Happy Monday!

Good morning everyone.  I apologize for not posting on Friday, I went home to post and my computer was not working.  I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend.  If you looked at the homework that was sent home on Friday November 19, you will notice the note saying that it will not be due until December 3^rd.  This week is so short and I wanted to stick with the routine of keeping homework due on Fridays.  This may seem like a lot of homework, but it is for two weeks.  The math is all of unit four.  We will be finishing up the unit early next week, so if there are questions about 4.6 or higher we will be getting into the section when we get back from Thanksgiving break.  I also added some writing activities.  I encourage more writing if the time is available.  Always remember to remind you child to slow down and use their best hand writing.  In the latter half of the year, I will be pickier about how their handwriting looks.

        The second graders will be putting on a play Tuesday November 23^rd.  There are four different groups that are performing the same Thanksgiving play.  Each group will perform for a classroom.  They are excited and have been practicing very hard.  Please try to read with your child over the Thanksgiving break.  It is important to keep up with routine!

***Don’t forget it is a half day Tuesday November 23^rd! 

***The next spelling test is December 3^rd and homework is due that day as well!!!

Jam Packed!

A new week is underway! This week we will be doing many things
Reminders!!! -Don't forget to continue practicing the spelling words even if your child is done early!
-Please return the parent-teacher conference sheets with your choices and your homework attached.
-We need box tops to help support the school

Writing:  As usual, the students will be writing in their writing journal almost everyday. This is a free write where they are given a prompt and spelling and punctuation is not as important. They will also be writing about what they are thankful for. After they make a list of things, they will be putting the list into sentences and creating a book of thanks. They will have a final published product to take home to you.

Reading:  The students will continue going to their reading groups as usual. In addition, they will be reading many different texts and genres about Thanksgiving. They will read an informational book, realistic fiction book, and a fantasy book. For each book, every student will have to answer questions to show comprehension. There will be a writing assignment and at the end the students will have to complete a self-to-text and text-to-text comparison. The students will be reading and performing a Thanksgiving play. They will perform it to our class and other classes if time permits. There are four characters in the play. They will receive a part and practice all week.

Social Studies:  This week we will continue talking about democratic values, common good and liberty. We will begin discussing the first thanksgiving. On Tuesday we have an appointment at 1:00 for a virtual field trip. We will be meeting pilgrims of the time, who will give us a tour of Plymouth.

Math  In math we will be starting a new unit! We will be focusing on temperature, graphing, time, money, and story problems using temperature. Try to have your child watch the weather so they are aware about the temperature that day.

Today we reviewed Legends and read The Legend of the Sleeping Bear.  One of the most important aspects about legends is the question about nature that the story is answering.  In the Sleeping Bear legend, the question is How were the Sleeping Bear Dunes made and how were the Manitou Islands made?  The story answered both of those questions.  The answer is not a scientific answer, but more of a story, usually one that was made up by people many years ago.

During our math time we collected data and made a graph so that we could compare the data that we collected.  It is important that parents help their children with the homework graph.  The students need to be keeping track of the minutes they spend on their homework.  The graph that they create will help them analyze how much time they spend on homework and give them practice with creating graphs.

  Our second day of civics we watch a movie about our government.  We reviewed the meaning of common good and liberty.  We also reviewed why we have rules and what our world would be like if there were no rules!  All of the students agreed that rules and laws were important to have in our communities.  You heard it here…YOUR CHILD LIKES RULES AND LAWS!!!!!!!!!!   J 

 I will be sending home a slip that I would like back.  I am asking that you put down 3 times that you are able to come for parent-teacher conferences.  Some of you already signed up for them during the back to school night.  For those parents, I will be giving you a note of when you signed up for.  Have a great evening!

What a Beautiful Weekend!

I hope that everyone had a great weekend! I would like to remind everyone to study the addition and subtraction flashcards. It is important to have them memorized! Last Thursday was the citizen breakfast and the Good Citizen for October was Roy Portis. Thank you for being a good citizen in our classroom! I will be looking for November’s good citizen.
At the beginning of October teachers had a meeting to become informed about bullying and the effects of it. Bullying is not a huge problem in elementary school, but it is important to talk about it with your children. In the past week, I have had many instances where teasing and name-calling has occurred. I have spoken to the class about these situations. At school I have been emphasizing how to be kind and helpful to one another. For example, if a child drops their crayon box, instead of laughing and making fun of the person, someone should go help pick up the crayons and ask if they are ok. If teasing and name-calling are happening in school we ask to students to used the Debugging System. There are five steps to this system.
1. Ignore, if that doesn’t work
2. Walk away, if that doesn’t work
3. Talk friendly (please stop), if that doesn’t work
4. Talk firmly (STOP!), if that doesn’t work
5. Get an adult
The students have acted out skits to show examples of different situations to help them understand when to use the system above. It is important that each child has a safe and comfortable educational setting to learn. If parents or students have any questions here is a great resource:
We will be starting our first unit in social studies this week. Democratic values are the first topic. The idea of laws and rules will be discussed. We will be talking about community, liberty, common good, equality, and Patriotism.
A great way to help our child in math is to have them use an analog clock and have them tell you the time and ask them what time it will be in a half hour or 15 minutes. Your child could count any left over change in your pocket. Ask them what each coin is called and how much they are worth. We are also working on place value (ones, tens, and hundreds).
Parent-teacher conferences are coming up faster than you think, please contact me to sign up for a time.
Thank you parents and students for all of your hard work!http://www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/kids/default.aspx

Day 2 !

Good Afternoon!  Today during our journal writing we had a fun writing prompt.  It was to write a new article about the lumpiest jumping bean who wanted to be invisible.  They enjoyed using their imagination to create this silly journal entry.  I gave them a break from their desks when they got to come up to the smart board and participate in a fun noun activity.  We categorize nouns by person, place or thing.  We also separated the nouns into two groups; singular and plural. 

After lunch we read silently for about 15 minutes.  We jump right in to math.  Today we began using coins to buy things.  They were at a fruit and vegetable stand and had to buy something.  This is a fun activity and it is easy to help your child practice coins at home.  For the rest of the afternoon we enjoyed centers. There were four different centers: math-coin war  Writing - work on computers and typing up a piece from their writing journal, plural and singular noun activity and science - observing the butterflies and new caterpillars while they write about it in their insect journal.

Just a reminder students need to bring jackets to school starting tomorrow.  If a child does not have a jacket they will stay in for recess. 

Don’t forget to read every night with your child!

Welcome to my blog!

Hello parents and students and welcome to my blog. This blog is another way to stay in tune with your second graders life at Poupard Elementary.  I just created this blog today so please understand that it will be under construction for a while.  I will be adding things frequently and I will try to update the blog almost everyday.  My hope for this is to communicate with parents and students at all times.  I will have links that the students can go to while they are at home or at school.  I will have notes to parents about what I have covered in class.  If you have any suggestions about what you would like for me to put on herer please let me know and I will try to make it work.  I hope you enjoy the blog this year!