It is hard to believe the end of the 2nd quarter is upon us. We have been working hard and are all ready for our Holiday party and winter break!

The next week and a half will be filled with some fun holiday activities, including reading lots of gingerbread stories as well as some dress up days that students can participate in. The calendar with the dress up days went home on Thursday. Information about the class holiday party went home on Thursday as well. It is nice to see that so many people have already signed up to donate or bring in items! The 3 volunteer spots to help set up for the party filled up quickly, but if you are interested in coming to volunteer during the party, then please let Brooke McQuilken (newstreambl@gmail.com)  or I know and we can plan accordingly. The party will run approximately from 1:10-2:10. If you do plan to come to the party, please make sure no siblings attend. Below is a link for the Holiday party sign up if you need it:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f094fa9ae2aa1fe3-hanson

Thank you in advance for your support in making sure our party is a success! Please make sure all donations are turned in by this Friday!

To finish out the quarter, students will pick a historical figure they have learned about the past few weeks and will write an informational paper on them. They will choose from Mary Musgrove, Tomochichi, or James Oglethorpe.

We have been working on 2 step word problems and will make a holiday word problem book this week to practice solving the problems with different math strategies we have learned this year. Students have been measuring items in centimeters, meters, inches, and feet, and this week we will work more on comparing their measurements, as well as putting their measurements on a line plot.

This week in the science lab, students reviewed heat energy by making pancakes and saw how a liquid can be changed into a solid when you add heat energy. It was a yummy experiment that was enjoyed by all! Students also participated in other heat and sound energy experiments to see how it made matter change.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was great seeing many of you at the Thanksgiving lunch, the students are always so excited to have special guests join them for lunch.

The next few weeks we have a lot going on! Students have been doing great with the new math strategies they have learned this quarter, and they will continue to learn a few more, including using a hundreds chart to add and subtract. We will also be working on 2 step word problems, estimating and measuring objects with centimeters, meters, and then inches and feet.

Students finished up their energy unit last week, and even wrote a book about the different kinds of energy we studied- light, heat, and motion. Students enjoyed a fun STEM lesson in our science lab. They worked with a partner to come up with a way to help their race car move with only a few materials. It was interesting to see all the different ideas!

The rest of the quarter we will be studying Georgia's Beginnings in social studies. They will learn about the historical figures James Oglethorpe, Tomochichi, and Mary Musgrove.

In reading and language arts, we will work on inferencing, reflexive pronouns, root words with prefixes and suffixes, and informational writing.

Reminders:
Reading Logs will be checked for the month of November on December 1st. In order for students to receive credit for reading this month, there must be a parent initial and the number of minutes read for 4-5 days a week. The students have a goal of reading 20 minutes 5 times a week (100 minutes a week).
Any donations (money/gift cards) for the Holiday Shoppe Gift Basket should be turned in by December 5th. Please refer to the email that Mrs. McQuilken sent last week if you have any questions.
Info about our class Holiday Party will be coming soon  :)

I can't believe it is already November! We had a great first field trip to the Cobb County Safety Village. Students learned many great safety tips- be sure to ask them about it! 

We also had a Wellstar nurse come in and present a lesson on germs and how easily they can spread. Students learned some interesting hand washing tips so be sure to ask them about that as well!

In math, students have been practicing adding 2 digit numbers with the expanded form strategy, and they have been doing great with it! Next week we will move on to our measurement unit (starting with measuring in centimeters and meters), as well as learning a new subtraction strategy called adding up in chunks. You can see examples of the adding up in chunks strategy here:

We started to learn about energy and its different forms in science. Students participated in a fun science lab experiment where they saw how light energy was used to make solar cars move, solar beads change color, and even made a balloon!

For language arts and reading we have been working on compound words and sequencing. Next week we will learn about contractions and start a reading unit on story elements (setting, problem, solution, characters, etc.)

Reminder: there is no school on November 8th due to the election!

Please note for your calendar: Our Thanksgiving lunch time is scheduled for Thursday, November 17th at 11:20. On Tuesday and Wednesday Nov. 15-16, other grade levels will have their Thanksgiving lunches. That means on those days we pick up sack lunches and eat in our classrooms, so please don't make plans to eat lunch with your child on these days. 

Please read the note below from the Foundation and check out this link promoting Kids Night Out hosted by the 2nd grade teachers:

                                                    https://youtu.be/C85z5TPV4SU

Guess what?  On November 11th, Addison is hosting a Kids' Night Out!  There are 35 spots open for a Dinner and a Movie drop off event with 5 of Addison's teachers! Check out the auction site and sign up!   www.biddingowl.com/addisonelementary 

Register first with an alias user name and then place your bid on an open spot.

It's only $20 for your child to be watched, fed, and entertained for 2 1/2 hours!!

This is set up like an auction - after all 35 spots are filled at the starting bid of $20, you can be outbid...so watch out!  This is a Foundation fundraiser to continue to support the Science Lab that we love.  If you have any questions, please contact Laura Glancy at lauragpta@gmail.com

And stay tuned - on December 4th there will be a really special after school experience with Mr. Cohen - an Improv Class for 15 lucky participants!