December 22, 2011

Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!  I can't wait to see you  in 2012!

Colder Weather is coming!

We began reading our second legend called The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush.  One important thing about legends is that it tells us a story about nature.  This story is about how the Indian paintbrush (the flower) came about.  It is a fun story that has a fun painting activity to go along with it.  Part of reading the legend is being able to retell the story in the correct order of events.

We began Social Studies unit of geography.  We started by looking at a picture of the world and finding the different continents and oceans.  This is a fun partner activity. 

In math, we have been reviewing time, temperature and patterns.  Next week we will be introducing shapes and looking at the amount of sides each shape has and finding the different names that belong with those shapes.

Don't forget that Parent-Teacher Conferences are next week Wednesday and Thursday!

Thank you for all the parents who helped with our amazing Thanksgiving Feast!  It was a big hit!  Our tummies were full and ready for the next one to come.  We learned a lot about tradition and the legend behind it all.

Conferences are coming up quickly, please be looking in the homework folder for a time to sign up for conferences. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful break!  See you Monday!

Novemeber 4th

We had a very quick week!  Halloween was a wonderful day!  Of course I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures of the class in action! 
We will have a Unit 3 math test on Monday Novemeber 7th. We have covered alot of money strategies in unit 3.  We learned how to count up when giving change back.   We have also explored measurement and graphing.  The cclass collected data and used the data to make a graph and analyze the meaning of the graph.
In our writing we have moved on the focusing on one small moment.  We pick one moment and stretch that moment across many pages to create a book of that event.  It has only been the first week, but I am very impressed with the progress the students have made.
We are still practicing how to use visualization as a reading strategy to help students enjoy reading and understand what they read.
Our insect unit is almost over.  We will have an assessment the end of next week.  After that we will begin out Social Studies unit on economics and democratic values.

 Don't forget that November 8th is Election day.  There will not be any school.
We are starting a fundraiser to help families recieve more book for their homes.  It is called Bagels for books.  Students will place their bagel orders and pay on Friday.  Monday morning the students will recieve the bagels that they paid for.  Please help a great cause for our Poupard community!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

October 25th Field Trip

We had a wonderful time enjoying the wonderful fall outdoors at the University of Michigan-Dearborn Interpretive Environmental Center.  When we arrived we gathered in the center to meet out student staff that would lead our groups that day.  We first had an extremely hands on adventure, discovering the aquatic animals at the Henry Ford Estates "Rose Garden".  It is no longer a rose garden and all of the Henry Ford land was donated to the college campus.  We gathered the aquatic animals by using nets to scoop anything we could.  We then examined what insect or bug it was.  Check out some great footage!  Ask you second grader investigater to tell what is going on in the pictures!

We had a wonderful time!  This we will remember for the rest of the year!

October 21st

I am sooooo sorry that I haven't posted anything in about two weeks!  My first masters class has come to and end.  I am glas those weeks are over.  Bad news I start another one next week!

Anyways, I have been sending home paper posts to help keep parents updated on what is going on in the classroom. 
Field trip:  Our Field trip is this Tuesday!  Please make sure that you bring a bag lunch and please dress for the weather...layer clothes! Wear shoes that can get a little dirty because we will be walking in the woods and we will be near a pond. 

We had our First Authors Celebration on Thursday!  It was a wonderful event where the studnets shared a piece of writing that they fixed up!  We enjoyed juice and talking about each others writing!

In our Making Meaning, We have been learning about different reading comprehension strategies.  The first reading strategy was Making Connections.  When we make connections we are thinking how the book relates to our own life.  Th esecond reading stratefy that we learned this week was visualizing.  Visualizing is when you create mental pictures in your mind from the words that your hear.  When we are doing these strategies they help us better understand the stories.  Here are some pictures of the students drawing what they visualized while I read the poem "My Baby Brother".

Math:  We have finished Unit 2 in math.  We took our math test Wednesday.  They are graded, but I would like to talk with the students about the test first.  I will send them home on Monday or Tuesday.  Unit 3 is about place value and using the base-ten blocks.

Our unit on insects will come to an end and the end of October.  I wanted to remind you that the homework for the imaginary insect is due next Friday October 28.

Have a wonderful weekend!

October 7, 2011

What a beautiful week!  We needed to have a week full of sun and warmth.

This week was full of learning. 

This was our first week of reading groups.  Each child goes to a different reading group.  They are small groups focusing on making words, reading strategies, writing strategies and much more.  We added the making words this year to help students with understanding letter sounds and the combination of letter sounds.  They are given 6-8 letters and they are guided in making different words with the letters they are given.  The second part is creating rhyming words to some of the words that were created with the letters.  Then, the students will transfer the words onto paper as an assessment that will help me evaluate if they understand the concepts of that day. 

We are now in our third week of our making meaning program.  This week we focused on making personal connections with the text.  We read the story Jamaica Tag-Along.  Many of the students had detailed stories related to what we were reading.

We are half way done with the second unit in math.  I introduced the triangle cards to day.  These are very similar to flashcards.  There will be some to cut out in this week’s homework.  We have been focusing on different strategies when adding and subtracting. One of the main math tools that we will be using is the number grid.  This is a great tool to help your child figure out different math problems from just regular adding to adding money.  I will be putting a number grid in the homework binders for an “at home” tool.

In science, we have been investigated insects and watching the couple adopted insects in our classroom.  In addition to the science program at our school, we decided to have a field trip to visit the Environmental Interpretive Center at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.  While we are there we will be finding insects in their natural habitat.  We will also be looking at aquatic insects in the natural ponds on the campus.

The field trip will be on October 25, 2011.  We will be leaving at 9:00 and we should be returning around 2:30-3:00.  In order to make this field trip, we will need parent volunteers to drive students from the school to U of M-Dearborn.  There is no cost to the field trip.  We will send home more details as the date becomes closer.

Enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend and I will see you on Monday morning!

Picture day is tomorrow! Remember to send in your order form if you would like to purchase the pictures from Lifetouch.  It is always fun to see everyone dressed up!

Today in class we wrote about a time when we were in a fight with someone and how we solved the problem in a responsible, respectful and safe way.  Ask your child the time they wrote about.

In reading we read a nonfiction historical story about Henry Ford.  The class learned about how we “Think, Pair, and Share.”  The class really works well with each other sharing their ideas about the reading.

We had our first “real” math test on Monday.  We also had our first spelling test last Friday.  I will have those graded and send them home in their Friday folders.

  We completed a fun math project.   We used coin stamps to make a money insect.  They had to stamp the insect’s body and head.  When they were finished they had to add all the body parts that ALL insects have.   I will hang them in the hall way to show their money counting skills and knowledge of the parts of an insect.

In science we observed our caterpillars and mealworms.  The two different insects are changing quickly! We can’t wait to see what will happen!

Reading Groups will be starting on Monday.  All the kids will be assigned to a teacher and will be going for 40 minutes to that teacher on Monday.

This Friday is Detroit Tigers day.  All students are invited to wear Tigers gear :)

Back to some routine!

At this point in the year, I hope that almost everyone has there school routine back in full swing.  Don't forget that your child should be reading 100 minutes every week.  This is extremely important.  When you child is done reading don't forget to ask questions to see if you child understood what he/she read.

The math homework this week will be a little different.  This is the first week that will start the Everyday Math Home Links.  I want to remind parents that at the beginning of every unit there is a parent letter explaining what the unit will entail and it will have an answer key to help you.  The way Everyday math does things can be a little different than how most of us were taught, but it is a great program that gets the students thinking in a critical way.
*A Tip on homework:  Spread out homework.  Try not to wait until the last minute.  This may sound obvious, but sometimes you just need to hear it said.

We received our mealworms this week and had our first observation.  We can't wait until we see this amazing transformation! 

As a class we are trying to use words that make our writing more interesting.  We read Fancy Nancy and learned how fun it can be to use fancier words.  For example, the word fuscia instead of purple.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Happy Friday!
Homework
Today is the first day that I will be sending homework home.  In the binder there is a word study(spelling list) and students have the choice to pick three options from the spelling menu as practice.  For the first week I am giving everyone the same spelling list.  From this I will decide if the levels of the tests need to be changed.  There will also be a reading log where students write down the title, author and rate the book they read.  Each student is required to read at least 100 minutes a week.  There are a couple of money math sheets.  This week there will not be pages from our Everyday Math homework links.  You will see that in the next homework that is assigned.
Things we reviewed this week!

• Money:  We reviewed what all the coins are worth.  There is a really fun song that will help everyone remember the name, how much the coin is worth and what the coin looks like.
• Time:  We reviewed the hour and minute hands.  We reviewed what is looks like when the minute hand is showing o'clock and thirty minutes.  
• Writing:  We learned ways to help us start our stories, ways to help us think of ideas and what to do when we "think" we are done.  The saying goes,  "If I think I am done, I have only just begun."
• Reading:  We reviewed that a story has a beginning, middle and an end.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

First week!

The first week is almost over!  WE SURVIVED!  That first week back is always hard for everyone. 

One important thing that needs to be brought in by parents is the money needed for math.  Each child needs to bring in a certain amount of pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters.  If they do not bring in the money, then that students will not get the same interaction with money.  The more familar your child is with real money the better they will understand money.

Back to School Night is September 13th.  It will start in the gym and then parents will be able to meet the teacher and have an overview of the 2nd grade curriculum.  We would love to all parents attend, so please come with any questions you may have.

Please return the parent survey as soon as possible.  The survey really helps me understand your child better and can help in your childs learning experience at Poupard Elementary.
Have a Great weekend!

Welcome 2011/2012 School Year!

I am very excited to welcome you to my blog.  Please remember that I will try to blog as often as possible to let you know what is going on in our classroom and school.  This is going to be a great year! 
Here are some important dates so far (I will be adding to the list as the school year moves on!)

• Half day of school Tuesday September 6th
• Full day starting Wednesday September 7th
• Back to School night is Tuesday September 13th

Please become a follower of the blog and you will receive emails when I post new information.

Keep this Weather coming!

I hope all mothers had a wonderful weekend.  The weather held up nicely!  The end of the year is coming! 

If you are interested in your child coming to summer school please go to the Poupard website and click on Summer Learning Program under quick links.  I will be teaching Math for 2-4 grade students.

The Tin Can Auction will be this Friday May 13th.  Check out the really interesting things that you can bid on!  It all goes to the PTO.  A big thank you to the PTO for all of the hard work raising money for our school.

I wanted to mention the amazing behavior our classroom had today!  We worked hard on our animal reports adding the physical description to our final draft.  This week we are going to finish the report.

In math, we are coming to an end.  We had our unit 11 math test today!   Unit 12 is the last unit and is a review of what we have been leaving all year long.

We have started to loud and noisy science unit of sound and light.

Just a reminder of some things:

• Field day is Thursday May 26th in the afternoon - we still need many volunteers!
• Our field trip to Greenfield Village is Thursday June 9th - we will need many volunteers to transport the students
• 2nd grade Picnic is Monday June 13th!

Dulch words list

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Very Busy Week!

Good afternoon!  We will be having a crazy week.  Today we finished our Earth Week unit.  We shared ideas about how we could start making the earth a cleaner place and how to conserve energy.  Our final project was a map of the world with five ways that anyone can help make the earth a cleaner and better place. 

We will be starting our new Science unit on Sound and Light.  It will be a noisy and fun unit that I know the class will enjoy!

We have started to really get into multiplication and the we are starting to test our multiplication facts.  Remember there is a letter to the parents in the beginning of every unit and in this portion it will give you terms and other helpful information.  As always if you or your child need a better understanding please let me know!  Tomorrow we will also start division.

Our animal reports are  coming along great.  We are almost done with our rough draft.  We will be writing our last portion of the report, where the animal lives.  We will be putting all of these different parts together to make a final report.

As the beautiful weather continues, remember to play outside, but don't forget about any homework that is not finished yet!

What a Great Month!

So many exciting people and animals have come to visit our school this month.
The day before St. Patrick's Day Mrs. Tyner was our Mystery reader.  She read a story about a Leprechaun with a really funny irish accent.  This sotry reminded us to be kind to all kinds of people.

On St. Patrick's day, we came into the room and to our surprise we found some visitors had made their way through our room and played a trick on us!

The little green shamrocks we the remains of the mischeivious Leprechauns!  The morning was filled with creative words when writing a couplet poem.  When we returned from lunch there was more of the little green shamrocks  and gold coins were left on our desks!  We had an festive assembly with irish dancers.

On Friday we had another wonderful surprise!  Grant's mom came to our class and share one of her favorite books to read, Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type.  This was another great classic second grade story that was easy to chant the words as a class. 

As the next week began, we were reading everyday and enjoying our school wide D.E.A.R. time.  Today Thursday March 24, I brought my yellow lab, Molly, into class.  I left at lunch and ran home to get her.  The students we wonderful with her.  I have never seen them follow directions better than they did today.  After D.E.A.R. time we got in centers where everyone would be able to read a story they wrote to Molly.  They were able to give her a treat for listening so nicely.  Thank you to all the parents for letting Molly come and visit our classroom.  Madison Payne, a student in my class,  goes to the library and reads to a dog.  This is a wonderful way to encourage reading in a different and fun way.  

This was a happy and fun day!

Mystery Readers!

Our first Mystery reader came on Friday March 11th.  The reader was Lisa Armentrout, Mark Armentrout's mother.  She came in the room requesting to turn the light down to prepare the mood for her exciting story of Where The Wild Things Are.  She read in funny voices and goofy sounds.  The students Enjoyed her reading so much, we had her read another of her favorite stories Green Eggs and Ham. 

We also has another fantastic reader Ive, I-Allah's mother.  She read an African-American folktale.  We learned how brer rabbit what to change what he looked so he could swat the flies away.  In the end we learned that we should be happy with who we are and how we were made.  We also learned that everyone is different and that is what makes each of us special!  What a great lesson to be learning.

Thank you to both of you for visiting our classroom!  We can't wait for more mystery readers to come and visit!

Sorry It Has Been So Long!

HELLO!  I would like to apologize for not posting for such a long time.  I was away for the entire winter break and the week we came back I was very busy planning our special Dr.Seuss day and I am finally caught up on my sleep!

Our Dr. Seuss day was a complete success!  We started morning as usual with our special and reading groups.  We continued by having a snack with the multicolored goldfish. Before the students were able to eat them, they had to collect some data and make a graph.  Before it was lunch time, we began our race to read as many Dr. Seuss books as we could.  We listened to Thidwick The Big-Hearted Moose.  For every story read they had to write about what they read.  After lunch, the readers partnered up and continued the reading extravaganza.  While the students were busy reading, I was making green eggs and ham.  Each student cracked one egg!  Everyone cracked the egg without a shell falling in!  Our class was invited over to Mrs. Stewart’s class to enjoy a fun-fetti  cake.  I have never sleep more after school than I did that day!  

   

In reading, we have been exploring the world of amazing animals.  The first story that we read was “Officer Buckle and Gloria”.  In this story an officer goes to schools and presents to the students about safety tips.  It is very boring until the officer gets a K-9 unit and the presentations become extraordinary!  The story we just finished was “Ants”.  The students learned about the amazing things that ants can do.  To go along with the theme of amazing animals, we had a K9 unit from Grosse Pointe City visit the school on February 14^th .  The dogs name was Raleigh.  Officer Mike showed the students all of the exciting tricks that Raleigh can do.  The students were able to pet the K-9.  We took a class picture with Raleigh and the students received a baseball like card that has Raleigh’s information on it.

March is reading month and to kick off this exciting time we had Detroit Pistons coach Aaron and Hooper visit our school.  They taught us come pretty neat ideas.  We learned a great saying,                     “Be a Good Person!” and “School comes first!”

If we follow those simple words we will be able to achieve our dreams.  Here are some pictures of this fun assembly.

On Monday February 14^th, we began fractions in math.  This is a very difficult concept to understand.  As each day goes on more and more students are beginning to get the concept.  The main idea that I wanted the students to know is that equal parts are very important when dividing a shape into any amount of pieces.  We have been comparing different fractions to determine whether or not the fractions are equivalent, less than or more than 1/2, 1/3, or 1/4.  We took the test on fractions yesterday.  As a whole the students did very well.  Keep up the hard work at home!  The next unit that we will be studying is measurement with long and distances.

Poetry will be coming to an end next week.   We have been learning many different types of poems and then attempting to write a poem in the similar style.  The students will be collecting different poems as the year goes on in their poetry folder. 

Motion has been a very exhilarating unit.  We have finished the motion in terms of spinners (tops, zoomers, and twirly birds.)  We have starting the next investigations about motion in terms of rollers.  All of these investigations are hands on and help the students guide their own learning.

I am sure you’re tired of reading now!  I will make sure to post more often!

Good morning!  It is that time of year when everyone ask, "Is winter over yet?"  Yes another chilly morning.

We have some exciting things happening in our classroom.

We will have our Valentine's Day party on Monday February 14th around 2 o'clock.  On Wednesday I sent home volunteer sheets and anything else that anyone would like to bring in to help.  As a homework assignment the students had to make their own Valentine's box.  They may also bring in valentines for their classmates.  (Everybody gets a Valentine!)

There is a math test today on unit 7 and we will begin unit 8 on Monday.  In unit 8 we will begin talking about fractions.

In science we have been continuing our study of motion.  In this unit, the experiments are all hands on and involve the students using their own discoveries to help guide their learning.

The Grosse Pointe School district uses a writing test to evaluate each students in writing.  We will be taking a practice test tomorrow and the evaluation will be in March at sometime.

***Remember that a good breakfast is needed for your child's brain to function all day!

SNOW DAY!!!!



Molly

 I hope everyone had a wonderful snow day!  I know that I enjoyed the time off.  Relaxing was out of the question.  Instead I painted a room in my house and played outside with my dog, Molly. 

Last Wednesday the second grade had a visitor.  A student's mother came in to read a biography.  Everyone enjoyed learning about such an inspirational person in history. 

In the month of February we are going to focus on poetry.  We will be keeping a folder of poems that we will read in class.  Along with reading poems, your child will be writing a few poems to add to the folder of poems.

We have started a new unit in math, Unit 7.  In this unit there will be more practice with 2 digit addition and subtraction.  We will continue to practice the idea of multiplication as an array and division by sorting.  You will notice that your child's math journal has been sent home.  We have finished the first volume of the math journal and moved on to the second one.        They are such hard workers! 

We have been working on science in the afternoons.  We have been learning about motion and the many different types of forces there are in our world.

Just a reminder, we will be having a Valentine's Day party.  If your child would like to bring in valentines, please make sure that there is one for every person in the class.  I will be sending home a list of the class with the homework.

Stay warm!

Good Evening!  I have a couple of announcements for this week.

-Hat day is Thursday January 27th.  Your child will be able to wear a hat if they donate a dollar towards the the fifth grade camp trip.

-There is NO SCHOOL this Friday January 28th. Therefore home work will be due Thursday and there will be a spelling test that day as well.

-We will be taking our second round of NWEA testing on Tuesday February 1, 2011 in the afternoon.  Please pack a brain healthy lunch so your child is ready for the test.

Valentine's day is coming quickly!  We will have our Valentine's day party on Monday February 14, 2011.  I will be sending a list of names of the class.  We will be giving valentine cards to students in the class.  The only rule that I have is that students must give a valentine's card to everyone so no one feels left out.
As a homework project, I will be asking students to make their Valentine's boxes/bags at home and bring in the Friday before.  There will be information sent home regarding this activity.

We have had an exciting week in math.  We have already discussed multiplication and division.  We have begun to investigate ways to show these two operations in math.  This is the first of many opportunities for you child to begin to understand these concepts.  If your child is having trouble remember to ask them to draw a picture to help you understand how they got their answer.

February is Black History Month.  We have learned many interesting facts about Martin Luther King Jr. through biographies written about him.  As a class we wrote a report on him.  In the next week your child will be partnered up with another student in the class and read a biography about an African American who has influenced our lives.  Together, they will write a report on the person that I have given to them.

We started our Science unit on motion.  Today we had our first exciting experiment.  Ask your child what the Objects in Motion experiment was about!

Keep checking in to see what you child is doing in class!
Stay warm.

Some big announcements!

Every day for the rest of the year, there will be ice cream sales during lunch time.  .50 will get you a popsicle and 1.00 will get you come other frozen treats.

We had our first day of our word study!  Our word of the day was dainty.  We used dainty as an adjective meaning very delicate.  Ask your child to use their word in a sentence!

We are now onto Unit 6 in math.  This unit will include adding three or more numbers at a time.  We will begin exploring comparison number stories.  An example is Silva has 17 CDs. Mark has 8 CDs. How many more CDs does Silva have than Mark?  The most important part is understanding the words HOW MANY MORE.  We will also be collecting, sorting, tallying and graphing data.  We will continue to discuss different strategies to use when adding and subtracting.  We will be exploring division/multiplication in the idea of creating equal groups.  They will be introduced to multiplication as an array (4x3 boxes).  Math will be getting more difficult as you can see.  Make sure to read the note home for parents at the end of each homework unit.

We will have NO SCHOOL next Monday because of MLK day. This week we will be discussing Martin Luther King Jr.  Every day we will be doing an activity discussing the wonderful achievements in his life and how they affect ours today!

I allow the students of have 20 minutes of DEAR time, which stands for Drop Everything And Read.  I have changed how the students are to record what they have read.  It is a much more genre based journal.  This will make your child aware of the different genres that are out there and find which ones interest them.

Happy 2011!

I wanted to remind everyone that homework is due Friday January 7. There will be a spelling test this Friday as well, don’t forget to practice!!!!
This week in math we will be reviewing what we learned before the break. We were covering quadrangles (four sided closed figures), parallel lines and other polygons. I will be introducing 3-Dimensional shapes this week.

In social studies, we will be reviewing laws, liberty, common good and freedom.
My second grade team and I have reassessed the reading groups and made adjustments where we saw fit. After the NWEA testing and DRAs are finished in February, we will reassess the students again.
I hope that everyone had a wonderful break and I can’t wait to see everyone tomorrow morning!