Thankful Hearts!

Dear 2B Families,

Thank you so much for the generous class gift! We appreciate you all thinking of us this time of year and treating us to our favorite places. Wishing you all a wonderful, cozy, and relaxing Winter Break! Happy Holidays!

Love,
Mrs. Dombrowski & Mrs. Smith

P.S. E-MAIL Issues: There seems to be a delay on our school e-mail and some parents have said e-mails have come back as "undeliverable". If I have not responded to an e-mail, I apologize! It might be because of the delay. If you can try sending it again to see if it delivers on time, that would be great. I was getting e-mails days late it seemed. I hope this corrects itself over the break. Thank you!

Wish List:

Thank you SO much for the Clorox Wipe donations! We are set for a while! However, we are down to our last box of Kleenex. If you would be able to donate a box to share in the new year, our runny noses would greatly appreciate it!

Winter Break is Here! Give a Big Cheer!

Dear 2B Families,

We made it! Hooray! Thanks for "hanging in there" with us these last few days. 

I hope everyone enjoys their much needed break. Have a wonderful time with your family! I hope you can enjoy several mornings of staying in your pajamas and drinking hot chocolate! And HOORAY for not having to pack LUNCHES until January 9th! That's even better!

I told the students that if they can recite "The Night Before Christmas" (this is a recording of the WHOLE class reciting together and it's pretty cute - ENJOY!) to their family over the break I will give them something special when they return on January 9th! Please e-mail me if your scholar recited this poem for your family! I would LOVE to hear about it!

Scholar Shout-Out:

Livia brought in a book "The Night Before Christmas" by Clement C. Moore. We enjoyed reading it as a class and everyone reciting! What fun! Thank you, Livia!

We made cards for Mrs. Smith and sang to her! "For She's a Jolly Good Teacher..." We love you Mrs. Smith!

Here are a few pictures to share from our Boxcar Feast today. Thank you to all of the parents for helping out!

Here is what we will be learning when we return from break...

Language Arts: We will be moving from Reading Reflection Logs for homework to BOOK REPORTS! The students are so excited to start reading chapter books. We will start with Historical Fiction and books will be sent home with your scholars on January 9th.

Grammar: Students will be editing, classifying, and unscrambling sentences! We will also introduce students to the writing process and they will write their first explanatory piece on their favorite colors. We will be in the prewriting stage where students are brainstorming and organizing their ideas.

Literature: We will start discovering the setting of our next book; Cricket in Times Square! Students will learn about Vermont and New York, as well as plot points on a map! Please send in a copy of Cricket in Times Square with your scholar!

Math: We will start a new unit on mental math! This unit is challenging. Please encourage and cheer on your student, fight the urge to “rescue them”! We will rely heavily on place value, decomposing numbers, and visualizing numbers! We will work to round the number to the nearest 10, and then add from there. For example 68+14 would be 70+12 mentally. Please encourage your students to follow the directions and not use the vertical algorithm! Workbook A may be kept at home...hooray! Math Workbook B will be sent home January 9th.

Science: We will start a new unit on the Human Body. We will begin with learning about the five senses associated with our body and will identify these important systems: skeletal, circulatory, nervous, digestive, and excretory. We will also learn about the significant contributions of Anton van Leeuwenhoek and talk about bacteria!

History: Our studies of Ancient Greece (Athens) will continue through learning about how Athenian boys and girls were educated. We will recognize that men and women were not equal in Athenian society. Next, we will locate Sparta on a map of Ancient Greece and understand the military lifestyle and education in Sparta. We will learn the difference between Sparta and Athens. If we have time we will dive into the Persian Wars and identify some important battles. I look forward to hearing what your scholars have to share as we continue learning about Ancient Greece. We are also busily preparing for our Greek Festival! Stay tuned!

Love,
Mrs. Dombrowski

Important Announcements

Important Announcements:

· Winter break starts on Thursday, December 22nd through Sunday, January 8th. School will resume on Monday, January 9th.
· Quarter 2 Evaluations will be sent to parents on Friday, January 6 at noon.

To 2nd and 3rd grade families:

We are holding a grade-level team competition called “Royalty for a Day” to see who can bring in the most tax credits to support Archway Arete’s extracurricular clubs and sports. If 2nd and 3rd grades bring in the most tax credits, I will be crowned “Queen of Sports” for a day when we return from our holiday break. As the Queen, I plan on holding a dodge ball tournament for all my royal subjects! I will also hand out a special treat at the end of the tournament. I appreciate all your help in asking friends, neighbors, and family to help support Archway Arete and help us win this competition!

Most Gratefully, Coach Rubino, Queen of Sports

 

Almost There!

Dear 2B Families,

We are almost there! A few important items for next week:

• Please remember to work on "Secret Student" letters this weekend. Students should write to their "Secret Student" including compliments and kind words. These are due on Monday 12/19. The students may color the tree on the back of the paper.

• Books for the book exchange need to be brought in on Monday wrapped in your favorite paper! If you are able to bring one extra book as a backup please e-mail me.

• Please send your scholar in with a sturdy bag to store items from their desk. Desks will be cleaned over Winter Break (inside and out) so students may not leave anything inside their desks. We will store all supplies in bags on the back hooks.

• Recycled materials will be much appreciated for an upcoming class project! Toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, boxes, plastic bottles, milk jugs, etc.

In PE this week the students learned a combination of dodgeball, laser tag, and capture the flag...how fun!

Scholar Shout-Outs...

Amazing Boxcar Projects! Thank you ALL for working so hard! I made a video of ALL these wonderful pictures but iMovie isn't cooperating at the moment to allow sharing! I'll try again soon.

Keegan brought in a book to share about BUGS! Thank you Keegan!

Next week is a short week and we will use this time to review. 

In Language Arts, students will review some challenging Spalding words from the past! We will also work on alphabetical order and use our phonemic awareness to make words from other words. How many new words do YOU think we will be able to make from the word gingerbread?

Math: We will also use this week to review in math! From arrays, to addition and subtraction with renaming, we will be working hard (and having fun)!

Science: We will go over our Insect Test and make corrections where needed. If we have time, we will talk about what we know about the Human Body to prepare for our next unit in January.

History: We will review what we have learned so far about Ancient Greece. Ask me if I know what democracy means and how it worked in Ancient Greece!

Love,
Mrs. Dombrowski

Six Days + Two Half Days!

Dear 2B Families,

The scholars are feeling it...we are feeling it...Winter Break is almost here! I hope that you are enjoying this time of the year and preparing for the holidays with joy. I know the kids are really excited and they keep asking me how many more days we have left so hence the title of today's post - Six FULL days (well to be fair, one Wednesday of early release) PLUS two HALF days! We can do it! 

Please remember that Boxcar Projects are due on Monday and our Boxcar Feast is happening on Wednesday, December 21 at 10:10am - students also need to bring a gently used or new book wrapped in their favorite paper for our book exchange. We finished reading The Boxcar Children on Thursday and the students were so excited!

Scholar Shout-Outs:

Kendall represented 2B at the school Spelling Bee on Monday evening. Thank you Kendall! We are so proud of your hard work and dedication.

Beatrice brought in a neat pop-up book about Greek mythology...which we are learning about right now in History! Thank you Bea!

Scholars Working Hard During Math Centers...

Happy Birthday David (12/8)!

Happy 1/2 Birthday Evan (12/9)!

ALL of our scholars did a great job this week when writing friendly letters to each other. They pointed out virtues they saw in one another. It was so sweet and warmed my teacher heart! Thank you Mrs. Smith for leading this lesson with love!

Next Week in 2B...

Language Arts: Next week we will recite "The Night Before Christmas"! Make sure your scholar has chosen their 1 stanza. Students will be writing a letter to a secret student! Your child will come home with a letter on Friday to work on over the weekend, they will be exchanging letters with their secret student on December 21 (at our Boxcar Feast). We will also continue to diagram and labels parts of speech in sentences, and master our editing skills by finding mistakes in sentences. Students will practice reading a story with inflection and expression!

Spalding Words Next Week ~

Monday: wonder, pair (two), pear (eat), pare (cut), check, prove, heard, hear, inspect, itself 

Tuesday: always, something, expect, need, thus, woman, women, young, fair, fare

Wednesday: dollar, evening, plan, broke, feel, sure, sugar, least, sorry, press

Math: Students are doing great with multiplication! Please have them continue their practice in the car of skip counting by 2s, 3s, and 4s. We will work hard to master our 3’s times table. We will also dive into division facts and talk about fact families. A car trip is a great time to give your child a math problem (5x2) and ask them not only for the answer, but for the fact family that it belongs with (2x5, 10÷2, 10÷5)!

History: We will continue our adventure through Ancient Greece! Students will experience the birth of Democracy in the heart of Ancient Greece, Athens! They will also learn the connection between the goddess Athena and the great city. Ask your scholar to explain the premise of the Trojan War as well as compare the lifestyles of ancient Greeks to our own.

Science: It will be our last week of learning about insects before we move on to our next unit: simple machines! We will meet an entomologist who will teach us about how insects can be friends and foes. On Monday a Study Guide will be sent home with your scholar. Please read it and review all week so they are ready for their test on Thursday. Happy studying!

Love,
Mrs. Dombrowski