The Weber Weekly

WOW, what a whirlwind of a week!!!  Between my son getting croup, two practice drills (fire and lockdown), being gone two days at Common Core, and the late Haunted Trails night last night, I feel like my head is spinning!  If only I could relax and have some downtime this weekend, but nope, we're driving four hours for my twin niece/nephew's 3rd birthday party followed by my 30th birthday celebration.  Whew!  Maybe I'll get lucky and Keaton will take a nap in the car and I can join him! :)

We wrote our first Snazzy Snack recipe for "Apple Smiles" during writing this week and then enjoyed the recipe during Social Studies Wednesday afternoon.  The recipe was a BIG HIT!  The kids loved it!!  I will be posting pictures of the kids in action sometime next week.  I will hold on to all of the recipe cards each month and the kids will then take home a recipe book at the end of second grade.  What a fun treasure!  BIG thanks to the families of Nathan, Zachary, and Edwin for being our first Snazzy Snack Shoppers.

I am so proud of the kiddos for earning their third Class Paw this week!  For a large class of 31, I could not be more pleased with their behavior.  We have a great group of very respectful and responsible kids!  Our Paw was given this week by another teacher who couldn’t believe how awesome our class was at the fire drill.  That’s wonderful!! 

I wanted to thank all of you who were able to make it out to our Haunted Trails Night.  What a BLAST!!  I really enjoy spending time with the kids outside of school and this event takes the cake!   I don’t know what’s better…the fact that everyone had a really great time or the fact that Haunted Trails graciously offered to donate some of their profit to our 2^nd grade class?!  What we intended to be a fun night out ended up earning us close to $300.00!!!!!  That’s incredible!  The other second grade teachers and I have decided that this money should go back to all of you, so we will be using it to offset the cost of our field trips this year.  We couldn’t be more excited!  Not to mention, we all had a super fun time together.  I was able to get a lot of great pictures, so I will be uploading those to the blog very soon.  Thank you for bringing your kids out to enjoy the evening with us! 

Sorry this is a very jumbled up weekly update that seems to be all over the place.  That’s kind of how my mind feels right about now!   I’m really looking forward to a normal week next week.  Oh wait, it won’t be normal because it’s Homecoming Spirit Week.  Well, at least it will be fun!  Here’s what’s in store for next week:

Monday – PJ Day

Tuesday – Hat Day

Wednesday – Dress Your Best (Picture Day)

Thursday – Mismatched Day

Friday – Green & White Day

Saturday – Homecoming Parade

 Have a great weekend!!

The Weber Weekly

Social Studies this week has been all about citizenship in the community.  Your child should be able to identify and describe characteristics of good citizenship, describe ways in which citizens make positive contributions to their community, and demonstrate good citizenship by taking responsibility for personal actions, respecting and being fair with others, and being honest.  We are going to continue to learn about communities over the next couple of weeks.  If you're interested in speaking to our class about your job in the community, we'd love to have you!  Please email me and we can choose a date that fits both of our schedules.   

 

We read an historical fiction big book this week called Rashee and the Seven Elephants.  Our comprehension focus was predicting.  The children learned how to use their own background knowledge to predict, scan the text to make predictions, keep track of predictions, compare predictions with others, and revise predictions.  We're also working continuously on fluency during shared reading.  The children learned how to read longer, meaningful phrases with appropriate expression and heed all punctuation in the text.  

 

Did your child teach you the adjective song and dance yet?!  They look adorable dancing to the bunny hop while singing about adjectives!  Everyone has been working extremely hard at putting fun and exciting descriptive words into their writing.  

 

I'm really proud of how awesome everyone has been during Daily 5.  I'm happy to report that we've met all of our goals and built our stamina up to 20 minutes in all five areas.  The kids are really loving center time!  I'm also happy that our listening center was restocked thanks to the Johnson and Rodriguez families!  The kids and I appreciate your generosity with the new CD players and batteries.  :)   

 

Have you seen the school calendar for next week?  Wow, we're going to be busy!!  Here's what's on the agenda:

• Wednesday (and every D Day) - Library
• Wednesday 5:30 pm - Watch DOG Kick-Off
• Thursday 5:00-7:00 pm - Haunted Trails Party
• Friday 8:00 am - Mystery Cafe' hosted by the reading specialists in the Media Center
• Saturday 8:30 am - "Run For Your Life" 5K

Finally, I'd like to end with a little bit of good news/bad news.  The good news is that I'm the Grand Prairie representative for the Language Arts Common Core.  Hooray!  The bad news is that because of this role, I will be out of the building next Thursday and Friday for meetings.  Boo!  I really hate being out of school and away from the kiddos, but duty calls.  At least I will still get to see most of the class Thursday night at Haunted Trails.  My meetings are at the District Office and I will  have access to my school email.  If you need to get in touch with me, please feel free to email me at jweber@psd202.org.  I'm confident that the kids will do a great job with our guest teacher while I'm away. 

The Weber Weekly

It's been a fantastic week in second grade!  I'm happy to report that we haven't had any problem with our bracelets this week...hooray!!  Thank you for talking to your child and helping me get everyone on track. 

Are you going to the Ice Cream Social tonight?  Mr. Weber, Keaton, and I will be there at 5:30.  We'll stay for as long as Keaton lets us, but everyone else can continue the fun until 7:30.  I sure hope to see all of you there!

I'm super excited about the class t-shirts that we're ordering.  We are going to look ADORABLE matching on spirit days, field trips, etc.  I'm submitting everything tomorrow morning, so I really appreciate all of the prompt orders and payments.  I will let you all know as soon as the shirts are ready.  I can't wait! 

Next Tuesday is Family Night Out at Culvers.  You can go for lunch or dinner and Grand Prairie will benefit.  Eat at Culver's of Joliet - 1500 Rt. 59 Joliet, IL 60431 on September 17th and they will give a percentage of the sales to our school.  Flyers will be going home with the children.  Take in the flyer when you order and tell them you are from Grand Prairie school.  I will be there around 5:00, so I hope to see you then!

Remember those old CD players that we all had before the iPod came along?  No, I'm not talking about Walkman tape players, but the newer old things called the Discman.  I'm wondering if you have one of those lying around your house that still works, but you're no longer using.  If you do, we would be so grateful if you would donate it to our classroom listening center.  I currently have five in nice, working condition, but we need two more.  I'm planning on going out this weekend to buy them, but if you have one and could let me know before tomorrow, that would be awesome.  We could also use more headphones and AA batteries.  The children and I would be so appreciative if you could help restock the listening center. 

Can you take a moment and give me your opinion about Remind101?  Am I sending too many reminders?  Just the right amount?  Not enough?  Is there anything you want me to change?  Only about half of our class signed up, so I want to make sure it's worth my time to continue and that it's beneficial to you if you did sign up.  You can either comment right under this post on the blog or shoot me an email at jweber@psd202.org.  I'd really appreciate your feedback! 


Here's what's on the agenda for next week:

• Tuesday:  Family Night at Culvers
• Wednesday:  Library book checkout - make sure your child has BOTH books
• PE on Wednesday and Thursday - wear or bring gym shoes

I hope you all have a nice weekend!  Enjoy the cooler temperatures!!  I'm looking forward to spending my time with this little goofball.  He loved dinner so much last night, he decided to lick the bowl clean...and then wear it like a hat.  What a nut!

The Weber Weekly

PHEW!  For being a short week, we sure were busy!!  I'm happy to report that we are finished with our Discovery testing (for now).  I'm so proud of all of the kids for doing an excellent job on these assessments.  I'm looking forward to sharing the results with you at conferences.

We continued to build our stamina in Daily Five during reading this week.  The class is doing an awesome job with "Read to Self", "Work on Writing", and "Read to Someone".  Next week we will begin "Listen to Reading" and "Word Work".  It is so important to spend time at the beginning of the year establishing expectations and routines; this will ensure a very smooth and successful transition into guided reading groups.

In math we've been learning many different strategies for problem-solving.  We read a counting story about animals visiting a water hole.  After reading, the challenge was to independently figure out how many animals were in the story.  It was AMAZING to see the many different ways the kids went about finding the answer.  I didn't prompt them at all (other than to persevere), and we had a huge variety of strategies.  Many kids used math tools while others drew pictures or used their hundreds chart.  We will continue to learn multiple ways to problem solve as the year goes on.  Don't forget to be on the lookout for math homework Monday afternoon.

We've had several class meetings this week, one being about hygiene.  I've told the kids how important it is to keep their fingers out of their noses, mouths, and even underwear.  We talked about how if you feel itchy underneath your clothes, it needs to be dealt with in a private manner in the restroom.  We also discussed the importance of washing hands and ways we can prevent the spreading of germs.  We have tissues and hand sanitizer readily available for anyone who needs it.  Please, please talk to your child and reiterate healthy hygiene practices.

Finally, I'd like to point out some upcoming events/reminders:

• Second grade t-shirt order forms & payments are due next Thursday, September 12th.
• The Ice Cream Social is next Friday from 5:30-7:30.  I sure hope to see all of you there!!
• Our Watch Dog Kick-Off is Wednesday, September 25th at 5:30.
• Our back-to-school celebration for second grade will take place at Haunted Trails on Thursday, September 26th.  Please join Mr. Weber, Keaton, and I (and the other second grade teachers) for a night of pizza, arcade games, laser tag, go-karts, and more.  Watch your child's folder for more information.