Mrs. Ballnik's Second Grade

Classroom News from
Mrs. Ballnik’s Class My email is ballnic@dearbornschools.org
Friday, December 1, 2017
Important Days to Remember
Music Concert WITH OUR CLASS IN IT – December 17 (2:30 P.M.)
Math Night – December 14 (5:00 pm – 6:30)
Gym on Tuesday-Please remember to wear tennis shoes and bendable clothes (not jeans or slip on shoes).
Thanksgiving Play- Thank-you to everyone that could come to the First Thanksgiving play, last week. The students did a wonderful job and I AM VERY PROUD OF THEM! Dr. Mougni and Mr. Bazzi both came by, as well as, a few other teachers. Our class is spectacular!
PLANNER
Please bring them every day.
FRIDAY SPELLING TESTS
Here are the words for the next spelling test. The spelling pattern is beginning consonant digraphs: ch, sh, th and wh.
The spelling words are: chill, sheep, think, while, chase, chest, shape, thing, wheat, white. The Dolch words are: two, play, he, yes, find.
Every Friday there will be a spelling test. Please practice every day with your child so that they will do well on the Friday Spelling test. Corrected tests are sent home on Monday for you to sign and send back to show me that you know the score.
We started to put the 16th word on the spelling test to challenge the students that get the spelling test correct every week. It is just for fun and no one is required to study these extra credit words. They come home in a worksheet each week, that we go over. They are not meant to be second grade level words and we would usually learn to read them and understand them, but not spell them.

MATH MATH MATH MATH MATH
Our Unit 3 math test was today. Hopefully, parents went over the study guide that came home for two days and signed the study guide to prove that you helped your child. We will start Unit 4, next week.Unit 4 has addition and subtraction number stories with 2 and 3 digit numbers. We will use number lines and different strategies to find the sums and differences.
Science
Our next unit is Earth Science and covers explorations that help us learn that Earth events can occur quickly (landslides, etc.) or slowly (erosion that carves rivers, canyons, etc.) We will be making observations and discussing landforms and bodies of water. Please continue to point these out as you drive.
The water cycle is very important to landforms and bodies of water. We will be making models of this next week.
Social Studies- .
Our unit is on Geography and is called Communities Where we Live. We are using maps in this unit. Many students brought in maps of their rooms for extra credit.

Writing
We will begin writing narratives, now. The characters will start to have dialogue and more details to them, The plot will have a moral or lesson learned..
Reading- Read, Read, Read!
BOOK BAGS! Please observe how your child does with these books. Every book at level 18 (the level for second grade entry) for example, may not be read easily depending on the words. Please ask your child to write a list of the words that they do not know, so you can work on them.
Please keep them in the bag and count the books, so they do not get lost. I will trade out the books every other week or so. Students should reread books until they are smooth and fluent when reading. Students record on their log when they read.

BOOK IT CALENDARS
Please send in November calendars for a pizza hut coupon. New December calendars will come home.

Congratulations to Zahra Almakhzumy for being the Star of the Week!

Happy Birthday to Ayatt Shohatee!

Have a great weekend with your wonderful child!