Week 31

Dear Parents,

        I am resending this list as a reminder in case some of you missed this e-mail. I received a list from our PE teacher telling me the T-shirt color each child in my class should wear on Field Day : May 1st. See your child’s color so you can plan ahead. If there is a problem with your child wearing his/her assigned color please let me know  as soon as possible so we can make team changes:

Pink Team: Ishan, Jobin, Tyler, Jiho, Ava

Blue Team: Malik,Helen, Bella, Jacob, Sahasra

Yellow Team: Hailey, Rony, Rhys, Archana

Green Team: Bryson, Sheba, Daniel, Jayla

This week we celebrated Earth Day! We read The Lorax and talked about ways we could help the earth! We each signed a classroom pledge to speak for the earth. We wrote the story elements as well as a creative piece pretending each of us was a Lorax. We finished our unit on Environmental effects and have begun a science unit on Insect Life Cycles.We have live meal worms, lady bugs, and butterfly larva at school! We are learning about adverbs in language and how they modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. In math we are learning about the names of plane shapes as well as how to count the sides and vertices. It has been a quiet week with DRA testing. We are all done! This will be their last one of the year! All your children are right on track! I am so proud of the growth in their reading and comprehension this year!

 *May 1st on Field Day we will be serving sack lunches to the entire school. (please let me know if your child will be purchasing this lunch as they will be pre-made)

It will include :

Turkey and cheese sandwich

Broccoli 

Carrots

Fruit

Milk

* Please send in one plain, white pillow case as soon as you can. We create a special second grade keep sake. If you buy a set of two and would like to donate one to help out another student that would be great! I will need at least three mother volunteers to help write a poem with sharpie marker on 6 pillow cases. I give you the poem. You just trace it through the case. If you would like to help with this (it can be done from home) please let me know. I will collect the 18 pillow cases, send them home with 3 helpers, then we will complete them at school.

Our Prideful Paw Winners for the third nine weeks!

Week 30

Dear Parents,

            This week is the end of the first three week period of our last nine weeks. You may be noticing your child’s grade are a little lower than in the past. Remember, I am now grading the papers as they are when turned in to me. The children are reminded to check directions and for questions left unanswered. This is a chance for them to grow in their independence which they will need for third grade. 

           We are learning about environments and how they affect living things in science. We had an opportunity this week to watch a video about sea turtles and send a video response to the actress who created the video (she is a former student of mine who I taught years ago when she was in first grade). Jaclyn responded to your children’s questions in another short video. The children were thrilled as she called them by name. She is posting her videos on YouTube :just search Friends With Fins. A few of my students did this on their own and subscribed to her. She says that it takes a full day to write and produce her videos. They are all very educational and about conservation and ocean life. She has also authored two children’s books on the subject. She became interested in fish when she was in first grade because I had a fish tank in my room. A teacher never knows how much he/ she does to impacts students'  futures. 

          We are beginning geometry in math. We are writing creative pieces that have varied sentence lengths, that paint a picture with words, and that have sentences that are begun in different ways.In Language we have focused on possessive nouns as well as contractions. Reading with questioning strategies really has had us engaged in books this week!

Week 29

Dear Parents,

       Since we have a holiday when reports cards are normally sent home, we will be sending these home today Friday, April 10th. Parents may view grades online as well. 

        Please check the Coyote folder every Friday for important papers and information, empty it and return the empty folder to school on Mondays. Graded papers and printed materials from the school will be inside. Today look for awards given to students for All A Honor Roll and perfect attendance.

        With the nice weather and the switch back from earning money to the daily sticker chart in your child's blue coyote folder (which comes home daily) we have had more than our usual amount of clip changes. Please encourage your child to earn that behavior star for following our classroom rules, being kind to others, and staying on task with our work.

        Do not forget that Tuesday is our rescheduled picture day. Individual and class pictures will be taken. If you sent in your money and background choice in earlier for the first picture date, then I have held onto it. If you have not sent anything in , a new form had gone home last week. Please fill them out and send them in on Monday. Class pictures are prepaid for $12.00.

Economics Movie reward with snacks!

Team building activity: The Water Cycle

Week 28

Dear Parents,

      I just found out that since we have a holiday when reports cards are normally sent home, we will not be sending these home until Friday, April 10th. Parents can view grades online starting Monday. I apologize for the misinformation I gave you last week.

      It was a short week for students but it was packed with wonderful learning opportunities. We are wrapping up our experiments that went along with the water cycle. We have two experiments left that we are waiting on to watch the rate of evaporation. 

The class had a team building activity where they had to work together in groups to reconstruct a puzzle of the water cycle. We also completed our economics unit. The children counted up their earned money and were able to spend their earnings on a movie ticket, and some snacks. They had to make choices based on the prices of the items and the money they had. A few children bought unlimited popcorn for $100! They can really eat. The amount earned ranged from $81- $479! A lot of good lessons about choices and consequences were had by all.We also wrote a class joke book for April Fools and a few pranks were played throughout the day on Friday! Some of my students really did fool me!

      I hope you enjoy a wonderful holiday weekend with your families!