The Weber Weekly

I can't believe we only have a week left in this semester!  It's so fun to sit back and reflect on how things have been going up until this point in the school year; WOW...the kids have come SO FAR!!  I think about all the progress each child has been making and I'm overwhelmed with excitement.  This is a smart bunch of second graders!  Everyone has been working to the max and each child deserves a restful winter break.  These next five days are going to be filled with quarterly assessments and hopefully a little holiday fun to finish off the quarter.  :)

Our PTO sponsored Holiday Shop has come to a close.  To those of you who were able to volunteer your time at the school this week, we thank you!  I was so happy to see that every single kid at our school was able to shop, even if they didn't have money.  Each child was allowed to choose one item for $1.50 or less in addition to the gifts they purchased on their own.  Our kids truly enjoyed picking out gifts and shopping for loved ones. 

Student Council has a lot happening right now.  There is a food drive for Creekside Cares, a Mitten and Hat tree for winter accessories, and they are collecting gently used/brand new shoes for the Reuse Shoes program.  If you would like to donate food, please send it in with your child marked, "Student Council Food Drive".  If you would like to purchase any mittens, gloves, or hats, please send them in marked, "Student Council Tree donation".  If you have shoes and would like to donate them, please send in with your child marked, "Reuse Shoes". 

Next Friday the children have early dismissal at 12:05.  On this day we will be having our school sing-a-long (for students only) as well as our holiday class party.   

I hear we're supposed to get more snow this weekend.  Stay warm!

 

The Weber Weekly

Happy December!  I cannot believe the semester will be over in just two short weeks.  Seriously, where does the time go?!  We have so much to squeeze in before winter break, so we're going to be busy, busy in the weeks ahead.

This week in math the children learned mental strategies for double digit subtraction.  Some of the strategies include subtracting tens and finding parts of 100 to subtract mentally.  We're going to continue working on double digit addition and subtraction until winter break.

We started a big genre unit in our language arts block.  The children are learning the elements of several different genres including fairy tales, folktales, tall tales, fantasy, poetry, and prose.  We will be learning the characteristics of these genres and then reading and classifying books that fit into these categories.

We are still working on our matter unit in science.  We focused specifically on the water cycle this week.  Next week we will be reviewing the whole unit and taking our outcome assessment.  I want to thank all of you again who donated items for all of our experiments.  These kids had a blast with the hands-on projects and learned so much new information in the process. 

Holiday Gift Shop is December 9th - 13th.  Today we are going to preview and next Wednesday our class will be shopping.  Our Family Night will be December 11th from 4-7:30 p.m.  We are using a company this year, so everything is different prices.  We will have a bigger variety of items.  The PTO is looking for volunteers to help with this all next week. The volunteering opportunities include helping the kids with their purchases during the day, setting up, helping shoppers during Family Night, and taking the shop down.  If you are interested in helping, please contact Tina Gieseke @ giesekevxxmm@att.net.  We need a lot of volunteers to make this a success for our children. 

We are taking our winter Discovery Assessments next week.  The children will be assessed in the areas of math and language arts.  As always, please make sure your child gets a good night's rest and has a healthy breakfast in the morning.  Comfy clothes are also ideal for these assessments.

Our next PTO meeting will be Tuesday, December 10th at 6:00pm in the Media Center.  Please bring a dish to pass for a small holiday celebration.  Come join us to find out about our upcoming events. Our PTO meetings are open to everyone and are a great way to meet other school families and learn about important school and PTO information.

 


   

The Weber Weekly

I apologize for the late post.  I was at a Common Core meeting on Tuesday afternoon, out sick yesterday, and then spent the whole day today trying to play catch up in the classroom.  I must say, upon returning to school, I was completely overwhelmed with the apple tree and science donations.  I don't know how I was lucky enough to end up with such a wonderful class this year, but I am so extremely thankful for all of you.  We already put many of the donations to use during science today.  The children learned the difference between mixtures and solutions during a tasty science experiment.  Ask your child to explain the results to you. 

In writing this week, we continued working on letters.  The children should understand the five parts of a friendly letter as well as correct comma usage throughout.  I'm very impressed with the quality of writing the children are producing. 

We continued a nonfiction big book this week called Putting on a Play.  We focused on using punctuation clues, such as commas and question marks, to read with expression. 

In math, we've been working hard on place value, comparing numbers, and odd/even numbers.  We have a lot to cover this quarter, and to save time, I've decided to stop giving daily math quick checks.  Unfortunately they hadn't been as "quick" as I had hoped and we were losing out on too much instructional time.  Instead, the kids will take a topic test at the end of each topic and those scores, combined with their outcome test score, will determine their math grade for each quarter.  Our math resource provides a great reteaching piece which will be used for any child who does not score well on the topic tests.  Your child's graded Topic 5 test will be coming home next week.

Please mark your calendars for our next GP Family Dinner Night which will be on Wednesday, November 20th at Buffalo Wild Wings in Shorewood.  Mr. Weber, Keaton, and I will be going early and we hope to see many of you there.  Even if you can't dine in, you can still call ahead and 10% of your order will go back to our school.  Please remember to take your BWW flyer with you. 

Do you personally have a Facebook account or know someone who does?  If so, GP could really use your help.  Adrienne Mann, a special education assistant, entered our teacher's lounge into a makeover contest.  We are currently in the lead, but have been in a very close race with a breakroom in Arizona.  If you could take a minute and vote for us, we would really appreciate it.  If we're the lucky winners, our lounge will be updated with all new appliances including a coffee maker, espresso machine, blender, Panini maker, and more.  Please, please take a minute to vote for us!  You can vote every day from your computer, laptop, tablet, and/or phone.  I sent the link for the contest through email earlier this week.  Thanks for your help!

Have an awesome weekend!           

      

The Weber Weekly

It's been a short, but very busy week! I really enjoyed seeing all of you at parent-teacher conferences. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to meet with me. Thanks also to those of you who picked apples off of our "Giving Tree". Your donations really mean a lot!

The kids worked really hard on friendly letter writing this week. We've learned the five components of a letter (date, greeting, body, closing, signature) and practiced writing to several teachers throughout the building. Your child will be bringing home a published and graded letter next week.

Our shared reading block got cut very short this week due to a fire drill, library, and the five hour days. We started a new big book, but due to time constraints, we didn't finish it. We will continue the book into next week, which means your child will not be bringing home a shared reading quiz today.

Second quarter math is off to a great start! We've been working on place value, focusing specifically on the hundreds, tens, and ones place. The children have been learning how to use place value blocks to model numbers in many different ways. Please remember to continue working on basic math fact practice. The goal is for children to know all of the basic addition and subtraction facts with automaticity (2 seconds per problem) by the end of second grade.

Our science unit on solids, liquids, and gases is also off to a great start. The children will be learning the properties of matter, the states of matter, and how matter can change. We will continue this unit over the next several weeks.

Fifth Grade Student Council is currently selling taffy apples. If interested, please return your order form and payment in a sealed envelope by next Friday. Student Council is also collecting gently used shoes and non-perishable food items for Grand Prairie families in need.

Now that the cooler weather is upon us, I encourage you to dress your child appropriately. The children go outside for recess and need to have a coat. If your family is in need of a coat, hats, or mittens for the winter months, please contact our school social worker, Paula Wrobel, for assistance.

Next week your child will need gym shoes for Health/PE classes on Monday and Wednesday.

Please mark your calendar for our next GP Family Dinner Night on Wednesday, November 20th. This month's restaurant is Buffalo Wild Wings...YUM!!!! BWW will give 10% of sales back to our school.

 

Enjoy the long weekend!   

 

The Weber Weekly

What a spook-tacular week we've had!  Even with the rain, the kids had a blast at the party and parade yesterday.  We couldn't have done it without the wonderful planning and organization of our volunteers.  BIG thanks to Mrs. Baikie, Mrs. Butusov, Mrs. Neilis, and Mrs. Offerman.  The kids had a great time playing games, making spider crafts, and eating lots of yummy treats.  Thanks to all of you who donated goodies for the party; I don't think anyone left hungry yesterday!   I can't wait to share pictures of our Halloween fun with all of you!

We made Cheesy Spider Webs for our recipe books today.  I am amazed at the dedication the kids put into their handwriting on the recipe cards.  These books will be a real treasure at the end of second grade.  Thank you to the Butusov, Eassa, and Ebner families for being our Snazzy Snack shoppers this month. 

The class worked really hard in writing this week.  Everyone learned how to use transition words to sequence pictures to tell a story.  Sequencing puts events in order from first to last and it allows the student to visualize what is happening in the story.  This important skill crosses over into all curriculum areas, especially science and math, so we will be revisiting this in the future. 

Shared reading was jam-packed with mini-lessons this week.  We read an historical fiction book called The Ox-Cart Man.  This beautifully written story tells of how a family long ago used an ox-cart through the seasons to sell goods for money.  We reviewed compound words and also focused on plural nouns and compound sentences with conjunctions. 

Everyone did an excellent job on their math outcome assessment this week.  I'm excited to share the results of this test with you at conference next week.  I'm so proud of the hard work and perseverance displayed during math in our classroom.

I'm really looking forward to meeting with all of you next week for your child's conference.  Don't forget to bring your son/daughter along with you.  The students have so much exciting work to share!  Please let me know if you need a reminder of your conference time.

Enjoy the weekend!
    

The Weber Weekly

Happy Last Day of 1st Quarter!!  

It's hard to believe we've been in school for nine weeks already!  Be on the lookout for your child's first quarter report card next Thursday.  I'm looking forward to discussing your child's progress at our fall conference in a couple of weeks.  I'm hoping to schedule all the conferences over the weekend, in which case you will be receiving your conference date and time next week. 

Due to the short week and the end of the quarter, we used this week to review and assess many of our first quarter skills.  The kids have been working really hard on their lengthy language arts assessment and therefore did not have a weekly shared reading quiz.   

Next week is going to be a busy week of testing.  Because of the many glitches with the online CogAT, the district has decided to change the format of the test to paper/pencil.  We will be testing Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week.  This test is very important in determining your child's placement (honors classes) for next year and the years following.  Please ensure your child has a good night's sleep and a healthy breakfast. 

Once again I will be out two days next week for Language Arts Common Core.  The kids will have a guest teacher on Thursday and Friday.  I will miss them terribly, but I know they will do a great job for the substitute.  As always, I will be checking email while I'm away, so please feel free to contact me. 

We will be celebrating Red Ribbon Week Monday-Friday of next week.  Here's what the schedule will look like:

Monday: "Follow your dreams!" - PJ Day

Tuesday: "Say peace out to drugs!" - Tie Dye Day

Wednesday: "I'm too bright for drugs!" - Wear bright or neon clothing

Thursday: "Catch the wave of a drug free life!" - Hawaiian Day

Friday: "Team up for a healthy lifestyle!" - Jersey Day

Finally, I wanted you all to know we had a Lewis University clinical student join our class this week.  Miss Brittany will be with us every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until winter break.  For the most part she will only be observing, but I will be encouraging her to jump in and team teach whenever she feels comfortable.  You might be wondering how this will impact your child...well, she will be a huge benefit to Room 201!  With having 31 kiddos in the classroom, it's always nice to have an extra set of hands.  She will be learning how to plan lessons, grade papers, and the day-to-day routines of a second grade classroom.  We're really looking forward to having her with us. 

I hope you enjoy your weekend!  I will be spending mine cheering on my beloved St. Louis Cardinals in the playoffs.  Go Cards!!  :) 

Fire Station Field Trip

Despite the cold and rainy weather, we had a very successful field trip.  Everyone had a blast and learned a lot of valuable information about fire safety.  Big thanks to Mrs. Enders and Mrs. Gomez for chaperoning the kids!  Here are a few pictures from our fun morning:

 

Picture Day

Back-to-School Fun

PJ Day