Traditions!

We had a special visitor come in this week to read this week's reading selection, Officer Buckle and Gloria, to both of the second grade classes. 

We worked on our invitations for the Generation Celebration on Jan. 8th.  Grandparents are invited to come worship with us for this special mass in their honor.  There will be light refreshments after the mass.

The second graders joined together to take a "trip around the world" as we learned about Christmas celebrations and customs from different countries.  In our room we "visited" Iceland where we watched a ppt, colored the Icelandic flag, made a Yule angel, and received a traditional Icelandic gift- a candle.  In Miss Agostini's room we "traveled" to Australia where we viewed Australian Christmas cards, heard an Australian Christmas carol, colored the flag, and made place mats with scenes from Australia.  We will visit two more countries next week.

We have been talking about traditions this holiday season.  Above the students are checking out one of my traditions- musical Santas for the classroom.  Reminder: the students should be prepared to present one of their own family traditions on Wed., 12/18.  They can bring an item to show or just tell us about the tradition.

The classroom is looking very festive with our holiday projects.  Pictured are gingerbread man glyphs.  Glyphs are a way to present information with symbols rather than words.  Using the legend to translate the meaning, you can find out what kind of cookie the student likes, how many letters are in his/her name, etc.

We collaborated on our writing project this week.  Each student wrote about a tradition which was then typed and displayed on the Smart Board.  As a class we helped each other revise our writing to give more detail and organization.  The students decorated trees on which to paste the writing. These wonderful stories will be sent home in time for Christmas.

Reminder: the sandwich book reports are due on Monday.  We have already enjoyed some that were brought in; the students are doing a great job.  
 Our Christmas party will be on Thursday, 12/19 from 2-2:30.  We are treating it as a birthday party for Jesus.  The room mothers will be contacting parents to bring a treat.

We will be rocking the house at the Christmas mass on Friday.  The mass starts at 9AM to allow time for all of the Christmas carols we sing.  Everyone is invited.  It is a half day so if you want to take your child home after the mass, just send in a note that morning.

NO spelling, vocabulary, or reading test this week!! We will have a +4 test on Wed. and a chapter test in math on Thurs.  Review pages will be coming home on Wed.