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 your 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.

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!

Friends

Earlier this week I gave each student a puzzle piece. They needed to decorate it with pictures about them. I collected all the puzzle pieces and on Tuesday they had a chance to put the puzzle together. I told them they would have to use teamwork to put it together and that I would not help them. I set them loose and...they didn't get very far!! They were using good teamwork but they couldn't get it figured out! So, I found more time today and they finally got it together. It's a good thing some of them did some detective work and looked at 2A's website...I think that helped them out :) Needless to say, they finally put all the pieces together and discovered they were spelling the word friends.

They used super teamwork and got the puzzle put together -- great job 2A!!!!!

Cadet Pride

This last week we've been working on setting up a lot of routines here in 2A. The biggest change this year has been our PBIS behavior plan. This is new this year and its purpose is so that every student learns that same expected behaviors in school: hallway, restroom, lunchroom, playground, arrival and dismissal. EVERY teacher K-8 has been busy teaching these the last week. We have been practicing our Cadet Pride a lot these last few days. Students are working on 4 behavior traits with this PBIS plan: Be Caring, Be Responsible, Be Respectful, and Be Trustworthy. I must say...my kids are doing an amazing job!! YEA! The really good news for kids is that there's an added bonus for them. If they are "caught" showing the correct behavior in school a teacher will give them a ticket. They put this in their classroom bucket and once we reach 100 tickets in the classroom we earn a prize!! I LOVE prizes!!!!!!! Keep up the good work 2A!

What happened to Summer???

Ahhhhh...I can't believe summer is almost over and that I will be seeing your children in almost a week!!! I must admit I'm a little sad that I need to wake up earlier, bring my own kids to daycare, and enter the working world again!! :( However, I'm really excited to have a new bunch of kids this year. I absolutely LOVE getting to know them and forming bonds with everyone throughout the school year.

I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing summer. Please try and get your child ready for "school mode" again. It's going to be a transition for everyone...including me!! I look forward to meeting all of you and your children on August 18th for back to school night.

Reminders

Wow...I can't believe next week is our last week of school!! It has been an amazing school year and we have had a lot of fun times together! Since next week is our last week we have some special activities planned.

Tuesday:
We are going to the Fitness Center to swim in the afternoon. I have most of the permission slips returned. Thank you! Please remember to send your child's suit and and towel to school by Tuesday. Put them in a plastic bag or other type of bag. You can send them on Monday or Tuesday.

We are visiting the book fair on Tuesday. If you want to send money with your child you may. We will take time to look at all the books and then students may make purchases if they want. You are also welcome to come to the book fair with your child at a different time as well. It will be set up in the Elementary Library. Teachers will have a wish list posted by the book fair. Please don't feel like you need to make a purchase for the classroom.

Wednesday:
We are going to East Park for lunch and to play. You need to send a sack lunch and drink to school with your child. The school is not providing a lunch! We will walk to the park, eat our lunches, and then the students will have time to play. Please make sure your child wears tennis shoes that day since we will be walking there. Also, please send a sweatshirt or jacket in case it is cool out.

Friday:
This is our last day of school!!!! We will have a 3 hour early dismissal. We will also have our track and field day in the morning. Please make sure our child wears tennis shoes since we will be running and doing activities.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Effigy Mounds

Yesterday we had amazing time on our field trip!!!!! Our guide at Effigy Mounds did a super job with the kids and they learned a lot. If they answered a question correctly they got an orange bracelet...nothing like a little incentive to listen:) Ask your child how many mounds they saw and what they meant. We even saw a mound in the shape of bear! Here are our pictures from yesterday.

End of the year = crazy schedules

With the end of the school year near we have a lot of special days coming up in the next few weeks. Here are reminders about each of those days:

• Wednesday, May 12th – We go to the nursing homes for our final visit. This day is also a 3 hour early out.

• Thursday, May 13th and Friday, May 14th – We perform our Amelia Bedelia plays at 2:30. You are welcome to take your child afterwards if it works for you. If not, they can go home at the usual time.

• Friday, May 14th – The reward book-it pizza party. For those that turned in their reading calendar every month I will buy them pizza for lunch. Your child may bring a drink: pop, juice, etc. They may also get milk from the lunchroom.

• Thursday, May 20th – Our field trip to Effigy Mounds. The school will provide a sack lunch. More information about this will be sent home later.

• Tuesday, May 25th – Swimming at the Fitness Center. Permission slips, diving board permission slips, and other information will be sent home at a later date.

• Wednesday, May 26th – Lunch at East Park. You will need to send a lunch to school with your child. The school will not provide one!

• Friday, May 28th – Last day of school and track and field day. We will dismiss 3 hours early.

Beginnings and Endings

We welcomed a new student to our class on Monday. Her name is Erika and she came to us from Decorah. She has done a super job adjusting to 2A!! Just as I assumed, the students did a wonderful job at welcoming her and making her feel at "home" her in our classroom. Thanks 2A...for reminding me why I love coming to work every day:)

On an ending note, the final day to test subtraction facts will be Friday, May 7. It seems like we have been testing these FOREVER and I'm ready to be finished!! I will still test on that Friday and then we will have the party the following week. I haven't decided on the party date yet. Thanks for helping your child practice these facts. I can definitely tell and it makes math class go a bit faster. Your help and support is greatly appreciated!!!

What are we studying??

We've been really busy in 2A lately...I'm trying to keep their mind off the nice weather!!! It's kind of working:) So what have we been doing...

For the past couple of weeks we've been learning about fractions in math. I quickly learned these are REALLY difficult for my 2A kids!! Oh boy... One thing they must know is that the bottom number tells them the number of equal groups. The top number tells them the number of groups we need to count. I think we have that under control! I encourage them to use counters so they can be dividing out the equal groups. Unfortunately, when we were finally understanding equal groups I had to teach them equivalent fractions. This added some confusion!! We are getting toward the end of the unit so we''ll have the test next week. A lot of the skills were beginning/developing so please keep this in mind when your child brings the test home.

In science we've been studying butterflies/moths. We got our "friends" a couple of weeks ago in the larva stage. The butterfly larvae quickly changed to the pupa stage. They are hanging in the butterfly net and we are anxiously awaiting Painted Lady Butterflies. They have been in the pupa stage for about a week so the 'big change' should happen fairly quickly. During Daily 5 time students are researching a butterfly of their choice. They need to find 3 facts about their butterfly and then think about where in nature it would best camouflage itself and explain how camouflage helps. Then they need to make their own paper butterfly just like the real one. They need to hang it in the classroom so it is camouflaged.

This is the site we used to research them:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/

During Daily 5 we started visualizations...what??? This is when kids make pictures in their minds as they read books. They don't really do this much when they're a beginning reader since all the books have pictures. However, now that many are reading chapter books it's important that they are thinking about the words and imagining what's happening. We just started this today so we will continue to practice for a couple of weeks.

Finally, in writing we've been learning all about word choice. We've practiced using a thesaurus to look up fancier words and we acted out energetic verbs yesterday. They started a writing project where they need to make a descriptive riddle about an animal. They must use good word choice so I can imagine the animal in my mind.

That's our past couple of weeks in a nutshell. I have about 5 full weeks left with the kids so the push is on. I have a lot to get accomplished so I hope Spring Fever stays away!!!

2A Presents...Amelia Bedelia

As you may have heard we've been practicing a play: Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia. The kids are REALLY excited about this!!!! We will be sending home invitations but just as a heads up performance dates will be Thursday, May 13 at 2:30 and Friday, May 14th at 2:30. I have several kids that are really concerned that no one will be able to come.

I have some parts that were double cast: Amelia Bedelia, Mr. Rogers, and Mrs. Rogers. Madison, Kailyn, Alex, and the rest of the class will perform on Thursday. Libby, Angelina, Austin, and the rest of the class will perform on Friday. If you have any questions please let me know!

State Fun Facts

Friday afternoon my kids were extremely TIRED!! So...I decided to let them do some learning and exploring on their own. Your child was with a partner and they had to explore Iowa and find out many facts about it. If they got that finished with Iowa they were able to explore another state. Here is the site incase your child wants to do some exploring at home:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/

Ridgeway and Cresco Fun

We had a SUPER time meeting our new Ridgeway friends on Friday!!! The games were fun, the weather was perfect, and the food was delicious. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time and I had several students make some new friends! Everyone was really tired by the time it was all over...I guess that means the day was a success!

2A Sings...

The past week we've been doing some singing in 2A! Good thing the kids are good singers because I'm NOT!!!!! We continued with figurative language this week and they learned about onomatopoeia. What??? It means that a sound and the name for the sound have the same name: oink, vroom, quack, splash. Authors put these words in to make the book more interesting and they're definitely more fun to read! We practiced reading Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? When I started teaching about it this week I couldn't spell the word:) If I can't spell it...the kids definitely can't spell it, right? Amazingly I found a song on the Internet and now I can spell it!

O-n-o-m-a-t-o-p-o-e-i-a
(Sung to the tune of “Old McDonald”

O-n-o-m-a-t-o-p-o-e-i-a… with a
‘ruff-ruff’ here and a ‘baa baa’ there…
here a ‘vroom,’ there a ‘buzz,’
everywhere a ‘splat! splat!’
O-n-o-m-a-t-o-p-o-e-i-a!

Secondly, we've been 'Exploring Earth' in social studies. As you may have seen we've been labeling states, continents, and oceans. The kids really seem to like this and they know these pretty well. I found a song about the 7 continents:

The Continent Song
(Sung to the tune of “Are You Sleeping?”

North America, South America
Antarctica, Antarctica.
Europe, Asia, Africa.
Europe, Asia, Africa.
Australia.

Finally...we started the Word Choice trait in writing. I've read Fancy Nancy books the last two days and they've started using some of her words. Their favorite so far is merci (thank you). Here is our word choice song:

The Word Choice Song
(Sung to the tune of "Ring Around the Rosie")

Writing with your best words
Finding lots of new words
Sparkle! Dazzle!
The words stand out!

Similes

This week we have had some fun with similes. Students learned that they are an example of figurative language -- they thought that was hard to remember! Basically they know that a simile must include the words "like" or "as" and that they have to compare two things. We discussed that authors use similes so that readers can form pictures in their heads while they are reading. We will learn other examples of figurative language in the next couple of weeks: personification and onomonopeia. Here are some of 2A's similes...enjoy!

The room is as quiet as a lamb.
I am as calm as a kitten. (Jenna)
I am as tall as a dinsaur. (Kael)
I am as loud as a lion. (Emma)
My brother is loud like a dinosaur. (Austin)
I am as rough as a dog. (Alex)
I am as fast as a cheetah. (Donavyn)
I as tough as a rhino. (Bryer)
I am fast like a dog. (Dylan)
The clouds are white like snow.
I am as caring as kitten. (Kailyn)
The lollipop is sweet like honey.
My brother is like a bossy r. (Kael)
The waves are as calm as flowers.
My sister is as nice as a kitten.
Fires are as wild as a shark.
I am as smart as a teacher. (Angelina)
Rock stars are as wild as chimpanzees.

I'm back...and reminders

Wow...I have really gotten out of the habit of blogging. I apologize!!! It's been a little hectic lately...family life, my vacation, kids' sicknesses, school...I'm sure everyone is there with me. I had a wonderful time is Las Vegas, however, I don't know if it's harder planning the trip or coming back!!! Regardless, it's nice to get back to "normal".

I guess spring decided to visit us this last week...what a nice surprise! I hope the sunshine sticks around for a while longer. With the warmer weather the kids think they can start dressing for summer. It's not quite that warm here yet! The building is still quite cool inside and with the length of recess time it does get chilly outside. The mornings are especially chilly and many students spend a good amount of time outside before school starts. Please remind your child of this in the morning when they are trying to leave without a coat! It is also still muddy on the playground so we are still asking students to wear their boots. I also reminded students that the weather is supposed to change by Friday and that there is snow in the forecast. So...please don't put away the winter clothes just yet. Silly weather!!!!!

Another important reminder is that we have Tech Night this Friday. The purpose of this is to share with and thank you and the community for the technology that we now have in our classrooms. We will hold an open house from 5-7 this Friday night. All classrooms will be open for students to visit and to use the technology. In here I will have students showing you how to use the Smartboard and there will also be computer games to use. There is also a free will donation soup supper: potato soup, chili, cinnamon rolls and beverages. Thanks for your support and I hope to see EVERYONE on Friday night!!!!!

Finally, I feel I need to mention that I have had to give many reminders lately about 2nd grade responsibilities. It seems that students have gotten Spring Fever! Yesterday we had a big discussion about this during literacy. We actually had to build our stamina again for Daily 5 because they seemed to have forgotten how to read quietly and correctly and to not talk. I was not very happy about this! I reminded them that we still have 2 1/2 months left of school and that I expect even more from them since we are at the end of 2nd grade. I also reminded them that 3rd grade will be even more difficult with more expectations; I am trying to get them ready for this. Also, a reminder that your child still needs to be completing homelinks almost nightly and reading 15-20 minutes each night. Please chat with your child about this...I appreciate it.

I hope you have a great rest of the week and I hope to see you on Friday. Don't get lost in the fog:)