Happy May Room 9 Families! We have been hard at work and having so much fun. Here is what we have been up to, where we are at, and where we are headed....

Math:  After finishing our money unit we dove back into measurement and data with unit on graphing and interpreting the data to solve word problems as well as learning how to measure using inch length units of measure with a ruler. From there we focused on  solving various word problems involving measurement and data. We have been working on word problems on and off all year and this was one more push to have them really focus in on terminology that helps them determine how to solve a word problem successfully. Our second graders crushed it!! We are now beginning our Geometry unit.

ELA:  Our ELA has been so intwined with our science and social studies units. We wrapped up our economics unit where we read stories such as "How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World" and books about saving, spending, and giving to help our students understand money concepts as well understand global trade and being producers and consumers.  We are now reading stories about the lifecycle/parts of a plant. This week is our last week in phonics, which will be a review of the six syllable types. The last few weeks of phonics launched an intro into third grade skills, and our students have been rocking it!! 

Social Studies/Science:  As part of our economics unit the students had an opportunity to be paid for jobs they did as part of our classroom community (this was fake money given to them is piggy banks we quickly made). After earning money they were able  to purchase items to make things they wanted to sell in their class room stores. Before they went shopping at each other's stores we read "3 Cups" and they had to decide how much of the money they had left from their jobs they wanted to spend on buying from the stores, how much they wanted to save for the next days activity, and how much they wanted to give to charity. Money collected for charity was used to "purchase" a few cans for Ms. Murray's food bank here at Marshall. Money they saved or earned at their stores they were able to use the next day to purchase movie tickets and snacks to a Bluey movie of their choice. As part of the unit we also learned about how people often traded goods and services and the students had to play a game to go with our "Apple Pie...." book where they worked in teams to travel a trade route to collect resources they would need from other countries to make an apple pie. This is probably on of my favorite second grade units, and I think they kids walk away not only having a lot of fun but with a real grasp on money, trade, being producers and consumers, and saving and spending. I loved seeing them think about how much money to give to charity vs. saving it for themselves.  

We are now onto our plant unit, learning all about photosynthesis and the jobs of parts of the plant. We have planted our plants and are eagerly waiting for something to grow, lol. This will take us into our ecosystems unit, which we helped launch with a walk over to the duck pond to observe the pond and life at the pond. We also peeked another glance at the demo of FMS. 

Heritage Square Performance:  This Thursday May 9th will be Marshall's K-2 Heritage Square Suzuki Violin performance. This is your students chance to show you what they have been busy learning in violin all year long, and for some since kindergarten!! If you have not returned your child's permission slip in I will send one more home on Monday, I need it back by Tuesday. If you are able to help out in any of the ways indicated on the permission slip, please let us know. We need help transporting violins to the square and walking with our class to and from the square. If you signed up to take water please let me know if you can just take it with you to the square, and we can meet you there with it. If you cannot send me an email letting me know you will be dropping it off at the school and I can coordinate with helpers to get it to the square. We have enough water donations for our class, we just need volunteers to accompany us. I would feel super comfortable with a couple of extra walkers because I will not be in attendance for the first time in all my years at Marshall :(. I will be out on Thursday and Friday of this week. The kids will be in the super capable hands of Joni's mom, Mrs. Goff. She has subbed for me previously and knows the kids well, but it would be nice for here to have some extra help on this busy field trip day. Please make sure to also dress your child appropriately. They need to be sunscreened, and a hat and proper walking shoes would be a good idea. If they have a Marsall T-Shirt this is they day to rock their Marshall pride!! Shirts will be on sale the morning of the performance. Also, please make sure to pack an extra snack for your child this day. We will be giving them otter pops to help cool them off when they get back to school, but they are always super hungry when we get back to school. If you could please make sure to send them with extra snacks from home I will be letting them eat those along with their otter pops when we get back. 

Snacks:  Speaking of snacks, we are completely out once again so I am asking for one more round of snack donations for the year.  With only a few weeks left of the school year this will be the last time I should have to ask for snack donations. Thank you so much to all who have given recently and throughout the year. Our second graders have really appreciated it as well. There have been days some have skipped breakfast or could not make it until lunch, or just were so hungry they needed a second little snack to make it until 12:20. Your donations have made a huge difference to them, and we cannot begin to thank you enough!! At this time we only need enough for 11 of the remaining days. Thank you in advance if you can help!!

Field Trips:  After Heritage Square we have a couple of other field trips as we head into summer. On Tuesday May 14th we will be going on a mural walk downtown, and possibly stopping into BrightSide Bookshop for a story time and tour with Ms. Fahy. On Wednesday May 15th we will be heading to the public library for a tour and story time and to learn about their summer reading program. On the last day of school we will be headed to the park, we just haven't decided which one yet. I will keep you posted. I will be sending home permission slips for these at the same time sometime this week so please be on the look out.

Dates to Remember:

• May 6th-10th  - Teacher Appreciation Week 
• May 9th - Heritage Square Suzuki Performance at noon
• May 14th - Field Trip Downtown Mural Walk
• May 15th - Library Field Trip
• May 15th - School Carnival 4:15-6:00 All students must be accompanied by an adult
• May 16th - Special Early Release Day @12:45 Please plan accordingly
• May 20th - Specials Finale - 2 hour extravaganza - our specials teachers are having a field day for our second graders from 9-11 and need some parent volunteers. Please let me know if you can help.
• May 23rd - Last day of School - Park Field Trip - 12:45 Early Release

THINK Assembly:  We have honored students at various times this year for being Trustworthy, Helpful, Innovative, Noble, and Kind. Here are the photos from our THINK assemblies throughout the year. Way to go Mustangs!!

As a teacher every class leaves it's own mark on your heart. This class has been so full of such individual personalities. They made so much growth not only as students, but as little humans. They taught me new lessons even after 30 years of teaching, and I have never felt so rewarded by the smiles or hugs of second graders as when I get one from this group. I am truly sad to see our time coming to an end, and so proud of them because I know they are ready to rock it as third graders! I will continue to be here for them as they move on to the next grade, and the next. Give them the biggest high fives and hugs, they have done well, and give yourselves one as well - you all have done well as well! - ♡Ms. Shaw

 Happy Spring! It's been a while since we have updated via blog. Through snow days and holidays and breaks we have been hard at work. Let's catch up on where we are and where we are going:

Math:  Through spring break we worked hard on addition and subtraction within 200 with word problems to 100.  We will also stayed in math groups through out this unit. We will discontinue math groups for the remainder of our math units. The first unit after break will be money. We will be identifying coins and their value, as well as learning how to count on with money.

ELA:  At the beginning of the semester NatGeo was all about citizenship. We learned about MLK and how we used his voice to make an impact on the world. After we read picture books that talked about having an impact and using our voices to make a positive change in the world. This was followed by creating an impact project of their choice. The impact project showcased the change the wanted to create in the world. After that moved into our science unit of landforms, where the students read off of Nearpod slides to highlight information about landforms and how they are formed. Now that we are back from Spring Break we are kicking off our economics unit by reading "Stone Soup." We are hoping to make stone soup on Friday. In order to make this we need prechopped vegetables. I will bring in the seasoning and broth, I just need the students to bring in pre-chopped vegetables to contribute to our soup. No sign-up, we will just take what we get. Thank you in advance.  In phonics we will be working on hard and soft c and g sounds.

Science/Social Studies:  Before break our social studies unit was citizenship and we ended with our science unit being landforms and how they are created through fast and slow changes. We are now moving into our economics unit, where the students will be learning about goods and services and producers and consumers. Students will have "piggy banks" where they will put money they will earn for their weekly jobs in class. They will also be earning money for being quiet in line, which is one of their daily "jobs." At the end of the unit they will have a chance to spend the money they earned. More on that to come.

Lunch Changes:  The older grades have testing coming up. The test dates are spread out over the course of the next monthish. In order to help accommodate their schedule we will be switching lunch times with the fifth graders a few times to give them ample testing time. This means we will go to lunch at 1:10 instead of 12:20. That is almost an hour difference. Please pack a small snack for your child on the indicated days, that hour may be hard for them to wait. I will allow time for them to eat the extra snack on these days. This begins next week. These days are:

- Tuesday, March 26th
-Tuesday, April 16th and Wednesday, April 17th

It is great to be back. So crazy that we are entering our final quarter of second grade. We have so much learning to do together still. I cannot wait to finish our last quarter strong. -♡Ms. Shaw

January 2024

 Welcome to your January 2024, third quarter! I just want to touch base in this blog to share some pictures from all the exciting events we had at the end of last semester, as well as to give a quick update on what is happening upon our return. The most exciting thing will be we will have a student teacher joining us this semester, Ms. Brown.

Hello! My name is Lydia Brown (Ms. Brown), I am a senior at Northern Arizona University, and I’ll be Ms. Shaw’s student teacher this upcoming spring! I have an Associates of Arts in Elementary Education from Central Arizona College, and am currently completing my Bachelor of Science in the same field. I am from Casa Grande, Arizona and come from a family of educators; with both of my parents working in special services at various schools. I love to scrapbook, play video games, design things with Canva, and learn new things. Thank you for allowing me to work with and learn from your student as I prepare for my own classroom! I am excited to be a part of the Marshall Mustang family!

Weather and Illness:  Seems like it finally feels like winter! We still go outside unless it hits a certain threshold (the office monitors the  temperature and makes the call each morning). Please make sure to send your child with the proper outdoor gear (labeled) to keep them warm for outdoor recess. This includes boots, gloves, and hats for snowy days. We do go outside when it snows. If your child is at school they will go outside, please do not send them to school and have them say they are too sick to go outside. If you feel they are too sick to go outside they probably are too sick to be at school and should be at home for the day. Please do not send your child to school if they are sick. They need to be fever free for 24 hours without medication. We had a lot of illness right before break, a lot of temperatures. If your child has a temp or vomiting  please keep them home following this 24 hour guideline. Your cooperation in this matter helps keep everyone well. Thank you for your mindfulness and cooperation in keeping our classroom community well!! On a final note, we may be in for some snow in the upcoming weeks. Please check Facebook or KAFF news for any late start or cancellations due to snow. They usually announce around 6 am. If there is a delay school will start 2 hours later than usual, which means an 11:00 am start. Please see the FUSD website (linked here) for more information regarding weather impacts. 

Snacks:  We are out of snacks. If you are able please send in snacks to share with the class (we currently have 20 students). I have a fridge so if you wish to bring in string cheese or other items that need to be kept cold we are able to do so. I appreciate everyone taking a turn making a snack donation and keeping our hungry kiddos feed, the morning fuel really helps get them through the morning.

Field Trip to City Hall/Gingerbread Building:  Our field trip to City Hall was a success, all gingerbread building permits were approved and we were given the green light to build our gingerbread buildings. This year the folks city hall wanted to see the students bring their approved plans to life and dropped by Marshall while we were building to give some building tips and lend a hand. They had as much fun as the students did (maybe more by the joy on their faces 😀) and it was so cool to have them join us in the classroom. Thank you to everyone who donated supplies to make gingerbread building happen. 

Holidays:  We learned about holidays celebrated in December, such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. One of the things I love to do to help with their understanding is making latkes and playing the dreidel game so they have a tactile understanding of some of the traditions associated with Hanukkah. Thank you to everyone who donated supplies so the kids could try latkes, almost all of them for the first time ever. Thank you to Ms. Kelly for helping us make some of the best latkes we have ever had! 

Don't forget, our first Friday back will be a full day. That means 3:30 dismissal. Enjoy what is left of your break, I look forward to seeing our second graders and Ms. Brown on Thursday! 💙Ms. Shaw