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

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Building Day!











Week 9

Dear Parents,
        We are moving forward in our problem solving strategies with number talks and word problems. Our word problems have two digit numbers that we add together with and without regrouping. We are able to use a strip diagram (a part/part/whole box to help us see what the  word problem is asking us to do.
         In language we discovered that there are four types of sentences: statements, questions, exclamations, and commands. We used which punctuation marks go with these sentences. We were challenged to use all four in a writing piece on a topic of their choice. 
          In reading we read the Signmaker’s Assistant. We looked at the clues in the illustrations and in the text to use as evidence to decide what type of community was the setting of this story. We also used text evidence to take a comprehension check. W e used some of our reading time to plan our communities with our groups.
            In science we learned that physical properties of matter can be changed by cutting, folding, tearing, sanding and combining different types of matter. We learned that the properties of matter can be important when choosing building materials. Four groups were challenged to get a cotton ball as high off their desk as possible using, tape, rubber bands, string and either spaghetti or pipe cleaners. All groups were successful raising the cottontail up several centimeters. Congratulations to all groups. 
            In Social Studies we focused on the Leader in Me Habits think win-win and seek first to understand, then be understood. We learned that we all win when we fill each other’s emotional banks. We learned to listen with our eyes, ears, and hearts.
              We had building day on Thursday! What a great time we had working together to see our plans becoming a reality. See our blog for pictures of our communities made with recyclables!
 

Friday, October 20, 2017

Leader of the Week


Week 8

Dear Parents,
               Math was a bit challenging this week as your second graders went from adding with regrouping using manipulatives (which is hands on) to  the paper and pencil method (which is abstract). It took some time, but I feel we’ve got it! We will continue practicing this skill next week.
               In language we focused on two types of sentences: statements and questions. We looked for these sentences in our own writing as well as in our reading book. We had fun learning the sentence song as well as our punctuation song.
                In reading we read Officer Buckle and Gloria , took a comprehension quiz and discussed community workers and how they help our community. We learned about three types of communities and chose our favorite one. We have  been challenged to design our very own community and will work with a group to use recyclables to build it. Thank you for already sending in  recycled items so that we can do this fun learning experience.
               In science we learned more about changing matter by adding or removing heat. We watched Brain pop Jr., some Stemscope videos as well as practiced using our vocabulary and writing about what we learned.
                My new leader of the week is Sharina. She has been a leader to her classmates. One of my favorite comments that was said about her was “ she spreads good feelings”. Look on our blog to see her and the poster she decorated all about her. We talked more about putting first things first as well as how to be organized.

Friday, October 13, 2017

Faith is our Leader of the Week!


Week 7

Dear Parents,
            This was a short week, but packed full of great learning opportunities. In math we focused on Fact Families as well as related math facts. We noticed that they contained the same three numbers, just in a different order.
            In writing we learned about common nouns as well as proper nouns. We looked for them in our writing and in books. We made an anchor chart of the words we found! 
             In reading we read the story STELLALUNA. We used a double bubble map to compare birds and bats. We sequenced sentences to tell the order they happened in the story. We also talked about the main character’s feelings and wrote about them.
              In science we began our new unit on changing and combining matter. This week we learned that changes occur when we add heat or take heat away. We discovered that a piece of paper’s physical properties changed when it got wet. Ask your child what happened to our milk when we heated it, added lemon juice and vinegar to it. The physical properties changed. It went from a liquid to a solid.
      In social studies we learned about Columbus Day, watched a Brain Pop Jr., took the on line quiz to assess what we learned and drew a map of Columbus’ journey. We also worked on our leadership notebook. Sadly we had to say goodbye to one of our classmates, Faith. She has been a very special part of our class and an excellent leader. I wish her much luck on her new adventure. She will forever be in my heart, like all the students I have the privilege of teaching.
  • Check out our blog to see pictures and videos of the nerds program. I’ll post them on Saturday. Some of your children were picked to go up front! :)
  • Progress reports went home today. Please return the signed copy.
  • Please send in a bag of candy for the Fall Festival.
  • Please send in $3.00 so that we can buy items to make the second grade baskets for the silent auction.
      

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Week 6

Dear Parents,
         This week seemed to fly by as I had conferences with about half of you. Thank you so much for meeting with me, as I love talking with you about your children and how you can partner with me to help your child succeed in second grade and learn the skills to be ready for third grade.
          In math we took our unit one assessment and began a unit on subtraction from numbers to twenty. Homework pages may be going home once or twice a week. These can be used as the math log practice. On Wednesday a new packet of flash cards is going home in your child’s log. It has all the facts thus covered. We will continue to have our weekly quizes over these facts to try to increase your child’s automaticity in remembering these facts. These are not counted in their grade, but will help them as our units progress to more challenging skills.
         In language we wrote a spider cinquain poem as well as took a single sentence through the writing process. The children enjoyed going on thesaurus.com to find the just right word for that sentence. They relearning that they can take charge and do their own revising and editing to make their writing better.
          In reading we read Diary of a Spider, had a comprehension check where we learned to go back to the text to find evidence that supported our answers. We compared spiders and insects on a double bubble map. We always enjoy working and reading with a partner.
           In science we finished up our unit on the physical properties of matter. We took our assessment and wrote about objects and their properties. We went on a matter hunt with a partner as we searched for objects with certain properties. We learned how to classify objects by their properties.
            In social studies we continued working on goals and narrowing them down as we worked on a goal targeting project. I chose a new leader of the week. Congratulations to Faith Lee!