Happy Halloween!

We had lots of fun today! Our Halloween parade in the gym was a hit, and so was our Halloween party! Thank you to Ava's mom and Ceili's mom for their wonderful help throwing our second grade Halloween party today. Everyone loved it!

We have a change in our homework - there is no math homework due tomorrow. We ran out of time today. Instead, please make sure your child studies for their math test tomorrow. We finished a practice test today in class and they all did great.

A reminder: there is an informational meeting for parents regarding 1st Communion next Wednesday, Nov. 6th at 5:00 pm in the Day Chapel. Also, second grade is hosting Mass next Friday, Nov. 8th. I hope we see many parents there! Finally, there is a 2nd grade Liturgy Mass at 5:00 pm on Saturday, Nov. 9th. More information is coming home soon about that.

All missing homework needs to be completed and turned in by tomorrow, which is the end of first quarter. If your child has any missing work, I will e-mail you and let you know.

I'm looking forward to seeing you at conferences - they are Thursday night, Nov. 7th and Tuesday night, Nov. 12th.

Happy Trick-or-Treating!

Lions and Tigers and...Skeletons!

Congratulations to Ben and Ceili - they are this month's Knights of the Round Table drawing winners! They were two of many who got "caught" being good this month. Mrs. St. Louis drew the winning names from a bucket this morning. Ben and Ceili enjoyed root beer floats at lunch as a reward.

This week we wrote a funny story about lions and tigers taking over the classroom as teachers! We have some very creative thinkers!

Our Boston Tea Party was a big hit today! We performed a mock protest in the hall, followed by (an apple juice) tea party.

Here's a picture of the pasta skeletons our second graders completed this week - they look great in our hallway!

Don't forget - tomorrow is our spelling test. We'll also have our practice math test so we're ready for Friday's math test. Tomorrow morning is dress-down and then we'll have costumes in the afternoon. Our school costume parade is at 12:45 and our classroom Halloween party is at 1:00 p.m.

Have a great Wednesday!

Coins and Floats

We were able to view a coin show in the cafeteria today and we really enjoyed it! We saw coins and money from all over the world!

This afternoon we had root beer floats and it was a great way to end the day.

Tomorrow we need our library books and gym shoes.

Oh - here is a picture of our beautifully scary 2nd grade Red Ribbon Week door!

Spelling words - contractions

Here are this week's spelling words:

didn't      hadn't     hasn't     he's     I'll     I'm     isn't     it's     she's     wasn't     we'll     who'll    

Our challenge, extra-credit words are:

couldn't     wouldn't     shouldn't

A Fun Start To The Week...

Today we made creepy pasta skeletons for our hallway walls - they were fun to make! We learned that following directions made for the best skeletons. We also decorated our door for Red Ribbon Week. Our creative second graders came up with "Drugs Will Eat You Alive" for our door theme. We have a skeleton on our door surrounded by a Pac Man theme. They did a terrific job!

In math we're learning about time and money this week. Math is teaching us "an hour or a half hour from now" and "an hour or a half hour ago." We also start learning about pennies and nickels this week.

We have a lot going on this week - please check our "This Week's Important Dates" to find out what is due and what tests we have going on this week. Our spelling test (contractions) is this Thursday, our Writing to Entertain stories are due Thursday (4 sentences about "Guess who/what I saw at the Halloween party..."), our practice math test is Thursday and our math test is Friday morning. Whew! I'll post spelling words soon.

We're off to a great start!

Happy Weekend!

Second graders put in a long, hard week and are ready for a rest this weekend! Today we read our "Writing To Entertain" pieces in class. Everyone did a beautiful job - we have wonderful writers! We will continue our "Writing to Entertain" stories through next week. In math we completed Skittle graphing and found out that no two charts were the same in class (and THEN we ate our work!).

A reminder - next week is Red Ribbon Week, so check out our fun days in our "October Happenings" section. Thursday is dress down in the morning and costume party in the afternoon (no scary costumes, fake blood, or weapons please).

Coming up:  We have our Boston Tea Party next Wednesday, Oct. 30th and second grade is planning the Friday Mass on November 8th. We hope to see you at Mass!

Our homework for the weekend is to read at least 15 minutes each day. Have a great weekend!

Brrr....

It's getting cold outside! Please remember to dress for the weather. It looks like winter will be here early!

Everyone brought home a Red Ribbon Week schedule for next week. There is one addition: the 8th grade class is selling $1 root beer floats next Tuesday afternoon. Next week is filled with lots of fun activities and fun dress days - be sure to see our "October Happenings" for more information. As a reminder, next Friday (Nov. 1st) is an early release day!

We're having fun with shapes in math - we're learning what "symmetry" and "congruent" mean, and we're learning how to divide squares and circles into equal shapes. This is our introduction into fractions and they're doing a great job! Next week we'll continue learning about fractions and we also start learning about pennies and nickels. On Friday (Nov. 1st) we'll have a test which covers the last two weeks. We'll do a practice test next Thursday so we know what to expect.

Enjoy your Thursday!

No More King!!

What? No more King? We had a fun Social Studies lesson today about the Boston Tea Party - please ask your child about it! We learned about "Taxation Without Representation" and used an 8th grade math test as an example! Next Wednesday we will protest the halls with our signs, Indian disguises, and our tea boxes. Then we will follow it up with our own tea party! We are all so excited about that!

Our spelling test is Friday, so please review the words. Also - remember that guided reading books are needed each day. Thanks!

It's Another Beautiful Monday!

I'm hoping we all had a nice weekend, even though they go way too fast!

An important reminder: we started guided reading groups last week. It's very important that everyone bring their book home each night and remember to bring it back to school each day. We use those books for guided group reading with me, and we need them daily. Starting today, everyone has a guided reading log in their plastic book baggies which tells you what we read in groups today and what your child's reading homework is.

This week in math, we'll continue our fractions unit by learning what are parts of a whole. In Science, we're continuing our cloud unit, and in Social Studies, we're moving forward with our Important Events in U.S. History lesson. We have fun things planned for that! "We Praise And Thank God - How To Pray" starts are next Religion lesson. This week in writing, we're working on our final author's purpose: writing to entertain. Students will be writing fun stories in their writing journals, and we'll be writing a fun class story together this week about "How To Train A Spider!"

Our spelling test is Friday, and our spelling words for this week are:
before     born     chore     corn     farm     hard     horse     more     part     porch     score     smart

Our extra words are:    family     heard     listen

Thursday we have a staff vs. students volleyball game at 1:30 - we're all ready for that! Have a great Monday!

A "WOW" Friday!

Second grade ended the week on a very high note! Our math tests were wonderful, and we ended our day learning about fractions with food! They seemed to love that, but feel free to ask them about it!

Our homework for the weekend is to read their guided reading books (in the large baggie). They also need to read at least 15 minutes a day, and their guided reading can count toward that 15 minutes.

We gave out so many stickers today for great behavior that I lost count...it was a great way to end the day. I hope everyone has a fun weekend!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

We all decided that the rain can go away now! We still had a great day, though.

A few reminders: Everyone has their Religion take-home test in their OCEAN binder. They need to finish it tonight and return it tomorrow. They got a great start in class today! We also started our guided reading groups today. Starting today, everyone is bringing home their guided reading book in a gallon size baggie. This book will come home each night and needs to come back to school each day. If they have a reading assignment from guided reading, that can count towards their 15 minutes of nightly reading.

Other than reading and a little bit of the take-home Religion test, there is no homework tonight because I wanted to give everyone plenty of time to study for the spelling and math tests tomorrow. I know they'll do great!

Better late than never!

Sorry for the late post today! We took our practice test today in math and everyone did a great job. The most important thing to remember is to read the instructions carefully and to make sure all of the questions are answered. The practice test came home today, and our real test is on Friday. If someone doesn't understand any of it, please have them see me tomorrow.

Today we made "Hall Heads" in school - they are heads that we colored to look like ourselves! We are hanging them in the hall outside of our room so we can display our beautiful second grade work below it. Please feel free to stop by and check it out!

Finally, conference confirmations were sent home on Monday. If your day or time doesn't work for you, just drop me a line at rtheriault@stjoesbb.com and we can change it.

I'll see everyone in class tomorrow!

Tuesday's Happenings

The rain might have kept us in, but it didn't stop us from learning! We started learning about fractions in math, and we are up for the challenge. When we got to our homework section today, we noticed that it was a challenge. There were questions on there that some students weren't sure of. There was a lot of new information. Everyone should try their best on the homework, but not worry about it. If it's too hard, we'll back up and practice some more.

We have library on Wednesday, so we need to remember our library books. Also, it's $1 dress down day, so we're looking forward to that.

Have a great Tuesday!

Welcome Back!

It sounds like second grade had a fun, long weekend! We're back to work today. We started our week by praying the Rosary in the Day Chapel with the entire school. They are quick learners and were respectful listeners.

Our spelling words this week involve the ch, sh, wh, and tch sounds. Our test is Friday and our words are:

that     when     them     itch     wish     what     shape     chase     patch     math     whale     bunch

Our optional, challenge words are:     whiskers     shrimp     switch

In math, we're studying polygons this week, along with adding 9 to a number and adding 10 to a number. We'll have a review of these lessons (plus pictographs) on Thursday along with a practice test, and our math test is on Friday.

We also have a Religion test on Thursday which is about "The Church Teaches Us How To Live". This will be another in-class test to be finished at home Thursday night, and we'll review for it this week. They will be able to use their books for the test.

It Science, we're starting a unit on atmosphere, and in Social Studies we're starting to learn about important events in U.S. History.

It's going to be a fun week filled with lots of learning, and second grade is ready to go!

It's Official - Second Grade is Amazing!

We had a great day and week in second grade! We are learning about pictographs in Math and they are all fast, fabulous learners! Also, today everyone read to the class their "writing to inform or teach about something" piece that they've been working on in their journals all week. They were fantastic - I think we have some budding journalists in our class!

Today we had a fire drill, followed by a fire safety presentation given by the Big Bend Fire Dept. Our class was very well-behaved, asked great questions, and we all learned a lot.

Our homework for this mini-break is for all students to read at least 15 minutes a day. If they are bored, they can also practice their addition facts up to 10 + 10. It will help them with our upcoming math lessons.

Enjoy your break, everyone!

We are an awesome class!

The second grade has had a very good start to the week! Today we started a pictograph unit in math (using pictures to represent data) and we are all having fun with it.

Congratulations to Ceili - who was our 1st Queen of the Couch winner! Ceili saved up 25 of her good behavior stickers to earn this honor. Megan is our 2nd Queen of the Couch winner, and she will have the couch to herself tomorrow! Congratulations to both Ceili and Megan!

Scholastic book order forms are coming home in today's OCEAN binder. Every book you order helps our class earn books for the classroom. Our next order due date is Oct. 28th. The instructions for online ordering are on the blog. Thanks for your help!

Hello Autumn!

It sure feels like Autumn today! It's a good reminder to bring jackets to school. Soon we'll need mittens, hats and boots - but thankfully not yet! It's a short week this week and we have so much to learn! (Sadly, there are no spelling words and therefore no spelling test this week!)

We're learning about another Author's Purpose - to inform, or to teach, in writing. Students are writing informative pieces in their journal about a hobby or passion of theirs, and they will share their writings in class on Wednesday.

In math, we're learning about weekdays and weekends, and then we start our pictograph unit, which is reading & creating graphs and charts.

We're studying "The Church Teaches Us How To Live" in Religion and the second graders have had great stories to share in class!

In Social Studies, we're finishing up a unit on Important People In History. They've really had fun with this!

We're learning about thermometers in Science, and learning how they work.

And of course, we started learning cursive writing last week and they are doing great!

As a reminder, conference slips were sent home last Thursday. Please make sure you complete your slip and send it back ASAP so we can get everyone on the schedule.

We will not have gym this Wednesday, so gym shoes won't be necessary. Finally, the Fire Dept. will be here on Wednesday afternoon for a fun and informative presentation about fire safety.

Have a great Monday everyone!

We Did It!!!

Second grade earned their 12th compliment today (thanks to Library) which means they officially earned 12 brownie points. They will be enjoying brownies for a class treat tomorrow! I am so proud of them!

Speaking of snacks, I started the year with a nice supply of snacks that I brought in - combined with some parent donations. However, several students are forgetting to bring in a morning snack on a daily basis and our class snack supply is almost gone. Please remember to send a snack with your child each day. I have tomorrow covered (brownies) and Friday is field trip day, so next week we'll all need to remember to bring in our own snacks. Thanks!

We completed a practice math test today and everyone did a great job! We also practiced our spelling words for tomorrow's test, and we all agreed it would help if we studied for a little while tonight.

Friday is our field trip - yay! The forecast is still calling for rain, so remember to bring rain ponchos. Students will also need a pillowcase (for their pumpkin) and a disposable lunch. It's going to be fun, rain or shine!

Thanks for your patience!

We are having technical difficulties with some of the areas of our school blogs (like the calendar sections). Thanks for your patience while we work through it.

Please check your child's binder today for important information about our Friday field trip. Also - students should bring a pillowcase to school on Friday so they can carry their pumpkins home more easily.

Just a reminder - there is a math test on Thursday as well as a spelling test. We're taking a practice math test on Wednesday and we'll also do some reviewing. They can bring the practice test home to study.

Have a great Tuesday!