The Weber Weekly

Words cannot even begin to express my gratitude for all you've done to make me feel special this week.  From the flowers and special cards to the gifts and yummy desserts, I sure have felt the love during Teacher Appreciation Week.  It's so nice to work in a school that is supportive and appreciative of the work of teachers.  Student learning is an equal partnership and I couldn't do it without all of you.  Thank you so very much!! 

Today the kiddos are bringing home a measurement practice test.  Everyone did a really great job on the practice, so I'm confident the test will go well on Monday.  Please look over your child's test, and if he or she missed any questions, have them work on similar questions over the weekend. 

Our field trip to Brookfield Zoo is next Tuesday!  Please remember to dress your child appropriately for the weather and send a completely disposable, sack lunch.  

On our ABC Countdown next week, we will have Pajama Day on Thursday.

GP Field Day is happening on Tuesday, May 20th (weather permitting).  We are going to need several volunteers for this event.  More information is coming home today, as well as a volunteer sign-up form.  We would love to see you on this fun day!! 

I hope you all enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend and feel the love on Mother's/Grandmother's Day.  The kids are really excited to share their school gifts with you.  Everyone worked really hard on creating something that I know you'll all cherish for many years to come.  Have a wonderful weekend! 

The Weber Weekly

Our field trip to Lewis University was a great success.  Thank you to Mrs. Ruch and Mrs. Johnson for taking off work and chaperoning our trip.  The anti-bullying show had three great messages that the kids were able to relate to.  We had a lot of fun!!

Permission slips for the Brookfield Zoo field trip were sent home on Tuesday.  The cost of this final field trip is $7.00.  Please return payment and signed permission forms by Monday.  I will be drawing names of five chaperones next week.

Registration packets and spring pictures need to be returned to school.  If you still have these at home, please return them next week.

We're having a Box Tops contest, which runs through May 1st.  Please save your Box Tops and send them to school with your child.

Our next PTO meeting is Tuesday May 6, 2014 at Loco's Restaurant on Essington Road in Joliet at 6:00 p.m.
 
I will be out of the building next Friday for Common Core.  As always, I will be available via email if you need me.

Next week (on Tuesday) second graders will begin an ABC Countdown.  Here's what the schedule will look like for next week:
Tuesday - Awesome Art Day
Wednesday - Bubbles & Bubble Gum Day (Bring a bottle of bubbles for some bubble-blowing fun!  I will provide the bubble gum.)
Thursday - Chicago Team Day
Friday - Dancing Denim Day

Have a wonderful, warm weekend with your family!!  Happy Easter! 

 

The Weber Weekly

The book fair has come to a close.  Thank you again to everyone who participated in the coin drive for books!  I was able to choose several new books to add to our classroom library!!  :)

Please note that the field trip date to Lewis University has changed.  We are going to the play on Tuesday of next week instead of Wednesday.  The children do not need to bring a sack lunch as we will be eating at the school when we return.  Everyone is encouraged to wear their class t-shirt or red.

We have DISCOVERY TESTING next week.  Our class will be testing reading on Monday and math on Wednesday.  Please make sure your child has a good night's sleep, eats a healthy breakfast, and wears comfy clothes.  I'm anticipating a lot of growth on this assessment and I can't wait to see how all of the children do.

In language arts, we've been working hard on a poetry unit.  The children have been busy reading and writing different types of poetry. 

We finished our money unit in math and have moved onto measurement.  In this unit, the students will measure and estimate lengths in standard units and tell time to the nearest five minutes.

In science we're continuing to learning about different habitats.  Be on the lookout for our final field trip letter and permission slip next week....we're going to Brookfield Zoo!  This trip will enhance our habitat unit and will be a lot of fun for the kiddos in May. 

We have library and gym on Monday.  Please make sure your child comes prepared with books and gym shoes. 

The Weber Weekly

We had a really AWESOME week back after Spring Break!  The children showed so much compassion during Autism Awareness Week and truly learned a great deal of new information. 

I'm happy to announce we took FIRST PLACE in the "One for Books" Coin Drive.  As a school, we raised $1,100!!  Our class brought in a grand total of $163.10.  I'm so incredibly proud of the efforts and donations for this wonderful cause.  Scholastic will be matching our school's efforts and donating that money to our school library.  As the winning class, we will be able to shop the book fair this week and spend our total to get new books for our classroom.  Soo exciting!! 

We will be previewing the Scholastic Book Fair today and then shopping on Wednesday.  Family Night will be after school on Wednesday from 4:00-7:30 in the Media Center.  I will not send home a book order this month due to the book fair.   

Our Money Math Unit is off to a great start.  The students need to be secure with naming coins and their values, counting coin combinations, and adding prices to find the total amount.  Since this is such a short unit, we will be taking our Outcome Assessment already this week.

April is National Poetry Month!  We spent last week learning about acrostic and bio poems.  The class did a great job coming up with their own ideas and writing their poems. 

In reading we are working on identifying story elements, such as characters and setting, as well as parts of the story, such as beginning, middle, and end.

Over the next several weeks in science, we will be exploring the different habitats in our world.  I gave the children an overview of all of the habitats last week, and now we will spend some time focusing on each individual habitat, starting with the ocean. 

Did you return your spring pictures or payment yet?  Please do so as soon as possible. 

I'm out at the District Office today for Common Core.  I'm available via email if you need to get in touch. 

Have a great week!!  :)

Baby News!!

I just wanted to take a quick moment to share some exciting news that's happening in my personal life.  My husband and I are expecting our second child in October and we couldn't be happier!  Keaton is thrilled about becoming a big brother and he keeps asking for a baby sister.  We obviously won't be finding that out for several more weeks.  I'll keep you all posted when that big day finally comes.  :)

The Weber Weekly

Happy Spring Break!  Whether you're staying home or going somewhere fun, I hope you all have a wonderful vacation with your children.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some sunshine and warmer weather, but I don't think we'll get that lucky.  Regardless, I hope you all have a memorable week!

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come to spring conference.  Conferences are always one of my favorite times of the year because I love meeting with all of you and sharing the wonderful growth your child has made.  We still have two months of school remaining for your child to work on any goals that he/she has yet to master.  We have a jam-packed fourth quarter planned, so I'm looking forward to seeing even more progress. 

When we return from Spring Break, we will be celebrating Autism Awareness Week.  We have several opportunities planned for the students to gain an understanding of children on the spectrum, and to recognize that we're all unique individuals.  In addition to the lessons that we have planned, we will also be having a spirit week.  The days go as follows:

Monday - Sunglasses day...for our visually-orientated friends.

Tuesday - PJ Day...because we all have dreams.

Wednesday - Wear blue for World Autism Day..."Keep Calm and Light it Up Blue."

Thursday - Tie-Dye Day...because no two people are alike.

Friday - Stuffed Animal Day...for our sensory-orientated friends.

We are having a loose change classroom contest the week after break.  We are collecting coins for our "One For Books" book fair contest.  We are asking students to donate pennies on Monday, nickels on Tuesday, dimes on Wednesday, quarters on Thursday, and any denomination on Friday.  The book fair coordinators will keep track of the coins, and the class with the most money collected, will win that amount to spend at the book fair.  This contest was hugely successful at or fall book fair.  The book fair will run the week of April 7th. 

Have a restful ten days.  I can't wait to see all the kiddos back on March 31st.  :)

The Weber Weekly

Quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons...our geometry unit is in full swing!  The students should be able to recognize and draw shapes with specific attributes.  We'll continue this into next week.

In science we've been learning all about food chains, plant parts, and living/nonliving things.  The class is having so much fun exploring this life science unit.

 

We have two weeks of sight words left.  After we're finished with these words, the kids will spend the remainder of the year reviewing words.  Each week for "Totally Sight Word Tuesday", your child can pick any five words (from our 80 total) to practice.  Each Friday, they will have a sight word test on five random words from our list.  By the end of second grade, the students should be able to read and write all 80 of these sight words.  I will send a master list home soon; please keep this list as a reference for the rest of second grade.

Thank you for sending back your field trip permission slip and payment so promptly.  We will be attending Lewis University on April 16th.  If you haven't turned this in yet, please do so by Thursday.

The Domino's Pizza Fundraiser is due back to school on Monday.  The class that sells the most pizza cards will earn a FREE pizza party!  The child that sells the most will win free pizza for a YEAR!!!

I can't wait to meet with all of you at conferences next week!  If you need a reminder of your conference time, please email me.  Don't forget if you're coming to school for your conference, please bring your second grader along.

Monday is St. Patrick's Day - Don't forget to wear green!

Wednesday - 5-hour Day

Thursday - 5-hour Day and "Dress Your Best" Day

Friday - Teacher Institute Day (No School)  Happy Spring Break! 

 

 

 

 

The Weber Weekly

Sorry for the delay in the weekly update.  Here's what's happening in second grade:

Field trip permission slips were sent home last Friday for our next trip to Lewis University.  We will be attending an Alphabet Soup production of The Bully Show on April 16th.  All permission slips and $9.00 payments are due back to school by Thursday, March 22nd. 

Our spring conferences are NEXT WEEK.  If you're planning to have a conference here in the classroom, please bring your son/daughter along.  I can't wait to share all the wonderful things we've been up to!  If you need a reminder of your conference time, please email me.

Mrs. Sencial is looking for pictures of our class for the school yearbook.  If you have attended any event or party at Grand Prairie and have pictures to share, please email them to Daisy Sencial at sencial4@att.net.  Make sure to include the title or event along with our class name.

Order forms were sent home with children who have not yet ordered a yearbook.  There will not be many extra yearbooks ordered this year, so if you are interested in reserving one, please send in your payment with your order form.

Our Domino's Pizza Fundraiser is off to a great start.  The sale price of the card is $15 with a $10 profit to GP.  The cards have 16 different coupons on them that can each can be used once.  One of them is for a FREE large pizza (with no purchase necessary)!  Domino's is offering a free pizza party for the class that sells the most and FREE PIZZA FOR A YEAR to our top seller!  All money raised from this fundraiser will go into a fund to purchase a new digital sign for the school.  Order forms and money need to be turned in by next Monday.  Any questions can be directed to Chris Ulreich (815) 254-9448 OR theulreichs@comcast.net.

I would like to thank the families of Jason, Efrein, Grace, and Gavin W. for being our Snazzy Snack shoppers for the month of March.  We made "Cat in the Hat" treats in honor of Dr. Seuss and Read Across America.

I would also like to thank all of our chaperones who attended the Shedd Aquarium last week.  Everything went so smoothly and the kids had a GREAT time!!  We got really lucky and pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.  It was a fun trip!

Spring Picture Day is this Thursday.  Please return your order form if you're interested in a specific background or pose. 

Our geometry unit in math is well underway.  This is a very short unit which will probably be finished up by Friday or early next week. 

This week we'll be very busy finishing up all of our third quarter outcomes and assessments.  Report cards will be sent home next week. 

As always, please contact me if you have any questions.  Enjoy the week!  :)

The Weber Weekly

 

I wanted to thank the families of Mia, Jonathan, and Christoper for being our Snazzy Snack shoppers for the month of February.  We made "Berry Good Pizzas" last week and they were a big hit! 

I also want to thank all of you who donated goodies for our Valentine's Day party.  The kids had a lot of fun!  Also, thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers who made the party a success! 

We started a new science unit this week on living and nonliving things.  The kids had a blast being nature detectives as we explored the outdoors searching for living and nonliving things.  We learned about the different parts of a plant and the nutrients that plants need to survive.

In language arts, we're continuing to learn about fiction and nonfiction characteristics.  We're currently studying and researching presidents.  The kids will eventually use their facts to write an expository paper on a president. 

Everyone is doing an awesome job with cursive handwriting!  We have about ten more lowercase letters to learn before we move into the uppercase letters.  We're also working on our first expository paper in writing.  We researched facts about firefighters and are currently working on publishing our findings. 

In math, we've moved into 3-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping.  We're using models and strategies based on place value to add and subtract within 1000. 

Don't forget the Fun Fair is tomorrow from 11:00-3:00 here at the school. 

Have a great weekend!!

The Weber Weekly

Can you believe we're halfway through the quarter already?!  Spring conferences are just around the corner!  Thank you for sending in your conference preference sheet!  Once I have all papers returned, I can finalize the schedule and send home a confirmation of your time.  Please return your yellow conference form by next Friday.

In Language Arts this week, we worked really hard on fact and opinion.  The kids learned that a fact can be proven and that opinions come from the heart.  We also worked on finding the main idea and supporting details.  These skills will be valuable as we start writing our first expository report.

We're off to a great start in our cursive handwriting.  We are not learning the letters in the order of the alphabet; instead, we're learning letters with similar patterns.  So far we've learned the letters i, t, u, w, r, s, p, and j.  I've told the kids they should only practice letters we've learned so far.  Please encourage your child to practice his/her cursive handwriting at home. 

We started a new math unit on place value this week.  We will be reading and writing numbers to 1,000 using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form.  The students will be able to recognize patterns with numbers, skip count by 5, 10, and 100, and build numbers to 1,000.

Our school will be celebrating Autism Awareness Week in April.  Yesterday order forms were sent home for tshirts.  We have adult and kid sizes available with three different designs.  Orders are due back to school by February 18th.

Next week we'll be celebrating Valentine's Day with a class party on Friday.  Thank you to everyone who signed up to volunteer and/or donate goodies for this fun event.  The kids will have an opportunity to pass out Valentine cards on Friday.  If your child is making or giving cards, he/she must have a card for every kid in our class.  Also, please send a decorated box to hold all the cards on Friday. 

Field trip money and permission slips to the Shedd Aquarium are due next Friday.

Next week we'll be having "Healthy Health Class".  Kids will need their gym shoes on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday next week. 

Have a great weekend!  Try to stay warm!!  :)