Mrs. Ballnik's Second Grade

Classroom News from Mrs. Ballnik’s Class
My email is ballnic@dearbornschools.org
Friday, November 30, 2018
Important Days and Notes to Remember
Thanksgiving Play – Thank-you to everyone that could come to the play. I am very proud of how it turned out. All the students improved in reading for expression. I have many students that want more plays. I always encourage them to write more plays for extra credit. Thank-you for your support!
School calendars are located under the District news at the Dearborn Website.
Gym on Monday- Please remember to wear tennis shoes and bendable clothes (not jeans).
Parent Conferences Thank-you to the parents that came in. It was nice to see you. I am so happy to have your children in my class.
Thank-you for PLANNER -Please bring them every day. Use it as a homework folder, or supply your own, if you choose.
FRIDAY SPELLING TESTS – Next week’s spelling words end with consonant digraphs ch, sh, th,tch. The spelling words are; each, path, which, hitch, match, patch, dish, wish, with, teeth. The 5 Dolch words will be; ate, under, of some, were. These are the 15 spelling words for December 5 – 9.
Every Friday, there will be a spelling test. Please study the words and the spelling pattern. They will also get 5 words from the Dolch words (very common words in reading list) to practice. These will be written by your child in their planner on Mondays. Please practice every day with your child so that they will do well on the Friday Spelling test. I have added an extra credit word from the words I introduce in reading for the whole class. This word will be above grade level and randomly chosen from these 5 or 6 words. It is to challenge the student that gets a star on their spelling every week. I do not expect all students to study these very hard words. We will have a worksheet each week to expand vocabulary. These words are good to know and above the second grade spelling level. Your child will not be marked down if they miss the 16th word on the spelling test. See if your child knows what the extra credit 5-6 words are.
Spelling tests will be corrected and sent home on Monday. I don’t have time to correct and record them on Friday.
MATH – Our new math unit is on place value. We are learning about using ones, tens, hundreds and even thousands. Please count with your child and talk about higher numbers. We bundled sticks to see what tens, hundreds and one thousand looks like.
SCIENCE- We will guess a few mystery bags a day. Keep asking your child to describe things with properties using their 5 senses. Our new unit is about Earth Science. This includes the landforms and bodies of water on the earth. Can your child tell you what some of these are?
SOCIAL STUDIES – We are learning about maps. Please point out different maps, symbols, and map keys. We discussed “bird’s eye view” and how maps use directions such as, north, south, east and west. Please send in any map examples for your child to share and return to you. We also learn landforms in social studies. Our test will be in about 2 weeks. A study guide will come home.
Students can draw a map of their bedroom for extra credit.
READING- Read, Read, Read! The Book It calendar can be returned to school (signed by a parent) to earn a coupon for a free Pizza Hut mini pan pizza. A new calendar will come home on Monday.
Please be sure that your child reads something at least 30+ minutes per day. In addition, reading aloud to your child is important also. Please go to the beautiful Dearborn libraries to get additional books. I give new book bag books after I bring them back from the library located at the other end of the school. I sometimes just ask students that want to switch book bag books to come up (because it takes valuable reading time). I usually have reading groups switch books, to be sure that I get to everyone.

Please be sure that the Book It calendar for November reading is colored as they read each day. Ask your child to show you and check that they color each day they read 30 minutes.
Remember, the easiest way to communicate with me is by email, ballnic@dearbornschools.org and look at my BLOG on the Dearborn schools website. Links to RAZKIDS and FRECKLE are there, also.
MANY STUDENTS STILL NEED PENCILS AND A SHARPENER! MY ELECTRIC SHARPENER IS NOT WORKING WELL. STUDENTS STOP CLASS WHEN THEY ARE NOT PREPARED. I have given out many, many pencils. Thank-you to everyone that keeps their child with pencils. Thank-you to the parents that have sent in pencils and send in pencils next week.

The next project that we will do will be to make ornaments to sell to the school. We will give the money that we earn to the homeless shelter. If you want to send in pipe cleaners or plastic (pony) beads to help us make candy cane shaped ornaments with beads and pipe cleaners, please do.
Our school has a mitten tree project for new mittens, hats, and scarfs to be given away to the needy.
Also, the school has a money donation started for the Children of Yemen, which is between Nov. 29 – December 7, 2018.

Have a great weekend with your wonderful child!