On Thursday, November 21st we'll be having our Harvest Party in the afternoon, and our community helper field trip to the Fire Station in the morning. We are looking forward to learning about the amazing work these first responders do for our community.
We're leaving school by 9:30 in the morning and we'll be back in time for lunch. Please remember to send in your permission slip so that we can all go along on such a fun field trip.

Learning About Safety

We have been learning about communities and the people in them. Especially, the people in a community that help us. So far, we've met a Portland Fire Fighter, and and a police officer from Oregon City. He came to our school with his police car and we all got a chance to get in and check out the *gear*.

After we checked out his car, he talked to us about what we need to remember about being safe.

 This is her *scared* face!

As we continue learning about communities, we'll be going on a field trip to the nearby fire station. Be on the look out for permission slips to come home!

Spirit Week

Next week is our Red Ribbon Week. Red Ribbon Week is an alcohol and drug prevention awareness campaign. Its goal is to educate kids and encourage participation in drug prevention activities. Next week we have several days where students have the option of dressing up.

The days are:
Monday: "Put a Cap on Drugs" Wear a cap or hat.
Tuesday: "Living Without Drugs is No Sweat!" Wear sweatpants or warm-ups.
Wednesday: Red Ribbon Spirit Day. Wear Red!

Remember, there is NO school on Thursday and Friday. Because this is a short week, there won't be a regular spelling list.

Laps For Linwood

We had our jog-a-thon last week! We ran for 20 minutes in the morning... when it was still pretty cloudy and chilly! We were troopers, however, and we did a great job! Yay us! =)

We started out with a warm up. The Milwaukie police chief led us in a few exercises.

Our amazing PTA had encouraging messages all along the track to cheer us on.

It was HARD work!

I'm so proud of our class! We ran - or walked - without stopping, and never complained! All of the money that we raised today will pay for new technology, field trips, or other things for our school.

Thank you for supporting us!

Work on Writing

I think (I hope!) we're done with this comment: "I don't know what to write about!"

We spent a good chunk of time this month doing a lot of brainstorming about what we can write about during our writing time.

First, we made an ABC list with ideas that start with each letter of the alphabet. Once we started, the ideas started coming fast and furious! One idea would remind us of something else...

We also made a "Heart Map". A Heart Map is a visual reminder of all that we love and care about. Both of these resources help us when we're stuck.

Our first writing unit has been on personal narratives. All of the things we thought of, and put on our list, were usually about *us*. When we're the main character of the story, and it is about something that happened to us, it's called a "personal narrative". I've been reading some wonderful stories. =)

Now we just need to work on our writing stamina. We need to be able to write for longer amounts of time before announcing, "I'm done!" =)

Read to Self

We've been working so hard on getting our routines down. One of the things we're practicing is our "Read to Self" time. First, we had a lesson on choosing "Good Fit Books" for our book boxes. We compared a good book to a shoe... it has to fit! And, it has to be for the right purpose. We can't wear our soccer shoes to a fancy dinner! :) This is the poster we made to remind ourselves how to choose a book:

Then we talked about what it should look and sound like during our quiet reading time. This is the poster we brainstormed:

Every day we read a little bit longer before we had to stop. We're up to 20 minutes of quiet reading time!

We Made it Through!

Whew! We have hit the ground running! I don't know about the kids, but I could've slept all weekend long! Being in 2nd grade is a lot of work! :) We've been busy, busy, busy... learning procedures and routines, and just remembering what it is like to sit in a classroom all day long... and it's been HOT in our room, too! The kids have been troopers through all of the warm weather. We've got 3 fans blowing at all times! I'm hopeful that the weather will begin to cool off... (fingers crossed!)

I'm so impressed with the group of second graders that I'm teaching this year. We've already earned 2 Classroom Cub ("Caught You Being Super") Awards! (When we get to 10, we'll get a special treat!) Also, many kids have already started collecting jewels for the clip by reaching outstanding on our behavior chart. It's wonderful seeing all of the good choices during the day. :)