Week 17

Dear Parents,

         What a wonderful week we had before Winter Break. We finished up all our units and got all our work turned in! In math we finished up learning about our numbers to 999. We continued to represent them many ways, put them on open number lines and compared them. We also learned how to add 10 or 100 and to take away 10 or 100. Our assessment was taken on Thursday. In writing we finished editing our friendly letters and used an editing checklist. After break we will give our letters to the people we wrote them to. In reading we listened to some holiday stories and filled out our story maps. We also listened to the Polar Express and showed our learning in cause/effect and a story order exercises. In science we finished up our unit on rocks by completing a cloze procedure with our vocabulary and taking our unit assessment on Thursday. We had a wonderful time at our holiday party. The pancake breakfast was loved by all! We had fun making an ornament and playing holiday bingo. Our presents to you went home in wrapping paper and cards made by your children. They are so excited to give you these gifts! I wrote thank you notes to you (Sent home in your child’s daily folder) for all the wonderful gifts and kind messages you sent me. Your thoughtfulness is truly appreciated. I’m wishing you a wonderful break and a happy New Year! 

Here is a song made by the teachers of Coyote Ridge to make you smile:

 

12 Days of Christmas Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W2ofb1F6vgalXoNVKARv8T1aXMvsiXtk/view?usp=sharing

 

From our librarian:

Hi everyone!  I have created a Holiday board .The board includes two read alouds, three games from ABCYA.com, two drawing instructions and a direct link to holiday code lab from Google and Google Santa’s tracker.  The Santa Tracker is full of holiday activities!  There is one released each day (red play button) but they can find the others as the scroll down to the bottom.  This site is only available during the month of December! 

 

You can find it here:  https://bit.ly/CREholiday

 

Week 15

 Dear Parents,

      This week in math we learned all about division. We earned that division is sharing something giving everyone or everything an equal amount. We also learned how to write a story problem representing a division sentence. At the end of the week, we began a skip counting book. Then we began focusing on counting hundreds, tens, and ones.

      In writing we worked all week on our expository paper about why we like our favorite holiday. We have wonderful reasons! Some of us tried using time order words to break up our reasons. We went back to add interesting words and details.

In reading we learned how to ask and answer questions before, during, and after we read. We read the story Going Places and took a comprehension test. We began researching Landmarks using the facts4me website.

       In Science we were finishing up our unit on Patterns of Movement. We made a movement flip book, wrote a CER about our knowledge ( made a claim, gave evidence, and a reason for our claim), took a closing in on Science assessment, and our post assessment.

 

 

Coach Ray says  it’s about time for the final survey for 21 day challenge. Please click the link below to and fill it out:

 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MJlEYiCqkDhD4-fsEIH5UEhvXC1b7VsIArcKpZjdwMc/present?slide=id.g9aacb81e7e_0_2

 

 

 

December, Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Thank you to all the families who participated in our virtual November Habit Newsletter activity! Don’t forget that if your family participates in ALL 7 Newsletters, you will be showcased in our school as a Lighthouse Family!

• December’s Habit of the Month is Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind! Please click here to view and complete the virtual December Newsletter. It contains information about Habit 2, a read-aloud video, discussion questions to talk about with your child, and a short activity to do at home. Please have this completed by next Wednesday, December 9th.

• December 9^th is also Begin With the End in Mind Day! We want to see the entire school wear GREEN for Habit 2 on Wednesday!
• We will be tracking grade level participation for completing the virtual newsletter. The grade level with the highest percentage of participation for December will receive a grade level prize! Congratulations to Kindergarten for having the most students/families participate in the month of November!

Week 14

 Dear Parents,

       Another great week of learning is behind us! In math we started a new unit which began with the skill of understanding the difference between odd and even numbers. We then started looking at beginning multiplication by building towers with snap cubes. We made sure each floor of our tower had an equal number of rooms. This correlates to multiplication because we multiply the number of groups by the number within each group ( the floors and the rooms in our towers). We then realized that multiplication is just repeated addition. We had fun drawing our own array town with various sized buildings.

     In writing we began an expository piece in which we chose our favorite celebration. We are generating the reasons why that celebration is our favorite on a flee map.

     In reading we have been reding Thanksgiving stories and Scholastic News articles about the first Thanksgiving. We have been finding our answers within the text as evidence.

     In science we have been doing investigations with force and motion. We painted with marbles using push and pull movements. We learned the more force we used the faster our marble went. We also observed several experiments in which things could slide, roll, or spin. Many children had never seen a yo-yo! A toy from my youth.

     It has been wonderful wrapping up our fall conferences this week. If you did not get a chance to sign up, or did and missed your time. Feel free to contact me after the break and I would be happy to meet with you.

     I hope you all enjoy a wonderful week with family and friends! I am thankful for my sweet students and families!

 

Important Dates:

         11/9-11/22 CRE Book Fair

11/23-11/27. Thanksgiving Holidays - no school

12/18. Early Release - 11:45AM

 

 

Week 13

 Dear Parents, 

        This week in math we have had fun measuring things in our room with the standard units of inches, feet, yards, centimeters, and meters. We know that if the object hits the halfway mark between two numbers, the measurement rounds up to the larger number.

       In writing we finished up our imaginative stories, our Veteran Acrostic Poems and learned about The tenses of verbs. We also talked about Subject/Verb Agreement and how it just doesn’t sound right when they don’t agree. Congratulations to Austin as his poem was chosen to be read on our Veterans Day tribute!

        In reading we read a scholastic News about Veterans and their important jobs. We focused the rest of the week on a nonfiction story about Wilma Rudolph. We created our own nonfiction text feature book.

          In science we were excited to begin a unit about force and motion. We dug for buried treasure and tested whether our treasure was magnetic or nonmagnetic. We saw how different magnets moved iron filings. We had fun seeing how like poles ( north and north/ south and south) repel each other. Some magnets even seemed to float.

 

Please use the link below to sign up for your child’s Fall Conference. Make sure you put your child’s name and whether you would like a phone conference or would like to meet on Webex in the comments. If you wish to not meet at this time, respond to this e-mail to let me know.  I look forward to meeting with you to discuss your child’s progress.

 

 

 https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0B4CAFA82AA02-fall

 

Dear Parents and Families,

The Scholastic Book Fair is open! Join your kids in exploring titles and plots and discovering inspiring characters. Empower them by letting them choose the books to purchase—and bring on the joy of reading!

Remember, every dollar you spend will benefit our school directly (25% back in rewards!).

Be sure to visit the Fair during our allotted dates:

November 9-22

Visit the fair here: http://bit.ly/CREvirtualBF

 

Some amazing features of our online store:

·         Over 6,000 items, including new releases, best sellers, and value packs

·         A Virtual Fair shopping experience

·         All orders ship direct to home

·         FREE shipping on book-only orders over $25

This is also a great opportunity to support our teachers by donating books!  Please visit our teacher wish lists here:  http://bit.ly/CREtwishlist

Week 12

  Dear Parents,

         We had another wonderful week of learning! In math we focused on measuring- first with nonstandard measuring tools and then with inches, feet and yards. In writing we continued revising/editing/publishing our imaginative stories and wrote an acrostic poem about veterans. In reading we read two folktales (which are a kind of fable). They were in the form of a drama. We took a comprehension check after reading them several times and forming mental images. In Science we continued exploring forms of energy by watching Discovery Streaming videos, writing a CER, playing vocabulary games and then using those words to fill in a cloze procedure. Our assessment was on Friday.

 

Please use the link below to sign up for your child’s Fall Conference. Make sure you put your child’s name and whether you would like a phone conference or would like to meet on Webex in the comments. If you wish to not meet at this time, respond to this e-mail to let me know. I look forward to meeting with you to discuss your child’s progress.

 

 

 https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0B4CAFA82AA02-fall

 

 

Please read a letter from our librarian about our Scholastic Book Fair:

 

 

Dear Parents and Families,

The Scholastic Book Fair is open! Join your kids in exploring titles and plots and discovering inspiring characters. Empower them by letting them choose the books to purchase—and bring on the joy of reading!

Remember, every dollar you spend will benefit our school directly (25% back in rewards!).

Be sure to visit the Fair during our allotted dates:

November 9-22

Visit the fair here: http://bit.ly/CREvirtualBF

 

Some amazing features of our online store:

·         Over 6,000 items, including new releases, best sellers, and value packs

·         A Virtual Fair shopping experience

·         All orders ship direct to home

·         FREE shipping on book-only orders over $25

This is also a great opportunity to support our teachers by donating books!  Please visit our teacher wish lists here:  http://bit.ly/CREtwishlist

We can’t wait to “see” you at the Fair!

 

Veronica Hernandez – School Librarian

Week 11

 Dear Parents,

        Red Ribbon Week went well! Thank you for your participation with our daily themes. It was a busy week, but fun was had by all as we learned how to say no to drugs. Mrs. Moore our counselor visited us on Monday to kick off the week. We celebrated on Friday with a program purchased by our Awesome PTA! This virtual program was just what your children needed to end their week.

         In math we began a new unit, but this skill is the second hardest skill in math taught to our second graders. Time to the minute. Please help your child understand how to read an analog clock. We remember the hour hand goes first. It is the short hand. We remember this because hour is a short word- it is only one syllable. The minute hand is the long hand and is the longer word being two syllables. The children will also need to be able to draw the hands on a clock after seeing the digital time. I will be sending practice papers for homework next week. Remind your children that after half past an hour, the hour hand moves in between two numbers. (3:30- the hour hand should be drawn pointing between the three and the four. ) we will continue to work on this skill at school, but our math book has moved on to measuring.

          In writing we continued to work on our imaginative stories as we added and deleted sentences. We learned to combine two sentences to make a longer sentence and to add exact words by using Thesaurus.com.

           In reading we focused on our government: local, state and federal. As we learned about our leaders, where they worked, who they worked with and what their job is, we also learned how to summarize our reading passages. We topped off our week by writing a response about if your child were the President!

            In science we had many fun energy investigations with sound, heat and light. Ask your child what they learned about increasing and decreasing these forms of energy.

 

Thank you to Amanda Burt and Amber Rice for your donations of glue sticks. We are covered for now. Boy/ Girl treasure box items are always welcome! The scented dough and slime were a big hit thanks to Amanda Burt, but are almost gone! This treasure box chart and reward is an excellent way to motivate my second graders.

Week 10

 Dear Parents,

         This week we continued working on two digit subtraction. We added writing our own word problems and adding to check. Thank you for all your support with this difficult skill. We review on Monday and test on Tuesday. 

         In writing we were wrapping up our personal narratives and began writing imaginative stories. We also made a creepy spider with our four types of sentences. After that we continued with the spider theme and wrote a cinquain poem.

         In reading we studied a type of folktale- fairytales. We looked at the story structure, and filled out our own graphic organizer after practicing one together. We also joined Mrs. Frazier for a digital Citizenship fairy tale story. We loved waving our wands when the characters were not being safe on line.

         In science we finished up our unit on changing and combining matter and began a unit on energy- light, heat and sound! We are looking forward to many fun investigations next week.

 

• Needed items for our classroom- More large glue sticks. We are running through the ones sent in already. Thank you to

 

* If your child  has a pictures of Veterans to be included in the Veterans Day Tribute Video, can you please forward them to me, the cutoff for submissions is next Friday, Oct. 30^th.

 

 

 *RED RIBBON WEEK - Oct. 26-30 

October 26 (M): Rally In Red Against Drugs - wear RED to kick off Red Ribbon Week

            October 27 (T): Follow Your Dreams, Don’t Do Drugs - wear pajamas

October 28 (W): Put a Cap on Drugs - wear caps, hats

            October 29 (TH): Dress for Success - wear nice clothes (picture day)

October 30 (F): Be a Good Judge of Character - Book Character Day

 

See below links to find out more about Red Ribbon Week and activities or discussions you can have with your child.

 

Red Ribbon Campaign

LISD RRC Website

DEA RRC Website

LISD RRC Conversation Starters 20-21

English Spanish

LISD RRC Smore 20-21

 

Week 9

 Dear Parents,

          It seemed like a super quick week, but a lot of learning has taken place. In math we were working on two digit subtraction with and without regrouping. This skill is a difficult one to learn for second graders. Thank you for working through the homework papers with your children to help support the learning at school. I know it was tough, but they are persevering.

           In language we continued to work on our high frequency words. These come home on Mondays. Please practice them all week as your child gets tested on Friday. There are ten words a week. Five weeks are put together to become a reading grade. The class loves learning about how to manipulate phonemes to create different words. We also learned about the prefixes -un and -re. We are deep into our personal narratives. We are taking them through the entire writing process. We will publish these as a book. In reading/social studies we learned about Christopher Columbus, his voyages and why we had a holiday on Monday. We learned to make connections as we read stories: text to text, text to self, and text to world. I was so impressed that as I was reading aloud The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane . I was stopped by several students who wanted to share their connections. I love when children apply what they learn! We also read a Scholastic News about boats made out of pumpkins! Just ask your child how much a seed from a giant pumpkin costs! They could not believe it!

             In science we continued learning about changing/ combining matter with a talk read, talk write activity. We also had a day to do pumpkin science. We estimated then measured the weight, height, and diameter. We also got to dig out the seeds and count them!

          

            *Please consider joining our PTA! We need your support more than ever as with social distancing there are challenges. The money collected for your membership goes directly to your children in many forms. 

 

* Coyote Ridge PTA Website - https://coyoteridgepta.membershiptoolkit.com/home

Just go to the Website above. The steps are easy. Their new spirit wear is available as well!

 

 

 Dear Parents,

            This week in math we continued our focus on solving word problems. Homework went home on Tuesday and Thursday. These need to brought back to school to be turned in. This extra support will help grow your child practice important skills. We took our assessment on Thursday. They have learned the steps that will help them be successful.

             In reading/ Social Studies we continued focusing on details, but began learning how to summarize as we learned more about being a good citizen. Reading logs are to be done each night Mon.-Thursday then turned in on Fridays. I have decided to get three reading books in each child’s book folder. Then I will switch one out each week. That way your child will have three books at his/her level to read for their reading log. Rereading books helps the children become more familiar with the sigh words.

              In writing we published our Fall stories and began learning about types of sentences and their ending punctuation. On Monday we will finish learning our song that helps us remember what each punctuation mark does. Children can choose to sing it for 5 stickers for their chart.

               In science we finished up our unit on classifying matter and began a unit on Matter- changes from heat. We already completed two investigations. One with marshmallows and one with ice. Ask your child what we found out together as we observed the changes in these two types of matter from heat.

                Please support your child by practicing their spelling every night with a quick sort. The groups that have pictures to sort need to know what those pictures are. The test pictures do not have the words written n them. The group that spells the words will spell them on the test form. Each group has sentences. Most words are words that They should know how to spell. Please help your child by practicing any high frequency words your child misses. A lot of them spell the word “of “as “uv” . Any extra practice will help them do better on these sentences. Spelling is the only subject that cannot be redone for a 70%. If your child does poorly two weeks in a row, I drop them to an earlier spelling stage to help them be more successful.

  

*Please view the PTA video below and sign up to be able to view the new CRE Website using the links below. Once signed up please consider getting a PTA membership. There are also Spirit Wear items for sale. 

 

CRE PTA Video

 

 Link to the website

 

 Dear Parents,

        We continued working on counting money, using greater than, less than and equal to signs to compare groups of coins, and finding the right amount to add to a group of coins to get to a dollar. These are really hard concepts. Please continue to practice at home. I sent three of the homework pages from this unit for practice, but so far I only have two students who turned them in. This is a chance for your child to earn more stickers to fill up their treasure box chart.

       We began guided reading this week. Books get sent home for your child to practice with you. These books can also be used to fill up the reading log. Reading logs are filled out Mon. -Thurs. Please make sure that they are ready to be turned in each Friday. These too, earn stickers for our charts as the children learn the responsibility of following through each week. The books will be collected on Fridays and quarantined for 4 days before getting returned to our leveled library. Please make sure your child brings back their book each day as we read the books several times to focus on vocabulary, details, retelling, fluency and many more skills. In Social Studies we have been focusing on the Constitution, our flag, and the Bill of Rights. 

         Writing’s focus this week was the writing process. We wrote our beginning of year writing sample, then took in through the writing process. I can’t wait to see the growth as your children learn the power of words and expressing their ideas!

           In science we continued classifying matter by physical properties. We watched a movie about solids, liquids and gases, participated in a talk, read, talk write activity, and drew diagrams in our science notebooks explaining the differences in these three states of matter. We used our senses and science tools  to describe a gummy snake. We are starting to get our work stamina back. I am proud of the effort your children are putting forth. 

            We were visited by the traveling Library cart and our new librarian, Mrs. Hernandez this week. We also had a visit from Mrs. Moore, our counselor,  who read us a book about kindness. All in all, it was a full week of learning!

 

* Please make sure your child brings a water bottle and a snack each day. I bought snacks to give out, but at level orange, I am not allowed to pass them out for safety reasons. Our fountains are turned off, so the only drink your child can get is if he/she brings a water bottle to be refilled at the filling stations.

 

*If you have not already, please turn in your Leadership Poster

 Dear Parents, 

        It was such a great week spent together, getting to know each other and our routines. Your children really impressed me as they handled challenges that they’ve never handled before. School looked a lot different, but we still had lots of fun learning! 

       In math we’ve been busy counting money. This is a very challenging task for second graders. Counting in their heads does not usually work. As we started in remote learning, we draw the coins as circles, put what the coins are worth on the circles. Then count up underneath as we add each coin. Practice at home is appreciated. We will continue to work on this difficult skill throughout the year. 

        In reading we continued to focus on the central ideas of stories as we read Mango, Abuela and Me and Meet Me Half Way. In social studies we reviewed our treatment agreement, learned our classroom expectations and classroom safety measures. On Friday we learned about Patriot’s Day. We wrote an acrostic poem about peace.

       In writing we compared the writing process to making a work of art out of Play-Do. We sculpted (rough draft), added (revised), took away (edited)and completed our work of art (published). We began using our spelling dictionaries and became fearless spellers. We wrote about things we like on a capital I. 

       In science we continued on with our properties of matter unit. We sent home the science safety contract to be signed by your second grader and yourself. Bringing it back earns them their science safety license. We used our observational skills to classify items as a class. We had an investigation in which we wrote down the properties of a frozen gummy worm/ not frozen gummy worm, a popsicle/ a melted popsicle, and a deflated balloon/ inflated balloon. We found that it was fun being a scientist!

 Dear Parents,

        What we have all been waiting for is about to happen …. next Tuesday Sept. 8^th: Your children will be coming to school in person. Please purchase all the school supplies on our attached list. In the linked PowerPoint presentation, I tell you which items to bring on which days. We know your  children cannot carry everything with them, but would like to be prepared for our first day of school. Please have your child bring water bottles, a mask and snack every day. Our Fine Arts Rotation has changed. On Tuesday we have PE, so please wear your shoes. (Tues. PE, Wed. STEM, Thurs. Art, Fri.  Music) Their Blue Daily folder will come home every day. Please check it for notes from me and I will check it for notes from you.

 

Here is the important PowerPoint link that tells ALL you need to know about returning to school.:

 

     https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1p_7uWJFF1KY2FCdnlczsLp2W3w-fjT_LUrJJUm7X4Gg/edit?usp=sharing

Lets get this Started!

Our Victory Round

Boostrthon Fun Run

Building Day!

Week 28

Dear Parents,

             This week in math we finished up our unit on ordering and comparing numbers. We took our assessment on Wednesday. We will be starting our next unit on fractions after Spring Break.

              In reading we focused on learning all about the three types of communities and Wednesday was our building day! See our blog over Spring Break for pictures of this fun learning experience.

              In writing we have continued working on our research. We are beginning to put our notes into sentences to make a rough draft paper. We also learned the skill in writing using commas in a series.

              In science we finished up our plant unit and took our assessment on Thursday. We planted grass which has begun to sprout. Since there will be n one here over Spring Break the children will take there plants home.

     

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Spring Break!

Week 27

Dear Parents,

       This week in math we focused on understanding place value and the value of numbers up to 1,200. We showed different ways to represent those numbers, used clues to figure out a number as well as compared two numbers saying if the first number was greater than, less than or equal to the second number.

      In language and  we have been doing phonics lessons, learning high frequency words, and taking notes as we research recreation, transportation, and communication and how the have changed over time. We will continue this next week and finish our final copies the week after Spring Break.

        In Social Studies we have focused on the three different types of communities. We learned how they are alike and how they are different. We chose our favorite kind of community (urban, rural, or suburban) and formed building groups as we will be making our communities out of recyclables. Please send in items for your child to use with his/her group, as building day is Tuesday.

        In science we have been doing investigations with plants. We planted our own seeds, dissected a plant to touch and observe the parts as well as put celery in flowers in colored water to see what would happen.

         Thank you to everyone who made it to our Open House last Thursday. The children worked hard all year and loved showing you their special projects. If you couldn’t attend, please sit down with your child this weekend to look through his/her pocket of projects which went home with them on Friday.

*Please send in Field Trip forms and $9.00 with your child ( $6.00 for the museum ticket, $3.00 for the bus) by

Friday March 13^th (I already have my 4 Chaperones)

      

* March’s habit is Habit 5: Seek First to Understand Then to be Understood! (color is PURPLE)

The Newsletter with February goal info, the student activity, and a QR code read aloud for Habit 5 went  home in your child’s Coyote Folders, or see the attached. Please return the student activity with parent initials so second grade can have the most participation and get a reward. We have won each month so far. They need to be returned by WEDNESDAY, March 11th.  *March 11^th will also be Habit 5 Day! WEAR PURPLE!

*Spring pictures went home: You either keep the pictures and return money or return the pics for this round. 

*1st Annual CRE “Spring Into Action” Clothing Drive

• Coyote Ridge’s 1st Annual “Spring Into Action” clothing drive will be happening soon! Please look for a flyer in your student’s Friday folder with all of the information.
• We are asking for NEW clothing donations for us to give to Dress to Learn- a fantastic organization that LISD supports that benefits students in our community with brand new clothes for school, work, etc. We will be collecting donations March 23rd-27th and will be competing in a grade level competition!
• Items needed: NEW socks, NEW underwear, NEW t-shirts, NEW shoes, NEW pants. These items can be all student sizes.
• The grade level with the most donations will win a fun reward!