Podcasting has begun!!

Well...we finally got started!!!! Thankfully the snow has held off so we could get into a routine! The kids are SUPER excited to start doing their podcasts.

Each week the kids are in charge of picking a book from their book tub. They need to practice it for a week and work on their fluency: accuracy, expression, and phrasing. On their assigned day they use Garageband to record their podcast. I am putting their podcasts onto the 2A website. I showed the kids how to find their podcasts but I wanted to give you direct link as well.

I hope you share these with your family members as well. The kids are really excited to hear themselves and their friends read!!

http://webmail.howard-winn.k12.ia.us/Brynsaas/2awebpage/2awebpage/Home.html

From that link clink on student podcasts and you will get a list of the kids that are doing podcasts in here.

Happy listening :)

Living Healthy Iowa Kids

It seems there's a little confusion about the calendar that I sent home earlier this week. To be honest, I'm a little confused too :) I talked to some other teachers so here is a recap of the note that was sent home:

*We are trying to encourage our kids to live a healthy lifestyle so we are asking them to record the fruit they eat and the physical exercise they get daily. This calendar needs to be returned to school and will be picked up by the PE teachers on February 15.

*Fruit: please record the fruit they eat at home. You can also ask them if they ate the fruit from their school lunch.

*Exercise: PE at school can be counted. We have PE on Monday and Thursday for 30 minutes. You can record our noon recess on the calendar: 20 minutes. We have a 2:00 recess daily: 15 minutes. We have 10:00 recess on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday: 15 minutes that can also be counted on your child's calendar. Also record the physical exercise they get at home. Exercise with a video game cannot be counted.

I hope this helps. I'm sorry about the confusion!!! Our main goal is to encourage all children to be healthy and active!

Welcome Back!

Wow! I can't believe it's already January...where did the time go? I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing Christmas Break. I know I sure did!! I was quite busy getting settled into our new house, so I guess it wasn't quite as relaxing as normal. I did enjoy the time home with my girls though.

It was WONDERFUL to see all my students again this week...I really did miss them:) Everyone seemed very excited to be back at school. They also had a lot to share. It sounds like Santa was very good to the students in 2A! We spend quite a bit of time reviewing this last few days: Daily 5 and Cadet Pride. They seemed to remember quite a bit :) Next week we'll put our noses to the grindstone and get right back at it.

Your child may have mentioned we have another teacher/helper in our classroom. She is in the process of writing a note about herself and your child will bring it home on Monday. We are very excited to have her in our classroom and the students were very welcoming towards her.

*****Other information********
I sent home their math tests today from before Christmas. I was VERY pleased with them!! Those are yours to keep.

Report cards will come home on Monday with your child.

Cross your fingers that the snow stays away and we make it school. I really don't want too many more make-up days.

Have a great weekend!!

2nd Trip to the Nursing Homes

The last day before Christmas break we went to the nursing homes again. 2A went to the Patty Elwood Center. While there we sang them Christmas and other holiday songs. The residents loved the songs and many were singing along. We also read books to them again. We did do something a bit different this year. In the past we have asked you to provide a couple of gifts for the residents. This year second grade students made presents for them in art class. Mrs. Weideman had them decorate CDs using glitter and then they turned them into ornaments. Hopefully they liked their ornaments :)

Mega Party

Before our Winter Break the kids had their mega party. I wasn't there that day unfortunately...Grace was sick. But, from what I heard they had a GREAT time and I guess I have some pretty good dancers in the class :) I can't wait to see their moves someday!! Here are some pictures from the day. Enjoy!

Brrrrr!

I guess winter finally decided to arrive this year. It sounds like we're going to be getting some snow this weekend as well. I'm not too excited about this since we are starting to move into our new house. Oh well...

Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for recesses. Proper clothes need to include snowpants, boots, a warm coat, hat, mittens, etc. Unless the temperature is -0 we will always go out for recess.

Also, our building is usually cold in the winter so it's a good idea to keep an extra sweatshirt or long sleeve shirt at school. Finally, it might be a good idea to send extra clothes to school in case their others get wet: socks, gloves, pants.

Time is Flying!

WOW!!! Where has the time gone?? I can't believe it is already December 1. We only have 14 days until Christmas break and I have A LOT to get accomplished.

During Daily 5 time we have started a new comprehension strategy: making connections. Students learned that if they can connect the book to their life or an experience they have had they can better understand the story and know how the character may be feeling during the story. I have ready several stories to the kids and have told them my connections to the stories. They are just starting to practice this themselves. When your child is reading with you at home encourage him/her to stop and make connections throughout the story.

Please remember to have your child read nightly for 15-20 minutes. I know everyone is busy but it's important that they "show off" their reading skills to you as well.

Your child may have mentioned that we are not doing Word Work this week. It's true!! I didn't get a lesson taught last week due to the short week. We will resume Word Work next week.

I continue to have busy little beavers during writing time. I read to them Thank you Mr. Falker on Monday and demonstrated how writers can write about an important person. Your 2A child did this and did an amazing job!! They now know that they can continue to write about important people in their lives during Writer's Workshop time.

****We have our Mega Party on Tuesday, December 14th and I am in search of volunteers to help out! Second grade has their party with first graders from 12:45-1:50. I would need help from 12:30-2:00.

I believe our newly formed PTO sent out an email asking parents to volunteer to help at this celebration by either monitoring the equipment, making popcorn, or just supervising. If you are interested, please let me know ASAP. You can either email me, call me, or send a note with your child if you are interested. Thank you ahead of time!!!

I hope everyone has a super weekend and I hope you all continue to stay healthy!!

The Important Thing

Now that everyone finally knows the steps that a writer goes through to create a piece of writing we can get back to our ideas trait. Last week I read the kids The Important Book. This is a book that tells important details about ordinary things: a spoon, grass, wind, etc. The purpose was to teach writers to write a main idea sentence and then to write details about that main idea. We made a class writing and wrote the important things about a pencil. They had great ideas!! Next, everyone chose a picture of a classmate. They had to think of 2-4 important details about their friend. They did an amazing job...everyone had amazing things to say about their classmates. Once everyone was done the writer read it to the class and then I hung them up on our door. They have gotten LOTS of compliments about their writing pieces. Way to go 2nd graders!!

Nursing Homes

Yesterday we had a great trip to the nursing home. We sang them some fall and Halloween songs and then read to the residents there. The residents were really happy and excited to see us. 2A kids did a super job of reading to them and talking with them as well. Here are some pictures from our trip. Enjoy!

2 quick things...

I HUGE thank you to all the parents that came to parent-teacher conferences!!! I had great conversations with everyone. Thanks for taking some time out of your busy schedules to chat about your child's education. I am very proud of my students this year and of all the hard work they have been putting forth so far.

Second thing...
I have decided to have the final testing day for addition math facts on Tuesday, November 23. We will have our ice cream party on that day. Just a reminder that students need to have tested all of the "families" with me in order to get the party. It's amazing how good of an incentive ice cream is!!!!!

Goodbye October!!!

Wow! I can't believe it's almost November. That means my least favorite time of the year is almost here...winter!! With the weather the last couple of days it sure seems like it will be here soon. With the changing of the seasons please make sure your child is dressed appropriately. This means having to dig out the winter coats, hats, and mittens. I know I have to get them dug out at my house...hopefully I can find them after our move last weekend :) I did have several students bring winter coats and mittens today so hurray to them!!!

Our Halloween party was a big success this year. Thanks to the 4 parents that volunteered to carve pumpkins and to Lauren's family for donating the pumpkins this year. You all sure made my job a little easier allowing me to help all groups and to take pictures. We ended the party with a veggie tray and Charlie Brown. It's amazing how the Charlie Brown movies are always a hit year after year. Gotta love them!!

Here are a few other reminders:
**Tomorrow are picture retakes. If your child is getting them taken again have them return their old pictures.

**October book-it is due on Friday or Monday. I sure hope everyone was busy reading this past month. I'm excited to see how many reached their own personal goals!! The November calendar will go home on Monday.

**We go to the nursing homes next Wednesday to read and sing to the residents. They have requested that students wear their costumes. So...please don't tuck away the costumes after Sunday. Your child will need it again. Your child doesn't have to bring a costume but it sure would be fun to see everyone dressed up!

**Conferences are this week. I had super conversations with several parents last night and I look forward to meeting with the rest tomorrow night. I am very proud of my 2A students this year: they have been working really hard in the classroom and showing me amazing Cadet Pride! Way to go Cadets! Due to conferences we do not have school this Friday. Enjoy your day off kiddos!!!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween. Stay warm!!!!!!

Read...read...read

I am very proud to say that my 2nd graders have been working VERY hard during literacy time!! Thank you for reading with your child at home as well...they have been making a ton of progress already!

When your child is reading at home encourage him/her to use reading strategies to sound out the words. There are the strategies they know:

Chunk the sounds
Go back and reread
Look at the pictures
Cross Checking (Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense?)
Skip the word...read to the end of the sentences and come back

We have also been working really hard at reading the punctuation. This means that readers need to change their voice for the different type of sentence stoppers. I hope your child is practicing this at home :)

Once again, thanks for reading with your child at home and I hope all of my little readers are working hard to reach their October book-it goal!!!!

Wrapping up Science

We took our first field trip today...hurray!! The students did a fabulous job listening at both Plantpeddler locations! First, we went to the Plantpeddler Young Plants location. We learned that they have more than 350,000 plants in that greenhouse. It was A LOT of plants. A lot of them were poinsettias for Christmas time. We got to watch their machine wash the huge trays that the plants sit on. That was really cool. We learned they water the plants using a machine called a boom. It can move over the plants and people can even ride on it! At the second site (along the highway) we got to try cucumbers and tomatoes. They were delicious!!! The cucumbers were seedless. Finally we got to see three different plants that have unusual plant defenses. One of them was a Venus Fly Trap - we were really excited since we'd just been talking about that type of plant defense!! Ask your child what else they learned...

Attention: Pumpkin Carvers

I am searching for volunteers who would like to help at our Halloween party. I need pumpkin carvers:) The party is on Wednesday, October 27th from 12:30-1:30. If you are able to help, please send a note with your child and I will get back to you.

Also, in the past I have bought pumpkins for students to carve during our party. However, if you would like to donate a pumpkin to the classroom that would be wonderful!!! Once again, please contact me.

Thanks in advance for your support and help!!

Fire Station

What an amazing day for a field trip!!! We couldn't have asked for better weather :)

After lunch/recess we took off walking for the fire station. Since it was fall fitness day it was perfect that we were walking. The kids thought it was a little long, especially on the way back, but they had fun walking through all the leaves and crunching them!!

When we got to the fire station we had 3 stations. For one station, a fireman showed us around the fire station and showed us all the trucks they use. The kids were sure full of lots of questions and were amazed by some of the tools they use during fires!

For another station, a fireman discussed fire safety. It's great for the students to review this every year and they were very interested. One of the main points was that every family needs to know 2 ways out of their house and how to get to the family's meeting area. Please discuss this with your child. The second point was that if someone is on fire they have to STOP DROP and ROLL!! Great review!

The final station was a change from the past several years. Usually I have to dress up in the fireman's clothes and the students all get to spray me. Not this year.... :) This year everyone got a turn to spray one of the fire trucks. Yippee for me!!!!

The students had a super time on the field trip and showed great Cadet Pride!!! Please discuss fire safety with your child at home. Thanks!