredictable vowel teams. This week is ea and next week is oo. We will not do phonics the three day week before break. 

This week is our big TestNav benchmark testing in math and ELA, as well as our reading fluency testing. Please make sure your student is well rested and in school this week so that they can test in our room with our class as opposed to having to do a make-up test at a later date elsewhere. Thank you!

Science/Social Studies:  In Science we will finish learning about solids/liquids/and gases and about the water cycle. We will also finish learning about how Flagstaff get it's water and how the water cycle works in Flagstaff.   

In Social Studies we will begin learning about the different holiday celebrated at this time of year, as well as who celebrates them, how the holiday began and the importance to those who celebrates. We will look at some of the traditions associated with each holiday, and to help us better understand these traditions we will make a craft or some kind of food associated with the holiday. Be on the lookout for a sign-up sheet for needed supplies soon. Thank you! Also, as part of the Gingerbread unit we will be talking about local government and their role in the infrastructure of our city. We will use this information to make blueprints for our gingerbread houses, which we will take to city hall to be (hopefully 😉) approved. 

City Hall Field Trip:  After we learn about city government and their role in our infrastructure we will be using what we learn to make gingerbread house blueprints. On Wednesday, December 13th we will be walking to city hall to have them talk to us a little about city government, building permits, and hopefully tie it in a little to the new Marshall school build! After this we will be showing off our ginger bread house blue prints to have them either approved or denied. If you would like to join us on the field trip please email me and let me know. We will be walking. We should leave the school about 12:50 and be back about 3:00. 

Gingerbread Houses/Craft Morning:  After we have our plans approved by the city we will be bringing our gingerbread buildings to life. We will be making gingerbread houses and having a craft morning. Details and a sign up sheet will be going out for this soon. Please be on the look out. If you would like to get a jump start we need all boys to bring in can of vanilla frosting and all girls to bring in a box of graham crackers.  We cannot make this happen without your generous donations so thank you in advance!!

Food and Supply Drive:  Starting this week Marshall is holding its annual Food and Supply Drive. Each grade level is being asked to bring in specific items to help with the needs of our communities we reach with these items. 2nd grade is collecting toothpaste, toothbrushes, and toilet paper. If you are willing and able to donate any of these items please have your child bring them in any time this week. Thank you.

Spirit Weeks:  Oh how Marshall loves their Spirit weeks. Please see the attached flyer for all the upcoming spirit week days. 

STEAM Night 2:  You are invited to help us celebrate the A in STEAM with Marshall's with a performance from the choir followed by arts and crafts. Please see flyer below for more information. 

Early Release Days:  Thursday, December 14th and Wednesday, December 20th are both early release days so please plan accordingly. December 20th is the last day of school before break. 

If you have any questions about any of this jam packed December and all of its events please feel free to reach out via email. Although it is a short three weeks, and the last week is a short three days we will be packing it in with lots of learning so please make sure your students are in attendance!! Thank you. 💚 -Ms. Shaw

November 2023 Update

Happy November. Quick update on next week. It is a short two days before heading into our 5 day break but we will absolutely be cramming in the all the learning we can so I highly encourage having your students present for both days. Tuesday is our Fall Feast Luncheon, see below for more information.

Math:  In math we have been learning how to write three digit numbers with place value disks and comparing two three digit numbers. We are also taking a break from our regular math program to spend a few days doing math groups with Ms. Thompson and Ms. Johnson, strengthening our addition and subtraction fluency skills. We will do this for the remainder of this week and the week after break before picking back up with finding 1, 10, and 100 more or less of a given number. 

ELA:  Our ELA has been such an amazing work of stories that have supported both our science unit and Native American Heritage Month. We are learning all about the importance of water and being good stewards of water. We began our water unit comparing and contrasting "Frog Brings Rain" and "Lila and the Secret of Rain." The students showed a great understanding of the different uses we have for rain and it's importance. Last week we read "We Are Water Protectors" and "Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior" both by the amazing Carole Lindstrom. We discussed how the Native American community views water as life and the importance of safeguarding water,  and the students wrote about how they could be water protectors/stewards at home and at school. We also finished up reviewing and testing on predictable vowel teams last week (which included ee, igh, oa, oe, oi, oy, ai, ay, au, and aw). We began unpredictable vowel teams with ie, which we will finish before break. After break we will work on unpredictable vowel team ow. An unpredictable vowel team simply means a vowel team that is written one way but has two different pronunciations. The students are learning how to always try reading unfamiliar words using the most common pronunciation first. 

Science/Social Studies:  In Social Studies we continues our cross-curricular learning by reading "The Unbreakable Code" to teach about Veterans Day and the amazing Code Talkers who served our nation in WWII. In science we have moved from properties of solids to properties of liquids. We will learn about gases next. All of this will take us into the water cycle that we have been leading into during our ELA. We are also keeping a close eye on and recording our observations on Pumpkin Jack, who is happily rotting away on our shelf. We will be taking data on him monthly.

Fall Feast Luncheon:  Tuesday, November 21st is our Fall Feast Luncheon. 2nd Grade Luncheon is from 11:30-12:00. Each meal is $5. Menu and other grade level lunch times are attached. I look forward to having you all join us on Tuesday. 

In the spirit of gratitude I would like to take the time to express how grateful I am for each of my students and their families. I truly do what I do because I enjoy educating and being around children, and this bunch brings me a lot of joy and laughter. I have enjoyed getting to you, their families, and the support and love you give your children is both abundant and evident. I also have appreciated our conversations and have felt the support and appreciation, and in public education that goes a long way. Thank you for what you do for us in room 9! - 🤎Ms. Shaw

Halloween Updates and More

 Just a few quick updates for the week ahead...

Math:  We will be wrapping up how to read and write numbers in unit form, standard form, expanded, and word form this week. After that we will be using these forms to read and write numbers within 1,000 with place value disks.

ELA:  We will be reading "Pumpkin Jack" and after introducing vocabulary and doing two reads we will be writing about the life cycle Pumpkin Jack goes through in the story. In phonics we will be working on the vowel teams au/aw. We wrapped up our reports on bats and spiders as well as did some great three part stories on how animals use certain adaptations to in their habitats.

Science:  Last week we introduced the scientific process by doing a simple experiment of testing if certain cookies would sink or float. This week we will continue learning the steps in the scientific process be conducting a science experiment with different colored pumpkins on Monday before we read Pumpkin Jack on Tuesday. We will be seeing if all pumpkins (green, white, black pumpkins) are orange on the inside. After we are done with this experiment we will set up the carving of our pie pumpkin to look like Pumpkin Jack, which will set us up for the beginning of our plant unit in the spring. After we read Pumpkin Jack we will place Pumpkin Jack in a sealed tub to start to decompose and begin his life cycle. We will take data on our pumpkin throughout the year, leading up to our plant unit in the spring. 

Social Studies:  In honor of the end of Filipino American History Month we will be reading "Francesca Isa, Dalawa, Sorpresa!" and listening to it in the Tagalog language of the Filipino people. After we listen to this story about a Filipino girl celebrating her birthday we will make a Pabatin, a game where toys and prizes are hung from bamboo sticks that the kids have to jump to get. We will also be learning about Día de Los Muertos.

Halloween:  As a second grade team we have decided that second grade will all be doing a pajama party on Halloween this year. There were a lot of factors surrounding this decision, the main one being that we are at specials on this day and costumes make it really difficult to run at PE and other specials activities. So instead of costumes all second graders may wear their pajamas this Tuesday. Again - no costumes but it is a pajama party. Please make sure your child has on the appropriate shoes for recess and a jacket for the cold. Also, we will have a small fall/holiday themed "celebration" (standards aligned should anyone ask). I will not send out a sign up sheet for food, I will just hand out what we get. If you wish to send in any treats please make sure they are store bought. Please also make sure whatever you send in does not require any cutting, slicing, mixing, or assembling by me. I do not have the tools or time available to do so. Thank you for understanding. 

Hope you have a restful rest of your weekend. Picture retakes is this Friday and we have not received picture packets as of yet. Hoping they come in by the beginning of the week so you can make a decision on retakes by Friday am. If not, I would advise to do retakes. 💜-Ms. Shaw

Mid October Update 2023

 Happy October, is it just me or is this month flying by? Thank you all who attended conferences, it was so  great to meet with each of every one of you. The partnership between home and school is so important, and the time we have and conferences to communicate your child's academic growth and how to keep working together to build on that is so fundamental. I appreciate you taking the time out of your schedules to make it happen, you all are amazing! October is always a great month, we are so busy while at the same time we really start to settle into our routines. Here is what is happening in second grade for the rest of the month:

Math:  We have moved into our unit on place value. We are working on understanding place value units of one, tens, and hundreds. 

ELA:  We are reading stories from our NatGeo curriculum that are teaching us all about animal adaptations. We are learning about how animals use those adaptations to survive in their habitats. We are also using these stories to learn about plot, beginning, middle, and end, and to write stories that have a beginning middle and end about animal adaptations. We will have a fun art project based on camoflouging to go with our writing. We will also be researching and writing about bats and spiders the next couple of weeks. In phonics we are working on vowel teams. Last week we learned about vowel teams igh and oa, this week we are learning about vowel teams ee and oe. Next week is vowel teams ai/ay and oi/oy.

Science:  We kicked off science by learning what it means to be a scientist. Next week we will begin to learn the scientific process by planting a pumpkin in a jar and making a hypothesis about what we think will happen to the pumpkin. You know we alway tie in literature as much as possible so we will be reading the story "Pumpkin Jack" to help us do a little pre-learning to our spring plant unit as well as build vocabulary.

Social Studies: We learned all about the history and importance behind Indigenous People's Day. We will be learning about Día de los Muertos coming up. 

Lamar Haines:  Our field trip to Lamar Haines was a huge success. The kids did a great job hiking and learning a little more about Flagstaff history and gathering evidence to write how they know there was life up on the mountain. Here are a few pictures from our field trip.

Besides writing about our findings the kids also made their own pictographs on rocks that we put on our cave on the outside of our wall. The really show an understanding of how people used pictographs to communicate and what types of things they were communicating. Here is a picture of the students making their pictographs on our homemade rocks and our rock drawings on our cave. 

Snacks:  I need to give out a very special shout out to my very own mom and dad very supplying our class with snacks. They purchased the snacks shown below, plus some (as well as a special Halloween treat because they just can't help themselves 🤣).

This will cover us for quite some time, so you do not need to purchase any snacks for a while. Also thank you to Yareli and her family for sending in snack the other day without me even requesting, you are appreciated!

First STEAM Night of the Year:  Our first steam night of the year is coming up next week. This month we will be focusing on the M in STEAM - Math! This is a free, family event full of activites, so please join the fun!

 Crede Repertory Theatre:  This has become a tradition of sorts here at Marshall. Crede has been visiting our school for years and giving us bi-lingual and interactive performances that we just love. This year was "The City Dog and The Prairie Dog," a story about exploring the world and learning new things, and coming back home. At the same time teaching about how each species plays an important role in their ecosystem. The students love the music and getting to interact with the play. Here are a couple of pictures from the performance:

Upcoming Dates to Remember:

• November 3rd - Picture Retake Day
• November 21st - Thanksgiving Luncheon

We are not sure what the plan is surrounding Halloween this year. At this time we are pretty sure second grade is probably doing a pajama party instead of costumes, but we have not solidified that as of yet. We have not mentioned any of this to students at all!! When we know I will tell them and notify you as well. We should know early next week at the latest. Either way we will do a small harvest party. We will not do a snack sign up, if you wish to send in non sugary treats that is fine, we will partake in whatever comes our way. Thank you - Ms. Shaw

Conferences

Happy October! The Gallop was a success - thank you to our parent volunteers who made our day a success. Please remember all money is due this Friday, October 6th. If you collected your pledges and want to send them in sooner that is fine. 

This week is Hispanic Heritage Spirit Week. We are super excited about this, as we have been learning all about Hispanic Heritage. Our spirit week are as follows:

Sí se puede day- translated in English as "It can be done", or "Yes you can". Wear your favorite college’s gear
Tejano (tay-hah-no) Tuesday- dress up day. A Mexican American inhabitant of southern Texas. Also, a style of folk or popular music originating among the Tejanos, with elements from Mexican-Spanish vocal traditions and Czech and German dance tunes and rhythms, traditionally played by small groups featuring accordion and guitar. Students and staff can wear their best Tejano dress (jeans, boots, belt buckles, cowboy hats) or rock their favorite music tee. 
Wardrobe Wednesday - Wear traditional clothing, bright colors that represent the various cultures, colors that represent the various flags, or beach attire.  
Hispanic Hero/ Inspiration Thursday - Dress as your favorite Hispanic role model.
Fútbol Friday - Wear your favorite soccer team attire. 

Conferences are coming up the week after this week (October 9th-11th). All three days will be 12:45 early release times so please plan accordingly. Please sign-up on the attached sign-up for your child's conference time (Conference Sign-Up). Please sign your child's name in your conference spot. All conferences will be in person, if you need a phone call or online meeting please feel free to email me to make arrangements for this to happen during your conference time. If you would like a translator present please let me know so that I can arrange for one to be in attendance. In order to honor each families conference time I will do my best to begin and end on time. If you feel you have question that will end up exceeding the allotted amount of time given to discuss your child's academic progress we will have to schedule another conference time to continue our discussion. Thank you for your understanding. School is closed the Thursday and Friday following conferences for fall break. I hope to see everyone at conferences. If you have any questions please reach out via email.

Looking forward to seeing the second graders in the morning, ready to end our last full week of the quarter strong!! -Ms. Shaw

MidSeptember 2023 Updates

 A few updates/reminders for your three day weekend.

Mustang Gallop:  Please make sure your child spends some time soliciting donations this three day weekend for our Mustang Gallop. They can either solicit flat donations or a per lap pledge.  This is our annual fundraiser, and 100% of the proceeds comes directly back to your students. In the past the monies have been used for things like new playground equipment, and more recently we have used the funds to help purchase every back to school supply your child needs - at no cost to you! This is such an amazing support we can offer to our families and teachers every year, but we need your help by asking friends, family, and neighbors for pledges!! There is a raffle for a chance for your student to win individual prizes, with the top prize being an electric scooter. The top earning class and class with the most participation will also win either an ice cream party or Fratelli's pizza party field trip. Let's take it all!! Make those phone calls, knock on those doors and get those pledges!!

Culture Cases: We have been learning about culture in class. We discovered that culture is everything that makes us and our families us!! Our language, the food we eat, the clothes we eat, etc...On Friday your student made their culture computer in class. They have five sections to complete at home over the three day weekend: Language, Food, Clothing, Music, and Special Days. Please work with your child to have discussions about how your family incorporates these things into your culture.  Your child may draw pictures, cut out and glue pictures from magazines, or paste photos (you may want to make photocopies of these) in each section. Then have them write (with your help if needed) a little bit explaining each section to help give us some background. Each part should tell a story to help us get to know everything about your child and their family's cultural background. Special days are not limited to holidays, they can include traditional days and events that you celebrate as a family or in your culture. Please have them bring them back on Tuesday completed and ready to be shared with their peers during our morning community circle. If your child was absent on Friday they will be making their case during the week. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out.

Snacks:  We are officially out of snacks and in need of more. If you are able to purchase snacks for the class we would greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance. 

Picture Day:  Thursday is Picture Day. I have not received the packets yet, but hopefully will soon so I can get them to you. I do know you can order online through Lifetouch, but I have not been given that link/our school ID# at this time either . It may have been on the picture day is coming flyer that went home. As soon as I have either one of these things I will share them with you immediately. 

Dates to Remember:

• Sept. 29 - Mustang Gallop

• Oct. 2 - National Custodian's Day

• Oct. 6 - Gallop $$ due

• Oct. 9-11 Parent/Teacher Conferences

• Oct. 12-13 Fall Break

I hope you all have a restful three day weekend. I look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday morning.

- Ms. Shaw

September Updates

 Happy September. We have so much happening this month, both in the classroom and at Marshall. Please read on for all the Mustang madness...

 Math: We are moving on to measurement this week, learning about measuring with non standard units as well as measuring with rulers and meter sticks. We will be using our information to solve addition and subtraction problems as well as word problems.

ELA:  We continue to teach using stories from both our NatGeo series and picture books. This week we will look at the story "Be My Neighbor" to discuss similarities and differences in communities as well as talk about main idea and details. We will also be reading portions of "A Life Like Mine" to compare and contrast global communities. In Phonics we worked on initial and final blends and this week we will be working on phonograms (ing, ink, ang, ank, ong, onk). This sounds like a lot but it is still review from first grade.  We will also begin RTI groups this week. RTI is when the students go to smaller groups for targeted reading skills 30 minutes a day. Most students go outside the classroom, some will stay with me in a group. Each child will be going where they need for 30 minutes of reading intervention in the skill area that best suits their current need. We will also be completing our photo essays this week. Each child has chosen a member of our Marshall school community to interview. They will be conducting their interviews this week and turning them into a writing assignment from there. We are all very excited about this.

Social Studies:  Staying with our learning about communities around the world, we will begin our culture cases this week. In ELA we will spend a day reading about what is culture and work on build our cases. These will go home on Friday for over the weekend fun homework to be completed and returned on Monday morning. We will be sharing our cases during the morning community circles next week. These are a great way to learn more about each other and help us connect with each other. I will send out more information regarding what needs to happen in these culture cases towards the end of the week. 

Mustang Gallop:  Our Mustang Gallop is back!! This used to be our annual fundraiser back before Covid. For those who have never experienced the Gallop, it is one of my favorite traditions. Your student went home with an envelope on Friday. This is so they can start soliciting pledges. They can hit up family, friends, and neighbors for a flat dollar amount or people may pledge a per lap amount. On the 29th of this month students will be galloping around our field to see how many laps they end up running total. So if someone pledges $1 per lap and your student runs 50 laps in 15 minutes (it isn't a very big field - you might want to let your per lap pledges know) your child will need to collect a $50 donation. Of course there are prizes. The child who collects the most money in donations wins a motorized scooter with helmet!! The class with the most participation gets an ice cream party. That means we just need every child to collect a minimum of one $5 dollar donation each and we will have a 100% participation rate!! That would also earn us a minimum of $95 towards this fundraiser!! We can do that!! We can do more than that, because the class that raises the most money earns a field trip to Fratelli's where we will be treated to some of Flagstaff's best pizza!! Let's go room 9 - we got this!!

Snacks:  We are just starting to run low on snacks. We have enough to get through about midweek, but will need more by Wednesday for sure. If you can donate some healthy choices by then we would greatly appreciate it. We are learning that with a 12:00 lunch the second graders are really hungry by recess. Remember, if you wish to bring in string cheese or fruit (nothing that needs cutting) I have a refrigerator to store cold items in. Please try to make snacks individually packed. Also, I am banning cheese balls from the list of allowed snack items. There just is no nutritional value to them and they make too much of a mess. Thank you for your understanding, and thank you in advance for your donations.

Suzuki:  Here at Marshall every K-2 student receives twice a week Suzuki violin lessons. We will begin violin this week. 

Dates to Remember:  

• Monday, September 18th - School Closed for Students - Staff PD Day
• Thursday, September 21st - Picture Day
• Friday, September 29 - Mustang Gallop

With the beginning of RTI and Suzuki students should really start settling into our routines and schedules. We are working hard on being respectful learners. Please talk to your child about what it means to be a respectful learner in circle and during instructional time. These are some of our September classroom goals. Thank you for your support of our second graders.

 -Ms. Shaw

Beginning of the Year 2023

Hello Room 9 families and welcome to the first blog of the year. My goal is to send out bi-weekly blogs in order to keep you updated with everything classroom and school wide related. We have a lot coming up, so please read on for all the information.

Math:  We started the year reviewing foundations for adding and subtracting within 20 with number bonds and ten frames. We are now using strategies for adding and subtracting within 100. If you want to help your child at home you can help them skip count by 2's, 5's, and 10's. This is a skill that we will be using all year in math and it will help them be successful if they can orally count by tens. If your child can skip count then have them practice writing their numbers by 2's, 5's, and 10's. If they really need a challenge they can do all this by 3's. 

ELA:  We have been learning about character and other story elements through our NatGeo curriculum with stories such as "Taxi Dog" and "Quinito's Neighborhood." We have also used "Quinitos Neighborhood to introduce nouns and verbs and use them to begin making simple noun-verb sentences. Next week in Grammar we will continue to learn about nouns and verbs, as well as articles. We also began an intro to phonics be teaching how to use our phonics sound mapping mats and word chains with a short vowel review. This week we will begin our Science of Reading aligned Phonics program. Week 1 we will review initial blends, consonant digraphs, and the floss rule. 

Science/Social Studies:  The beginning of the year is always heavy in social studies. We started the year learning about ourselves and families, and now are extending it to our school's and communities. We read "Me on the Map" and used that to launch our geography unit. We will take a walk on Wednesday across the street to look at the Mosaic bridge, visit the duck pond and discuss what is happening with it, as well as see and discuss the new build site for Marshall. All of this as part of our community unit. When we return to school the students will have an opportunity to make their own mosaic art pieces. 

Open House:  You are invited to Marshall's Open House this Thursday night from 5:00 - 6:30 PM. This is informal, come in when you can, just a quick meet and greet. I hope to see you there!

Permission Slips:  Be on the lookout for a walking permission slip to go out on Monday for our Wednesday outing. Will need it back by Wednesday at the very latest. I will keep it for all walking field trips around the neighborhood the rest of the year (tree park, duck pond, etc).

No Toys At School:  Just a reminder that toys at home are not allowed at school. This includes notepads, writing utensils and stuffed animals. Unless students have a learning plan allowing them fidgets they may not bring them to school either. Make sure backpacks only have lunches, water bottles, weather related clothing (no umbrellas - not necessary). Again, they do not need school supplies as those have been provided. As of Friday, all Pokemon cards have been banned at Marshall. There have been a lot of issues surrounding the taking of cards. This should not be an issue for our class, being as these types of things are not allowed. Also, no cellphones (including wrist phones) allowed. If your child has one for some reason it must be in their backpack and on SILENT! Please make sure alarms are disabled. Thank you for your cooperation on this matter.

Change in Dismissal:  If your child will be having a change in dismissal for the day please make sure to call the front office or email me and let us know. Do not tell your child to tell me. For safety reasons I do not and cannot take the word of second graders, and if they say their dismissal routine is going to be different I will have to contact the office to make a phone call to their adult. Thank you for helping me get your child home safely on a daily basis.

Take Home Folders:  I will be sending home take home folders on a weekly basis. These will have a weekly and monthly calendar in them. This will be another place where you can write me a note if needed. Please look for it starting this week. If your child ever has math work that need completing it will go in there as well. 

Supplies:  Thank you to everyone who has donated snacks, kleenex, hand sanitizer, and headphones for your students. We are set on all of it for a while. When we are in need of anything I will reach out and let you know. You all rock!!

Upcoming Dates to Remember:

• Thursday, August 31st - Marshall Open House 5-6:30 PM
• Monday, September 4th - School Closed - Labor Day
• Monday, September 18th - No School for Students - In Service Day

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me via email at ashaw@fusd1.org. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I'll see the kiddos tomorrow at 9:00 am :) 

May 2023 Updates

 Happy Spring! So glad if finally feels like spring weather. Hard to believe we are into the last month of second grade. Here is what we have been working on in room 9:

Math: We wrapped up our unit on displaying measurement data and wrapped up our unit on money. We are now into our unit on geometry and fractions.

ELA:  We just finished a couple of weeks of comparing and contrasting various story elements in different versions of the story "Stone Soup." In phonics we have completed all of our 2nd grade lessons for the year which included silent letters, hard and soft c and g, and complex consonant letters. We are now into introducing third grade concepts by leveling up on some second grade concepts such as reviewing all the syllable types. We have been reading different stories and exploring different points of view of characters in the story. 

Science/Social Studies:  In social studies we have discussed Earth Day and did an really cool unit on economics. The students dug deep on goods and services, producers and consumers, global economy and trade. We read "How to Make an Apple Pie and Travel the World" and each student connected how each country produces different resources that contributes to a global community and then they participated in a trade activity to acquire the good needed to make an apple pie. Then students were paid 5 cents a day for their classroom jobs to understand spending and savings. From there they decided what product they wanted to make and had to use their wages to purchase funds to do so. After they make their products we had a day where they were able to shop at each others stores and become consumers, picking what products they wanted to purchase and how they wanted to spend their money. It was a great really fun student lead unit!

In Science we completed our unit on fast and slow changes to the earth and have begun our life science unit on plants. We are growing alfalfa and rye grass lawns, potatoes, and will be propagating stem cuttings. We will be taking our plants and putting them in our Terrariums to create an ecosystem later this week. 

Illness:  We have been hit with lots of different illness over the last few weeks. Please remember if your child is not feeling well keep them home until they are fever free for 24 hours without medication. The same is true if they have diarrhea or vomiting. Let's work together to help keep each other healthy. 

Spring Attire:  Now that we have nicer weather please be aware of appropriate dress wear. No flip flops please (open toes such as Chacos are fine). This helps us with foot safety, no twisted ankles and such.  Please also make sure skirts have shorts under them and that shorts and skirts are the appropriate length. We have had some issues with excess skin and underwear being exposed and this is not second grade appropriate. 

May Dates to Remember:   I will be sending out field trip forms at one time to get them signed and done. I will indicate the field trip we will need parent volunteers for. If you would like to join us please email me and let me know. Here is how may is shaping up:

• May 8th- 12th - Teacher Appreciation Week
• May 10th - School Nurse Appreciation Day
• May 11th - Heritage Square Suzuki Violin Performance at Noon - we will need parent volunteers to walk to and from the square with us.
• May 12th - Field Trip to Library to learn about the summer reading program - we will need parent volunteers to walk with us
• May 17th - Field Trip to Brightside Book Shop and the Juice Pub - we will need parent volunteers to walk with us
• May 17th - School Carnival 4-6 - All students must be accompanied by an adult - this is not a drop off event!! See attached flyer

• May 19th - 12:25 Release Friday
• May 25th - Last Day of School - Field Trip to Thorpe Park - 12:25 Release

We have really been so busy, the kids have been working hard. Please make sure they have the chance to play hard over the weekends! With these long Friday's we have been nonstop and they deserve the break. We are not letting up, we will continue to squeeze every bit of learning out of this final month. In the meantime, make your weekends are restful and fun. See you back on Monday! -Ms. Shaw 

Mid February Blog

 Happy middle of February. The weeks have been short due to snow, but we are still packing in the learning, and sprinkling in some fun and celebrations of our students. Lots of information, so please read on...

Math:  We have wrapped up our unit on strategies for composing and decomposing tens and hundreds. Now we will move into problem solving with categorical data (basically graphing and using data from graphs to solve problems).

ELA:  Due to snow days we did not get to complete last weeks phonics lesson, so we will continue it this week. We are learning about vowel -r phongrams air/are, ear/ere, and oar/ore. This is a lot in one week, but our second graders are doing great with it! Next week will be a review week of vowel -r (ar, or, w+ar, w+or, er, ur, and ir) and vowel -r phonograms, followed by the end of unit test on all of it. 

Science/Social Studies:  We are continuing our unit on landforms learning about fast and slow changes to the earth (think erosion and natural disasters). We are also continuing our Black History month unit with learning about different inventors (think Garrett Morgan, George Crum, Patricia Bath and others) and learning about Raye Montague, the girl who loved math.

Weather:  Not gonna lie, part of me is like "What is going on with all this snow?" while the Flagstaff native in me is loving every single bit of it. The teacher in me is siding with the later, and it is currently rumored that we have more snow on the way starting Tuesday night. Not sure how this will all play out for school closures. Up until now we had enough instructional minutes that students were not affected by snow day closures. That may change if we have any more. What will this mean for make up? No communication has been sent out yet (probably because of the next anticipated storm) but as soon as we see if we have any more snow days, and figure out just how many days students will need to make up and how I will let you all know. 

Dates to Remember: 

• Tuesday, March 6th - Friday, March 10th Scholastic Book Fair (Flyers, Links, Grandparents Day, and more information to come)
• Wednesday, March 8th - Friday, March 10th - Parent/Teacher Conferences (I will be sending out an online sign up soon. Conferences will be 20 minutes)
• Monday, March 13th - Friday, March 17th Spring Break

Spelling Bee:  Congratulations to Murphy for making it to the third round in the Coconino County Spelling Bee! See did amazing, and we are all so proud of her!!

Valentines:  Two days late thanks to the snow, but the students thoroughly enjoyed our valentines exchange on Thursday. Check out pics of our little lovebugs:

Think Assembly:  Friday was our third THINK assembly of the year, we celebrated students who were honored with certificated for the letter I, for innovative. Here are some pictures of those students from our class that were recognized for being innovative thinkers:

Hope you all have a great three day weekend!

 -Ms. Shaw