Summer is Here!

177 days..... That is the amount of days I had the pleasure of teaching and growing with your children. I would like to take this time to thank you for all of the encouragement and support through out the year for your children and for myself. I hope that I have left half of the impression on all of the students as they have on me.

Being it was the last day of school, we of course made it as fun as we could. Today we cleaned desks as students practiced their cursive. We used shaving creams on the desk to complete this task!

Then of course we enjoyed this beautiful weather and went outside with the rest of the second grade classes to collect autographs! They loved being outside and enjoying the time with their teachers and friends.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe summer break! I look forward to seeing everyone's smiling faces in August. Next year I will be seeing our soon to be third graders more often, as I will be the school's interventionist next year, and my new classroom will be in the third grade hallways! So I look forward to seeing them all every morning. Please feel free to let me know if you ever need anything, or if the students just want to pop in to say Hello.

Tovar/Sarlo 2015-2016

2nd Grade 2015-2016

Have a FANTASTIC summer! SEE YOU IN AUGUST! 

Shedd Aquarium Field Trip!

The city of Chicago is always a VERY exciting place for students to visit! As we rode in the bus down town, all of the students were in amazement of the scenery and everything there is to take in.  That excitement was just the beginning!


The Shedd Aquarium is one of my favorite field trips to take the students on because of all the connections students can make, as well as how much the students really enjoy seeing all these sea creatures up close and personal! From the dolphin show, to petting starfish, to watching the beluga whale rush past the big glass, the students were in awe from the moment we got there to the moment we left! I am sure the students told you ALL about it, but here are some pictures!

Care to Create?!

Community Learning Night at Scott School!

Here in District 83, we are very lucky that are students have such wonderful resources, as well as each child having their own access to technology! Technology has been an important piece of the 21st century, and will be key as our students move forward into their future. Using this technology everyday, students have learned to join their new knowledge with that creative piece, and really show what they've learned on their iPads.

Care to Create, Community Learning Night at Scott school was a fantastic was to bring in families to have our students showcase what they know, and really take the teaching role to teach their parents what the know how to do.  We were very pleased to see all the families that were able to make it out, to allow their children to share their excitement and enthusiasm about our technology! Thank you to everyone who made it out! Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Governments, Communities, and Eric Litwin, OH MY!

As usual, we have been hard at work in 2nd grade. Sometimes we just get so carried away in our learning, I forget to post about it! So here is an update about all the fun we have been up too!

Social Studies

In social studies, we have been learning all about the community we live in and the government around us. Students have learned all about local, state, and federal government. We explored each governments leaders, mayors, governors, president, as well as the branches of our federal government. Students discussed laws and why they are important as well as characteristics that make a good leader!

After learning all of this! We didn't stop there. Students then worked in groups to create a town of their own! The only directions we gave was that they had to create a poster showing what their town looked like, a poster with the laws of their town, and a poster of WHO the leader was and WHAT made them a good leader! That was it, and boy did the groups take off in their own directions. Students worked together to create a town they thought others would want to live in! In the end, students would be able to VOTE for which town THEY would want to live on, based on the town, laws, and the leader.

Students then presented their towns! We had towns that were very SPORT oriented, we had towns that had laws that required everyone to get along and not fight, we even had towns where homework could only be given from Tuesday to Thursday. They loved hearing the different towns and being able to vote! I loved seeing all of the creativity as well as watching them apply everything we learned about our communities and government and applying it in this activity. Here are their final presentations:

ERIC LITWIN! 

As you have heard, Eric Litwin made a guest appearance on Tuesday, March 1st. The students were SO excited and loved being able to interact with the author of the books they love so much. He put on a great performance that engaged the students and got them moving, he even gave them a sneak peak of a new book in the works. It was such a great experience and I am so happy we were able to have the opportunity for him at our school. Hope you made it out to the evening performance at MMS!

Other updates:

Math: We have been working on identifying and counting coins. It would be great to include your children at home to identify and count money!

Writing Workshop:  Students completed their Memoirs. They enjoyed writing them, and loved reading each others. These writing pieces were graded and sent home this week! Be sure to check their folders for them.

REMINDERS!

End of Quarter: Third quarter ends Friday, March 4th! Parent teacher conference slips went home this week, please sign and return them. If there is a conflict with your time, please let me know and I will work with you to find a time that works.

Spring Pictures: Spring pictures are NEXT Friday, March 11th!

NO SCHOOL Monday, March 7th!


Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

DIORAMAS!

Last week was a short week, but an exciting one! Then again every week is exciting when we learn new things!

FIRST off, this week we have officially reached our

100th Day of school!!!

Wednesday was the 100th day of schools and we celebrated being 100 days smarter!

Next, we have been learning ALL about landforms. We have tied in what we learned about weathering and erosion and how it is connected to how landforms are made. After we did a very general introduction of each of the landforms, students were put into groups of 3, and set off to learn more about one particular landform. After students did research on their landform, they then began to plan out their dioramas.  The students worked hard with their groups to create their dioramas, label and write their facts, and then they presented their dioramas and facts to the rest of the class. The students then took notes on each landform from the new information their classmates taught them.

Here are some pictures of the students working hard on their creating:

Here are the groups with their finished products!:

PLAINS:

MOUNTAINS:

VALLEY:

ISLAND:

PENINSULAS:

The students loved being able to teach each other all about their landform!

Have a wonderful week!