2A's thoughts about the week

Jason: 2A is really fun
Travis: My cousin came
Amy: We did a test
Jasmin: Read to Self is fun
Emily: 2A rocks
Alyssa: Cadet pride
Abby: Read to Someone is really fun
Hunter: I played on the playground
Paul: I brought my army equipment
Brady: Mrs. Brynsaas rocks
Landen: We did Read to Someone
Jacy: We did math
Noah: Daily 5 is fun
Zach: We played wizards at recess
Nathan: We had fun
Fletcher: We made a sand castle at recess
Gabe: We read from our book tubs
Cole: Read to Self is really really fun
Casandra: We did math
Jenna: I love recess

Homecoming Week

Next week is homecoming...YIPPEE!!!!!

To show our Crestwood Pride we are having dress up days next week:

Monday: Favorite Team/Jersey Day
Tuesday: Pajama Party Day
Wednesday: Exercise/Workout day (wear sweats/track pants)
Thursday: Super Hero Day
Friday: Cadet/Blue and White Day

These days are optional so students do not have to participate. We will have a 2 hour early dismissal on Friday, September 30 for the homecoming parade.

Go Crestwood Cadets!!!

Daily 5

Your child has been working REALLY hard to build up our stamina for Read to Self, Work on Writing, and Read to Someone.  This takes a lot of time and practice because students need to read/write the whole time...no breaks allowed!!  We have created I (independent) charts for each component and practiced the right/wrong way to do each.  We started our stamina building at 3 minutes and have built our Work on Writing and Read to Self staminas up to about 20 minutes.  We continue to increase the Read to Someone stamina as well.  I am soooo proud of my 2A kiddos...keep up the good work!!

Here are some pictures of your kids building their stamina.

TOYS

Ahhhhh...2nd graders this year are bringing A LOT of toys to school!!!!  Unfortunately, when toys are brought to school problems always arise: toys get broken, traded, or lost.  So, the second grade team decided to ask students not to bring toys to school this year.  Here are a few examples of toys that are being brought: trading cards, dolls, barbies, trucks/cars, blay blades, etc.  When your child is out at recess we encourage them to run around or play on the equipment.  Please make sure your child is NOT bringing toys to school. 

Our Week in Review

Wow!  It has been a long time since I have done a blog post...sorry about that!!  We have been so busy in 2A lately.  Here is a run down or our lately activities.

My second graders continue to work VERY hard in here. I continue to introduce new things to them and add to know they're already doing.  The beginning of the year is really about establishing routines.  Some routines are review from last year but it's a matter of retraining them and reminding them!!

This week we continued to work really hard on our Work on Writing and Read to Self stamina. We are up to 20 minutes for Read to Self and 16 minutes for Work on Writing...AMAZING!!!!  This week I continued to introduce more ways to Read to Someone.  Kids LOVE reading with their friends!!  So far they know 3 ways to Read to Someone: Check for Understanding, I Read, You Read, and Choral Reading.  When you are reading with your child at night chat with them about the ways to Read to Someone. Maybe they can even teach you how to do it :)  So far I have been choosing their partners for them; next week they will learn how to do this.

On Monday we took a little break from Daily 5 and we discussed September 11th. I showed them a short video clip explaining what happened and then read a book written by students. It was called September 12: We Knew Everyone Would Be All Right. My kiddos has super questions about this day and were very eager to learn about it. I was amazed how much they already knew about this day. 

In social studies, we have been learning all about communities.  We are coming to the end of this unit so next week I will be testing students.  Next we will begin a science unit.  More to come about science later...

The first math unit was mostly a review from last year: addition facts, number grids, clocks, and counting money.  These were skills that your child should have learned.  If they seem to be strugging with money or telling time please practice at home.  I started assessing these skills on Thursday and will continue a couple of days next week.  Along with the written test I need to listen to each student count.  Thank you to your kids for returning their homelinks this week!! Your child will have one most nights; your child should be able to do them independently but please help out if needed. Try and get it done and return it the next day. I will understand if there wasn't any time and it needs to be done the following night. Have your child return it when it's done. I do keep track of these.

As you can tell we've been really busy in here lately.  I continue to be impressed with 2A's Cadet Pride!!! Thanks for our support and for working with your child at home.  Please continue have your child read each night.  Have a super weekend!

Penny Cup

The kids learned a new game in math today: Penny Cup.  This is a game that you could play at home with your child!  All you need is 20 pennies and a cup. 

To play:
*Player 1 hides some pennies under the cup while player 2 is NOT looking

*After the pennies are hid, player 2 needs to count the pennies outside the cup and then figure out how many are under the cup.

*Switch roles

*Have fun!!!

Writing with clay...

Today students had the opportunity to work with clay in our classroom. They each had 3 different colors to work with. I gave them very vague instructions; they had to create something using the clay. They sure had a lot of comments and questions!! I gave them about 10 minutes to create their piece. I must say this was my most creative group!!!  We had amazing creations in here!! :)  After that they had to add something, take something away, and make a change to their piece. Next they had give their creation a title. Finally we discussed compliments and how to give a GOOD and meaningful compliment. Students had the opportunity to go around the room and compliment each other's creations.  Everyone did a super job with this!

Some of you might be asking why we did this. Well...I tied it to writing in 2nd grade. Yesterday we read a book explaining the steps that authors have to go through when they create a book. We will go through similar steps here in 2A. We discussed that good authors are not happy with their first copy. They need to change, add, and take away things from their writing pieces. So, hopefully as my second graders are grumbling at me and saying they don't want to make changes to their writing pieces they will think about their clay project. Hopefully they will remember that all good authors make changes before they publish their final writing piece.

Here are some pictures of the students creating their pieces and of the final product.

Happy writing 2nd graders!!

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!!