Monday Memo 1/22/19 (Tuesday Edition)

Good morning!

I hope you had a wonderful long weekend.

Winter Gear

This classroom is cold, and it's very cold outside.  We try to go outside if the weather is above 20.  Please make sure your child has all of their winter gear (coat, hat, gloves, boots, snowpants).  Children aren't allowed on the field to play in the snow without snow pants and boots, which makes for a sad situation if they are unprepared.  PLEASE have your child wear boots to school and have a pair of shoes to change into for the inside.  The classroom gets incredibly dirty with the melting snow from boots worn in the room.

Science with Ms. Knox

Our States of Matter unit will culminate with our visit from the Acton Discovery Museum scientist on Friday.

Writing

Your child is doing a lot of research about the dangers to our environment for our opinion writing unit.

Sharing Names

Learning about everyone's names was so much fun!  Thank you for helping your child share those stories.  

Buddies

We made posters with our buddies for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Dinner on Friday night at the middle school.

Mystery Reader

Thank you to Adrienne Deranian for coming in on Wednesday.  Click here to sign up for your turn.

Have a great week!  Please contact me with any questions or concerns.

Monday Memo 1/14/19

Good morning!

Winter Recess

It can be quite upsetting to children to be unprepared in the event of a long-awaited winter snowstorm! Please be reminded that we go outside for recess whenever it is possible, including during a snowstorm. Throughout the winter months, please send your child to school with appropriate gear including snow pants, snow boots, winter coat, gloves, and scarves.  Keep the snow clothes in a separate reusable shopping bag (perhaps the one your child brought home on Thursday).  This way, wet gear won't soak everything in the backpack.  Children should not wear shorts to school in the winter.  Thank you for your help with this.

Snacks

Please remember to pack a healthy snack for your child each day.  Children should not bring candy to school.  We encourage snacks packed in reusable containers or other earth-friendly packaging.  The best drink for snack time is water.  Juice is a less healthy choice and makes a mess in the classroom when spilled.  Thank you.

Plastic Bag Monster Spotted at Happy Hollow School!

 It was so much fun to have my dad Pat Conaway meet our wonderful Happy Hollow second graders on Thursday.  We enjoyed a very informative and entertaining presentation.  There he is, in all his glory, as the Plastic Bag Monster.  The costume is made up of 500 bags, which is what the average American uses each year.  Yikes!

Mystery Reader

Thank you so much to Doug McNeilly for reading to our class this week.  Please click here for your turn.

PenPals

We received a box from our penpals on Friday, and your children eagerly began to write back!  We will FaceTime with them on Tuesday. 

Have a great week!
Miriam

 

Monday Memo 1/7/19

Good morning!

It's our first full week at school in 2019, and we are raring to go!

Writing

Opinion is our new writing genre.  This is an exciting unit where your child will write persuasive pieces with the aim of convincing the reader to be better friend to the earth.  Not only will your child compose these second grade op-eds, they will also write a script and produce a public service announcement using iMovie.

I am proud that my dad Pat Conaway will be here on Thursday to present to the second graders about the importance of being good stewards to the environment.  A retired middle school teacher, my dad has used his time (when he's not driving my kids around to various activities) to become a community activist.  He has led efforts across Massachusetts to ban plastic bags.  He's the president and founder of Keep Natick Beautiful, an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful.  Clearly, I'm very proud of him, and I'm so excited for him to meet my awesome students.

January Homework Calendar

Happy New Year!  The January Homework Calendar is here.  More info to come on Monday!