Our First FULL Week!

Welcome back to school!  We just finished "Day 8" of our second grade year.  (We are counting the days until 100 days of school when we will do a special celebration with the number 100!).

Things are starting to roll along as we make our trip into this school year.  Students are starting to settle down into the year.  Our "Scoreboard Game" is showing more "smileys" than "frownies."  In fact, for Friday, we earned 15 minutes of a Time Warp Trio episode, which focuses on history in a very fun way - and is also a series of books - and are going to try to earn the last 15 minutes for next week! (total time of the video is 30 minutes)  Students were very excited to watch as we met the trio and learned about Blackbeard and ate our special "First Full Week of School" snack!  Thanks to those that sent something in - it was delicious! :) 

We also presented our "Paper Bag Projects" this week, as well as shared something about ourselves, which is posted in the hallway, along with our "first day of second grade" pictures (which will be coming home soon!).

Please remember to sign your child's agenda each night.  Thanks to those that are already doing so.  Also, there will be a slight modification of the homework after this past week.  I realized it doesn't quite fit some of the things we do in class.  Instead, it will focus on activities to be completed Monday-Friday, along with 10 minutes of reading, as well as vocabulary words for the week.  This homework is similar to what I have done in the past, and students and parents were very happy with it.  The packet will be sent home on Monday, along with a homework/announcements sheet (just like this past week), but in a folder with your child's homework journal.  This can stay at home and be returned on Friday (or before, if your child finishes early).

Students will also have a "homework punch card" and will get a punch each week they turn in their homework.  Once it is filled (9 holes in each card), students will get a special treat!

We will also be starting our "Super Achievers" wall very soon!  Students will have a goal they will try to meet and "move up" the wall as they progress.  I am very excited about this self-motivation tool for them! The first goals we will set together, and then students will start to create their own goals as our year progresses.  I've already heard from many students things and subjects they would like to improve, so this will be a great way to motivate them!  More details on this program will be sent home soon.

Here are our pictures of the week:

Exploring Magnets

Paper Bag Projects "All About Me"

Our "School is Cool!" self portraits and information about us!

BUILD Centers and Donors Choose

Wow, another week flew by this week!  Friday, we ended with PALS testing where we assess each student's reading skills to determine whether they would benefit from Title I or Reading Lab assistance, as well as using it as a formal assessment to place students in appropriate reading groups. 

We had a lot of fun this week...so much, I forgot to pick up my camera and snap a few shots!  We are just about finished with our Magnet unit in Science.  Students will explore a bit further on Tuesday, then take a quick assessment on what they have learned (a "checkup").  In Writing, we are beginning to plan and write stories, watching out for those incomplete sentences!  Students have been singing our songs about periods and exclamation marks to help remind them!

Since I didn't have a chance to snap a shot of the kids this week, I thought I'd do the next best thing and show you our BUILD centers.  These are centers that students are able to do during math rotation, after they have finished their Number of the Day page.  These are fun games and activities students get to play that reinforce math skills they should have already mastered.  Each day, students rotation to a different letter. BUILD actually stands for B(uddy games), U(sing manipulatives), I(ndependent math/reading), L(earning about numbers), D(oing math).  This is a great way for students to have choice in their centers (there are several choices in each basket), but also be focused on practicing their skills!

I also wanted to include a picture of our latest donation from Donors Choose! This was a project funded at the very end of last year.  We also received scissors and glue sticks as part of this project as well!  You can check out Donors Choose and all they do for public classrooms by clicking on the link to the side.  It'll take you to our class homepage on the site.  Coming up soon is Sonic September. This is where you can vote on your favorite projects!  The projects with the most votes get funded!  Currently, I have two projects listed:  one for an iPad for our classroom (!) and the other for 3 handheld camcorders so students can record things such as math concepts and for use during our content time.  (I am planning a third one to ask for bar magnets and horseshoe magnets, which we found we needed during our magnet unit!).  Please help us out by signing up.  All you need is your email address, log in each day to vote on our class project, and hopefully we will see one of our projects funded!  Voting starts September 24th, I believe.  I will send home a  note with more details closer to the time. 

A Group of Cool Kids!

Hooray!  We completed our first FULL week of school!  I could tell by Thursday students were getting a bit tired, but we're slowly building our stamina. :)  This week included lessons on Citizenship, then an introduction to our new Science unit:  Magnets!  Students were excited to play with the magnets and discover what was magnetic in our room and what was not.  Look for homework to come home next week where they get to explore magnetism around their home!  We even discovered that magnets work through water, and that each magnet has a pole (north, south) that repel and attract other magnets.

We started the week with a review of cafeteria rules by creating lunch boxes and displaying them proudly in the hallway.  Then, just to show everyone how cool we really are, we created "Cool Kids" and wrote information about ourselves to share!  I think the students DO look pretty "cool"!

Next week brings more magnetism, as well as working with sentences (punctuation, capitalization, complete and incomplete), more basic skills with math and counting, and reading new books!

Oh, and don't forget to ask your child about our "Electric Company" Fridays!  Each Friday, we watch an episode off the PBS Kids website and then engage in centers related to the phonics/content topics that they cover.  This week, we explored short e, "ell" word family, and hard and soft c.  The episode was called "Scent of a Human" and students can rewatch it at www.pbskids.org/electriccompany.  There are also games and other videos for students to watch to help us with our reading skills!

Next week will also bring our first "STARS of the Week!"  Each week, Mrs. Byrd, Mrs. Mackey, and myself look for students who are showing good behavior as well as good work skills.  On Friday, we each pick a STAR and present them with a certificate and small treat.  It's our way of recognizing students who do a good job in the classroom!