Morning Meeting

The last couple of years I have started the day with a morning meeting and so far it has been a HUGE success. This year the students and I are loving it!! Morning meeting is great way for us to build a community in our classroom and to set a positive tone for the day. There are 3 parts to the Morning Meeting that we do: greeting, group activity, and sharing. The morning meeting will last about 15-20 minutes.
These past few weeks we have been working on the greeting and group activity. Greeting allows each child to hear his/her name and to be formally welcomed into the classroom. We’ve done a lot of fun greetings so far! Since we have several new students in our room it's been a great way to learn everyone's names :) We've been working really hard on good eye contact and a good handshake. Thankfully everyone understands these things now!!!

Group activity allows the students to interact with each other and to even laugh a little. They REALLY like this part of the meeting. It's our one opportunity during the day to play a quick game with everyone present. I think it builds excellent classroom relationships!

But now…it’s time to start sharing!! Let me tell you, the students are very excited about this! I have assigned each student a sharing day. On their assigned day, your child will need to bring something in or tell us something. When the sharer is finished the audience will have a chance to ask good questions or to comment on what they heard. I would like everyone to participate on their sharing day. Some students have already asked to bring in a pet. If your child would like to do this, and it’s OK with you, please send a note to school so we can set up a time that will work. 

I have attached the sharing schedule.  Please keep this in a safe spot until your child remembers his/her sharing day.  We will start sharing on Thursday.

Thoughts from the 1st week of school

We learned things in math. Brady
We learned how to count money. Fletcher
We learned new things in social studies. Alyssa
We did social studies. Landen
We did recess. Gabe
We learned how to read. Jason
I like to read. Emily
We read books. Travis
Daily 5 is fun. Jacy
We learned how to write. Ashley
We did morning meeting. Abby
Do Cadet Pride. Jasmin
Math is hard. Noah
Make good choices. Cole
Be respectful. Hunter
Make new friends. Nathan
Be trustworthy. Amy
Get tickets. Zachary
School is fun. Casandra

Class Parties

Our class will be having a class party for Valentine’s Day, Halloween, and Christmas. We are asking that you please donate $4.00 to go towards the class party fund. From this fund, refreshments and any necessary supplies will be purchased. Please send $4.00 in an envelope to school with your child. Thanks!

Birthdays

Soon enough we will start having birthdays here in 2A so I thought I would give you a heads up and/or a quick reminder about our birthday policy here at Howard-Winn.

If a child's birthday is during the school year we will celebrate it on the actual day. If you would like to send treats you are welcome to do that. Please make sure they are store bought -- sorry, no homemade food allowed:( Also, with our new Wellness Policy we're asking that if at all possible you try and make the treat healthy. If your child's birthday is in the summer we will celebrate their half birthday. Once again, you may send treats if you wish. Please make sure that the birthday treats do not contain peanuts or peanut butter.

Students may bring invitations to school and pass them out for parties. However, if a boy is having a party and brings the invitations to school, he must invite all the boys. This is the same for girls -- girls need to invite all the girls. Otherwise there will be hurt feelings. If you want to have a smaller party, please mail the invitations from your home. Thanks!

And.....We're Off!!

We are definitely into the full swing of things in 2A! We spent the first couple of days discussing and reviewing Cadet Pride. This was a review from last year but it needs to be retaught every year. We began implementing Cadet Pride last year and it was VERY successful so we are hoping for the same results this year. We are busy working towards a reward and students are busy trying to earn their blue tickets.

Now that I have taught the students all of the Cadet Pride expectations for school I am going to expect that I see Cadet Pride throughout the day. Unfortunately, a lot of 2A friends are struggling with this. I have to talk to the class MANY times throughout the day and remind them of my expectations. I have a lot of very chatty kids and I need them to understand that with 21 kids it's really difficult to teach when I have them talking. Also, it is unfair for those that are trying to listen. Please discuss Cadet Pride with your child at home and remind him/her of the 4 Cadet Pride rules: Be Caring, Be Respectful, Be Responsible, and Be Trustworthy. Thanks for help with this.

This week I introduced Daily 5 to the students and we have been busy practicing Read to Self. So far 2A students have built their stamina up to 9 minutes. We can't seem to get past that but we are hopeful that tomorrow will be the lucky day! My goal for them is to get their stamina up to 25 minutes. This means that everyone in the class needs to be reading quietly and for the full 25 minutes. This definitely takes teamwork and practice! Please encourage your child to be reading every night at home. Now that your child is in 2nd grade he/she should be reading 15-20 minutes each night!!!!!

We also started math this week. So far we are just busy reviewing skills that were to be learned lat year: basic addition, time, money, etc. We are also busy establishing math routines so that we will have a successful math class for the remainder of the year.

Thanks to everyone for sending money to school with your child. They appreciate using real money during math class!!!

First 2 days Wordle

2A students made a wordle at the end of the day yesterday. They thought of words to describe the first two days and then I made a wordle with those words.

Click on Wordle to see it. It's also along the side of the blog page.

Successful Open House

Thank you, thank you to all the parents and students who came to Back to School night!!! It was great to meet all of my new 2nd graders and their families. I am going to have a wonderful group of students this year:) Please feel free to contact me any time throughout the school year if you have any questions or concerns. I can't wait to spend this school year with you!

What?? Summer is over??

Where did the summer go? It seems like I was just packing up my classroom and now I have been busy unpacking everything again! I must admit, I'm a little sad that the summer is over. I had a great time at home with all 3 of my girls this summer. They sure kept me busy but I loved every minute of it. Grace is ready for kindergarten this year, Livvie is looking forward to daycare, and Nora is just starting to roll over and laugh at her sisters!!

My family and I did a lot of fun things this summer and I'm sure you did as well. I'm excited to hear all of your stories from the summer! I'm also excited to meet all of my new kiddos!!!!

Enjoy the last few days of summer freedom and I will see you at Back to School night!!

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 :)