Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Friday, October 11, 2013
The Weber Weekly
Glitches in technology have really put a damper on our CogATs this week. We were only able to test on Tuesday since everything crashed on Wednesday morning. This was a problem across the whole district and now testing has been postponed. We cannot test next week because the Book Fair will be set up in the Media Center, so now our testing will take place the following week. I will send you a reminder when I know our testing dates.
Our shared reading focus this week was on summarizing and finding the main idea. We read a nonfiction big book called The Remarkable, Adaptable Turtle. I used the book to model taking notes on our reading and we then continued that strategy with some nonfiction books in guided reading. The kids learned that it's okay to just write one word or a short phrase on the sticky note as opposed to everything in the text. They then used the sticky notes to help retell the main idea of the book. This is an ongoing strategy that we will continue throughout the school year.
The kids also learned to use a Venn Diagram this week to compare and contrast information. I first modeled this for the class by using myself and one of the students. We then read two books about a dog named Marley written by the same author. The kids listened for details in the texts that they could compare and contrast and then completed the Venn Diagram. They did an awesome job! We will keep working on comparing and contrasting in guided reading throughout the year.
We had a visitor from the Plainfield Public Library yesterday. Mrs. Murphy came out and shared some fall stories with our class. Everyone loved her visit!
Big thanks to our very first Mystery Reader, Mr. Gomez! He lucked out and was able to be a Watch DOG on the same day. He read a funny Halloween parody called Good Night, Goon. Oh, funny story...As I was giving the clues to the class, the students were trying to guess the reader. Two of the clues were, "I'm a 40 year old boy" and "I love to work out." I told the kids to think about all the boys in their family...dad, unclues, big brothers, grandpas, etc. Then I asked them why we were only thinking of boys and why the reader today couldn't be a mom. The obvious answer was that the first clue said he was a 40 year old boy. Instead, a little girl raised her hand and as serious as could be said, "It can't be a mom because moms don't like to work out." Hahahahaha, that was the best answer I had heard all week! :) :)
I am sending home some very important information today regarding fall conferences. Please read the letter, complete the form, and return the information at your earliest convenience. I'm looking forward to meeting with all of you in a couple of weeks!
Our shared reading focus this week was on summarizing and finding the main idea. We read a nonfiction big book called The Remarkable, Adaptable Turtle. I used the book to model taking notes on our reading and we then continued that strategy with some nonfiction books in guided reading. The kids learned that it's okay to just write one word or a short phrase on the sticky note as opposed to everything in the text. They then used the sticky notes to help retell the main idea of the book. This is an ongoing strategy that we will continue throughout the school year.
The kids also learned to use a Venn Diagram this week to compare and contrast information. I first modeled this for the class by using myself and one of the students. We then read two books about a dog named Marley written by the same author. The kids listened for details in the texts that they could compare and contrast and then completed the Venn Diagram. They did an awesome job! We will keep working on comparing and contrasting in guided reading throughout the year.
We had a visitor from the Plainfield Public Library yesterday. Mrs. Murphy came out and shared some fall stories with our class. Everyone loved her visit!
Big thanks to our very first Mystery Reader, Mr. Gomez! He lucked out and was able to be a Watch DOG on the same day. He read a funny Halloween parody called Good Night, Goon. Oh, funny story...As I was giving the clues to the class, the students were trying to guess the reader. Two of the clues were, "I'm a 40 year old boy" and "I love to work out." I told the kids to think about all the boys in their family...dad, unclues, big brothers, grandpas, etc. Then I asked them why we were only thinking of boys and why the reader today couldn't be a mom. The obvious answer was that the first clue said he was a 40 year old boy. Instead, a little girl raised her hand and as serious as could be said, "It can't be a mom because moms don't like to work out." Hahahahaha, that was the best answer I had heard all week! :) :)
I am sending home some very important information today regarding fall conferences. Please read the letter, complete the form, and return the information at your earliest convenience. I'm looking forward to meeting with all of you in a couple of weeks!
Thursday, October 3, 2013
The Weber Weekly
What a FUN Homecoming Week we've had! The kids did a great job
participating in the daily activities and I can't wait to share the pictures
with you. I think my favorite day was Hat Day because I loved seeing all the
kiddos in their matching class t-shirts!
We worked really hard with a nonfiction text this week called Tell Me a
Story, Grandpa. The kids practiced using a variety of strategies to figure
out unknown words while they were reading. We focused on the strategies of
reading on, context clues, and rereading. We also reviewed nouns with a fun
little song and dance and then learned about proper nouns.
The kids learned how to use similes to add excitement in their personal
writing this week. Similes are comparisons using the words "like" or "as". You
wouldn't believe how many kids were as "hungry as hippos" while we were writing.
In math we've been working on using addition and subtraction to solve one-
and two-step word problems. The children have been using drawings and equations
with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem. Some of the
strategies included this week were doubles, near doubles, and making ten to
add.
We're continuing to learn about our rights and responsibilities as American citizens in social studies. We're hoping to have a few more people volunteer to come in to speak about their role in the community. Please email me if you're interested. If you've already sent back your form, I will be contacting you via email next week to schedule a visit.
Our testing window for CogAT opens next week. All second and fifth grade children will take this assessment online in the Media Center. This cognitive abilities test assesses students' reasoning and problem-solving skills. The results of CogAT are generally used to predict the success of students in school. We, in District 202, use this assessment to determine student placement (honors classes). Please talk with your child about the importance of the CogAT and ensure that he/she is prepared. A good night's rest and a healthy breakfast will help your child perform at his/her best. A letter with more information will be coming home TODAY. Once I have more information about our testing date, I will send you a Remind101 message.
We're having a Coin Drive next week for the Book Fair. All money collected will be used to purchase new books for our Media Center! In addition, the class that collects the most money will be given that dollar amount to spend at the Book Fair for new books for the classroom library!!! If you're willing and able to participate, here's the schedule:
Monday - pennies
Tuesday - nickles
Wednesday - dimes
Thursday - quarters
Friday - any dollars or coins
I hear many children are planning on attending or even walking in the Homecoming Parade. How fun!! I wish I could join all of you, but we're headed to Wisconsin for a surprise 60th birthday party. I won't be answering any emails until Sunday night, since I won't have Internet access out in the sticks. Have a great weekend!
Friday, September 27, 2013
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! :)
Have a great weekend!!
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 2nd 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
Friday, September 20, 2013
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
Friday, September 13, 2013
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:
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
Friday, September 6, 2013
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:
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.
Friday, August 30, 2013
The Weber Weekly
We've had another successful week in second grade! I'm so proud of the kids and how well they are doing. I can already tell this is going to be an AMAZING year!!
We've been working really hard on our fluency this week in shared reading. We read a realistic fiction big book, Don't Forget Fun. While reading this story, we practiced chunking groups of words, heeding the author's punctuation clues, and reading with intonation. We continued to learn about action verbs in the past tense as well as the short i sound in phonics. Every Friday your child will take a short, five question shared reading quiz. The quiz will consist of strategies we worked on during the week and comprehension questions from the book. I will do my best to get these graded and sent home on Friday afternoon, but sometimes things come up during my lunch/plan time and I will have to wait to grade them until the weekend. Please be watching your child's folder ("left at home" side) for these graded quizzes.
One of our second grade math goals is automaticity with addition and subtraction facts (two seconds per problem). By the end of the year, all students should demonstrate automaticity with subtraction facts 0-9 and addition facts 0-9. We will progress monitor this goal weekly here at school. Every Friday the kids will take a timed addition and timed subtraction test. We will then take the scores of both tests and graph them on individual student graphs. Your child will be fully responsible for monitoring the progress of his/her facts. You will see the graded tests come home each week (most likely Monday or Tuesday) and your child's individual growth graph at conferences. We will be practicing our math facts daily here at school, but it's a good idea to practice at home, too. Most dollar stores sell flash cards or they can easily be created with paper and a marker. Let's work together to ensure your child successfully reaches this math goal!
I want to remind you again that homework will be starting next week. The format is as follows: Monday Math, Totally Sight Word Tuesday, Writing Wednesday, Thinking Thursday (reading response). I will send home a homework sheet at the start of every week. One side will have the assignments listed for the week and the other will have daily behavior. Remember that all homework, except Monday Math, should be completed in your child's homework spiral notebook. Also, if your child had a yellow or orange day, please sign his/her behavior chart. In addition to the weekly homework sheet, I will also send an optional monthly homework calendar. The September calendar will be coming home Tuesday. The back side of the calendar has the required monthly reading log. Your child will need to read for twenty minutes a day and record his/her books on the log.
If you haven't signed up for Remind101 yet, please do so. This is the easiest way for me to keep you informed. If you do not want the text messages sent to your phone, you can have the same reminders sent via email instead. For text messages, please text @weber02 to the number 814.201.5236. For email reminders, send an email to weber02@mail.remind101.com and leave the subject and body blank. Of our 31 students, only 18 families have signed up. I don't want you to miss out on any important reminders!
I will be sending home a copy of our class directory today. Please keep this as a reference to use throughout the school year. Per the handbook, birthday invitations cannot be handed out at school unless you have one for each member of the class. Instead, I encourage you to use the class directory and mail the invitations. You can also use the directory phone numbers to make arrangements for play dates. PLEASE, do not use the directory for business or advertising purposes.
Our PTO sent home information yesterday regarding the upcoming Halloween party. We need four volunteers to help out in the classroom and several families to provide donations. If you're able to volunteer or donate, please complete the white Halloween form and return back to school in your child's folder.
I hope you will all mark your calendars for our upcoming Ice Cream Social. This fun, family event will take place on Friday, September 13th from 5:30-7:30 in our school gym. This will be a night you won't want to miss!
I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who completed the yellow Highlights order form. I can't believe how many responsible second graders were able to get their families to complete the form! :) Highlights will be sending our classroom FREE supplies just for returning the completed slips. I love free stickers and other school supplies, so thank you!
I also wanted to thank those of you who donated supplies to our classroom pantry. We can never have enough plastic silverware, paper towels, Clorox wipes, or hand sanitizer. The kids were pretty excited about the mega pack of construction paper and the fun patterned Duct tape, too! I'm so thankful for your generous donations.
I can't believe it's already Labor Day Weekend...hello September! I hope you all enjoy the holiday and the extra time with your family. Mr. Weber and I will be busy running through the sprinkler, playing at the park, and snuggling our precious baby boy, Keaton. In between all that excitement, I will be checking emails; feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
We've been working really hard on our fluency this week in shared reading. We read a realistic fiction big book, Don't Forget Fun. While reading this story, we practiced chunking groups of words, heeding the author's punctuation clues, and reading with intonation. We continued to learn about action verbs in the past tense as well as the short i sound in phonics. Every Friday your child will take a short, five question shared reading quiz. The quiz will consist of strategies we worked on during the week and comprehension questions from the book. I will do my best to get these graded and sent home on Friday afternoon, but sometimes things come up during my lunch/plan time and I will have to wait to grade them until the weekend. Please be watching your child's folder ("left at home" side) for these graded quizzes.
One of our second grade math goals is automaticity with addition and subtraction facts (two seconds per problem). By the end of the year, all students should demonstrate automaticity with subtraction facts 0-9 and addition facts 0-9. We will progress monitor this goal weekly here at school. Every Friday the kids will take a timed addition and timed subtraction test. We will then take the scores of both tests and graph them on individual student graphs. Your child will be fully responsible for monitoring the progress of his/her facts. You will see the graded tests come home each week (most likely Monday or Tuesday) and your child's individual growth graph at conferences. We will be practicing our math facts daily here at school, but it's a good idea to practice at home, too. Most dollar stores sell flash cards or they can easily be created with paper and a marker. Let's work together to ensure your child successfully reaches this math goal!
I want to remind you again that homework will be starting next week. The format is as follows: Monday Math, Totally Sight Word Tuesday, Writing Wednesday, Thinking Thursday (reading response). I will send home a homework sheet at the start of every week. One side will have the assignments listed for the week and the other will have daily behavior. Remember that all homework, except Monday Math, should be completed in your child's homework spiral notebook. Also, if your child had a yellow or orange day, please sign his/her behavior chart. In addition to the weekly homework sheet, I will also send an optional monthly homework calendar. The September calendar will be coming home Tuesday. The back side of the calendar has the required monthly reading log. Your child will need to read for twenty minutes a day and record his/her books on the log.
If you haven't signed up for Remind101 yet, please do so. This is the easiest way for me to keep you informed. If you do not want the text messages sent to your phone, you can have the same reminders sent via email instead. For text messages, please text @weber02 to the number 814.201.5236. For email reminders, send an email to weber02@mail.remind101.com and leave the subject and body blank. Of our 31 students, only 18 families have signed up. I don't want you to miss out on any important reminders!
I will be sending home a copy of our class directory today. Please keep this as a reference to use throughout the school year. Per the handbook, birthday invitations cannot be handed out at school unless you have one for each member of the class. Instead, I encourage you to use the class directory and mail the invitations. You can also use the directory phone numbers to make arrangements for play dates. PLEASE, do not use the directory for business or advertising purposes.
Our PTO sent home information yesterday regarding the upcoming Halloween party. We need four volunteers to help out in the classroom and several families to provide donations. If you're able to volunteer or donate, please complete the white Halloween form and return back to school in your child's folder.
I hope you will all mark your calendars for our upcoming Ice Cream Social. This fun, family event will take place on Friday, September 13th from 5:30-7:30 in our school gym. This will be a night you won't want to miss!
I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who completed the yellow Highlights order form. I can't believe how many responsible second graders were able to get their families to complete the form! :) Highlights will be sending our classroom FREE supplies just for returning the completed slips. I love free stickers and other school supplies, so thank you!
I also wanted to thank those of you who donated supplies to our classroom pantry. We can never have enough plastic silverware, paper towels, Clorox wipes, or hand sanitizer. The kids were pretty excited about the mega pack of construction paper and the fun patterned Duct tape, too! I'm so thankful for your generous donations.
I can't believe it's already Labor Day Weekend...hello September! I hope you all enjoy the holiday and the extra time with your family. Mr. Weber and I will be busy running through the sprinkler, playing at the park, and snuggling our precious baby boy, Keaton. In between all that excitement, I will be checking emails; feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Friday, August 23, 2013
The Weber Weekly
Busy, busy, busy! What a busy week we had in second grade!! Please bear with me; I'm sure this will be a very long post...
In shared reading, the kids learned the characteristics of a folktale while reading Table for Two. We reviewed the short a sound and practiced writing words with that spelling pattern. We also learned a really fun dance about verbs; ask your child to teach it to you!
In writing, we've been working hard on creating class books. The books will be put into a basket and can be read during centers throughout the school year. At the end of second grade, we will have hopefully written 31 books so that each child will be able to take one home as a keepsake.
The kids have been learning some really BIG words in math this week. We learned all about mathematicians, perseverance, stamina, and manipulatives. Everyone now understands the difference between a math tool and a toy, which will be really helpful as we will be using the tools throughout the year.
In social studies, we are learning how to be good citizens of our classroom. We are discussing each rule in great detail, modeling the rules, and creating our own rule books. It's important to spend a lot of time in the beginning of the school year establishing a positive learning environment with clear expectations in order to ensure a successful second grade experience for all.
The kids are working really hard to earn polka dots for their clips on our behavior chart. We already have several students with a red clip! Once your child fills up his/her clip, it will be sent home and the next colored clip will go on the chart. Don't forget to check your child's calendar each night to see what color they were on. If he/she has a yellow or orange day, please sign the box indicating you discussed the behavior. Let's work together to ensure a successful school year!
Have you signed up for Remind101 yet? If so, thank you! If not, what are you waiting for?! If you'd rather not receive the reminders via text, you can still sign up through email. I don't want you to miss anything! To sign up, text the message @weber02 to 814.201.5236 or email a blank subject line and blank message to weber02@mail.remind101.com. I'm looking forward to keeping your informed with Remind101!
The Mystery Reader schedule has been posted here on the Blog. If you'd like to sign up, please email me your date of choice and I will add you to the calendar.
Even though it has been nice and hot outside, our classroom has been rather chilly. Please consider sending a hoodie or lightweight jacket to keep at school. I hate to see all the nice shirts getting stretched out each day with arms inside trying to stay warm.
Don't forget that our first Scholastic Book Order is due Wednesday. You can either send your order to school or place an order online. The link for online ordering is www.scholastic.com/bookclubs.
On the parent page, click the "Don't have a User Name and Password?" link, and then register for your own username and password. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code, which is GQGGP. This code ensures that your order is sent to me. Our books will arrive about a week after all orders have been placed.
I wanted to thank all of you who were able to join us for Curriculum Night on Tuesday. We had a very nice turnout. I'm excited to get to know all of you better as we work together this school year.
The Grand Prairie Ice Cream Social will be on Friday, September 13th. You can RSVP in advance by sending back the ordering sheet that your child brought home on Thursday.
If you haven't turned in your permission slips yet, please do so as soon as possible. I will be able to create the directory, post pictures to the Blog, and send home the Snazzy Snack shoppers list once I have all permission slips for every student. Our classroom aide, Mrs. Joseph, will be sending home another copy if we are missing something from you. Be on the lookout in your child's Take-Home Folder.
I hope all of you enjoy the weekend with your kiddos. If you need to reach me for any reason, I will be checking email. I can't wait to see everyone back to school on Monday!!
In shared reading, the kids learned the characteristics of a folktale while reading Table for Two. We reviewed the short a sound and practiced writing words with that spelling pattern. We also learned a really fun dance about verbs; ask your child to teach it to you!
In writing, we've been working hard on creating class books. The books will be put into a basket and can be read during centers throughout the school year. At the end of second grade, we will have hopefully written 31 books so that each child will be able to take one home as a keepsake.
The kids have been learning some really BIG words in math this week. We learned all about mathematicians, perseverance, stamina, and manipulatives. Everyone now understands the difference between a math tool and a toy, which will be really helpful as we will be using the tools throughout the year.
In social studies, we are learning how to be good citizens of our classroom. We are discussing each rule in great detail, modeling the rules, and creating our own rule books. It's important to spend a lot of time in the beginning of the school year establishing a positive learning environment with clear expectations in order to ensure a successful second grade experience for all.
The kids are working really hard to earn polka dots for their clips on our behavior chart. We already have several students with a red clip! Once your child fills up his/her clip, it will be sent home and the next colored clip will go on the chart. Don't forget to check your child's calendar each night to see what color they were on. If he/she has a yellow or orange day, please sign the box indicating you discussed the behavior. Let's work together to ensure a successful school year!
Have you signed up for Remind101 yet? If so, thank you! If not, what are you waiting for?! If you'd rather not receive the reminders via text, you can still sign up through email. I don't want you to miss anything! To sign up, text the message @weber02 to 814.201.5236 or email a blank subject line and blank message to weber02@mail.remind101.com. I'm looking forward to keeping your informed with Remind101!
The Mystery Reader schedule has been posted here on the Blog. If you'd like to sign up, please email me your date of choice and I will add you to the calendar.
Even though it has been nice and hot outside, our classroom has been rather chilly. Please consider sending a hoodie or lightweight jacket to keep at school. I hate to see all the nice shirts getting stretched out each day with arms inside trying to stay warm.
Don't forget that our first Scholastic Book Order is due Wednesday. You can either send your order to school or place an order online. The link for online ordering is www.scholastic.com/bookclubs.
On the parent page, click the "Don't have a User Name and Password?" link, and then register for your own username and password. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code, which is GQGGP. This code ensures that your order is sent to me. Our books will arrive about a week after all orders have been placed.
I wanted to thank all of you who were able to join us for Curriculum Night on Tuesday. We had a very nice turnout. I'm excited to get to know all of you better as we work together this school year.
The Grand Prairie Ice Cream Social will be on Friday, September 13th. You can RSVP in advance by sending back the ordering sheet that your child brought home on Thursday.
If you haven't turned in your permission slips yet, please do so as soon as possible. I will be able to create the directory, post pictures to the Blog, and send home the Snazzy Snack shoppers list once I have all permission slips for every student. Our classroom aide, Mrs. Joseph, will be sending home another copy if we are missing something from you. Be on the lookout in your child's Take-Home Folder.
I hope all of you enjoy the weekend with your kiddos. If you need to reach me for any reason, I will be checking email. I can't wait to see everyone back to school on Monday!!
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