I'm Back! So sorry I haven't gotten to the blog in so long. I do this on my own time at home and we have been remodeling our home in preparation for the holidays. We don't hire someone to do this we actually do the work ourselves. There just hasn't been enough of me to go around.
Thinking of the holidays I have a tradition of setting up a Christmas village at my home. Each year I invite my 2nd graders to come enjoy the wonder and magic of the village. My home will be open this Wednesday the 15th and Thursday the 16th from 5-9 pm. I invite all of you to bring your children over to my home to enjoy this bit of the season. You can bring your other children also.
Math
We have been working on understanding odd and even and on grouping by 2, 5 and 10. We are really trying to build an understanding of tens and ones the basis of our number system. You might think this is too simple for 2nd graders but many of them still don't understand this most basic concept. Thank you for helping your child do and return their homework.
Reading
Last week the students were administered a State Literacy test. Most of them did very well. Of course we always have a few student who are still struggling with reading at this point in the year. We will keep working and learning together. I am now in the process of administering the Fountas and Pinnell reading test. I must complete these individual tests before we go on holiday. Mr. Griffith offered each teacher 2 half days of subbing for us during the year. Last Friday and this Monday afternoon I have been able to test individual students because he has been in our classroom teaching. Thanks Mr. Griffith!
Vocabulary
Last week we read a book caled Dear Mrs. LaRue. We learned about writing letters. The students are practicing their new skills by writing letters to Santa Claus. Their words were melodramatic, misconception, neglected, obedience, despair, and persistent. This week we will read a book called "Everybody Cooks Rice." It talks about people in a neighborhood from many different cultures but all of them cook rice. This goes along with our study of cultures and customs at Christmas time from around the world. The words we are working on this week are: boarder, community, appetizing, gulped, grumbling and diversity. I hope your family will continue to use some of these words around your home to help add to the children's understanding of their new found vocabulary words.
This week we will be learning from parents about customs in Germany, Denmark, Australia and Argentina.
The students are working on a special gift for their family that will be coming home hopefully on Friday.
We will be having a Token Store on this Friday the 17th. I encourage the students to use their tokens to buy things for brothers and sisters or friends. If any of you have items to donate for the store I would welcome your donations. Thank you for all you do to help in many ways in our classroom.
Just a reminder that for the class Christmas party on Wednesday the 22nd each child is asked to bring a new or gently used book, wrapped. This will be used as a book exchange gift. Each child will come home with a different book.
Today's keyword is "The Magic of Christmas". Please write it on the front top of your child's yellow tracking papers. Your child will receive 3 tokens if your write it there.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
The Weather is Changing
Please send a jacket or coat with your child to school everyday. They will go outside for lunch recess and afternoon recess and need access to a jacket or coat everyday.
Please remember to look through the book orders that I sent home last Thursday. If you need me to keep ordered books for you (to keep secret for gifts) just let me know and I can do that for you. Book orders are due on Tuesday October 26th.
Reading
This last week we started our reading groups where I teach the children reading skills in small groups. We learned a game called "Guess the Covered Word". It really is a set of strategies that students can use to help them decode difficult words they may encounter in their reading. When they come to a word in their reading that they are not sure of they should:
1- look at the picture for a clue,
2- look at and think of the beginning sound in the word
3- make sure that any word they guess that might go in the sentence MAKES SENSE with what they are reading about,
4- think about the length of the word ( John likes to play _______. You might guess tag or tennis. The length of the word is a clue to let you know which might more likely be correct.),
5- think about the ending sound in the word
6- see if there are any little words you already know inside the bigger word you don't know.
If they will use these strategies they likely will be able to come up with the word they are struggling with. As a parent listening to your child read you can prompt them to use these clues like this. Did you look at the picture for a clue? What sound does the word begin with? What word would make sense in the sentence? That's a good guess and it will make sense in the sentence but look at how long the word is? Could it be your word? Do you see any little words you know in the big word?
You don't have to ask all of the questions each time. Give them no more that three clues then tell them the difficult word. Don't let them become frustrated with the reading. Remember the 5 finger rule: If they miss 5 words or more on a page then the book is too difficult for them. In this case you read the book to them and find an easier book for them to read to you.
Math
This week we learned about the Almost Doubles Strategy. If two numbers are next door neighbors on the number line like 3 and 4 or 8 and 9 you can find the sum of the two numbers by doubling the smaller number and adding one. You can also find the sum by doubling the larger number and subtracting one.
This week they will be looking for Doubles and Almost Doubles in subtraction problems. This will be like 16 - 8 = If you know that 8+8 = 16 then you will know the answer to this subtraction problem. If the problem is 17 - 8 = If you know that 8 + 8 = 16 and 17 is one more than that then you know that 8 + 9 = 17 so 17 - 8 = 9.
This week we will be working with skip counting, odd and even numbers and addition with three numbers. We will also explore use of the not equal sign. Children are to decide which number sentence is represented in a story problem and be able to write a story problem when given a number sentence. The story problem must end with a correct question.
We will also be measuring a scarecrow with candy corn and making a graph we derive from colored goldfish data.
Writing
Each of the students is trying to finish up the publishing of their first major story which is about a scarecrow. Come see their scarecrow stories and artwork on the bulletin board.
Vocabulary
This week we will be reading a book entitled "Grandpa's Teeth". The vocabulary words we will be working on learning are:
complain
description
mystery
suspect
conspiracy
sleuth
Please try to use these words at home and notice if your child notices them and tells you it is one of their vocabulary words.
Spelling
We will be studying the different ways that we can spell the long a sound. It can be spelled with
ai -- usually in the middle of a word
ay -- usually at the end of a word
/a/ (consonant) (silent e)-- as in name
I hope your student has been singing the song "Witches Brew" to you. It is such a fun song. This week they will each make up their own verse to the song.
We are quickly approaching the end of the first grading period and Parent/Teacher conferences which will be on Wednesday and Thursday November 10th and 11th. Please go online to schedule your own time for this conference. I am looking forward to meeting with each of you and discussing your child's strengths and needs.
I hope you have a great week. I am looking forward to seeing many of you on Friday for the Halloween parade and party. Thank you for all each of you do to help your child, our class and me. I couldn't do this job without great parent helpers.
The keyword for this week is "Jack-O-Lantern".
Please remember to look through the book orders that I sent home last Thursday. If you need me to keep ordered books for you (to keep secret for gifts) just let me know and I can do that for you. Book orders are due on Tuesday October 26th.
Reading
This last week we started our reading groups where I teach the children reading skills in small groups. We learned a game called "Guess the Covered Word". It really is a set of strategies that students can use to help them decode difficult words they may encounter in their reading. When they come to a word in their reading that they are not sure of they should:
1- look at the picture for a clue,
2- look at and think of the beginning sound in the word
3- make sure that any word they guess that might go in the sentence MAKES SENSE with what they are reading about,
4- think about the length of the word ( John likes to play _______. You might guess tag or tennis. The length of the word is a clue to let you know which might more likely be correct.),
5- think about the ending sound in the word
6- see if there are any little words you already know inside the bigger word you don't know.
If they will use these strategies they likely will be able to come up with the word they are struggling with. As a parent listening to your child read you can prompt them to use these clues like this. Did you look at the picture for a clue? What sound does the word begin with? What word would make sense in the sentence? That's a good guess and it will make sense in the sentence but look at how long the word is? Could it be your word? Do you see any little words you know in the big word?
You don't have to ask all of the questions each time. Give them no more that three clues then tell them the difficult word. Don't let them become frustrated with the reading. Remember the 5 finger rule: If they miss 5 words or more on a page then the book is too difficult for them. In this case you read the book to them and find an easier book for them to read to you.
Math
This week we learned about the Almost Doubles Strategy. If two numbers are next door neighbors on the number line like 3 and 4 or 8 and 9 you can find the sum of the two numbers by doubling the smaller number and adding one. You can also find the sum by doubling the larger number and subtracting one.
This week they will be looking for Doubles and Almost Doubles in subtraction problems. This will be like 16 - 8 = If you know that 8+8 = 16 then you will know the answer to this subtraction problem. If the problem is 17 - 8 = If you know that 8 + 8 = 16 and 17 is one more than that then you know that 8 + 9 = 17 so 17 - 8 = 9.
This week we will be working with skip counting, odd and even numbers and addition with three numbers. We will also explore use of the not equal sign. Children are to decide which number sentence is represented in a story problem and be able to write a story problem when given a number sentence. The story problem must end with a correct question.
We will also be measuring a scarecrow with candy corn and making a graph we derive from colored goldfish data.
Writing
Each of the students is trying to finish up the publishing of their first major story which is about a scarecrow. Come see their scarecrow stories and artwork on the bulletin board.
Vocabulary
This week we will be reading a book entitled "Grandpa's Teeth". The vocabulary words we will be working on learning are:
complain
description
mystery
suspect
conspiracy
sleuth
Please try to use these words at home and notice if your child notices them and tells you it is one of their vocabulary words.
Spelling
We will be studying the different ways that we can spell the long a sound. It can be spelled with
ai -- usually in the middle of a word
ay -- usually at the end of a word
/a/ (consonant) (silent e)-- as in name
I hope your student has been singing the song "Witches Brew" to you. It is such a fun song. This week they will each make up their own verse to the song.
We are quickly approaching the end of the first grading period and Parent/Teacher conferences which will be on Wednesday and Thursday November 10th and 11th. Please go online to schedule your own time for this conference. I am looking forward to meeting with each of you and discussing your child's strengths and needs.
I hope you have a great week. I am looking forward to seeing many of you on Friday for the Halloween parade and party. Thank you for all each of you do to help your child, our class and me. I couldn't do this job without great parent helpers.
The keyword for this week is "Jack-O-Lantern".
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Back From Fall Recess
I hope you all had a great time over Fall Recess. I attended the UEA Convention on Friday and have been alternating between spending time with my family and cleaning house.
Reading
This week we will begin Guided Reading Groups. I will teach reading to small groups while the other students are engaged in center activities. Some of those activities are spelling practice and phonics activities that will help the students with their spelling. This Guided Reading time is the most important time for volunteer parents to be in the classroom. They help to answer questions and to assist students while I am teaching the small reading groups.
Spelling
We are continuing our study of the diagraphs- th, sh, ch, ph, and wh. These may be used at either the beginning or at the end of words. Please help your child study their spelling words. The test will be this Thursday the 21st.
Math
Last week we read two books - "Two of Everything" and "Double Trouble". They were the same folk tale but told in the setting of different cultures, one hispanic and one Chinese. They were about a magic pot that doubled everything that was put into it. We then had a fun experience with my magic pot. It also doubled everything that was put into it. We let these experiences lead us into learning about doubles. The students are now working on memorizing their doubles facts. The cards I sent home only go up to 10+10 but I really would like the students to learn a lot more doubles facts. These will help a lot as they move into more advanced math. Please help them work on all of the math fact cards that I have sent home.
We are also still trying to help all the students to understand how to use fact families. When you know 3+4=7 it can help you when you are trying to figure out 7-4= .
Following the first Block Math Test there are still 10 students who scored below 70%. I would hope to have all students above 70% in all areas of math before the end of the year. Please take little moments to let your student count some money or tell you the time. These things will help your student.
Vocabulary
We have read the book "Picnic at Mudsock Meadows". The vocabulary we are working on from this book are the following words:
bleak
legend
reveal
eerie
mischievous
mortified
Please try to use these words around the house and see if your child picks up on hearing it and then talk about what it means.
PE
In PE we have been working on strength, flexibility and endurance. We walk and run laps around the gym, we do some exercises and stretches and we also play games that involve running, throwing, catching, following rules, and being good sports.
Science
Please help your student continue to observe and draw the moon on a nightly basis. This is the first time that the night sky and moon phases has been part of the 2nd grade curriculum. It is new information to the students and will be fun for them to talk with you about what is happening in the night sky.(We can't have that exact experience with the children so we appreciate you taking time to help your child with this part of the learning process.
This week is Red Ribbon Week. It is a time to focus on making commitments to stay away from drugs and other harmful substances. On Monday the students are to wear red and I will let them write with a red pen all day. The schedule for the rest of the week was sent home last week and can also be found on the school web page.
The keyword for this week is "Hunt for Red October". It is one of my favorite movies but the kids won't get that. They will just be thinking of red leaves during the month of October.
Reading
This week we will begin Guided Reading Groups. I will teach reading to small groups while the other students are engaged in center activities. Some of those activities are spelling practice and phonics activities that will help the students with their spelling. This Guided Reading time is the most important time for volunteer parents to be in the classroom. They help to answer questions and to assist students while I am teaching the small reading groups.
Spelling
We are continuing our study of the diagraphs- th, sh, ch, ph, and wh. These may be used at either the beginning or at the end of words. Please help your child study their spelling words. The test will be this Thursday the 21st.
Math
Last week we read two books - "Two of Everything" and "Double Trouble". They were the same folk tale but told in the setting of different cultures, one hispanic and one Chinese. They were about a magic pot that doubled everything that was put into it. We then had a fun experience with my magic pot. It also doubled everything that was put into it. We let these experiences lead us into learning about doubles. The students are now working on memorizing their doubles facts. The cards I sent home only go up to 10+10 but I really would like the students to learn a lot more doubles facts. These will help a lot as they move into more advanced math. Please help them work on all of the math fact cards that I have sent home.
We are also still trying to help all the students to understand how to use fact families. When you know 3+4=7 it can help you when you are trying to figure out 7-4= .
Following the first Block Math Test there are still 10 students who scored below 70%. I would hope to have all students above 70% in all areas of math before the end of the year. Please take little moments to let your student count some money or tell you the time. These things will help your student.
Vocabulary
We have read the book "Picnic at Mudsock Meadows". The vocabulary we are working on from this book are the following words:
bleak
legend
reveal
eerie
mischievous
mortified
Please try to use these words around the house and see if your child picks up on hearing it and then talk about what it means.
PE
In PE we have been working on strength, flexibility and endurance. We walk and run laps around the gym, we do some exercises and stretches and we also play games that involve running, throwing, catching, following rules, and being good sports.
Science
Please help your student continue to observe and draw the moon on a nightly basis. This is the first time that the night sky and moon phases has been part of the 2nd grade curriculum. It is new information to the students and will be fun for them to talk with you about what is happening in the night sky.(We can't have that exact experience with the children so we appreciate you taking time to help your child with this part of the learning process.
This week is Red Ribbon Week. It is a time to focus on making commitments to stay away from drugs and other harmful substances. On Monday the students are to wear red and I will let them write with a red pen all day. The schedule for the rest of the week was sent home last week and can also be found on the school web page.
The keyword for this week is "Hunt for Red October". It is one of my favorite movies but the kids won't get that. They will just be thinking of red leaves during the month of October.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Reds and Orange, Apples and Pumpkins
What a great time we had on our walking field trip. The weather was beautiful and the kids had fun learning. The students are making a lunch sack journal about what they experienced during the field trip. You will want to check it out during Parent Teacher Conferences. (It will be in the students' portfolios.) Thanks to each and every parent and grandparent who came with us. You did an awesome job helping the kids have a super time.
Also a big thank you goes to our "Spelling Moms" who came to the classroom while we were on the field trip and corrected the spelling tests for us.
While we are talking about great parent helpers I want to thank all of you who have been coming in and helping in the classroom and for those who have helped by sending in boxes of tissues and baggies and items for the token store. An extra thank you goes out to Brooke Robertson for helping to organize the volunteers and for assembling the lunch sack journals for our class and Mrs. Douglass' class. That truly was going the extra mile to help us.
PUMPKIN DECORATING CONTEST
One of the parents from the school is donating 800 pumpkins to the kids in the school. She will deliver them on Monday October 4th. Students will take the pumpkins home and decorate them at home. NO CARVING THE PUMPKINS as they will spoil. Look for the orange paper giving ideas for decorating. Decorated pumpkins are to be returned to the school on OCTOBER 11TH. They will be judged and prizes will be awarded. (PM Kindergarten classes will bring their decorated pumpkins to school on Oct. 9th.)
READING
I will be finishing up the individual reading assessments this week. I will begin Guided Reading groups on October 18th. That is when I teach the students in small groups. We should be able to help the students make some good progress in their reading skills then.
We will work on Decoding the words - Accuracy, Fluency- reading with expression, speed and smoothness, and Comprehension - understanding what they read. I work with the groups on their own reading level. Each day we focus on different elements of reading based on the needs of these readers.
Math
We are trying to finish up our first block this week. We will continue our learning about the 100's number chart and using it for addition and subtraction. We are working on solidifying our understanding of Fact Families and Turn Around Facts (Commutative Property). When working with the Fact Families kids sometimes do something like this:
3+5=8
5+3=8 These are the Fact Family equations for 3, 5, and 8
8-5=3
8-3=5
8+3=5 This is what some children try but it is not a true fact. This is a great time to teach them the not equal sign ≠
8+3≠5
We will also be having a few more experiences with Data Collection and Graphing, skip counting patterns and writing story problems.
Please, keep working with your child on the math facts cards that I have sent home. I will be sending home another set, adding doubles, very soon. Also thanks for playing the math games with your child. It helps them learn in a fun way and will also help you see what they know and what they still need help with.
Vocabulary
We will be reading a book called "Possum's Harvest Moon". The vocabulary words we will work with are:
autumn
creature
harvest
snug
accomplished
conclude
Please try to use these words at home during the week and see if the students notice them.
SPELLING
This week is a most important week in spelling. Most of the children have learned the patterns of spelling with short vowels. This week we begin with long vowels. The first rule they learn is about the silent e. It is extremely important that they really understand this principle this week. Compare words with and without the silent e with them often during the week. Examples:
hid, becomes hide
hat becomes hate
bit becomes bite
not becomes note
twin becomes twine etc.
This week's keyword is "Pumpkins". Please write it on the top of your child's yellow tracking sheet for them to earn 3 tokens. Thanks for reading the blog and being interested in your child's education.
Also a big thank you goes to our "Spelling Moms" who came to the classroom while we were on the field trip and corrected the spelling tests for us.
While we are talking about great parent helpers I want to thank all of you who have been coming in and helping in the classroom and for those who have helped by sending in boxes of tissues and baggies and items for the token store. An extra thank you goes out to Brooke Robertson for helping to organize the volunteers and for assembling the lunch sack journals for our class and Mrs. Douglass' class. That truly was going the extra mile to help us.
PUMPKIN DECORATING CONTEST
One of the parents from the school is donating 800 pumpkins to the kids in the school. She will deliver them on Monday October 4th. Students will take the pumpkins home and decorate them at home. NO CARVING THE PUMPKINS as they will spoil. Look for the orange paper giving ideas for decorating. Decorated pumpkins are to be returned to the school on OCTOBER 11TH. They will be judged and prizes will be awarded. (PM Kindergarten classes will bring their decorated pumpkins to school on Oct. 9th.)
READING
I will be finishing up the individual reading assessments this week. I will begin Guided Reading groups on October 18th. That is when I teach the students in small groups. We should be able to help the students make some good progress in their reading skills then.
We will work on Decoding the words - Accuracy, Fluency- reading with expression, speed and smoothness, and Comprehension - understanding what they read. I work with the groups on their own reading level. Each day we focus on different elements of reading based on the needs of these readers.
Math
We are trying to finish up our first block this week. We will continue our learning about the 100's number chart and using it for addition and subtraction. We are working on solidifying our understanding of Fact Families and Turn Around Facts (Commutative Property). When working with the Fact Families kids sometimes do something like this:
3+5=8
5+3=8 These are the Fact Family equations for 3, 5, and 8
8-5=3
8-3=5
8+3=5 This is what some children try but it is not a true fact. This is a great time to teach them the not equal sign ≠
8+3≠5
We will also be having a few more experiences with Data Collection and Graphing, skip counting patterns and writing story problems.
Please, keep working with your child on the math facts cards that I have sent home. I will be sending home another set, adding doubles, very soon. Also thanks for playing the math games with your child. It helps them learn in a fun way and will also help you see what they know and what they still need help with.
Vocabulary
We will be reading a book called "Possum's Harvest Moon". The vocabulary words we will work with are:
autumn
creature
harvest
snug
accomplished
conclude
Please try to use these words at home during the week and see if the students notice them.
SPELLING
This week is a most important week in spelling. Most of the children have learned the patterns of spelling with short vowels. This week we begin with long vowels. The first rule they learn is about the silent e. It is extremely important that they really understand this principle this week. Compare words with and without the silent e with them often during the week. Examples:
hid, becomes hide
hat becomes hate
bit becomes bite
not becomes note
twin becomes twine etc.
This week's keyword is "Pumpkins". Please write it on the top of your child's yellow tracking sheet for them to earn 3 tokens. Thanks for reading the blog and being interested in your child's education.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
A Feel of Fall in the Air
This week is Green Ribbon Week. A paper came home on Friday explaining the reason and the activities.
Also on Friday I sent home a yellow paper - it is the information about our Walking Field Trip to Wight's Fort Cemetery. It is also the permission slip for your child to participate. Consider it also as an invitation for you to participate in this fun activity. The bottom portion must be completed and returned to school by Wednesday September 15th.
Math
The students are learning to do a morning math starter. It both teaches and reviews all math skills through the year. We are also trying to gain a good basic understanding of some strategies for learning basic math facts. Please work with your child with the math facts cards that I sent home. I will send other sets of cards as I teach the strategies. They will get progressively more difficult.
During this week I will be having the students take a math pre-assessment test. Again I will be using this information to determine skills, needs and progress through the year.
Spelling
This week the students are studying words with consonant blends. These types of blends such as cl, cr, tr, bl, sl,... take the natural sounds of the consonants and blends them together. Please help your child study their spelling words each night.
Reading
I will begin this week to listen to individual children read. I am trying to assess their abilities and their needs. I am reading to them daily and we are doing some group shared reading. Remember to help them choose to read "just right books."
Vocabulary
We have read the book Mice Make Trouble. We are studying the meaning of 6 words from the book. This weeks words are:
contributed
assortment
inappropriate
orderly
concoct
civilized
They should be listening for these words being used at home, on tv, in movies, etc. If you can use any of them in your family conversations that would be wonderful.Before the week ends they should understand the meaning of these words. There will be a quiz on Friday.
Art
The children have made a Name Art cover for their portfolio and a tear art Watermelon. Ususlly there is an art project every 1-2 weeks.
Writing
The kids are in the process of writing pages for a class book that has rhymes for the song "Down By the Bay."
They are also writing about their summer vacation and doing a glyph tee shirt cover for their story.
We are learning about the basics of writing a sentence. They only need to remember 5 things.
1- a sentence must make sense
2- it must begin with a capital
3- it must have ending punctuation
4- they must use their best spelling, using resources I have provided
5- they must use their best handwriting
That brings me to an area of concern. About 1/2 of the students have good to very good handwriting. The other half of the students really need to follow the instruction I am giving them and work to improve their handwriting. I may be sending some individual notes to let you as parents and the students know specifically what things they can do to improve.
If your child does not know how to tie their shoes yet please continue working with them and help them to master this skill. Thanks!
This Friday we will do a special rotation with activities related to the study of rocks.
This week's keyword is: "Peach Cobbler" When you have read this blog, write the keyword on the top front of the yellow tracking sheet. Your child will receive 3 tokens for your interest in their education.
Some teachers use a weekly newsletter to communicate with parents. This is my effort to let you know what is happening in our class. Please let me know if it is helpful or not and what other kinds of information you would like. Comments can be left below but I think you have to have a Google account to comment.
Thanks for all you are doing to help your child be successful!! Thanks to all the parents who have and are volunteering to help me help your kids.
Also on Friday I sent home a yellow paper - it is the information about our Walking Field Trip to Wight's Fort Cemetery. It is also the permission slip for your child to participate. Consider it also as an invitation for you to participate in this fun activity. The bottom portion must be completed and returned to school by Wednesday September 15th.
Math
The students are learning to do a morning math starter. It both teaches and reviews all math skills through the year. We are also trying to gain a good basic understanding of some strategies for learning basic math facts. Please work with your child with the math facts cards that I sent home. I will send other sets of cards as I teach the strategies. They will get progressively more difficult.
During this week I will be having the students take a math pre-assessment test. Again I will be using this information to determine skills, needs and progress through the year.
Spelling
This week the students are studying words with consonant blends. These types of blends such as cl, cr, tr, bl, sl,... take the natural sounds of the consonants and blends them together. Please help your child study their spelling words each night.
Reading
I will begin this week to listen to individual children read. I am trying to assess their abilities and their needs. I am reading to them daily and we are doing some group shared reading. Remember to help them choose to read "just right books."
Vocabulary
We have read the book Mice Make Trouble. We are studying the meaning of 6 words from the book. This weeks words are:
contributed
assortment
inappropriate
orderly
concoct
civilized
They should be listening for these words being used at home, on tv, in movies, etc. If you can use any of them in your family conversations that would be wonderful.Before the week ends they should understand the meaning of these words. There will be a quiz on Friday.
Art
The children have made a Name Art cover for their portfolio and a tear art Watermelon. Ususlly there is an art project every 1-2 weeks.
Writing
The kids are in the process of writing pages for a class book that has rhymes for the song "Down By the Bay."
They are also writing about their summer vacation and doing a glyph tee shirt cover for their story.
We are learning about the basics of writing a sentence. They only need to remember 5 things.
1- a sentence must make sense
2- it must begin with a capital
3- it must have ending punctuation
4- they must use their best spelling, using resources I have provided
5- they must use their best handwriting
That brings me to an area of concern. About 1/2 of the students have good to very good handwriting. The other half of the students really need to follow the instruction I am giving them and work to improve their handwriting. I may be sending some individual notes to let you as parents and the students know specifically what things they can do to improve.
If your child does not know how to tie their shoes yet please continue working with them and help them to master this skill. Thanks!
This Friday we will do a special rotation with activities related to the study of rocks.
This week's keyword is: "Peach Cobbler" When you have read this blog, write the keyword on the top front of the yellow tracking sheet. Your child will receive 3 tokens for your interest in their education.
Some teachers use a weekly newsletter to communicate with parents. This is my effort to let you know what is happening in our class. Please let me know if it is helpful or not and what other kinds of information you would like. Comments can be left below but I think you have to have a Google account to comment.
Thanks for all you are doing to help your child be successful!! Thanks to all the parents who have and are volunteering to help me help your kids.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Book Orders
I am sending home the book order catalogs and forms. You can fill in the form and send it and a check made out to Scholastic Book Clubs in an envelope to school. Or, you can place your order online with the information given to you at Back to School Night. Online orders earn $3.00 each for the class. We also earn 1-10 points per dollar spent with the September orders depending on the volume of the order. Points can be redeemed for classroom books.
The main reason I send these orders home is so that you can purchase books your child would like to read. However, your child should be reading books on their reading level or lower. If they are trying to read a book that is too hard for them they become frustrated. A lot of the books in these catalogs list the Guided Reading Level down near the price. Look for GRL: ____. Your child should know their GRL as I have listed it inside their spelling folders and they are trying to choose books in the classroom library on their level.
If you don’t know the reading level of a book a good rule of thumb to know if it is a “just right” book is the following: If your child misses or struggles with 5 words on one page of the book then the book is too difficult for them. If you take them to the library and they choose a book just have them read a page to you there in the library. If they miss 5 or more words on the page then it is a book you can read to them but they should choose an easier book for their independent reading. They should only be reading “Just Right Books” at home.
The due date for orders from these catalogs is next Tuesday September 14th.
Keyword: Scholastic Book Clubs (Print this on the top front of your child's yellow tracking sheet and they will be rewarded for your reading the blog.)
The main reason I send these orders home is so that you can purchase books your child would like to read. However, your child should be reading books on their reading level or lower. If they are trying to read a book that is too hard for them they become frustrated. A lot of the books in these catalogs list the Guided Reading Level down near the price. Look for GRL: ____. Your child should know their GRL as I have listed it inside their spelling folders and they are trying to choose books in the classroom library on their level.
If you don’t know the reading level of a book a good rule of thumb to know if it is a “just right” book is the following: If your child misses or struggles with 5 words on one page of the book then the book is too difficult for them. If you take them to the library and they choose a book just have them read a page to you there in the library. If they miss 5 or more words on the page then it is a book you can read to them but they should choose an easier book for their independent reading. They should only be reading “Just Right Books” at home.
The due date for orders from these catalogs is next Tuesday September 14th.
Keyword: Scholastic Book Clubs (Print this on the top front of your child's yellow tracking sheet and they will be rewarded for your reading the blog.)
Monday, August 30, 2010
Welcome to 2nd Grade 2010-2011
Dear Students and Parents,
Welcome to 2nd Grade at Elk Meadows Elementary. My name is Mrs. Liz Taylor and I am looking forward to getting to know my new students, and their parents. I hope you students have enjoyed a nice break from school and are now ready to get started learning again. I am excited to get to know all of you.
I am hoping we can use our class blog as a means of communication to help us all be aware of what is going on at school, what homework assignments are due and so we can also share some of the fine work of the students through this technology. I am hoping you will check this blog at least once or twice a week to stay current on what is going on.
You can contact me through my school email which is elizabeth.taylor@jordan.k12.ut.us or by phone at the school 801-446-3200, or just send a note to school on the back of your child's tracking sheet and I will return a note the same way.
My philosophy is to try to make school a place your child will enjoy coming to and then to help them learn those things that will help them build a strong foundation in math, literacy, writing, science and the other areas of whole child education. My first and most important rule is that we must always be honest. Next we must respect ourselves, others and the property or environment. Thirdly we need to do our best work.
I try to encourage the children through positive talk such as, "Your handwriting is much improved." , "I love how you are following the directions that I gave you." , "I appreciate how Joe is walking so quietly in the hall today," etc. I use a system of class points and individual tokens that the children earn by doing their work and following the rules. The tokens are used to buy things at the Token Store which is held about six to eight times during the year. The store is parent supported with donations of inexpensive items the children will enjoy buying. I usually need one volunteer to help run the store on those Token Store days. I would greatly appreciate your support for this activity as it truly is a wonderfully successful incentive program to encourage responsibility in the children both in their work and in their behavior.
It would be helpful if your child had the following items:
A pencil box - about 6" by 9" - with child’s name on it
A personal pencil sharpener with catch container for the sharpenings - with child’s name on it
A water bottle - with child’s name on it
A set of 12 colored pencils for finer coloring
The classroom temperature varies greatly - as fall approaches I would encourage you to send a jacket to school to stay here for the times when the room is too cool for your child.
Often I have students who brag about how they stay up until 11:00 at night. All of the research as well as common sense tells us that children of this age need nearly 10 hours of sleep a night or more. If they do not get this sleep their ability to learn and their behavior in the classroom is impaired. I can see it in individuals and in the class when they have not had enough sleep. I would encourage you to set up a family routine concerning homework and bedtime that will be the best for your child's health and education.
I see education as a three legged stool; the teacher, the student and the parents are the legs on the stool. Without any one of them the education is unbalanced and less than the strong foundation that each child deserves. Please be involved by helping your child with homework on a nightly basis. Then if you can please volunteer your time to help in our classroom either as a room mother, party helper, field trip volunteer, spelling volunteer, in the classroom on a regular basis or by doing things at home to help prepare materials. Any of the following donations would also be greatly appreciated:
boxes of facial tissue
Zip-Lock bags - snack or quart size
dry-erase markers
Mrs. Liz Taylor’s Class Schedule
8:30 -9:00 Starter activity/ Spiral Math Review/
Morning Message – Grammar and Conventions/
Business/Calendar
9:00-10:15 Math
10:15-11:30 Language Arts – (Vocabulary and Writing) or
(Guided Reading, Spelling and Centers)
11:30-12:15 Lunch
12:15-1:30 Language Arts – (Vocabulary and Writing) or
(Guided Reading, Spelling and Centers)
1:30-2:15 Rotations (Mon. – P.E., Tue. – Art, Wed. - music, Thur. - language arts extras)
Please make sure your child wears tennis shoes on Monday.
2:15-2:30 Recess
2:30-3:00 Unit time (science and social studies)
Thurs. – 5th grade Buddies
3:00-3:05 Clean up and home
Curriculum
Reading: Students will keep a reading response journal. They will read at least 15 minutes every school night and write at least 1-2 sentences telling how they connected with the book. The due date is on the cover of the journal.
Students will learn how to select a book that is just right for their reading ability.
We will focus on developing good strategies for accuracy, fluency, and comprehension in reading.
Spelling: We will begin spelling on Friday, September 3. The spelling lists will be comprised of frequently used words in the English language, word chunks, and sight words that are individually chosen for your child. Each week we will focus on a phonics principle and learn to spell words using that principle.
The list will come home on Friday so you have the weekend as well as Monday-Thursday morning to study the words.
Spelling tests will be given on Thursdays.
Math: We will continue working on basic math facts of addition and subtraction. I have a goal for each child to be fluent in these facts by the end of December. It is important that you work with your child to learn these. Basic facts are one digit plus one digit numbers and the subtraction fact that goes with it, for example: 9+9=18, 18-9=9.
Students will learn problem solving strategies as well as create some strategies of their own.
We will learn fractions, addition and subtraction with regrouping (some of us remember 'carrying' and 'borrowing'), measurement skills, time to the quarter hour, and geometry. A lot of work will be done in firming up the children’s’ number sense understanding.
Social Studies/Science: We will be studying rocks, plants, weather, life cycles, map skills, communities, cultures and citizenship.
Library: We will have library on Tuesday. Please make sure that your child has his/her book to turn in each Tuesday. I will allow the children to take home the library books, however if the books do not come back each week I will have them keep them at school. If they are not finished with the book they may renew it. Since more children are at school all at one time it is important to return the books promptly.
P.E. We will usually have PE on Mondays. Please make sure that your child has sturdy and comfortable shoes suitable for activities and that they wear them on Mondays.
Book Orders: From time to time we will send home a book order form. If you are interested, please return the form to school with your money. Please send checks only made out to Scholastic Books. The orders will be due on the Friday following the day they are sent home. I am sending information that will allow you to order the books and pay for them online. Each time an online order is placed we receive $3.00 in an account for me to purchase books for the classroom. If you have questions please email me.
The Blog- Instead of a weekly newsletter I put important information on the class blog. You can access it at: http://www.ltaylor2.blogspot.com/ I also provide links to important and helpful information on the blog. It can also be accessed through the grade pages on the school web page.
Volunteers: We love volunteers in our classroom. If you are interested in helping out in our class please sign up on the ½ sheet paper on your child’s desk with the dates and times you are available. We need volunteer to help with spelling tests, reading, math games, and home projects. The PTA has been telling us about 'Gold Medal Schools' and one of the goals of these schools is to have every parent donate at least 3 hours of volunteer work for the school.
The keyword or phrase is "I Love Math" - please write it on your child's yellow tracking sheet and they will be rewarded for your efforts to keep current with what is going on in class.
Please feel free to email me with any questions, or something I need to know about your child. I am here to be a help to you, educationally, as you raise your child.
elizabeth.taylor@jordan.k12.ut.us (the official school email)
Welcome to 2nd Grade at Elk Meadows Elementary. My name is Mrs. Liz Taylor and I am looking forward to getting to know my new students, and their parents. I hope you students have enjoyed a nice break from school and are now ready to get started learning again. I am excited to get to know all of you.
I am hoping we can use our class blog as a means of communication to help us all be aware of what is going on at school, what homework assignments are due and so we can also share some of the fine work of the students through this technology. I am hoping you will check this blog at least once or twice a week to stay current on what is going on.
You can contact me through my school email which is elizabeth.taylor@jordan.k12.ut.us or by phone at the school 801-446-3200, or just send a note to school on the back of your child's tracking sheet and I will return a note the same way.
My philosophy is to try to make school a place your child will enjoy coming to and then to help them learn those things that will help them build a strong foundation in math, literacy, writing, science and the other areas of whole child education. My first and most important rule is that we must always be honest. Next we must respect ourselves, others and the property or environment. Thirdly we need to do our best work.
I try to encourage the children through positive talk such as, "Your handwriting is much improved." , "I love how you are following the directions that I gave you." , "I appreciate how Joe is walking so quietly in the hall today," etc. I use a system of class points and individual tokens that the children earn by doing their work and following the rules. The tokens are used to buy things at the Token Store which is held about six to eight times during the year. The store is parent supported with donations of inexpensive items the children will enjoy buying. I usually need one volunteer to help run the store on those Token Store days. I would greatly appreciate your support for this activity as it truly is a wonderfully successful incentive program to encourage responsibility in the children both in their work and in their behavior.
It would be helpful if your child had the following items:
A pencil box - about 6" by 9" - with child’s name on it
A personal pencil sharpener with catch container for the sharpenings - with child’s name on it
A water bottle - with child’s name on it
A set of 12 colored pencils for finer coloring
The classroom temperature varies greatly - as fall approaches I would encourage you to send a jacket to school to stay here for the times when the room is too cool for your child.
Often I have students who brag about how they stay up until 11:00 at night. All of the research as well as common sense tells us that children of this age need nearly 10 hours of sleep a night or more. If they do not get this sleep their ability to learn and their behavior in the classroom is impaired. I can see it in individuals and in the class when they have not had enough sleep. I would encourage you to set up a family routine concerning homework and bedtime that will be the best for your child's health and education.
I see education as a three legged stool; the teacher, the student and the parents are the legs on the stool. Without any one of them the education is unbalanced and less than the strong foundation that each child deserves. Please be involved by helping your child with homework on a nightly basis. Then if you can please volunteer your time to help in our classroom either as a room mother, party helper, field trip volunteer, spelling volunteer, in the classroom on a regular basis or by doing things at home to help prepare materials. Any of the following donations would also be greatly appreciated:
boxes of facial tissue
Zip-Lock bags - snack or quart size
dry-erase markers
Mrs. Liz Taylor’s Class Schedule
8:30 -9:00 Starter activity/ Spiral Math Review/
Morning Message – Grammar and Conventions/
Business/Calendar
9:00-10:15 Math
10:15-11:30 Language Arts – (Vocabulary and Writing) or
(Guided Reading, Spelling and Centers)
11:30-12:15 Lunch
12:15-1:30 Language Arts – (Vocabulary and Writing) or
(Guided Reading, Spelling and Centers)
1:30-2:15 Rotations (Mon. – P.E., Tue. – Art, Wed. - music, Thur. - language arts extras)
Please make sure your child wears tennis shoes on Monday.
2:15-2:30 Recess
2:30-3:00 Unit time (science and social studies)
Thurs. – 5th grade Buddies
3:00-3:05 Clean up and home
Curriculum
Reading: Students will keep a reading response journal. They will read at least 15 minutes every school night and write at least 1-2 sentences telling how they connected with the book. The due date is on the cover of the journal.
Students will learn how to select a book that is just right for their reading ability.
We will focus on developing good strategies for accuracy, fluency, and comprehension in reading.
Spelling: We will begin spelling on Friday, September 3. The spelling lists will be comprised of frequently used words in the English language, word chunks, and sight words that are individually chosen for your child. Each week we will focus on a phonics principle and learn to spell words using that principle.
The list will come home on Friday so you have the weekend as well as Monday-Thursday morning to study the words.
Spelling tests will be given on Thursdays.
Math: We will continue working on basic math facts of addition and subtraction. I have a goal for each child to be fluent in these facts by the end of December. It is important that you work with your child to learn these. Basic facts are one digit plus one digit numbers and the subtraction fact that goes with it, for example: 9+9=18, 18-9=9.
Students will learn problem solving strategies as well as create some strategies of their own.
We will learn fractions, addition and subtraction with regrouping (some of us remember 'carrying' and 'borrowing'), measurement skills, time to the quarter hour, and geometry. A lot of work will be done in firming up the children’s’ number sense understanding.
Social Studies/Science: We will be studying rocks, plants, weather, life cycles, map skills, communities, cultures and citizenship.
Library: We will have library on Tuesday. Please make sure that your child has his/her book to turn in each Tuesday. I will allow the children to take home the library books, however if the books do not come back each week I will have them keep them at school. If they are not finished with the book they may renew it. Since more children are at school all at one time it is important to return the books promptly.
P.E. We will usually have PE on Mondays. Please make sure that your child has sturdy and comfortable shoes suitable for activities and that they wear them on Mondays.
Book Orders: From time to time we will send home a book order form. If you are interested, please return the form to school with your money. Please send checks only made out to Scholastic Books. The orders will be due on the Friday following the day they are sent home. I am sending information that will allow you to order the books and pay for them online. Each time an online order is placed we receive $3.00 in an account for me to purchase books for the classroom. If you have questions please email me.
The Blog- Instead of a weekly newsletter I put important information on the class blog. You can access it at: http://www.ltaylor2.blogspot.com/ I also provide links to important and helpful information on the blog. It can also be accessed through the grade pages on the school web page.
Volunteers: We love volunteers in our classroom. If you are interested in helping out in our class please sign up on the ½ sheet paper on your child’s desk with the dates and times you are available. We need volunteer to help with spelling tests, reading, math games, and home projects. The PTA has been telling us about 'Gold Medal Schools' and one of the goals of these schools is to have every parent donate at least 3 hours of volunteer work for the school.
The keyword or phrase is "I Love Math" - please write it on your child's yellow tracking sheet and they will be rewarded for your efforts to keep current with what is going on in class.
Please feel free to email me with any questions, or something I need to know about your child. I am here to be a help to you, educationally, as you raise your child.
elizabeth.taylor@jordan.k12.ut.us (the official school email)
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
My, How They Have Grown!
We are at 2 1/2 days and counting. It will be both great to see them move on to third grade and sad to see them go. We have been having a great time making fish mobiles, coloring symmetrical butterflies, painting pet rocks, learning about the meaning of multiplication (using arrays and circles and stars) and enjoying making birthday books for our friends.
Tomorrow, Wednesday June 30th we will have field day from 9-11 am. We will have the Fantastic Falcon Award Assembly at 1:15 pm. The rest of the day will be spent doing math, writing and reading together.
Thursday we will clean and stack our desks then participate in water day from 11-11:30, have lunch, long recess to dry out, school wide video. (Remember to wear clothes that can get wet and will dry quickly. A big towel and a blanket, pillow and healthy snack for the movie.)
Friday we will be watching the 6th Grade/Faculty Softball Game, have recess, have a party with games and activities, token store, pizza and pop and a special treat and entertainment. We will then pass out the report cards and say our farewells.
It has been a real pleasure sharing my days with your children. They are a talkative, rambunctious bunch but I have grown to truly love them and respect their talents and differences. I will miss your children and their wonderful enthusiasm. Thank you for sharing them with me for a while.
We are at 2 1/2 days and counting. It will be both great to see them move on to third grade and sad to see them go. We have been having a great time making fish mobiles, coloring symmetrical butterflies, painting pet rocks, learning about the meaning of multiplication (using arrays and circles and stars) and enjoying making birthday books for our friends.
Tomorrow, Wednesday June 30th we will have field day from 9-11 am. We will have the Fantastic Falcon Award Assembly at 1:15 pm. The rest of the day will be spent doing math, writing and reading together.
Thursday we will clean and stack our desks then participate in water day from 11-11:30, have lunch, long recess to dry out, school wide video. (Remember to wear clothes that can get wet and will dry quickly. A big towel and a blanket, pillow and healthy snack for the movie.)
Friday we will be watching the 6th Grade/Faculty Softball Game, have recess, have a party with games and activities, token store, pizza and pop and a special treat and entertainment. We will then pass out the report cards and say our farewells.
It has been a real pleasure sharing my days with your children. They are a talkative, rambunctious bunch but I have grown to truly love them and respect their talents and differences. I will miss your children and their wonderful enthusiasm. Thank you for sharing them with me for a while.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Just 2 More Weeks
What's Been Happening?
In the last few weeks we have read biographies and made posters about the people we read about. We have learned about autobiographies and read a book called "When I Was Young in the Mountains" by Cynthia Rylant. Now we have begun writing our own autobiographical books called, "When I Was Young". We have also read and learned about Tall Tales. We have been learning songs and practicing for our musical production. We completed our CRT testing and other class testing. We produced some fine chalk art with our 5th grade buddies and learned how to do some projects with origami. On the 10th we went on our field trip to Red Butte Gardens and had a lot of fun learning about plants and animals. We also participated in the bike rodeo and learned some great rules for safety. Last Thursday students shared their talents and I was quite impressed by the wide variety of talents. Students have also been working on finishing up goals for their Fantastic Falcon Awards. I am nearly finished with individual reading testing for the students. We have been very busy still learning and having fun.
What's Coming Up?
Our pet day is this Thursday June 24th. Parents or older sibling must bring the pets by 8:30 and stay to take them home after the Pet Show. Please help your child practice what they are going to say and do with the pet. This is meant to be an oral language experience for the students so please let them do the talking. You may prompt them if needed but it would be best to help them prepare beforehand. We will be seeing pets from other classes on Mon. Tue. and Wed. Each child needs to bring a fist sized rock to school on Tuesday so they can paint it as a Pet Rock.
Thursday we will have recess and Popsicles with our 5th grade Buddies.
We will be practicing our mini-musical "Stone Soup" this week to be prepared to put it on for parents, siblings, grandparents, etc on this Friday June 25th at 9:15 in the gym.
I still need parent helpers as the children's portfolios need to be put together and we still have some books to assemble for next year's students. I also need help taking down the bulletin board and general help with the students also.
SPELLING The spelling test on the second grade word wall will be on Thursday morning at about 10:30. The list was sent home last Thursday. These are words the students have practiced, been tested on and used all year. It is a list from the USOE of words that second graders should know by the end of the year. They will be asked to spell 25 words at random from the list. We will be doing class spelling bees preparing for the 2nd Grade Spelling Bee next week.
We are excited to see if our butterflies have emerged over the weekend. I am supposing some did and the others will emerge this week. After they have all emerged we will release them. It will be a happy-sad time.
Friday June 25th is the absolute last day to finish goals for the Fantastic Falcon Award.
Next Week - The Last Week
Monday June 28th - Tote Trays will be coming home to be cleaned. Some good cleaners are Goo Gone, SOS pads or cleanser. Please make sure all marks are removed. Leave number stickers on the tote trays. These tote trays cost over $7.00 each and must be reused. We appreciate your help in cleaning them and getting them ready for next year's students. They should be returned no later than Wednesday June 30th.
Tuesday June 29th - 2nd graders will trade autographs in the gym. In the afternoon we will have the Spelling Bee. (Parents are not invited due to lack of room.)
Wednesday June 30th - Return all tote trays. Field day 9 - 11. 3 parent helpers are needed. Fantastic Falcon Awards Assembly is at 1:15 in the gym.
Thursday July 1st - We will wash and clean the desks and chairs and stack them. The school sponsors a "Water Day" on this day. Students are encouraged to wear shorts and tee shirts that will dry quickly. (Not Denim.) They can wear flip flops or take their shoes off. (They cannot wear just swimsuits.) The sprinklers will be turned on from 11:00 - 11:30 for some water fun. The students can then eat their lunch and play outside while they dry off. Each child is encouraged to wear sunblock and bring a big towel. They can also bring a blanket and pillow and healthy snack to use in the classroom in the afternoon as we watch a school-wide movie.
Friday July 2nd - The students watch a softball game played by the faculty and the 6th graders. They have a recess and then we will be having a class party. It will be the final token store where the students can spend the tokens they have earned. The students are also working on earning points towards having pizza and pop and maybe ice cream at the party. They need to bring their backpack or a doubled grocery bag to put their purchases in to carry them home in.
Keyword - "Great Kids - Great Year"
In the midst of all of these activities we will be finishing our “When I Was Young” books, finish our reading for details activity with books about leaves, roots, flowers and seeds, read some class books just for fun, and work more on basic math facts and models of multiplication and division. We will review some of the vocabulary we have learned this year and use it in a writing assignment and maybe do some puzzle races and engineering competitions, (building with blocks). I also have a few art projects that we will work into our schedule when we can. We will keep busy and learning as much as we can until the last day.
Parents,
Thanks so much for your support this year as parents, and as parent volunteers. Thanks for supporting the token store with donations and for all you have done to help support your child, our class and me during this year. Keep them reading and thinking over the summer and have fun doing it.
Gratefully yours,
Mrs. Liz Taylor
In the last few weeks we have read biographies and made posters about the people we read about. We have learned about autobiographies and read a book called "When I Was Young in the Mountains" by Cynthia Rylant. Now we have begun writing our own autobiographical books called, "When I Was Young". We have also read and learned about Tall Tales. We have been learning songs and practicing for our musical production. We completed our CRT testing and other class testing. We produced some fine chalk art with our 5th grade buddies and learned how to do some projects with origami. On the 10th we went on our field trip to Red Butte Gardens and had a lot of fun learning about plants and animals. We also participated in the bike rodeo and learned some great rules for safety. Last Thursday students shared their talents and I was quite impressed by the wide variety of talents. Students have also been working on finishing up goals for their Fantastic Falcon Awards. I am nearly finished with individual reading testing for the students. We have been very busy still learning and having fun.
What's Coming Up?
Our pet day is this Thursday June 24th. Parents or older sibling must bring the pets by 8:30 and stay to take them home after the Pet Show. Please help your child practice what they are going to say and do with the pet. This is meant to be an oral language experience for the students so please let them do the talking. You may prompt them if needed but it would be best to help them prepare beforehand. We will be seeing pets from other classes on Mon. Tue. and Wed. Each child needs to bring a fist sized rock to school on Tuesday so they can paint it as a Pet Rock.
Thursday we will have recess and Popsicles with our 5th grade Buddies.
We will be practicing our mini-musical "Stone Soup" this week to be prepared to put it on for parents, siblings, grandparents, etc on this Friday June 25th at 9:15 in the gym.
I still need parent helpers as the children's portfolios need to be put together and we still have some books to assemble for next year's students. I also need help taking down the bulletin board and general help with the students also.
SPELLING The spelling test on the second grade word wall will be on Thursday morning at about 10:30. The list was sent home last Thursday. These are words the students have practiced, been tested on and used all year. It is a list from the USOE of words that second graders should know by the end of the year. They will be asked to spell 25 words at random from the list. We will be doing class spelling bees preparing for the 2nd Grade Spelling Bee next week.
We are excited to see if our butterflies have emerged over the weekend. I am supposing some did and the others will emerge this week. After they have all emerged we will release them. It will be a happy-sad time.
Friday June 25th is the absolute last day to finish goals for the Fantastic Falcon Award.
Next Week - The Last Week
Monday June 28th - Tote Trays will be coming home to be cleaned. Some good cleaners are Goo Gone, SOS pads or cleanser. Please make sure all marks are removed. Leave number stickers on the tote trays. These tote trays cost over $7.00 each and must be reused. We appreciate your help in cleaning them and getting them ready for next year's students. They should be returned no later than Wednesday June 30th.
Tuesday June 29th - 2nd graders will trade autographs in the gym. In the afternoon we will have the Spelling Bee. (Parents are not invited due to lack of room.)
Wednesday June 30th - Return all tote trays. Field day 9 - 11. 3 parent helpers are needed. Fantastic Falcon Awards Assembly is at 1:15 in the gym.
Thursday July 1st - We will wash and clean the desks and chairs and stack them. The school sponsors a "Water Day" on this day. Students are encouraged to wear shorts and tee shirts that will dry quickly. (Not Denim.) They can wear flip flops or take their shoes off. (They cannot wear just swimsuits.) The sprinklers will be turned on from 11:00 - 11:30 for some water fun. The students can then eat their lunch and play outside while they dry off. Each child is encouraged to wear sunblock and bring a big towel. They can also bring a blanket and pillow and healthy snack to use in the classroom in the afternoon as we watch a school-wide movie.
Friday July 2nd - The students watch a softball game played by the faculty and the 6th graders. They have a recess and then we will be having a class party. It will be the final token store where the students can spend the tokens they have earned. The students are also working on earning points towards having pizza and pop and maybe ice cream at the party. They need to bring their backpack or a doubled grocery bag to put their purchases in to carry them home in.
Keyword - "Great Kids - Great Year"
In the midst of all of these activities we will be finishing our “When I Was Young” books, finish our reading for details activity with books about leaves, roots, flowers and seeds, read some class books just for fun, and work more on basic math facts and models of multiplication and division. We will review some of the vocabulary we have learned this year and use it in a writing assignment and maybe do some puzzle races and engineering competitions, (building with blocks). I also have a few art projects that we will work into our schedule when we can. We will keep busy and learning as much as we can until the last day.
Parents,
Thanks so much for your support this year as parents, and as parent volunteers. Thanks for supporting the token store with donations and for all you have done to help support your child, our class and me during this year. Keep them reading and thinking over the summer and have fun doing it.
Gratefully yours,
Mrs. Liz Taylor
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Biographies and Autobiographies
Reading
I have begun the individual Fountas and Pinnell reading tests with the students. This will give us an excellent picture of the progress they have made in Reading Level, Word Attack, Fluency, and Comprehension.
This week we will study the genre of Biography. Each student will read a biography and do some activities related to the book they read. I have biographies on many different reading levels. It would be wonderful if they also read some biographies from your family library or the public library at home this week.
Next week we will be moving on to Autobiographies. Each student will be writing a book of memories called "When I Was Young..." I am sending home a planning page for this writing assignment. Please help your child complete it and return it by Friday the 28th.
Math
We are completing our unit on measurement which includes perimeter and capacity.
We will be reviewing for the CRT testing. Some review will be oral, some will be on worksheets and some will be in game format. I really try to make this fun as we remember and use all the mathematics we have learned this year.
Spelling
This week we are working on comparisons using words with -er and -est such as bigger, biggest, happier, happiest, nicer, nicest Remember the spelling rules which are: Add -er or -est to show how one thing compares with another. Double the consonant and add -er or -est to words ending in a short vowel and one consonant. Change the y to i and add -er or -est to words that end in y. Add -r or -st to words that end in silent e to make the -er or -est ending.
The test will be on Thursday.
Vocabulary
We will be reading a book titled "Montezuma's Revenge". I forgot to bring home the list of vocabulary words so I will add them tomorrow.
Schedule
You may want to keep track of the following dates:
Tuesday May 25th Jumpathon must have $5.00 donation to go to the jumpathon
Monday May 31st Memorial Day - no school
Thursday June 10th Red Butte Garden Field Trip and PTA Carnival
Tuesday June 15th Bike Rodeo, must have a helmut to participate I need 2 volunteers to help, please (look for note)
Thursday June 17th Class Talent Show (look for note)
Thursday June 24th Class Pet Show 8:30 am on the blacktop parent must bring the pet and take it home right after the show. (look for note)
Friday June 25th 2nd Grade Mini-Musical "Stone Soup" 9:15 in gym parents etc. invited (look for notes)
Tuesday June 29th 2nd Grade Spelling Bee
Please return any Field Trip Notes ASAP
The keyword is "Biography"
I need to have a token store this week probably Thursday or Friday. I will need 1-2 parent volunteers to help. I would ask that if any of you parents are able I would appreciate any donations of toys, treats etc. for the token store. Send by Wednesday please.
I have begun the individual Fountas and Pinnell reading tests with the students. This will give us an excellent picture of the progress they have made in Reading Level, Word Attack, Fluency, and Comprehension.
This week we will study the genre of Biography. Each student will read a biography and do some activities related to the book they read. I have biographies on many different reading levels. It would be wonderful if they also read some biographies from your family library or the public library at home this week.
Next week we will be moving on to Autobiographies. Each student will be writing a book of memories called "When I Was Young..." I am sending home a planning page for this writing assignment. Please help your child complete it and return it by Friday the 28th.
Math
We are completing our unit on measurement which includes perimeter and capacity.
We will be reviewing for the CRT testing. Some review will be oral, some will be on worksheets and some will be in game format. I really try to make this fun as we remember and use all the mathematics we have learned this year.
Spelling
This week we are working on comparisons using words with -er and -est such as bigger, biggest, happier, happiest, nicer, nicest Remember the spelling rules which are: Add -er or -est to show how one thing compares with another. Double the consonant and add -er or -est to words ending in a short vowel and one consonant. Change the y to i and add -er or -est to words that end in y. Add -r or -st to words that end in silent e to make the -er or -est ending.
The test will be on Thursday.
Vocabulary
We will be reading a book titled "Montezuma's Revenge". I forgot to bring home the list of vocabulary words so I will add them tomorrow.
Schedule
You may want to keep track of the following dates:
Tuesday May 25th Jumpathon must have $5.00 donation to go to the jumpathon
Monday May 31st Memorial Day - no school
Thursday June 10th Red Butte Garden Field Trip and PTA Carnival
Tuesday June 15th Bike Rodeo, must have a helmut to participate I need 2 volunteers to help, please (look for note)
Thursday June 17th Class Talent Show (look for note)
Thursday June 24th Class Pet Show 8:30 am on the blacktop parent must bring the pet and take it home right after the show. (look for note)
Friday June 25th 2nd Grade Mini-Musical "Stone Soup" 9:15 in gym parents etc. invited (look for notes)
Tuesday June 29th 2nd Grade Spelling Bee
Please return any Field Trip Notes ASAP
The keyword is "Biography"
I need to have a token store this week probably Thursday or Friday. I will need 1-2 parent volunteers to help. I would ask that if any of you parents are able I would appreciate any donations of toys, treats etc. for the token store. Send by Wednesday please.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Back on Track, Ready to Run to the Finish Line
I hope you all had a nice off track time. We only have 8 weeks or 39 days left to enjoy our class camaraderie. We have a lot to learn yet and we will be reviewing to solidify many concepts we have already learned.
Spelling
This week and next week we will be immersed in contraction action. We will be learning about forming contractions with not, are and have this week. We will also be learning about contractions with is, will, am, would, had and has. Please reinforce with your child that the apostrophe shows where letters were left out as the contraction was formed.
Vocabulary
We will read a book called "Chato's Kitchen". It has some Spanish words in the story which forces the children to try to understand the words through context in the story. This is a good skill to learn for when they come upon any word they don't know in their reading. This week's vocabulary words are: vibrated, reassured, dumbfounded, cowered, suppressed, and dismayed.
If you can use any of these words in conversation with your child they can listen for them and mark on the vocabulary chart that they heard the word used.
Math
The students did very well on the fractions test on the section dealing with fractions of a geometric shape. Several students are still struggling with the concept of fractions of a set. We will be reviewing and reteaching this information. An example of this topic is: If I had six cupcakes and I ate 1/3 of them how many cupcakes did I eat? The first task is to make 3 equal groups out of the six cupcakes. If I made 3 equal groups each group would have 2 cupcakes. 2+2+2=6. If I ate one of the three equal groups then I would have eaten 2 cupcakes. 1/3 of 6 is 2.
We will also be working on measurement with standard and nonstandard measuring tools and I will give the students a broken ruler and see if they can use it to measure correctly. We will also learn about capacity. This deals with cups, pints, quarts, half-gallons, gallons etc. and their relationship to each other.
We are beginning our reviewing of math concepts for the CRT Testing. This testing will take place on June 7-9. Please make sure your child will be in school on those dates.
Reading
We will begin a study of literary genres. This week we will learn about Historical Fiction. Some of the children will just be involved in discussions and my reading to them. Other children have been reading a book about the San Francisco Earthquake. They will do some work related to this book and this genre.
Heads up - Next week we will be working with Biographies and learn about Autobiographies. The students will be having a writing assignment that if done well could be a treasure for them for the rest of their lives. I will be sending a paper home about this assignment soon. You will just have to help your child list 6 of their favorite childhood memories. They will use these memories to make their own book. This project is like a capstone project and I expect them to do their very best work.
Soon I will begin the Fountas and Pinnell reading tests which help me more specifically determine your child's true reading level. Your children have been making great progress in their reading skills this year.
Science
We will be continuing our work with Life Cycles for several weeks. We are primarily studying the life cycles of: butterflies, frogs, plants and chicks. We will be watching the development of butterflies in a few weeks and we will also take a field trip to Red Butte Garden on June 10th. We are looking forward to that fun time.
I will be going to my son's graduation from Law School so I will be gone from school Thursday - Monday, May 13th, 14th and 17th. Mrs. Emily Crane from third grade, an off track teacher will be their substitute.]
We will also be having two assemblies this week. One is the kick off assembly for the American Heart Association Jumpathon. The other assembly will be a concert by the Bingham Jazz Band.
This weeks keyword is "Historical Fiction". Please write it on your child's tracking sheet and they will be rewarded for your diligence in reading the blog.
Thanks for all you are doing to help your child succeed in school.
Spelling
This week and next week we will be immersed in contraction action. We will be learning about forming contractions with not, are and have this week. We will also be learning about contractions with is, will, am, would, had and has. Please reinforce with your child that the apostrophe shows where letters were left out as the contraction was formed.
Vocabulary
We will read a book called "Chato's Kitchen". It has some Spanish words in the story which forces the children to try to understand the words through context in the story. This is a good skill to learn for when they come upon any word they don't know in their reading. This week's vocabulary words are: vibrated, reassured, dumbfounded, cowered, suppressed, and dismayed.
If you can use any of these words in conversation with your child they can listen for them and mark on the vocabulary chart that they heard the word used.
Math
The students did very well on the fractions test on the section dealing with fractions of a geometric shape. Several students are still struggling with the concept of fractions of a set. We will be reviewing and reteaching this information. An example of this topic is: If I had six cupcakes and I ate 1/3 of them how many cupcakes did I eat? The first task is to make 3 equal groups out of the six cupcakes. If I made 3 equal groups each group would have 2 cupcakes. 2+2+2=6. If I ate one of the three equal groups then I would have eaten 2 cupcakes. 1/3 of 6 is 2.
We will also be working on measurement with standard and nonstandard measuring tools and I will give the students a broken ruler and see if they can use it to measure correctly. We will also learn about capacity. This deals with cups, pints, quarts, half-gallons, gallons etc. and their relationship to each other.
We are beginning our reviewing of math concepts for the CRT Testing. This testing will take place on June 7-9. Please make sure your child will be in school on those dates.
Reading
We will begin a study of literary genres. This week we will learn about Historical Fiction. Some of the children will just be involved in discussions and my reading to them. Other children have been reading a book about the San Francisco Earthquake. They will do some work related to this book and this genre.
Heads up - Next week we will be working with Biographies and learn about Autobiographies. The students will be having a writing assignment that if done well could be a treasure for them for the rest of their lives. I will be sending a paper home about this assignment soon. You will just have to help your child list 6 of their favorite childhood memories. They will use these memories to make their own book. This project is like a capstone project and I expect them to do their very best work.
Soon I will begin the Fountas and Pinnell reading tests which help me more specifically determine your child's true reading level. Your children have been making great progress in their reading skills this year.
Science
We will be continuing our work with Life Cycles for several weeks. We are primarily studying the life cycles of: butterflies, frogs, plants and chicks. We will be watching the development of butterflies in a few weeks and we will also take a field trip to Red Butte Garden on June 10th. We are looking forward to that fun time.
I will be going to my son's graduation from Law School so I will be gone from school Thursday - Monday, May 13th, 14th and 17th. Mrs. Emily Crane from third grade, an off track teacher will be their substitute.]
We will also be having two assemblies this week. One is the kick off assembly for the American Heart Association Jumpathon. The other assembly will be a concert by the Bingham Jazz Band.
This weeks keyword is "Historical Fiction". Please write it on your child's tracking sheet and they will be rewarded for your diligence in reading the blog.
Thanks for all you are doing to help your child succeed in school.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
So Little Time, So Much To Do...
Two and a half days and counting. We have a lot to accomplish in this time.
Spelling
We are learning a spelling principle this week which means that the students will have a spelling test on Wednesday the 21st. We are learning about using the "ed" ending to form words with the past tense. This will be changing a word from meaning something that is happening (present tense) to something that has happened (past tense). We will also be listening to the three sounds that are made by adding the "ed" ending to words.
Sometimes we hear /ed/ as in acted.
Sometimes we hear /t/ as in asked.
Sometimes we hear /d/ as in aimed.
We learn this principle so it is easier for us to remember spellings for these words. If we are using a past tense word and it ends with a /t/ sound it is still spelled with -ed.
Vocabulary
We will complete the unit started last week by completing the study of the words and having a test on those words. As a reminder the words are: anxious, dreaded, masterpiece, ruin, compassion and nurturing.
Math
We will have two math tests - one on fractions and the other on money.
Reading
I will finish testing the students with the PALS test this week.
Misc.
We will also be continuing our study of life cycles. We will be writing about rain and completing two birthday books. We will also do a couple of art projects.
This weeks keyword is "Hyacinthe". On Tuesday look for a note from me concerning things you can do with your child while they are off track that will help them continue their learning. Some will be to help them complete their "Fantastic Falcon Awards" and others will be to help firm up areas where they may need continued practice.
At the beginning of March your children brought Dr. Seuss books to school. One book that belonged to Evan is unaccounted for. The book is "A Fly Went By". Please look through your books at home and see if perchance it got taken home with your child's books. We would appreciate it if you would look for it.
Thanks for all you do to help your child succeed.
Spelling
We are learning a spelling principle this week which means that the students will have a spelling test on Wednesday the 21st. We are learning about using the "ed" ending to form words with the past tense. This will be changing a word from meaning something that is happening (present tense) to something that has happened (past tense). We will also be listening to the three sounds that are made by adding the "ed" ending to words.
Sometimes we hear /ed/ as in acted.
Sometimes we hear /t/ as in asked.
Sometimes we hear /d/ as in aimed.
We learn this principle so it is easier for us to remember spellings for these words. If we are using a past tense word and it ends with a /t/ sound it is still spelled with -ed.
Vocabulary
We will complete the unit started last week by completing the study of the words and having a test on those words. As a reminder the words are: anxious, dreaded, masterpiece, ruin, compassion and nurturing.
Math
We will have two math tests - one on fractions and the other on money.
Reading
I will finish testing the students with the PALS test this week.
Misc.
We will also be continuing our study of life cycles. We will be writing about rain and completing two birthday books. We will also do a couple of art projects.
This weeks keyword is "Hyacinthe". On Tuesday look for a note from me concerning things you can do with your child while they are off track that will help them continue their learning. Some will be to help them complete their "Fantastic Falcon Awards" and others will be to help firm up areas where they may need continued practice.
At the beginning of March your children brought Dr. Seuss books to school. One book that belonged to Evan is unaccounted for. The book is "A Fly Went By". Please look through your books at home and see if perchance it got taken home with your child's books. We would appreciate it if you would look for it.
Thanks for all you do to help your child succeed.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Back to the Blog...
So sorry I have been offline for a time. Life happens! I hope all of the blog readers will come back and we can get you needed information through this method.
The keyword for this week is "FRACTIONS". Please read on for more information.
Vocabulary
On March 29th we read a book titled "The Great Kapok Tree". The vocabulary words from that book were: ancestors, lulled, slithered, wither, defenseless and intentions. I hope you have heard your child using or mentioning those words.
This last week we read the book "The Patchwork Quilt". The new vocabulary words are: anxious, dreaded, masterpiece, ruin, compassion, nurturing.
Spelling
Last week we worked on digraphs where two letters form a new sound not a blend of the two sounds. The digraph sounds are: sh, th, ch, wh, and ph.
This week we will be studying the differences between the "ing" and "ink" words. These are hard sounds for the children to distinguish. The hope is that this week they will begin listening better to how they say these words - leading to better spelling of these words. They will be tested on these words on Thursday April 15th.
They will also do one more spelling unit before we track off. They will be tested on those words on Wednesday April 21st.
Reading
The next week and a half I will be administering the PALS tests to your children individually. In this test they are asked to read lists of words. Depending on their success at that task they read a story selection and answer comprehension questions about the story. I also listen for fluency and expression and also time their fluency rate.
Science
We are studying life cycles. They will learn about the life cycles of frogs, butterflies and plants. We also learn about the relationship between plants and animals. This unit will continue when we return from off track.
PE
We have started learning about jumping rope. As you can imagine the children have a great variety of abilities. Some can jump fast and fluidly and others can hardly jump at all. This would be a great skill for them to practice while they are off track. We begin with basic, two legs together jumping while swinging the rope forward. We will progress to basic backwards jumping. Swinging the rope to one side then open to jump and a double swing to each side before opening to jump. We keep progressing with more difficult jumps. If the children practice most can become very proficient at jumping rope in second grade.
Math
We started our unit on fractions and will continue that study, hopefully completing it before we track off.
We began the unit by having the children (pretending they want the biggest piece possible) choose if they wanted 1/2, 1/3, 1/8, or 1/4. All but three members of the class chose 1/8. The other 3 choose 1/2. The children see the 8 and think it is the largest number and think it is the largest piece. This is a great beginning point to drive home the fact that the more equal pieces we break something into the smaller each piece has to be.
The students learn about halves, thirds and fourths. They learn about fractions of a shape (like 1/2 of a rectangle) and fractions of a set ( like 1/2 of a set of 12 balloons). The most difficult task is to understand fractions such as 1/3 of a group of 6. They have to first show three equal sized portions of the six (groups of 2,2,2) then note that 1/3 equals one of these three equal groups. So 1/3 of 6 = 2.
Please use the information I sent home last Friday to help you help your child as we study fractions.
Writing
Your children have been writing about spring. They have written a poem beginning with comparing spring to a color. These are on the bulletin board in the hall. The have also written about what they did on their spring break. This week they will write about rain and their memories of storms.
We have also been studying compound words, antonyms, synonyms, and a little about prefixes and suffixes.
Misc.
This week is the school Book Fair. You and your child can purchase books, before and after school and during lunch. Remember the Book Fair Diner - come eat with your child on Wednesday. At this point you would need to bring a lunch from home. You can just come during lunch and after your child has eaten you can go book shopping with them. This is a great opportunity as the book fair is a BUY ONE GET ONE FREE SALE.
Your children are creating cute umbrellas and will do another couple of art projects before we track off.
Please keep helping your child Read and Respond nightly. Please also help them complete and return homework by the next day. This is our final Reading Response Journal. When they come back on track the students will be doing mini-book reports weekly. Also, we need to turn in all Math Games before the children go off track. When we return the students will have paper math homework that will either go along with our study or help prepare them for the end of year testing.
Thanks for all you do to help your child be successful.
Keep up the good work.
The keyword for this week is "FRACTIONS". Please read on for more information.
Vocabulary
On March 29th we read a book titled "The Great Kapok Tree". The vocabulary words from that book were: ancestors, lulled, slithered, wither, defenseless and intentions. I hope you have heard your child using or mentioning those words.
This last week we read the book "The Patchwork Quilt". The new vocabulary words are: anxious, dreaded, masterpiece, ruin, compassion, nurturing.
Spelling
Last week we worked on digraphs where two letters form a new sound not a blend of the two sounds. The digraph sounds are: sh, th, ch, wh, and ph.
This week we will be studying the differences between the "ing" and "ink" words. These are hard sounds for the children to distinguish. The hope is that this week they will begin listening better to how they say these words - leading to better spelling of these words. They will be tested on these words on Thursday April 15th.
They will also do one more spelling unit before we track off. They will be tested on those words on Wednesday April 21st.
Reading
The next week and a half I will be administering the PALS tests to your children individually. In this test they are asked to read lists of words. Depending on their success at that task they read a story selection and answer comprehension questions about the story. I also listen for fluency and expression and also time their fluency rate.
Science
We are studying life cycles. They will learn about the life cycles of frogs, butterflies and plants. We also learn about the relationship between plants and animals. This unit will continue when we return from off track.
PE
We have started learning about jumping rope. As you can imagine the children have a great variety of abilities. Some can jump fast and fluidly and others can hardly jump at all. This would be a great skill for them to practice while they are off track. We begin with basic, two legs together jumping while swinging the rope forward. We will progress to basic backwards jumping. Swinging the rope to one side then open to jump and a double swing to each side before opening to jump. We keep progressing with more difficult jumps. If the children practice most can become very proficient at jumping rope in second grade.
Math
We started our unit on fractions and will continue that study, hopefully completing it before we track off.
We began the unit by having the children (pretending they want the biggest piece possible) choose if they wanted 1/2, 1/3, 1/8, or 1/4. All but three members of the class chose 1/8. The other 3 choose 1/2. The children see the 8 and think it is the largest number and think it is the largest piece. This is a great beginning point to drive home the fact that the more equal pieces we break something into the smaller each piece has to be.
The students learn about halves, thirds and fourths. They learn about fractions of a shape (like 1/2 of a rectangle) and fractions of a set ( like 1/2 of a set of 12 balloons). The most difficult task is to understand fractions such as 1/3 of a group of 6. They have to first show three equal sized portions of the six (groups of 2,2,2) then note that 1/3 equals one of these three equal groups. So 1/3 of 6 = 2.
Please use the information I sent home last Friday to help you help your child as we study fractions.
Writing
Your children have been writing about spring. They have written a poem beginning with comparing spring to a color. These are on the bulletin board in the hall. The have also written about what they did on their spring break. This week they will write about rain and their memories of storms.
We have also been studying compound words, antonyms, synonyms, and a little about prefixes and suffixes.
Misc.
This week is the school Book Fair. You and your child can purchase books, before and after school and during lunch. Remember the Book Fair Diner - come eat with your child on Wednesday. At this point you would need to bring a lunch from home. You can just come during lunch and after your child has eaten you can go book shopping with them. This is a great opportunity as the book fair is a BUY ONE GET ONE FREE SALE.
Your children are creating cute umbrellas and will do another couple of art projects before we track off.
Please keep helping your child Read and Respond nightly. Please also help them complete and return homework by the next day. This is our final Reading Response Journal. When they come back on track the students will be doing mini-book reports weekly. Also, we need to turn in all Math Games before the children go off track. When we return the students will have paper math homework that will either go along with our study or help prepare them for the end of year testing.
Thanks for all you do to help your child be successful.
Keep up the good work.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Slow But Steady...
Some things in life just take longer than you think they will.
Math and Vocabulary
We are still working on the data surveys and making graphs in math.
We are still working on the vocabulary words from last week and will test on them this week.
Spelling
This weeks spelling concentrates on the dipthongs of "oy and oi". As a general rule the "oy" is in the middle or at the end of words and the "oi" is in the middle or at the beginning of words. Examples: joy, boy, soy, loyal, royal oil, oink, boil, soil, foil, spoil.
SS
In Social Studies we are studying time lines. The children will be making time lines of their life and of an average day. We will touch on time lines of various historical events.
Writing
Right now we are really trying to improve our writing skills. Today the students edited some of my writing and some of their own writing. I am encouraging them to write more. As this applies to their "News of the Week" if they are normally writing one sentence I am asking them to write 3-4 sentences. If they are normally writing one paragraph I am asking them to write 2-4 paragraphs. We are also working on doing better at remembering correct use of capitals and punctuation and checking our own spelling. Some of the students handwriting has really improved since the beginning of the school year. Others are still in need of some real effort to improve their handwriting.
Africa Reports and Projects
I hope you are helping your child read about their Africa topic. If they will keep notes each night in the Note Journal that I sent home last week they should then be able to use those notes to write their report. Each day when the Journal is sent back to school with an entry in it they will be rewarded with a token. I am trying to encourage this so that the project doesn't get left until the last minute. I want it to be an enjoyable learning experience for the students.
Heads Up For Next Week
Next week we will celebrate Dr. Seuss's Birthday on Tuesday and our 100th Day of School on Thursday. If your child or your family have any Dr. Seuss books they can bring them to school on Monday. (Please make sure their name or your family name is in the books.) We will be trying to read 100 books in school next week as part of our 100th week celebration. I will read a few to the class, they will each read 3-4 books and they may even read to each other or to me for us to accomplish our goal. We will also do several other activities related to 100.
Our keyword for this week is "February Final Week". I hope that those of you who read this copy of the blog will find it informative and helpful. I would hope more of you would join us for the online version each week. Thanks for all you are each doing to help your child to be successful in school.
Math and Vocabulary
We are still working on the data surveys and making graphs in math.
We are still working on the vocabulary words from last week and will test on them this week.
Spelling
This weeks spelling concentrates on the dipthongs of "oy and oi". As a general rule the "oy" is in the middle or at the end of words and the "oi" is in the middle or at the beginning of words. Examples: joy, boy, soy, loyal, royal oil, oink, boil, soil, foil, spoil.
SS
In Social Studies we are studying time lines. The children will be making time lines of their life and of an average day. We will touch on time lines of various historical events.
Writing
Right now we are really trying to improve our writing skills. Today the students edited some of my writing and some of their own writing. I am encouraging them to write more. As this applies to their "News of the Week" if they are normally writing one sentence I am asking them to write 3-4 sentences. If they are normally writing one paragraph I am asking them to write 2-4 paragraphs. We are also working on doing better at remembering correct use of capitals and punctuation and checking our own spelling. Some of the students handwriting has really improved since the beginning of the school year. Others are still in need of some real effort to improve their handwriting.
Africa Reports and Projects
I hope you are helping your child read about their Africa topic. If they will keep notes each night in the Note Journal that I sent home last week they should then be able to use those notes to write their report. Each day when the Journal is sent back to school with an entry in it they will be rewarded with a token. I am trying to encourage this so that the project doesn't get left until the last minute. I want it to be an enjoyable learning experience for the students.
Heads Up For Next Week
Next week we will celebrate Dr. Seuss's Birthday on Tuesday and our 100th Day of School on Thursday. If your child or your family have any Dr. Seuss books they can bring them to school on Monday. (Please make sure their name or your family name is in the books.) We will be trying to read 100 books in school next week as part of our 100th week celebration. I will read a few to the class, they will each read 3-4 books and they may even read to each other or to me for us to accomplish our goal. We will also do several other activities related to 100.
Our keyword for this week is "February Final Week". I hope that those of you who read this copy of the blog will find it informative and helpful. I would hope more of you would join us for the online version each week. Thanks for all you are each doing to help your child to be successful in school.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's back to school we go....
Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful off track time. I now hope you are ready to learn, work, learn and have fun. This week's keyword is "Winter is Winding Down". Anyway I am hoping it is.
Spelling
Unit 16 Review of Short and Long Vowel Patterns
Short Vowels
a as in apple or bat
e as in elephant or met
i as in igloo or in
o as in octopus or on
u as in umbrella or under
CVC Consonant Vowel Consonant
CCVC, CCVCC, CVCC
Long Vowels
Vowels say their names – a, e, i, o, u
CVCe Consonant Vowel Consonant silent e
Vowel Teams – “When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking.” ai, ay, ee, ea, oa, ow, oe, ue,
Special rules – igh, ight, /u/ spelled ew
Other Vowel Sounds
ow, ou
Students will do several activities during the week where they will be given a list of words or words they find in a story. They will need to tell if the vowel sound is long or short and which of the above rules apply to the word. We will begin this study together as a class and then work for each student to become independent in this activity.
For example:
throat - long o - vowel team rule
chop - short o - CCVC
light - ling I - special rule “ight”
On Friday they will be given a list of words to do this with as a test. They will also be asked to spell 10 words that use a variety of these rules. You can practice with them at home on any words that follow these rules. They will not be given a specific list of words to learn. (memorize)
They will also be tested on these words: February, president, Valentines
One last note on the spelling - when they have a multi-syllable word such as "winter" - if they will break it into syllables the syllables follow the spelling rules or principles stated above. Example: winter has two syllables win-ter. The first syllable is a CVC pattern so the vowel is short. The second syllable has an r-controlled vowel "er". That is a principle we will be getting to soon.
Vocabulary
We will be reading a story called "Eat Your Vegetables". From it we will draw the vocabulary words:
ferocious
steadfast
lumbered
queasy
collaboration
relocate
This week we will also be learning about Presidents of the United States - particularly George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
Africa
Look for the packet of information about the Africa report and project. Be sure to send back the paper with your child's choices of topic on it ASAP, but at least by Friday. I will assign the topics from their choices so that we don't have 5 reports on elephants, etc. Each week a homework page will come home telling what needs to be done on the report that week. This will help your child pace their efforts so that they will finish the report and project on time.
The due date for projects and reports is Monday March 29th. If students are finished I would love to have some turned in on Wednesday - Friday March 24th - March 26th so that we will not need to rush to hear all of the reports.
Math
In math we will be studying data collection and graphing. We begin by studying attributes and how we can sort things by their attributes. Example: Which children have blonde hair, brown hair or black hair, etc. or how many sides a shape has. They will be writing their own survey question with choices and surveying other students. Then they will us tally marks, a pictograph and a bar graph to represent the data.
We may even sort spelling words by spelling principles and graph them which will help them with spelling and be practice for the math concepts we are learning.
Home Reading Minutes and RRJ
Because the children will be reading to learn about the subject of their report, that reading will count as their reading minutes. Please continue to record minutes read on the yellow tracking sheets. However, because the children will be using what they read to write a report I will not be requiring the Reading Response Journal for the next few weeks.
Please continue with other homework such as: any math homework pages that come home - please complete and return the next day, practicing spelling and math facts, and playing the math games which will be distributed on Friday.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Civil Rights for All
Although Monday was the Martin Luther King holiday we are spending some time this week learning about him and his important and true words. He said something like, "Hate cannot conquer hate but love can conquer hate." We are learning a bit of history about slavery, the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, Civil Rights and how we should treat all people. We will also be doing some writing about what our dreams are and about Dr. King's big dream.
The keyword is "Freedom."
We are finishing up the vocabulary and math from last week. We will have a spelling test on Thursday. The spelling this week is that both "ou" and "ow" say /ou/ as in cloud and now. The students need to recognize when each one is used.
We will have a presentation to our class tomorrow by the Safe School Ambassadors from the school.
We are also finishing our unit on Healthy Lifestyles.
The students are to turn in their Math Games on Thursday. The Reading Response Journal will be collected on Friday. I will send home a fresh RRJ for students to use for makeup work for missed homework assignments.
I especially hope that all of the children will continue to read and record their minutes while they are off track. It is also important for them to work on Math Facts, Handwriting Books and memorizing how to write their name, address and phone number.
Have a great time off track. Look for more here on February 12th. I will look forward to seeing the kids again on February 16th.
The keyword is "Freedom."
We are finishing up the vocabulary and math from last week. We will have a spelling test on Thursday. The spelling this week is that both "ou" and "ow" say /ou/ as in cloud and now. The students need to recognize when each one is used.
We will have a presentation to our class tomorrow by the Safe School Ambassadors from the school.
We are also finishing our unit on Healthy Lifestyles.
The students are to turn in their Math Games on Thursday. The Reading Response Journal will be collected on Friday. I will send home a fresh RRJ for students to use for makeup work for missed homework assignments.
I especially hope that all of the children will continue to read and record their minutes while they are off track. It is also important for them to work on Math Facts, Handwriting Books and memorizing how to write their name, address and phone number.
Have a great time off track. Look for more here on February 12th. I will look forward to seeing the kids again on February 16th.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Winter Learning Fun
Last Friday we read a book called "The Big Snow". We looked at photographs of snowflakes taken by Snowflake Bentley. We had a snowball fight with wadded up papers - we had written three things about ourselves on our paper. The snowball fight got the papers all mixed up. Now we are reading the 'snowball' papers one at a time and trying to guess who it belongs to. We also made cool 'supposedly' symmetrical snowflakes with Q-tips and glue. Monday morning we will find out how they turned out. You could come by and see them hanging from our classroom ceiling.
This week we will be learning about penguins as well as other Antarctic and Arctic animals.
Reading
Using books about penguins and other animals we will learn about the differences between fiction and non-fiction, we will learn about cause and effect and we will each complete a mini-book report.
Spelling
We will be learning to spell words with the long u sound. Some of these words use "ue", "ew", or u(consonant)e to create the long u sound. We will also learn the differences in spelling and meaning of: to, too, and two.
Math
We are firming up our understanding of even and odd numbers and counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s. For example if there were 5 students in a room how many eyes would there be? How many legs would there be? How many toes would there be? etc.
Vocabulary
We have read the book "A Bad Case of STRIPES" by David Shannon. The vocabulary words we are learning are:
contagious
distraction
remedies
vanished
altered
perplexed
Healthy Lifestyles
Last week and this week we have been studying healthy lifestyles. We have learned about diseases. There are two main types of diseases - communicable and non-communicable. We have learned about some of the diseases in each of these categories. We have also learned about disease prevention through hand washing, good hygiene, nutrition, and exercise. This week we will also learn about avoiding tobacco, drugs and alcohol and more about nutrition and the food guide pyramid.
It seems to me that a good keyword for this week is "Penguins". I love it that they look so proper and polite in their tuxedo suits and I am amazed at what they go through to bring new penguins into existence. Both parents go through extreme hardship to help the egg then the chick to survive . Thanks for all you are doing as parents to nurture your little chicks and help them survive and grow. I care deeply for each of my students. They are sweet, wonderful children. This last week was a difficult one in our classroom. Not all but many of the students were wired and hyper on many occasions. They seemed to be talking out and not paying attention a LOT more than usual. I would appreciate it if you would talk to your child about the need to focus and try extra hard to listen when I am giving instruction and to be in control as to appropriate levels of noise in the classroom. Thank you for your efforts to help in this way. - Mrs. Taylor
This week we will be learning about penguins as well as other Antarctic and Arctic animals.
Reading
Using books about penguins and other animals we will learn about the differences between fiction and non-fiction, we will learn about cause and effect and we will each complete a mini-book report.
Spelling
We will be learning to spell words with the long u sound. Some of these words use "ue", "ew", or u(consonant)e to create the long u sound. We will also learn the differences in spelling and meaning of: to, too, and two.
Math
We are firming up our understanding of even and odd numbers and counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s. For example if there were 5 students in a room how many eyes would there be? How many legs would there be? How many toes would there be? etc.
Vocabulary
We have read the book "A Bad Case of STRIPES" by David Shannon. The vocabulary words we are learning are:
contagious
distraction
remedies
vanished
altered
perplexed
Healthy Lifestyles
Last week and this week we have been studying healthy lifestyles. We have learned about diseases. There are two main types of diseases - communicable and non-communicable. We have learned about some of the diseases in each of these categories. We have also learned about disease prevention through hand washing, good hygiene, nutrition, and exercise. This week we will also learn about avoiding tobacco, drugs and alcohol and more about nutrition and the food guide pyramid.
It seems to me that a good keyword for this week is "Penguins". I love it that they look so proper and polite in their tuxedo suits and I am amazed at what they go through to bring new penguins into existence. Both parents go through extreme hardship to help the egg then the chick to survive . Thanks for all you are doing as parents to nurture your little chicks and help them survive and grow. I care deeply for each of my students. They are sweet, wonderful children. This last week was a difficult one in our classroom. Not all but many of the students were wired and hyper on many occasions. They seemed to be talking out and not paying attention a LOT more than usual. I would appreciate it if you would talk to your child about the need to focus and try extra hard to listen when I am giving instruction and to be in control as to appropriate levels of noise in the classroom. Thank you for your efforts to help in this way. - Mrs. Taylor
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Happy New Year! 2010
Here is hoping you had a wonderful holiday break. One of the favorite activities at my house was playing "Scrabble" with all my grown up kids. So I thought "Scrabble" would be a great keyword for our post this week. I found that knowing a lot of second grade spelling words comes in very handy while playing this game.
THANKS - I offer my sincere thank you to all who gave me gifts this past month. I feel very blessed by your generous offerings of Christmas wishes to me. I especially feel honored to have the privilege of teaching your children. They are sweet and adorable. The variety of their skill levels presents some challenges to me as their teacher but I do honestly enjoy being with them and trying to meet their needs. Thank you again for your generosity.
MATH
We are still really working on a variety of ways to solve story problems with both addition and subtraction and with double-digit numbers. Students should continue to practice counting by 2s, 5s and 10s, and counting money. These are great activities for home practice along with practicing all basic math facts. We will also be doing some work with even and odd numbers this next week.
SPELLING
On December 22nd I sent home spelling lists for Unit 13 –
Spelling Principle – Long O spelling
• oa as in boat
• ow as in bow
• oe as in toe
The students will be tested on these words on this Thursday January 7th.
I will post again in the next couple of days to update on anything new that comes up when we return to school tomorrow. Remember to write the keyword on your child's tracking sheet so they are rewarded for your checking this site. Thanks for using this technology tool to help us keep in touch.
THANKS - I offer my sincere thank you to all who gave me gifts this past month. I feel very blessed by your generous offerings of Christmas wishes to me. I especially feel honored to have the privilege of teaching your children. They are sweet and adorable. The variety of their skill levels presents some challenges to me as their teacher but I do honestly enjoy being with them and trying to meet their needs. Thank you again for your generosity.
MATH
We are still really working on a variety of ways to solve story problems with both addition and subtraction and with double-digit numbers. Students should continue to practice counting by 2s, 5s and 10s, and counting money. These are great activities for home practice along with practicing all basic math facts. We will also be doing some work with even and odd numbers this next week.
SPELLING
On December 22nd I sent home spelling lists for Unit 13 –
Spelling Principle – Long O spelling
• oa as in boat
• ow as in bow
• oe as in toe
The students will be tested on these words on this Thursday January 7th.
I will post again in the next couple of days to update on anything new that comes up when we return to school tomorrow. Remember to write the keyword on your child's tracking sheet so they are rewarded for your checking this site. Thanks for using this technology tool to help us keep in touch.
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