Mrs. Wadsworth's Fabulous First Grade Blog!

February 17, 2012 Update...

2012-02-17T14:16:00.000-05:00

Hi Parents,

We have had a really good week, putting much of our emphasis on the concept of nonfiction. If your child complained of a cramped hand, that might be my fault! Reading and writing go hand-in-hand and I have really been pushing the kids this week to create informational papers that teach their audience something, while at the same time using juicy words and exciting hooks and closings. We ended our week on a fun note today, learning all about eating right and exercising as we watched a Kaiser Permanente puppet show called "Give Peas a Chance". Check out below to find out what else we have been doing this week...

Phonics: We learned about the two sounds of the letter c. We learned the rules that if a, o or u follow the c, the sound will be hard like a k and if a e, i, or y follows the c, the sound will be soft. We worked on our white boards to practice sounding out words, we created word webs, and we played a game on the smartboard.

Reading: This week, we focused on learning how context clues help us figure out unfamiliar words. We read several nonfiction books and looked for ways to figure out these words. We then played a game, trying to figure out what a nonsense word might mean by looking at the rest of the sentence. The kids had so much fun making up their own nonsense words on sentence strips and trying to see if the class could guess the meaning of the word! We also read a passage about George Washington Carver and answered questions about the passage.

Writing: We researched George Washington Carver and then created an idea web to help us organize our thoughts before writing. We then used this web to write wonderful informational papers about this American hero. We really like writing on our peanut paper! Later in the week, we researched information about parts of plants and began organizing our idea web. We will be making a "Parts of a Plant" book that you will see coming home next week.

Math: We finished up our unit on making fair change. We have moved on to interpreting data from graphs. We will be on this topic through next week. We also revisited the skill of representing numbers in many ways (standard form, written form, using base tens and ones, and expanded form) and played a game with a partner.

Science/Social Studies: We completed our unit on George Washington Carver and began our unit on Plants. We read several books about the important parts of the plant and the functions of those parts. We worked with our book buddies to label and explain each part and we read several reading passages on the smart board.

Classroom News and Announcements...

Make sure you are keeping your child's reading log updated! I am using these forms to verify that your child has read enough to qualify for the Six Flags Reading Program. I am collecting all reading logs (and have been as your child fills them up) next week, Feb. 22.

You will find a field trip permission slip and money envelope in your child's folder next Wednesday. We are so excited about our upcoming trips. Please return your $$ and signed permission slip ASAP.

No school on Monday! Yeah!

Congratulations to Cameron Waters for being chosen as our Teacher's Helper this week! Way to go!

Thank you to Mrs. Abrams for coordinating all the special activities this week for Teacher Appreciation Week! Loved it!!!

February 10, 2012 Update...

2012-02-10T08:26:00.002-05:00

Hello Parents,

We have had an amazing week! I am so impressed with how the students are really stepping up to the rigorous pace of the third nine weeks of school. Our standards in first grade increase greatly in difficulty from now until the end of the year. I have seen such amazing higher level thinking, especially in regards to our money unit on making fair trades all the way up to $20 and in writing informational texts that have been edited and revised. Wow! I'm so proud of the hard work these kids have been putting in! The electronics day was well deserved this week!

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned all about the r controlled vowels and the sounds that they make (er/ar/or). We completed a sort with letters to make a list of words, we put our words in abc order, we worked on the whiteboards to practice spelling the words, and we created a chart to help us practice our words at home. Remember, as we get into the more difficult spelling patterns, your child has been bringing home the actual list of words to study from. No excuses for not knowing these words and every child getting a "3" on the Friday assessment!

Writing: We have continued our study of how to write an informational paper. This week was another guided writing week, where I model everything first that I expect the children to do . We collected research on our animal, the penguin. Then we wrote facts and details on a graphic organizer. After that, we took that information and transferred it to our rough drafts. We then completed the editing and revising process before writing our final drafts.

Reading: We learned how to incorporate the UNRAAVEL strategy (yes, that is spelled correctly!) to help us comprehend the nonfiction texts we are reading. We also worked individually on our new reading contracts. We watched Mrs. W model each activity first before completing.

Math: We finished up our unit on telling time to the hour and half hour. We began working again with money, showing fair trades up to $20. The children have so impressed me with their knowledge of money and how to make exchanges! We briefly revisited fractions this week also to give those students who were struggling with this a chance to show what they know!

Social Studies: We began learning about George Washington Carver, a slave who persevered to become an amazing scientist and inventor. We watched several video clips about him and his over 300 uses for peanuts! We also worked in small groups to read all about his life and accomplishments!

Class News and Reminders...

Tonight is our Mardi Gras Dance! It starts at 6:30! I'll see you on the dance floor!

Congratulations to our Teacher's Helper, Chloe Stacy! Way to go on that awesome behavior!

Thank you to Mrs. Vansant for picking up the McDonald's happy meals for our social studies challenge participants on Thursday! The kids loved this reward!

Challenge Project Opportunity (Due Date...February 24):
Informational Writing Project - Follow the steps below to teach your classmates about an important inventor/scientist! We have been learning about George Washington Carver who was an amazing inventor. He created hundreds of uses for the peanut, he taught farmers the usefulness of crop rotation, and he overcame the challenges of his day. Find another amazing inventor and do the following steps!
1. Use a four square organizer to research your person. Find details about his/her early life, education, personal life, and inventions.
2. Transfer this information to a FOUR paragraph hand written paper.
3. The first paragraph should include your hook and the information about your inventor's early life (NO LESS THAN 4 SENTENCES).
4. The second paragraph should include information about your inventor's education (NO LESS THAN 4 SENTENCES).
5. The third paragraph should include information about his/her personal life (NO LESS THAN 4 SENTENCES).
6. The fourth paragraph should include information about the inventions and a cool closing (NO LESS THAN 6 SENTENCES)
7. This paper must be hand written on lined paper in the format we have been following in class. This includes a title that is centered and underlined, name underneath. All paragraphs should begin with an indentation.
8. Include a picture of your inventor on a separate sheet of paper and one of his/her inventions.
9. Be prepared to independently read your word to the class.

**Tip: don't try to do all of this project in one or two nights! Take your time and do one step each night until the project is complete! Don't forget to go back and revise and edit your writing.

February 3, 2012 Update...

2012-02-03T11:17:00.001-05:00

Hello Parents,

I am so impressed with the reading I have seen this week! Everyone met our goal of two or more tests taken and passed. We will continue this for the remainder of the school year. You can help me at home by making sure your child is reading books on his/her level. Books that can be read in a night or two go all the way up to 6th grade level, so everyone in our class can be challenged by this goal. I try, along with Mrs. Huffstetler and Mrs. Douglas, to double check the levels on the books that are being checked out, but some may slip by us. No one in our class should be reading a book that is lower than a 1.7. Check out below to see what else we have been doing in our room this week!

Phonics: We learned about the long u sound in comparison to the short u sound. We completed our word webs to help us study, we worked on the white boards to practice sounding out, and we completed a sort.

Writing: We began learning about how to write informational paragraphs. We researched all about groundhogs, completed an organizer, then wrote our rough drafts and final copies. These papers are on display in the hallway. We focused on the editing process and revising process. The students learned that editing is looking for mistakes in the punctuation, capitalization, spelling and format of the paper and revising is going back and adding more to make the paper better.

Reading: We learned how to read nonfiction passages and find key information using strategies such as underlining the title and headings, numbering our paragraphs, and grouping like details. We also compared fiction and nonfiction stories on related topics. We worked in small groups and individually reading books on our level.

Math: We completed our unit on fractions and began learning about time. We worked with small clocks to show time to the hour and half hour. We also learned how to write the time correctly. This is a difficult skill for some because most clocks are not analog. Please help your child with this at home if you notice papers that indicate this might be a challenge.

Science: We are learning about our 7 continents. We learned a song to help us remember their names, we went through several smartboard activites that were interactive, and we created our own maps.

Classroom News and Announcements...

Congratulations to the following students for taking on the Challenge Project last week...Drew, Chayse, Alexis, Colin, Cristina, Chloe, Luke, Aubrey, and Frank! Way to go! Be on the lookout next week for another opportunity!

It's not to late to send in your teddy bears! Just attach the red heart that came home on Thursday and we will display your bear in the media center!

Make sure you are encouraging your child to devote time each night to practicing math facts. We have many children who have completed all the addition and subtraction facts. Once your child gets through the -7, -8, and -9 set, he/she will take a 5 minute/100 problem mixed addition and subtraction quiz. After this, it's on to multiplication! Way to go!

Don't forget to put the Kemp Mardi Gras Dance on your calendar! I plan on boogying late into the night next Friday...well, okay, at least until 8:30!

Academic Alerts will be coming home next Friday. If your child is in danger of receiving a "1" in any area, he/she will receive this letter.

Remember to take a good look at the top section of your child's blue behavior sheet. The children are aware that we are really focusing on keeping our materials organized, finishing work in an appropriate amount of time, and asking for help when something is unclear. Although your child may not be exhibiting what we tend to say is "bad" behavior, we also want to begin focusing on maturity and responsibility in these areas as well.

January 27, 2011 Update...

2012-01-27T13:20:00.000-05:00

Hello Parents,

100th day mania has hit Room 205! Yes, we have only 80 days of school left! We celebrated today with some really fun activities. We did some creative writing, thinking and writing about what we'd be doing at the ripe old age of 100. The pictures are adorable and are hanging in our hallway! We worked with our book buddies on a 100th day book. We listened to 100 Hungry Ants and talked about ways to divide 100 things. We made a special snack with our 10 sets of 10 goodies. I planned so much, we are going to have to extend our 100th day activities until Monday! Check out below to find out what else has been going on in our room this week...

Phonics: We learned all about the long o sound that is followed by the bossy e. We compared this spelling to the short o spellings we have learned in the past. We made a word web on index cards to help us prepare for the test (if your child is still getting 1's or 2's, more time needs to be devoted to mastering those words), we completed a long and short o sort on construction paper, we practiced our words on the white boards, and we played sparkle to help us memorize our words.

Writing: We watched Mrs. W model writing a how to story. We focused this week on making sure we "hook" the audience with a catchy beginning, ending with a closing and not just our final step, and adding a detail after every step. The children wrote a "how to" story on the topic of their choice. I don't always send home writing as I like to keep this writing in their folders here at school. But this week, I wanted to keep you updated as to how your child is progressing in this area. You will find this graded paragraph in your child's folder today. As I was reading the children's homework stories this week, I had a LONG talk with them, emphasizing how important it is to incorporate what we are learning in class whenever we are writing. I saw many stories without hooks, closings, or transition words and details. Please help emphasize this at home.

Reading: We began looking at nonfiction stories and picking out features that set them apart from fiction stories such as table of contents, headings, captions, bold words, glossary, index, and labels. We read several books, pointing out these features and discussing their purpose. We also learned how to identify and write the main idea from a nonfiction book and then pick out details. We read the book Eva the Beekeeper and completed an organizer showing our understanding of this book.

Math: We learned all about fractions this week. We learned how to identify fractions of a whole and fractions of a set. We learned what the numerator is and what the denominator is, how to write a fraction and how to say a fraction. We will continue this concept into next week.

Science: This week, we learned what a shadow is and how it is made. We played a guessing game using an overhead projector to make shadows of objects and guess what they were. We also read all about light and shadows in our science big book.

Class News...

Thank you to all the families who donated food to our snack for the 100th day! The kids LOVED it and we have enough leftovers to have snack all next week! Yeah!

Thank you for sending in those wipes! We will need all we can get.

Congratulations to our Teacher's Helper, Evan Cleveland! Way to go, Evan!

You will find a paper in your child's folder today in regards to my new AR test requirement. Please help your child get off to a strong start next week by encouraging him/her to read!

100th day killed my plans of getting the extra credit project shared today! Please be understanding of our busy day...we'll get all the projects shared by next week and then I will announce the reward! (The deadline was still 1/27/12!)

January 20, 2012 Update...

2012-01-20T10:11:00.000-05:00

Dear Parents,
Thank you for visiting the blog to stay informed and up-to-date with our class happenings! Remember to add some study time to your weekly routine in regards to the phonics focus words that are coming home. Our spelling patterns are increasing in difficulty and your child may need some extra time to continue to get those 3's and 3+'s! I am so proud of the children's increased independence this week! We haven't had any missing folders and I'm having lots of students come up and ask those important questions they need answered to be successful! Super parenting going on at home!!!

Phonics/Grammar: This week we focused on the long and short i vowel sound, particularly the long sound made with the bossy e. We made our own word webs to help prepare us for the test on Friday, we played sparkle, we used our white boards to practice sounding out the words, and we completed a sort in our journals. We also worked on identifying compound words in our guided reading groups. Some children are still confusing compound words with two syllable words. Check your child's next reading contract to see if this may be a skill that needs extra practice at home.

Writing: We learned how to improve our "how to" writing through the use of hooks, cool closings, and the use of transition words and phrases other than first, next, then, last. We also learned how to revise our writing by going back and adding details to our already written steps. We made a "how to" book, which is on display in our hallway. We worked individually with Mrs. W to revise and edit our books.

Reading: This week, we worked on making connections with the stories that we are reading. We read the story Stone Soup and made connections to our lives and to other texts. We also worked on visualization to help us comprehend the story. We read the story Dogteam and drew illustrations that showed our understanding. We worked in groups to practice fluency when reading. We also worked with the books Amalia and the Grasshopper, Henny Penny and Goldilocks and the Other Bears to complete our independent contracts.

Math: In math, we came back to our subtraction skills using greater numbers. We also worked in groups on coming up with strategies for solving word problems where equal groups, finding the missing addend, and decomposing numbers are used.

Social Studies: We learned about Harriet Tubman and her contributions to creating equality for all. We watched several videos describing Harriet and her work to free slaves. We made a web, listing things we learned about Harriet. We also went on our own underground railroad journey, learning about important events in Harriet's life.

Class News...

THANK YOU to Mrs. Abrams and Mrs. Farley for their work on organizing our classroom closets!!! WOW...these ladies could go into business together and make some serious money! I LOVE my new organized room!

Do you love reading to children? Do you have some spare time on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:40??? If so, sign up for AR reading with Mrs. Abrams. We'd love to see you.

Challenge Project: Due next Friday, January 27th.
Directions (MUST be followed to earn the extra credit for report card!)
1.Choose a person who has fought for equality among people (other than Harriet Tubman or MLK)
2. Research the following things...where was your person born, what was their childhood like, what actions did they take to improve equality, how did their actions change people's lives, do you agree with what they fought for and why
3. In PARAGRAPH form, write a paper answering the above questions.
4. Create a cover including an illustration or printed picture of your person
5. Be prepared to read your paper in class on Friday.
No late papers will be accepted!

January 13, 2012 Update...

2012-01-13T10:32:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you are having a great start to your new year. We have hit the ground running this week. We don't have a minute to waste in our classroom this second half of the year. I am thanking you in advance for your support at home of this philosophy in regards to our behavior and our new behavior sheets. You will begin to notice that we are beginning to pay more attention to the Learning Skills section of this behavior sheet in our classroom in preparation for 2nd grade. I really want the children to begin to independently take care of their materials as well as staying on task to complete assignments and asking me directly if they have a problem rather than asking you to email me and ask me. Ways you can reinforce this at home would be asking your child before they walk out the door if they have everything they need for the day (picking a special place to always keep the bookbag is also great), not bringing items they forgot to school for them, and prodding them to come to me with any questions or concerns they may have (what superstar test am I on? How many contract pages need to be done so I can go to fun friday?) Remember, I love each and every one of these students and one of my goals this year is to teach them the necessary skills so they can be successful in school. Please, as always, let me know if you would like to speak about this or any other matter.

Here's what we've been doing in school...

Phonics: We learned all about the long a spelling pattern that contains a "bossy e". We also were able to review many blends and short a spelling patterns in comparison. We made a word web with these words, we completed a sort, and we played a game of sparkle to help us remember these words. We took our assessment on Friday. You will find your child's test in today's folder. If your child is having trouble, you may want to get a head start on next week's pattern of long i with the "bossy e" at the end (line, drive, like, chime, etc.)

Reading: This week, we compared several Jan Brett books. We talked about similarities and differences through the use of a Venn diagram. We also worked independently on our reading contracts with various books. We practiced the skills of finding words with silent e's, retelling a story in sequential order, finding action verbs in sentences, and looking for compound words.

Math: In math, we learned about addition strategies with greater sums. We talked about adding a number to a 10 (10+5, 10+7), adding three digits (pick two numbers to add, then add the third), using a table of information to solve word problems, and making fact families. We will begin our unit on subtraction with greater numbers next week.

Writing: We began our new genre of writing this quarter, information writing. We learned to write a "how to" paper in order to teach our audience something. We talked about how to "hook" our audience with a catchy question or phrase. We learned how to use transition words and phrases to show we are writing steps in sequential order, and we reviewed how to write a "cool closing".

Social Studies: We learned all about Martin Luther King Jr. and his contributions to our country. We watched a short brainpop video on him, we read a book about Rosa Parks and how her actions led to changes in the country's laws, we read a book called Happy Birthday Martin to learn about Martin's young life.

Classroom News and Announcements...

2nd nine week report cards come home today! Please keep everything that is inside EXCEPT for the white signature card and the envelope. Please sign and return that on Tuesday.

Please remember to sign and return your child's blue behavior sheet on Tuesday.

Regular homework resumes next week. I am sending home the homework packet today so you can get a head start over the weekend and on Monday. Pay special attention to the Phonics Focus so you can help your child study for the assessment next Friday.

Also, remember we have resumed our superstar math facts quizzes. You will also get your child's test today so you can begin studying for next week.

In case you forgot your child's IXL password and username, for any child that was here last year, is is their first and last name plus the number 90, and the password is their initials. If your child was not here, email me if you need it!

December 16th Update...

2011-12-17T12:02:00.001-05:00

Hi Parents,

Wow! What a busy week! Check out below to see what we've been learning about (and showing what we know!) as well as what news you need to catch up on! I hope to see many of you at our holiday party on Wednesday at 11:30. Even if you are not specifically designated to help with a center, we'd love to see you come and hang out! Remember, no siblings are allowed due to space considerations. We will be doing our FUN book exchange on Wednesday as well. I think we've gotten almost all 22 books in. Way to be on the ball, parents!!!

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned all about the ng and nk sounds. We completed a sort using these words, we generated a HUGE list of words on the smartboard, we worked on white boards to practice sounding them out, and we played a fun game of SPARKLE to help us remember the spelling. We also learned about root words and endings this week.

Writing: I modeled the important components of a personal narrative one last time in a funny story about Scratch, then it was up the children to independently show me their writing skills on our county writing assessment. Your child's grade in the writing genre standard of the report card will reflect his/her skill in this area.

Reading: We finished up our chapter book, Ribsy, and wrote about the important events that happened in the book. We also worked independently on our own chapter books and completing reading contracts. We worked on oral reading fluency in small groups. We visited the computer lab and practiced taking the Scholastic Reading Inventory, which is a reading test that focuses on your child's ability to make inferences when reading. We will take the test again in another month or so and I will send those scores home at that time. We wanted to do a practice run first!

Math: We completed our unit on geometry. We also reviewed the necessary steps to completing word problems and took our end of quarter assessment (came home in blue folders). If your child had difficulty on this test, some extra practice at home may be necessary. We also took TWO other assessments, the Cobb County Checkpoint Assessment and our grade level math benchmark. Whew! The kids worked really hard this week, but I did reward them with some extra recess time on those tough testing days. I was SOOOO impressed with our test results on the checkpoint and the benchmark!

Class News and Announcements...

Thank you for all the stocking stuffers everyone sent in! The kids have been so excited every day to see what has been in there! It's also been a really good motivator for some good behavior! I know it's tough to keep it under control when the big man in red is visiting soon!

If you haven't yet sent in your container of Clorox or Lysol wipes, please do so. Thank you to those who already donated!

I will have a check out sheet in the room on Wednesday. If you would like to check your child out of school early after the holiday party, you may do so. Also, please let me know if your child will not be at school on Thursday. I want to make sure we wrap everything important up by early Wednesday if I need to!

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas together and really get some good family time in! I'll miss these sweet babies during this long break!

December 9, 2011 Update...

2011-12-09T08:47:00.000-05:00

Hello Parents,

We have had a very busy past two weeks! CogAT scores are in and I've broken down the subtest scores and put a report in your child's folder. There is lots of good information online if you are interested in what each subtest shows. Keep in mind, this is an abilities (intelligence) test, not an achievement test. This week and next week, we are also completing many end of quarter assessments to show what we have learned! Check out below to find out what else we have learned the past two weeks...

Phonics/Grammar: We have learned about the -mp, -nd, -nt, qu, t, and w sounds. We worked on identifying words with these patterns in poems, we practiced sorting these words into categories, and we wrote these words on white boards. We also have learned how to read and write contractions.

Reading: We read the stories The Gingerbread Man and The Runaway Tortilla and compared and contrasted them using a Venn diagram. We also used these stories to identify character, setting, problem and solution, as well as main idea. We worked in small groups to practice our reading fluency. We worked one-on-one with Mrs. W to show our reading progress!

Math: We completed our unit on addition and subtraction strategies to 18. We learned how to determine a missing addend in an addition problem and we continued our practice of three number addition. We also focused on money, counting collections of coins to 99 cents and collections of bills to 20 dollars. Those who did not pass this assessment will be retested next Friday. We just began our unit on geometry, focusing on characteristics of three dimensional shapes.

Social Studies: We completed our unit on Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea, learning about their explorations to the west. This week, we began our study of landforms comparing and contrasting deserts, mountains, plains, plateaus, and valleys.

Classroom News and Announcements...

Thank you Mrs. McAlister and Mrs. Vansant for helping us with AR this week! Thank you Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Abrams for helping us last week!

Don't forget to send in a wrapped chapter book for our book exchange! Make sure to put "FROM...." on the gift. We will keep these books under our classroom christmas tree until our activity. Keep in mind that these books need to be "gender friendly"!

First grade will be selling hot chocolate and donuts next Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for caring coins!

Our class has run out or disinfecting wipes...horrible timing considering what's been going around the school (strep, stomach virus)! I would like for each student to bring in an additional container of disinfecting wipes. Thank you for helping us keep our classroom clean and germ-free!

November 18 Update...

2011-11-18T12:22:00.000-05:00

Hi Parents,

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a wonderful week and find some time to relax and reflect on what you are thankful for! I will miss my wonderful students next week. Thank you to those who were extra "on the ball" and got me the stocking stuffers early! Remember to send them in a closed bag marked "December Activity". Also, I appreciate the extra halloween candy that has come in this week. We've been going through it!

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned all about the r-blends. We generated a word web for each blend, we worked in our Word Study Notebook to sort the words, and we practiced writing our words on white boards. We also learned about antonyms. We made an antonym flip book.

Reading: We continued to work on identifying problem/solution and main idea in stories. We read several stories and completed a graphic organizer, focusing on these story elements. We read a special story called The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush and we used real buckskin to illustrate a story retelling! (Okay, so it was really crumpled up manilla paper!) We also worked in small groups retelling stories, decoding challenging words, and making inferences. We also enjoyed listening to stories and taking AR quizzes with our AR helpers!

Writing: We wrote stories this week about our Thanksgiving traditions. We also wrote wonderful acrostic poems about what we are thankful for. I encouraged the children to share these poems with their families on Thanksgiving!

Math: We are revisiting addition and subtraction strategies this week and next week. We learned how to add three numbers together as well as how to make equal groups when given a set to be divided (shown through repeated addition). We continue to work on using our four square method when solving word problems. We've also begun completing what's called "constructed responses", which is a fancy way of saying an open ended word problem with more than one possible solution. These types of problems encourage children to use those higher level thinking skills and show they can formulate their own logical plan for solving problems.

Social Studies: We learned about Thomas Jefferson this week and the contributions he made to our country. We read a big book about him and then worked in small groups to answer comprehension questions. We also learned about the role that Lewis and Clark took in exploring our newly aquired lands.

Classroom News and Announcements:

Congratulations to Alexis Volckmann for being chosen as this week's Teacher's Helper! Way to go on that awesome behavior!

Thank you to all who donated time and items to our Thomas Jefferson lunch! The kids loved it!

I've given the students their homework for the week we return after Thanksgiving. It's a great time to get a head start on this work. I also returned the superstar quizzes. I would encourage you to help your child find some time for mastering those facts! Flash cards are a great car trip activity!

Thank you Mrs. Vansant and Mrs. Farley for your help with AR this week!

Thank you Mrs. Vansant and Mrs. Byrd for your help with the Thomas Jefferson lunch activity!

Please keep my family in your prayers over the week. My father is having open heart surgery on Monday to repair an aneurysm on his aorta.

November 11, 2011 Update...

2011-11-11T13:41:00.000-05:00

One more week until Thanksgiving Break! Can you believe we are already at the halfway point through the second quarter? Today, you will notice several important assessments coming home. Please make sure to discuss the character/setting/problem/solution organizer with your child. This type of response after listening to a story will heavily determine your child's reading grade. Also, notice the spelling assessment. Make sure your child is able to apply the spelling rules to the words that are on the dictation sentences on the back of the paper. Our 1st grade standard states that children apply correct spelling within the context of their writing. We've also added the standard of applying capitalization and punctuation rules when writing this quarter. I've been so pleasantly surprized with the children's writing! Most seem to really have a strong grasp of these three areas when writing.

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned about several r and l blends. We generated a list of words containing these sounds. We competed our word study sort. We practiced applying these spelling rules as we wrote on our dry erase boards. We also continued our study of adjectives. We made scarecrows, then thought of adjectives and nouns to describe our scarecrow.

Reading: We focused on identifying the problem and solution in a story as well as stating the main idea. We read several books and completed an organizer together, then we listened to The Very Greedy Bee and showed how we could complete an organizer on our own. We worked in small groups on such skills as decoding unfamiliar words, reading fluency and inferencing.

Math: This week, we practiced solving open ended constructed responses where we have to come up with a plan all on our own. We worked in small groups and then explained to the class how we solved these very challenging math problems. We also reviewed and added some clue words to our operation magnifying glasses that we use to help us determine whether to add or subtract in the word problem. We woked with our book buddies to complete 8 different kinds of word problems. We also learned how to make equal shares from a given set.

Social Studies: This week we learned all about Thomas Jefferson and his contributions. We learned that he loved to read as a child, sometimes reading for 14 hours a day! We learned he was an inventor, a lawyer and eventually, our third President. He also helped to write the Declaration of Independence, giving the colonies our independence from England.

Class News...

Congratulations to Colin Moore for being chosen as this week's Teacher's Helper! Way to go, Colin!

Do you have TONS of individually wrapped halloween candy you'd like to see out of your house? Send it in! Our candy jars could use some more candy!

If you have not done so, please return the movie permission slip. Keep in mind, this movie will replace our fun friday time next week, so your child will be responsible for earning this special activity.

We have four children who have successfully made it through all the addition facts in SuperStar and are now working on subtraction! Congratulations to Drew, Evan, Aubrey, and Frank! WooHoo!

November 4th Update...

2011-11-04T07:48:00.000-05:00

We have had a really good week! Can you believe it is already November? We are entering a really busy time of the year. I would like to encourage you to try and keep your child on a structured routine with homework and reading. The greatest determining factor of success in school is your child's ability to read and understand the what is read. Together, let's make sure we are providing your child with as many opportunities as possible to achieve this! Make sure you check out below in the "classroom news" section for some very important upcoming dates.

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned all about the l-blends. We worked on whiteboards to go over first grade phonics rules, we played a sort on the smartboard, we generated a list of words that we've gone over all week, and we worked in our Word Study Notebooks sorting the l-blend words. We also discussed adjectives and we read a monster book. We then created our own monsters and generated a list of adjectives to describe them. I was so impressed with the illustrations on this assignment! These monster creations are hanging in our hallway and will be coming home soon.

Reading: We are learning how to identify the problem and solution in a story to deepen our comprehension of what we read. We read the stories Chicken Little and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, then completed a four square organizer stating the character/setting/problem/solution. We worked in small groups on reading fluency, decoding unfamiliar words by "sliding" through the word, and making inferences. We worked with our bookbuddies. They modeled using expression when reading.

Writing: We focused on "hooking" the reader's attention in a narrative. We learned two "hooks" this week; beginning with a question or adding a sound. Check out your child's narratives that are coming home this week! At this point, your child should be writing a hook, topic sentence, at least four details, and a cool closing. Whew!

Math: We reviewed representing numbers (using money, symbols > < =, ordering numbers, and counting by 10's) and we took another unit test. We also revisited money, making "fair trades" for various amounts. This is a great skill to practice at home. Give your child an amount of money and ask if they can represent it three different ways. We also visited the computer lab to practice our math facts on math magician.

Science: We learned all about sound this week. We learned that sound is a form of energy. Sound is created by vibrations that travel through the air and vibrate our eardrum. We learned about volume and pitch as well.

Class News:

Congratulations to Bryce Dickinson for being chosen as this week's Teacher's Helper! Woohoo! Awesome job on that excellent behavior, Bryce!

Thank you to Mrs. Conner, Mrs. Abrams, Mrs. Newberry, Mrs. Byrd, and Mrs. Vansant for helping us with our fall centers! What a wonderful time the kids had!

Kroger Math Night is Monday beginning at 6:00 at the Macland Crossing Kroger! I'll be there at 7:00. Hope to see you there!

No school on Tuesday! It is a Teacher Workday.

This weekend is daylight savings! Remember to FALL back!

Come and check out the lost and found if your child is missing jackets and sweatshirts. There are literally hundreds of sweatshirts down there!

October 21, 2011 Update...

2011-10-21T12:41:00.001-05:00

Hi Parents,

Thank you for taking a minute to keep up with what we've been doing in class. We've had an awesome week. It's been really rewarding for me as I prepare for conferences next week. I get the chance to reflect on each student and look at the fabulous progress we've made in just nine weeks. I can't wait to meet with each of you next week. On a lighter note, the war between Mrs. Beames and I is officially on! Although she managed to bribe ONE student of mine who shall remain nameless (yes, I was sold out for a measly bag of skittles!), she is on her way down! I'm sure the kids will give you all the details of our battles over who will kiss the pig! Keep those dollars coming in!

Phonics: This week, we learned about three more s blends. We brainstormed a list of words containing these sounds, we worked on whiteboards to apply the spelling rules we have learned, and we completed a sort in our Words Their Way Notebooks.

Reading: We began learning about cause and effect to deepen our understanding of stories. We learned that the effect answers the question "What happened?" and the cause answers the question "Why did that happen?" We read three different Jimmy's Boa books and completed graphic organizers identifying cause/effect in the stories. We also worked in small groups on such skills as oral reading fluency, inferencing, and finding the author's purpose for writing a story.

Writing: We learned how to tell what's called a "pocket story". It is a strategy for teaching children to tell a story in order, making sure each detail is a complete thought. I modeled this strategy for the children and then they told their own pocket stories. Encourage your child to tell you a pocket story!

Math: We began learning how to compare larger numbers this week in math. We learned the terms "greater than", "less than", and "equal to". We also learned strategies for ordering numbers from least to greatest and greatest to least. We completed several review activities on graphing, adding/subtracting, and showing ten more and ten less than a number. In addition to this, we worked together to solve word problems every day using our four square method.

Classroom News and Updates....

Thank you, Mrs. Samiec, for coming in to the classroom on Friday morning and making adorable mini-pumpkins with the children! They loved this activity, and I loved it because I was able to get some really good small group writing time in with my students! We love you, Mrs. Samiec!

United Way Kiss A Pig will continue through next Friday! Enough said...

Early dismissal is all next week! Dismissal will begin at 12:10. Please send any dismissal changes in writing!

Next week is Red Ribbon Week. Here is what we have scheduled for the week!

Monday, October 24 Theme: Sea of Red, What to Wear: Anything Red

Tuesday, October 25 Theme: Team Up Against Drugs, What to Wear: Favorite Team Jersey/Shirt

Wednesday, October 26 Theme: Sock It To Drugs, What to Wear: Silly Socks

Thursday, October 27 Theme: “Hairs To A Drug-Free Life”, What to Wear: Silly Hairdo

Friday, October 28 Theme: Show Your School Spirit: Drug Free, What to Wear: Kemp Spirit Wear

October 14 Update...

2011-10-14T12:31:00.000-05:00

Hello Parents,

What a great birthday week this has been! Thank you again for making my day so special. Nothing beats being a teacher when it comes to celebrating birthdays. I'm getting prepared this week to speak with all of you during our parent teacher conference. This is a very important time where we can discuss your child's strengths and weaknesses. If you are going to be late or cannot make the conference, please let me know so I can reschedule. We only have 20 minutes alotted per conference and I'll have to stay on a tight schedule.
Please check out below to see what we've been doing in class this week...

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned all about the sp, sm, and sk blend. We created a word chart, practiced writing these words on white boards, and completed a sort in our Word Study Notebook. We also learned the role verbs play in sentences. We worked in our journals to identify verbs in sentences, then we picked out two pictures from magazines and created a sentence, paying special attention to the verb.

Reading: This week, we learned how to expand our details when completing a story retelling graphic organizer by watching this being modeled. At this point, every child should be able to identify the main character, setting (specific), and four events in order (using transition words). We took two final assessments on story retelling. We also worked in small groups on oral reading fluency. We completed independent contract pages on our tub books working on such skills as phonics, prereading strategies, and story retelling. We also read with Mrs. Wadsworth to determine our independent reading level.

Writing: We began learning about the important components of a personal narrative. The children have learned that every personal narrative needs to include who was there, where we were, and when the event took place. Then at least four descriptive details need to be given along with a "cool closing". Come by your child's conference early to check out the latest writing sample in the hallway!

Math: We learned how to place "touch points" on coins to help us easily count sets. These "touch points" equal 5 and there are zero on the penny, one on the nickel, two on the dime, and five on the quarter. Ask your child to help show you where the points go. We are counting combinations of coins up to 99 cents. We also worked on showing "fair trades" with various amounts of money. After this week's instruction, your child should know how to show a given amount of money at least two different ways. We also worked in our hundred board magic books on learning how to do "arrow math". This is intended to teach your child mental math strategies for addition and subtraction. I would be happy to show you these books when you come in for conferences.

Class News...

Tonight is Kemp-Camp-O-Ree! Check the Kemp website for specific details.

Congratulations to Evelyn Merchant for being chosen as our teacher's helper this week and congratulations to Drew Connor for being chosen as last week's teacher's helper! Way to go on that excellent behavior.

Thank you to Mrs. Samiec for donating tons of books, puzzles, and puppets to our classroom! I LOVE classroom donations!

Our treasure box could always use refilling...Send in any old McDonald's toys, ect. ect!

Make sure you are devoting a few minutes a night to math facts! Some of those scores made me cry today! As we continue through the facts, the kids really do need to memorize rather than count in their head.

September 30 Update...

2011-09-30T12:22:00.000-05:00

Hi Parents,

I can't believe it is already October! Where is this year going??? We had a great week. I enjoyed learning about all the historical figures who have contributed to our country this week. The kids who participated enjoyed lunch and a movie in the room today. Be on the lookout for the next opportunity coming soon! Also, AR parent volunteers are beginning on Oct. 4th. I added all the October volunteers to the specials calendar. If you are signed up to help, please be here at 9:40. You will be finished around 10:15. I am also sending an email with more specific instructions...be on the lookout later today. Check out what we've been doing this week in room 205!

Phonics: This week, we learned all about the st blend. We also reviewed when to use "ck" instead of just "k" at the end of words (always when the "k" sound is followed by a short vowel). We worked in our word study notebooks to sort words beginning with the s, t, and st sounds. We used our white boards to practice word and sentence writing.

Reading: This week, we continued our work on story retelling. We listened to the story Mr. Cricket Finds a Home and Roller Coaster and then we retold the story independently showing our knowledge of characters, setting, and four events. We also read books in small groups to work on fluency. We completed independent contract pages to work on such skills as comprehension, phonics, and capitalization and punctuation. We also worked one-on-one with Mrs. W to practice our reading.

Writing: This week, we learned how to incorporate transition words into our writing to show a sequential order of events. We began talking about the important components of a personal narrative. By December, your child should be able to write an eight sentence paragraph with a topic sentence, six detail sentences with transition words, and a closing sentence. This paragraph should be a well developed story about a personal event in your child's life. I will be giving out the Personal Narrative Rubric at our October conference, or you can view the rubric on Picasso. Handwriting Club also began this week. If your child is struggling with legibility when writing, I am providing an extra 5-10 minutes of practice during the first part of recess four days a week.

Math: This week, we explored place value up to 50. The children learned all about how to determine the value of each digit in a number, how to write a number in expanded form, written form and tens and ones, and we learned how to use models to show place value. We visited the computer lab with our book buddies and completed three tasks involving place value and addition practice. We also worked extensively on solving word problems involving repeated addition. I was so impressed with the higher level thinking going on while working on these word problems!

Science: We completed our unit on the seasons this week. The children read out of their science workbook and answered comprehension questions about the text.

Class News and Reminders...

COGAT testing is next week! What does this mean for you? Please make sure your child gets adequate sleep each night (first graders should be ASLEEP by 8:00) and eats a nutritious breakfast each morning. Some "brain foods" are eggs, bananas, peanut butter, oranges, and oatmeal. Please avoid sugary cereals or food first thing in the morning on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. If you don't think sugar affects children, come to my room the day after Halloween! In all seriousness, we want to make sure the kids are able to really perform to their true ability. This test is a group administered IQ test and is used to partially determine your child's eligibility for advanced learning classes here at Kemp.

Thank you, Mrs. Vansant, for providing our class with the skittles we are going to use for a graphing project next week!

Congratulations to Aubrey Byrd for being chosen as this week's Teacher's Helper! Way to go on your excellent behavior!

September 23 Update...

2011-09-23T15:23:00.000-05:00

Hi Parents,

Thank you for visiting the blog today. Below, you will find detailed information about our week. I can't wait to hear all about the historical figures your children researched! We will begin our presentations on Monday. We had a busy day today with our furry visitor, so we didn't get to the presentations yet! The kids LOVED getting to know Tug. Hopefully, he'll be able to come back for another visit soon.

Phonics: This week, we reviewed all four of our digraphs. We reviewed our lists from the previous weeks, we practiced sounding out and applying our phonics rules to words as we wrote on our whiteboards, and we played a smartboard sorting game. This week, we also learned about nouns and how to classify them. We created a list of nouns then went on a magazine search for nouns.

Reading: This week, we worked in groups to practice our reading fluency. We also reviewed first grade expectations when completing a reading response activity. We completed four different activities using our books. We also listened to several stories about seasons and completed a four square organizer to describe things that happen in each season. We are still reading our chapter book, The Kid In the Red Jacket. We are learning all about Howard Jeeter and his adventures as he begins his new life in a new town.

Writing: We focused heavily this week on editing paragraphs. We learned the editing marks used to correct capitalization, punctuation and spelling errors. We edited and rewrote several short paragraphs to show our knowledge of writing conventions, or how to make our writing LOOK good! Capitalization, punctuation and correctly spelled 1st grade words are standards that we are looking for mastery in. Please make sure you are emphasizing this expectation at home.

Math: We concluded our subtraction unit. We learned how to look at a subtraction rule and an input number to determine what the output will be (called MAGIC TUNNELS). We also learned how to used comparing as a strategy for subtraction. We took our unit test on Subtraction on Wednesday and I was so pleased with the scores. This class is so bright and, as a whole, they seem to really grasp concepts easily. We moved on to place value on Thursday. We worked with tens and ones manipulatives to model numbers. We learned that each digit in a number has a value and we can represent this many ways. We learned how to show numbers in standard form, written form, expanded form and using tens and ones.

Science: We learned about the Weather and the Seasons this week.We read in the children's science workbook all about weather and answered comprehension questions as we read. We also learned all about weather vocabulary words.

Class News...

Congratulations to Frank Mintmire for being chosen as our Teacher's Helper this week! What an excellent example he has been for all of us!

Thank you Mrs. Byrd and Mrs. Samiec for providing snack for the class for the past few weeks! We love all the goodies!

Remember to encourage your child to put in time studying those math facts during the week. Check out the "tips for memorizing" on the bottom of the blog for helpful ideas!

We will be sending home conference time letters the second week of October. If you know of days or times that absolutely will not work for you, please shoot me an email before then so I can make sure to accommodate your schedule.

Thank you to everyone who sent in magazines! We now have enough for our upcoming activities.

I have one more donation request...If you have small old toys, pencils, stickers, etc. that you'd like to get rid of, our treasure box is getting low! No need to go out and buy items. "one man's trash is another man's treasure" definitely applies to 6 year old boys and girls!

Sept. 16, 2011 Update...

2011-09-16T11:17:00.000-05:00

Hi Parents,

Thank you for visiting this week! We want to welcome Colin Moore and his family to our class! Colin joined us on Monday and we are all enjoying getting to know him. Before reading about our academic week, I wanted to ask a favor...can you please make sure that your child can tie his/her shoes? This is a skill that should be mastered by the end of kindergarten. We've got LOTS of shoelaces flippin around in our room!
Here's what we've learned this week...

Phonics/Grammar: We learned all about the th/wh digraphs. We learned what these digraphs sound like and what common words we will see them in. We also reviewed our long and short vowel rules, focusing on when to use that "bossy e" at the end of words. We also reviewed what is needed to make a sentence (capitalization, punctuation, correct spacing, and a complete thought).

Writing: We began discussing how good writers edit their work to make it "look" good. We learned the editing marks for capitalization, spelling errors, and missing punctuation. We worked on editing a paragraph and rewriting it correctly. This will continue to be our emphasis during writer's workshop next week as well.

Reading: We began our new chapter book by Barbara Park, The Kid in the Red Jacket. It is about a boy who moves to a new town and experiences some challenges with being the new kid. It's a very funny story and the students are really enjoying it. It is providing great inferencing discussions! We also worked in small groups on our oral reading fluency. We listened to several different stories this week and used props to help us retell the important events in the stories. We completed several graphic organizers to retell as well. Your children should be experts at identifying the characters, setting, and four events at this point in the year! We also worked in partner groups to practice our site word books.

Math: We are working on learning subtraction strategies this week. We learned how to count back to solve, how to use a number line, and how to draw a picture and cross out or compare to subtract. Please pay special attention to any math papers coming home this week. This will help you identify if your child is mastering the subtraction standards for first grade. We also reviewed writing the given set of addition problems for a specific number and what patterns we recognize when writing these sets.

Social Studies: We are learning all about Benjamin Franklin this week. We've discovered that he was an inventor, a writer, and an important historical figure who was one of our founding fathers.

Class News and Events:
Congratulations to Addison Newberry for being chosen as this week's Teacher's Helper! She exhibited all the important character traits and is an excellent example to her peers!

Thank you for all the positive comments this week! I've enjoyed speaking to all of you and if I have missed you, I'll try calling again this weekend.

The book fair is going on all next week. You can send money in with your child or come to the book fair yourself! There are some wonderful selections to choose from at great prices.

September 9, 2011 Update...

2011-09-09T12:18:00.000-05:00

Hello Parents,

We have had another incredible week. Please check out the updates below to find out what we've been doing in each subject area. I think the highlight of the week for me was to hear the children complementing each other during our class meeting on Friday morning! We call these "big-ups!" and the kids love giving and getting these complements. It was a wonderful thing to hear what the kids have noticed about their peers and to hear how their actions and words have positively influenced others.

Phonics: This week, we learned about the sh and ch digraphs. We made a word web for each digraph, we sorted words by category, and we worked with our book buddies to make word puzzles from various letters. We worked on our white boards to sound out more challenging words, discussing the spelling rules that accompany these words.

Reading: We finished our chapter book, Ghostville Elementary, this week. We also read the books Epossumondas, The Little Red Hen, and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and discussed important components of retelling a story. We now know that story retelling should include the character, setting, and four events. These events should be retold in order, using transition words to indicate sequence of events (first, next, then, last). Please encourage your child to orally retell you the stories that they are reading at home to reinforce this skill. Independently, the children worked on books that correspond to their reading level. They completed a reading contract, which emphasizes various reading, writing, and spelling skills using their particular book. We also worked in small guided groups on fluency and utilizing sounding out strategies to help us decode unfamiliar words.

Writing: We continued with our writer's workshop exploration this week. We learned about various ways that writing is used in every day life. We learned the five components of a friendly letter (heading, greeting, body, closing, signature) and we learned a hand motion to go along with each to help us remember! We learned that good writer's do their best and then move on to get those great ideas down on paper.

Math: We learned three strategies that will help us become more fluent in addition. We discussed the counting up method ( to be used when one addend is 1, 2, or 3), memorization of doubles facts (when both addends are the same), and using a number line to count up (when the addends are larger than 3). We also began discussing fact families, place value, and counting sets of money during our calendar time. We took our timed math facts test on Friday. Please make sure you are allowing time during the week for study. Your child will advance to the next set of math facts when a score of 85% or greater is achieved.

Dinner Conversation Starters...
*ask your child what a "big-ups" is and if they've gotten one or given one
*ask your child how Cassidy finally made the ghosts in Sleepy Hollow Elementary happy
*ask your child what words are called who let the reader know a story is being told in sequential order (transition words...first, next, then, finally, etc)
*ask your child what book they are reading independently during reading time and what contract page was their favorite

Class News and Reminders...

All coupon books were due today. Please return Monday if you still have them at home!

Congratulations to Paul Farley for being chosen as this week's Teacher's Helper! Way to go exhibiting those lifelong skills!

A HUGE thank you goes to Mrs. Farley! She donated recess toys, classroom games, and math manipulatives to our classroom! The students and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

I want to thank all my parents this week as well. I have been so impressed with the quality of work coming back on the homework packets. You are doing a wonderful job of expecting the kids to do their personal best! I love reading the stories the kids are writing. I'm so impressed with the LENGTH of the stories! What great detail!

Challenge Activity #2...(due Friday, September 23)
We are learning about Benjamin Franklin and his historical contributions to our country next week. I want to you to teach me about another historical figure who has made contributions to our country. Here's what you'll need to do...And remember, I am expecting personal best on these challenge projects! The following things must be included to earn a reward!
1. Do research on the Internet to find a historical figure who contributed to our country
2. Divide a piece of construction paper into four squares.
3. In the first box, include a picture of the person, as well as birth date and date of death.
4. In the second box, write three facts (COMPLETE SENTENCES) about this person's life such as where they were born, what their occupation was, etc.
5. In the third box, write a paragraph (at least five sentences long) about what contributions this person made and why you think they were important to our country.
6. In the last box, write the character trait you think best describes this person (some examples would be perseverance, commitment, compassion, etc.).
7. Be familiar enough with your poster to share it with the class!

September 2, 2011 Update...

2011-09-02T11:22:00.001-05:00

Hi Parents,

Thank you for visiting today! I am so proud of the students' behavior this week! We have really had an awesome week. Good thing, because we are finished up with our kindergarten review and we are ready to jump into the first grade curriculum. It is fast paced and we have lots to learn, so continue to emphasize implementing those five rules to live by! Another thing you can be helping your child with at home is comprehension of the AR books that come home. We have gone over MANY times on how to select a book at your reading level (the kids all have stickers on their media sticks with appropriate levels) and they should also know that I'm expecting them to come in and take tests on these books. It is up to the students to tell me they are ready to test and then visit the library to get new books. Your child has the opportunity to go to the library every morning and every day during reading. Also, we took our Superstar +1's test today. I'm so proud of the scores! I can tell some practice was going on at home! As we move into the more challenging facts, memorization is the key. Children should not be counting on their fingers.Make sure to check the blue folders on fridays as that's when the test will come home.

Phonics/Grammar: We reviewed the short o word family. We talked about the importance of sounding out words OUT LOUD when we are working with difficult words or unfamiliar words. We also reviewed the two sounds of each vowel and learned a fun song. We added many site words to our word wall and wrote sentences using these words.

Reading: This week, we continued our discussion of important components to include when retelling a story. We read the books Knuffle Bunny and Teddy Bear and completed an organizer. We also compared these two stories and completed a Venn diagram. We worked in small groups on fluency and learning strategies to help us decode unfamiliar words. We began our new chapter book, Ghostville Elementary. The kids are LOVING this book! Don't worry, it's not too scary!

Math: We reviewed our basic subtraction facts and how to model subtraction stories through pictures. We also made two charts to help us identify clue words found in word problems that indicate which operation to use. We made a mini-stamp subtraction book and we played karate chop subtraction to show the subtraction from 10 facts. I think the favorite was TEDDY BEAR BOWLING though! Ask your child how it helped us learn about subtraction.

Writing: This week, we continued to discuss the writing process. We discussed how important it is to tell a story in order. We also came up with ways to make our stories interesting to the reader.

Social Studies: We finished up our unit on our global address. The kids now know their city, county, state, country, continent, and planet.

Class News and Reminders...

Congratulations to Frank Mintmire for earning the reward of taking Furball home this weekend! Remember, everyone who can exhibit responsibility here at school will get a chance to take him home. Students receiving zero strikes will have their name put in a hat for a drawing each Thursday.

Get a head start on math facts this weekend! Some children need more time with +1 and some have moved on to +2. Check out the memorization tips below for some ideas to help your child.

Thank you to Mrs. Bryd, Mrs. Huffstetler, and Mrs. Farrell for getting that snack sack back to us filled with goodies! The kids love seeing what they will be having each new day!

Challenge Activity presentations are due on Tuesday! Make sure your child knows the material and can present the map on his/her own!

August 26th Update...

2011-08-26T12:31:00.002-05:00

Hi Parents,

Thank you for visiting the blog this week! We have been hard at work in room 205! Check out below to see exactly what we've learned in each subject area. I have a request of you this week...Please have a discussion with your child about our five rules to live by and what that looks like in and out of the classroom. With our full class of 22 six year olds comes the importance of abiding by those very important rules to live by. The structure of first grade compared to kindergarten can be an adjustment for some, but I know we can all exhibit the character traits that are required for an outstanding first grade year. As always, if you have concerns I am available.

Phonics: We learned the -at and -an word family. We played several games to help us refine our sounding out skills. We completed a sort in our Word Study Notebook and we visited the smartboard and played a fun Vortex game. Friday, we completed our first word sort assessment.

Reading: We learned what is important to include in a story retelling. We used a graphic organizer to help us identify the character, setting, and four events from the stories we read. We also began our new chapter book, Junie B., First Grader. The children have loved hearing all about her antics in the classroom.

Writing: We began Writer's Workshop in our classroom this week. We learned what good writer's do before they begin to write, we learned what to do to our writing when we think we are done, and we learned all about the materials that are available in the classroom for us.

Math: This week, we learned how to use the four square method to help us solve word problems. We worked in our math journals with partners and independently to solve several problems. We learned about clue words that help us determine which operation to use when problem solving. We also played several games to help us recall strategies used for addition. We worked on number recognition and ordering numbers. We practiced our superstar math facts using the +0 fact family. Next week, we will all move on to +1 and after that, the tests will be differentiated based on your child's score. There is a sheet in your child's folder today explaining the procedure.

Social Studies: We learned the characteristics of a globe. We also learned a fun song to memorize our street, city, county, state, country, continenent and planet! We played a fun globe passing game and created a tally chart to help us discover that earth has more water than land.

Class News...
Congratulations goes to Vivian Huffstetler, our first Teacher's Helper! Vivian has exhibited all five rules to live by and has been an excellent example to her peers. Way to go, Vivian!

Remember, picture day is Monday! Bring your order form and money then.

In addition to our regular homework packet, remember to practice the +1 addition facts with your child. We will have the quiz Friday morning.

Be on the lookout Monday for a permission slip that will be required if you will be allowing your child to take home FURBALL, our sweet hamster. The children who receive zero strikes for that week will be put into a drawing to be his caretaker for the weekend.

If you haven't yet sent in your clean white socks to be used as erasers on our white boards, please do so next week!

CHALLENGE PROJECT! Due Tuesday, September 6th
Are you looking for a project to do at home? Do you want to learn about something you'll discuss next year in 2nd grade? Here's the project for you! In our first grade class, we are discussing the uses of globes and maps as well as learning about where we live. Use the attached link to print or use to copy a map of Georgia. Look on the internet for the FIVE GEORGIA REGIONS. Color and label the map showing the five Georgia regions. Write one fact about each region and be prepared to share your project on Tuesday, September 6th. The two MUST's for this project are...1. You must do this project, not mom, dad, brothers, or sisters! Of course, they can give you advice though. 2. You must do your personal best!

Georgia Map Website: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/georgia/outline/

August 19th, 2011 Update...

2011-08-19T12:31:00.000-05:00

Hi Parents and Students,

What an amazing first week we had! I'm already loving all the great personalities in my room. We have such a sweet class and everyone has begun adjusting to the new rules and routines of first grade. I've done many preliminary assessments to determine the needs of the students and I am thrilled with where we will start the year off. I am confident we will accomplish amazing things throughout the year. Fun Friday was a big hit and I think it was a great motivator to see what a big deal it is. I warned the children, the honeymoon is over next week! We have so much to accomplish this year that those consequences will be lovingly enforced when our behavior requires it. I appreciate all the support that has been coming from home. Check out the section below to see what we've done in each subject area. Also, make sure to look over the sections labeled "Dinner Conversation Starters" and "Classroom News". There is some important stuff for you there!

Phonics: This week, we reviewed all of our consonant sounds. We learned several fun songs to help us recall these sounds when reading and writing. We also reviewed what a vowel is versus what a consonant is. We practiced identifying the syllables in words, also to help our sounding out when writing. We loved showing the math monster how many syllables were in our name!

Reading: We read the book Chrysanthemum and talked about literary elements such as characters, setting, problem and solution. We cut apart the letters in the word Chrysanthemum and worked in collaborative groups to make as many words as we could. We read the book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell and talked about sequencing the important events in a story. We completed a fun activity where we cut apart objects found in the story and put them in the correct order on a sentence strip. We also have really enjoyed listening to our chapter book read aloud High Tide in Hawaii. We worked individually with Mrs. W to show her our sight word knowledge.

Writing: We took our preassessment on writing. We also wrote about our families this week. Together, we created a "illustration rubric" and discussed how pictures tell stories just like words do. We talked about the importance of adding detail and really doing our personal best when illustrating. Please emphasize this at home as well!

Math: We played several new smartboard math games that will help us learn our addition facts. We also read the book Ten Black Dots and created our own dot books. We explored some math activities in our room such as geoboards, polydrons, and pattern blocks. We took our computation assessment on addition and subtraction as well as problem solving.

Social Skills: We learned our five rules to live by...active listening, no put-downs, personal best, truthfulness, and trustworthiness and practiced the hand motions for all. We met for classroom meetings to act out, problem solve, and discuss what these rules look like in our day to day life and how we should react to various situations. Please reinforce these rules as home as well!

Dinner Conversation Starters!
Having trouble getting out of your child what he/she did this week? Check out this section to help get the conversation started...
*Ask your child what a tsunami is and where they heard this word at school (Hint: mention Jack and Annie from our chapter book)
*Ask your child to show you the hand motion for trustworthiness and what it means (Hint: has to do with rock climbing)
*Ask your child what the problem was in the story Officer Buckle and Gloria. Can they tell you about the dog, Gloria?

Classroom News...
Thank you to Mrs. Abrams who has stepped up to be our class room mom this year! She also is going to be having help from Mrs. Conner, Mrs. English, and Mrs. McKinney. Be on the lookout soon for your opportunity to help in the room.

Please send in two clean socks for your child next week. The socks can be new or used. We will be using them all year long as erasers when we work on our white boards. If you have extras, we'll take them!

You will find your child's blue behavior sheet in the folder today. Please remember to sign it and return it on Monday. Also, we will begin our regular homework routine Monday as well. The packet will be due on Friday. Please do not send in until Friday, even if your child finishes early.

Mrs. Wadsworth's Class of 2011

2011-08-14T20:20:00.001-05:00

Keaton Abrams

Aubrey Byrd

Evan Cleveland

Drew Conner

Bryce Dickinson

Isabell Donea

Marli English

Jack Farrell

Paul Farley

Vivian Huffstetler

Blake Marble

Chayse McKinney

Cristina Meireles

Evelyn Merchant

Frank Mintmire

Addison Newberry

Fiyin Owoaje

Aubrey Riggins

Miranda Samiec

Chloe Stacy

Luke Vansant

Alexis Volckmann

Cameron Waters

Important Reminders For This Week:

*Open House is on Tuesday for all parents. I hope to see you there. Come straight to our classroom at 6:30.

*No snack is needed this week. I will be providing snack for this first week of school. We will discuss snack rotation at Open House.

*School supplies can be sent in any time this week. No need to label, our supplies are put into a "community pile".

*If you didn't receive an email from me last Thursday, please email me and let me know. I put everyone into a group and need to know if you are not receiving correspondence.

*Check back here on Friday for a blog update on what we've been doing in our classroom.

The Final Edition of 2010-2011 Blog...

2011-05-27T14:29:00.001-05:00

Hi Parents,

Wow! They say time flies when you're having fun...that was the case with my school year! I so enjoyed getting to know you and your child this year. Please keep in touch with me and let me know how he/she is doing! Below, you will find some activities to do with your child to keep that brain active all summer long. Regression of skills learned is more pronounced in younger school-aged children, and just doing some simple activities with your child about 20 minutes a day will make a HUGE difference when 2nd grade begins in the fall. I hope you find these suggestions useful.

Phonics/Grammar: Give your child a longer word like "vacation" or "roller coaster" and see how many smaller words they can make using only the letters in that word. Have a contest to see who can make more! Give your child a newspaper article and have him/her find 10 verbs, 10 nouns and 10 adjectives. Make a list of 20 random words. Give them to your child and have him/her cut them out. They can sort them, and tell you how they sorted them (ie...all these words are one syllable, all these are two syllable, or all these words have short vowels and all these words have long vowels. Remember, don't think of categories when you are making the list. Have your child determine how to sort them on their own.

Writing: Read the first paragraph or two of a book/story. Have your child rewrite the ending of the story on his/her own. Cut out a picture from a magazine. Challenge your child to write 5 homerun sentences about the picture. Encourage your child to write a letter to someone in your family. Make sure to include all 5 parts of a letter!

Math: Give your child a three digit number. Have your child show that number in word form, base ten form, place value form, and expanded form. Repeat with another number! Have your child think of a survey question. Ask ten people the question, using tally marks to keep up with answers. Turn the survey into a graph (picture graph, bar graph, or pie graph!). CHALLENGE: Do all three graphs! Give your child a number like 45. See how many addition and subtraction problems they can make with the answer of 45 (ie. 20+25, 47-2, 100-55, etc).

Have fun this summer and stay safe! Remember to read at least 20 minutes a night and come back in the fall SMARTER than when you left! See you guys all in August!

May 19th Update...

2011-05-19T11:03:00.001-05:00

Hi Parents,

Thank you for visiting the blog today. We are using every last minute we have to learn all that we can learn before second grade! Of course, we've planned some fun as well! Check out our schedule below to find out what fun things we'll be doing every day. Also, see what standards we've been covering in the subject areas this past week.

Phonics/Grammar: We learned all about the long vowel followed by a consonant spelling pattern and what to do when adding suffixes to the root word. We also reviewed the four sentence types (asking, telling, command, and exclamation). We discussed the different punctuation needed for each type as well, then we wrote an example of each.

Writing: We were introduced to the persuasive style of writing last week. We learned that this style of writing is meant to convince others that your opinion is correct. We wrote a paper in answer to the question, "Are you a good student?" The children did a wonderful job with this challenging genre of writing.

Math: We took our final quarter benchmark assessment. Our class average was a 92%! Way to rock this test, students!

Our special days planned for the end of the year go as follows...

Bubble Day Friday: We will be completing scientific investigations with bubble gum, writing descriptive paragraphs using bubble gum, and watching a cool science experiment with mentos and diet coke!
Baseball Day Monday: We are playing a fun day of kickball against some other 1st grade classes, listening to a story about baseball, and playing baseball addition and subtraction in our room!
Chef Day Tuesday: YUM...We'll be writing our own recipes, then making personal pizzas as well as other treats this day. We will be reviewing math concepts such as fractions and equal parts on this day as well.
Beach Day Wednesday: We will be reading fun stories about summer time, exercising our word problem knowledge with some fun summer math problems, and making a special snack.

Classroom News and Reminders...

Congratulations to Katie Sullivan for earning Teacher's Helper this week!

Congratulations to Eric Kho for his fantastic persuasive writing paragraph on why he should be Lil' Dude's new owner...He persuaded the judge that he should be!

Bookbags will not be allowed on the bus the last day of school. We will send everything home earlier in the week.

Last quarter report cards will be mailed to you. If I do not have a self-addressed stamped envelope, I will email you. If you do not send one in, the report card will be up here in the office for you to pick up.

May 6, 2011 Update!

2011-05-06T10:31:00.000-05:00

Hello Parents,

We've had another amazing week in school! Boy, have we been busy. We are trying to make sure we stay focused and keep in mind that our learning is most important, even at this time of the year. First, I want to thank all the moms for taking time out of your busy lives to come to school this morning. The kids love seeing you and showing you the special things we've been doing. I have two CD's of the slideshow left and I only made 21, so if you forgot to get one, shoot me an email and I'll make sure it gets home to you.

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned all about words that contain short vowels followed by a consonant and how the spelling changes when adding certain suffixes. We also continued to practice our HOMERUN sentences, adding lots of detail when we write.

Writing: We completed our Haiku poems for our moms. We also wrote two more Response to Lit papers. The children have learned and should know that this type of paper must include a main idea, a summary of at least three sentences using transition words, and a connection or opinion about the book. Check out those writing samples that are coming home!

Reading: We took the SRI assessment for the third time this year to see what improvements we made with our reading comprehension and fluency. We also worked individually with Mrs. W to show the best we can do with reading and story retelling (DRA's given). We completed our chapter books, took the AR test on it, and began our new chapter books.

Math: This week, we learned how to make arrays using manipulatives to represent and solve multiplication problems. We worked in small groups as well as individually to practice this skill. We also reviewed solving more complex word problems.

Science: This week we learned about animals and their habitats. We watched an educational video about these habitats. We created a flip book with our book buddies all about deserts, wetlands, grasslands, and forests and the animals who reside there.

Class News and Reminders...

Congratulations to Philip Jouanet for being chosen as this week's Teacher's Helper! Way to go, Philip!

All Boostherthon donations are due no later than next Friday! Please help us out by collecting and returning these donations ASAP!

As the year comes to a close, if you are interested in meeting with me to discuss your child's progress over the course of the school year, I would be more than happy to set up a conference with you. Just email me and we'll set up a time to meet.

Lil' Dude is going to spend a relaxing weekend in his cage at school! I think he's had enough fun for one week and is in time out, so no one will be taking him home this weekend! (If you don't know why he's in time out, ask your child!)

Our persuasive writing activity is Wednesday, May 18th. You will need to write a note that day if your child is participating in the after school activity to determine Lil' Dude's permanent owner. I'll send a reminder that week as well.

Field Day is Monday! Please send your child wearing sunscreen, comfortable shoes and clothing, and a hat! Also, I've heard the kids get VERY wet. Please send a complete change of clothes in a plastic sack. The sack will be used to store their wet clothes on the bus ride home! We will be eating sack lunches from the cafeteria in the room unless your child brings a lunch from home.

April 29th Update...

2011-04-29T17:43:00.000-05:00

Hi Parents,

We've had such a busy week, with all of our extra activities going on! We managed to get in a lot of really important academic skills as well. Please take a minute to read over the academic areas below so you can stay on top of what is expected at this time of the year.

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned all about the hard and soft g sounds. We played a game with cards creating "g" words. How many were you able to make? We also reviewed the importance of MAKING NOISE when we are sounding out challenging words. As the children begin to write longer, more detailed sentences, the skill of segmenting words and sounding them out becomes really important. Please emphasize this at home! We also learned what a HOMERUN sentence is. Can your child tell you what it is???? I am looking for sentences that include what? when? and where? in the details. Example... A first base sentence would be "I like pizza." A HOMERUN would be "After my ballgame, I like to eat cheese pizza from Johnny's."

Writing: This week, we continued to write our response to literature papers. We completed three this week. I have scored one and sent it home with comments for you to see what is expected. On the scoring page, you will notice that the children's papers are being scored on content as well as conventions (spelling, capitalization, sub/verb agreement). Please take a minute to go over this with your child. Our report card directly reflects what I put on that grade sheet.

Math: This week, we completed our double digit subtraction unit.

Class News and Reminders...
Thank you to those parents who generously donated to the spring fling basket and cake walk! You are awesome!

Thank you to Mrs. Tovar, who spent hours helping Mrs. Mascheri with the BUGZ performance! It was so adorable!

Thank you to Mrs. Young for stepping up and providing snack last minute this week!

Spring Fling is tonight! See you from 6:00-9:00 right here at Kemp for some fun and food!

Please consider participating in the Boosterthon. I know sometimes we feel like we are constantly giving more to school, but this money provides Kemp with so many beneficial programs and resources that help to make us GREAT! We all know the toys the kids are winning are worth far less than what it takes to earn those toys, but it is about donating to our school, not winning toys. We are now up to $10 a lap for our classroom.

The kids have earned their first reward for the Boosterthon...Your child may bring in an "electronic" game of their choice on Monday to play with at recess. Please make it clear to your child that whatever they choose to bring is their responsibility to keep up with. I will not be responsible for any lost or broken toys...especially since I know the cost of these ELECTRONIC toys! Make sure your child knows that these toys MUST NOT be taken out on the bus or anywhere other than our classroom!

The Fun Run is next Thursday, May 5th. Make sure you dress your child appropriately for running laps! Shirts will come home next week.

April 22, 2011 Update...

2011-04-22T14:40:00.000-05:00

Hi Parents,

First of all, thank you so much to all the parents who participated in our zoo field trip! The kids had an amazing time and they learned a lot about animals, their habitats, and how they are alike and different. I can't believe we are down the few remaining weeks of the school year! Check out below to find out what we've done in class this week and what important announcements you need to know...

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned about the hard and soft c spelling pattern (k and s sounds). We also continued our alphabetizing skills and used them in context of working with dictionary skills. We reviewed three parts of speech (nouns, verbs, and adjectives) and we began talking about using quotation marks to set off spoken words in text.

Reading: We are all working in chapter books this week. The children are reading a chapter a day independently and then completing a comprehension/skill worksheet that correlates with what we are doing in class. We are reading the book Framed together and can't wait to find out if the main character, Griffin Bing, gets out of the trouble he is in! We worked with our book buddies on a Reader's Theater play to help our oral reading fluency.

Math: We used manipulatives (ten rods and ones) to help us understand double digit subtraction. We also learned how to use picture models to help us subtract correctly. We used dry erase markers to draw models on our tables! Sometimes writing on furniture can be good!

Social Studies: We learned all about Annie Oakley and why she is an American historical figure. We read a book about her and created a graphic organizer telling about the important parts of her life.

Dinner Conversation Starters (use the following prompts below to get your child talking about school!)...
*Ask your child one cool trick Annie Oakley could do with her gun!
*Ask your child to illustrate what to do if the ones in a double digit addition problem equals more than nine.
*Ask your child to explain what character they are in their Reader's Theater play and also to tell you the main idea of their story.
*Ask your child to think of an object in your house and to give you five adjectives that describe it.
*Ask your child to tell you all about Griffin Bing and what kind of trouble he is in right now.

Class News and Reminders...
Mom, May 6th at 8:30 will be our special event. The children are working very hard on something for you that they will present in a very special way on that day. I also have a surprize for you and would love for you all to attend if at all possible.

Make sure to send your donation to Kristi Henry for our Spring Fling basket. Also, we need some families to donate cakes for the cake walk. I know this time of the year can we crazy, and we really appreciate your donations.

Congratulations to Rich Chen for being chosen as our Teacher's Helper this week! Way to go, Rich!

Congratulations to Sydney Greene for earning the honor of being chosen as our Terrific Kid this month!

Keep Asa and his family (especially mom) in your thoughts and prayers these days! That new baby brother is coming any day now!

Blue folders and behavior sheets will come home on Monday since so many children were checked out early. Make sure to help your child stay focused all the way through the end of the year on spelling words each week and learning those math facts.

April 15th Update...

2011-04-18T07:46:00.000-05:00

Dear Parents,

This week has been a great week. We completed some important testing in Language Arts, Reading and Math. We are so excited about our upcoming field trips. The first one will be to the zoo on Friday. Be on the lookout Monday for some important information. Check out below to see what we've been up to this week...

Phonics/Grammer: This week, we reviewed the -r controlled vowels (er, ir, or, ar, ur). We also reviewed the spelling patterns used when making words plural. We talked about the rules when adding -s, -es, or -ies to words and completed several activities.

Reading: We worked on our fluency this week. We read a play and discussed how to use our oral reading skills to grab readers' attention. We also used the UNRAAVEL strategy to improve our comprehension when working with short passages.

Writing: I modeled how to organize a response to literature paragraph. We all worked together on an organizer, then we independently used that organizer to write a paragraph. The format of this type of writing includes beginning with the main idea, writing a brief summary, then ending by stating our opinion about the book or making a connection to the story.

Math: We learned all about double digit addition this week. Some students have been ready for the challenge of regrouping when adding. The first grade standard is to just be able to add double digit numbers, although many have mastered this more challenging concept!

Social Studies: We have learned about many historical folktale figures including Mike Fink, Annie Oakley, John Henry, and Johnny Appleseed. We've enjoyed hearing about the tales that surround these interesting figures!

Class News...

Remember to pay close attention to important field trip information that will be coming home Monday. Most importantly, your child should wear comfortable shoes on Friday and IF your child is bringing a sack lunch from home, everything should be disposable including the sack.

Chaperones, you will have a special letter coming home Monday with important instructions to help you prepare for our fun day!

Parents, if you come to the zoo with us, you will be allowed to check out your child from the zoo. This will allow you to either continue your fun at the zoo or take your child directly home from the zoo. I will have a sign out sheet with me that day.

Moms, our special Mother's Day Activity is scheduled for Friday, May 6th at 8:30. Be on the lookout for an invitation containing an RSVP.

April 1st Update...

2011-03-31T12:15:00.001-05:00

Dear Parents,

I hope you are planning a wonderful and relaxing spring break! I can't believe April is already here! Only two more months of school until summer...this year has literally flown by for me. As we enter the hectic spring months, remember to continue to encourage your child to slow down and do their personal best in all they do, whether that is reading a story or completing the homework packet. I have to say, we haven't had much "spring fever" in regards to behavior, but we have had many children rushing when it comes to work and not showing me their very best. I've had to have the discussion that grades can not be given on what I think a student is capable of, but rather what they show me they can do! Please take a minute with your child to reinforce this important fact of life!

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned the kn and wr spelling pattern. We generated words containing these sounds, completed a sort, and played many games to review these words. We also talked about subject verb agreement, writing complete sentences, and identifying parts of speech in a sentence (subject (noun), predicate (verb).

Reading: We completed our unit on folktales and fables. Your child will be bringing home their folktale folder on Friday. This is a great opportunity for you to have your child practice orally retelling a story. All the stories are short and easy to remember. We read some classic folktales and some that were new to us. Please take a minute to review the UNRAAVEL strategy page that is stapled to the front inside cover of your child's folder. It is a great resource on how to help your child read and comprehend better all the way until the high school and college level.

Math: We continued our exploration of number representation in higher numbers. We did some more exercises with rounding and we also worked on showing the models of the value of a digit in a number. We took our problem solving preassessment for this nine week period.

Social Studies: We began our unit on historical folktales with a book about John Henry. See if your children can tell you all about him!

Class News and Reminders...

Congratulations to Andrew Gohlke, our teacher's helper for the week! Way to go on that excellent behavior!

Thank you to Mr.Garcia and Mrs. Cordova for helping us out with our AR this week. We enjoyed our time with you.

Be on the lookout next week for important field trip and chaperone info.

Moms, remember to save the date of May 6th! It will be a special time in our classroom you won't want to miss! More details will be coming soon...

Next week during CRCT, please make sure your child wears tennis shoes on Music days...they will be combining with PE on those days and WILL be given a blue slip if appropriate shoes are not worn.

Thank you to the Petty family for donating sets of books to our classroom! You ROCK!

March 25th Update...

2011-03-25T13:15:00.001-05:00

Hi Parents,

Thank you for visiting! Thanks also to those parents who sent in the "secret" phrase from last week. We had a few kids who got to visit the prize box...Let's try for 100% this week. Write the word "multiplication" on a piece of paper and have your child give it to me by Monday morning for a homework pass! Check out the math section to find out why we are writing this word! See what else we've done this week below...

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned the "oi" and "au" spelling pattern. We also practiced our ABC order skills using these words that we generated. We also learned how to determine when an apostrophe s is needed to show possession in a noun.

Reading: We began our unit on folktales this week. We focused particularly on using the UNRAAVEL strategy to improve our comprehension. Next week, you will get a Folktale Folder with all the stories we've done, as well as a sheet explaining the strategy that the children are learning. We also enjoyed reading our chapter book, FRAMED. We used a reading response journal to express our feelings about the book.

Math: This week, we worked on our number sense and number representation. We reviewed place value and learned that every digit in a number has a "home" or place that determines its value. We worked on showing our knowledge of place value. We also reviewed the rules for rounding numbers to the nearest ten. This seems like an easy skill for us adults, but it is a multi-step process for kids and can be confusing. Please work on this at home. First, your child must determine which two numbers the number falls between and then whether to round up or round down. We'll continue this next week as well! In our math facts practice, many children have gotten all the way through addition and subtraction and have started working on memorization of multiplication facts. Way to go, students!

Class News and Reminders...

Our teacher's helper this week was Connor Turner! Way to go, Connor!

Thank you to Mr. Garcia, Mr. Petty, and Mrs. DeFreece for helping our class with AR this week.

We are still in need of Clorox wipes, dry erase markers, and baby wipes. Please consider donating if you have not done so. Thank you!

Spring break is in one more week! There will be no school from April 2-10.

Parent volunteers will not be allowed in the school during CRCT testing. This will run from April 12-21. I've canceled all AR parents during this time. Please be aware that parents will not be allowed in the building on these days. (mornings only)

March 18th Update...

2011-03-18T13:26:00.001-05:00

Thank you for visiting today! I hope you find this week's information useful. We are wrapping up the end of the school year...I can't believe we've begun our final nine weeks! I plan to utilize every minute the children are in school with me, so I'm going to be tough on anyone exhibiting a case of spring fever! I want to give these children every opportunity to be overly prepared for 2nd grade.

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned the spelling patterns -oy and -aw. We generated a list of words containing these sounds. We also completed a sort separating the words containing the sounds. We then put our words in ABC order. In grammar, we worked on alphabetizing words that contain the first beginning letters, particularly focusing on how to alphabetize words and then words with endings (ie zoo/zookeeper, teacher/teachers).

Reading: We continue to use the UNRAAVEL strategy to help improve our comprehension of reading passages. We also focused on picking out main idea/details and story elements. We listened to then retold several stories. In small groups, we worked on our oral reading fluency and our retelling skills. The children have been told that when they show me really good expression and fluency, I will email the teacher of their choice for them to read to that class!

Math: This week, we discussed strategies for solving challenging word problems. We made a chart to help us identify these problems and then plan for the solution. We also played several games to review telling time, counting sets of coins, and identifying place value.

Social Studies: We learned the 7 continents and the 5 oceans (yes, there are now 5 unlike the 4 when we were in school! See if your child can tell you it!) We played a smart board timed game to see how quickly we can identify them.

Class News and Reminders...

I want to give a BIG THANK YOU to Dr. and Mrs. Kwan for the awesome dental health lesson they did for our class today! The kids were so attentive and learned so much from this lesson. Dr. Kwan also sent us all home with so many goodies!

Congratulations to Arturo Cordova for being chosen as this week's teacher's helper! Way to go!

Thank you to Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Turner, and Mrs. Kho-Han for helping us with AR this week!

For this final nine weeks, if your child receives a strike on the behavior sheet, he or she will be filling out the comment section on why the strike was given. Hopefully this will help the communication with you. I don't foresee many of these being given, though!

Moms, tentatively save the date of May 6th for us! We are planning a very special day to honor you and we want all moms to be here with us. I'm thinking our special activity will take place at 8:00 in the morning, but I'll send more specific details as the date approaches. Pencil us in on those calendars!

We have a handful of students out on Friday, so we will take our superstar quizzes on Monday! You'll have extra study time, so those tests should reflect that!

Write the words "SPRING FEVER" on a piece of paper and have your child turn it in to me first thing MONDAY morning for a prize!

PARENTS NEEDED...

2011-03-11T12:44:00.000-05:00

Your presence is requested at our Atlanta Zoo field trip! This is one of the two field trips first grade will be taking this spring and we want to make some fun and exciting memories for the students. ALL parents are welcome to come and chaperone. If you are interested, simply include the extra $ with your child's donation in the envelope and circle that you are going to chaperone. Please remember, if you are chaperoning, you will be in charge of a group of students. This is the reason that no younger siblings are allowed to come on the trip. We need your full attention to be devoted to managing your group of students. As the trip draws near, we will provide all chaperones with instructions for the day.

As for the Center for Puppetry Arts field trip, indicate if you would like to be considered to chaperone this trip. We are only allowed to take one extra adult because of space limitations. I will contact the parent who is chosen to chaperone this field trip.

Please return the permission slip and $ as soon as possible. Do not put the permission slip inside the envelope. Leave it stapled as is and return it to school.

I am sooooo proud of the students this week (as usual!). We took our math benchmark assessment and BLEW it out of the water! I'm amazed at the learning your children are doing this year! We also began taking the SRI (scholastic reading inventory) and you will be getting results of this test as your child completes it. This is a reading assessment and I have been thrilled with the class results. I've seen amazing gains since the 2nd nine week period.

Here's what we've been doing this week in class...

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned all about the two sounds of the letters "oo". We also talked about how verbs change tense. We learned about regular and irregular verbs.

Reading: We practiced identifying the main idea of a nonfiction and fiction text. We also discussed details. We used organizers to record our retelling. We then showed off our keyboarding skills and wrote a paragraph using our organizer as our plan. I met with children individually to assess their progress this grading period. We also began retaking the SRI. Look for results!

Math: We reviewed challenging concepts in preparation for our benchmark assessment. We also went into an in depth study of higher level word problems. We began exploring word problems that do not follow a pattern we have previously learned. We use pictures to help us solve these problems. We began exploring multiplication and division in the context of word problems.

Science: We completed our unit on plants and began previewing our animal unit. We will begin studying animal comparisons next week.

Class News and Reminders...

Please plan to attend next Thursday's ART show and TALENT show. The ONLY reason I am performing in the talent show is to get a good laugh out of my sweet students, so your presence is requested! God did not bless me with rhythm, so don't expect much!

THANK YOU so much to the Petty family, the Henry family, the Young family, the Jouanet family, and the Mizerek family for their book donations this week! The kids get so excited when we add books to our classroom library and I LOVE it!

Thank you to Mrs. DeFreece, Mrs. Petty, and Mrs. Tovar for sending in some of the classroom items that we needed!

The art show/talent show is Thursday, March 17th. You may purchase your child's framed art and then join us for a wonderful night of talent right here at Kemp.

Remember, March 18th is now a full school day for students.

Thank you Mrs. Gohlke, Mrs. Henry, and Mrs. Tovar for helping us out with AR this week.

I also just wanted to say thank you for supporting high expectations with writing at home. I saw a dramatic improvement in the homework stories! Keep up the great work!

March 4th Update...

2011-03-05T12:52:00.001-05:00

Dear Parents,

Thank you for visiting our blog today. We have had a super week and I hope you find the following information useful in helping you understand what your child is learning. Make sure to check out the news section below to keep up-to-date on our classroom and school news. Also, Mrs. Mason has been sending out very important information in her weekly PECS that I forward to you through email. Please be sure to pay close attention to this information, as I do not always repeat that info in this blog.

Phonics: This week, we learned all about the three most common -r controlled vowel spelling patterns (-ar, -er, -or). We generated a list of words on chart paper, we used this list and worked on our alphabetizing skills, and we sorted the words according to the spelling pattern. We also played several games to help us remember which pattern creates which sound. This week, we also took our 3rd nine week phonics assessment. You will find this assessment in your child's blue folder. We learned long and short vowels, blends, vowel diagraphs, -r controlled vowels, and compound words this nine weeks. These are the phonics patterns that your child is responsible for, as will be noted on the report card.

Reading: This week in reading, we focused on being able to distinguish main ideas vs. details in a story. We also learned the UNRAAVEL strategy used to improve reading comprehension. This strategy is very useful and basically involves underlining the title and headings, numbering the paragraphs, circling the most important words in the comprehension questions, and then noting the paragraph that the answer was found in. Your child has heard "You must PROVE your answer by finding it in the passage" many times this year. Take a minute to look over the reading passages in your child's blue folder so you can become familiar with this very beneficial strategy. Also, ask your child what each letter in UNRAAVEL stands for!

Writing: We worked on listening to stories and then writing the main idea and details in our own words. We also began writing the life cycle of the plant, which we will be using our keyboarding skills next week to create a word document with graphics.

Math: This week, we used balances to help us understand missing addend math problems. We used colored manipulatives to help us determine the answer. Then we worked on learning the algorithm for solving this type of problem. We also began our "March Mathness" word problem challenge this week. Every Friday, the students will be given a challenging word problem aimed at getting the students to utilize higher level thinking skills in order to solve it. One student will be chosen from each class who exhibited excellent problem solving stategies and their pictures will be displayed in the first grade hallway. Our first week's winner was CONNOR TURNER! Way to go!!!

Science: Wee learned all about the various parts of the plant and what the purpose of each part is. We read several books on this topic, then we labeled and described the job of each of these parts. We also read the book THE TINY SEED by Eric Carle and we retold the story in our own words on a story web organizer. We used the kidpix program on our smartboard to create and label a plant.

Classroom News and Notes...

Thank you to Mrs. Young and Mrs. Davis for their help with AR this week.

Congratulations to Josie Kwan, who represented Kemp Elementary with her Reflections Contest poster! We are so proud of Josie.

The book fair is here! Our class will be previewing the book fair on Tuesday. You can accompany your child to the book fair or you may also send in money with your child to purchase books. Please check the flyer that came home last week in your child's blue folder for dates and times.

Homework: Parents, please make sure your expectations for the writing portion of the hw are in line with the expectations I have set here at school. The children are well aware of the type of writing I expect, which includes a topic sentence followed by at least five details, then ending with a closing sentence OR a personal narrative with no less than seven sentences that include transition words and phrases and is well organized and developed. I've been getting lots of stories that are not up to par and some children have been asked to forego "Fun Friday" in order to sit with me and redo a story that meets or exceeds my expectations. I appreciate your support of this expectation of always doing your "personal best" on work!

Mark your calendars for the Kemp Elementary Talent Show! It is going to be held on March 17th. More details will be coming soon. You may even see yours truly up there performing a special talent!!!

As many children have figured out, Lil' Dude's weekend sleepovers can only go until the end of the school year and we only have about 11 weekends left. We have many more children than that in our room, so responsible behavior at all times is very important. The children know that only those receiving zero strikes for the week will have their names entered in the basket to take Lil' Dude home. I wish he could go home with all the kids! Be on the lookout for some exciting news regarding Lil' Dude at end of the year!

February 18 Update...

2011-02-22T11:41:00.001-05:00

Okay, so this update is a few days late! Sorry about that...make sure you check out the classroom news section below to keep up to date on all the classroom and school happenings. I hope everyone is enjoying their time off! Check out below to see what we did in class last week...

Phonics/Grammar: We learned the three most common spelling patterns of the long u sound. We created a chart to help us remember these spellings. We cut apart words and categorized them into long and short u words. We also reviewed all the long vowel spelling patterns. We practiced alphabetizing words to the third letter and we worked on turning phrases into complete sentences. We identified these phrases as subject or predicate.

Reading: We worked in small groups to identify facts and opinions in nonfiction texts. We also worked on identifying the main idea from a book and writing supporting ideas in an organizer. We read several chapters out of our read aloud book, Clementine. We worked in our reading response journal to answer comprehension questions.

Science: We learned all about the parts of a plant and the plant life cycle. We planted lima beans and discussed the basic needs of a plant. We worked in our "plant journal" to show what we have learned about this topic.

Classroom News...

Congratulations to Blake Petty for being chosen as the week's Teacher's Helper! Way to go on that awesome behavior, Blake!

Congratulations to those who completed 360 minutes of reading since late January! Your name was entered in the Six Flags reading contest and you will be receiving a free six flags theme park ticket! Parents, this information was taken from your child's reading log, as stated in my January blog news. Check your child's reading log...If there is a blue star, your child will be receiving a ticket! Sorry, no late entries will be accepted.

An email went out earlier this week about signing up for AR reading to the students. Please check with Mrs. Henry if you are interested and did not see the email. Also, remember that our Target day is Wednesday. If your child is in Target, you may want to choose Tuesday or Thursday to come in.

Enjoy your week off and I'll see all my sweet children back at school on Monday!

February 11th Update...

2011-02-11T15:22:00.001-05:00

Hi Parents,

Thank you for visiting today. We have had a wonderful week filled with lots of new learning. Check out below to find out exactly which standards we have focused on this week. Be sure to read through the Class News section for many important details and updates. Also, look to the right to update your calendar with important class and school events...

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we focused on the most common long o spelling patterns. In small groups, we sorted challenging word cards using these new rules, as well as past rules of spelling. We worked on white boards to practice our spelling patterns, we completed a cut and glue sort, and we worked on alphabetizing our words. We've hit this skill really hard and your child should be able to alphabetize words to the third letter (rope, rose, rocket) with ease. This skill is essential before we begin really hitting dictionary work next week.We also focused in on capitalization of proper nouns and using commas in a list of items during our grammar instruction.

Reading: We continued our study of nonfiction books this week. We looked specifically at the type of language used in nonfiction texts and we completed an activity on a great book on skeletons where we became the author.We worked in small groups on new chapter books and proving our answers when reading material by going back and highlighting in the text. We also worked on answering comprehension questions in complete sentences and adding detail. We began the book Clementine and started a reading response journal to show our understanding of the story.

Math: We worked on making fair trades with money and being able to show various ways to make one amount. We also worked with a specific type of word problem involving determining how much more money we will need to buy an item. We worked in small groups to review our number sense through comparing larger numbers, telling time to the hour and half hour, and practicing our math facts.

Social Studies: This week, we learned all about the life and contributions of George Washington Carver. We read a book about his life, we watched an educational video explaining his importance to our country and how his perserverance helped farmers, and we completed a smartboard activity to help us recall facts about his life.

Class News...

Thank you Mrs. Turner, Mrs. Gohlke, Mrs. Young and Mr. Garcia for their help with AR this week!

The Kemp Winter Dance is tonight from 6:30 - 9:00! Get on your dancing shoes and I'll see you on the dance floor!

Our Valentine Exchange will be Monday. Please have your child bring in enough valentines to exchange with each child (21).

We have so many students who have mastered all the addition and subtraction superstar quizzes...Way to go! When your child completes the mixed addition and subtraction minute quiz, he/she will work on mastering a 5 minute - 100 fact quiz. A great place to practice this is on the Math Magician site located on this blog under "math facts". Choose "mixed review" and get practicing!

Don't forget to encourage IXL computer work! The contest ends this Wednesday evening. The top winners will earn a pizza party in the classroom during lunch on Friday. You will be notified if your child is a winner.

One more week of school until Winter Break! There will be no school from the 21st-25th.

On that note, be on the lookout for a survey from the county coming out concerning our school calendar for next year. There is consideration in changing the balanced calendar that we adopted last year. Three options are being presented. You can view those options on the county website. If you'd like input from a teacher's perspective, I absolutely love the balanced calendar. I think the shorter summer is so beneficial in reducing the amount of regression of student learning and the frequent breaks allow the children to recharge and come to school more than eager to soak up what we have to teach them. This is my personal opinion based on what I've seen with my students.

February 6th Update...

2011-02-07T13:24:00.000-05:00

We've had a wonderful and exciting week! It began with a furry new addition to our classroom...I'm sure you've heard all about Lil' Dude. The children had a few very exciting first days, but we are all settling down now and our behavior is showing how mature we've become this year! Thank you to those brave parents who volunteered to have Lil' Dude as a houseguest over the weekend. The children know that exceptional behavior here in the classroom must be exhibited before their name can be put into the Thursday drawing to see who is going to take him home. Basically, this means that children with ZERO strikes for the week will be eligible! Good luck, everyone can do it!

Phonics/Grammar: Last week, we learned the common spelling patterns for the long i sound. We also practiced our editing skills with a daily paragraph about Jane Goodall. We reviewed nouns and verbs and their roles in sentences.

Reading: We each chose and read a nonfiction book on our level. We learned the important skill of notetaking when we read. We also read out of our chapter book, Shiloh. What an awesome story! Ask your child for the latest update on what is going on with the main character, Marty. We worked in small groups on chapter books and learning good techniques for answering comprehension questions.

Math: We completed our unit on telling time. We learned all about the components of a clock as well as the many ways to write the time to the hour and half hour (digital, on an analog clock, and in words). We also learned ways to use a calendar to help us with the passage of time (What date will it be two weeks from ___? What day will it be in one week? What date was it one week ago?) Make sure you question your child on simple knowledge based calendar and time skills such as how many hours are in a day, how many days are in a week, how many seconds are in a minute, etc.

Class News...

Thank you Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Young for volunteering to help last week with AR.

Congratulations to Jack Davis for being our "Teacher's Helper" last week! What an excellent role model!

Our school dance is this Friday! The dance begins at 6:30 and ends at 9:00. Hope to see you there for the fun! I'll have my dancing shoes on...

We are currently working on money this week. It is a great time to get out that change jar and let your child practice counting sets of coins and bills. We are past the simple counting of amounts to $1.00 and have moved on to making fair trades with money and counting sets of coins and bills up to $20. This skill requires practice at home for most children. Have your child teach you the "touch money" method!

January 28th Update...

2011-01-28T12:12:00.001-05:00

Dear Parents,

Thank you for visiting today! We've had a wonderful week and I hope you find the following information useful. The section below, separated by subject, is designed to keep you informed of the exact curriculum standards that we are covering in first grade. I try to put the sometimes not so friendly education terms into a more parent friendly language! Check out the Class News section below for some very important reminders.

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned the three most common spelling patterns of the long e sound. We learned to sort and spell words containing these sounds. We also worked this week learning to sort verbs by tense (past and present). We reviewed ABC order as well.

Reading: We read the book Eva the Beekeeper and learned to identify nonfiction text features and their purposes. We worked in small groups to challenge us in reading. We focused on skills such as oral reading fluency with a special emphasis on paying attention to punctuation, using various strategies to decode unfamiliar words, and locating nonfiction text features in periodicals. We are enjoying our chapter book, Shiloh, and have done many comprehension activities to gain a deeper understanding of the characters in this book.

Math: We learned all about fractions this week. We learned the three ways to represent fractions (picture, number, word). We learned important vocabulary words such as equal parts, numerator, denominator. We also compared fractions. We worked on word problems that use repeated addition in the solution, and we played a game to review number representation to 100. We also worked in small groups on 2nd grade challenge activities!

Writing: This week in writer's workshop, we not only reviewed the importance of including a topic and closing sentence in a paragraph, but we also learned how to organize our details and then come up with a plan to write them in a logical order. Students worked on completing their Dolphin papers as well as writing a paper on Harriet Tubman.

Social Studies: This week, we learned all about Harriet Tubman and Theodore Roosevelt. We learned about the many contributions these historical figures gave to our country.

Class News...

Congratuations to Kate Henry, our Teacher's Helper this week! Way to go, Kate!

Congratulations goes to our IXL contest winners; Josie Kwan, Eric Kho, Skye Taylor and Blake Petty! Way to go on all that hard work and extra practice.

Thank you to Mrs. DeFreece and Mrs. Gohlke for working in the classroom this week while I attended a team meeting!

Thank you to our AR helpers this week, Mrs. Turner and Mr. Garcia!

Parents, if you so graciously offered to donate items for our 100th day trail mix, please send in those items Monday or Tuesday.

Remember, Feb. 2 is now a FULL school day! No early release as we are making up time from the snow days.

Feb. 1st is the last day to order yearbooks! The yearbooks are $30.

In your child's blue folder, you will find your child's personal accomplishments with IXL during our contest weeks. Remember, this is a great website for those struggling with math OR for those needing a challenge in this area! My students have been encouraged to go to other grade level activities to push themselves. Please continue to encourage work at home on this site even though our contest has ended for now.

Parents, many of your children have successfully completed all the addition and subtraction superstar fact family quizzes. After the -7, -8, and -9 combined quiz, your child will take a "mixed addition" test followed by a "mixed subtraction" test. I have to congratualate the students for all their hard work. Memorizing these facts has really shown to be beneficial in the other areas of math.

January 24th Update...

2011-01-24T11:26:00.002-05:00

Hello Parents and Students,

Thank you for visiting today. A few important changes to our school calendar have been made to make up the 5 snow days we had a few weeks ago. The children will be having a full day of school on February 2 and March 18. Please make sure you make the necessary arrangements. We've got lots of important work to make up! Check out below to see what we've been doing in class this week...

Phonics/Grammar: We learned the three different spelling patterns that often make the long a sound. This assessment seemed to challenge many students who may not normally need at home study time to do well on the Friday quiz. Please make sure your child knows these spelling patterns. We spend 4 days, at least 20 minutes each day, going over these patterns and practicing reading and writing the words, but additional time may be needed at home.

Reading: We continue our study of nonfiction text features in books. We added "clues" to our list that help us identify books as nonfiction and we worked in small groups to read and investigate many nonfiction books. We also worked in small groups with nonfiction periodicals.

Writing: We are working diligently on learning how to write an informational paragraph. The conventions we've used since the beginning of the year such as titles, names, indenting, and correct capitalization and punctuation should be second nature to your child at this point in the year. We are now focusing on such things as creating interesting topic and closing sentences and organizing our lists of details to help us write a well organized paper.

Math: We worked on adding and subtracting numbers with larger addends. We also reviewed fact families and number representation. In small group time, we focused on challenging word problems and using pictures to help us solve these challenges.

Social Studies: We learned all about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. Be on the lookout for some wonderful informational paragraphs coming home next week on this amazing woman.

Class News...

Congratulations to Connor Turner for being chosen as this month's Terrific Kid! He's done a wonderful job exhibiting all the characteristics of a model student.

Congratulations to Sydney Greene for being chosen as last week's Teacher's Helper! Way to go, Sydney!

Thank you to Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Young for helping our students with AR this week during reading time!

The six flags reading contest has begun! In order to save paper, I will be checking your child's reading log, so please make sure it is updated weekly. The contest ends on Feb. 18th. No late submissions will be accepted.

A BIG UPS goes out to our class for all the participation in this month's extra credit project! We had 10 children complete the assignment! What SELF MOTIVATION!

January 7th Update...

2011-01-07T15:10:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break and enjoyed some good quality time with their family and friends! I know as for me, I was ready to get back into the swing of things and get back on schedule! We have had a wonderful week and we've jumped right back into our routine here in the classroom. Our motto for our class for this second half of the year is "We don't have a minute to waste!" The curriculum really picks up the pace in reading, math and writing, so your help at home is more crucial than ever. Please continue to stay on top of how your child is progressing.
Check out the Classroom News and Reminders section for an extra credit opportunity! The reward will be revealed after the due date!

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we reviewed our short and simple long vowel spelling patterns in preparation for jumping into more complex long vowel patterns next week. We also reviewed the function of nouns and verbs in sentences and how to identify them, as well as working on taking phrases and turning them into complete sentences by either adding the subject or adding the predicate. Proper capitaliation and punctuation was also emphasized.

Writing: This week, we began our new genre of informational writing. We went over the steps that will help us become better writers. We also began discussing the importance of topic and closing sentences. This is now expected when the first graders write. Also, this third weeks, correct noun/verb agreement is expected. We wrote our first informational paragraph on wolves, which is hanging in our hallway. Come check out our wonderful writing if you are in the school.

Reading: This week, we learned about additional story elements such as main characters and minor characters as well as primary and secondary settings. We also read several nonfiction books and looked at the features we can find in these books that identify them as nonfiction. We compared facts vs. opinions to help us with our informational writing.

Math: We took our 2nd nine weeks post assessment. Those students ready for a challenge were taught how to solve double digit addition problems. We also reviewed fact families.

Classroom News and Announcements:
Report cards are in your child's folder today! Please return the white signature card in the manilla envelope, but PLEASE do not seal the envelope. This will be used for the remainder of the school year. If you have questions or concerns regarding your child's progress, I would be more than happy to meet with you during my planning time or after school. Just drop me an email and let me know.

Encourage your child to practice on IXL! The contest begins Monday!

Thank you to Mrs. Henry, Mr. Garcia, and Mrs. Greene for their help with AR this week! We appreciate your time in our classroom!

Math Facts Information: We've got more than half the class who has mastered their addition facts and moved on to subtraction! Way to go! When your child masters the -6 group of facts, we will combine -7, -8, and -9. Once this is completed, which I expect many of you to do next week, you will be getting a mixed review test every Friday for several weeks.

Extra Credit Project: Due January 24th.
Next week, we will begin learning about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his contributions to our country and the citizens who live here. Your job is to think of another famous american who made significant contributions to our country. Read a book or look online to find out your information. Brainstorm your list of facts. Organize your facts into categories. Write an informational paragraph containing those facts. Your paper must include the following and can be hand written or typed...
1. Title (underlined and centered)
2. Your name (centered under title)
3. Skip a line, then indent first sentence.
4. Begin with a general topic sentence.
5. Write at least 10 detail sentences about your famous american. (Include details from childhood, early life and later life)
6. End your paper with an appropriate closing sentence.
7. Attach some sort of visual graphic to your paper.

Be prepared to orally present your paper to the class by January 24th! Your efforts will be greatly rewarded!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-17T14:53:00.001-05:00

Ho! Ho! Ho!

We've had a wonderful holiday week at school. We managed to get in many academic activities, even with all the fun events and a two-hour delayed school day! First, I wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU for all the wonderful gift cards and Christmas gifts that the children gave me this week! I was overwhelmed at your generosity! I will have a whole new wardrobe come January! You guys are too good to me. Of course, the best gift is being able to teach these precious children every day! I also want to give a big thank you to my sweet students who showed such wonderful graciousness when we did the holiday book exchange. These wonderful children really mastered the art of giving and receiving gifts with grace and you should be very proud of the children you are raising.

I hope you and your families have a blessed and happy holiday and I can't wait to see everyone back here in 2011!

Classroom Reminders...

We will be back on our normal blog update format in January. For now, please read over these reminders for important information.

Your child has their latest superstar quiz in his/her blue folder. I was so impressed this week with the scores. I can tell the children really devoted some time to studying these math facts. Your child has a great opportunity over the next two weeks to get in some good practice for the next set of facts. I'm expecting ALL 100% when we test in January!

The grading period for this nine weeks ends today. Report cards will come home Friday, January 7th. I've worked very hard on sending home regularly graded work so you know exactly where your child stands in mastering the 1st grade standards. If you would like to meet to discuss your child's progress, I am always available after school to meet with you.

One difficult concept we will be covering in math next nine weeks is making fair trades with money and showing amounts in various ways. The two week break is a great time to have your child practice this skill. One way we have been working on this in class is I have been calling out an amount and I have the children show me that amount in two different ways. I also will give the children a set of coins, have them count it and write the amount, then show me that same amount another way. (All pennies is never acceptable!)

In writing next nine weeks, we will be introduced to the concept of researching a topic then writing an informational paragraph. It is a great time to encourage your child to branch out with his/her reading and enjoy a good nonfiction book every now and then!

I want to give a few special "thank yous"...Thank you to Mrs. Kwan, who dressed up and came in on Friday to read us a special Holiday story. The children loved this! Thank you to Mrs. Tovar for organizing a WONDERFUL holiday party for the kids. Thank you also to all the parents who volunteered their time to be with the students for this fun event. Thank you to Mrs. Henry for organizing our AR helpers for January and February. Check out her email if you want to come in! If you would like to come in but can't come on Tue, Wed, or Thur please email me and we can set up a time for you to help out.

December 10, 2010 Update...

2010-12-10T13:59:00.000-05:00

Hello Parents,

Brrrr! It has been a very cold but wonderful December week! I will enjoy the days when we can get back out in the fresh air for recess, but it's nice to have this chilly weather to get us all in the holiday spirit! Please check out below to see what we've been working on this week in class. This is a very important time of the year and our pace in class really picks up speed at this point in the year. Please be mindful of what your child is expected to know in class and offer help at home when you can.

Phonics: We learned the short and long u (c-v-c-silent e) spelling patterns. The ability to sort and spell simple long and short vowel words is now being expected in our everyday writing at this point. After the break, we will be getting into more complex vowel patterns. If you notice simple short and long vowel patterns as a weakness, the holiday break provides a great opportunity to catch your child up before we resume school in January. Check out those test papers in the blue folders today!

Reading: We began our study of the many gingerbread man story versions this week. We used these familiar books to practice retelling a story with all the necessary components as well as stating the main idea. When your child writes the main idea, we follow a simple recipe...Begin with "This story is about...", add the main character, and then tell the problem in the story. This is a great exercise to do every time you read a book with your child.

Math: We completed our unit on counting change up to a dollar and counting bills up to twenty dollars. I provided money challenges for those students needing to be pushed and we talked about making fair trades and showing money amounts in several different ways. We also revisited graphing, took a survey, then created bar and picture graphs in the computer lab. Of course, the printers were not working the day we went to the computer lab, but the children did receive their grades on this super activity. We also are continuing to plug away at those math facts. More than half the class has completed all the addition superstar quizzes and are halfway through the subtraction superstar quizzes! Way to go, class! Next week, I am expecting everyone to pass their test. There will be no other homework than to read and practice those math facts!

Science: This week, we learned about sound. We learned about volume and pitch and how the vibrations change these two things.

Classroom News and Reminders...

Congratulations to Josie Kwan for being our Teacher's Helper this week! Way to go, Josie, exhibiting those character traits we look for in all Kemp students!

Congratulations to Arturo Cordova and Andrew Gohlke for reaching the "Einstein Level" in a word creation activity! These two students exhibited wonderful motivation and would not give up on this activity!

Keep Andrew Gohlke in your prayers as he will be having surgery next Thursday. We'll be thinking about you, Andrew, and can't wait to see you back after the break!

There are still several students who have not yet brought in a book exchange book. Just a friendly reminder that we will be doing this activity early to include Andrew before his surgery. Please have all books here by Tuesday!

Our classroom holiday party will be next Thursday at 10:30. Volunteers, please be here by 10:00 to help set up. All are welcome to attend the party! No younger siblings please, due to limited space!

There will be no official homework next week, but as I stated earlier in the post, I am expecting ALL children to pass their superstar quiz!

November 30, 2010 Update...

2010-11-30T10:50:00.000-05:00

Hi Parents,

The busy-ness of December has begun! I thought I'd update the blog today to keep you informed about what is going on this week in school. Thank you to all those who have already sent in the stocking stuffer donations! We began today and the kids are so eager to earn those stocking stuffers, they are all working fabulously!

CoGat scores are in and letters have been sent to those requiring further testing for the gifted program. Please let the testing process come to completion and if you still have questions, I would be happy to forward your name and number on to the Target program instructors to contact you. If you are simply curious about your child's test scores, come by any time and I can share those with you.

Check out sidebar to the right and update your calendar at home with important dates! Make sure you check out the special activities we have lined up to raise money for our safety patrol officer and custodians!

November 12, 2010 Update...

2010-11-12T11:36:00.000-05:00

Hi Parents,

Thank you for visiting our blog today. We have been so busy this week. Please read below to find out what we've been doing this week in class. Also, check out below for information on our class Thanksgiving feast. It is optional, but I would LOVE for all the children to participate if you have the time to help them. Look for a flyer in today's blue folder as well.

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we moved our focus from short vowels to long vowels. We learned about the job of the "bossy e" and how important this one silent letter is. We also learned several new games to review our past spelling patterns and lists of words.

Reading: This week, we read and compared two nonfiction stories. We learned all about important text features that help us determine whether a book is nonfiction or not (table of contents, photographs, glossary, index, bold words, etc.). We also took a comprehension quiz on our chapter book, Ribsy.

Math: We learned how to use our four-square method to help us solve word problems involving mulitplication (or repeated addition). We worked in a small teacher led group to solve this type of problem. We also practiced maintaining our skills of subtraction, comparing two-digit numbers using the greater than and less than signs, and solving simple addition and subtraction word problems.

Social Studies: We learned all about the contributions of Thomas Jefferson. We created a timeline of important events in his life. We also create a K-W-L chart on what we currently know, want to know, and have learned about him. We wrote wonderful biography stories about Thomas Jefferson, which are hanging in our hallway.

Classroom News and Announcements...

Congratulations to Parker DeFreece for being chosen as our Teacher's Helper this week! Way to go, Parker for your hard work!

Thank you to Mrs. Kho-Han for helping us with AR this week!

Our grade level Thanksgiving Feast will be on Tuesday at 11:00. Tickets may be purchased beginning at 10:50. If you want to attend with your child but have not turned in the form, you may still do so. Please wait for us in the main hallway if you plan to attend that day.

Our class will also be having a special Thanksgiving Feast on Friday at 10:30-11:30. This will be an optional activity. I would love for all to participate, but I do understand how busy the evenings can be. Please refer to the flyer coming home today for additional details.

November 6th Update...

2010-11-07T19:40:00.000-05:00

Hi Parents,

Thank you for visiting today. We had a great week that ended with a fun movie day! I think the kids really enjoyed the movie and we had a good discussion comparing the book to the movie. Please check out below to find out what we've been working on this week. Also remember to read the class news for more important information about our class...

Phonics/Grammar: We reviewed short vowel spelling patterns beginning with consonant blends from previous lessons. We will move on to simple long vowel patterns next week. Please remember to begin emphasizing correct spelling of short and long vowel patterns when your child is writing, as this will be expected from this point on. We also reviewed the job of the noun and the verb in a sentence and made books using pictures from magazines and writing sentences focusing on these two parts of speech.

Reading: We finished our chapter book Because of Winn Dixie and began our new chapter book, Ribsy by Beverly Cleary. We also worked on particular reading strategies that can improve our fluency. We learned to use the pictures to "predict" challenging vocabulary. We worked in small groups on skill such as identifying cause/effect, making predictions, and inferring.

Math: We completed chapter nine on number sense (comparing numbers, skip counting, and using a number line to identify 1 more, 1 less, 10 more and 10 less). We also began addition with three digits. We focused heavily on using the four-square method to help us solve word problems and we looked closely at clue words to determine the correct operation.

Social Studies: We learned all about the 6 landforms on earth (desert, mountain, plains, plateau, coast, and valley) and we made a riddle book to help us remember the characteristics of each. We worked with our book buddies to tell about each landform as a post assessment. We also listened to a speaker from Wellstar who taught us all about poisons and what we can do to protect ourselves from danger.

Class News and Reminders...

Thank you to Mrs. Petty and Mr. Sullivan for their help with AR! The kids get so excited about this special time with parent volunteers.

Thank you to Mrs. Jouanet, who gave our class the fabulous tickets to the Georgia Aquarium!

We have exciting news to share this week...Jackson Davis and his family welcomed a new little baby boy to their family! His name is Rhett and we hear from Jackson he is soooo cute! Keep Jackson and his family in your thoughts and prayers as they go through this special time!

October 31st Update...

2010-10-31T20:06:00.000-05:00

Hello Parents,

Thank you for visiting today. I hope everyone had a wonderful time trick-or-treating...we sure had a great time at our special centers on Friday! We are all about working hard and not wasting a minute that we have, but it was so great to see the kids having such a good time. We even managed to work those math facts into our fun with the awesome math fact spiders! I want to thank Mrs. Tovar, Mrs. Taylor, Mr. Mizerek, Mr. Sullivan, Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Kwan, Mrs. Turner, Mrs. Garner, Mrs. Gohlke, Blake's Grandma, Mrs. Garcia, and Mrs. Henry for volunteering their time to come in and help on Friday. I want to also thank everyone who donated items for the centers. Be sure to check out our class news section for more announcements and read below to find out what we've been working on this week in class.

Phonics/Grammar: We practiced the sounds made by the letter combinations of wh, qu, tw, as well as k. Please take note of your child's score on the "sentence dictation" that will come home Monday. I need to see that your child is incorporating this knowledge into his/her everday writing. This is how your child's report card grade is determined. You will also notice that we began expecting correct capitalization and punctuation this marking period. Please begin really emphasizing this in your child's writing.

Reading: We completed our chapter book, Because of Winn Dixie, this week. We also worked independently on chapter books, as well as focusing on identifying cause/effect, learning skills to help us decode unfamiliar vocabulary in text, and proving our answers in stories by going back to the text and highlighting before answering questions during our small group guided reading time.

Writing: We began learning how to edit and revise a story. We focused on correct punctuation and capitalization and making sure our sentences are complete thoughts. The children edited a story written by me. Next week, we will begin the editing process using the children's writing.

Math: We continued to explore numbers by comparing numbers using the greater than, less than, and equal to signs. We worked on number puzzles to show our knowledge of the hundred chart. We made mini-books with mini-stamps to practice using the comparisons signs. We also used chart paper with a dice game to practice our addition skills. The children worked in small groups with me to deeper understand numbers and their representations with ten rods and singles.

Science: We began our unit on landforms. We watched an informative video on the smartboard about landforms and then played an interactive memory game to test our knowledge.

Classroom News and Announcements...

There will be no school on Tuesday due to election day!

Your child's math fact paper will be coming home on Monday. Please make sure you note which facts to be practicing with your child. As I stated in my email when we began differentiating the math fact quizzes, you've got to slowly introduce the math facts to your child. Begin with just two or three flashcards, then only add a card if your child has mastered the first cards. Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to memorization of math facts. All 10 cards should never be introduced to a child on the first day! Let me know if you have tried this method and are still struggling to get your child to learn these facts.

Congratulations to Skye Taylor for being chosen as our Teacher's Helper this week! She does an excellent job of exhibiting our rules to live by everyday in our classroom! Way to go, Skye!

Movie Day is this Saturday! If you are having transportation issues, please let me know and I'm sure we can work something out to get your child to my house and back home again if he/she wants to participate in this event. It's a fun time for us to enjoy literature and see it come to life in a movie. You may drop your child off at 2:00. Pick-up time is 4:30. I'll email my home phone number later in the week in case you have trouble finding my house.

October 25, 2010 Update...

2010-10-25T07:30:00.000-05:00

Hello Parents,

Thank you for visiting the blog today. We had a short but very productive week! I enjoyed meeting with each of you and discussing your child's progress. Check out below to see what we've been learning about this week. Also, please visit the Classroom News section for some important announcements!

Phonics: We learned all about the consonant blends pr, tr, dr, and br. The children completed a picture sort and worked on sounding out the words containing these blends.

Language Arts: This week, we learned about cause and effect in stories. We learned how identifying these within a story can help our comprehension. We read several stories and used organizers to help us record the effects and the causes of these effects.

Math: We are focusing on number sense concepts this week and identifying which symbol to use when comparing two numbers. We are identifying what is one more, one less, ten more, and ten less when given a number. We are also continuing to work on place value and various ways to represent one number (expanded form, base ten form, written form). We continue to practice skip counting by two, fives, and tens. Please pay close attention to the math papers that are coming home in your child's folder to keep informed on whether or not your child is grasping these new concepts.

Classroom News:
Congratulations to Josie Kwan, whose Reflections entry came in FIRST PLACE for the visual arts category! We are so proud of Josie and can't wait to hear how she does at the county level competition!

Kudos to all the kids who participated in last week's extra credit writing assignment! These children will be receiving a HOMEWORK PASS that may be exchanged for any week's homework assignment! This pass may be used ONE time.

Be on the lookout in the coming weeks for more extra credit opportunites!

Our special fall centers will be this Friday! Thank you in advance to all the moms and dads who donated time and resources to our classroom!

October 14th Update...The Abbreviated Version!

2010-10-14T18:58:00.000-05:00

Hello Parents,

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read about what has been happening in the fabulous Room 205! It's going to be a short one this week, as I am busily preparing for report cards and conferences next week. Next week, I will give a more detailed update of what we've been studying academically. Please read over the Classroom News section carefully, as there is some information about conferences and upcoming important dates. See you next week! (Parents, check out the extra credit opportunity for your child below! Please read ALL the directions carefully...I'm a stickler for details when it comes to EXTRA CREDIT!)

Classroom News and Announcements...

To help conferences run as smoothly as possible next week, please let me know if you will not be able to make the scheduled time. With each conference only being 20 minutes, I'll have to stay on a really tight schedule to get all the information to you that I would like. I will not be able to start any conferences late, unfortunately.

The children will be dismissed two hours early all next week. Please make any dismissal changes in writing.

Our lunch time next week will be 10:20-10:50 due to Early Release. Please plan accordingly if you are visiting for lunch.

Thank you to Mrs. Tovar and Mrs. Henry for all the extra effort they put in to make my birthday so special. And thank you for helping out as our AR parents this week also!

Congratulations to Maya Mizerek for being chosen as this week's Teacher's Helper! Way to go on that great behavior, Maya!

Classroom Needs...Okay, first graders are really hard on recess toys! Since the beginning of the year, we have either lost or broken three jumpropes, three playground balls, one lacrosse set, one science kit, and three tennis balls. I am bringing some more things from home, but we would love any donations of playground toys. We are great with used toys...as I have found they probably won't last long!

Extra Credit Opportunity...Due Friday, October 22. You will be handsomely rewarded for your efforts!
We read the book Where the Wild Things Are in class this week. The main character, Max, gets in trouble and gets sent to his room. Write about a time YOU got into trouble! Follow ALL the steps below for a special surprise...
1. Brainstorm a list of times you got into trouble on a piece of paper (think of at least four different times!)...Choose ONE to write about.
2. Organize this event on a piece of paper with phrases to help you remember all the details. Follow the guidelines we talked about for what a personal narrative should include (Who was with you? Where were you? When was it? What happened first? Next? After that? In the end?)
3. Use this organizer to write a MINIMUM ten sentence paragraph about your experience.
4. Have a parent help you edit and revise your story to make it even better.
5. Rewrite or type the story. Make sure you include an underlined and capitalized title and indent your first word.
6. Draw and color an illustration to match your story.
7. ALL work including typing MUST be completed by YOU! (Of course, parents may HELP)
8. ALL work (brainstorming list, organizer, rough draft, and final copy must be turned in to earn the reward.

October 8th Update...

2010-10-08T14:35:00.000-05:00

Hi Parents,

We've had a great week, despite the fact that I was "voiceless" for two of the days! The kids were so funny. They said, "You sound weird, Mrs. Wadsworth!" Check out below to find out what we've been doing this week in our classroom. Also, take a minute to read the Classroom News below for important information about our class and families.

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned all about the L-blends. We played several games to help us remember when to use these blends. We also learned about nouns and verbs and their jobs in sentences. We played an interactive smartboard activity to help us recognize these words in sentences. We also completed a noun/verb sort on the smartboard.

Reading: We are more than halfway through our chapter book, Because of Winn-Dixie. We've compared the characters in this book and the kids have really impressed me with their listening skills! We also learned a new sight word game called spelling squares. This game is helping us to improve our sight word recognition and increase our reading vocabulary.

Writing: We really focused on the important components of a personal narrative this week. We wrote a "recipe" to help us remember the steps to a good narrative. We learned what transition words to use at various parts of the paragraph (first, next, after that, in the end) and we learned how to incorporate the setting and characters in the beginning of the story. I modeled a personal narrative writing using an organizer, and then allowed time for the children to write their own story.

Math: We began our unit on place value this week. We learned how to determine the value of the digits in a number. We also learned four ways to represent a number (standard form, word form, using base ten blocks, and expanded form). This was a challenging concept, and one we will continue to explore during the next grading period. Please make sure you sign and return the place value assessment IF your child's test had a purple "sign and return" stamp at the top. We also reviewed touch money and skip counting. Please remember to practice skip counting by 5's with your child if this skill was not mastered in kindergarten. We took our math facts test on Friday. Make sure you check out my "big ups" in the section below for a wonderful compliment!

Social Studies: We completed our unit on Ben Franklin. We also enjoyed hearing about other inventions and their inventors from the children who participated in the extra credit project. We learned about the lightbulb, the iPod, legos, the seatbelt, and the first airplane. You can view these wonderful projects in our hallway during conference week.

Conversation Starters...
*Ask your child to tell you all about Gloria Dump.
*Ask your child to tell you what a noun is. What is a verb?
*Ask your child how many "babies" can be in the "ones house". What does that mama do when there are more than she wants???
*Ask your child to tell you about bifocals. Who invented them and how are they different from regular glasses?
*Ask your child what two interesting foods I brought into school for them to try? Which tasting activity allowed us to spit without getting in trouble?

Classroom News and Announcements...
Thank you to Mrs. Tovar, Mr. Petty, and Mrs. Davis for helping in our room with AR this week!

Thank you to Mrs. Mizerek for helping us with our Pumpkin Carving Contest! The kids helped scoop and separate the seeds from the pulp, then I took home the seeds and roasted them. We tried them on Friday. There are a lot of pumpkin seed lovers in our room...that is so unusual!

Thank you to Mrs. Mizerek for sorting my paperwork for me this week! She saved me so much time!

Congratulations to Sofia Tovar, Andrew Gohlke, Arturo Cordova, Asa Garcia, Skye Taylor, and Eric Kho for taking on the extra credit challenge this week! These six children earned a very special reward. To the parents of these six students, be on the lookout Monday for a special note in the blue folder. Our reward will be on Friday, October 15th from 2:30-3:30.

I have to give a BIG UPS to our class for their hard work on the math facts this week! All the children who took the +5 test passed and many children who retook the +4 test greatly improved their scores from last week and passed. Remember, one of our school improvement goals is computation! Memorization of math facts is a key component of computation. If your child is still using his/her fingers, then they are not memorizing the facts. If you are unsure how to help your child in this area, please let me know and I can give you some really useful tips to help.

Congratulations to Asia Davis for being chosen as this week's teacher's helper. Asia did an outstanding job exhibiting our rules to live by.

Thank you to those who sent in old but clean socks for us to use erasers on our white boards. We could use some more, so check those drawers for socks without a partner and we'll gladly take them!

Make sure you marked on your calendar our conference time. I will not send any additional reminders home. I am looking forward to meeting with you.

October 1, 2010 Update...

2010-09-30T14:36:00.000-05:00

Hello Parents,

We've had another great week! Testing is going well and you should receive your child's CoGat scores sometime in mid-November. The children have really impressed me with their focus and determination. Way to go, class! Below, you will find the details for our first extra credit project. Personal best is expected and the given criteria must be followed to earn the reward! Encourage your child to participate. Check out what else we've been doing this week...

Phonics/Grammar: We learned the new sc, sn, and sw blends. We also reviewed what nouns are and played a sorting game on the smartboard. In small groups, we took sentence parts and made them complete sentences by either adding the predicate or the subject. We also worked on segmenting words into syllable parts on a pocket chart. We began a funny book called How To Speak Politely. This book teaches grammar rules in a funny way. The kids have really enjoyed this book. So far, we have learned never to use the word "ain't", when to add "ly" to the end of words, how to properly use the words "can" and "may", and why we shouldn't use "not" and "no" in the same sentence.

Writing: In writing this week, we were able to tell all about our favorite activity during our fall break. We also began discussing what a biography is and we completed an organizer together on Benjamin Franklin, then wrote a paragraph about his life.

Reading: We worked in small groups and individually this week, focusing on reading fluency and decoding strategies for challenging words. We also retold the story Ticky-Tacky Doll, including important details from the beginning, middle, and end of the story. We are enjoying our chapter book, Because Of Winn-Dixie and can't wait for MOVIE NIGHT at Mrs. Wadsworth's house...details coming soon!

Math: We are practicing our addition and subtraction skills as well as application of these skills in word problems. We are also beginning to explore comparing numbers to 100. We continue to work on skip counting, fact families, and counting money daily during our calendar time. In addition, we are making sure we are all familiar with our days, months, and seasons. Practice this at home if you notice a weakness in any area.

Social Studies: We began our study of Benjamin Franklin and his significant contributions to our country. Your child should be able to tell you at least three of his inventions and two contributions to our country. Just in case you forgot, he invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the odometer, and the first stove and he helped establish our government and helped write the Declaration of Independence.

Conversation Starters:
*Ask your child what Otis did at the pet shop that calmed all the animals down in Because of Winn-Dixie.
*Ask your child to tell you a few words that might indicate subtraction in a word problem. What are the clue words for addition?
*How many brothers and sisters did Benjamin Franklin have? How old was he when he went to work for his brother in the print shop?
*Ask your child how many "gold stars" they have on the AR poster.

Class News and Reminders...
Congratulations to Eric Kho for being chosen as our Teacher's Helper this week! Way to go, Eric!

Thank you to Mrs. Tovar, Mrs. Henry and Mrs. Davis for helping with our reading groups this week!

Thank you to Mrs. Henry, Mrs. Davis (Asia's mom) and Mrs. Davis (Jackson's mom) for sending in magazines and socks for our room! Thank you also to Mrs. DeFreece for sending in a monetary donation for extra snacks and new recess toys for our class!

Parents, please be on the lookout next week for your conference letter, indicating the time we will meet in October. I know we all have very busy schedules and I will try to accommodate any conflicts as best I can.

We are taking our +4's math fact quiz on Friday. If your child is struggling with these facts, please set aside some extra time to work on this at home. We will begin differentiating the quizzes next week. If your child does not make an 80% or higher, please continue to work on this set of facts.

Extra Credit Project: Due October 8th! Reward will be revealed on that day!
This week in class, we have been learning all about Benjamin Franklin and how his curiosity led to many inventions we still use today. I would like for you to find out who the inventor was of something that you think is useful in your life today. Here are the steps to follow if you would like to participate in the extra credit project:
1. Think of what you want to research (some ideas might be the microwave, the camera, the roller coaster, or stop light...get creative!)
2. Do research on the computer or in books to find out who the inventor was.
3. Write at least an 8 sentence paragraph telling us about the inventor's life, what else he/she invented, and how this invention came to be. Paragraph must be neatly written or typed, front side of paper only. Include a title and your name in the paragraph.
4. Include two visuals; one of the inventor and one of the invention. Visuals printed from the computer are preferred.
5. Practice reading your paragraph. Be prepared to independently read your paper to the class on Friday, October 8th.
Good Luck!

September 17th Update...

2010-09-17T12:36:00.001-05:00

Good Morning Parents,

I hope everyone has relaxing plans for the next week! My family and I will be doing just that on the beaches of St. George Island. Please continue to work with your child over the break. Some important concepts we have been working on this week that should just be a review for your child are skip counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's, identifying coins and counting money, writing numbers to 100, and adding and subtracting single digit numbers. If you notice your child struggling in these areas, your help at home is important. Of course, continue to encourage reading for comprehension. Your child should be able to easily identify the character, setting, and 4 important events from a grade level appropriate book. In writing, I am expecting sentences to start with a capital letter, end with punctuation, and be one complete thought. Application of spelling patterns that we have covered this year is also expected. Thank you so much for all you do at home! I have been sooo impressed with the homework that is coming back to school! Way to encourage "personal best"!

Phonics/Grammar: We learned the sk, sp, and sn sounds this week and we reviewed the st as well. We talked about the difference between asking and telling sentences and how to identify them. We worked on generating questions.

Reading: We worked on retelling stories using a graphic organizer. We read from our book, Because of Winn-Dixie. Just like Opal did concerning her mother in the book, we wrote 10 important things about ourselves. We listened to a story and tape and wrote what the book was about. We worked in small groups on identifying the genre of a book. We listened to a short story read by our book buddies, then we went on a short vowel search in the passage.

Writing: This week, we learned how to formulate a plan, otherwise known as prewriting, to help us map out what our story will be about. We then wrote our personal narrative. I conferenced with the students as they finished and we discussed how to take our stories to the next level and ways we could improve our writing.

Math: We learned two more strategies for addition, memorizing doubles facts and using a number line to count on. We reviewed money and skip counting. We played several interactive smartboard activities that enforced these concepts. We also went on a "money" scavenger hunt in our room in a partner activity. We also worked on several word problems, utilizing our four square method for solving.

Science: We discussed the water cycle and learned all about precipitation, water collection, evaporation, and condensation. We created illustrations to show our understanding of this concept. We also reviewed the four seasons and discussed temperature, weather, and other characteristics of each season.

Conversation Starters...
*Ask your child why Opal wants to work at the local pet store in Naomi, Florida. What is she trying to buy for Winn-Dixie?
*Ask your child to explain the water cycle to you, and see if he/she can include the hand motions that go with each phase.
*Ask your child to explain "Touch Money" to you. Can he/she count some sets of coins for you?
*Ask your child how many nickels it would take to equal the same amount of money as a quarter. How do they know?
*Ask your child who their book buddy is and what activity they did this week.
*Ask your child what their favorite smart board activity has been this week.

Classroom News and Announcements...
Thank you goes to Mr. Tovar, Mrs. Turner, and Mrs. Kwan for helping out this week with AR. The kids are really getting into a routine of reading books and taking quizzes to check their comprehension. Parents, your help during our classroom guided reading time is so valuable to me. Thank you!

We will be administering the CoGat test in first grade on September 29, 30 and October 1. PLEASE send your child to school on time each day and please make sure your child has eaten a healthy breakfast. Sugary or carbohydrate loaded foods really do affect your child's ability to concentrate on a lengthy test like the CoGat. I would suggest protein and low-sugar carbs for BRAIN FOOD during these days especially.

We will have another bake sale on Thursday, September 30 to support our Kemp families with children battling cancer. Please consider supporting this fundraiser by allowing your child to purchase a baked good.

Donations Needed: We often use dry erase markers on our desks or on whiteboards. We are in need of clean small socks that your children can put over their hands to use as erasers during these activities. You may send in one sock, or a bag of socks! Our classroom also needs donations of child appropriate magazines that can be cut apart (gardening, food, home improvement, science, automobile magazines). Any donations are greatly appreciated!

September 10, 2010 Update...

2010-09-10T13:50:00.003-05:00

Hi Parents,

We had a very busy short week! I want to thank Mr. Garcia, Mrs. Henry and Mrs. Gohlke for reading to the children and helping them take AR tests this week. The children love this special time. If you are interested in volunteering to read, be on the lookout for information coming soon from Mrs. Tovar or Mrs. Henry. They will be scheduling our November readers soon. We also have two open dates that were not filled at Open House. If you are "kid-free" and available to read to a small group from 9:40-10:15 on Sept. 16th or Oct. 21st, let me know and I'll add you to our AR calendar. Check out below to see what we've been learning this week. Also, there is a special secret code word written in this blog somewhere. Find it, write in on a piece of paper, and have your child give it to me by TUESDAY, September 14th for a special treat! (Yes, this is my silly way of rewarding my kids of the parents who are reading the blog on a weekly basis!)

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned the s, t, and st sounds. We sorted picture cards containing these sounds and we wrote sentences containing words with these sounds. We played a dice game to review our four digraphs and our new sounds from this week. We also discussed question words and question marks and we played a game during centers to help us practice generating questions.

Reading: We finished up our chapter book, Judy Moody. We voted on our next chapter book, which will be Because of Winn-Dixie. The children are very excited about this book. I will be having a movie night at my house as a special culminating activity for this chapter book. The date will be coming soon. In reading, we worked on our independent reading contracts to sharpen our reading and writing skills. We also worked in small groups to improve our comprehension strategies. In whole group, we listened to stories and then used props to help us retell the important events.

Math: We completed our basic subtraction unit. We learned the strategy of counting up from the smaller number to the larger number as well as drawing a math picture of both numbers in a subtraction problem and comparing them. We worked on a method for solving word problems (four-square method), which will be our strategy throughout the year. This method involves finding the information (numbers) and circling them, underlining the clue words that tell us what operation to perform, drawing a math picture to solve, writing the corresponding number sentence, and then answering the word problem in sentence form. You will see an example of this on your child's math test that was in the blue folder today. We are emphasizing the PROCESS, not simply the ANSWER. The secret code word is "four-square".

Science: We talked about the four seasons and various activities that we often do during those seasons. We made a flip book about the seasons, writing sentences and illustrating.

Classroom News and Reminders...

Lauren Garner was our teacher's helper this week! Way to go, Lauren, for being a great example to your fellow classmates. Lauren will also be teacher's helper next week, as she was out sick a few days and we want her to fully enjoy the benefits that come with this honor!

Beginnning next week with our +4 math facts, your child will only advance to the next set of facts if a score of 80% or higher is achieved. If your child scores lower than an 80%, he/she will remain on the +4's for the following week. Please remember to practice these facts with your child. This is one proven way to increase your child's math fluency!

Encourage your child to read AR books at least twice before returning them to school and taking AR tests. Also, it is a great idea to question your child on the book. Remember, we are reading for understanding, not simply word recognition.

If you were unable to join us for Open House and would like a copy of the power point, please let me know and I'll get that to you.

Conversation Starters...

*Ask your child to retell you the story of There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed the Sea. Can they remember all the things she swallowed?
*Ask your child where Opal was when she first met Winn-Dixie.
*Ask your child what a right pointing arrow means in arrow math (+1). Can he/she tell you what a downward pointing arrow means? (+10)

September 3, 2010 Update

2010-09-03T13:45:00.000-05:00

Hello Parents,

Thank you for visiting today! I enjoyed meeting with all of you last night at Open House. I hope you found the information useful. Please check out below to see what we've been learning all week.

Phonics: We reviewed all four digraphs from the past two weeks, practiced sorting picture cards, and writing words with this digraph. We also continue to isolate long vowel sounds in words and study their spelling patterns.

Writing: We continue to explore the personal narrative genre as well as adding rich details to our writing. We wrote stories about our classroom math monster this week. We talked about what makes a complete sentence. We also met individually with Mrs. W to conference about how we can make our writing better.

Math: We worked on learning several strategies for subtraction. We began by using pictures to help us, then we moved on to counting up from the smaller number. We got together in small groups to work on solving word problems. We first locate the information (numbers) and then we identify the clue words that tell us the operation to use. After that, we formulate the problem and choose our strategy for solving. We continued our study of arrow math to sharpen our mental math skills during calendar time. In independent groups, we practiced addition, subtraction, and fact families by playing fun games.

Reading: We read several short stories and used props to help us retell the story in sequential order. We listened to Ira Sleeps Over and then we put sentence strips in order to retell the story as an assessment. We also worked in small groups on leveled books and discussed ways to decode unfamiliar words (looking at pictures, getting our mouths ready to make the first sound, looking for parts of the word we may know). We worked independently on a reading contract to practice a variety of reading and writing skills. At the end of the week, we all took AR tests on our "tub" book.

Social Sciences: We compared maps and globes, completing a Venn diagram to help us understand the similarities and differences. We also began a "My Global Address" book, identifying our continent, country, state and city.

Conversation Starters:

*Ask your child who Frank Pearl is and what he has a reputation of doing.
*Ask your child if they prefer to draw pictures or count up to solve subtraction problems.
*Ask your child the name of Ira's teddy bear in the story Ira Sleeps Over.
*Ask your child how many stars they have on the Reading Rockers poster for getting 100% on AR tests!

Classroom News and Reminders...

Thank you so much for the book donations this week! Our classroom library has grown and I can tell you the kids are so excited to jump into these new books. I really appreciate your donations.

Remember, no school on Monday! Enjoy your long weekend.

Asa Garcia was our very first Teacher's Helper this week. Congratulations to Asa for exhibiting our five Rules To Live By and being an excellent role model for his peers. Way to go, Asa! (Asa gets extra bonus points this week...He came to school and told me I looked like Heather Locklear!!! Of course, we paraded the halls and I made him repeat that to everyone we saw!)

The flu and virus season is officially upon us. Please remember the Cobb County policy on student illnesses. Your child must be fever free for a full 24 hours without the aid of a fever reducer before returning to school. Your child may not return to school for a full 24 hours after the last incidence of vomiting or diarhea. Hopefully if we all follow these guidelines, we can keep the germs to a minimum in our room.

Your child brought home a subtraction test in his/her blue folder today. Please sign and return this along with the red behavior sheet and the Performing Arts permission slip and donation.

August 27th Update...

2010-08-26T13:59:00.002-05:00

Hello Parents,

Thanks for visiting today! We've had such a productive week...we began guided reading groups and our small group rotation as well as guided math groups. Check out the conversation starters section to prompt your child to talk about his/her day. The book fair has come to Kemp! If you are interested in donating a book to our class library, there are a few suggestions on the Wish List board in the Media Center. Don't forget to mark your calendar for next Thursday...I look forward to seeing everyone at Open House!

Phonics: This week, we learned the wh and th digraph. We read a poem, hunting for words containing the digraphs, and used wiki sticks to circle them. We also identified rhyming words in the poem.

Reading: We finished our Magic Tree House chapter book this week. We discussed the literary elements in this story. We also read the book, The Napping House, and used props to help us retell the story in sequential order. In small groups, we worked on leveled books to challenge our vocabulary knowledge. We also learned several strategies for decoding challenging words. We began a literary elements mini-book with our book buddies. We completed the chapter book, Henry and Mudge: The First Book and completed and independent reading contract on this story.

Math: We completed our math unit on single digit addition. We learned several strategies for solving addition problems. We also discussed fact families and how addition problems are related to subtraction problems, then completed a fact family house. On our calendar wall, we continue to learn about number patterns, time, and money. We worked in small guided groups on problem solving strategies, ordering numbers to 30, and number representation (written form, standard form, and illustration). We also practiced the commutative property of addition with our domino game and a partner! Remember to continue practicing those math facts. If your child had trouble with +1 and +2, continue to work on this at home. We have two weeks to master +3 facts. The kids are all handling this challenge beautifully

Social Studies: We began our Maps and Globes unit. We played a game called Land or Water, read a book about maps, and completed a Venn diagram to compare maps and globes. We will continue with this study next week.

Conversation Starters...
*Ask your child who Jack and Annie are and what was magical about the tree house they went in.
*Ask your child to explain a fact family to you...Give them the fact family 6,2,8 and see if they can tell you the four facts that make up this family.
*Can your child tell you their book buddy's name?
*Ask your child what has been their favorite book series so far...Magic Tree House, A to Z Mysteries, or Junie B. Jones? Why?
*Can your child tell you why the character, Henry, was so sad in the story we read? Hint: It has to do with his dog Mudge.

Classroom News and Reminders...

The Book Fair opens tomorrow! Our class will be previewing the books and making wish lists on Friday morning. I hope many of you can make it to the family fun night on Tuesday, August 31st. Your child may dress up as their favorite super hero. There will be lots of fun and prizes!

This week was Bully Prevention Week. Please let your child wear blue tomorrow in support of preventing bullying in our school and our community.

See you on Thursday evening at 6:30 for Open House. This will be a parent-only night filled with lots of good information. After the presentation, I'll turn on the Smartboard for those of you who'd like to see this wonderful piece of educational technology in action.

August 20, 2010 Update...

2010-08-19T14:41:00.002-05:00

Hello Parents,

Thank you for taking time out of your day to find out about what's been going on in Room 205! We've had a busy week and we've completed many of our preassessments. We are ready to jump into our curriculum and get moving...Check out below to find out what we've studied this week. Pay special attention to the "Conversation Starters" section located below to get your children talking more about specifics in the classroom. I hope you find this new section a helpful communication tool between you and your child.

Phonics: We studied the ch/sh digraph in the beginning, middle and ending of words. We continued segmenting words to help us move to more conventional spelling when we write. We also reviewed the long/short o spelling patterns and worked together on a smartboard activity.

Reading: We finished our chapter book, Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. We talked about story elements and sequencing a story when retelling.
We completed an organizer showing our knowledge of these elements. We began our new chapter book, The Magic Tree House:Dinosaurs Before Dark. We are working through the Cobb County High Frequency Word List to improve our reading as well as our writing.

Writing: This week, we began working on our brainstorming techniques. We discussed the importance of writing about "small moments" in time. I am encouraging the students to narrow their topic instead of trying to write about a longer segment of time. Writing about a "small moment", but including rich and vivid detail is our end goal. I continue to emphasize correct conventions when writing (capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and complete thoughts).

Math: We began our unit on addition strategies. We are focusing on using illustrations to help us add. We played games using two-color counters as well as dice to practice this skill. We also discussed fact families. We continue to review all the ways to represent numbers during our calendar time (expanded form, written form, base ten blocks, and place value).

Health: We learned about the importance of eating a balanced and healthy diet. We learned how to categorize foods into food groups.

Conversation Starters (use these prompts to talk with your child about our school day!)

*Ask your child why Junie B. Jones thought she should call 911 from the clinic at school.
*Ask your child what the word "genre" means.
*Can your child remember his/her book buddy's name? What activity did they do to get to know each other?
*Ask your child what the "mama" in the ones house does to her babies when she gets to ten??? (Response should be she bundles them all together and sends them over to the tens house...)

Class News and Reminders...

Please remember to sign and return the red weekly behavior report every Monday.

We visited the Media Center on Thursday. Your child is allowed to check out two books at a time. Please help your child be responsible with these library books and return them as soon as he/she is finished with the books. The children will have several opportunities every day to visit the Media Center. I will discuss AR books and points at our Open House meeting in September.

Be on the lookout for the Snack Sack! We began our rotation last Friday and Mrs. Garner did an excellent job providing a healthy and nutritious snack for the kids all week long! Thank you, Mrs. Garner.

Remember to keep Arturo in your prayers! He had his tonsils taken out Thursday morning. We look forward to him returning next week.

August 13, 2010 Blog Update...

2010-08-12T20:06:00.001-05:00

Dear Parents,

Thanks you for visiting the blog today! We have had an amazing 1st full week of school. We are settling nicely into our daily routine and the children seem to be enjoying getting to know one another. I am so proud of their maturity and willingness to embrace this new independence that is expected of them this year. We begin and end each day with smiles and hugs, so I hope your child feels like our classroom is a safe and secure environment. That is key to success!

Below, you will find what we have been doing throughout our busy days. Make sure you check out the "Classroom News and Reminders" section at the bottom for important information! Also, encourage your child to vote on our new class poll.

Phonics: We quickly reviewed all the beginning consonant sounds this week. We also began working in our Words Their Way notebooks. We sorted words according to beginning sounds. We also had fun on the smartboard, searching for certain words in a poem. We continued our skill of segmenting words to help our spelling and reading.

Reading: We read our first chapter book, The Absent Author. We talked about "genres" of stories. We also began discussing literary elements (characters, setting, events). The children were so excited to listen to this story. It was great to see their enthusiasm. We will be reading various genres of several book series over the next few weeks. My goal is to peak the children's interest in a certain genre, and then guide them to reading the other books in that series. I worked with students one-on-one this week to administer several preassessments to help me understand their strengths and weaknesses as well.

Writing: We discussed the importance of using a graphic organizer to plan when we write. We read the book The Important Book, organized our thoughts on a 4-square, wrote a paragraph, and briefly talked about ways to improve our writing. We also began writing in our journals this week. We will begin learning specific characteristics of narrative writing in the coming weeks, and the children will have many writing opportunities with this style of writing.

Math: We graphed our birthdays and looked at how information is displayed in a graph. We flexed our creative muscles this week as well! We read the book, Ten Black Dots, then made our own version of this book entitled Five Blue Dots. I loved looking at the illustrations in these books!

Classroom News and Reminders:

Homework officially begins on Monday! Your child will have a FULL blue folder that day, containing an explanation of the hw, a "Phonics Focus" list of optional activities for you to do with your child, and a weekly hw calendar stapled to the sheets that need to be returned to school on Friday.

The kids are doing an awesome job reading! Update the reading log daily, but please try and only use one row per night (This will help with our paper limitations!)

If you choose not to participate in the Coupon Card fundraiser, please return the packet to school.

I will be making home phone calls next week, just to briefly touch base with you and see if you have any questions or concerns. I will be going over our daily schedule, classroom management system, and curriculum in depth at Open House on September 2nd, but I would just like to have a short conversation with you before then.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

An Amazing Start...

2010-08-07T13:09:00.008-05:00

Dear Parents,

Thank you for taking time to visit our blog today! What a great start to our school year we have had! The children have really impressed me with their maturity and I know we are going to accomplish amazing things this year. This week, we focused on getting to know each other, learning where things are in the classroom, and expectations and procedures that we will follow throughout the day. I will be slowly introducing new things to the children over the course of the next two weeks or so; everything from homework expectations and morning routines to classroom management. I want to thank all of you for allowing your first graders to exhibit their independence and come to the classroom on their own our first week! I will be challenging your child to live up to his or her full potential every minute they are in my classroom, and keeping a structured environment really allows for this. Of course, there will be many opportunities for you to participate in our classroom. I will be contacting parents who expressed an interest in helping after our Open House meeting. I also wanted to thank all of you for getting the school supplies to me so quickly. Your child will not be needing a pencil box since we will be using tables instead of desks in our room. If you sent one to school, I have told your child to keep in his/her bookbag for homework. I will be providing snack for the children this week, so there is no need to send one in. The snack sack rotation will begin the following week. Directions are attached to the sack.

Check out below to see what we have been working on in class this week...

Phonics/Grammar: We briefly reviewed all the sounds of single letters. We also talked about how to identify syllables in words and how this helps us spell more challenging words. We identified the number of syllables in our names and made a class graph.

Reading: We read the book Chrysanthemum. We played a partner game, making smaller words from the letters in Chrysanthemum. We listened to a funny story entitled My Little Sister Ate One Hare and retold the events of the story. The children also learned how the books are categorized in our reading center and how to find books on their level. In the coming weeks, the children will be taking several assessments in order to help me identify their independent reading level and guide them towards appropriate reading material.

Writing: We read the book What I Did Over Summer Vacation by Marc Teague, then began our first piece of writing. The children were introduced to the concept of choosing one topic and making sure all the details included in their paragraph pertain to that topic. Next week, we will learn how to use an organizer to help us write a rough draft, revise and then rewrite a paragraph.

Math: The children became familiar with the components of our Daily Calendar and Math RAP (review and practice), which focuses on maintaining essential skills. The children will be taking a math inventory next week to help me identify their strengths and weaknessses.

Social Sciences: The past few days, we really have focused on creating a classroom environment that is conducive to learning. So far, we have discussed four out of our five "Rules". These five rules, which are actually character traits, are Active Listening, No Put-Downs, Personal Best, Truthfulness, and Trustworthiness. The children learn a hand motion with each rule and we act out in a classroom meeting what each rule looks like and doesn't look like.

Important Reminders and Class News...

Please help your child practice his/her +1 math facts. We are using these very simple math facts to help us really practice the procedure of taking a timed test. You may use flash cards or visit the "math facts" website at the bottom of this blog to help your child learn these facts.

Have fun and be creative with the Hawaiian shirt activity! The shirts are due Friday and will be shared that day and all next week.

Thank you to Mrs. Tovar, who has agreed to be our class room mom! Mrs. Henry has also agreed to share in this responsibility. Thank you, also, to all the volunteers who signed up to help out in our classroom.

A New Beginning...

2010-06-22T21:44:00.006-05:00

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I'll begin with a relevant quote...

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." -John F. Kennedy

I am so excited about what the future holds for me and I'm determined not to miss a thing! I can't tell you how excited I am about becoming a part of the Kemp family. I am coming from Ford Elementary School, where I taught 2nd grade for three years. I've had the privilege of teaching in Cobb County Schools for ten years now. For the next month or so, I'll be enjoying this hot Georgia summer with my husband and my two beautiful daughters. I can't wait to meet my new students and their families in August!

The Final Edition...

2010-05-20T08:08:00.003-05:00

Hi Parents and Students!

This is my final edition of our Super Second Grade Blog! Please take a minute to carefully read the blog and the News below. There is lots of good information here today! The end of this year is bittersweet for sure. I am so proud of the progress the children have made this year, both academically and otherwise! Please keep in touch with me. I love to hear how "my children" are doing. I will have the same email address. I have not yet gotten word on where or what grade I will be teaching next year. I think someone's trying to tell me I need to work on my patience!

Third grade summer bridge activities begin at my house next week. I will resend the calendar to the parents who responded to the sign-up letter (which was nine children...AWESOME!) and I can add you to our email list if you did not sign up but are interested. Just let me know by tomorrow via email. We are going to accomplish great things this summer. If transportation is an issue, let me know. I'm sure we can work something out.

News and Notes...

Congratulations goes to Samantha Kenny for earning the Presidential Physical Fitness Award! She was one of two second graders who accomplished this recognition. Way to go!

Congratulations also goes to Molly McKinnon, Kaitlyn Ketch, and Madeline Conrad for earning the National Physical Fitness Award! Way to go girls!

I want to give a big thank you to a couple of moms who really dedicated their time and energy to our class. Jill Thompson and Lisa Brooks came in every week to read with the children and help them take AR tests. The kids truly loved this time!

I also want to thank Lisa Brooks for being our fearless room mom! She did an excellent job organizing all of our special events, even with my many last minute requests...and she always had a smile! Thank you, Lisa!

Now, on to the housekeeping notes...If you have not done so, please send in a self addressed stamped envelope for you child's CRCT results. These will come separate from your child's report card.

Please do not send bookbags to school tomorrow. Everything will be coming home today and bookbags are not allowed on the buses.

Don't forget, today and tomorrow are early release days. We will be dismissing at 1:30 on both days.

May 7, 2010 Update...

2010-05-07T08:33:00.003-05:00

Hello Parents and Students,

We have had such a busy week! Wasn't Evening in the Garden fantastic? The children worked so hard on the performance. It was also so heartwarming to see how much of a community our school actually is. We had our head custodian and his sons in the band, our cafe manager singing, and another custodian DJing! I just think we are so lucky to be here at Ford. I also want to thank you for making Teacher Appreciation Week so special. I love the flowers, the cards warmed my heart, and I have enough chocolate to get me through the end of the year...okay, who are we kidding? You know how much I love chocolate, it should last me through the weekend!

Check out below to see what else we've been doing this week. I hope to see many of you at field day on Tuesday or at our special event for all the moms on Thursday at 8:00 am.

Phonics: This week, we reviewed lessons 30-34 and took an assessment on the phonics spelling patterns. We also learned three letter -r controlled blends and the squ- blend. Remember, our spelling program is designed to teach patterns, not simply the memorization of words. This is very different from the way you and I learned to spell, but research shows that this way of teaching spelling improves writing and reading compared to the traditional way of spelling.

Reading: We read several stories on various life cycles and answered comprehension questions. We reviewed strategies for locating information to answer our questions, such as looking for common key words and phrases in the questions/text. We also read the book, Plants, in small groups and practiced these strategies. We worked independently on our chapter books and contracts. The children are working hard on earning their 75 points to make it to the JumpIts party next week. I will send invitations to those children who met this yearly goal. Be on the lookout in the blue folder today.

Math: We reviewed a few more challenging concepts from the year this week. These concepts included three-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping, telling time to the five minute increment, and making change with money. This review and subsequent assessments have helped me determine whether your child has retained the concepts over the course of the year. These assessments can be found in your child's blue folder and can provide you with great information to work with your child on over the summer.

Writing: The children worked on some special projects that all the moms will be enjoying next week! We also began working on taking our one paragraph personal narratives to multiple paragraph papers in preparation for third grade. These next few weeks, we will focus on previewing the third grade curriculum.

Science: We released our butterflies on Tuesday. We also discussed the importance of the circle diagram when showing life cycles and the meaning of this. Everyone did a fabulous job on their life cycle at home projects and you will find your child's grade in the blue folder as well. I've tried to include some glows (what I loved about the project) as well as some grows (how the project could be improved) on each grade sheet. Please discuss these notes with your child!

Classroom News ...

Tuesday is Field Day! Please remember to send your child to school with sunscreen, hats, and appropriate clothing and shoes for a full day out in the sun! We will only be inside for about an hour lunch break that day.

Thursday is our special mom event. Please plan to come to our room at 8:00. We are so excited about the special day!

May 2, 2010 Update...

2010-05-02T06:02:00.002-05:00

Hello Parents and Students,

Thank you for visiting today. I can't believe we only have 15 days of school left! This year has just flown by. The days we have left in 2nd grade are winding down, but we are not! Check out below to see what we've been working on this week...

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned the spr, str, and scr blend. We used our knowledge to apply these sounds to our writing. We also reviewed the ou/ow and the au/aw sound, as these spelling patterns are commonly confused when writing. In grammar, we worked in small groups playing a game to identify the part of speech of words, focusing on nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Writing: We continue to work in the writing genre of persuasive writing. We completed a paragraph this week and moved on to the editing process. We are focusing on adding rich vocabulary and more descriptive words when we write. We also worked on another Haiku, which helped us focus on describing words and segmenting words into syllables.

Reading: This week, I assessed the children using our Developmental Reading Assessment. This assessment, which is the one that I shared with you at conferences in January, indicates your child's oral reading fluency and comprehension level. This is just one assessment that is used to determine your child's overall reading level. We are still reading our chapter book, Kenny and the Dragon.

Math: We completed our division unit and are now working in small groups on extending or remediating concepts based on the end of the nine week benchmark exam. We will continue to do this for the next two weeks, then we will retake the exam. The concepts we are working on are number representation to the thousands, elapsed time, multiplication, division, and adding and subtracting three digit numbers with and without regrouping.

Science: All six of our butterflies emerged out of their chrysalises this week! The children have observed the butterflies, recording their findings in a journal. We watched two short video clips on the life cycle of the frog and the life cycle of the monarch butterfly.

Social Studies: This week, we learned about the government leaders (local, state and national). We also spotlighted Jimmy Carter and his humanitarian efforts. The children read a book and used the book as a resource to answer questions about Jimmy Carter.

Important Classroom News...

Thank you to those of you who have volunteered to work with the PE department on field day! I still am in need of a volunteer to help me on that day. If you are available, please email me. I need someone to bring water for the children and help with things like bathroom breaks.

Remember to return the RSVP for our special "mom" event! If you or someone else is unable to attend, I will try my best to find someone here at the school to be here for your child.

Evening in the Garden has been moved to Thursday due to the bad weather heading our way next week. Remember, your child will have an opportunity to share their poetry during a reading. The time and place is still undetermined. Be on the lookout for an email regarding this info. Remember, this is a "garden party"! I bought my fancy hat this weekend!

All library books need to be returned by Friday, May 7th. I will continue to have AR books in the room, but please really encourage reading this week. The children should be coming home with library books every night, then taking AR tests first thing in the morning with me. Many children have met their year long 75 point AR goal and will be receiving invitations to JumpIts for the pizza party! We will also be having a celebration for all of the students who met their nine week AR goals.

Life Cycle projects are due Monday! Please encourage your child to include lots of detail in the life cycle circle diagram. Their illustrations are just as important as the paragraph in conveying that they understand the life cycle.

April 22, 2010 Update...

2010-04-22T10:15:00.006-05:00

Hello Parents and Students,

Thank you for coming to our blog to get the latest news and information! Be on the lookout Monday for a special homework assignment. The students will be asked to research a plant or animal, create the life cycle diagram, and write a paragraph. All the materials and information will be coming home on Monday! We are eagerly anticipating the arrival of our Painted Lady Butterflies, which should be emerging from their crysalides sometime next week! Check out below to see what other things have been going on in our fabulous 2nd grade room...

Phonics: This week, we reviewed the au/aw, ow, ou sounds and we learned words that contain the spelling patterns gn, kn, and wr. We worked on white boards to show our sounding out and segmenting skills. We also completed several activities in our Words Their Way Notebook.

Reading: We are enjoying our chapter book, Kenny and the Dragon. We made a flip book, identifying the characters, setting, and plot. We talked about the events leading up to the most suspenseful part of the story (climax) and how to incorporate this into our own writing. We also worked in small groups on books, focusing on such skills as inferencing and identifying cause/effect. On Thursday, we visited the computer lab and took the final SRI assessment. This assessment shows your child's reading comprehension ability. Please pay close attention to the score. I will be attaching the 2nd grade expectations for you as well.

Writing: We are hard at work, refining how we write a persuasive paragraph. This week, we worked on choosing our favorite season and then writing a persuasive piece. First, we brainstormed some ideas for each season. Then, I modeled using an organizer for my thoughts. After that, we wrote our paragraphs. For this writing session, the children were given a "rubric" to check for all the necessary components. The children edited their papers independently. You will find your child's work and grade in the blue folder this week.

Math: We are learning various ways to divide. We applied our division skills to solve word problems and we also learned how to use a number line and skip counting to divide, how to use repeated subtraction to divide, and how to draw sets to divide. In addition, we took our Math Assessement for the material we have learned so far in this nine week period. The results will help me differentiate my instruction for the rest of the school year.

Science: With the arrival of our caterpillars, we began studying the life cycle of the butterfly. We have observed our butterflies in the larva stage (caterpillars), then changing into the pupa stage and making chrysalides. We have journals that we are recording our observations in.

Class News and Notes...

Moms, save the date of May 13th at 8:00! We have a special class event that we would like ALL mothers to be a part of. This activity will not last more than 30-45 minutes. If you are unable to attend, please arrange for someone to be there for your child or let me know so we can make sure a special person from school is here for your child. More information will be coming home next week!

Third Grade Summer Sessions: This summer, I will be hosting "bridge" activities at my home for the children in our class only. These sessions are meant to help your child retain all of the skills we have covered this year, as well as introduce the children to third grade concepts to give them an advantage at the start of third grade and "bridge" the gap that often happens when children are out for summer. There will be a calendar with the dates, times, and other important information in your child's blue folder today.

Field Day: You will see a volunteer opportunity for field day in your child's blue folder. If you sign up on that sheet, you will be in charge of a "station" for that day, which is organized by the PE department. I am still in need of two volunteers to help out our class on that day as well. Please email me if you can donate your time.

Evening in the Garden: Your child has been working on a special kind of poetry called a 'haiku' which he/she will have the opportunity to share during Evening in the Garden. If your child wishes to participate, there will be a designated area and time for these poetry readings. More information will be coming next week.

Thank you for taking time to note all of this important information this week! Please write "homework pass" in your child's agenda BEFORE Tuesday of next week and your child will receive one! Hope this helps out with all the spring time sports and extra activities that I know the kids are participating in!

April 15th Update...

2010-04-15T08:56:00.003-05:00

Hello Parents and Students,

Well, two out of the three sections of the CRCT are complete as of today! We will finish up with the math section tomorrow. I am very proud of the children's focus and hard work over the past few days. I'm excited to get our results.

This week, we mainly reviewed for the CRCT. We are all ready to be back on track next week, getting back to our usual routine. In math, we will get back to our division unit. The children will learn several strategies for dividing sets such as repeated subtraction, using a number line, and dividing into sets. The children will also be responsible for identifying key words that indicate the operation of division is required to solve a word problem. I am postponing the x4 multiplication facts quiz until next Friday. I know this week has been a difficult week to sufficiently learn this. In writing, we will continue with our persuasive writing genre. The children will learn how to fully develop a paragraph to persuade the reader that his/her opinion is correct on a specified topic. We chose our new chapter book, Kenny and the Dragon. We have completed several comprehension activities related to this story. The children are also independently working on their own chapter books and contracts, as well as working in small guided groups with me on certain reading skills and strategies. In science, we will begin discussing the life cycle of the butterfly, as well as other insects and animals. We are getting butterfly larvae and will witness this cycle first hand in our classroom.

Class News and Reminders...

Our school dance is this Saturday at Lost Mountain Middle School from 6:30 to 8:00! Join your friends for a good time, great snacks, and some rockin' music!

"Evening in the Garden" is Monday, May 3th. Your child will be working on writing a Haiku poem. He/she will have the opportunity to share this creation at our "Poetry Reading" in the outdoor classroom that evening. More information will be coming soon!

Field Day is May 11th. Our class will need two parent volunteers to "play" with us that day, as well as provide cool drinks and spray bottles for misting the kids off if it is hot outside. Please email me if you are available for all or part of this day.

Please look for overdue library books at home. All the media center books will be due back here by the first week in May.

Encourage your child to visit the First in Math website. Our class is in 3rd place for our entire school! I've told them if we move up to 1st place, we'll eat outside at the picnic tables!

Our secret "agenda" phrase for this week is "CRCT". Write this in your child's agenda by MONDAY morning and your child will win a trip to the candy basket!

March 25, 2010 Update...

2010-03-25T06:58:00.004-05:00

Hi Parents and Students,

Only one more week until Spring Break! I hope everyone has great plans. Please try to encourage your child to continue his/her reading during this time. Our last AR celebration is a great one and we've got some pretty lofty goals this quarter. I know the kids can meet these goals, but it will definitely take continued attention to do so. Please also encourage your child to stay within his/her ability level for reading. I know the kids are excited about reading longer chapter books, but understanding is the key. We had some exciting news here at school; Mrs. Belmonte's chicks have hatched! As of today, we have five baby chicks. More are expected to hatch over the next few days. The children went to science lab today, so we were lucky enough to see this event first hand! Check out the Extra Credit project below...it is a fun one this time! BUT, to earn the reward, the format MUST be followed with VALID reasons and supporting evidence. I will be picky about this one! Our secret agenda word this week is "CHICKS".

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned about the 'oo' sound as in cook and the 'oo' sound as in tooth. We used our I-Respond system to check our understanding of these sounds and we worked on whiteboards to practice writing these words. We also played a matching game with a partner. We reviewed the four types of sentences (statement, command, exclamatory, and interrogative) and wrote our own. We focused on the kind of punctuation that is needed for each.

Reading: We worked in small groups on the books Talk, Talk, Talk, The Legend of the Bluebonnets, and The Big Sheep Mix-Up. In these groups, we focused on identifying the genre as well as pointing out the key events that lead to the solution in the story. We continue to read our chapter book, Lone Wolf. Ask your child about the sad event that happened in the story this week regarding Thunderheart. We also worked on our individual chapter books and completed contracts that emphasized reading skills.

Math: This week, we reviewed elapsed time again and telling time to the five minute increment. We also began our study of division. We've worked on taking our knowledge to the next level by completing "EXEMPLARS", which are word problems that have many possible answers. I provide the children with a word problem and manipulatives to solve the problem. They then have to explain how they arrived at their answer. I love to see the great deep thinking that is going on in our room!

Writing: We began our genre of Persuasive Writing this week. I modeled using an organizer to jot down my thoughts, then I used that organizer to help me write my paragraph. The format for this type of writing is to state your opinion, provide three reasons for your opinion, then include three specific examples under your reasons. Of course, then we close by restating our opinion. The children wrote guided paragraphs on why they believed they were good citizens.

EXTRA CREDIT: Due by Friday, April 2nd...

1. State your opinion on whether or not you think children should have homework.
2. Provide three supporting reasons (must be LEGITIMATE reasons) and three details or examples to support these reasons.
3. Type your paper on the computer.
4. Be prepared to share your paper.

IF you persuade me with your reasons (for or against homework), then you will have NO homework for one full week! Remember, I am going to be very tough on whether or not I give the reward on this extra credit paper! Your spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and format must be exceptional! Good Luck!

March 18, 2010 Update...

2010-03-18T08:01:00.004-05:00

Hello Parents and Students,

Thank you for visiting today. I have been so amazed at the pace that the children are learning these days! It seems like everyone has really started to apply the many concepts we've been learning this year. I'm so pleased with the children's writing and reading. I've actually had the class ask on several days to take their chapter books to lunch to read...ahhh! Music to a teacher's ears! I have to commend you parents! Your child's eagerness to learn is a direct reflection of some awesome parenting! Check out below to see what we've been learning this week...oh! and the secret agenda word for this week is "Faolan". Ask your child who that is!

Phonics: This week, we have learned about the spelling patterns -oi and -oy. We have also used our new I-Respond system (ask your child about this also!) to take several spelling tests. This mode of testing is very revealing, as the student must choose the correctly spelled word among several choices.

Reading: We have been working in small groups on the books King Midas and the Golden Touch, Hooray for Rhody, and Goldsworth and Mort Blast Off. The skills we've addressed are how prefixes and suffixes can change the meaning of words, identifying the problem and resolution in a story, and sequencing events in a story. We also have been reading Lone Wolf and discussing the skill of inferencing to get at hidden meanings in texts.

Math: In math, we have been learning several different strategies for solving multiplication problems which include drawing a picture, drawing arrays, using a number line to skip count, and using a multiplication chart. Please remember to encourage your child to practice on the websites listed below. Remember these facts will give your child a great advantage next year in third grade! We have also been working in small groups on using our higher level thinking skills to solve complex word problems. These problems are called "constructed responses" and they really tell me who is able to apply the strategies we've been using all year, rather than just applying a formula without first processing what the question is asking. Next week, we'll be moving on to our x2 multiplication facts. Get those awards printed and turned in before next Friday!

Class News and Reminders...

Report cards are coming home today! Please follow the instructions on the paper inside the brown envelope. Remember to affix two stamps, as additional postage will be needed for the final report cards. We are hoping to have CRCT results back by then to send home as well!

Friday is crazy sock day, sponsored by the YMCA (listen to Mrs. Pepper's phone message!). Your child may wear crazy socks to school if she/he wished to donate a dollar to this fund.

Thank you to Mrs. Sampsell, Mrs. Conrad, Mrs. Brooks, Mrs. Thompson, and Mrs. Ketch for their help last week at the Coke Float AR celebration! Also, thank you to those who sent in donations for the celebrations. The kids had so much fun!

Remember to continue your encouragement of reading at home. The new AR goals for the final nine weeks have been set.

March 11, 2010 Update...

2010-03-11T11:17:00.004-05:00

Hi Parents,

We've had such an amazing week. I'm so impressed with the children's hard work this week! We've tackled many new concepts, and I feel as if we are really in the groove and learning so much. Let's keep up the great work! There are a few things I wanted to point out to you. First, we have begun learning our multiplication facts. The children will be expected to memorize these facts. Please use the same "math facts" link below to practice. The children will just need to choose "multiplication" instead of addition or subtraction. We'll begin our x1 on Monday. As always, a printed "100%" will exempt your child from the written test. I am confident we won't have anyone taking the x1 test next Friday, so get your awards in! Our new super secret agenda word is "multiplication!". Write in in your child's agenda Thursday or this weekend for your child to earn a trip to the beloved candy basket!

Check out below to see what we've been learning this week...

Phonics/Grammar: We compared the -ar, -er, and -or sounds in words this week. This has been a bit challenging for some, because the sound often doesn't match the spelling. For example, "worst" contains the -or spelling, but the -er sound. In grammar, we reviewed writing the date correctly. We learned that commas separate the two words and the two numbers. Here's an example, which the children WILL see on the CRCT...Monday, January 5, 2010.

Writing: We completed our autobiographies and illustrations which are hanging in the hallway. If you have a minute, please come by and check them out; they are precious! We will begin our new genre next week, persuasive writing. Get ready for some pretty convincing arguments on such things as why the children should have no homework, why your child deserves a new pet, or why his/her bedtime should be made later!!!!

Reading: This week, we worked on identifying Cause and Effect in a story. We learned that to identify the effect, we ask "What event happened?" and to identify the cause, we ask "Why did this event happen?" We read several Jimmy's Boa books, and made charts to list causes/effects throughout the story. We also finished our chapter read aloud, Stuart Little and took the AR test on it. We began our new chapter book, The Lone Wolf. This is a very challenging book about a wolf pup who was abandoned from its clan because it was born with a deformed paw. The pup miraculously survives on its own. This book contains fabulous vocabulary, which we will be discussing along the way. The children are very excited to hear this wonderful story.

Math: We began our multiplication unit this week. We learned that multiplication is a simpler way of writing repeated addition problems. We learned how to draw "arrays" to solve multiplication problems. Next week, we will learn several other strategies for solving multiplication problems such as using a number line, skip counting, and using a multiplication chart.

Class News and Reminders...

Congratulations to Kaitlyn Ketch for being chosen as our Terrific Kid this month! Way to go, Kaitlyn! She was chosen for her commitment to following our "rules to live by" as well as her dedication to always completing work to her best ability.

Report cards for the third nine weeks will come home next Thursday. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Remember to look on the back of the report card for a more specific example of the requirement for earning a "3". Each quarter, the expectations increase in order to receive a "3".

Please update your calendar with the new agenda items located on the right of this blog!

March 4, 2010 Update...

2010-03-04T14:07:00.005-05:00

Hello Parents and Students,

We've had a wonderful week! I am so proud of the students! We took our nine week benchmark assessment in math on Thursday, and our class average jumped from a 71% (pretest) to an 89% (post test)! What a wonderful improvement! We even had two perfect scores, which is quite an accomplishment as this test is very challenging. We have three more weeks of instruction until the CRCT. We will begin this test the Wednesday after spring break. I appreciate all the extra help you are providing your child at home in the areas that you see weaknesses. Please check out below to see what else has been going on in our fabulous 2nd grade classroom! One more thing...I KNOW every parent reads this blog in detail, so as an extra reward for your effort, if you write the secret code word "CANDY" in your child's agenda, he/she will get a trip to the candy basket!

Phonics/Grammar: We learned all about the punctuation needed when writing quotes on sentences. We also reviewed segmenting words to count syllables and to help us sound out challenging multisyllable words. We discussed subject/verb agreement (if the subject is singular, add the -s to the verb AND if the subject is plural, do not add an -s to the verb).

Writing: We used an organizer to plan then write our autobiographies. We focused on adding details and applying the correct conventions. We also read several Georgia Book Nominees, then summarized the stories.

Math: We completed our nine week reviews and took the benchmark assessment.

Reading: We read a variety of poems this week. We learned about poetic features and answered comprehension questions. We also worked in small groups on the books Si Won's Victory and Jack and the Beanstalk. We worked on various skills with our independently selected chapter books as well.

Class News and Reminders...

Thank you, Elizabeth Thompson and Shawn Brooks, for your book donations to our classroom! We can't wait to start reading these great new books!

The students will have an Early Release day on Wednesday, March 10th. School will be dismissed two hours early.

Our next AR celebration is Friday, March 12 at 1:15. The theme of this celebration will be "Coke Floats and Extreme Recess", as you know by reading Mrs. Brooks' email. If you have any fun outdoor recess activities, you may send them in with your child next Friday. Some suggestions would be side walk chalk, bubbles, hoola hoops, jumpropes, balls, etc.

The end of this quarter is Thursday, March 11. Report cards will be distributed the following week. As always, I am available for conferencing if you have questions or concerns.

February 25, 2010 Update...

2010-02-25T14:11:00.004-05:00

Hi 2nd graders and parents,

We've had a great week! You can check out the subject areas below to find out the specifics! With us being almost 3/4 of the way through the school year (can you believe it!), we've experienced some growing pains this week. I've been placing much emphasis on the students independently showing the very valuable skills of listening, following directions, and organizing their work. We have less than three months before these wonderful children are officially third graders! I feel it would be a disservice if I didn't teach the children the importance of taking responsibility for the work that they turn in. There may be times that I ask your child to forego recess or another "free time" activity to show me their absolute best on an assignment that may not have been completed this way initially. I appreciate your support from at home in this area.

Phonics: We've been studying all about the -or, -ore, and -oar spelling patterns.

Reading: We have been working on various comprehension skills such as sequencing events in a story, making inferences, and finding the main idea in a story. Sequencing is one of the most challenging skills we've worked on so far. Please emphasize the skill of ordering events from a story when reading with your child at home. We also worked in small groups on identifying character traits and finding proof of these traits in the text, as well as comparing and contrasting characters.

Writing: This week, we revisited the skill of summarizing a story, making sure to include the characters, setting, problem and solution. We read the story The Giant and the Beanstalk and summarized this story on an organizer.

Math: This week, we reviewed rounding numbers to the nearest ten and hundred to help us estimate in word problems. We also worked on identifying the mistakes in three digit addition and subtraction problems. Our third nine week benchmark will be given the week of March 8-12. We are working very hard to make sure everyone is ready for this assessment. We will also be giving the subtraction 100 test to everyone who did not make the 85% or higher on last week's quiz.

Class Reminders and News...

Our Scholastic Book Fair is going on now! Your child can visit the book fair if he/she has money for purchasing, or you may bring your child to the book fair any day before or after school. The fair will also be going on during Curriculum Night (check or charge ONLY on Thursday night!). I have left a "wish list" and would love any classroom donations! We are trying to build up our chapter book sets for all this awesome reading that has been going on in here!

Thank you to those who have sent in their kleenex or wipes! Our noses are very grateful!

February 19th, 2010 Update...

2010-02-19T09:39:00.002-05:00

Dear Parents and Students,

We've had a super week! We all enjoyed the extra credit invention presentations this week. We learned about the stethoscope from Madeline Conrad and Dr. White, her grandfather. We learned about the invention of the Nintendo hand held game from Andie Sampsell and her mother. We also learned about the microwave oven from Elizabeth Thompson and her mother. I want to commend these students for their extra time and effort! You can view their visuals in our hallway. I hope to see many of you at Curriculum Night next Thursday at 6:00. This will be a great opportunity for you to come and check out our smart boards that will be in every classroom by the springtime. 2nd grade will be meeting in Mrs. Soto's room, but you will also be able to visit the art room, the music room, writing lab, science lab and gym for many fun activities. We took our 7 minute subtraction timed test this week. If your child scored below an 85%, he/she will be retaking the quiz every Friday until this score is achieved. Please help your child by encouraging visiting our blog or using flashcards. Remember, if he/she is couting on fingers, the facts are not memorized!

Phonics: We continued our study of r-controlled vowels this week, learning about the sounds -ir, -er, -ur, -ire, and -ier.

Writing: We reviewed the conventions of letter writing (correct capitalization, punctuation, and placement of items) as well as informational writing on the Hubble Telescope after reading a nonfiction passage.

Reading: We are finishing up our independent chapter books. We also worked with short passages on identifying sentences that helped us answer our questions. We worked in small groups on identifying the main idea in short stories. We also worked on inferencing, which is using context clues to draw conclusions. We read several chapters in our read aloud, Stuart Little.

Math: We began working in small groups depending on the students' needs according to the Benchmark Exam we took last week. The skills we focused on this week were multi-step word problems, showing place value representation of greater numbers, and comparing fractions. By far, the most challenging concept is solving the multi-step problem. Please continue to review this at home by correcting any incorrect work that comes home. You'll find several worksheets in the blue folder this week. We also took our 7 minute timed test on subtraction facts.

Class News and Reminders...

Thank you to all the parents who have sent in individually wrapped candy, prize box toys (we still have a need!) and Mr. Clean magic erasers. Also, thank you to Dr. White, Mrs. Sampsell, and Mrs. Thompson for coming in and presenting on the invention extra credit! We learned so much from these presentations! Maybe we've inspired a future inventor!

Thank you, Mrs. Brooks and Mrs. Thompson, for helping the students with AR this week!

We are still battling some nasty germs in our room! I thought this may be a good time to review the county policy on returning to school after a sickness...please keep your child home for a full 24 hours after any episode of vomiting or other intestinal illness. Also, please do not allow your child to return to school until a fever has been absent without the use of fever reducers for a full 24 hours. We will continue to encourage hand washing here at school, as well as daily cleaning of the room.

On that note, we are completely out of disinfecting wipes and kleenex. I would like for each boy to bring in kleenex and each girl to bring in wipes. Thank you for your donations.

February 11, 2010 Update...

2010-02-11T15:08:00.003-05:00

Hi Parents and Students,

We've had an awesome week! Please take a minute to update your calendars with the important dates to the right. I've listed the next book club. Attendance was down this week! I do have to say, our points and comprehension averages are quite impressive so far. I'm seeing some very motivated readers. Remember the key to reading is understanding. Pay special attention to any comprehension stories that come home. There are many different types of comprehension concepts that we learn about in 2nd grade; sequencing, inferencing, literal details, predicting, and identifying main ideas. You can easily see what your child is struggling with by looking at the types of questions that he/she is missing. Your child may have excellent word recognition, but we also want your child to be able to answer these higher level questions about the stories.

Check out what else we've done this week below...

Phonics: We learned about the 7 rules for making words plural (see Sammy's Eight Days of Camping) and applied these rules to words in a book. We also learned about the -r controlled sounds of -er, -ear, and -eer, as well as rule breaker words that contain this spelling.

Writing: This week, we used an sequential organizer to take notes on the story, Blueberries For Sal. We then wrote summaries. The children also worked on a Valentine's Book for a very special person in his/her life.

Reading: We worked on taking notes to help identify keep points in a narrative. We also compared and contrasted characters in a story through the use of a Venn diagram. We continue our study of character traits to help us find deeper understanding in a story. We are enjoying our new chapter book, Stuart Little.

Math: We completed our unit on Metric Measurement and took the unit assessment. We also practiced the skill of solving multi-step word problems. We began our 3rd nine pre-assessment. I'll be scoring these to determine what concepts the children will need additional support in for the next three weeks.

Science: We have been learning all about the phases of the moon in the science lab with Mrs. Belmonte.

Have a super weekend!

February 4th Update...

2010-02-04T10:18:00.003-05:00

Hello Parents and Students,

We've had a fabulous week, as usual! Please remember to check out the extra credit project from last week's blog. I haven't had any parents contact me to schedule a presentation yet! I would love to see some parent/child collaboration on this type of research and writing. Please email me to schedule a time to come in and present to the class if you and your child are interested!

We finally finished our chapter book, The BFG! All of the children took the AR test and our lowest score was a 90%! This book was worth 6 points, so it has really helped the students get those AR points. As promised, the children are invited over to my house to watch the movie. Movie Night will be on Friday, February 12th at 6:45. Please complete the permission slip, found in the blue folder this week, and return it by next Wednesday. We began our new read aloud, Stuart Little, this week also.

This Week's Happenings...

Phonics/Grammar: We reviewed the r-controlled vowels and sounds (-air, -are, -ar, -ear, and -ere). We also talked about the five important parts of a friendly letter and the children wrote a letter to me.

Writing: We've continued our work on informational writing. We listened to a biography about Grandma Moses, then we used an organizer to work on the skill of note-taking. We used our notes to write an informational paragraph. We edited our writing together and rewrote our stories. You will find your child's first draft in the blue folder. The final copy is hanging in our hallway.

Reading: We are working on reading nonfiction passages and strategies for comprehension (paying attention to the title and headings, reading the questions first, proving our answers with the text). We are also working on greater understanding of characters in a fiction piece while reading our chapter selections (Clementine or The Littles, depending on reading level). We reviewed character traits and ways to prove why we believe certain traits pertain to a character in a story.

Math: We are learning about standard measurement this week (inch, foot, yard). We have estimated lengths and determined the best unit of measurement to use for certain objects. We are also continuing to practice our three digit addition and subtraction. Pay special attention to your child' homework. If you see that computation is an area of weakness, it may require some extra help from you at home.

Classroom News....

Make sure to update your personal calendars with the information found at the right side of this blog!

We will have our next Book Club Thursday, February 11th from 2:30-3:30.

Save the date of February 25th. We will have "Curriculum Night", which is an opportunity for you to come to school with your child and learn all about the smartboards that we will all be getting in our classrooms sometime this spring.

Jan. 28th Update...

2010-01-28T17:14:00.002-05:00

Hello Parents and Students,

Well, it was a short week this week, but a very productive one! First, I'd like to thank all of you for coming to the classroom to discuss your child's progress over the past 5 months. It was great to be able to share all of our accomplishments with you. Please know that I am available any time to sit down and discuss your child's needs.
There is another extra credit opportunity available below for those of you who feel like challenging yourselves! This extra credit project involves a parent! Read below to find out the details. These presentations will involve parent participation in the classroom presentation! I will be scheduling times for these voluntary projects to be presented any morning the week of FEB. 16-19 from 8:00-8:45. If you and your child wish to participate in this project, please email me a date that works for you!
We will resume our Thursday book club on February 11. Please indicate in your child's agenda if he/she will be participating.
Check out below to find out what we've been doing in class this week...

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we reviewed tricky homophones! We learned the spelling and meaning of the words there, their, and they're as well as too, to, and two. Continue to emphasize correct spelling at home. We also reviewed the two sounds of the letters "oo". We played a matching game to help us recognize this sound in various words. We also worked in small groups on identifying parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective).

Language Arts: We read a variety of nonfiction books this week. We listened to the book Spiders and took notes on important details that we heard. We then took our notes and independently wrote an informational paragraph on this topic. Our focus on this paper was writing a paragraph of appropriate length and learning strategies to help us revise and edit our own papers. In Reading, we worked in small groups on finding important details in text pieces and proving our answers by highlighting important information, then transferring the information in our own words to answer the questions.

Math: We continued our study of various ways to represent numbers up to 9,999. Your child should be confident in showing standard form, written form, expanded form, base ten form, and place value of numbers in to the thousands. He/She should also easily be able tell whether a number is odd or even, greater than or less than another number, and be able to arrange the digits to show the greatest number possible and the least number possible. We practiced our three digit addition with regrouping skills. In small group time, we worked on using rounding to estimate answers to addition problems. We also worked on solving elapsed time problems. We really sharpened our number sense skills with our skip counting activities! We learned to identify the "counting rule" in a patterns and then continue the pattern on our own. We also had some fun learning a new COUNTING CADENCE song as we marched around the room, skip counting by 3's, 4's, 6's and 7's. Very tough! This is preparing us for multiplication, which we will begin next quarter. Remember to continue to practice those subtraction skills! If your child is having a tough time passing the timed tests, it may be time to break out those flash cards.

Classroom Reminders and News...

Thank you goes to Mrs. Brooks and Mrs. Thompson for their reading help on Wednesdays and Thursdays! These ladies are working really hard to help your child earn some extra AR points!

I promise we will eventually get through with our read aloud book, THE BFG. The children have been promised another movie night at my house when we complete the book, but it's taken us a bit longer to get through it with our snow day, MLK day, and early release week. Be on the lookout for movie night info coming soon!

Mark your calendars...The students will not have school on Monday, February 15th in observance of President's Day. I will be at school getting trained on our new SmartBoards that will be installed in the classroom sometime between now and March. This new technology is a result of SPLOST II funds. We are so excited to begin integrating this innovative technology into our curriculum.

Extra Credit Project: DUE the week of February 16-19...
1. Find an adult (mom, dad, grandma, aunt) to work on this project with.
2. Choose an item to research such as the automobile, motorcycle, space rocket, special tool, special kind of candy or food, technological gadget, etc. and begin your research.
3. Use the internet or books to find out why this invention came about (the necessity of it), the inventor, the date of the invention, how the invention was first made, who the invention was intended to help, and any other specific details that are important.
4. Take notes on your research. Remember to find at least 7 or 8 fully developed facts to help us learn about your invention (Parents should be active participants in this stage!)
5. Have your adult help you write, then type the information up on the computer. Remember to follow the conventions we have learned in class for a 2nd grade appropriate paragraph...
a. title centered, capitalized and underlined
b. name centered below title
c. skip a line and indent paragraph
d. begin with a broad topic sentence that grabs our attention (keep the entire paper in third person...no using the words "I', "me", "my" or "you" or any form thereof!)
e. fully develop the paragraph with AT LEAST 7 or 8 facts from your research
f. end with a broad closing sentence.
6. affix your paper to a poster board
7. include a graphic of somekind (this can be printed from the internet, a 3-d visual, or a self drawn illustration (Adults should be helping!)
8. Practice your presentation for the class. Your parents are invited to come in and be an ACTIVE participant in presenting this information to the class!

January 21, 2010 Update...

2010-01-21T11:23:00.003-05:00

Hello Parents and Students,

I hope everyone has had a wonderful week. We are continuing our American Redcross collection for the people of Haiti through Monday, January 25. If you wish to contribute, please send in your donations on or before Monday. I am looking forward to seeing everyone next week for conferences. Remember, we will be on our early release schedule all week long. Dismissal will be exactly two hours earlier than normal. We will also be on a different lunch schedule. We'll be eating lunch from 10:51-11:21. Please read below to see what we've been doing this week in class...

Phonics/Grammar: We learned some short catchy songs and played some games to practice application of vowel combinations in words. We also reviewed the comparative forms of descriptive words and created a book.

Writing: The children watched me model an informational writing piece. They then chose their own book to use as a resource for their paragraph. We used an organizer, then wrote rough drafts. I helped the children revise their writing, then they wrote final copies.

Reading: We worked on a nonfiction book entitled Sharks this week. The children learned reading for understanding strategies, such as stopping at the bold words and looking up the meaning in the glossary. The children also worked on individual chapter books, completed contracts to practice skills, and took AR tests on both books.

Math: We are continuing our work with greater numbers and showing the various ways to represent these numbers, but we are also working in small groups on specific skills that the children may need help with. I've pulled groups to specifically target such skills as addition and subtraction with regrouping, checking subtraction with addition, using Venn diagrams to categorize items, and telling time in various forms.

Social Studies: The children are working on completing a "Biography Poster" on either Jackie Robinson or Martin Luther King, Jr. They will be using nonfiction books as resources to help them locate important information.

Class News...

We are halfway through the nine week period already! Your child should be halfway through their AR goal. Check your child's blue folder for an updated report.

I noticed a significant drop in math facts grades last week as we completed the -7 facts. Please continue to encourage your child to learn these facts. Simple computation errors account for a large number of mistakes in math. Learning math facts is a very easy way for your child to improve in all areas of math. We are on -8 this week. I will be giving one test NEXT friday that will cover -7 and -8 facts.

January 15, 2010 Update...

2010-01-15T08:25:00.004-05:00

Dear Parents and Students,

Thank you for visiting our blog today! We had an amazing week. We had so much fun on our field trip Thursday to the Cobb Safety Village. In addition to learning all about protecting ourselves in a fire, we also learned about bus, bike, pedestrian, electrical, and gun safety. This was a very interactive field trip and I think the children really learned some valuable information. This week, we also visited the computer lab, where we took the SRI (scholastic reading inventory) assessment. I'll be sharing those results with you at our conference. We had our monthly counseling lesson with Mrs. Charrette as well. Check out below to find out what we've been doing in each subject area and pay special attention to an extra credit opportunity.

Phonics/Grammar: We learned about short i, short 0 and long i long o spelling patterns. We also reviewed blends, as well as continuing our discussion of suffixes and the spelling rules that apply.

Reading: We read the book They Worked Together which is a nonfiction story about extraordinary groups of people in history and how they worked together to accomplish great things. We used this book to learn all about important nonfiction features such as bold words, table of contents, the index, glossary, and captions. We completed several more chapters on our read aloud, The BFG. We worked independently on chapter books and answered comprehension questions. We also worked in small groups on the skill of proving our answers through the text.

Writing: We worked together this week to write an informational paragraph on grasshoppers. We first read a book together and completed an organizer whole group. Then, the children took our ideas and wrote their own paragraphs. This writing will be in the hallway for you to see next week when you come up for conferences.

Math: We completed our unit on fractions. We also began our review of greater numbers and how we can represent them. We worked on showing written form, expanded form, base ten form, and place value form for numbers in the thousands. The children also worked on learning their -7 facts. This was challenging and many children need to devote some additional time to learning these facts. Please encourage your child to do this, as it will greatly help with multi-digit computation.

Social Studies: We studied the many important contributions of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the lasting changes these contributions had on the history of our country.

Class News and Other Important Information...

Congratulations goes to Steven Champion for being chosen as our Terrific Kid! He exhibited the important character trait of resilience!

Thank you to those parents who contributed snacks for our week! The children's tummies thank you as well!

There will be no school on Monday in observance of MLK Day.

Extra Credit Opportunity: (Due date...must be turned in no later than Monday, 1/25/10)
Here is an extra credit opportunity for you! The reward will be announced on Monday, January 23rd. Follow the steps below...
1. Research a famous person (you may use the internet or books)
2. Create an organizer stating your opinion about the person, at least 4 facts about this person, and a closing sentence
3. Write a paragraph using your organizer (must include title, name, and be written on lined paper)
4. Attach a picture of your famous person (you may use the internet for this)
5. Be prepared to share your paragraph!

January 10, 2009 Update...

2010-01-11T08:07:00.003-05:00

Dear Parents and Students,

Welcome to 2010! We had a great week last week, although it was too short! We'll be moving very quickly along this week to try and make up for the time missed last week. Please remember to update your child's reading log every week. You will also find a "Six Flags Reading Log" in the pocket this week. If your child wishes to participate in this program, you must also log their reading on that form. There will be no time extensions for this program. Please keep the log in your child's clear pocket. Check out below to find out what we've been doing in our classroom...

Phonics/Grammar: Last week, we reviewed the short and long i spelling patterns. We read a poem containing these spelling patterns, then we cut out words and categorized them according to the pattern. We also reviewed comparative forms of words (fast, faster, fastest).

Writing: We began our new writing genre; informational writing. I modeled writing this type of paragraph with the students and we wrote about Jackie Robinson together. We updated our writing board with the steps for informational writing as well.

Reading: We began our study of nonfiction text features. We read a nonfiction book and identified nonfiction features such as table of contents, bold words, glossary, index, captions, and labels. Please encourage your child to read nonfiction books this nine weeks.

Math: We started our unit on fractions. We learned how to identify fractions by illustration and fraction. We also began comparisons of fractions and we played a game to help us with this concept. This week, we will complete our unit on fractions and take the assessment on Friday.

Social Studies: We learned about Jackie Robinson and the contributions he made to our country in the area of civil rights and ending segregation. We were visited by a Cobb County Firefighter, who taught us all about important fire safety information. We will visit the fire safety village on Thursday.

Other Class News...

Please sign and return the Parent-Teacher conference sheets tomorrow in your child's red folder. I look forward to meeting with you the last week of January!

If your child will be bringing a lunch from home for our field trip on Thursday, please remember to pack it in a disposable bag.

Parents of girls, please dress your child appropriately for our field trip on Thursday. The children will be expected to "stop, drop, and roll" as well as climb through a window to escape a simulated fire. No dresses or skirts please.

We will have another short week next week in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. There will be no school on Monday, January 18th.

December 17th, 2009 Update...

2009-12-17T10:52:00.003-05:00

Dear Parents and Students,

Can you believe 2009 is almost over? We have had such a wonderful first half of the year! I am expecting great things for the remainder of our school year. The children performed their "reader's theater" readings today, and I was so proud of them! Reader's Theater is basically a play without the props and acting. The children took this task very seriously and they all did fabulous! Check out the blue folder for grades and comments from this activity. We will continue to do this type of reading in the future, as it is an excellent way to improve fluency and expression when reading. The children will be inviting you to a performance in the future. Look below to see what else we have been doing in class this week...

Phonics/Grammar: This week in phonics, we reviewed all of the spelling patterns and rules that we have learned so far. We also played several games to review grammar rules in preparation for our benchmark assessment. We took the exam on Wednesday. Please look for your child's results in the blue folder.

Reading: This week, we worked on fluency and working in cooperative groups while doing our reader's theater. We also read The Polar Express and worked on skills such as counting syllables in words, finding synonyms and antonyms for words, and identifying the root words in words with suffixes and prefixes.

Math: We completed our unit on solid shapes. We compared characteristics of shapes such as faces, edges, and vertices. We looked in magazines for real examples of solid shapes. Please continue to emphasize this vocabulary at home. It will be seen again on the CRCT and this tends to be a challenging area for 2nd graders due to the vocabulary being so new to the children. Here is a list of words to know...cone, cube, rectangular prism, square pyramid, sphere, cylinder, face, edge, vertex. You may also want to continue to review the plane shapes vocab...quadrilateral, triangle, parallelogram, trapezoid, pentagon, hexagon, angle, right, acute, obtuse. In addition to completing our geometry unit, we also reviewed our 2nd nine week material and completed the benchmark exam. You may also find these results in your child's blue folder. This was, and always is, the most challenging benchmark exam that we give. This nine week period in math covers some very difficult concepts. We will continue to review these newly learned skills as the year progresses.

News and Reminders...

Our party is tomorrow from 10:30-11:30! All parents are welcome to join in on the fun! Thank you to everyone who has helped in the planning and organization for this party. Needless to say, the kids can't wait!

We are about halfway through our chapter read aloud, The BFG. When we complete the book, we will have another movie night as a culminating activity at my house. More details will be coming soon!

There is a teacher workday on Monday, January 4th. The children will resume classes on Tuesday, January 5th.

Be on the lookout Tuesday, the 5th, for an important permission slip. We will be going to the Cobb County Fire Safety Village on January 14th. We are asking your permission to apply the funds already collected for the field trip to Hyde Farm that we had to cancel to this new trip. You will need to check and sign the front and the back of the form.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas this year! I can't wait to see everyone back in 2010!

December 10, 2009 Update...

2009-12-10T13:26:00.005-05:00

Hi Parents and Students,

Thank you for your interest in what we've been doing in our fabulous 2nd grade class! Well, I don't know if the stocking stuffer prizes have kept the children any calmer, but it sure has been fun! Thank you to everyone who donated prizes for this activity. Next week, we will be having our Holiday Party on Friday at 10:30. All parents are welcome to join us for this event. I will also have a sign-out sheet available if you wish to check your child out of school early. There will be no need to go through the office on this day. Please continue to emphasize memorization of math facts with your child. Also, it is a great idea to continue to review areas in math that you know your child has struggled with. Our overall topics in math that we have covered so far have been number representation up to the thousands, comparing numbers up to the thousands, addition and subtraction with and without regrouping (up to three digit), using addition to check subtraction, telling time to the 5-minute increment, counting money to $20.00, making change to $10.00 (and buying multiple items), geometry (plane shapes), and graphing data including using a graph key. Check out below to see what we've been doing this week in all our subject areas...

Phonics/Grammar: We have been learning about words with multiple meanings (homonyms) and words with the same sound, but different spellings and meanings (homophones). We played a VERY COOL jeopardy game in class which emphasized these multiple meaning words. There is a new link located at the bottom of the blog for this site. I'm sure your child would love to play it with you! During phonics, we have also discussed various spelling rules for making words plural (1. just add -s 2. if a word ends in s, x, z, sh, ch, or th then add -es 3. if a word ends in -y, change the -y to -i and add -es 4. and irregular plurals).

Writing: We continue to work on narrative writing. The children should be comfortable with writing, at minimum, a five sentence paragraph fully developing the character, setting, plot and resolution in the narrative. We worked on editing and revising writing that we did last week. Please check your child's blue folder this week for the finished piece of writing. The grades that you see were given on the independent work that your child was able to do. There will be another opportunity for your child to show his/her writing skills next week.

Reading: We focused on identifying the main idea in text this week. We also worked on inferencing, or using text clues to find underlying meaning in passages. The children are really enjoying our chapter book, The BFG. It is a highly imaginative fiction narrative and is a wonderful story to read to spark our own creativity for writing!

Math: We began our geometry unit on plane shapes. We learned all about shape names, describing characteristics of shapes, and types of angles. Your child should be very familiar with the vocabulary related to this unit such as quadrilateral, parallelogram, trapezoid, pentagon, hexagon, angle, vertex, right angle, square corner, obtuse angle, and acute angle. This terminology will be seen on the CRCT as well as on our end of quarter benchmark exams to be given next week. This week, we also revisited the topic of looking for clue words to help us determine the operation to be used when solving word problems.

Class News and Reminders...

Thank you goes out to Mrs. Brooks and Mrs. Ketch for organizing our Holiday Party! Also, thank you to Mrs. Brooks for her time that she has donated every week reading AR books to the children and helping them take tests!

Remember we will be doing a chapter book exchange next Friday morning. If you have not yet sent in a new, wrapped, 2nd-3rd grade level book, you may do so anytime before December 18th.

Encourage your child to read at least 20 minutes a night. Every child has an AR goal that is determined based upon his/her reading initiative from the previous grading period (new students will get a goal next grading period, which begins on Jan. 5). Challenge your child to read books that are at the top of his/her level. Keep a close eye on the comprehension level of your child's test scores to determine if the chosen books are too difficult. We want to see an average comprehension of 85% or higher. I try to give AR updates at least every three weeks.

December 3, 2009 Update...

2009-12-03T10:33:00.004-05:00

Dear Parents and Students,

Thank you for visiting the blog today! We have had a super week. The children's excitement about all of our special activities is infectious and I just love this time of the year. The children have done a fabulous job of staying on task. We began our stocking stuffer incentive on Thursday and they are loving the challenge of doing their very best all day long. If you have not yet sent in 16 of the same small stocking stuffers, please do so by Monday. Thank you to those who have already sent in items. Your promptness allowed us to start this activity a few days early! Also, don't forget to send in your wrapped, new chapter book for our book exchange on Friday, December 18th. Some children have already sent in their wrapped book, which we've put under our class christmas tree. Check out the information below to see what we've been doing in class. Don't forget to read our Class Reminders and News for important information. Please also look to the right to update your calendar with important dates.

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we reviewed the -ay and -ai spelling pattern. We also talked about complete sentences versus run-ons and phrases. Next week, we will begin working on homophones and multiple meaning words.

Reading: We worked in small groups on chapter books according to reading levels. We also completed our chapter book, Totally Disgusting by Bill Wallace. The children took the AR test on this book. We voted on our new chapter book. We are now reading The BFG, by Roald Dahl. We are working on identifying story elements through the use of this literature. We also have been reading non-fiction passages and using the strategy of going back to the text and highlighting to "prove" our answers to questions.

Writing: We began a new genre of writing this week; narrative writing. This is my favorite style of writing, as it allows the children to show their creativity and imagination. I modeled using an organizer to plan my story, then I modeled using this organizer to write my story. The children then created their own stories. We also reviewed the expectations in regards to conventions when writing (capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar).

Math: We continue to work on three digit subtraction with regrouping. We also began the closely correlated skill of making change. Your child will be expected to be able to calculate the change from up to $10.00 as well as buying two items, then calculating change (multi-step problems). We created "recipes" in class that we can follow to help us solve each type of problem. Please work closely on these skills at home with your child, as many processes are involved. We will take the assessment on making change Monday morning, then we will begin our geometry unit.

Social Studies: We began our Economics unit on Goods and Services, discussing choices, investments, and profit.

Class News and Reminders...

We are all bidding a fond farewell to the Glass Family this week! Connor and his family are moving to Jacksonville, Florida. Connor has been a precious student to have in class and Janet has been a phenomenal room mom for us. This family will be greatly missed! The children and I presented Connor with a special momento today and tomorrow will be his last day here. We all wish the Glass family well as they begin their new adventure together.

As we say goodbye to one family, we'd like to welcome two new families to our class! Samantha Kenny and her family are joining us from Tampa, Florida and Elizabeth Thompson and her family are joining us from Rochester, Minnesota. These girls are precious and they have done such an amazing job adjusting to the routine of our class! We are so glad to have them.

I met with Lisa Brooks and Kristie Ketch today to discuss plans for our holiday party. Be on the lookout for an email from Lisa in regards to items we may need or ways you can help on that day.

Make sure you are encouraging math facts practice at home. If the children memorize their math facts, then these multi-step word problems are solved with much more accuracy. Also, continue to encourage writing at home. Refer back several blog updates ago for 2nd grade expectations regarding writing.

Report cards will be coming home in January! Also, be on the lookout for conference dates and times. I will schedule a parent-teacher conference for everyone.

November 12, 2009 Update...

2009-11-12T10:39:00.002-05:00

Dear Parents and Students,

We have had a great week in 2nd Grade! I can't brag enough on my 2nd graders this week in regard to their reading! I was thrilled when I pulled up the new AR reports and saw how motivated the students have been. Keep up the great job! We also had a wonderful visit from Mrs. Snyder, who is currently serving in the Air Force Reserve. She spoke to us on Veteran's Day about what it is like serving our country in the military. We visited the computer lab on Thursday and took our second SRI (scholastic reading inventory) to assess the children's progress in reading comprehension. You will find your child's score along with suggested reading titles on his/her level. Refer to the conversion chart I sent home at the beginning of the year to see what our goal is for this nine weeks.

Phonics: We continued to explore various ways of spelling short and long e words. We also reviewed more complex spelling patterns and prefixes and suffixes.

Reading: Our books for this week are The Chalk Box Kid, Horrible Harry, and Danny and the Dinosaur depending on your child's reading level. We are working on inferencing (using clues within the text to comprehend unsaid meaning) as well as reading fluency.

Writing: We continue our Response to Literature writing. The children are becoming experts in this style of writing. I appreciate all of your extra attention and help you have been giving your child at home in this area. The students writing is showing it! This week, we also worked on using contractions correctly in our writing.

Math: We continue to work on increasingly more challenging skills related to subtraction. This week, we focused on using addition to check our subtraction. Next week, we will begin combining addition and subtraction problems, so the children will have to show their ability to know when to do which operation, as well as remember the rules for regrouping in each instance.

Science: We completed our unit on Energy and began our unit on Force. Your child will be bringing home his/her science workbook next week. Please make sure your child understands the concept of Force and can independently answer the questions in the workbook.

Other Classroom News and Reminders...

Congratulations goes to Shawn Brooks for earning the Terrific Kid award for our class. Shawn exhibited excellent "citizenship" qualities. He consistently puts into practice our five rules to live by (active listening, no put-downs, truthfulness, trustworthiness, and personal best). Way to go!

Thank you, Mrs. Brooks and Mrs. Glass, for your help in our classroom this week!

I hope you and your child discussed a food that is special to your family this week! Remember, it does not have to be a traditional thanksgiving food, but rather any food that has significance for your and your family. The kids are so excited for this activity. You are welcome to join us on Tuesday at 11:30 (no siblings, please).

Please also plan to join us on Thursday at 10:30 for the Thanksgiving Lunch prepared by our fabulous cafeteria staff. You won't want to miss this!

This will be the last blog update until after Thanksgiving. I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday!

November 6, 2009 Update...

2009-11-06T09:04:00.003-05:00

Dear Parents and Students,

Thank you for visiting the blog this week. I hope everyone found the paragraphs below helpful! Remember, this type of writing is expected at all times! Check out below to find out what else we have been doing in our fabulous 2nd grade class this week...

Phonics: Learning increasingly difficult spelling patterns involving short and long e sounds.

Writing: We listened to and wrote several response to literature papers this week. I am doing much modeling, but the children will be expected to apply these skills independently as the nine weeks goes on. It is a great idea after reading a story to verbally ask your child to tell you what a great topic sentence would be if they were writing a response to literature. You can also ask your child to give you a quick summary of the story! This week, we also reviewed contractions as well as language connections (both are heavily covered on the CRCT). If you are unclear as to what language connections are...see the paper in your child's blue folder this week.

Reading: We are still working on identifying story elements, which really connects to our response to literature writing. We have been working on Judy Blume chapter books in guided reading this week.

Math: We have been reviewing simple subtraction strategies, double digit subtraction without regrouping, and subtraction involving regrouping. Remember, the assessment will be next Tuesday. Also, we practiced our +9 math facts this week. Next week will be +10, then we will move on to subtraction facts. You will notice that our Math Magician website does not go up to tens, so you'll need to get out those old fashioned flash cards if you notice that your child is having difficulty with those facts.

Science: We began our unit on Energy. We learned that the three forms of energy are heat, light and motion. We explored examples of each type of energy.

Class News and Reminders...

I have to add one more item to our "donations" list...we are in need of 50-100-150 watt three way bulbs. Thank you to everyone who sent in the items for our math stations games. We are all set in that department.

Bingo Night is tonight at Ford! Your bingo cards are free with a PTA membership card.

Academic Alerts will go home next week. If your child is in danger of not meeting standards in any area of the report card, I will be contacting you.

2nd Grade Writing Expectations...

2009-11-04T16:09:00.004-05:00

Below, you will find two examples of 2nd grade appropriate paragraphs. These are the two writing genres we have covered so far this year. Please give your child many opportunities to practice this writing...

Example #1 (Personal Narrative...This type of writing is expected whenever your child is writing in a journal or telling about an experience he/she has had.)

My Exciting Saturday
By: Maggie Wadsworth

It all started on Saturday morning when my mom, my sister and I were in the car going to get my hair cut. First, my mother said to my sister and I, "Do you girls want to go and visit the kittens we saw at the animal shelter earlier this week?" Of course we said yes! Then, we arrived at the animal shelter and went into the kitten room. Our favorite kittens were still there! Next, we took out the kittens and let them play on the floor of the room. In the end, our mom said, "Okay! Let's take them home!" We had such an exciting Saturday morning. I love our new kittens!

Expectations: Topic sentence should include who was with you, where you were, and when the story took place. The following sentences should tell a story in sequential order using transition words. The story should end with an appropriate closing sentence that states the main idea of the paragraph.

Example #2 (Response to Literature...This type of paragraph is expected whenever the student is asked to write a summary of any kind in regards to a story that was read.)

Where the Wild Things Are
By: Jerry Smith

The story, Where the Wild Things Are, is about a little boy named Max who goes on an adventure in his dreams. It all started when Max puts on a wolf suit, gets into trouble with his mother, and is sent to his room with no supper. Next, Max travels to a place where monsters cause all kinds of trouble for him. In the end, Max makes it back to his room, where he wakes up to find his supper waiting for him. I loved this story because it was very funny. It was funny when the monsters that Max visited did the same things to Max that Max did to his mother!

Expectations: Topic sentence needs to include the title of the story, the main character, and the main idea of the story. The following sentences need to include the most important details from the beginning, middle and ending of the story. Transition words are to be used in this part of the paragraph. The closing of the paragraph should include the writer's opinion of the story with a specific detail from the story to support his/her opinion.

All of these expectations are county wide and the rubrics used for grading writing can be found on Picasso under the 2nd grade Language Arts area.

October 30, 2009 Update...

2009-10-30T12:18:00.004-05:00

We had such a fun week! We enjoyed our field trip on Monday to see The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. We had a blast on Thursday, participating in our Fun Run. We also had fun while learning during our fabulous Fall centers today! Make sure you visit the section below to find out the specifics on what we are learning in each subject area. Also, be sure to check out your child's blue folder today for AR updates. I've printed a report for each child. I am so proud of the great progress the children are making this nine weeks! Remember, your child has a point goal as well as the grade level goal of averaging 85% comprehension for the nine weeks. Keep up the good work!

Phonics: We learned the spelling patterns of the short and long u vowel sounds. We also took an assessment on the past three weeks of phonics content. You will find your child's assessment in the blue folder.

Writing: We continue to learn about responding to literature through writing. At this point in the year, the children should be comfortable with the components of writing a paragraph. I see that some children are still having trouble with the Dolch words (a list was sent out at the beginning of the year). If your child is still having trouble with these "no excuse" words, then some extra spelling practice may be in order. This week, we read the story "Where the Wild Things Are" and used an organizer to plan our writing. We then wrote a paragraph independently. Check out the blue folder to see your child's progress. We also learned all about the 4 types of sentences and the corresponding punctuation (declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory).

Math: We continued our study of time to the five minutes. The children took the final assessment today. Next week, we will begin double digit subtraction, with and without regrouping. Also, we practiced our +6, +7, and +8 addition facts. If your child received a "1", he/she will be given the assessment again next Friday. Please practice with your child if you see this is a concern. The website located at the bottom of this blog is a great place to start!

Reading: We are halfway through our chapter book, Totally Disgusting by Bill Wallace. We are working on identifying the main idea in short passages as well as pointing out the story elements (setting, characters, problem, solution).

Class News and Reminders...

A special thank you goes to Mrs. Sharpe, Mrs. Brooks, Mrs. Conrad, Mrs. Wollaston, and Mrs. Glass for helping out with our special centers today. Mrs. Glass did a phenomenal job organizing this for our class!

All Fun Run money is due no later than Thursday, November 4th! You will find a blue collection envelope in your child's blue folder today. Our class alone raised over $1000! Way to go, Wadsworth Warriors!

Remember, there will be no school on Tuesday, November 3rd.

October 22, 2009 Update...

2009-10-22T10:12:00.004-05:00

Dear Parents and Students,

Thank you so much for visiting this week! We have had such a fun week. On Wednesday, we enjoyed the rewards of our first marble party. We made homemade donuts in our classroom! The kids are already busy working on filling the jar again! We also watched The Legend of Sleepy Hollow so we understand the performing arts presentation on Monday. We'll be leaving the school around 10:45 for the performance and we'll return sometime shortly after 1:00. We will be eating sack lunches in our room before we leave for the trip. Also, remember to continue collecting pledge money for our boosterthon fun run! We are up to $8 per lap! Remember, all of the money collected goes directly to fund programs at our school for our kids!

Check out below to find out what we've been doing in class this week...

Phonics: We reviewed the long and short o sounds that contain the CVC, CVCe, and CVVC spelling patterns.

Reading: In Reading, we are enjoying our new chapter book, "Totally Disgusting" by Bill Wallace. This is an AR book, so the kids will have the opportunity to earn points after we've completed the book. We also worked on a big book entitled "His Majesty, The King" and we learned about identifying important story elements and using our inferencing skills to help us with this. We worked in small guided reading groups on specific skills as well. Some children are working on the book "Freckle Juice" and some are working on "Only An Octopus".

Writing: We have written several "Response to Literature" stories this week. The children are learning how to quickly use an organizer to get their thoughts down on paper, then move on to writing their rough drafts. We also are working through the editing and revising process together. The children should be at a point in their writing where they can easily stay on a topic and write at least 7-10 descriptive sentences. Please provide opportunities at home for your child to write. Every 2nd grader should have a "journal" for creative writing.

Math: We began our unit on telling time this week. We have learned how to tell time to the hour, half hour, and quarter hour. In addition to telling time, and writing time, the children need to be able to identify the various ways of stating the time. For example, 2:15 can be read as quarter past 2, fifteen minutes after 2, or 45 minutes to 3. This is a skill that needs to be practiced at home for the children to be successful. Please encourage your child to look at clocks and tell the time in various ways!

Social Studies: We are continuing our study of the influential people in Georgia's early history and their part in starting the first colony in Georgia, which was Savannah. These people are Sequoyah, Tomochichi, Mary Musgrove, and James Oglethorpe. Can your child tell you who these people are and what historical contributions they made?

Class News...

Remember next week is Red Ribbon Week!

Mon., 10/26 - Red ribbon stickers handed out to students
Tues., 10/27 - "Put a Cap on Drugs" - wear your favorite hat. Students are given wristbands.
Wed. ,10/28th - "Sock it to Drugs" - wear silly socks to run the Fun Run and Say No to Drugs.
Thurs. ,10/29 - "Turn your Back on Drugs" - wear clothes backwards or inside out. Students will receive bookmarks.
Fri., 10/30 - Students will sign a pledge/bulletin board saying No to Drugs!

Wednesday is our fun run! The children will be given t-shirts to wear that day, but please remember to send your child in comfortable running shoes. We will be running at 10:45.

There is a new "2nd Grade Blog" site up and running. You will find it on the faculty web pages down in the 2nd grade section. You can find a great time game for your child there this week. Also, check out the new time site I've added to my list of favorite interactive sites.

Have a super weekend!

October 15, 2009 Update...

2009-10-15T09:40:00.004-05:00

Hello Parents and Students,

Wow! What a busy week we have had this week! The students handled all the 1st nine week post assessments so well. It is great to see how much the students have learned just since the beginning of school. As stated in my email, report cards will come home on Friday, October 16th. We do not have scheduled conferences until January, but I am always available to meet if you have questions or concerns about your child's progress. Check out below to find out what we've been doing this week in class...

Phonics: We learned the short and long a spelling patterns, in particular the C-V-C, C-V-C-e, and the C-V-V-C patterns. If you don't remember these patterns from your school days, ask your child! Everyone should know which patterns usually mean short vowel sounds and which patterns usually mean long vowel sounds.

Writing: We began learning about our new writing genre, Response To Literature. In this form of writing, the children must identify the main idea of the passage, give a brief summary, then give their opinion of the book that can be supported by details from the story. We are really buckling down with our writing this nine weeks. I've had several "get down to business" chats with the children and they are aware of my expectations in regards to writing. I've let them know that I expect to see their personal best whenever writing is involved. This includes ALWAYS using correct capitalization and punctuation, applying the spelling patterns we have learned, and using 2nd grade appropriate grammar. Please continue to support these high expectations at home when the children are writing.

Math: We completed our unit on Money. We also took the nine week post assessment. We will begin our unit on Telling Time next week. The children will be expected to be able to tell time to the hour, half hour, and five-minute increments. Since analog clocks are quickly becoming a thing of the past in homes, some extra attention may need to be given to this skill. We also completed our +7 computation facts. We will be working on +8's next week. Children who memorize their math facts typically do better across the board in math. Please encourage your child to go to the math facts site located at the bottom of the blog at least twice a week for practice.

Reading: This week, we chose our new shared reading book. The book title is Totally Disgusting by Bill Wallace. The story is told from the point of view of the main character, a kitten. Bill Wallace writes fabulous children's stories. The children are so excited about this story. We also met in small groups to work on various comprehension strategies such as using a Venn diagram to compare characters, asking questions about the story prior to reading, and identifying the cause and effect in a story.

Social Studies: We learned all about Tomochichi, who was the leader of the Yamacraw indians. He helped settle the first colony in Georgia, which is Savannah. He also promoted peace between the native americans and the English settlers.

Classroom News...

Congratulations goes to Maya Dubuc, for being our terrific kid this week! Maya exhibited the trait of "responsiblity" and we congratulate her!

Mark your calendars...Early Release is on Wednesday, October 21st. Students will be dismissed at 12:10.

Congratulations to Madeline Conrad, the first place winner of the 2nd Grade Reflections Contest!

Thank you to Kristie Ketch and all the other parents who helped out at our first AR celebration on Monday.

Extra Credit Project (Due Monday, October 26th): Writing a Response to Literature
Okay, I'm going to be a tough cookie on giving the prize for this one! The following steps MUST be taken in order to receive the reward. First, choose a book to read. Next, follow these steps when writing your paragraph...
1. Begin with a title that is centered and underlined
2. Write your name below the title
3. Indent and begin your paragraph
4. Include the title of the story, the main idea and the important characters in the first sentence.
5. The next three sentences should summarize the story. Make sure you use TRANSITION words to tell the most important parts of the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
6. Tell whether or not you liked the book.
7. Give a detail from the story that supports your opinion about the book. Be specific with your detail!

October 9, 2009 Update...

2009-10-09T08:38:00.002-05:00

Hi Parents and Students,

We are so excited about our Movie Night tonight! We have finished Charlotte's Web in class and will be taking a comprehension assessment on the story Monday. We also will be taking the AR quiz, which will help us all get a jumpstart on meeting our new AR goals. Please check your child's Monday agenda section for your child's new goal. We conferenced on Friday and reassessed how we did with our reading this past nine weeks to determine the new goal. The comprehension average will still be set at 85%. Please emphasize comprehension with your child. Some children think that the goal of AR is to speed read and take as many tests as possible, but their comprehension suffers. This week, the children were also given the opportunity to show me what they have learned in regards to writing. We took the final nine week writing assessment on Friday. I am looking at your child's ability to independently write a personal narrative of appropriate length and detail, as well as looking at whether or not your child is applying conventions expected at this level. Next week, we will take our final assessment on Math. This test will cover number representation, addition with regrouping, comparing numbers, graphing, and money. Check out below to see what else has been going on in our Fabulous Second Grade Class!

Phonics: We reviewed all the spelling patterns covered in this first nine weeks.

Writing: Teacher modeled several personal narratives, as we discussed what makes a piece of writing great. The children wrote in their journals on two mornings, and we shared "great starts" for personal narratives. We also continue to summarize books that we are reading. We will get more in depth with our summary writing the 2nd nine weeks, as our writing genre is "Response to Literature".

Reading: We finished our shared reading, Charlotte's Web. We also worked in small groups on identifying story elements from passages. We read several nonfiction passages and identified the main idea in the story.

Math: We continue to work on counting various amounts of money. The children are learning about making equal trades and expanding their knowlege of money. We also introduced counting and writing money up to $20.00. Mrs. Pepper sat in on one fun math lesson, in which I gave the kids the number of coins I had and the amount and the children had to determine what coins I had. We wrote on our desks using dry erase markers. Mrs. Pepper said this is the only time she condones writing on the desks! We also reviewed concepts previously learned this nine weeks.

Social Studies: We learned all about the Cherokee tribe and the contributions of Sequoyah. The Cherokee tribe is almost identical in the ways of life as the Creek tribe. I did not send home study materials this week, as I believe if your child is actively engaged in class, this is sufficient for them to be able to learn and understand the topic. We took the Cherokee assessment on Friday. Next week, we will begin learning about the early Colonists and the important historical figures who influenced Georgia history. Also, don't forget to help your child practice his/her research project due Monday. The children will be getting a "oral presentation" grade, which will be reflected on the report card.

Class Reminder and Notes:

Thank you to the Brooks family, the Sharpe family, the Sampsell family, the McKinnon Family, the Glass family, and the Schadl family for your book donations from the book fair! Our class library is growing and the kids are so excited to get into these new books!

Also, thank you to Mrs. Brooks for coming up and helping in the classroom on Wednesdays and Fridays. She has been volunteering her time to read with the children and help them get those AR points.

Thank you also to Mrs. Glass for her time volunteering on Tuesdays to complete copying, as well as preparing other materials that I am using in class with the students.

October 1, 2009 Update...

2009-10-01T11:11:00.005-05:00

Hello Parents and Students,

We've had a great, productive week. The kids have been working very hard on their writing skills. The kids were very excited to visit the computer lab this week. They wrote summaries of a story that we read in class, added clipart, then printed their masterpieces! Check out the blue folder for your child's summary. One thing that I have instituted here in the classroom is, when I ask a question, the children must answer the question in a complete sentence. Writing in complete sentences that are not run-ons seems to be a struggle, so if the children begin thinking in complete sentences and speaking in complete sentences, then the writing in complete sentences will follow. Please enforce this kind of communication at home as much as you can. It will really help your child's writing.

Our class is in need of individually wrapped candy for our candy basket. I prefer small treats, such as starbursts, now and laters, etc.

Connor Glass was our first "Terrific Kid" award recipient! He exhibited "integrity" and has been a model student for his peers! Way to go, Connor!

Movie Night in the Garden is this Saturday. Check out the flyer in your child's folder for more details.

Charlotte's Web Movie Night at my house is next Friday, October 9th. Please return the RSVP by next Wednesday. The kids are so excited! It will be a fun night and it will provide us with some good material for comparing and contrasting.

There is one more week in the nine week week grading period. There is also one more week to earn AR points! Keep reading!

Check out what we've been doing in each subject area...

Phonics: We have reviewed all of the spelling patterns for this nine week period, which includes digraphs, l-blends, r-blends, and all the long and short vowels. We will have a summative assessment next week.

Writing: We continue to work on personal narratives. The final writing assessment will be given next week, as well. Your child is expected to be able to independently generate a topic, and then write an organized 5-8 sentence paragraph on this topic. I expect correct conventions which include second grade appropriate spelling as well as using capitalization, punctuation, and grammar correctly. We also have been working on writing short summaries of stories that we are reading. This skill involves finding and restating the main ideas in stories, as well as identifying the characters and setting.

Reading: We have been working on identifying story elements and summarizing. We are enjoying our shared reading book, Charlotte's Web. We have also read Tikki Tikki Tembo, Stellaluna, and Pinduli this week. These are great stories that have helped us work on our skills.

Math: We completed our unit on double digit addition with regrouping, but we will continue with this skill all year long. This is something your child will see repeatedly, so please practice this skill at home. We also began our unit on Money. We have used money manipulatives this week to practice counting coins with values up to $1.00. Next week, we will introduce bills and making change. Please practice this at home as well.

Social Studies: We completed our unit on the Creek People and we are beginning our unit on the Cherokee People. We will be comparing these two tribes to each other and to present day Georgians. We will also learn about Sequoyah and his contributions. Be on the lookout Monday for a special mandatory project related to these people groups. This project will be due on Monday, October 12th.

Have a super weekend and get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather!

September 25th Update...

2009-09-25T10:59:00.002-05:00

Hello Parents and Students,

We have had quite an eventful week! We tried to get as much accomplished in our 2 1/2 days as we could! Please make sure you check out the calendar items that are new this week as well as looking below to see what we are currently studying in each subject area. Again, I'd like to encourage all of you to get your children to journal at home as much as possible. The children should be writing in paragraph form and should easily be able to write 5-8 sentences on a single topic. Our current writing focus is personal narratives, which means the children should be writing about a specific memory of an event that happened to them. Encourage beginning with a catchy topic sentence and ending with a closing sentence. Choose a time to review your child's journal and talk about some things he or she could improve on. Always end with a GLOW, or something you loved about your child's writing.

Phonics/Grammar: We went over singular and plural nouns and when to add -s or -es to the ending. We also reviewed the long and short e spelling patterns.

Writing: We continued with our personal narratives. This week, we used a graphic organizer to help us with our writing, then we wrote our rough drafts after watching Mrs. Wadsworth model her writing. We edited our papers and rewrote our final copies. Be on the lookout for the "persoanl narrative rubric" that will be in the blue folders. To see your child's writing, you can come and look in our hallway. We also reviewed the important components of a letter and we wrote our first letters to our pen pals at Kemp Elementary. You will find the grade your child received on this assignment in the blue folder as well, but the letters have been mailed! We are so excited to continue with this project all year long. We might even be able to schedule an after school field trip to meet our pen pals!

Math: We began double-digit addition with regrouping this week. Please help your child practice this concept at home. I want the children to show all of their work at this point. Too many mistakes are made if the steps are not shown. The children know to rewrite the sum of the ones place up above the numbers, then move down the digit into the ones place answer column and carry the one to the tens place.

Social Studies: We began our unit on the Creek People, who weret the first to inhabit the land we now call Georgia. We are working on notetaking and picking out important ideas as we read through our text book.

Reading: We are making our way through our chapter book, Charlotte's Web. The children have loved listening to this classic. We also worked on a historical fiction book called The Ox-Cart Man and wrote a summary of this story. We continued our work on fluency, playing special attention to punctuation. We worked in small groups, choosing our favorite page of a book and reading it multiple times to see if our fluency improved with each time. As your child becomes a more avid reader, don't forget the importance of being able to read a passage aloud! I'm trying to really emphasize the importance of speaking well as we go through the year.

Update For September 18, 2009...

2009-09-17T08:36:00.004-05:00

Hi Parents and Students,

We've had a wonderful week, and we haven't wasted a minute! Please take a minute to look over the information below to keep you up-to-date with what we've been learning in our fabulous 2nd grade class. I loved all the extra credit posters the children shared this week. This project really helped extend our learning about this important Georgia resource. The participants' reward will be to go have ice cream one afternoon after school with me (my treat, of course!) Be on the lookout in a few weeks for more opportunities! Also, parents, we began our new chapter book last week; Charlotte's Web. As a culminating activity, we will have a "movie night" at my house one evening. As soon as we get further along in the book, I will let you know the date for this event.

Phonics: This week in phonics, we learned all about the short and long u spelling pattern and we continued our discussion of compound words. We took a short quiz, which the children did wonderful on, to assess how we are doing with our sounding out of words. Please pay special attention to this assessment. It will be in your child's blue folder.

Reading: We read the big book, My Grandmother's Patchwork Quilt. We focused on reading fluency. At home, please emphasize good oral reading skills. Children at this age should be reading with expression, aware of punctuation, and reading at a steady, consistent pace. Model good reading fluency and have your child mimic this if this is an area that your child is weak in. We also worked in small groups according to your child's reading level. We focused on summarizing a story as well as using the text to support answers to comprehenstion questions. The children completed their reading contracts on their independent books for the week. We have been reading and discussing Charlotte's Web, using the book to help us answer important comprehension questions. We've also used a Venn diagram to help us compare characters in the book to ourselves.

Math: We began our unit on addition this week. We have learned many strategies that help us add quickly and correctly. Remember to help your child study those math facts! Memorization of the single addition facts will come in handy when we begin double digit addition with regrouping next week. We are beginning to move very quickly through our math concepts.

Social Studies: We read and discussed the important resources in Georgia, focusing on the importance of the rivers. We also learned about ways that humans have an effect on the environment. We read a short passage and answered questions about the passage. This is helping us to prepare for the CRCT in the spring.

Have a wonderful and restful weekend!

-Mrs. Wadsworth

September 10, 2009 Update...

2009-09-10T10:20:00.002-05:00

Hello Parents and Students,

We have had a fabulous week in Second Grade. I am so proud of how well the children did on learning the Georgia Regions. We will begin our unit on Georgia's Resources and Rivers tomorrow. Be on the lookout next week for important resources to help your child at home. Check out what else has been going on in our room below...

Phonics: We have been learning about the long and short o spelling patterns. We also took a post assessment on the spelling patterns we have learned so far. Remember, your child is expected to apply these patterns when writing. This demonstrates that your child has mastered the skill. Giving your child opportunities at home for writing can help in this area.

Writing: We will continue with our Personal Narrative writing. At the end of the nine weeks, my expectations are for each child to be able to write at least an eight sentence descriptive narrative with correct capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and paragraph format. We are working on this every week, with me modeling the process.

Reading: We read the nonfiction book The Remarkable, Adaptable Turtle and discussed finding the main idea. We also worked on finding synonyms for words in the book and created a list. We worked in guided reading groups on making connections to ideas from our stories. We also practiced our phonics skills and writing on our contracts that we used with our independent books.

Math: We learned that graphing is one way to display information. We focused on comparing categories in a particular graph as well as identifying the graph key and using skip counting when appropriate. We also reviewed the math facts that we have covered so far (+2, +3, +4). We will have our data and graphing test on Friday and then begin addition strategies next week.

Social Studies: We completed our unit on Georgia Regions today and we will begin discussing the various resources in Georgia as well as the rivers in Georgia. The children will learn why the rivers were so important to early life in Georgia. This will lead into learning about the life and contributions of Sequoya.

Class News:

Friday, September 11th is Bingo Night here at Ford. If you are a PTA member, your card will be free. There will be food available for purchase as well. As I'm sure you are all aware, the flu has hit Georgia. Please be extra cautious as we try and get through this season. I am taking extra precautions here at school to keep your child well, such as washing hands with soap several times a day as well as cleaning desks and chairs daily.

This is just a friendly reminder to carefully go through your child's work that comes home on Fridays. Please be aware of your child's strengths and weaknesses and let me know if you need help coming up with ideas for helping your child at home. I can't stress enough the importance of providing reading and writing opportunities at home.

Extra Credit Opportunity:

Okay, kids, here is another opportunity to earn a special reward. Complete the project as stated here, and you'll find out what the surprise is! First, choose one of the seven Georgia rivers to research. Divide a large poster board into four squares. Write the name of the chosen river in the center. In the first box, tell me the location (starting and ending point) of this river. In the second box, tell me one animal that inhabits this river and describe it. In the third box, tell me one plant that inhabits this river and describe it. In the fourth box, tell me one interesting fact about the river. GRAPHICS must be included in each of the four boxes that are pulled from the internet. I want to see that you are using technology at home. This project is due no later than Friday, September 18th. Have fun and I can't wait to see your posters!

September 4, 2009 Update...

2009-09-04T07:25:00.003-05:00

Hello Parents and Students,

We have had a fabulous week! My favorite part of this week was hearing all of the Forms of Water extra credit assignment presentations. The kids did a fabulous job on this and they enjoyed their reward of inviting a friend to eat lunch back in our classroom. Be on the lookout for more extra credit opportunities. Below, you will find a summary of our week...

Phonics: short and long i spelling patterns
Grammar: Proper Nouns
Reading: Decoding unfamiliar words with different strategies, summarizing a story (small group)
Writing: Descriptive writing
Math: Graphing and Data
Social Studies: Georgia Regions

I really enjoyed seeing all of the parents this week at Open House. I'm so excited about our year together. If you have time over the weekend, get your child talking about the five Georgia regions which are the Appalachian Plateau, the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Valley and Ridge, the Piedmont, and the Coastal Plains. This vocabulary is new to the kids and the more they use it, the quicker they will learn it. There will be a test next Thursday on the location of these regions as well as the children needing to identify one key feature of the region. We've been going over this in class and the children will bring home a study guide to help them on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

CORRECTION! We will not change lunch times September 14-18, only September 9-11!

Have a super LONG weekend and I look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday!

August 28th Update...

2009-08-27T16:33:00.004-05:00

Hi Parents,

Thank you for visiting our class blog today. Read below to find out what has been happening in our fabulous 2nd grade class this week. Also, there is an opportunity for your child to complete an extra credit project below. There will be an extra special reward offered on Tuesday to anyone completing this project!

Class News...

Phonics/Spelling: We reviewed the long and short a spelling patterns as well as discussing compound words. We also practiced our 2nd grade Dolch words and have been paying close attention to writing them correctly this week.

Writing: We discussed how to make our writing more descriptive. We read the book Fancy Nancy and talked about the use of adjectives to "fancy up" our writing and make it more interesting. We also reviewed the 2nd grade expectations when writing a descriptive paragraph and how to use a graphic organizer to help us when writing. We wrote stories about places that are special to us...Come check them out in the hallway! We went through the editing and revising process as well. The students are so proud of their published pieces!

Math: In Math, we began our unit on comparing numbers. We continued our discussion of odd and even numbers (see if your child can show you the "dot method" to determine whether a number is odd or even) and we learned how to use the greater than, less than, and equal to signs to compare numbers up to 100. We also worked on our skip counting and using a hundred chart to determine patterns when counting. We have practiced using the TIPS method for solving word problems and we are continuing to work on computation skills in our arrow math and tile math books. We practiced our +3 facts this week. Remember to print and send in the award if your child successfully can do this at home. Next week, we'll move on to +4's!

Reading: We have worked on asking questions to help us identify important story elements. Asking who, what, when, and why questions help us to determine the characters, setting, problem and solution in a story. These are great questions to ask your child to check their understanding when reading a story. We also worked independently on reading contracts, while small groups of children completed guided activities.

Science: We began our unit of study on the changes that can occur in the three states of matter.

Reminders and Other News...

This week, the children have really been excited about reading AR books and taking quizzes. Your child has the opportunity every morning to visit the library and to take AR quizzes. Morning work must be completed first. There is also another opportunity to visit the library during our Language Arts time. Please help your child by making sure the story is fully understood before taking a quiz. AR is an "extra" activity that must be supported by you at home. We'll discuss AR more in depth at Open House.

I hope to see everyone at Open House on Tuesday at 6:30. I have so much to share with you and hearing this information will ensure we have a great year together. Please make other arrangements for your children on this night.

Extra Credit Opportunity!

Okay, here is our first extra credit assignment. This project is due on or before Tuesday, September 1st. Sorry, no late projects will be accepted! Here's what you need to do to participate...Get a posterboard. Divide the poster into three equal sections. Illustrate and describe the solid, liquid and gas forms of water. Your descriptions must be clearly and neatly written or typed in complete sentences. Your illustrations can be made by you, or you can use graphics from the computer. Can you also tell me how the various states of the water change from one form to another??? Well, now that would be something only a 4th grader could do, right? Prove me wrong! Be prepared to orally share your poster when you bring it to school. Practice presenting it at home. Remember, this project is optional.

Class News for August 21st...

2009-08-20T13:30:00.002-05:00

Dear Parents and Students,

Thanks for visiting the class blog today! Kids, be sure to check out the new question below...Also visit the math facts site to begin practicing the +3 addition facts. If you can print a "100%" certificate, then you do not have to take the timed test on Friday!

Class Happenings...

This week in Phonics, we learned the sh, ch, wh, and th digraphs. We also began talking about how to make our writing more descriptive (using adjectives and writing "homerun" sentences...your child should be able to tell you what a homerun sentence is!) We reviewed nouns and verbs as well. In Reading, we used a Cynthia Rylant chapter book to learn expectations for independent work, as guided reading groups begin next week. Children are expected to always justify their answers to comprehension questions by finding "proof" from the book. We also reviewed what an acceptable second grade answer should look like. No excuses for forgetting to begin with a capital letter, end with punctuation, and space words appropriately! In Math, we continued our discussion of various ways to represent numbers (standard form, written form, expanded form, place value form, base ten block form). We also learned how to find the nearest benchmark number (a fancy way to say "rounding"!) and how to identify if a number is odd or even. In Science, we discussed the three states of matter and the distinct properties of each. Your child will be bringing home a vocabulary book on Friday that should be used for studying important words. The first science test will be on Monday. We also visited the Media Center for our first lesson and we learned how to take AR tests here at school.

Class Reminders...

*Open House for 2nd grade has been changed to Tuesday, September 1st at 6:30. I hope to see you there!

*Picture Day is August 27th.

*If you have not sent in a four-color pen, please do so by next Monday. We will use these pens when we begin editing our writing.

*Be on the lookout Tuesday for a list of 2nd Grade words. These words should be consistently spelled as well as read correctly in context. Your child's spelling grade on the report card will come from how well your child is applying these words in everyday use. We will be constantly practicing these words throughout the year. Please enforce correct spelling of these words when doing homework also.