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, January 26, 2018

Week 19

Dear Parents,
                     We have had an amazing swim week! The children learned how to help, or save themselves in many dangerous water situations. There were a few nervous beginners, but by the second day trust had been built with their instructors. We had beginners, swimmers, and two expert swimmers who could make it all the way down to the end of the swim lane. Way to go Jirah and Maddox! Look on our blog for videos and pictures of our week at the LISD Aquatic Center.
                    This week (because of swim week) our plans were not full as two hours of our day was spent swimming. We continued on in math learning multiplication and division: how to write a story that matched one of these types of number sentences. Our go to phrase to remember how to write one  is: two sentences and a question. We learned about arrays as rows and columns. Rows go across.Columns go up and down. We built our own Array City to show our multiplication sentences.
                    In writing the children continued on with their bold beginning, mighty middle, and excellent ending stories. Some children have begun a final copy after taking their story through the writing process.
                     In reading we read the story Mr. Tannen’s Tie Trouble and worked on our inferencing skills. We reviewed story structure and took a comprehension check. We also designed a tie for Mr. Tannen and wrote to a prompt: My Principal Rocks or What I think my principal does all day is …  I really can’t wait to read them! We also visited adjectives and wrote the ones who reminded us of Mrs. Cervantes. Your children think she is kind, happy, smart, responsible, helpful, respectful, caring, and fun!
                     We will continue on in science next week, but did have time to play our SWAT game to identify salt  and fresh  bodies of water. The children love this game and have learned vocabulary such as glacier, ocean, river, stream, salt marsh, lake and iceberg. They are able to match the name of these water sources to a picture.
                      In social studies we had a few students finishing up their landform brochure. We are in the second half of the year where I have a deadline for completion of projects. Grades may drop a bit if they do not use their time wisely. Only test grades may be corrected for a 70. Project grades may not be adjusted.
                     We did reassess the second grade to see what spelling stage each child is currently performing. The weekly tests, even if all 100s do not show what feature points in words have been internalized and used in every day writing. Your child’s spelling group may change next week.

I am also requesting that all children bring in 4 more large glue sticks, two large pink erasers, a new box of 24 crayons and more number 2 pencils as our supply is getting low. Thank you for your help. Only 8 children have brought new supplies. Everyone of them need of them. The children are borrowing from each other as all are running out of their supplies.

We loved Culture Day!









Kaden won our cannon ball contest!


Stay on your belly: throw, don't go!





Friday, January 19, 2018

Week 18

Dear Parents, 
      What a cold, short week it was, but packed full of new learning experiences! In math we began unit nine on multiplication as repeated addition. We learned about equal groups and how many items were in the groups. We learned to write multiplication stories following our model of two sentences and a question. It was confusing at first, but I think we are now on our way to understanding what it really means to multiply.
       In writing we learned that a bold beginning leaves the reader with some questions in their head. It makes the reader want to keep reading to find out more. We also learned that mighty middles have a sequence that makes sense and the words flow as you read them. It also stops giving details in a logical place. We learned that excellent endings wraps up the details and makes my writing feel finished. My second graders are really becoming quite good at writing. I am so proud of their efforts.    
        In reading we read The Mitten  by Jan Brett. We read a poem about the story and did a science investigation involving a mitten, a chocolate kiss and some bear shaped counters. When we were done, we rewarded ourselves by eating a kiss! We used a copy of the story to complete a story map and take a vocabulary quiz.
        In Science we began our new unit on bodies of water. We set up our unit in our notebook, saw a video on salt marshes, watched Brainpop Jr. on fresh and salt water habitats, then took a quiz. We always go over the questions before we watch the videos so the children know what to listen for to answer the questions. We are trying to become better listeners and add the information we are hearing to our schema.
        In social studies we have continued researching our 5 landmarks to put on our brochures. This has been a two week process. The children have been excited to learn about these landmarks. We can’t wait to share our brochures!

I am also requesting that all children bring in 4 more large glue sticks, two large pink erasers, a new box of 24 crayons and more number 2 pencils as our supply is getting low. Thank you for your help. Only three children have brought new supplies. Everyone of them need of them. The children are borrowing from each other as all are running out of their supplies.

Swim Week is next week. It begins on Tuesday for our class and goes until Friday. Thursday is the day that parents may come watch. Our class starts at 9:00 A.M. at the LISD Aquatic Center.  Look for the information sheet on what your child should bring as they are to wear their swimsuit to school under their clothes, they will need to bring dry undergarments for when they change back into their clothes. It is helpful if your child brings a large canvas bag that contains all the items they will need. You may want to include a plastic bag for the wet swim suit. Be sure that your child packs up what he/she needs the night before a swim day, as when rushed in the morning things get left behind.  I have seen some very sad faces when a child forgot what he/she needed to swim and had to sit out a day.

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Week 17

Dear Parents,
           The children were eager to get back to learning! We continued three digit subtraction with and without regrouping. We used our part/part/whole strategy to help us figure out word problems. We even solved two step word problems and took our assessment on Friday. 
           In language we wrote a short, nonfiction narrative piece telling about a New Years resolution, why we chose that resolution and how we plan to accomplish it. We learned what pronouns are and that their order in a sentence matters. Then we wrote an imaginative piece where we used pronouns as we pretended that our family lived in a snow globe.
          In reading we read the story Penguin Chick , a nonfiction story and focused on identifying the main ideas and supporting details. We also practiced matching up details to their main idea. Our Comprehension check for this story was on Thursday. We read a Scholastic News Article and completed a comprehension check.
          In science we finished up our unit on rocks, after describing rocks, watching information videos, reading about rocks, writing about rocks and finally taking our assessment on Friday.
          In social studies we began a unit about U.S. Landmarks. We learned what landmarks and memorials are, watched videos about many of them, then were set loose to research more about landmarks of interest to your child. Each child is to pick 5 landmarks and create a brochure telling a few facts they researched about each. Books, the computer and print outs from the internet are being used in this project. This project will continue into next week.
         We are welcoming a new student, Jamahal to our classroom this week. We now have an even twenty students. We are all looking forward to getting to know him better in the upcoming weeks.
          Congratulations to our new Leader of the Week, Kais. We celebrated his qualities that make him a leader and a good example for other students in our room.

I am also requesting that all children bring in 4 more large glue sticks, two large pink erasers, a new box of 24 crayons and more number 2 pencils as our supply is getting low. Thank you for your help.