Happy Thanksgiving!

On Wednesday we celebrated having earned 100 marbles with a Read-Over!  The students wore their pajamas and slippers and brought stuffed animals, pillows, and all sorts of reading materials!  Mrs. Gavalis and Mrs. Carney read some favorite stories, the students read to their stuffed animals, with partners, and in the dark with flashlights!  Later we enjoyed our breakfast feast - a big thank you to all the students and families who contributed!  Check out all the pictures below from our special morning (the dark ones are from our flashlight-read)!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your families!  See you on Monday!     :)

100 MARBLES!

Today the class earned their 100th marble!  Congratulations Second Grade!  In order to celebrate this accomplishment, we will be having a special "Read-Over" tomorrow!  This is like a sleep-over, except we get to read!  Students will spend time hearing favorite stories, reading to their stuffed animals, and reading with friends!  We will also be having a special breakfast feast!

Tomorrow students are allowed to . . . .
-wear their pajamas or sweats and slippers (they may change at school if it's raining)
-bring one stuffed animal
-bring any favorite books or other reading materials (magazines, comic books, etc.)
-bring a pillow and/or a small blanket (no gigantic ones please!)

If you were willing to contribute something to our celebration, please make sure you email or call me by this afternoon so that I can make sure we have an assortment of healthy breakfast items.  Thank you in advance!  Check back this weekend to see some pictures of our Read-Over day!    :)

(DISMISSAL IS AT 11:00am TOMORROW!)

Veteran's Day!

Last Friday was Veteran's Day and we found some ways to learn about and honor this special holiday.  We read two books: one to learn about the holiday and why we celebrate, and another called "The Wall" by Eve Bunting.  This second book was about a little boy and his father who visit The Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. to find his grandfather's name.

We also wrote letters to Mrs. Carney's son Chris, who is a 2nd Lt. in the U.S. Army.  He is an officer with the 101st Calvary and his job is to make sure his men supply fuel and ammunition to all the helicopters for his unit.  We hope Chris will enjoy hearing from us at Forestdale!  Thank you Chris for your service to our country!  :)

On Thursday Mrs. Carney actually brought in part of Chris' uniform that he wore for special occasions.  The students enjoyed getting to try on his dress coat and hats, especially the one used for parades!  Check out some pictures of the students below!

 Mrs. Carney                     Riley and Aidan D.

          Michael and boys                         Aidan J., Timothy, and boys

                       David                    Micaella, Ashly, and Davenche

 LeRon                                          Nicholas

  Thanks for sharing those with us Mrs. Carney!  We really enjoyed getting to try them on!

Author Visit!

On Thursday we had a visit from a real author!  Her name was Ellen Sklaver and she has written a book called "Aleph Finds Her Voice."  She also plans on writing many other books, each one about a different Hebrew letter.  In addition to sharing her book with us, Ellen talked to us about what it is like being an author!  The students also asked some really great questions about how she gets her ideas, how the author/illustrator partnership works, and the process of publishing a book!  The kids really enjoyed getting to meet a published author and saw many connections between Ellen's work and what we do in Writing Workshop!  Ask your student to tell you about our visit from author, Ellen Sklaver!