December 19, 2012

Joey reported he played baseball, on a team called the Royals.  He shared about his family and he said," The annoying one is my sister."  He likes to watch TV and his show that he enjoys watching is the Superheroes Squad.  He likes Iran man the best on the show.  He loves to draw and he loves it because he likes to hang the collections of his drawings on the wall.  He likes school because he loves to read.  We enjoyed hearing all about Joey today.

We will Have our class party at 12:30-1:45, then they will go to specials.  We had a normal day today.  We had reading cafe time.  we created reindeer journals to bring home over the holidays to practice our writing.  Then we started math and worked on number sense.  We worked on expanded notation and how to work with numbers in the hundreds.  We discovered it is like counting by ones but they are just bigger then Ms. Wolfean Claus gave us extra recess for being nice!!

December 18, 2012

Joey did report out about playing baseball and getting a triple hit.  He received a trophy for his derby car race.  He even made the car to race it from scratch.  He has fun enjoying his favorite toy Babe blades.  He likes to play them and watch them battle.  He has a dog and his name Leia, she is a chocolate lab. "I have always wanted one,"he told us.  Her name came from the Star Wars Princess Leia.  Tacos is his favorite food because they are, 'Yummy!

December 17, 2012

A parent emailed me today asking about the class book we created.  If you would like to purchase one because you thought they would receive a free one.  The form asked for a code found on the back of the book.  Here is the code, 1492730 thank you Mrs. Fica for bringing it to my attention.  I love trying to stay on top of things, but sometimes I just get busy.  Today was back to normal schedule as usually, but we had Holiday around the world again.  They only travel at the end of the day after all learning work was completed.  We had Reading cafe and sorted words by their suffixes and prefixes.  Then we learned in math number sense using hundreds and completed a money test. 

Joey is our new Top Banana, and we saw the end of Lidi's reign.  We did not have time to hear from Joey because I forgot about our world travels.  I will move sharing poster this week to after lunch, and we will double up tomorrow to make up for today.

December 14, 2012

Dear Parents,

I wanted to share an email sent to us by the homeroom Mom, Mrs. Pearce.  She sent it to me, please sign up for Holiday party items.  You have been invited by Janine Pearce to sign up for "Holiday Party." Please click on the link below to view the online sign up sheet. 

To sign up, go to: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0949A9AB28AB9-holiday1/997754
Today has been our last day with our flipped schedule and we will be back to normal Monday.  We did our Cafe reading and we took our money test.  We completed our fairy tale writing about the story elements.  Ask your child about the difference between a fiction book elements and fairy tales?  They should be able to communicate this to you.  We had lunch and recess, but recess was again at the end of the day.  We did travel to a new world make sure to let them explain about our new country of Israel?

Lidi shared part of her show in tell because she forgot to bring her other item.  She even left her favorite book at home.  she will bring her other items on Monday.  She brought a hallow stick she discovered at her Uncle's front yard.  She found it because she was playing with her dog in the sandbox. "When my dog shook the sand off of himself, I looked down and saw it."

December 13, 2012

YES NO LIE I FORGOT TO GIVE THEM A MATH PROBLEM!!
Another day of a strange schedule and I forgot to let Lidi share the rest of her poster, we did get to it yesterday and she shared about her horses and that she loves them.  We also learned she has Barbie dolls and likes to dress them up.  She taped one on her poster and designed a dress for her out of ribbon and even created a bow for her hair.  Maybe she will grow up and be a fashion designer or a veterinarian.  She loves animals a ton.  We did our Cafe reading and continued to discuss context clues and then we met in groups to go over our books.  We did our how to writing and all about books.  We finished reviewing for our money test and will take it tomorrow during math.  We then traveled to Germany to learn about their culture, please ask them what they learned?

December 12, 2012

Dear Parents,

I wanted to share an email sent to us by the homeroom Mom, Mrs. Pearce.  She sent it to me, please sign up for Holiday party items.  You have been invited by Janine Pearce to sign up for "Holiday Party." Please click on the link below to view the online sign up sheet. 

To sign up, go to: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0949A9AB28AB9-holiday1/997754
We had another testing day and our specials was again at 10:25.  Are recess is at the end of the day, because of the 3rd 4th and 5th graders testing.  We had CAFE reading and began our day discussing context clues.  We use strategies or clues from the story to figure out a nonsense word.  Please ask them what strategies they use?  We then had writing, but we did it in the morning as we arrived because we are writing about our subjects we know a lot about, our countries we are visiting.  Please ask them what they are learning about?  We traveled to Venezuela, and they made a craft.  I hope you all are enjoying it?  I know I am awful, because we forgot, well ran out of time to do Lidi's poster.  However, after recess I squeezed in a little and we will finish tomorrow.  Please stayed tuned for more on Lidi.

December 11, 2012

Today was a strange day because there is testing in the building and our specials time has changed.  We now have specials at 10:25-11:15.  We have recess at the end of the day and lunch has not changed.  This means the children are like OH NO what happened?  They are adjusting fine, but it seems strange.  we are having Holidays around the world and will be traveling to all the teachers rooms to visit another country.  We are learning how these countries celebrate their Holidays and how they are different form America.  We made it to Italy today, ask them what they learned?  We had normal lesson in reading, writing, and math.  we learned how to use contexts clues to figure out nonsense words and we completed are fairy tale unit on story elements.  We then did our writing all about subjects by writing about our country we traveled to.  We also had our math lesson using tables to solve story problems.  They have a new problem to solve today, for CGI.  We heard from our Top Banana Lidi, she loves horses, dogs, and cats.  she thinks cats are better then dogs.  We learned she was born in Hungary and wishes she could speak it.  She also reported, "I sold my stuffed animals in a yard sale." She used to have nine chickens and we are excited to hear more from Lidi.

December 10, 2012

It is true NO SPELLING!!!!!

Lidi is our new Top Banana and we will be listening to her poster tomorrow.  We had a busy day, because we had to get all our morning and afternoon activities in before lunch.  This was because we had to begin our travels.  We are traveling around the world, and today we began in the United States of America.  We had cafe reading and discussed fairy tale story elements, and will begin our context clues lesson tomorrow.  We had writing and continued our how to topics and started discussing how to set up all about books.  We will continue to revise and edit and begin mapping are all about books.  We then began our lesson on patterns in a table, in math.

December 7, 2012

Riley, our Top Banana, shared his show and tell for his last day today on December 10.  We saw his hockey puck from the Texas Stars game.  This guy gave it to me at the game, even though he was an Aggie's fan and I am a longhorn fan he gave it to me anyway.  He past it around so everyone got the chance to feel it.  He then shared a medal he won at football, when he played for the team Dragons.  He received the medal because he had a fantastic game and made a lot of tackles.  He even said, "I caused a fumble."  What a great player he is.  The final thing he shared was his favorite book, The Adventures Super Dipper Baby.  He reported he liked it because, "It reminds me of Captain Underpants."  He shared his favorite part which was a two pictures because it looks like he is moving.  He read his favorite part, and we go back to work.  Thank you for your reign of king Riley, now for Queen Lidi. 

December 6, 2012

TOMORROW LAST DAY FOR OPERATION BLUE SANTA
HOLIDAY LETTER PLEASE SEND BACK BY DECEMBER  13

NO LIE NO MATH NO SPELLING

We had a fantastic day, they are correct no math.  It was a crazy kind of day, due to the programs we saw.  It all started with the Nutcracker and your children were in the performance.  They were shocked to be the ones in the play.  Following this they immediately went to the author visit, OH MY AWESOME!  They were both fantastic and I learned a lot form them.  Then of course we came back to the room an wrote because we had the best ideas in our heads ready to write.  I was pumped after seeing Phil Bildner and all I want to do was write.  Please stay tuned for pictures, and ask your child about their day.
I forgot top add Riley's Grandma came to visit because he was our Top Banana.  He shared his poster about his dog and he told us his name is big boy.  when asked why he reported, "It is because he is big and he is a boy."  He has a sister and brother, their names are Courtney and Nick.  He loves to eat pizza and his favorite is pepperoni.  Subway sandwich is his favorite and he said,"I like lettuce, tomato, mayo, and ham of course."  Christmas is his favorite Holiday because, "I get lots of presents", he stated.  "Summertime is my favorite season because all I do is play video games all day."
QUESTION:  I HOPE TO SEE COMMENTS:

What was your favorite part about today's activities?

December 5, 2012

Parents please know that there is a science Fair on December 11, at 6:30-7:30. 

Holiday letter home today please return if you can help or send in items, then I will make sure you receive a letter on what you need to bring.

Today we had a half day and we had to make sure our class book of Twenty-Two Things Kids Want to Do was complete because we are giving it to Mr. Bildner.  He is the author who is coming tomorrow to visit.  Do not forget to ask them about the dinosaur exhibit they saw during specials.  We then made sure to discuss the book the Nutcracker because will be seeing the play tomorrow morning, it will be here at school.  We also got the chance to hear Riley report about his poster.  He is all about football and I was wrong he plays both defense and offense.  He loves fruit and his favorite is strawberries.  he also told us he loves to play games and have fun with his family.  He enjoys swimming and playing in the pool. 

December 4, 2012

This week we will have an author visit on December 6th at 9:45 to 10:45 and the class will be watching a performance of the Nutcracker on December 6 at 8:30, we are asking only the second grade students, no siblings, to attend the performance due to availability of room. 

HOLIDAY PARTY LETTER HOME TOMORROW

Riley is our new Top Banana and had we are having a fantastic time getting to know him.  He shared a picture of his best friend Jason.  They were sitting on football helmets, they were waiting for practice.  He loves football because he has been playing it for three years.  His football team was called the Dragons and he likes to play defense.  He also shared he loves xbox and his favorite game is Modern Warfare.  We look forward to learning more form Riley this week.

We began our day with Reading cafe and then we had library.  We met with Mrs. Wallingford who shared about our author visit and reminded us his book orders were due today.  Then she showed us how to go to the computer data bases on the library website.  We will be bringing home the passwords tomorrow to be able to log in.  We returned to class to complete our author visit project.  We then moved into math and took a quick check on money.  Then we ran out of time to finish our science.  We will double up on science tomorrow and begin our Social Studies unit.

December 3,2012

I was told to share these items with you

 

Dear Parents,

Wednesday is our Dinosaur George Exhibit and we are looking for some help during the day and in the evening. If you can help out please sign up at the link below. If you can help but not for the entire time slot please message Janine Pearce at ideasbyja9@gmail.com. 

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0949A9AB28AB9-dinosaur1

I am also including a link to the sign up for tour times in the evening.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0949A9AB28AB9-dinosaur.

Thank-you and we hope to see you there.

Janine Pearce

 

This week we will have an author visit on December 6th at 9:45 to 10:45 and the class will be watching a performance of the Nutcracker on December 6 at 8:30, we are asking only the second grade students, no siblings, to attend the performance due to availability of room. 

 

We had a fantastic day and we managed to get through our lessons.We are working on visualisation or mental imaginary, while reading.  We are trying to picture the story in our head and record out what we see.  We are using text support to prove why we changed our visualization.  We continued to write our how-to procedural texts explaining the steps on how to create something.  Ask you child what they have worked on in class.  Some of them are on their second and third one.  We took a break and went outside then came back and discussed money an dhow to count.  Also what coins would make certain amounts.  Then we had a treasure hunt and discussed magnetism.

November 30, 2012

Today we had Julia share her poster again, she reported that she loves flowers.  She even has some growing in her backyard.  She added a heart because she loves to be happy.  The wrapping boarder was put on her poster because she loves Christmas.  Her favorite flower is a daisy.  She added a castle because she has a tent shaped like a castle.  I love castles because I like to play in the tent.  Christmas is her favorite holiday because putting up the Christmas tree is fun.  "This is a tradition that my family does and I love it,"was Julia's reply to a friends question.  She also showed her show in tell and she decided to bring a necklace she made at her friend's house.  She loves it because it reminds me of my friend.  She likes it because it has her favorite color on it.  She brought her fairies to show because she saw the movie The Secret of The Wings twice.  She can not choose one because she loves both, but if she had to pick it would be Periwinkle.  Her favorite book she brought was Merry Okee Songbook form Hallmark.  She wanted to share it because it is close to Christmas and it is filled with Christmas songs.  The Microphone makes your voice sound normal or just like an elf. 

Today we did cafe reading and discussed our reading strategies of how to figure out the meanings of words we may not know.  Then we moved into writing and we wrote about something that we were told we could not do.  When then wrote letters to persuade them to let us do it.  Then we took a break from class for recess and came right back in for math.  We discussed ways to make one dollar.  We are creating a book about our ways too.  Then we started our science experiment with magnets.

November 28, 2012

Given to me from our very own Librarian

Author Phil Bildner will be visiting our school next week on Thursday, December 6.

He will be speaking to our 2nd, 3rd,4th and 5th grade students in the library:

8:15 to 9:15  3rd and 5th grade

9:45 to 10:45   2nd and 4th grade

Parents are always invited to join us!

If you would like to order a book so that Phil Bildner can autograph it for your child, please complete the attached form and return it with payment to the school by Tuesday, December 4.  If you pay by check, please include your Driver's License number. Thank you!

Today was another fun filled day with a special visitor, Mrs Doyle she shared a book by our author who will visit The Greatest Game Ever Played, this book can be purchased.  I will be sending home the order form tomorrow, please look out for it.  We had our Reading Cafe time and we met in groups then we explored books.  We looked at several books to get ideas on how to organize our How-to-Topics.  We noticed many things the books had.  Tomorrow we will be looking at How to books and seeing how to model our writing after these authors.  Then we moved into math and began our unit on money.  We were learning how to write the amounts of money by using our dollar and cent sign.  Then we began to discuss how to use hairy money to count up our coins.  Finally we ended our time with Hunter sharing his Top Banana show in tell, because he forgot before his time was up. 

Hunter shared with the class his bag, shirt, and favorite book.  He made the bag at Great Wolf Lodge all on his own.  He brought the shirt because he loves to spend time with his dad and his team mates, being the bat boy.  He The showed us his favorite book The Night Before Kindergarten by: Natasha Wing.

Finally Julia, this weeks top banana shared her poster, YEAH!!!  I told you I would remember She shared she loves my little pony and her favorite is Pinkie Pie because she loves pink and Julia said, "She loves to party and so do I!"  Then she shared that she placed Angelina on her poster because she is a ballerina and she loves to dance too.  Then she reported she loves Rudolph the red nose reindeer because she loves that show.  She placed a barbie on her poster because she loves to play with them.  Her last picture was of herself and it was her in a pretty dress at New Year's, she said, "My mom was looking for a picture on the computer and this was the one she found."  I love how children can be honest in the way they tell stories.  I am loving getting to know your children more and more each day.

November 27, 2012

THINGS TO SHARE!!
    Author Phil Bildner will be at Gattis on Thursday, Dec. 6, and he is awesome! He has visited a number of Round Rock schools and the reviews have been excellent. He even does a writing camp for several of our schools. Here's his link if you want to preview:  http://www.philbildner.com

Hello Gattis Families!

Our Breakfast with Santa silent auction is quickly approaching.  We are still in need of some items by grade level to fill up a basket.  In the attachment you will see all the items needed for each basket.  Simply find your child's teacher and sign up for a item that is NOT highlighted in yellow and drop it off on Monday, November 25th.  PTA has a cart in the hallway where you can leave you donated item.

If you are interested in placing a bid for an item that is in the auction, we have a binder in the office where you can place a bid.  As we receive items, they will be on display in the main hallway display case across from the library.

Thank you for your support!

-Gattis PTA

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1WLejTxBVAhBpPyQnyN1xv72qEWVWkrYI0NrLoa44BTM

Julia is are new Top Banana, however, we have had a lot of interruptions today with library and Mrs. Shanahan coming to visit, we just have run out of time.  We discussed responsibility and it is mine to make sure we get to her sharing time.  I feel awful, but I will make it up to her tomorrow.  I PROMISE, we are learning a lot this is why we are running out of time. 

Their spelling is different this week.  They need you to call them out because I will give an old fashioned test, due to the fact I am checking for meaning not spelling.  They know how to spell them, they are writing the wrong words.

We started off with Ms. Wolfean reading a homophones book, because this is are spelling skill.  These are words that sound the same, but have different meaning and different way to spell them.  We then headed into CAFE reading and met in groups.  Then we listened to our Ladybug lady give a lesson on responsibility.  ASK them about this it was cool.  Then we came back to class and began our new writing unit on How-To-Topics.  We will begin to write how to do or make something.  Finally we ended our day with a lesson on money, and how to complete the CGI.  It will be difficult tonight because it is new, please be patient with them.

November 20, 2012

Hello Gattis Families!

Our Breakfast with Santa silent auction is quickly approaching.  We are still in need of some items by grade level to fill up a basket.  In the attachment you will see all the items needed for each basket.  Simply find your child's teacher and sign up for a item that is NOT highlighted in yellow and drop it off on Monday, November 25th.  PTA has a cart in the hallway where you can leave you donated item.

If you are interested in placing a bid for an item that is in the auction, we have a binder in the office where you can place a bid.  As we receive items, they will be on display in the main hallway display case across from the library.

Thank you for your support!

-Gattis PTA

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1WLejTxBVAhBpPyQnyN1xv72qEWVWkrYI0NrLoa44BTM

Please make sure to visit this site for the silent auction.
Today was a fantastic day we did reading CAFE and read about the Pilgrims and their first feast.  We learned it wasn't a one day event, but a week.  We also saw a video, ask them about it?  We did math and social studies with the video and had an extra special time trying to finish our turkey disguise stories.  I hope you can get the opportunity to come by and read them.  They are specially funny.  There is even a picture to capture their turkey.

November 19, 2012

NO SPELLING THIS WEEK HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Looks like this will work for our Phil Bildner visit on Thursday, December 6:

3rd and 5th - 8:15 to 9:15

2nd and 4th - 9:45 to 10:45

The students had a great day during reading and writing.  I forgot we had a special visitor come to school and gave us MILK, ask them?We created stories about How to disguise your pet Turkey from being eaten.  We also decorated a turkey to and made outfits to dress them up in.  Then Ms. Wolfean hung them in the hall.  We saw a video on probability.  We also discussed and watched a video on light and sound energy.  Then we wrote about our claims and evidence for what color would be best to wear at night.

November 14, 2012

Please parents return the envelopes for class books, by tomorrow! FRIDAY I MAIL IT OFF

We had a fantastic day, we met our new Top Banana.  Hunter is doing a great job.  He is leading us in a wonderful direction.  We learned he loves baseball, I wonder does he take after dad? 

Today we were finishing up our class books and hope we get them done tomorrow.  Well first we started off in Reading CAFE and had fun discussing our books.  Then we worked on our writing, small moments.  We did our probability math, PUPPY have them explain the activity?  I hope you all have a blessed night, and enjoy your family time.

November 13, 2012

    Author Phil Bildner will be at Gattis on Thursday, Dec. 6, and he is awesome! He has visited a number of Round Rock schools and the reviews have been excellent. He even does a writing camp for several of our schools. Here's his link if you want to preview:  http://www.philbildner.com

Also I sent a letter last night with the password to order books, the code is LNJZY.  This is if your family is interested in ordering from Scholastic books. 

We had a blast today doing read CAFE time and meeting with our groups, then we went to the library to listen to Mrs. Wallingford discuss her book.  We discussed probability in math and how things can be likely or less likely to happen.  After this we work on our class book and we will be finishing them up tomorrow.  They came home with a sticker and an envelope to order their class book. 

November 12, 2012

Happy Veteran's day to all who serve and have severed.  Today was a fantastic day and I have to report they had fun on the computers.  They are learning how to communicate using their books and we even watched a group of readers discussing their books, to help all of us out.  I am trying to help your students become indepent on thier findings during reading to bring those findings to our group for discussion.  We used the laptops, but did not get to the programs because we had to spend time logging in.  There is no need to worry because we will finish up tomorrow.  We had a blast in Cafe reading time.  They love the cafe at math because they get to spend time playing all kinds of math games I have taught them. We continued are spelling skill /ly/  again this week because they are struggling when to keep the final e and when not to.  We did math and are continuing probability and moving into money. 

November 8, 2012

Assembly for veterans on Friday at 8, they are asking visitors to be here at 7:45. 

Hello parents I hope this is useful.  I love doing it, but if it seems not to benefit parents I would like to know?  I had a great time watching the students learn the difference between what is possible, impossible, and certain.  I loved hearing their justification for their findings.  Please ask them some of the thoughts kids were saying.  I had a blast during CAFE time for reading because I am finding the students able to communicate about books in a different way than they had before.  I love hearing their connections, wow moments, words they find, things they agree with and disagree.  During math CAFE time students seem to enjoy their games and activities with number sense.

November 6, 2012

Voting Day second grade voted early this week and results are in 96% Obama and 24% Romney.  I can't wait to see how our nation votes.

Also not sure why my other posts were not posting, but I figured out the problem.

We finished our Top Banana with Ana bringing in her stuffed bunny Hershey that she sleeps with, her key chain she got on a trip, and her favorite book Encyclopedia Brown.  I loved having her explain about her life and all she does.  Please stayed tuned for next week, I forgot to send the letter home with a new student on Friday. 

Today we had a great time getting through our activities.  We did CAFE time and met in reading groups.  We then headed to the library to hear a lesson on one of Mrs. Wallingfords fantastic books in the library. We came back to complete writing and made a vote for me poster.  They were to come up with their on slogan, explain why they would make a fantastic president, and create a poster to go with their campaigning.  They seemed to enjoy themselves.  We did math and began our probability lesson.  We discussed possible, impossible, and certain.  Please ask your child what they think?

November 1, 2012

SCHOOL CELEBRATION FOR VETERANS ON NOVEMBER 9 at 8AM

We had a great day and we got to everything we needed.  We will be finishing all work tomorrow, like our quick check and graph poster.  We had an excellent time in CAFE because we got to go to all work stations.  We met in groups and discussed our books and then we went to back to our station to complete our work there.  Then we had writing time we are working on publishing our stories and we are working to get them done.  We moved into math and did our group graphs to post in the hall.  We then got with our buddies and discussed government.  We will casting our early vote for president tomorrow and will hear from Ana.  She will finish up her week and we will see who makes it for next week.

October 31, 2012

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, BE SAFE!!!!

Ana shared her poster again today, reporting out that she loves bunnies and horses.  We heard about how she and her family had two bunnies, but had to give them away because they chewed on the computer cords.  I love doing Top Banana because you learn a lot from your child.  I hope you are enjoying what they come home saying about it?

We had kind of a spooky Halloween day, we listened to a story on the computer and Ms. Wolfean scared us.  We did start off our day with reading CAFE time.  We had a blast communicating to the text with one another.  Then we had a fantastic time listening to Mrs. Doyle discuss Nonfiction and fiction once more.  She discussed the big idea in a nonfiction story and again reminded us that fiction does not just mean not real.  There are other examples of what makes a fiction and nonfiction text.  We wrote about Basset Hounds and how to crave a pumpkin.  They were to explain the steps of how to crave a pumpkin trying to convince me to allow them to create one on Friday.  Then we moved into math and graphed our snack bag. 

October 30, 2012

We had a great day reading and meeting in CAFE groups.  We reviewed in the library nonfiction and fiction texts.  I was proud how much my students knew.  They were well informed and knew the components of a nonfiction text.  They could communicate with us why their books were fiction and nonfiction.  Please ask them to explain why a book they are reading is fiction or nonfiction.  We learned that we will be publishing our small moment stories and what we have to do to create our books.  Then we did our group graphs and are working in teams to create a poster to place in the hall on a CGI type problem.  We are working in groups because we can not only learn from the teach, but from our friends.  Then we began our election unit in social studies.  I sent home a project about our presidential election.  It is not due till Thursday, but feel free to send it in tomorrow if you get done.

October 29, 2012

Only two days of October left, wow time flies when you are having fun. 

Ana is our Top Banana this week, she shared her poster.  We had a blast listening to why she drew a monkey on it.  She did so because she is the Top Banana, but also because it is her favorite animal. I can't wait to hear from her tomorrow? 

Question:  What do you think about our Top Banana starting?

I had a great time teaching our Cafe strategy, we reviewed character traits.  Then we discussed our books in groups and talked about how to question myself about reading.  We moved into writing and discussed our spelling skill, compound words.  This is when we have two words together to form one.  We had a great time reviewing silent /e/.  We discussed how to revise our writing sentences, in our small moments stories.  We need to check for sequential order.  Tomorrow we will discuss if they don't sound right how to correct them.  Then we moved into math.  We our going to review graphs before we take our graph test.  We will be creating group graphs. 

October 24, 2012

RED RIBBON WEEK WEAR FAVORITE COLLEGE SHIRT

Today was early release and the teacher appreciation was fantastic.  Thank you parents and PTA for putting on a fabulous luncheon.  The students did a writing benchmark to see how their writing has improved since the begging of the nine weeks.  Then they took a break for Mrs. Shanahan, our counselor to speak to the class.  She did a bulling lesson which tomorrow the students will be bringing home a no bullying contract. Please discuss with your child what this means and what they learned?  Then as they finished their writing the students went into CAFE time or completed old paper work.  Have a fantastic night.

October 23, 2012

RED RIBBON WEEK-TOMORROW IS SLIPPERS AND CRAZY SOCKS.

 I did not check homework today due to the assembly.  I used that time for teaching, I will check tomorrow.
Today was a fantastic day, yet again the students did all activities.  We even had an assembly about fire prevention.  Ask your child what they learned?  You could even have them make a plan for how to get out of the house in case of a fire?  We started in CAFE and met in reading groups.  We reviewed how to question each other about texts and how to found the answer in the text not our brain.  We moved into writing discussing procedural text, explain to the reader how to do something.  The students learned we can not just write a list, we have to introduce the topic to the reader.  Describe what you are going to teach and what you find interesting about it.  Then at the end of the day we practiced CGI and glued our homework into the spiral.  we ended our day watching the Goldilocks and Three Bears by James Marshall. Then we discussed our next property of matter temperature.

October 22, 2012

It is RED RIBBION week.  Wear your western gear tomorrow.We missed you guys.  I had four children absent today, what happened?  Zoei, Jaydin, Joey, and Ana were all out today.  I missed you all big time and so did the class.  Ana our first Top Banana was out, I hope you are well?  Top Banana is how I do student of the week, each one of my students will get the chance to be it.  Today was a day filled with loads of learning.  We started our day with spelling and our new skill is dropping the /e/ and adding the ending, /ed/ or /ing/.  Please make sure they study their words.  We then moved into writing and discussed telling our story on our five fingers before we write.  This helps them to write a complete story rather than missing the main points.  Then we continued graphing data, today we graphed the classes favorite ice cream.  We finished our day with discussing solid and liquids, but did not have time to complete the Venn diagram on it.

October 18, 2012

Okay, I know I did not post in time.  I have been busy and just ran out of here.  I stayed late on Tuesday and Thursday nights to attend health and literacy nights.  I know no excuse, but I had to get plans and meet with my BOSS.  I had a fun time seeing the parents and students who did come out to family nights.  Having explained myself I hope you all will forgive me?

Today was a great day we did our cafe reading early because we had the OLSAT test to complete.  After this we took a break and began our writing.  We wrote about our favorite holiday and how we celebrate it.  Maybe you can sit down with your child and discuss this with them?  We are still working on number sense and graphing in math.  We completed a tally chart, asked ten friends their favorite animal, and graphed our data we found.  Then we categorized pictures into four properties of matter, this needs some reteach.  Then last we complete CGI before we headed to art.
I have heard from most of you that the blog is an excellent way to get your students to describe more of their day, so again I am sorry.

October 16, 2012

NO LIE, NO HOMEWORK IF YOUR CHILD BRINGS YOU TO SCHOOL TO NIGHT, IF YOU COME TO HEALTH FAIR and  IF YOU COME TOMORROW TO LITERACY NIGHT TOO!!

6:30 TONIGHT AND TOMORROW

Today we had a fantastic day, this might have been one day when I did not repeat myself.  We started the day in CAFE time, practice our reading skills.  We are continuing to ask questions while we read.  However, this week we are actually writing our questions we have for the text we are reading.  We had fun sitting by the fire place telling our friends stories to get ideas to write about.  Ms. Wolfean has been reading Patrica Polacco books and we have been learning how a real life author writes.  Ms. Wolfean even showed us a picture of her revising and editing , Patrica did to a book she wrote.  It was amazing to see, ask them about it?  Then we went to the library to preview books at the book fair, we will be buying tomorrow.  They will have all week to get their books they wish for.  Then we came back to the class to take a quiz on number sense. 

October 15, 2012

HEALTH FAIR TOMORROW NIGHT!!LITERACY NIGHT ON WEDNESDAY!!
TENT FOR TREATS OCTOBER 19
PREVIEW FOR BOOK FAIR TOMORROW 12:45
BUY BOOKS WEDNESDAY 1:15I can not believe in two short weeks that the first nine weeks will be coming to an end.  WOW!  How time flies when you are having fun.  We did a lot today, but it will not seem like it to the students.  We are in our second week of spelling and it is still a struggle to get them to see how to do it.  We spent at length trying to remember the pattern for recording the words on our list.  We will review this tomorrow, I hope next week will be better.  We had Cafe time, not as much as I hoped.  This was because of spelling.  We did our writing and worked on how we add details to our story and review what to do when we get stuck. Then we had math in the hallway, yes you heard right.  We did our next graph as a class in the hall.  We wrote questions and answered them. 

October 11, 2012

WE HAVE OUR FIRST SPELLING TEST, tomorrow!!  Today we got to SCIENCE!!!!  I am sorry to start with the end of the day, but I am excited we got to have science.  Yeah for us, we finally finished our mystery bags.  Some will surely say they did not cheat, but on some of them I am not sure how they got it right?  WOW, it was interesting to see their guess.  Ask them about their experiment and what they discovered.  We started our day with reading and CAFE discussion time.  We have been working on questioning our self when we read.  also what is text proof for finding the answer to the question we are asking.  They have been practicing this independently and in group.  Please have them model this strategy for you if they have not already?  Then we moved into writing our small moments story about our life.  We have been working on adding details and taking out details that do not fit the story.  We worked on our two step problems in math and glued our new homework question.  I hope you have just as much fun as I do solving these problems.

October 10, 2012

I am sorry it is late had a meeting and more conferences.

SPELLING HAS STARTED!!!!!!! :)

We had a busy day but due to talking we could not make it through Science.  They did receive a consequence, no experiment to do.  There were too many children to figure out who the ones doing most of the talking, this is why I let them be green.  I think it is time for another seat change, what do you think?  I hope tomorrow we can have a better day and get through two Science lessons, you think you all can handle this?

They did have a great beginning to our day we got through reading and writing with flying colors. They were starting or finishing their small moment stories.  We worked on adding and deleting details to make our writing more interesting.  We began math by comparing numbers using a greater than or less than sign.  Here are the signs for you parents who need a visual This is the > greater than sign and this < is less than sign.  We then ended our day with notes and discussing the book fair next week.

October 9, 2012

What a great four day weekend.  I am sure all of you had an excellent time relaxing while I was at work discussing with your parents.  You know you need to stop laughing because I had to work.  I had a blast today, it was my birthday and Mrs. Norris came in to make the students sing.  Thank you for brightening up my day with them serenading me.  You all are sweet, and I have the best class. 

We had a fantastic time learning, we started spelling.  They should have brought their words home with them to study.  We went to the library and we learned that we will be having a book fair next week.  We previewed the books that will be there and then checked out new books.  If your child did not bring home a chapter book, please make sure they return one and exchange it for a chapter book.  They are to bring one free choice (dessert book) and chapter (just fit book). Please discuss with them my expectations and yours.  I hope this clears up questions about what books they are bringing.  We did writing after spelling and most of them have completed one small moment.  We did math and it was hard because it has an extra step to them.  We will be doing two step problems for a bit and returning to one step again. 

October 5, 2012

WOW, WHAT A DAY!!!!!!!!  They were right on target and we had a fun filled day with an explosive amount of learning.  We began our day at the Friday assembly, and came in ready to learn.  We started in independent reading and they can read for 30 minutes.  We moved into CAFE book talks and had a CAFE group time taken away.  They got grounded, hope we can get this back soon?  Then we moved into writing and continued our small moments story.  We had Joey and Ana return to school from their vacation away from learning, and both began a small moments story about their experience.  What a great thing to have real life activities to write about.  We welcome them back, but are sad they did not include us??  We then had math and completed are activities in flying time.  We ended this weeks number sense lesson and will begin to discuss next weeks.  This will be an on going topic in math, due to the fact place value is a hard concept for them to master.  We ended our day with science mystery matter bags, ask them to explain??

OCtober 4, 2012

I have been enjoying my conferences and getting to know your parents.  I hope we can continue to work on not talking while the teachers and students are talking.  I do have to say some students are doing wonderful and are trying to improve their effort level.  However, some are following behind.  I am excited about getting to know your child they are starting to come out of their shell and have fun.  This might be the cause for them talking way too much. 

We have been continuing to use strategies to figure and read words correctly in our CAFE time.  We are practicing how to use different strategies to come up with just the right way to read words, or figure the meaning out.  During math we worked on CGI and continued to use number sense strategies to read and write numbers.  We used base ten blocks to model the number and draw them to add up two numbers.We discussed properties of matter mass, texture, flexibility, and shape.  We will be doing an experiment using our matter words.

October 3, 2012

I am sorry this is late, I have had teacher conferences and a meeting after school.  We had a full day of learning we got to most of our items on my list.  I am excited to report the students had a much better day on their talking.  I could see them working hard to improve on their abilities.  We did our CAFE time for reading and worked in groups with our teacher. We had an excellent time creating numbers using the base ten blocks and being a teacher or a student to our friend sin the class.  we watched a video about computer safety and discussed things we should and should not do.  Then we headed to PE and had an awesome time getting hot.

October 2, 2012

OKAY, I am bad.  I forgot to post my message from yesterday.  I had conferences, got the class ready, and forgot to add a new blog.  We have been having a lot of trouble being able to stay quiet in the halls, and while the teacher is giving directions.  We even had trouble in Art, and this concerns me.  I know they are working hard and I see most of them trying to improve.  We just need to continue to practice this, and make better choices.  Today we worked on one of our reading strategies, how to check for understanding.  We are focusing on when we read words and come to one we may not know.  Also not guessing at the word by just looking at the front of the word.  We need to check the whole word and ask ourselves, "Does this make sense when I read what I think it says?"  We continued to do addition problems in CGI and will move to subtraction soon.  We work on Science by going over the properties of how to categories objects as a scientist.  Over all October is looking great so far.

September 28, 2012

Today was a great day, however we had a different lunch.  We traded lunches with fifth grade due to a trip they had to take to High School across the street.  I am sorry for not posting it on the blog yesterday, or letting the class know.  We did our reading and had CAFE time.  We completed make up work and also made sure to have our connections sheet finished before heading home.  Please while reading have your child model how to make connections while reading.  This will enable them to retain comprehension and build their reading level.  I am working hard to have all them writing short stories about themselves and we are moving to small moments in our life.  I would love if you would point out something you or they do together throughout week that leads to a write able moment.  This will help them see where stories come from, examples if you go to a special place, game, movie,...etc.  We started our unit on number sense.  We played our lunchbox game, where we read a math problem and try to work it out. Also we played the secret number game, this is where I tel them I am thinking of a number can they guess it?  I told you we had a busy day, we even ate lunch in the class.  The final thing was we got a treat from Courtney for her birthday, THANKS!!

September 27, 2012

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COURTNEY!!!!  Today was Courtney's birthday and we all had a pretty good day.  We did our reading and CAFE station time.  We discussed asking questions while reading and locating answers in the text.  In reading groups Ms. Wolfean is working on parts of the text, foe non-fiction books.  We had a time assessment test, so Ms. Wolfean could collect data.  She also needs to have a focus for what should be retaught.  We then completed our science capsule experiment.  The students were shocked at how long it really took without be able to use their hands.  They loved watching it change into different sea animals, and some had desert ones.  We will be completing this activity tomorrow and moving onto our next experiment. 

September 26,2012

We had a "BATTY" day, because tonight we will be heading to watch the bats fly.  7:00 PM is the time and NAPA Parts at I35 frontage road just past McNeil is where to be.  I hope to see you there, ready for an adventure to write about the next day.  We had our Cafe time and moved right into writing about if we were a bat.  Then we silently walked outside to have a break and play.  After returning from recess we began our science and math activity.  We made a Venn Diagram comparing bats to birds.  We watched a video on bats then wrote in our science notebook about the interesting facts we learned from it.  We shared as class our findings then we attended PE.  They exercised and were hot when I picked them up.  I look forward to seeing you tonight.

September 25, 2012

Today we were lucky enough to receive a classroom student helper.  She is in a class, in high school, which will allow her to come to our class twice a week.  She is taking the class to see if teaching might be something she would like to do in the future.  She wants to become a second grade teacher.  We are looking forward to her support.  We discussed proof from the text, to back up our findings.  Readers make questions in their head and we have to find the answers in our text, this is proof from the text.  We did our CAFE stations and then we went to the library for check out.  We learned we will be using the computer to sign in at the library.  Then we came back to class and we began writing.  We are still discussing our noticing of what excellent writers do to their writing.  Then we moved onto science and began our first experiment, but not before we had to set up our science notebooks and make a plan.  We look forward to seeing what the capsules will turn in to?  Please ask them about their day, adn what they think thier science experiment will be?

September 24, 2012

Today was a fantastic day, we all seemed rested and ready to learn.  We started off with reading learning how to build our fluency and use expression to guide our reading.  We discussed having a conversation with our books.  We practiced this strategy for a bit in the class and headed to CAFE stations.  Ask your child about their CAFE time.  Then we discussed what writers do in their writing.  They not only use words they use punctuation marks, capital letters, and complete thoughts to tie in their ideas.  We discussed our noticing we found in books and discussed them as a class.  Then it was time for a break and off to recess we went.  After our play time we got right back to work and continued to learn how to write time to the hour and half hour.  The class is finally, well most, are getting how to write the times.  We watched a video on time and began our science lesson.  We discussed what a scientist is and their preception on what one looks like is interesting.  They all pretty much thought of a mad scientist type and they all mix chemicals.  We discussed that a scientist explores the natural world to discover to new knowledge that was not there before.

September 21, 2012

They are to get their Science notebook signed, this is due to safety in the class.  I like to have the parents involved in knowing the rules too.  I have had mothers come in and we are all wearing goggles, for safety.  I want them to know you will also be a partner in their safety.  We did our reading groups and had our cafe talk discussing books.  we also focused our attention to the connections we make to our reading.  We also read independently in our dessert books, they love them.  Ask your child about their dessert book?  We made a fold able book about our self to display in the halls.  This project is cute because the students will come home with traits that others in the class think about them. This project will take one more day to complete.   We reviewed how to write time to the hour and half hour.  Then we left our day with creating our Science notebooks. 

September 20,2012

Today was a fantastic day, we got through all our planned activities.  We are working hard on staying quiet in the halls and we will continue to make sure to respect others.  We did two rotations of reading work stations and we discussed connections we have in books we are reading.  We shared about how connections help us build on our comprehension as a reader.  We continued our CGI problems in math and are doing one problem tonight at home.  I look forward to seeing what they do for you and hearing about it.  Then we continued to discuss telling time to the hour and half hour.  Some students are having trouble and others seem to grasp it.  We completed our National symbols unit and we will be moving on to Science and experiments. YEAH

September 18, 2012

Today was a fantastic day, Ms. Wolfean was here again.  I love to see them and have them report to me they missed me.  I am trying to get back to the swing of all we need to do.  The students will start their CGI math problems on Thursday.  Also Kona Ice will be here tomorrow the students must be with a parent, unless they are a bus rider or day care.  THEY MUST HAVE MONEY, this is a fund raiser to support the school. They need to have 3 to 5 dollars because it depends on the sizes they offer.  I hope this clears up any questions. 

Today we did our reading and discussed connections.  There are three types text to self, text to text, and text to world.  Please ask your child during reading time to practice making connections.We also took a math test which involved number sense.  They could not study, but we will be reviewing items and games in class to bring up scores.  I am proud of them and rewarded them with no math homework because of it.  We discussed letter writing and practice writing a letter to Ms. Wolfean about test taking and if recess is important or not?  Please ask your child what they will be writing.

September 17, 2012

YEAH, MS WOLFEAN IS BACK!!!!  I loved hearing all the kids say this as they were coming through the door this morning.  I am okay, but still am weak.  We had a great day reviewing our reading strategies on how we read in class.  Then we practice buddy reading and independent reading.  I can not wait to get them in to groups tomorrow and begin listening to them share books.  We Spent a lot of time writing as well, we discussed ways to begin a story and where writers get ideas for their writing.  Then we did CGI in math, this way we will begin solving problems at home.  We will begin our unit on time and continue working with addition and subtraction.  We reviewed social studies by breaking  down the pledge of allegiance.  The students should be able to explain the words behind the pledge.  I am sorry for not updating the blog before now.

September 7, 2012

Today Ms. Wolfean was not herself, but she is a trooper and came in to teach anyway.  We started out our morning writing and Ms.Wolfean model the best way to journal write,  She gives a prompt if we don't like it we can choose to free write.  We practice the time line plan and drawing before we write.  However, she also began to show us how we can just start writing to get thoughts down on paper, if we have a topic already.  We then moved to reading and we did group reading and plotted our books we read.  We plotted the setting, characters, problem, and solution.  Then we of course got to run and play, we were sad Ms. Wolfean was study hall no play time with her.  We came back and completed our map of plotting and headed quickly into math.  Ms. Wolfean taught was a game called target number and we wrote on the table.  IF YOU ASK THEM TO SHOW YOU, GIVE THEM PAPER!  You will need a die.  This is finally when we began discussing our patriotism unit.  Last but not least we said, "Good-bye!"