May Calendar

Happy May Day!! This month there is so much going on at St. Sylvester School! In order to keep track of everything and make sure we are on the same page, I wanted to list out all of the big events for this last month of school.

May 3rd 6:00 PM- Poetry Cafe: The poetry contest winners and their families are invited to read aloud their poems in front of an audience.
May 4th - Progress Reports Sent Home: Be sure to sign and return these ASAP.

May 10th 7:30 AM - 7:00 PM - Open House: The school will be open the entire day for families to visit the classroom that their child will be entering next year. For you, that means third grade and Ms. Jones' room!
May 11th - No School

May 14th - Solar System Science Projects Due
May 15th - White Sox Game: We will leave school at 11:30 and return by 4:30.
May 17th 6:00 - 8:00 PM - Science and Discovery Fair

May 28th - No School
May 30th  6:30 PM- Showcase and Awards Night: Join the school community for an evening of recognizing student award winners and seeing each grade showcase a talent.
May 31st 6:30 PM- Wackadoo Zoo Play!! The first and second grade students will be performing the spring musical Wackadoo Zoo.

Mark your calendars so you do not miss out on any of the exciting events taking place at St. Sylvester this month!

Down in the Sea: Jellyfish!

 

The second grade class read the story Down in the Sea: The Jellyfish this past week. Before we read, the students were able to listen to an interview with an aquarist at Chicago's own Shedd Aquarium. It was very exciting for them not only since it is in our city, but also because our field trip last month was to the Shedd! There were several facts given in the interview that we listed on a large poster board after listening. For example, there are 500-700 different species of jellyfish, moon jellies are the most common species, and most jellyfish are translucent. After reading Down in the Sea: The Jellyfish, every students picked one of their favorite facts from the story. Each child wrote the fact on another large sheet of paper entitled What We Learned from Reading. These poster-sized papers are hanging in the hallway outside of the second grade classroom. Surrounding the posters is a large school of second grade made jellyfish! The students were able to choose how many tentacles to attach to their jellyfish, but they had to include one fact on each of the tentacles. Real jellyfish can have just a few tentacles and up to as many as eight hundred! This was just one of the many many things we learned this week from heading under the sea! Ask your son or daughter to tell you about their favorite jellyfish facts!

Second Grade News on Youtube!

During computer class, the second graders have been making news videos about what we are learning in each subject. Here is the link to view the videos that have already been posted:

http://www.youtube.com/user/stsylvestercomputer

Check back frequently to catch any updates on the second grade curriculum and watch your second grader star in their own news production!

Native American Shelter Project: Due March 29th

The students in second grade will be completing a project about different Native American groups during this unit of study in social studies. I have sent home with each child a fact sheet about their specific tribe. This is just a starting point, and more research is definitely recommended. Please read over the information with your son or daughter about their group. Because every child received a different Native American group, they need to become the expert of that group in order to teach their classmates all about them. The creative project will be that each student must make a model of the type of shelter their Native American group lived in. Along with this, they will give an oral presentation relaying three interesting facts about their group. Lastly, the students will be asked to point out, on a map of the United States, where their tribe lived. All of this work is due to school on Thursday, March 29th. I hope that every family has a good time completing this project and learns a lot about such an important group in our country's rich history.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

For the past two weeks the second graders have been busy taking the Terra Nova tests. I am so proud of all of the wonderful work they did and great concentration they showed. Celebrating St. Patrick's Day was the perfect way to end a couple of weeks of hard work! Each of the second graders made a bright green shamrock with tissue paper. Then they wrote about one thing they are lucky for and glued a "wee leprechaun" onto the paper. This was a perfect set up for the trick Ms. Loyola played on them this afternoon during Spanish class. She let them know that she had taken a picture of a real leprechaun and let each student look one at a time. Little did they know, she had attached a mirror covered with orange hair and an orange beard. The second graders had a real shock when they saw their own face as the leprechaun!

100th Day of School!

Yesterday, February 6th, was the one hundredth day of school here at St. Sylvester School. To celebrate this accomplishment, each of the students brought in their own collection of one hundred objects. During math class, we took a break from telling time and used our one hundred collections to see how many ways we could get to one hundred. The students made five groups of twenty, twenty five groups of four, and fifty groups of two! Each child made these and more groups with objects such as toothpicks, crayons, and even rocks! Thank you for assisting your son or daughter in collecting their one hundred objects. Ask them which other equal groups they made with their one hundred collection.

Reminder: Reconciliation Meeting

This is a reminder that there will be a Reconciliation meeting for all of the parents of children making their First Reconciliation on Wednesday, February 1st at 5:30 PM. The meeting will be held in the classroom (Room 205) and we will discuss the steps of Reconciliation along with ideas for helping your son or daughter prepare. See you then!

Author Study: Frank Asch

This week the second grade class is doing an author study of Frank Asch. Mr. Asch is mainly known for his Moonbear stories, but has written over seventy books. Moonbear is a silly character who often is confused by the way things work. He tries to nail down his shadow so it will stop following him and thinks the moon is talking to him when he hears his own voice echoing. After reading several Moonbear books, each of the second graders wrote their own Moonbear story the way they thought Frank Asch would write. Moonbear made some silly mistakes in their stories.

The other activity that the second graders enjoyed was going on Frank Asch website (www.frankasch.com). This websiteoffers information about the author, his books, and even animates a few. Everyone had the chance to explore this website in the computer lab. Be sure to check it out at home too!

Each of the students also made a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting Moonbear and his friend Little Bird. On Friday, we read through some of Frank Asch's poetry and the students illustrated this work in small groups. Both of these projects are hanging in the hallway outside of Room 205 if you would like to take a look!

2011 Christmas Concert

I wanted to say thank you to all of the families who attended yesterday's Christmas concert and potluck dinner! The show was an absolute success and I was so proud of the second graders and all of the work they put into preparing for it. I also am so thankful for our music teacher, Ms. Fox, who really stepped up the magnitude of the performance. All of the students were able to showcase their talents in a show that really got us into the Christmas spirit!

Dinosaur Science Project

The second grade's dinosaur science project was given out today. It is due back on Tuesday, December 13th. Each student was given one dinosaur to read about and research. There are two physical things due on December 13th. First, each student should bring a model representing their dinosaur. This model can be sculpted, painted, or drawn, but should not be just printed off of the computer. The second thing they will need to present is a piece of yarn or string that is the length of their dinosaur.

Every student will have time that week to present their dinosaur to their classmates. During this presentation, they should be able to pronounce their dinosaur's name. Lastly, they will be asked to describe what their dinosaur looked like and also tell three interesting facts about their dinosaur. At the end of the oral presentation, their classmates will have time to ask any questions they have about the dinosaur. Please help your child prepare for this longterm project at home.

Dinosaur Project Due: Tuesday December 13th