Tuesday News

Dear Parents,

We are in the home stretch before winter break!  Tonight is PTA Eat-Out Night at Tijuana Joe's!  A copy of this week's newsletter, The Weekly Hoot, is under the News You Can Use tab.

Next Tuesday, December 20 from 12:45-2:00 is our class holiday party.  Please check our class Shutterfly account to see how you can donate supplies and/or your time to our party!  All parents are welcome to attend.  Parents who come for the party may check their child out of school and take them home at the end of the party if you wish!  Don't miss out, because it is going to be SNOW much fun!

We DO NOT have a spelling rule this week, as we are using our word study time to review grammar concepts learned this quarter.  We'll be reviewing contractions, proper nouns, possessive nouns, and reflexive pronouns!

Please continue to practice basic addition and subtraction facts 0-20 with your child on a regular basis.  Building basic fact fluency will help your child to solve multi-step/multi-digit problems and problem solve with more confidence and consistency.  Greg Tang has some great games for building fact fluency on his website www.gregtangmath.com--BEST OF ALL, these games are all FREE!!

I'm looking forward to another awesome week in second grade!

Mrs. Kidd

All About Problem Solving

Problem Solving...it's a challenging task that students will encounter for most of the rest of their mathematical school lives.  We will work on one and two step problem solving for the remainder of second grade.  Here's the good news:  with consistent practice and a routine for attacking each problem, problem solving can actually be fun and easy!

There are several different types of addition and subtraction word problems that students must be able to solve with consistency by the end of second grade.  (Click on the picture to download a copy!)

Greg Tang is a nationally respected math guru.  He has a FREE word problem generator on his website, which can be found here:  Greg Tang Math Word Problem Generator!  He trained East Side teachers the past two years on how to teach problem solving and how to break down the steps for solving with our students.  He suggests the following steps, which is what we use in class to solve problems!

Rewriting the question as a statement, helps students to truly understand what missing information they are looking to find.  Creating and labeling a bar model is one of the most important steps in this plan!  A correctly formed bar model, will show students exactly how to write a number sentence and solve their problem.  Is the whole (biggest/total amount) missing in the model, but you have both parts?  Simple, add the parts to find your answer!  Do you have the whole, but you are missing one part?  Subtract to find your answer.  A number sentence, or equation, includes numbers to add or subtract and a variable, or unknown part!  When solving comparison problems (keywords more/fewer), the students should first determine who/what has more and who/what has fewer or less.  We try to solve several problems of the day each week.  Here is what these steps look like in action:

Another great site for practicing modeling and solving word problems is Thinking Blocks.  This site also includes a FREE app for practicing these problems.  We use the app in class to help us practice these problems in an interactive way!

Problem solving takes time and practice, but it doesn't have to be an unsolvable mystery.  When working with your child at home, he/she should be familiar with the steps above and be able to work through these steps to solve homework problems!

Happy Problem Solving,

Mrs. Kidd

Welcome Back from Thanksgiving Break!

Dear Parents,

I can't believe we've made it to the last week of November!  I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Break!

The week before Thanksgiving, our class enjoyed reviewing nonfiction text features by "performing" Text Feature surgery!  Students were asked to go through nonfiction magazines to cut out examples of text features of text we've been studying, like heading/subheadings, photographs, captions, charts or diagrams, and bold faced words.  Students also were asked how these text features help them better comprehend the text!  To see all of our text feature surgery pictures, check our class Shutterfly site later this week!

On the Friday before break, the second grade worked on STEM projects related to the founding of Georgia, which we'll be learning about next in Social Studies.  Students were asked to review/research the five regions of Georgia, imagine they were settlers who needed to create a settlement in one of the regions, and use necessary materials to build a settlement!  Here are some of the team STEM creations:

Our class newsletter for the week was e-mailed out this afternoon, and you can also find it under News You Can Use!  Please read it carefully to see what we're learning about this week!  I'll post this week's spelling sight words and rule of the week under Homework Resources.

I'm looking forward to finishing second quarter STRONG over the next three and a half weeks!

Mrs. Kidd

Monday News

Dear Parents,

Thank you to Mrs. Toma and Mrs. Shah for volunteering as parent collaboration helpers today and doing an Adventures in Art lesson with our class while I was in 2nd grade collaboration.  The class loved learning about Piet Mondrain, and I appreciated planning and data discussion time with the other second grade teachers!

We are in need of more donations for Thanksgiving food baskets for Fair Oaks Elementary.  All donation items need to be sent in by Wednesday mornings, when baskets will be collected and prepared for delivery to Fair Oaks.  Fair Oaks Elementary is our sister school...and is not far from East Side.  The students and families at Fair Oaks may not have access to enough food throughout the holiday, without the donation of baskets from our school.  Please help out if you are able!

Here's what we've been doing in class:

In math, we're working so hard on adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers!  Here's a look at the strategies we've been learning and using!

In Social Studies, we're learning all about economics and the distribution/allocation of goods and services.  We're learning about scarcity, first-come/first-served, majority rule, sharing, and lottery.  A study guide all about economics was sent home today in your child's HOOT binder!

In Reading Workshop, we've been learning all about nonfiction text features--how to locate them and how they help us to better understand nonfiction text!  We'll be doing "text feature surgery" later this week!

While on maternity leave, I prepared STEM BINS for our class to use for extra enrichment/challenge opportunities during morning work, after finishing other work early, and more.  These bins provide challenge and extension opportunities for students to build, create, construct, and problem solve.  I introduced the STEM BINS to our class last week, and the kids are already LOVING them!  Thank you to the parents that have already donated refill supplies for some of the bins...we can't wait to learn and grow with these this year!

As we draw close to Thanksgiving Break, please know that I am so thankful for each of you and your amazing children!  We have a great class.  I hope that you have safe travels and a restful, wonderful break next week!

Love,

Mrs. Kidd

Monday News!

Dear Parents,

Please don't forget that tomorrow is Election Day, which is a student holiday!  Enjoy an extra day with your kid(s)!

Please sign-up on our class Shutterfly page to donate items for our Thanksgiving basket and STEM Bin supplies.  Our school will be making Thanksgiving food baskets again this year for families at East Side and our sister school Fair Oaks Elementary, who are in need of food during this holiday season!  Over the past few weeks, I have been putting together STEM Bins for our students to use during morning work, free time, and for enrichment!  I will post pictures of our STEM bins soon, but we are in need of extra supplies to use as refills when the consumable supplies are used up!

This week, we'll be studying the same spelling pattern and sight words as last week, as we did not have time in my opinion to practice enough in class last week.  I did not feel like our class was quite ready to be tested over this rule last week, because due to lots of schedule changes, we didn't have enough instruction time for that skill in class!  We'll practice more this week and test on Thursday!

Please check out this week's edition of The Weekly Hoot, which you can also download from the News You Can Use!  Students have been asked to do some research for their EXPERT books at home this week!  Please do some research on-line at home or even take your child to the library!

Copies of our addition and subtraction strategies are being sent home to help you better understand the place value based strategies we are learning in class.  You can download an additional copy of the strategies under our Homework Resources tab!

I'm looking forward to another great week with the Outstanding Owls!

Mrs. Kidd

What a Week!

Dear Parents!

We had an AWESOME week in second grade!  Our Fall Party and Centers were GREAT...thank you to all of those who sent in donations and/or came in and volunteered to help out and spend time with our sweet class.  Thanks to our great room moms for organizing the afternoon for our owls!

We've been learning new addition strategies for adding 2-digit numbers.  These are based on the place value concepts that we've been learning all year.  While these strategies may be new to us adults, they build strong mental math skills and true understanding of the concepts of addition and subtraction.  Explanations and examples of these addition strategies were sent home on Friday to help with next week's homework!

We have been learning all about energy and how energy makes matter move and change.  We made flipbooks all about energy in class!

We started our first EXPERT BOOKS.  Students chose topics they know all about and can teach others about!  We have started writing chapters, or paragraphs, that have a clear topic sentence, three supporting details, and a concluding sentence.  While it takes some practice for students to include these elements in their writing, this format will help students to organize their thoughts.  Better yet--this corresponds to work we will be doing in reading workshop as we move towards identifying the main idea and supporting details of nonfiction text!

In Reading Workshop, we started learning all about nonfiction text features!  It's important that students learn how to locate the text features AND more importantly, how to use them to dive deeper into the comprehension of nonfiction text!  We'll be learning about:  table of contents, headings, subheadings, photographs, captions, timelines, maps, diagrams, charts, bold/highlighted words, glossaries, and more!

It's been a GREAT week!

Mrs. Kidd

Mrs. Kidd is BACK!

Dear Parents,

I've had a wonderful two days getting to know your children!  They have been very flexible making some changes to routines and our classroom layout!  We are working so hard to finish our place value unit, learn about FORCE & MOTION, and study nonfiction text!  Your children are so smart, funny, creative, and sweet...they are a wonderful group to come "back" to after a nice maternity leave!

Please check our classroom shutterfly site as our room moms are finishing up plans for our Halloween Party on Monday, October 31st!  Our party will be from 12:45-2:00.  We will definitely need help from at least 5 people, but all parents are welcome to come by if you are free!

I loved seeing many of our students in Tie-die today for Red Ribbon Week.  Tomorrow students should dress for their future careers!  I can't wait to see what all of the Outstanding Owls want to grow up and do!

Thanks for a great start to the school year for me!

Love,
Mrs. Kidd

Good morning! I hope everyone had a marvelous Monday!
This week is a busy week for the Owls! Since it is conference week and early release, we are having  to fit a lot into our short days! We will not be learning any new sight words or spelling rules this week.
Please make sure you know your scheduled conference time. Please try not to be late as conferences are only twenty minutes long and we do not want to keep those scheduled after you waiting!

As my time here with the Owls comes to an end, I wanted to tell you all what a pleasure it was to meet you and your children! I could not have asked for a better class to work with! I will miss the Owls so much. I cannot wait to see what the future holds and hopefully I will be able to come back and visit!

Have a great week!
-Ms. White

Do you want to help us duct tape our principals to the wall, get your teacher a $50 gift card, or win a party for your child’s class? This Friday, October 14, every student who has brought in a donation to the Capital Campaign will receive a piece of duct tape to help tape Ms. Mavity, Mr. Jones, and Ms. Hardy to the wall. It’s not too late to donate! All donations count. Your child can bring in a donation of $1, $5, $20, $100, or any other amount by Friday and be able to participate. You can send in cash, donate online (www.eastsideelementaryfoundation.org), or make a check payable to “East Side Elementary Foundation.” Every class with over 80% participation will receive a $50 gift card to Lakeshore Learning for their teacher. The highest participating class in each grade level will win an ice cream party for the entire class.

Good afternoon!
I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful fall weather this weekend!
We had a blast on our field trip to the Fire Safety Village on Friday! We learned about all kinds of safety! We will continue learning about safety this week by talking about peer pressure and medicine safety.
Don't forget that tomorrow is Walk to School Day! Also, the non-fiction Pumpkin Project is due this Friday, October 14th, so don't forget to bring those in! I did send home another instruction sheet in the homework packet as a reminder. I also sent a math facts practice sheet home. Please continue going over these with your child each week.
Lastly, parents if I sent home an assessment with an orange slip attached to it, please do not forget to send those back in with your child! I will need these back as soon as possible!
I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
-Ms. White

Happy Friday eve everyone!
Tomorrow is going to be a very fun day for us as we go on our Fire Safety Field Trip! Please make sure your child wears their class t-shirt that they received before Fall Break.

I wanted to give everyone a quick update on whats coming up next week! Firstly, please make sure you have signed up for a date and time for your conference! If you have not gotten an invitation yet, please let me know!

This week we wrapped up units like seasons, personal narratives, and using context clues! Next week we will begin learning about asking and answering questions using non-fiction texts, writing "All About..." pieces using non fiction texts, and will also be reviewing place value using three digit numbers! As always, please make sure you are reviewing sight words and making sure your child is reading at least twenty minutes each night.

P.s.
The Owls had "sweet" time investigating Matter using their soda and ice cream floats!

October 3rd

Good morning! I hope everyone had a wonderful break! I just wanted to send out a quick reminder that games from our STEAM Day can be picked up either this morning or this afternoon. If your child worked with a partner, they should have decided who was going to take the game home.The games that are not picked up by this afternoon will be recycled.
Thanks,
Ms. White

September 23 - STEAM Day is here and we can't wait to get started! Since most of the games will be too large to take home on the bus, we are asking that parents of bus riders come and pick up their child's arcade game on Monday (in the morning or after school). If your child is working with a partner they will have to decide who is taking it home. Your child will be responsible for asking you to pick it up for them. It will be recycled if it is not picked up! :) 

Good afternoon everyone!
I have a couple of updates for you before we begin Fall Break!
Firstly, here are some ideas of materials you can send in tomorrow for STEAM Day: tin foil, balls, duct tape, plastic toy soldiers, pipe cleaners, straws, buttons, bottle caps, cone shaped coffee filters, and paper cups!
Also, if you have not already sent in your money and forms for our High Touch High Tech field trips please do so ASAP! I will also be posting a sign up soon for our Fall Centers that we will be doing in October, so keep an eye out for that! I will be sending home some information after Fall Break about a project we are doing for our unit on non-fiction books! You will be decorating a pumpkin(real or fake) relating to a non-fiction topic from a book! Students will also be presenting facts on that topic that they learned while reading! You can be reading and brainstorming over Fall Break! I will send home more information later.
Lastly, today I sent home some information about your online Scholastic book orders! If we spend $300 as a class, we will earn a ton of free books for our classroom! I also sent home some information regarding the Fall Festival.
I hope everyone has a fun and safe break!
I will miss all of my Owls while we are gone!
- Ms. White

STEAM Day Boxes Needed

Hello parents! Just wanted to let you know that we are collecting boxes for STEAM day! If you have any cardboard boxes that you do not need or want anymore please send them in!
Thanks,
Ms. White

The Foundation Capitol Campaign

Hello East Side Parents,

The Foundation Capital Campaign will end on Friday, Sept. 23, 2016.  In order to raise the funds necessary to continue supporting our students and staff, Foundation is asking for a minimum donation of $75 per student.

Parents you can donate by returning the envelope that came home in  Monday folders or donate online through the Foundation website www.eastsideelementaryfoundation.org

Thank you for your support.

STEAM Day Supplies

Items to be purchased for each classroom:

·       4 rolls of masking tape

·       4 rolls of duct tape

·       rubber bands

·       string

·       tin foil

·       popsicle sticks

·       pipe cleaners

·       x-acto knives (adult use only)

·       Dixie cups

Additional suggested donations through room reps:

·       toilet paper and paper towel tubes

·       egg cartons

·       bottle caps

·       corks

·       small figures/ craft materials

·       metal hangers

·       straws

September 20th 2016

Good evening! I hope everyone had a terrific Tuesday!


This week we will be focusing on learning more about Matter,  and working on word problems that involve money.  We had a blast last Friday making our own Oobleck! This experiment helped us learn more about the different states of Matter! We will also be working on our retelling skills in reading! Please make sure you are going over sight words with your child throughout the week! As always, the spelling test will be on Thursday.


Don't forget that our STEAM Day is Friday! Your child can be brainstorming ideas at home so we can use these ideas on Friday! If your child comes up with an idea that might require extra materials that we will not be provided with, you may send those materials in starting Wednesday! I will post the materials that the PTA will be providing for us.  Also, our Fire Safety In House Field Trip is Friday! It looks like Friday will be packed full of fun!


Lastly, I would like to recognize one of our fellow Owls, Caroline Willis for taking initiative and starting her own trash pick up committee. Caroline came in with her gloves and trash bag, ready to clean up our playground! Thank you Caroline!

I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week! Enjoy your fall break!
-Ms. White

         

Conferences

This year East Side will be using Sign Up Genius to schedule our teacher conferences. This scheduling website will allow parents to have a choice of their conference scheduling.   

Parents will receive an invitation from their child's teacher to sign up for conference times. The Sign Up Genius information email will be sent to the parent email address on file with your teacher/school. If you do not have a sign up genius account, you will need to create one with the email address that your teacher uses, then you will be able to sign up for your conference time. If you already have one, you can use that account to sign up for your conference time.

You will get an email when it is your time to sign up. So you may receive invitation emails at different times. You will also be given a sign up deadline to schedule your conference at that time. If you have not signed up by the deadline a time will be assigned to you.

Please let me know if you have children with siblings at East Side and you did not receive an email. Parents without children with siblings at East Side will sign up after Fall Break. Thanks for your help in this matter. 

Good evening Owl Families! 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! Here is an update on what is happening with the Outstanding Owls the next couple of weeks! This week we are focusing on Matter in science! We are doing many hands-on activities and investigations to learn all about Matter. We are also learning about story elements such as the beginning, middle, and end of a story! We will be finishing up our personal narratives this week so our Owl Authors can publish their first writing piece! In math we are reviewing the differing values of the U.S. coins and slowly  moving into money word problems up to one dollar. 

Next week is a busy week for us!We have a two hour teacher collaboration day next Thursday the 22nd! We have one parent volunteer but will be needing one more. This will be an Adventures in Art day!  On Friday we have our In House Fire Safety Field Trip as well as our STEAM project! I just posted an important notice from the PTA about our upcoming STEAM Day. All donations are welcomed! If you have not already sent in the permission forms for the Fire Safety Field Trips, please send them in as soon as possible! I will also be sending home permission slips for our upcoming High Touch High Tech field trips tomorrow, so keep an eye out for those. As always our spelling test for this week will be tomorrow.

Please continue to review sight words, math facts, and word problems at home! You can also start studying the values of the U.S. coins! 

Thank you to all of the families and parents of the Outstanding Owls for all of your support! A special thanks to all of my parent volunteers who  helped with our Creek and Cherokee field trip,volunteered during Math Lab, as well as those who have been coming in on Fridays to lend a helping hand! I could not ask for a more supportive class!

-Ms. White

East Side STEAM- Coming September 23rd!!

Dear Parents,

The East Side PTA is excited to announce that it is sponsoring five school-wide STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) days!  The PTA will also be providing resources and supplies to each grade level to explore integrated lessons throughout the school year.

Our first East Side STEAM Day will be held on September 23^rd.  The inspiration for this day is came from a little boy named Caine.  Visit this website, http://cainesarcade.com/, to learn more and watch his inspirational video.  On this day all students will be creating and playing arcade games made out of cardboard boxes just like Caine did.  Throughout the year students will be challenged to collaborate and create as they work on grade level STEAM activities.

We need your help to make our first school-wide event a success on September 23^rd!   First and foremost, we will need boxes!  Our goal is to collect enough boxes so every student will have access to at least 2-3 boxes for their arcade game.

·       Boxes can be stacked or broken down and dropped off  at East Side beginning Wednesday, September 21st after school between 2:20-3:00 PM.  Boxes can also be dropped off  Thursday, September 22nd before school between 7:20 AM and 7:50 AM and after school between 2:20 PM and 3:10 PM.  Finally, boxes can be dropped off the morning of September 23rd before school.  In order for this activity to be a success, we need your help!

·          

       We need volunteers!  Your child’s teacher will let you know how you can help in their classroom.

·       We also need help collecting boxes on the drop off day, distributing boxes the day of September 23^rd, and we will need volunteers at the end of the day to make sure all leftover boxes get recycled.  If you can help please contact Mollie at dmcush@bellsouth.net

Thank you for helping make our first East Side STEAM day a fun filled success!!!

East Side STEAM- Coming September 23rd!!

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday! I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend!

The East Side PTA is excited to announce that it is sponsoring five school-wide STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) days!  The PTA will also be providing resources and supplies to each grade level to explore integrated lessons throughout the school year.
Our first East Side STEAM Day will be held on September 23rd.  The inspiration for this day is came from a little boy named Caine.  Visit this website, http://cainesarcade.com/, to learn more and watch his inspirational video.  On this day all students will be creating and playing arcade games made out of cardboard boxes just like Caine did.  Throughout the year students will be challenged to collaborate and create as they work on grade level STEAM activities.

We need your help to make our first school-wide event a success on September 23rd!   First and foremost, we will need boxes!  Our goal is to collect enough boxes so every student will have access to at least 2-3 boxes for their arcade game.

• Boxes can be stacked or broken down and dropped off  at East Side beginning Wednesday, September 21st after school between 2:20-3:00 PM.  Boxes can also be dropped off  Thursday, September 22nd before school between 7:20 AM and 7:50 AM and after school between 2:20 PM and 3:10 PM.  Finally, boxes can be dropped off the morning of September 23rd before school.  In order for this activity to be a success, we need your help!
• We need volunteers!  Your child’s teacher will let you know how you can help in their classroom.
• We also need help collecting boxes on the drop off day, distributing boxes the day of September 23rd, and we will need volunteers at the end of the day to make sure all leftover boxes get recycled.  If you can help please contact Mollie at dmcush@bellsouth.net

Thank you for helping make our first East Side STEAM day a fun filled success!!!

This week we will be finishing up our unit on Native Americans and the rivers of Georgia! Our rule of the week is the soft G and soft C rule. Our assessment on the rivers of Georgia is this week so please study the blank map I sent home. We are also working on different types of nouns and prefixes. Please continue to review sight words and word problems at home with your child.

Parents, if you would like to volunteer, visit our class Shutterfly page! There are plenty of opportunities for volunteers!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Peyton White

Last Week in Review

Happy Sunday!

We have had a great week! We are finishing up our unit on Georgia regions and will begin learning about Georgia rivers and how the different Native American tribes were able to use the resources and rivers in Georgia. We are going to kick off our Native American Unit with our In House Creek and Cherokee Field Trip! If you would like to volunteer during this field trip, please sign up on Shutterfly!  I will be sending home a study guide on Monday to help prepare students for their Georgia Regions Assessment on Tuesday!

We will also continue practicing our math facts while beginning to learn about word problems and problem solving. We will begin to learn about character traits in Reading and Collective nouns in Phonics/ Word Study!  Our rule for next week is the Silent E Rule. A rule sheet will be sent home on Monday along with practice sheets to help your child understand the weekly rule along with collective nouns.

Our reward day will be on Tuesday! The Owls have earned this reward by collecting compliments throughout the last few weeks! We will be watching a movie and having snacks. I have sent home a note in your child’s HOOT binder Friday with the details!

Don’t forget to look for your students’ weekly progress report update in their HOOT binder on Monday! Please return it with your signature.

Please continue to practice your child’s sight words and math facts with them throughout the week!

Also, the last day to make a Scholastic Book Order for the month of August is Monday, August 29th!  Did you know that by making on-line book orders you help our class earn free books to build our classroom library?  Please help us earn books!

I'm looking forward to another great week!

Ms. White

Hello Parents!

It is so hard to believe how fast these first couple of weeks are flying by! I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know all of my wonderful new students! This week we have been going over place value in Math and reviewing blends and digraphs in Phonics. Your children will also be working on writing their own personal narratives within the next couple of days. To help them in choosing a small moment to write about, you can discuss memorable activities done with family and friends to help them brainstorm a bit! I will also start sending homework packets home next Monday so please keep an eye out for those when looking through your child’s H.O.O.T binder.  It was so nice seeing all of you again at Open House Tuesday night. I feel like we have gotten off to a great start! I am really enjoying teaching all of our new Owls!

Have a wonderful rest of the week,
Ms. White

Welcome 2016-2017 Outstanding Owls - Happy First Week of School!

We had an AWESOME first day of school!  This is an amazing class, and I know we are going to have a fantastic year together!  Thank you so much for the wish list items that have already been sent in for our class.

The Cobb County School District Folder came home with your child today.  Please return the following required documents:

• Yellow Student Information Card
• Blue Emergency Dismissal Plan
• White Receipt of Parent Information Guide
• White Online Technology Consent Form
• The White Clinic Card

A few things to remember:

• Our lunch time is at 12:11, so please send in a healthy snack for your child to have mid-morning.  
• You may send a water bottle with your child.
• Your child will receive the calendar for the month of August tomorrow.  The monthly calendar is also located on our webpage under the “calendar/specials” tab.  
• Life in a Bag- Some children shared their Life in a Bag today.  We will share some each day until everyone has had a chance.  We should be finished by Friday.
• Please send in a note for any transportation changes.  All changes that are not received in the morning by the teacher must go through the front office.  
• We don’t have any homework this week, but it will start next week.  Homework will consist of a packet that is sent home every Monday.  Packets are due every Friday.  Although, we will not have homework this week, I would like students to bring in a favorite book from home.  This book will stay at school for several days.  
• Don’t forget about Open House on next Tuesday!  

If you have any questions, please let me know. My email is: Peyton.white.cobbk12@gmail.com

~ Ms. White

Thursday News

Dear Parents,

Here's a look at what's been going on in class the past few weeks:

Our class pictures from our Field Trip to Fernbank:

Math:  We've been learning all about arrays and repeated addition!  Students are able to partition or divide a rectangle to show an array and write a repeated addition sentence for a given array!

Reading:  We've been working on reading informational, or nonfiction, text.  We've been working hard this week on finding the main idea and supporting details.  Last week, we read two books about bats (one fiction vs. one nonfiction) and we compared/contrasted the two books.

Word Study:  We've been working on the EE and EA vowel teams this week!  We learned that many of these words are homophones and that to correctly spell the word we need a picture or sentence to give us the meaning for the word in context.

We're so busy learning and growing over the last few weeks of second grade!

Love,

Mrs. Kidd

Wednesday News

Dear Parents,

Just a reminder that our class will be taking a Field Trip to the Cobb County Safety Village tomorrow, March 31st!  Please send your child to school in his/her lime green class t-shirt and PE shoes!  If you have lost your class shirt, please do your best to wear lime green/green shirt, just to help us "spot" our owls!  Also, if you are planning on sending your child to school with his/her lunch, please send in labeled, disposable bags, so that we can accommodate all of our lunches in a cooler!

We will be leaving school around 9:15 and arriving back at East Side at 1:45.  Students are in for a GREAT experience, learning all kinds of safety tips and accident prevention strategies.  I hope they learn a lot and have fun!

I will actually be absent from school tomorrow and Friday, as baby Joshua will be having some eye surgery!  Our class will be left in very capable, substitute hands!  That being said, I hope that all of your families will have a wonderful, safe, and relaxing Spring Break!  I look forward to seeing all of the Outstanding Owls back in April for our last few weeks together before summer!

Love,

Mrs. Kidd

Wednesday Wrap-Up

Dear Parents,

I'm so happy to have all of our little owls back in the room from February Break to learn, grow, and play!  Here are a few announcements for the week:

• Friday Math Lab Game Day:  Our class was the MOST WELL BEHAVED mathematicians in the Math Lab for the 2nd quarter!  Mrs. Slayton is rewarding our class with game time in the Math Lab this Friday from 8:00-8:45!  She is allowing students to bring games of their choice from home to play.  Only rule is no electronics!

• The International Festival is this Saturday, February 27th!  Please get your tickets and plan on joining the fun from 2:00-5:00 at school!

• Jump Rope for Heart begins during PE next week!  Please make sure your child wears his/her PE shoes and is ready to jump, jump, jump!  

• Moon Observation Calendars came home today with students!  Students are being asked to track the changes in the moon over the next month!  This should take just a few minutes each night!  This assignment correlates to our science standards requiring students to study the pattern of the Earth's phases throughout a full cycle!  Please help your child fill in his/her calendar each night!

• In math, we're working very hard on adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers.  Aside from just solving these problems, students are also requited to explain their strategy to solve in specific, detailed writing!  Students should be able to:  1.) Name their chosen strategy 2.) Use relevant, specific math vocabulary (add, subtract, hundreds, tens, ones, decompose, partial sums, sum, difference, etc.) and 3.) Use transition words to connect their writing (First, next, then, finally, etc.)  Please see the pictures below to "see" the strategies were're working on and an example of a written explanation of an addition problem solved in class!

Thanks for your continued support at home!

Mrs. Kidd

Monday News!

Dear Parents,

Hope those interested enjoyed the Super Bowl last night!  We had some sleepy owlets fly in this morning...they said staying up a little later than usual to watch parts of the game had them worn out!

Please see the announcements below:

Discovery Quest Presentations are THIS WEEK:
Don't forget that your child was assigned a day this week to prepare and present his/her Discovery Quest Presentations!  These presentations are for a grade, so preparation is important!  There will be no spelling this week, to allow for extra practice opportunities!  If you are missing directions, the Discovery Quest Planning Sheet (due on the day of your child's presentation), or any other information about these project, please check under the Homework Resources Tab!

Scholastic Book Orders:
Our class can earn bonus points towards new books for any orders placed on or before February 29th!  If your child is in need of some new reading material, we would love for you to order some books from our Scholastic Book Class Link:  https://clubs2.scholastic.com and use our class code:  LRJMC.

Teacher Appreciation Week Donations:
We need raffle prizes for Teacher Appreciation week.  Do you own a business or have an unused gift card from the holidays?  Please consider donating these as well as any other new items and gift cards to Teacher Appreciation week to be given to teachers in a raffle at the luncheon.  Items can be dropped off at the Front Office anytime before February 11th.  Let's show the best teachers in Cobb County just how much we appreciate them!!

Student Council is having a Valentine’s Day fundraiser Tuesday, February 9^th to Friday, February 12^th. Students will be selling candy grams and a card for $1.00 from 7:20-7:50 inside the cafeteria. Students are able to buy a candy gram for their friends, family, and/or teachers. Student Council will then deliver those cards to the students or teachers that same morning. Thank you for supporting East Side’s Student Council.

The International Festival will be held this year at East Side Elementary on Saturday, Feb. 27 from 3-5pm.  This fun family event will feature food and cultural performances from all over the world.  Ticket order forms have been sent home with students.  Please return form and payment in an envelope marked PTA in order to get the pre-order price per ticket of $7.  If you need a ticket order form, extras are located in the school mailroom or a form can be emailed to you.


There are many ways in which you can participate to help to make it a success.  Please consider signing up at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0b4da5ab22a31-international to be a country representative, performer, help with set up or  clean up.  More information on the different volunteering opportunities can be found here as well.

Thanks!

Mrs. Kidd

Happy 100th Day and News from the Computer Lab

Happy 100th Day Owls and Owl Parents,

The kids looked wonderful this morning---the cutest 100 year olds I've ever seen in fact!  Take a look below!

I hope to add some more details/pictures of our 100th Day Activities later this afternoon, but we are having a great time celebrating!

Please pay attention to this note from Mrs. Alter in the Computer Lab

Happy New Year!

Our New Year Resolution in the computer lab is to become better typists.  Typing is a common core standard.  The foundation helped the computer lab invest in speedskins to help improve our typing skills.  We want to thank the foundation for their help in meeting our goal.

We are beginning the new year working with the new skins in 3rd thru 5th grade.  Kindergarten thru 2nd grade are working on improving typing skills before moving onto the use of skins in the older grades.

If a student comes home talking about the new skins in the computer lab, here is the link:  http://www.academicsuperstore.com/products/SpeedSkin/Keyboard+Covers to check out for yourself.  This is in no way asking you to purchase your own, but we would like to share how the Foundation is helping us.  

We do ask that you have your student practice typing at home a few times a week for about 15 minutes.  There are many free sites on our webpage to chose from for this task.  The link for our typing page is http://www.eastsidetechnology.org/?page_id=28.

The students have begun working with the skins and are doing a great job.

Thanks for your help,

Amanda Alter – Computer Lab