Nora Jane

Hi 2nd graders!!

I hope you are having fun with Mrs. Easler. She told me everything is going well and that you seem to have adjusted to her as your teacher. I hope you haven't forgotten about me :) I know you had a music concert on Tuesday so I hope that went well. I thought about you guys and was sorry I couldn't watch you sing.

Nora and I came home on Sunday...on Livvie's birthday. She's doing really good and loves to eat and sleep!! I can't believe she is 1 week old already today. I have added some pictures for you to look at. I will be over to visit you in the next couple of weeks. I'm not sure when...so please don't ask Mrs. Easler all the time.

I miss you guys!!!!!!
Mrs. Brynsaas

Mrs. Brynsaas update :)

Hey kids!!!

I miss you already! I hope you are having good days with Mrs. Easler. I'm sorry I had to leave so quickly last Thursday. The baby must have moved and it was making it really hard for me to walk...yikes! I'm feeling much better now but I am staying off my feet as much as possible.

Nick and I went to the doctor last Friday and we found out that the baby will be born this Thursday between 7 and 7:15. We're REALLY excited!!!!! I will let the school and Mrs. Easler know what we had. I will also get pictures on the blog as soon as I get home from the hospital.

Remember your Cadet Pride and I hope you have super days without me. I will be thinking about you and good luck at your music concert next Tuesday.

Youtube is AMAZING!!

This is the first year we've been able to use Youtube at school and the kids and I have found it to be very useful...and entertaining!!! We have studied 3 parts of speech this year and I have shown a Grammar Rock video to introduce verbs and adjectives. I must say...the Grammar Rock videos sure brought back memories!! I watched them when I was in school :)

Grammar Rock - Verbs:

Grammar Rock - Adjectives:

We also sang a verb song so the kids would know the difference between action verbs, linking verbs, and helping verbs.

Verb Song


Finally, in social studies we have been looking at maps. The kids LOVE maps and are soooo interested in them!!! Right now I have them labeling states on the United States map. They are also locating the 7 continents and the 4 oceans on the world map. In hopes of the kids remembering the 7 continents I shared with them a song about the continents. They are quite the singers :)

Continent Song

PBIS dance

WOW!!! Do I have some dancers in here :) A couple of weeks ago we had our PBIS reward dance in the gym. Our DJ was Mr. Wiley and he played some super songs...the kids had a blast. Most of the kids were out on the floor dancing at some point or another. Popcorn was also being served, which was a nice treat for the students.

Read Across America Week

The first week of March always means that there is a special birthday....Dr. Seuss!!!! I have gotten a bunch of his books in the classroom and the kids are really enjoying them. They're a bit hard to read though - he sure likes to write tongue twisters!!

In honor of his birthday and Read Across America Week I asked for parent/family volunteers to come into the classroom and read to the class. So far we have had 2 special readers. We have a few more before the week is over. If you are still wanting to read to the class please let me know and we can schedule a time. The kids love listening to other readers!! Here are the pictures of our guest readers so far.

100th day

Since 100s day was many days ago I thought it would probably be time to put some of our 100th day pictures on the blog. We don't do a lot of celebrating in 2nd grade, which the kids were OK with. We did spend math time working on a project. The kids worked with a partner and had to construct something with 100 marshmallows and 100 toothpicks. They had a great time with this and some were very creative!! During writing they wrote what they would be doing when they were 100. These were hilarious!!! Finally, grades k, 1, 2 had ordered muffins from the bakery so we enjoyed those during our snack time. They were delicious :)

Where has the time gone?

Wow!! I can't believe it's already the beginning of March...where has the time gone? I will be the first to admit, I have not been very good at keeping up with the blog this year. I apologize!!

There are going to be a couple of posts after this one because I have a lot of pictures that I haven't shared yet. I hope you and your kids enjoy. A quick update about me...I have 4 weeks left before my due date. To tell you the truth, I am hoping I go sooner than later. While I am still here we will continue to push right along. I have a lot planned for the next few weeks. Hang in there kids :)

Here is a brief update on what we've been doing lately:
**During the last 2 weeks of Daily 5 the kids have been learning about non-fiction books. We have learned that they have several special features that most fiction books don't have: sections, section headings, labels, cutaways, maps, picture captions, a glossary, an index, a table of contents. We have spent many days examining non-fiction books and locating these features in them. Today, the kids were given their own non-fiction features notebook. They have to be good detectives and search through various non-fiction books for these features. This is my way of knowing if they were paying attention :)

We are going to move into a biography study. The kids sorted books the other day and learned that a biography is a special type of non-fiction book; a book written about another person. I am going to share with them several biographies and then students will choose a famous person that they want to learn more about. They will work on a writing project about that person.

**As I mentioned at conferences, the students have been learning about 3 different types of poems: cinquains, acrostics, and haiku. They have officially written all 3 types. They are now doing a final acrostic poem in groups. Since it's Read Across America week they are doing an ABC acrostic and the topic is school. They are doing a super job...I think it's a little harder than they thought it would be!!

**We started a new Social Studies unit yesterday. We are going to be exploring maps and learning how they can be helpful. The kids are really excited!!! Oh boy...

**We finished up our math unit last Friday. We have spent the last 2 days working on our Unit 6 math test. This is testing them on the trade first algorithm, arrays, multiplication, and division. Look for the test to come home within the next week or so.

WOW!! We have been busy. Thank you for continuing to work with your child at home. I have seen huge progress this year. Keep up the good work 2nd graders :)