About Me

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Carrollton, Texas, United States
Welcome to my blog! My name is Beth Carpenter! I am a 2nd grade teacher at Coyote Ridge Elementary. I majored in Early Childhood Education and have taught for 22 years. I have taught grades K- 3 which gives me a unique ability to know where my second graders fit within those grades. Teaching is more than a profession to me, it is a calling. I love to help light the fire of curiosity to help all my students become lifelong learners!

Schedule

Math 8:00-9:30 Brain Break 9:30-9:40 Enrichment 9:40-10:30 Guided Reading 10:30-11:30 Lunch 11:30-12:00 Writer's Workshop 12:00- 1:00 Recess 1:00-1:30 Reading/Social Studies 1:30-2:00 Science 2:00-2:50 Pack/Stack/Dismiss 2:50-3:00

Friday, December 19, 2014

Week 16

Dear Parents,
          This week we focused on several of the gingerbread man stories. We compared/contrasted the character traits from three of the stories. We also wrote a summary on gingerbread men. In math we are continuing to add double digit numbers with models. We are comparing fall and winter in social studies. We wrote a response to our discussion and made an art project to display. I will post a picture of their work on our classroom blog. We also finished publishing our Winter acrostic using the computer in computer lab. 
       We began a new science unit on motion. The engage activity was marble painting which was lots of fun. They placed two marbles with different colored paint on them in a box and got to watch the marbles slide, turn, spin, and roll at different rates of speed as they tilted the box. We can’t wait to learn more! 

        I would like to thank Cate Crane and Veronica Cooper for making our holiday party memorable. Our holiday sing along is always so much fun. Look at the Blog to see more about these events!

Friday, December 12, 2014


                                                     Flat Stanley Musical

Week 15

Dear Parents,
            Another great week of learning in second grade! I think their most memorable event was our field trip to see Flat Stanley put on stage. Reading the story as a class, thinking about the characters, making character maps, and finally making a Flat Stanley to be mailed away to experience a new place  has been so much fun! Don’t forget to look for pictures on our classroom blog.
            In guided reading we continued reading our individual group books, but also got to experience stations for the blind and deaf. We learned about braille, sign language, and discovered smells and objects without using our eyes to see if we could identify them! More pictures are posted on our classroom blog!
            In Math we have been adding two digit numbers using mental math and a hundreds chart. I have been impressed with how quickly the children have learned these skills. Earlier in the week I sent home a picture of the fasttmath facts learned by your child. All the blocks with answers 0-9 should be filled in. I cannot move your child to subtraction facts until the entire board is colored dark to show all fasttfacts learned. Please make sure that your child does fasttmath at least two times a week as part of his/her math log. I appreciate your help with this!

             We have wrapped up our lesson in science on magnets. I was also impressed with how well my class did on the assessment. We have one more week of learning before holiday break  … not that the children are counting down! :)


Discovering what things are by feeling them, learning sign language, and discovering different smells was so much fun! No one much cared for the vinegar smell!
Learning about braille on Braille Bug. It's fun decoding messages!

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Week 14

Dear Parents, 
         It was so nice for all of us to get back to learning after the Thanksgiving Break! The children have been busy making a special holiday gifts for their parents.  We have taken our test on ordering and comparing numbers in math. We are finishing up our unit on nouns and will be learning about holidays that are celebrated this month. 
        Our reading stories are getting progressively harder. The students will be soon moving into our Reading Book #2. Several children had trouble with this last comprehension test as they were expected to infer the best answer. This was the last story in Book #1. If your child had trouble with the Helen Keller comprehension test and you are wondering how to help him/her with inferring, I have a few suggestions. We read the story several times at school. The book goes home on Mondays and Wednesdays for the children to read at home for their reading log. Have your child read to you, then ask them questions about what they read. Check for understanding and ask questions that they have to think about what they have just read. 
      We have been experimenting with magnets and learning what types of things are magnetic and how magnets help us in our every day lives. We were amazed to see how a magnet helps a simple motor run!
      

*You’ll find our weekly Newsletter attached, as well as a flyer for Kids Stage which has a class open for registration in December. 

*Sumdog (another option to fasttmath is set up on our Blog) This website allows your children to get on line with their classmates and play with each other. They will be learning how to log on and play this week.

*I will be serving hot chocolate and cookies at Polar Express night and hope to see you there!


* Continue to encourage your child to fill in his/her own reading and math log. Second graders can do this on their own. Parents are just to initial nightly. I remind my class that their parents already passed second grade! :) Please help them work on this independently. This helps them learn to be responsible. You will be amazed at how proud they will be of themselves.