Homework went home today for Unit 3 Week 1. I just wanted to let you know that we spoke as a class today, as we do every week homework is sent home, and I emphasized how important homework and school work are and how important putting forth your best effort heading in to trimester two. Second grade is a big jump from first grade and expectations of students are higher.

I am so proud of what we have accomplished as a class thus far!  I cannot wait until conferences to show you what we have been working on!   

​Mrs. LeBourveau

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got to play in the snow!!!
Because of our TWO snow days and Fridays Teacher Workshop, there is no homework/spelling this week. Because grade are closing, we are revisiting some concepts that need some review in Wonders.  We will resume Wonders next week.
In math today the students received their logins for Xtra Math and completed the initial placement activity. This website can also be accessed at home at anytime for students to practice their math fluency. Again, it is a great tool for me to track their progress so make sure if it is accessed at home that the work in done 100% independent, so I can use this as an additional tool to drive my small group instruction. Students will be using this weekly on the ipads in class, during math rotations.  
Brrrr....It is cold outside!  Please make sure students come to school prepared. We will be going out for TWO recesses a day...even when snow and slush is on the ground. Students needs boots, snow pants, gloves, hats and a winter jacket EVERYDAY!!!  I would even suggest an extra pair of socks to change into, because feet are wet and cold for the rest of the day if they are playing hard in the snow. The nurse does not have extra snow gear to loan out.  Also, please make sure they bring sneakers or a dry pair of shoes to change into each day. Wet boots make the classroom floor very slippery and dangerous.

Theme Basket Items -  Can be brought in anytime. We have received about 5 items so far.  Thank you!!!

2nd Grade Conferences will take place in January - PLEASE VISIT THE IMPORTANT DATES TAB!!!

What an amazing day we  had!  We showed up for the pep rally in our second grade blue spirit wear and had a great time hula hooping in front of the whole school!  Even though my turkey call was not the judges favorite...the kids loved it and seeing the teachers get up and act a little silly!  What a great way to end the month of November and celebrate how RESPONSIBLE we were in November.

We made Owls today that are now hanging outside of our classroom...They turned out AWESOME!!!

We have been reading lots of Thanksgiving books and books about Pilgrims which prepared us for our voyage today.  Were we enjoyed some beef jerky and birch beer as we took a pretend voyage on the Mayflower to America. We pretended to be Pilgrims heading to the new land and boy are the kiddos thankful they have way more yummy food and choices than the Pilgrims did.

Speaking of thankful, I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your children with me, I just adore all 23 of my little turkeys! I am thankful to be their teacher and learn from them every day.  I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving and time off with your families.

Please enjoy photos from our great day.  :)

Mrs. LeBourveau  

This week our focus was on Owls!  We learned all about the owls; the variety of species, it's habitat, adaptations and more! We ended the unit today with Eyes on Owls. Marcia and Mark Wilson have been coming to New Boston Central School for 20 years!!! We have been lucky to have them come back each year as part of our enrichment programs funded by the PTA.  Mark and Marcia have traveled all over the world to photograph these amazing birds of prey. Mark, has recently published a book, Owling: Enter the World of Mysterious Birds of the Night, that I have purchased for the classroom.  They are available online or at the Toadstool in Milford if you are interested.
Please check out their website http://www.eyesonowls.com/ There is so much more information that your kids would love to check out! 
After Eyes on Owls, we returned to the classroom to dissect owl pellets of our own! The students were more than exited! Each student got to dissect their own owl pellet and figure out what animal it had previously eaten by examining the bones within the pellet. Their findings and bone chart are in their binders that went home today! 
*Please enjoy the photos of the owls and the owl pellets from today below.

This week we began unit 3 in our EDM program. We are continuing to learn and use tools while problem solving. We are taking a break from the unit lessons next week to review some concepts that I feel need some reteaching after correcting their unit 2 assessments. I will resume math lessons after Thanksgiving break.

This week we wrapped up Unit 2 in Wonders and began taking pieces of the Unit 2 Assessment. We will complete the remainder of the assessment next week before break. We also began our Narrative writing assessment that will also be completed next week.

Reading Counts at home!  Reading Counts Quizzes can know be taken at school and at home! Yay!  With that said, please keep in ind that this website helps me track students reading levels and comprehension. If a student wants to take the quiz at home, please make sure they are taking it independently for accurate reading levels and data tracking.

We have had such a busy week and I am sure they are tired...have a great weekend!
Please check out the Important Dates Tab for changed Info...

​Jillian

We sure did pack in a lot of work and fun in such a short week!  We wrapped up our bat week with a really cool STEAM Bat project...see pictures below!  Each student designed and created their very own bat. Given the supplies that were needed, each student had to create a bat that hung upside down on the sticks we gathered on our walking field trip last week. Afterwards the students wrote about the challenges they each faced while creating their bat, and of course their favorite part and what they learned.  They will be handing in their bat folders with all of their bat work from this week on Monday morning. I will then grade it and send it home after Thanksgiving.
Next week we will be learning about OWLS!  Hoo Hoo! Some really cool surprises headed their way!
This week in Wonders we reviewed diagraphs and next week we are moving on to trigraphs and possessive nouns.
We have been working really hard in reading and learning how to look for text evidence. We have been responding to reading by writing about what we have read about and gathering text evidence. We then discuss our findings and talk about how to navigate our way through the text using vocabulary clues, headings, bolt print, etc.

Please remember to have your child wear a winter coat, hat and gloves every day. They go outside for recess 2 times a day for 20 minutes...even if it is drizzling or snowing. 

Next week:
Wednesday - I am out for a professional development course.
Thursday - Community Meeting
Friday - Eyes on Owls

Week After Next:
Wednesday before Thanksgiving - WEAR BLUE!  We are having a school wide assembly and Second grade is wearing blue!  This is ALSO an early release day and we will be eating lunch on the classroom. If students buy hot lunch then they will just bring it back to the classroom.
No school on Thursday OR Friday.
*Please check out "Important Pages" tab for some important info coming up!

Mrs. Brissette is our classroom contact for the Theme Baskets. A notice just went home about this today. It is in your child's binder.

Have a Wonderful Weekend,
​Mrs. LeBourveau

Wow! Have we been busy!  Thank you Mrs. Biggs, Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Seugling for joining us on our walking field trip. We had an amazing day! We started off at the Historical Society where we learned quiet a bit about the town of New Boston and how our town used to been, many years ago. If you ever have time to stop into the Historical Society...it is a fantastic place!  Check out their website!!!  http://www.newbostonhistoricalsociety.com/
We continued our journey to the library and walked by Nan's House, North East Cafe, Parker Mill, the Ice House and talked about what those buildings used to be. We took the outdoor trail to the walking footbridge over to the library where Mrs. Ballou gave us a tour. Many students that do NOT have their own library card, went home with a library card application to fill out and return to the family. On our walk back we focused on the outdoor changes that we see; erosion, fast change, slow change and even some animal habitats and sign of animals!
After lunch on Friday we spent the better part of our afternoon on an erosion experiment, where we created land out of a cornmeal, salt and water mixture...we created different erosion scenarios...see pictures below!

This week we are working on diagraphs in Wonders...ch, sh, th, wh. We took our pretest today and also played Wonders games reinforcing our weekly skills and vocabulary. We will continue to reinforce these skills each day, until our test on Friday.

In math we are beginning Unit 3!!!  A purple packet went home today...This is All about Unit 3. It also has all of the answers for the students Home Links that will be coming home for the entire Unit, Please hang on to this, as it will be very helpful for you when it comes time to complete math homework. PLEASE KEEP the math homework attached to the SPELLING and READING LOG and turn in together on Fridays. Thank you!

In Science we are learning about BATS! Next week we will be learning about Owls, then we will be comparing and contrasting the two!  Our owl wrap up next week will be on Friday where EYES ON OWLS will be coming to school to see just the second graders. We will also have a very FUN owl surprise at the end of the day!

IN NEED OF: PAPER TOWEL/TOILET PAPER ROLLS for a STEM project this FRIDAY!

Thank you again for your support,
​Mrs. LeBourveau

Thank you parents for all of the yummy treats you sent in for our Halloween breakfast!  We had such a great day!  Please check out the photos below!

This week in Wonders we are are focusing on hard c/soft c and hard g/soft g, abbreviations and collective nouns. We will also be reviewing singular and plural nouns from last week...its was a little tricky!

In math we are still focusing on Tools & Strategies and will be wrapping up Unit 2 shortly.  Math homework was assigned this week! Please note that we have reviewed this skill in class, in small groups and should not be a challenge at home. I chose this Home Link to start with because it has been mastered by all students.

In science this week we are talking a lot about earth's changes; fast change vs. slow change. Today's mystery science lesson was about how rocks become sand...ask your child about it! They should be able to explain the process to you!

Don't forget that Friday is our walking field trip to the Library! It looks like we might get some snow flurries and it will be cold, so please dress in lots of layers!!!
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Friday Night is Family BINGO at school!
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​We worked SO hard on all of our Pumpkin Exploration activities! Each day we worked on something different. On Thursday students created a shaving cream and water color marbleized pumpkins!  They were so much fun!
Please enjoy!

Parents, 
Please take a moment to view the other tabs, as most have been updated with important information; Supplies, Important dates, etc.

Today a bunch of math papers are going home; skip counting by 5's, 10's, and 100's and Addition through 20 facts. Please review these math concepts with your child. They can easily be embedded into your nightly homework routine by asking 5 addition, 5 subtraction facts, etc.

Today we also worked on reading a story and going back into the text to find the text evidence. We did this 100% together. We found the answers and formed the sentences together. I am teaching them how to find text evidence by modeling every step along the way. We will do several together before they are expected to complete on their own. Today's story was about the desert. I am going to look them over and will send them home this week.

We have started our pumpkin exploration and will be continuing throughout the week. We have also been comparing and contrasting and writing about our pumpkins. Tomorrow we will tie in math and be estimating with lengths, weights and counting seeds. We will also be making scientific predictions...do they sink or float, etc.? As soon as we are done, we will be placing our work on the bulletin board outside of our classroom. I will take a photo and share when this is complete!

If your child is not going to be here on Friday, please let me know and I can give them their spelling test of Thursday instead of waiting over the 3 days until Monday.

Have a great week!
Mrs. LeBourveau

Parents,
This week is Fire Safety week. Today students got to chat with the New Boston Fire Department and sit in the fire trailer, where they discussed a variety of fire safety scenarios. They crawled out of the trailer when the simulated smoke came through the doors. Students will write about their escape plan and the fire department will choose their favorite one. The winner will be picked up at their house and driven to school in the fire truck. More details on that to come. Please enjoy some of the fire safety photos below.

There is NO spelling homework this week. Students will still have a reading log and will be assessed on their Name, Address, phone number and birthday. Students have been given practice pages in their homework packet. Their assessment will happen on Friday. A copy of the rubric used to score their assessment is also attached to their homework for your viewing.

Today we began the Unit 1 Wonders Assessment. We are doing this as a whole class. I am using Unit 1 as a teaching tool. I am teaching the students how to read the questions, highlight, look for specific words in the questions, use text evidence, etc. We are reading it together and going over the questions together. I have them answer the questions first, but then we correct them in red colored pencil, so you can see how your child did on their own. Please review their results so you can see where they are at.
*I will send home the Unit 1 assessment when we are done so you can see how your child did on their own, for your information. This is not taken as a grade or assessment but more for practice. Unit 2 will be completely independent.

Every Day Math Unit 1 Math journal pages will be sent home today for you to see how your child is did in Unit 1 Math. If there were errors, they needed to fix. Please go over these concepts with your child. 
If a paper has TS written on it, it means that your child needed TEACHER SUPPORT to complete the lesson.

Walking Field Trip is Thursday
Michaelmas is Friday *Students are responsible for handling their own money