Holiday Greetings!

Today during Daily 5, students met with me in small groups to make gifts for their families. They turned out amazing!! I can’t post the final products until after the holidays—they’re top secret ;)

During writing, students filled out Elf Applications. We discussed what it takes to be an elf and tomorrow will write why Santa should choose them to be his elves. The kids think I am having them do this project because I am an elf. Today was ugly/festive sweater day for the teachers and I went all out. A number of students are suspecting that I am an elf.

In math, students are learning a variety of ways to do 2-digit addition. Please do not discourage your child from trying a new way. Even from when I was in school, addition and subtraction were taught one way and that was the only way. Today, students are shown a variety of ways and get to choose what works best for them

Elf Application:

Parent Gifts:

                        

Morning Meeting Greeting:

Broken Hearts

     My heart is aching for the families, teachers, and community members in Newton, CT. I can’t even begin to imagine how they are feeling. I tell the students after every fire drill, tornado drill, and lock down practice how I will protect them no matter what it takes.  The kids always ask “what if” questions and I always respond with, “Your family would do whatever it takes to protect you from any danger, and at school, I’m like your mom and will do the same”.

    I am glad that the kids had the day off today and were able to be home with you or a loved one. Be sure to give them a big hug for me and let them know that I will always do my best to protect them at school. No child should EVER be afraid to go to school.

Sending love and hugs to all of you and prayers to Connecticut.

Whoops!

WOW, only one blog this week?! I’m sorry!!! Time flies when you're having fun!

First, I would like to extend a huge THANK YOU for all of your donations and support for the Hou family. All donations will be turned into Walmart/Target and Cub gift cards.

This week flew by! The students have been learning a lot about verbs and will continue to practice identifying and writing with them throughout next week as well.

We have also been working really hard in math, counting money, making change, estimating, adding 2 digits, and playing review games. We will finish Unit 4 next week.

In reading, students learned about drawing conclusions and explaining predictions. We learned about writing letters through the story of the week, Dear Juno.

Wednesday was our Pre-Student Teacher’s last day with us. The students wrote a class book for her filled with advice on what it takes to be a great teacher. We also created a list of 24 supplies that a teacher needs. I went out and purchased the items and each student was able to give one of them to Ms. Paxton on her last day. She loved it.

Next week we will be making special gifts for special people in our lives. We will have a holiday celebration on Friday--Hot Chocolate, a healthy snack, and Happy Feet (the movie). 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Baby You're a Star

BIG BUMMER! I recorded the students during one of our brain breaks during writing, but YouTube muted the music. For this brain break, I turn on Prince’s “Baby You’re a Star” and give one student a red star. Everyone stops what they are doing and follows the “star’s” dance moves. Every 8-16 counts the student passes the star to another student. When the music stops, the students stop and get back to what they were previously working on. THEY LOVE IT! Here is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDpwAHJeDKc

Students have been working really hard on identifying verbs in their books and writing. Most of them have really caught on. Spelling tests went home today—SUCCESS! New lists will be sent home tomorrow.

Today we finished Unit 3 in math. I will correct them and send them home next week. Tomorrow we will begin Unit 4 and will be able to finish it up before winter break.

Thank you to all who have contacted me about how to help one of our students who lost their home to a fire. We are excited to begin our coin drive next week and have already received some donations. The family is very grateful for all of the support.

Music Program PLUS

Happy December!

I can’t believe how fast this year has already gone by! The 2^nd graders did a great job at Moreland Live on Friday. Menah read her poem that she wrote during an artist in residency and Alan won the audience ball. This group sets a great example for the rest of the school.

In reading, we are learning about verbs. The students have mastered nouns and are excited about using verbs in their writing. In math, we are practicing counting up to make change and doing double frames and arrows. Students will take the end of the unit test on Thursday. We will begin Unit 4 right away so we can finish it up before winter break.

Yesterday, one of our students lost their home to a fire. Next week, we are teaming up with the student council and will be doing a coin drive to help the family get back on their feet. A letter will be sent home in Friday Folders.

If you are looking for a good holiday gift for your child or any child at that, please consider books! Here is a link to our class’ scholastic book club ordering. Books are shipped to Moreland so please let me know if I need to get them home secretly.

Click here to order books: Scholastic Book Orders

 Picture from the fabulous concert last week!

November 28

Today students practiced possessive nouns by writing about what their family’s favorite food, games, and colors are. We also did Word Detective with –ay and –ai words that make the long a sound. Students found that words that end in the long a sound are spelt with –ay. Words that have a sound before and after the long a sound are spelt with –ai.

Ms. Paxton hung the students’ letters to someone they thought was a good leader.

In math, students did explorations. One center was making numbers using base-10 blocks, one was making a clock book, the third was making shapes with the geo boards, and the last was taking a unit pre-test with me.

Tomorrow students will write their own rain poem. Today, we created a list of words to create our poem.

The 2nd Grade music program is tomorrow evening at 6:00 pm. Please have your child to room 6 by 5:45 wearing a plain red, white, or blue t-shirt. The students have been working very hard are very excited to show off their talents singing, playing instruments, and dancing.

Sorry no pictures!

Good Afternoon!

Today was a fabulous day in our classroom!! We were so busy learning about possessive nouns and doing ALL FIVE of our Daily 5 jobs in reading. Math took us a while to do today practicing telling time…the longest part was making the clocks that are being used for homework tonight. We practiced telling time to the half hour and quarter hour. Students also practiced counting coin combinations while playing “Coin Top-it”. It was a long math time, but we got everything done J

Book bags need to be returned tomorrow in order to get new books! Students should have up to 2 library books, 1 paper book, and 1 book from our classroom “take-home” library. All books must be returned each week.

The 2^nd and 3^rd grade music program “Sing for the Red, White, and Blue” is on Thursday at 6:00 pm. Students are asked to wear blue jeans with a plain red, white, or blue shirt. Meet in our classroom (room 6) at 5:45.

Have a wonderful night!

New Websites Linked to Blog

Please notice on the bottom right of the blog, websites have been added. There are now a number of links to math, spelling, and reading sites. 

Also, there is a link to Scholastic Book Clubs. Books make great holiday gifts!! If you would like to order online, click on the link and enter the code HFDTF.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Break!

This week, students learned about Read to Someone. Students practiced reading together and asking questions while reading (checking for understanding). The students really shocked me with their questions to each other while reading—“What do you think will happen next?”, “What I heard you read is…” They did great!!!!

We also began Unit 3 in math. We worked on place value and using base-10 blocks to make numbers. Students also played the “digit game”.

Today students discussed wants and needs. We read The First Thanksgiving Story and added illustrations. We learned a lot about the first Thanksgiving. We ate lunch as a class in the room and watched “Charlotte’s Web” since we just finished the book.  The students then made comparisons between the book and the movie.

I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Reading to Someone

 We can illustrate to show our understanding!

 Thanksgiving Lunch

New Morning Meeting Game: Mirror Image

Connection Song

Students have been learning about making connections to their lives, events, and other books while they read. Click the link below to listen to the song we learned to help us make connections while we read:

Connect

Connections

Happy Hat Day!

Today was Hat Day during our week long Spirit Week. I think Hat Day has been the most participated day so far. I’m sure tomorrow’s PJ day will be the best.

Students have been practicing making connections to reading. They learned a fun song of different ways to make connections to their own life, to other books they have read, or to events. I will try to get their video on the blog in a separate post.

Since Monday, students have been using Picturing Writing to make rain pictures as we begin to learn about weather. Students will be writing poems that go along with their rain picture.

Here are some pictures of our published poetry that students created with Margaret Hasse. They turned out great!!!!

Today, students found a new favorite Morning Meeting game, “Coconuts, Palm Trees, Volcanoes, and Kings/Queens”.  Ask your child how to play.

Tomorrow students will be making turkeys and will make a list of things that they are thankful for. Ms. Paxton will also teach an editing lesson about a leader they have chosen to write to.

Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!!!

First snow of the year!

 So sorry for not posting for what seems a VERY long time!

Last week we were so busy working on poetry-writing our own poems and publishing them. Here are some pictures from our artist in residency with Poet Margaret Hasse.

We were also busy finishing Ms. Paxton’s Social Studies lessons about leaders in our classroom. Congratulations to our Class Leader Linda! Students voted for a class leader after they campaigned and gave speeches. Nice work!

We are taking our Unit 2 math test tomorrow. They will be sent home with report cards on Friday.

Please make sure your child wears warm clothes each day!!

This week is spirit week!

Today was Twin Day. Tomorrow is Sports Day!!!

Busy Bees

The past two school days have flown by in a blur! We began our third artist in residency on Friday. Margaret Hasse, a poet has been working with the students on writing poems that will go along with their pond art. On Friday, students wrote a letter/poem to the pond and asked it questions. Today, students chose one creature and wrote a poem all about it. So far, the students have had a wonderful time. I can’t wait to see their final poems!

Today in Daily 5, we introduced Work on Writing. The students love their writing time so much that this part of Daily 5 is very motivating to them. In this part of Daily 5, students write stories to go with pictures they have already drawn or write new stories that they will add pictures to later.

In math, students learned the counting back method of subtraction. Tomorrow we will learn the counting up method. I have moved our Unit 2 test to next week. With our artist in residency, math time is cut short and I want to make sure that we have enough time to get to everything that will be assessed and teach it well. There is no point in hurrying through a lesson if the students will not understand it or be able to do it in the future.

Ms. Paxton has been teaching the 2^nd graders all about being a class leader. 3 students were chosen to be the candidates for a special role in the classroom. They have worked together in “Campaign Teams” to create posters that will promote their candidate. Soon, students will vote for one leader.

Today we did Word Detective for bossy r words. Finding a good pattern has been difficult for us. We will continue our search for words tomorrow and will come up with a pattern to help us remember when to us –ir, -er, and –ur.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Today the students had a fun day filled of learning mixed with some Halloween fun. We did our usual Daily 5 routine and then made a special treat (part healthy, part “not”).  We did writing about our “Witches Brew” discussing our favorite and least favorite ingredient. We then extended the lesson into math where we did graphing and tallying. After, students played the “Fact Family Game” with our fact triangles.

Ms. Paxton continued her lesson on leaders and students got to interview each other to discuss what qualities make them a leader in school and at home.

Later in the afternoon, the one and only Cosmo visited the class!! (my dog) The students had so much fun playing with her and asking questions about her.

I hope you all have a very happy and safe Halloween! Please keep all treats at home :)

Witches Brew:

Math Games: