Friday, November 19, 2010

A Great Way for Our Class Projects To Get Funded!!!

Yahoooo for classroom funding! From November 19 - December 23 you could win up to $600 for your classroom project(s) from Yahoo!. Here's how:

1. Visit www.yahoo.homepagesforhomerooms.com and click "Find a project to support". All active DonorsChoose.org projects are listed.
2. Search for your project ("Youel" or "Moss Nuckols")and select "Support this project".
3. Follow the instructions to change your homepage to Yahoo.com. Each person can take this action (called a "homepage set") once during this five week campaign.
4. Spread the word! Ask parents, colleagues, friends and family to take action. Each week, projects that drive the most homepage sets will receive a donation of up to $600 (full funding if less than $600 remains).

Questions? See full details and campaign rules.

Yahoo! will apply at least $25,000 in funding to the projects with the highest tallies each week until December 23. Plus, If 50,000 new homepage sets occur during any week of the campaign, Yahoo! will double their contribution and fund $50,000 worth of projects that week. If there are at least 500,000 total homepage sets by the end of the five weeks, Yahoo! will kick in an extra $100,000 in the last week.

Let's all band together - with the help of our networks we can bring thousands of dollars to classrooms across the country. On your mark, get set, go!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Edible Maps!

To culminate our study of map elements and places in the United States (as well as around the world), we created edible maps on Wednesday afternoon! The students had a lot of fun locating the Great Lakes, the Mississippi, James, and Rio Grande rivers, and the Appalachian and Rocky mountain ranges. It was a sweet treat to end a rainy day! :)



Thursday, October 7, 2010

Parent Conferences, Field Trips, and Pumpkins!

Permission slips went home in the Fox Folders today (Thursday) about our upcoming field trip October 29th to the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond. Please be sure to check your child's folder for more information!

Parent conferences are coming! Parent conferences will be held on Tuesday, October 19 and Wednesday, October 20. In Tuesday's Fox Folder, a form will be sent home to sign up for a time. Please mark your first, second, and third choice for a conference. Can't make it in? Phone conference times are also available at your convenience!

A note went home in your child's homework folder asking for a pumpkin for a project we will be doing on Thursday, October 28. If you can send in a pumpkin, that would be great! If you cannot, know that students will be grouped together, so it is not necessary for everyone to bring one in. Thanks so much for helping us out if you can! :)

Snowy Summaries


In celebration of "A Snowy Day" we read books that centered around snow, both fiction and nonfiction. We then wrote a brief summary about the book we read, copied it on a mitten, and hung our mittens out to "dry." Notice our snowy scene where we shared with everyone our book titles as well as our "drying" summaries! Students did a fantastic job! Please be sure to check these out during Parent Conferences!

A Snowy Day



We wanted to share with you some of the events from our "Snowy Day" today at Moss-Nuckols! Thanks to everyone who dressed in "snowy" gear for the day! We had fun walking around with our scarves, mittens, and hats (and some even had boots!). Our day began with a great assembly where we learned a rap about reading and saw a funny play where Cam Jansen and Nate the Great helped solve the mystery of the missing snowball! (Swiper, you tricky fox!). Our day ended in the courtyard where our special celebrity reader, Mrs. Green, read us the story of The Snowy Day, while we ate cookies and drank hot chocolate, and even surprised us with some snow! We had a great day!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Sunny D Labels

Our school is collecting Sunny D labels to earn free books! If you drink Sunny D at home, please consider sending in these labels for our classroom!

Also, the PTA is still collecting Boxtops, Campbell's Soup Labels, and Tyson Labels for education. This earns our school money towards awesome prizes! I know PTA already announced they will do a Boxtop contest in October, so be looking for more information about that! :)

In addition, our "Limeades for Learning" is still going on with two more projects. Please consider going and voting once a day for our classroom, and if you can get family and friends to vote as well, that would be great! You will NOT get any SPAM from Sonic if you choose to do this program! :)

Friday, September 24, 2010

Email Problems

On Friday, September 24, if you tried to email me for any reason, I did not receive it (or will receive it later) due to our email system being down. I'm not sure why, but it has not worked all day, so my apologies to anyone who attempted to email myself or anyone at school today! I hope to be able to check it from my home this weekend!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Limeades for Learning

Thanks to all the parent votes and support....we have two projects funded from Sonic! One is for dictionaries, including an Egyptian hieroglyph book, and a Chinese-English dictionary for when we study those two cultures in Social Studies! The other project funded was for books for us to use in reading groups. Thanks so much!!!

There are two new projects now posted for voting. One is for a personal laminator for our classroom, and the other is for centers for our Listening Center. Please be sure to keep voting, since it will also help open up the "extra week" of voting as well!

We have been truly blessed to have been granted these two projects. Our class really appreciates all your help! :)

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Matter and Ice Cream


On Friday, we did an experiment on changing phases/states of matter. We went from a liquid (milk, sugar, vanilla) to a solid (ice cream).
Do you want to try this at home?
Recipe:
1 cup milk
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
*Mix in sandwich bag
2 cups ice, 1/2 cup rock (ice cream) salt in gallon size bag
*Place the small bag inside the large bag and shake for 10 minutes

Monday, September 6, 2010

Free Resources for Our Classroom with Your Help!

Sonic, the drive-thru restaurant, is sponsoring a contest called "Limeades for Learning" where top voted projects get funded through Donors Choose. Our class currently has two of these projects: "Can I Get a Definition Please?" and "What Are You Reading?". These projects will enhance our classroom by giving us resources, such as dictionaries and group reading books, if our projects get funded.

Please help us out by voting (and getting your friends and family to vote) at www.limeadesforlearning.com. Please search under location "Virginia" and district "Louisa" to vote for our project! All you need is an email address and a little time. :) You will need to confirm your registration by clicking on an email link (and you can opt not to receive anything from Sonic other than that one email)and vote once each day! Please consider doing this to help out our classroom! We are currently at 160 votes for one of our projects, but the top votes are counted Thursday 11:59pm and funded (and most get funded in the 300+ votes). It would be great if we were one of the ones funded during the week! The contest goes through September. Thanks so much for your help! :)

Friday, September 3, 2010

Look What We've Done!

This is a wordle we created using a website called "Wordle.net". It's a word collage about nouns! Please be sure to have your child show you, as well, the noun songs that are on our wiki grammar page! (the link is on the front page of the class wiki).


Wordle: Nouns

Sunday, August 29, 2010

News & Events

Wow, I cannot believe we are beginning our fourth week of school! We are almost halfway through our first nine weeks! In the past few weeks, we have started a new grade, were tested for our spelling and reading levels, placed into Reading groups that best fit each student's needs, finished our first Social Studies unit...I feel that we have accomplished a lot!

Scores for the Social Studies tests (2.10, 2.12) will be coming home in Tuesday's Fox Folder, along with information from Parks & Rec as well as our own Moss-Nuckols PTA. If you have not heard, the first Wednesday of every month, IHOP, in Zion Crossroads, is sponsoring Moss-Nuckols by donating part of your check to the PTA. Please see the coupon in Tuesday's folder for more details. Our first fundraiser is also coming up in a few weeks. Students will be selling Yankee Candle and Red Rocker Candy. An assembly with more information is scheduled in September. Our first PTA meeting will be held the second Tuesday in September, and each second Tuesday of every month. I hope you will be able to join us!

A request has been made to add math homework each week, so one sheet is being added for students to practice their basic facts of addition and subtraction. This sheet will be due on Friday, like the Reading Log. Please know that homework, especially Math, will always be a review for students. It will be something that has already been introduced and practiced in class. Should your child have any difficulties with this homework, please let me know and we will work on it in class as well!

This week, we will be adding something new to our schedule - Parallel Reading. If your child attended Thomas Jefferson Elementary in previous years, you may already know about this. Students will be grouped according to their level and, if working below grade level, will receive extra help outside the classroom with reading. If your child is on level or above, he/she may be with another second grade teacher for reading, or may stay with me. Either way, know that your child is getting the best help possible with Reading! More information will be coming home in the form of a letter from the school, most likely in your child's Fox Folder.

Please be sure to check your child's homework folder and agenda each day, and to look for the Fox Folder on Tuesdays and Thursdays! :)

Saturday, August 14, 2010

First Week of School


We had a great first week of school! I am so proud of how our class really jumped into the school year and started getting to work! Above is a picture of us on our "Fox Hunt" on the first day of school. Our Fox Hunt helped us become more familiar with our beautiful new school and some of the important places we'll be "traveling" to. Looking forward to the second week! ;)

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Recycling in the Classroom

Our class recycles! In our classroom, we will be recycling paper, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and empty glue bottles/sticks. As time passes, we might add more to that list, but we will start the year with these items. If you would like to send in things from home to recycle, please feel free to! I will be taking a load each Friday to recycle over the weekend at my local spot. Not only does this help the environment, but also teaches students responsibility and care of our planet. Happy recycling! ;)

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Welcome to 2nd Grade!

I am so excited about this new school year! Welcome to our classroom!
Open House is this Thursday, August 5, from 3-7pm. I am very anxious to meet all of you and your parents!
This year, you and your parents will be kept current by our online blog. While I will send home announcements and homework in your agenda each Monday, this is also a place where we can communicate. I will be sure to post announcements on here as well as on paper, but know that the blog will be more "up to date" as our news is "happening."
I have a lot of cool things in store for this year and can't wait for us to get started! See you soon! :)

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Congratulations!

Congratulations go out to all our "second grade graduates"! I will miss all of you...we had such a great time this year! While we will all go to different classes, and some of you to different schools, everything we've blogged about this year will still be available under "archives." I will also keep the links to the side updated so that you can still visit and use our wiki, portaportal, and class website. I will miss you and hope you will keep in touch!
My email is:
youelcm@lcps.k12.va.us

I love and miss all of you! Have a great summer!!!!! :)

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

News for the Week! :)

We have a new project! Students are creating a service or product that they will bring in this Friday to "barter" with the class. Details are in the Homework Folder.

Yearbooks are in! I have put names on all yearbooks on the front cover to avoid confusion. If you did not order a yearbook, there are extras on sale for $12.25.

"Wild About Reading", our Six Flags/Weekly Reader reading program - the tickets are in! Please look Tuesday in your child's Homework Folder for the certificate and ticket, for those that participated. (This was the program introduced in January, where your child had to read for 6 hours independently and then turn in the signed form by March 1). Congratulations! The website on the back of the ticket is good for discounted family tickets to Six Flags.

PALS testing is this week. We will be testing all week, in both the morning and afternoon. Please make sure your child gets plenty of rest each night and a good breakfast each morning! Studies have shown that a good start to the day goes a long way! :)

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Earth Day Activities!






We had a great time doing Earth Day activities! In Social Studies, we discussed recycling and natural resources. We also discussed how Earth Day IS every day! We have been doing our part all year with recycling paper, juice pouches, bottles, cans, and glue bottles. In fact, for math today, we counted our glue sticks/bottles in groups of 10 to pack up and ship to Terracycle, a company that will pay the school 2 cents per bottle/stick. We decided to use this money for planting flowers, a tree, or just helping out the school environment. Here are pictures of us counting, and then adding up our numbers! We will continue to recycle to the last day of school!






Monday, April 19, 2010

Regrouping Videos

Thank you for your patience with uploading the Regrouping videos students made in class last month. It takes more time than expected to upload a video, so the process has been slow. However, you will see that the student videos are making it to the wiki page and we already have one ready to view! As for parents who asked for a copy, the file size was too large for email, so please expect a CD home with your child's video on it.

Thank you to all the parents who granted permission to post videos online with this math project. We are very excited to see ourselves on our own wiki learning pages, and to help others learn this math concept! :)

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Our Newest Project--Please Help!!!!

Our newest project through Donor's Choose is to earn an interactive whiteboard. This is like the SMARTboard in our school, but more economical. It works off a regular, magnetic whiteboard and the product, called Mimio, makes that board so that students can "drag and drop" items from websites, special programs, as well as write, draw, and color in items. We have used the SMARTboard in our classroom whenever possible, but that is one board for our entire school. Also, it is very bulky and cumbersome to bring to the classroom and takes up a lot of space. However, if we were to earn our Mimio board, it would make a big impact in our classroom. We would have this equipment as a permanent fixture in our room and be able to use it whenever we wanted!

However, we only have 25 days left to earn $600 for this item. If you know of an individual or business that is looking for a tax deductible donation, no matter the size, please send them our way! We've had $300 funded so far and would like to keep it going! This is our biggest project yet, and we hope to get it funded with your help! THANKS! :)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Erosion Experiment

We have been discussing erosion in Science 2.7 this week and today did an experiment on erosion, using graham cracker crumbs and cake mix for dirt and half/half and chocolate syrup for liquid (half/half was the established lake at the mountains, the chocolate syrup demonstrated the rain that would then freeze on the mountains, then thaw). We had a great time doing our experiment, and missed those of you who could not be here today, so we took pictures to show you!

This picture shows the beginning of our experiment - flat land with a pond. We discussed what wind and weather does to dirt, what drought does to the pond, and what flooding would do to affect the dirt/soil (especially since we noticed there were no trees planted, so that their roots could help hold in the soil!).





However, we wondered what would happen if we added mountains to our scene? How
would erosion affect that?








So, in our nice, quiet treeless are
a, it began to storm and we started to see the effects of erosion. It washed away dirt, sending it down the mountain. It flooded our clean lake, making it dirty. It froze on the mountaintops. When it became warmer, and the ice began to melt, we saw even MORE erosion! At the end, after much time had passed, we started to see less and less dirt in our scene. Check out our photos below!





Monday, March 1, 2010

Great News with Donors Choose! :)

Great news! Our newest funded project is for two netbooks! We hope to see these arriving soon, and plan on using them as an extension to our 3 computers already available in our classroom.

In other great news....Donors Choose is doing their own version of "March Madness." For every dollar donated, Donors Choose will match that dollar towards the project. For instance, if you or someone you know donates $10 towards our current project, an interactive white board (ask your child what a SMARTboard is!), Donors Choose will match it and voila, the $10 turns into $20!!!! This is exciting news, but it's not lasting long! They are only giving us until March 8th! If you, or someone you know, or a business you know, is looking to donate, now is the time! Use the following link:
http://www.donorschoose.org/we-teach/139265

so that we can be eligible for the match!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Blogging for Future Teachers (And Donors Choose!)

“Finding a teaching job can be hard, but here is some advice to make it easier…”

In these days of budget crunches, it's hard to find a teaching position when so many positions are being cut! However, here are a few pieces of advice that just might grant you that second look from a school system!

  • Be familiar and open to all technology, both new and old
When I first started teaching, technology was letting your kids go on the computer and play a few games, and maybe using the Internet to research a few sites for background information for a unit. Today, my room is filled with technology - we use a document camera to showcase books, to help assist students filling out an interactive notebook page, and even demonstrating simple things, such as attraction and repulsion with magnets! Laptops are a great way to keep students involved with interactive websites that help practice concepts. Blogging is a great way for students to express their thoughts on a topic (and they find it much more fun than just pencil and paper!). We have a class wiki site, where videos, pictures, and links help us learn more about a subject. Be open to new technology, keep up with the Web 2.0 tools, and stay informed!

  • Be open to new ideas.
Find out what the newest "buzz" is about. Whether it's reaching the students of poverty (Ruby Payne), using teaching strategies to reach all students (CRISS training), or being familiar with school wide goals (correlate committees, Effective Schools), be familiar with what is going on in the school systems. An easy way to do this is to check the websites of the systems you are interested in. Often there will be links or more information available. Being in an interview, and knowing the latest trends in teaching, especially one that the schools are already into, is a definite plus.

  • Be flexible!
One of the most important things I've learned with teaching is to be flexible! Snow days, assemblies, observations, meltdowns...these all occur in your room and will often upset even the best laid plans! Sometimes, your lesson also can become a "teachable moment." This is when you might get off track from your original lesson from a question or statement from the student, but I find it turns into a better lesson than one originally planned! After all, we are here to teach the children. And if your students are interested enough in a topic that they want to know more about a certain area, go for it! Be flexible in that you can change your plans without too much stress. Be open to student comments and what they want to learn, and be willing to research a little (Google, anyone?). Also, show students how they can also access the information they are interested in!

  • Be yourself!
You can use all the buzz words you want in an interview, give the best answers, but often that comes across as stiff and unnatural. You are going to want to teach in a system where you can be yourself. Know what type of learner you are (visual, kinesthetic, etc.) and expand on that, but note that you may need to work on other ways to reach your students who do not learn like you. Interviews are nerve wracking. After teaching 11 years, I received my masters degree and am now licensed to be a Library Media Specialist. I had my first interview in 11 years for a position. It made me very nervous! However, I took from that interview things that I need to work on next time (learning experience!), as well as ways to present myself in a better way. Learn from your experiences. It's not often that you get the job from that first interview! However, if you are yourself in the interview, you will be more relaxed, and often show a better side of yourself than if you are just quoting journal articles! :)

This is my 12th year teaching and currently, I am a second grade teacher. My class website, as well as our class wiki site and this blog are ways that our class reaches out to the community. Please see links to the side of the blog for further information, or feel free to email me at youelcm@lcps.k12.va.us for any questions. This year, I have really branched out and given myself new experiences! This blog is in its first year. I also presented at a state wide conference on "Voice Threads," a project my students LOVE doing! I have gotten involved with Donors Choose, and so far, my class has earned digital cameras, a document camera, and a listening center. I just received a small grant from Playmobil as well, to enhance our Social Studies curriculum. Be open to new ideas, new experiences, and you'll certainly enjoy that teaching career!

This post is part of the Teaching Jobs Portal: “How to land a Teacher Job”. What was your journey like to become a teacher? If you’d like to share your experience with other aspiring teachers please see this post for more information. For more information, contact http://teachingjobsportal.com.



Friday, February 12, 2010

Happy Valentines/Presidents Day!

Happy (early) Valentine's Day!
While we were going to exchange Valentines today, I would like to postpone that to the first day we are back (hopefully Monday!). If you have not been able to get out and have your child address valentines, know that I am bringing in 25 boxes of donated valentines to the classroom so that your child will not be left out. We will set aside time during the day for everyone to address valentines. :)

I have included a video below that is something funny that deals with one of our famous Americans that also ties in to President's Day on Monday. Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Will It Ever End?

Wow! I cannot believe we have been snowed in for this long! I hope everyone is safe and warm. My family lost power from Fri night until yesterday evening (Tuesday). I hope everyone else was luckier than we were!!!! I can honestly say that I am tired of snow days and just want to get back to our "regular schedule." I am sure many of you are feeling the same!

With the Winter Olympics starting this Friday, I wanted to share with you the new folder I have placed on our portaportal about it, from the official site to other "kid friendly" sites. Opening ceremonies look to be amazing!

Thank you to one of the parents who emailed me and reminded me about making the Scholastic flyers available online. My apologies about that. It is now up (user name: youel, password: class).

When we return to school, we will be reviewing time for Math and then taking a test on that subject, so that we can begin probability, our next unit. Please practice with your child with the terms "half past", "quarter till" and "quarter after." Those seem to be the terms giving us the most trouble! In Science, we will begin our life cycle unit (study guides to go home as soon as we return). We will be focusing on flowering/fruit plants, frogs, and butterflies. I have posted some links on the portaportal for practice under "plants" and "animals."

Whenever we do return, we are slated for P.E. that day for resource. Even on a two hour delay day, we've been having resource for 30 minutes, starting at 10am.

Don't forget about the 6 hours of reading for the Six Flags reading incentive! If your child finishes, you can email me and I will add their name to the list! So far, we've had two students complete their 6 hours! Congratulations! :)