It is hard to believe fall break is already here! The students have been very busy the past 2 weeks with many different activities. About half of our class ran to be our class representative for the SLT (Student Lighthouse Team). I was so proud of all of these students as they had to put in a lot of extra time outside of class to create their posters and write their speeches that they had to present to the class. Students then voted on who they thought would be the best representative for our class, and in the end Lily was voted the Primary representative, and Garrett is the secondary representative. We look forward to celebrating them both at the SLT Inauguration the week after fall break.

Students have been working hard on learning their math facts and solving word problems. When we return from the break, students will practice counting pennies, nickels, and dimes, as well as solving word problems with these coins. So if you have some spare change at home, encourage your child to count it up!

Our last science lab involved some messy experiments, especially when they got to make silly putty! Of course they all had a wonderful time though!

We ended our fall break by spending Friday afternoon with our 4th grade buddies. Students went outside to look for signs that fall is here, as well as have their 4th grade buddy share what kinds of clouds were in the sky. Then they all had some time to read with their buddies afterwards. It was a great afternoon!

When we return from the break, a lot of things will be going on. Make sure you check the October calendar that was sent home before the break, but here are a few extra reminders:

10/3- Reading logs for September due! Remember, in order for students to get the monthly reading reward, they must have read at least 5 nights a week for 20 minutes for the whole month of September. Parents must initial and put how long their child read those days in order for them to get credit for reading. 

10/5- The Media Center's fall break reading challenge is due, Directions on what to do for this are on the reading log that was sent home on Friday. 

10/6- Picture Day!

10/24- Conference week begins so students will be dismissed at 12:15 everyday this week. You will receive your conference letter with your scheduled time on Oct. 6th. It will be in your child's green daily folder. Please sign and return these ASAP. If your child has a sibling at this school, I have already met with your child's teacher and we have scheduled back to back conferences so that you don't have to come up to the school multiple times. 

This was a short, but busy week! Students finished up their reading unit with main idea and took their reading assessment on this comprehension skill. Next week we will begin our character analysis unit where we focus on how a character's actions, thoughts, and feelings tell us more about what kind of person they are.

Students have also been doing a great job with their narrative writing. This week we focused on adding "fancy words" in our writing, and coming up with interesting ways to start our stories-such as with a descriptive setting or action, We also finished up our unit on proper nouns, which students should now be capitalizing in their writing. Next week we will learn about collective nouns (a flock of geese, a team of players, a bouquet of flowers, etc.)

We started the making 10 strategy in math this week. Students are learning how to decompose numbers into ways that can make a 10 with the other addend. It is easy to add a number to 10 which is why this strategy can be helpful to students. Here is the anchor chart of how this strategy works:

The next few weeks in math will involve students working on memorizing addition and subtraction facts. We have done a lot of facts that make 10, but they need to know all their facts with numbers 0-20 by the end of the year. If you know your child does not have their addition and subtraction facts memorized, please consider practicing these facts at home with flash cards or with computer/i-pad games- there are a ton out there! See my links if you need a practice website for math facts. We will also be solving 1 step word problems daily using numbers, pictures, and words. Students will continue practicing the making 10 strategy within the word problems.

Next week we finish learning about Georgia's regions and begin to focus on Georgia's 7 rivers and the resources they provide to us.

Reminder: The Foundation drive ends this Friday  (9/16).  Please consider donating something to the science lab if you have not done so already. The top 2 classes in 2nd grade with the highest percentage of students donating will get an additional I-PAD for the classroom, and that would be great to have. Any donation is better than nothing-every little bit counts!

We had a lot of fun this week starting some new units in math and social studies. The class is now experts at making 10, and are excited to learn about this new strategy next week. We made some cool compass roses out of different designs from magazines and ads for a fun introduction into maps. We even got to learn about the region we live in, Piedmont.

For writing, we started to learn about proper nouns and how they need to be capitalized. We started working on including actions, thoughts, and feelings into our narrative writing, as well as incorporated our 5 senses for more descriptive writing. Next week we will finish up our main idea unit in reading.


 Students celebrated  the end of the matter unit with some cool experiments in the science lab Monday morning, and then made root beer floats in the afternoon to see how a solid, liquid, and gas could all be in one cup! They loved this yummy experiment!

                            We met Addison's school mascot when we visited the media center this week!

Hope everyone enjoys their Labor Day weekend! Please read the following note below from the Foundation:

The Foundation Funding Drive has been extended through September 16.  This is the Foundation's largest fundraiser for the year to help continue to keep our Science Lab going as well as provide other enrichment for the students and resources for Addison.  

There will be a classroom competition! The class with the highest % of participation by 9/9 will win an ice cream party! (right now, Mrs. Gillenwater is in 1st place)

The top two classes participating in the Drive in each grade level will receive an iPad, too!!  A percentage of the funds raised also comes directly into our classroom.

Don't forget...

When we hit $20,000, Mrs. Hallmark and Mr. Cohen will spend some time up on the roof for all to see!!!

When we hit $25,000, they will KISS A PIG!!

When we hit $30,000, the kids will get to tape Mrs. Hallmark and Mr. Cohen to the WALL. 

Please support us in this effort! Visit www.foundation4addison.org for details.