Goodbye March!

Dear 2B Families,

I hope you all had an awesome last weekend of March. On a personal note, Team Dombrowski was pretty busy last weekend. First, I had taken last Friday off to enjoy a Spring Training Game! We got our picture with Clark the Cubby Bear!

Last Saturday, we also had THREE birthday parties to attend! WHEW! My brother-in-law turned 30, a good friend from college ALSO turned 30, and Mr. D's sweet Godson turned 2. It was BUSY and fun-filled weekend! It's hard to believe that March has come and gone! March is one of my favorite months of the year, not only because of springtime and beautiful weather, but because Mr. Dombrowski and I got married on March 29, 2014! We celebrated three years of wedded bliss on Wednesday! Photo to share :-)...

I'm relieved that we have no school on April Fool's Day! The kids keep asking when it is so they can play a trick on me! Good luck with that at home tomorrow :-).

Scholar Shout-Outs:

Your scholars are doing GREAT with reciting Lincoln (click to hear recording) by Nancy Byrd Turner. We will assess their recitation next week. Don't forget to practice at home, making sure your child is projecting their voice, and add a little expression too :-). Poem recitation stance should look like this:

Upcoming Events:

April 5-7: Usborne Book Fair
Friday, April 7: Fine Arts and French Night ~ The students did a video recording this week and are looking forward to you seeing this. I will be there and hope to see you too!
Thursday, April 13: Field Trip
Friday, April 14-Monday, April 17: No School R&R
Monday, April 17: Happy Birthday Abby!
Wednesday, April 19: Assembly 8:00-8:30am
Wednesday, April 26: Happy Birthday Jocelyn!
Thursday, April 27: Healthy Snack Day (Protein)
Saturday, April 29: Happy Birthday, Beatrice!

Next Week in 2B...

Spalding Words:
Monday: cities, city, known, know, several, desire, nearly, too (more than, also), two (2), to
Tuesday: animal, basin, breeze, button, cabbage, careful, cough, cousin, dollars, excuse *noun*, excuse *verb*
Wednesday: island, grief, guard, guilty, hungry, language, laughter, laugh, lining, line

Literature: If you haven't done so already, please make sure to send your scholar to school with a copy of our newest classic: Little House in the Big Woods. We will discuss the setting and how it relates to us in Arizona, and outline the 5 main characters in the story. After reading we will discuss how Laura’s house and our homes differ, and learn the steps of food preservation! Ask your literature master what the vocabulary word ‘headcheese’ means!

Writing and Grammar: We will be working through the writing process next week! Students will start with prewriting on Monday, brainstorming a list of their favorite activities. Tuesday will be spent writing a rough draft, Wednesday and Thursday will be spent revising and editing their drafts (first on their own, then with a peer). On Friday students will write their final papers. Mrs. Lacsa and I will be emphasizing that final papers should be students BEST work! This includes neat handwriting, proper formatting, and being proud of their work! 

We will read a story called About Lying, and have a discussion about how lying leads to great problems than one might initially realized.

Math: We will look at capacity! We will compare the capacity of containers to begin with, and then learn about liters. We will compare the capacity of containers in liters and compare them to units we are familiar with (cups, gallons etc.) We will solve word problems involving capacity, and make a fun visual to see how all units compare! Make sure to ask your capacity captain all about their new best friend: The Gallon Bot!

History: Our journey West will conclude next week with learning about Native Americans. We will spend time reviewing and assessing our understanding from this unit: Americans Move West. Your scholar will bring their classwork packet that we've been working hard on in class to review at home. Can your scholar tell you about mining towns and how they turned into ghost towns? Can they explain the importance of Sequoyah, the Cherokee People, the Trail of Tears, and buffalo to Plains Indians? How did the settlers moving west affect the Native Americans? These are all great talking points to have your scholar retell!

Science: Next week we will assess our understanding of magnets! Can you help our class by donating supplies to make MAGNETIC SLIME? Please see this sign up genius link!

We have LOVED playing with magnets!

Summer Academy with Mrs. Smith!
Mrs. Smith is teaching Summer Academy at Arete this year! She is so excited and would love to see your scholars there. See the classes and course descriptions below. Sign up by tomorrow, April 1st for a 10% early-bird discount.

Farm to Table
Week 1: June 5-9
9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Our journey from “Farm to Table” gives campers a chance to learn what it means to grow, harvest, raise, and preserve food. We will be looking at the lost skills of farming through art history and passed-down family recipes. Experiments with photosynthesis, anatomy, and decomposition will help campers see nature at work. By the end of the week we will have a real farmer’s market where each student will sell goods they have made. Additionally, we will host a local farmer with produce for families to browse and shop, while discussing the importance of healthy choices for mind, body, and soul!

Inventions and Discoveries
Week 2: June 12-16
9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Albert Einstein said, “Play is the highest form of research.” We will learn to “play” with the past as we learn about foundational discoveries affecting our lives today – From paper and plastic, catapults and castles, the light bulb and robotics, we will explore how discoveries and inventions are like a snowball effect, as one idea is a platform for another. Scholars will learn how it can take centuries of ideas before inventions come to fruition. On Friday, we will host a science fair, displaying the different inventions campers “played” with and came up with on their own!
Sign up here: http://www.greatheartsamerica.org/summeracademy/

Love,
Mrs. Dombrowski

Welcome Back! Spring is Here!

Dear 2B Families,

Welcome back to school for our last quarter together. It's hard to believe! I hope you all had a restful and peaceful break with your families. The first part of my break was spent writing the evaluations for Quarter 3 grades and finishing the checklists! I hope you found them informative for your scholar. I look forward to seeing them work on their goals for our last quarter. 

After I was finished with grades and some work around the house, Mr. Dombrowski and I enjoyed a little (COLD) getaway to Chicago...his birthplace!

Side note: HOW cute are my niece and nephew??? Just had to share this sweetness with you...

I was happy to see all of your smiling children on Tuesday morning. They were mostly excited (and a little tired) to be back at school! We're starting off on the right foot this quarter and will continue this positive momentum. We have SO much to do before 3rd grade! We loved being back with our friends and just "hanging out" on the playground!

SOCK HOP: Friday, March 24th from 6:00-8:00pm - Free Fun for the Whole Family!

Field Trip Announcement: We will be going to the Pioneer Museum on Thursday, April 13th. Please e-mail me if you would like to attend so I can get a list put together. The cost will be $20 per student. Keep an eye out for permission slips coming home soon!

New Book Reports: These were sent home on Thursday. Your child either received a Who Was?, Who Is?, I Survived, or Nancy Drew chapter book. Please let me know if you have questions about these new reports. If they received a Who Was?, Who Is?, or I Survived book they will complete a Biography Book Report Bag. If they received a Nancy Drew book they will complete the Literature Cube Book Report. Please let me know if you have questions about this!

Fine Arts and French Night: Friday, April 7 *We hope to see you there! Please check the flyer that was sent home in your child's folder.

AzMERIT Testing will be going on next week for our 3rd-5th grade students. This is something your scholar will be doing next year!

Our Curriculum Next Week...

Language Arts: We will start a new unit on dictionary skills! We will be Dictionary Daredevils! We will become alphabetical order experts, and learn to use guide words.

Literature: We have finished reading Sarah, Plain and Tall! Ask your scholar about the ending :-). Please send your child to school with our newest classic: Little House in the Big Woods. We will start this the first week of April. Next week we will spend time with fairy tales and tall tales (Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, John Henry, and Casey Jones)!

Spalding Words:
Monday: husband, amount, human, view, clerk, though, o'clock=o(f the) clock, support, does, goes, Tuesday
Tuesday: regard, escape, since, which, witch, length, long, strong, length, strength, destroy
Wednesday: newspaper, daughter, naughty, caught, taught, answer, reply, sail, sale

Math: Next week in math we will continue working with time! Please continue conversations with your time master. Next week we will relate time to events of our daily life. Side note: there was a funny moment (debate) going on in our classroom when our math book showed a little boy brushing his teeth BEFORE he ate breakfast! The kids said, "That would make your breakfast taste funny. I ALWAYS brush my teeth AFTER I eat breakfast." We will have to speak with the publisher of our math book I guess! Next week, we will find the duration of a time interval in minutes and hours, as well as attacking word problems with elapsed time. We will review and take our units 1-11 cumulative test on Friday. The homework on Thursday night will provide great practice for Friday’s test! Please help your scholar with this skill at home as it can be a challenging one for 2nd graders!

History: We will continue our journey west, learning about the Pony Express and following the cowboys, farmers, and miners on their adventures and challenges moving to new lands! Can your scholar tell you about: Daniel Boone? Robert Fulton? Jedediah Smith? Levi Strauss? 

Science: Have your children suddenly been playing with magnets all around your house? They are loving this unit! We will continue learning about magnets by experimenting with magnetic poles and magnetic fields. We will also investigate how a compass is a magnet! 

Love,
Mrs. Dombrowski

Happy Spring Break!

Dear 2B Families,

Happy Spring Break! Wishing you all a restful and peaceful break with your family! I can't wait to hear about all of your adventures when we return on March 21st!

Scholar Shout Outs:

We've been having a lot of fun with Simple Machines. We took what we learned from Simple Machines and applied it to designing our very own Leprechaun Traps! This was a lot of fun as we had the opportunity to move our desks into groups for these tasks that required a lot of hard work and compromise! First we designed and discussed how each simple machine would be utilized and then we created using recycled materials! Thank you to everyone who brought in their recyclables! As one of our lovely moms shared, "One man's trash is another man's...TRAP!"

Curriculum when we return from Spring Break...

Literature: We will continue to read Sarah, Plain and Tall next week. Sarah starts to feel sad, lonely, and homesick. We will discuss what we would miss if we moved and formulate a paragraph based on our list. 



Writing and Grammar: We will review all the parts of speech we have learned so far. Ask your scholar if they can name all 6! (Cheat sheet: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, prepositional phrase). We will review classifying sentences, and continue to build our own that follow the 5 rules of a complete sentence!

Spalding Words:
Tuesday: carried, carry, loss, fortune, empire, mayor, wait, degree, prison, engine
Wednesday: visit, guest, guessed, guess, department, obtain, family, favor, Mrs. = Mistress, Mr. = Mister, Miss

Math: We will hit the ground running after spring break with a new unit on TIME! We will do a review of concepts learned in first grade, then dive into minutes before and after the hour. We appreciate your partnership in talking to your kiddos about what time they get up for school, what time you leave for school, what time you eat dinner, etc. This will help us greatly with the next chapter on elapsed time!

History: After Spring Break we will conclude our unit on the War of 1812. We are learning SO much about the "2nd Revolutionary War" and demonstrating our understanding through retelling events and creating timelines. We are loving this Historical unit! Ask your scholar about Dolley Madison and what she did when the British attacked Washington D.C. After we finish up learning about The War of 1812 we will move west! Scholars will pioneer unchartered territory.  Ask your scholar how the invention of the steamboat changed American life and enabled the growth of cities. We will also explore the Oregon Trail!

Science: We will dive into a new unit on MAGNETS! This will require a lot of exploration and experimentation with different materials. Can your scholar identify magnetic objects at home? What materials are these objects made from?

Upcoming Events:
March 13-March 20: Spring Break, R & R
March 21: Quarter 4 Begins...can you believe it?!
March 23: Healthy Snack Day
A note from our Art & French teachers...
Bonjour Archway Families!
Mark your calendars for this year's Fine Arts and French Night: Friday, April 7th from 5:30 to 8:00. You will have the opportunity to view your child's artwork, participate in an art workshop, and enjoy a video of French songs and poems, as well as a live presentation by the French Club. Look for this flyer coming soon which outlines the schedule for the evening. NOTE: there will be TWO sessions, divided by last name. Please arrive only during your session to ensure sufficient parking. 
Hope to see you there! À bientôt!

Quarter 3 Evaluations and Checklists: I will be working on these over Spring Break and look forward to communicating your scholar's progress and growth since Quarter 2! Just a reminder on the checklists, it is NORMAL to see a number go from 4 to 3, 3 to 2, etc. as different skills are being assessed as part of that specific standard. For example, if in Quarter 2 they received a 4 for "Identifying story elements including main idea, main characters and their traits, setting, plot, and conclusion" they may have been able to do one part of this skill such as identifying the characters. Maybe in Quarter 3 they receive a 3 because there was one part of that skill that they could not complete on their own without my support, like the plot. If you see N/A, means we have not introduced this skill yet. We will cover those topics in the 4th Quarter!

"4" would look like: Your child displays confident success in that skill without any further support. I can be working with another student, and your child is able to independently show accurate proficiency without further instruction.   

"3" would look like: Your child is showing proficiency in this skill, and benefits from occasional support. I am walking throughout the classroom, occasionally stopping by his desk to monitor progress, and when I do so, he is successful.    

"2" would look something like: Your child is able to complete that task, but is in need of additional support. I am sitting right behind him, looking over his shoulder, whispering reminders, and with that support he is able to be successful.

"1" would look like: Your child needs my full attention and continual support in order for him to be successful in that skill. I am sitting right beside him, holding his hand, pointing with my finger to help track those words as he reads, etc.

Please let me know if you have additional questions after receiving the narrative evaluation and checklist!

Happy Spring Break!

Love,
Mrs. Dombrowski

Welcome March!

Hello Sweet 2B Families!

March is here which means beautiful weather to enjoy, March Madness, and Spring Training! I'm sure the kids are counting the days until their Spring Break! Only one more week!

It was so nice seeing several of our 2B scholars at the Arete Fun Run! Did you know that Mrs. Dombrowski's dog, Paisley, and Mrs. Smith's dog, Stella, FINALLY met at the Fun Run??? I think Paisley was more into the "lay and play" than Stella was!

Upcoming Dates:
Friday, March 3: Movie Night & Uniform Exchange (gates open at 6pm)
Monday, March 6: BINGO Book Reports Due
Friday, March 10: Chargers Night at the Soda Shop
March 13-20: Spring Break, R&R
Thursday, March 30: Chargers Night at Chipotle

We are so lucky that The Phoenix Symphony came to school on Monday! We enjoyed the performance so much!

Curriculum Next Week:

Spalding Words:

Monday: waist, waste, waiting, weary (weak), writing, writer, write, spend, enjoy
Tuesday: awful,  awesome, awe, usual, usually, complaint, complained, complain, auto, vacation, beauty, beautiful, flight, travel
Wednesday: rapid, repair, troubling, trouble, entrance, importance, important, carry, carried, loss


*Please keep an eye on your scholar's cursive letters when they are doing homework - We've noticed trouble with lowercase 'f' and 'm' vs. 'n'*

We will read about Pecos Bill and John Henry! Ask me what I remember about Paul Bunyan! 

Writing and Grammar: Next week students will take a break from diagramming and building wonderful sentences in isolation, to building wonderful sentences that fit in a paragraph! Students will be writing a paragraph on their favorite animals, using supporting details as to WHY those are their favorite animals. Feel free to brainstorm this weekend! 

Literature: We are all loving Sarah, Plain and Tall, and had a blast making a book cover for ourselves, ask your scholar what adjectives they used on their book cover to describe themselves. This week we will look up vocabulary words, and answer comprehension questions for chapters 4-6. We will also write an article for a pretend newspaper describing a friend that we’d like to have in our lives, much like that article Papa wrote for Sarah!

Math: Next week we will continue to explore the world of fractions! We will make pizzas and discuss fractions. We will look at pizza toppings and pizza slices. We will understand that fractions are part of a whole, and that fractions are EQUAL parts. We will use M&M’s to make fractions come alive! *Can you help us out with this by donating fun size bags of M&M's?*

Science: Simple machines will continue into next week. We will take a closer look at how pulleys allow us to use gravity to help move heavy loads. We will create our own pulley using a soda can! Next, we will review how wheels and axles help us move heavy loads by decreasing the amount of friction. How do simple machines make work easier?
*If you can help us by bringing in ANY recycled materials you have (shoe boxes, kleenex boxes, cans) for a fun project we would greatly appreciate it! No glass please!*

Trying out our Helicopters! Can your scholar describe to you how it works as a screw and a wedge?

History: Monday, students will wrap up the War of 1812 by learning about Dolley Madison, Old Ironsides and the Star Spangled Banner. Please ask them to tell you about these important historical elements. After testing on the War of 1812, we will head West!

Love,

Mrs. Dombrowski