Is It Time To Cry Yet?

The end of 2nd grade is almost here! I just wanted to take a minute and thank you for the opportunity to teach your children this year. It's been a wonderful, exciting year and I'm so sad to say goodbye to this class. They are a group of talented, compassionate, creative, smart learners and I know they will do a great job next year! I feel like the luckiest teacher ever right now!

We celebrated our accomplishments with an ice cream party and classroom awards celebration this afternoon (thanks to Mrs. Wozniak and Mrs. Abraham for their help!). This morning we played Bingo with our 3rd and 4th grade friends, and we also went to the K4 classroom to help them with some games they were learning. It was a very fun day!

We have some final things to learn tomorrow morning, and then we'll move onto our Mini-Fest (thanks Mrs. Abraham for putting that all together!). On Thursday, we have Mass, middle school awards, and then dismissal. If you want to take your child home on Thursday right after awards, that is fine - just don't forget your child's report card!

Please keep reading and practicing your math over the summer. If you get bored, Raz-kids.com and IXL.com are great reading/math resources.

Happy, happy summer to all of you and I will see you at the end of August!

Only A Few Days Left!

It's hard to believe the end of the year is here already! I sent out an e-mail today about some final reminders, so please check for that.

Our field trip is tomorrow - yay!!! It's going to be so much fun! Remember to bring a completely disposable lunch, and to wear your spirit wear top with uniform shorts or pants.

Keep bringing in bags and backpacks so we can send things home (no binders needed anymore).

Have a great weekend!

We're Nearing the Finish Line!

Our guided reading is officially over - our math homework is officially over after tonight. I know we're all sad about that!

Our Movie, The Lorax, was so fun today! We really enjoyed the popcorn and lemonade, too.

Our Father's Day presents went home today - please look for them!

Wear comfortable walking shoes tomorrow - we'll be walking for ice cream in the afternoon.

Please start bringing bags to school to carry things home.

Lastly - our field trip to Hoffer's Pet Store is Monday. Remember to wear spirit wear with uniform bottoms, and to bring a completely disposable lunch.

What is YOUR Carbon Footprint?

Today's Social Studies lesson focused on our personal carbon footprint. We learned that the smaller our "footprint", the better. We learned all of the things we do that make our footprint bigger (use disposable water bottles and paper plates, driving everywhere, using a lot of electricity, for example) and what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint (ride our bike instead of drive, use less water, download video games rather than purchase the package at the store). Then we traced our footprints and listed one way to reduce our footprint. We finished by illustrating our example. They had great ideas!

It's Spirit Wear day tomorrow (with uniform bottoms). Also, our ice cream field trip is Friday afternoon. Pray for good weather!

Lastly, starting on Friday we're going to start bringing things home: projects, supplies, etc. We'll send a little home each day so that they are not overloaded on the last day of school. Please feel free to send bags to school with your child so we can start sending things home.

Great Workers!

We're doing a great job at staying focused and on-task today! In math we're learning about translations, rotations, and reflections - or sliding, rotating, and flipping. They're doing a wonderful job with these new concepts.

Our state research project papers are very impressive! We're finishing them up this week and then they will read them in front of the class on Friday.

Please check your child's folder for their test results. They show where your child started in September and where they are now. We have a great group!

First Communion candles are also ready to go home. They are outside of the Hospitality Suite under the Knights of Columbus wall hangings in the gathering area.

Happy Tuesday!

LOTS Of Important Information Today!

We have so many things to say today!

1.  Another field trip permission slip is coming home today. Please sign it and send it back ASAP! K4-4th grade is walking down the street this Friday afternoon for ice cream. There is no cost for this trip, but we do need the permission slips returned NO LATER than Thursday - thanks!

2.  Pink Eye - We have a confirmed case of pink eye in 2nd grade, PLUS my own daughter was diagnosed yesterday with pink eye in both eyes (thankfully I do not have it...yet!). We are being extra-careful with hand-washing, hand sanitizer, and keeping our hands away from our face. This 2nd grade student is on antibiotics and is no longer contagious, but since the symptoms appeared last Friday, we are being careful. A notice about this is in your child's binder today.

3.  Signed May reading logs are due by Wednesday. As always, these count as a homework reading grade so please remember to turn them in.

4.  Our spelling test is this Friday and our words this week are:
caught  fault  thaw  auto  because  taught  talk  walk  launch  draw  August  chalk

Our extra-credit, challenge words are:  applause  awkward  audience

5.  We performed our play, "Saving Our Earth" with our first grade friends on Thursday and Friday last week. They did a great job!!!

6.  Thank you to Ava for the wonderful birthday treat today - happy birthday!

A Sad, But Exciting, Day

It was really hard to say goodbye to our 8th grade friends today. They've done so much for our school. We'll miss them, but we know they'll do great things as they move forward. We started the day with a beautiful tribute Mass for our 8th graders. We ended our day watching our 8th graders pass the torch (or candle) with words of wisdom to our 7th graders. We wish them all well!

Have a great weekend!

$1 Dress Up Day Tomorrow

Don't forget to dress up tomorrow - it's a great way to respect our 8th graders, who are leaving us tomorrow. We have Mass at 8:00 to honor them, and then we say goodbye to them all.

We practiced a lock-out drill today where we left the building. Everyone did a great job!

In Math, we learned how to tell time to the quarter hour. This is a great skill to practice at home.

Remember - nine more days left! Keep focused and keep learning!

Wednesday's Updates

We switched things around a bit today and had Math in the morning, where we continued to learn about arrays. Here's an example:

 Then we combined a Math lesson with a Writing lesson and learned how to plan an ice cream party. They are great planners!

At the end of the day, we visited the 5th grade classroom to see their electromagnetic fishing experiments - how fun!!! Then we finished the day with our Social Studies lesson on Natural Resources of the Earth: Soil, Air, and Water.

If you still have library books at home, please return them as soon as possible. Only ten more learning days!

It's Great To Be Back!!

It's so good to see everyone back at school, ready to learn!

We had a classroom practice lock-out drill today where our class pretended we had an intruder inside the building. We walked to our designated spot safely. Our school-wide drill is later this week.

There are no spelling words this week. In fact, next week is our last week of spelling words.

As a reminder, library books are due tomorrow. There is no more library check-out this school year. Also, please return your field trip permission slip and money if you haven't done that already.

I know it seems like we should be done with school, but we're not! Please take a few minutes and remind your child the importance of finishing this year strong. It's not easy to focus and stay on-task, but we need to try our hardest because we still have a lot of learning left!

Have a great Tuesday!

A GREAT Day!

We pulled out the couch, dropped the beanbags, and enjoyed the last hour of the original Dr. Dolittle movie from 1967! They really enjoyed it, and the popcorn, too!

We also enjoyed Friday Fun Math using fruit Tootsie Rolls for a probability review lesson.

Last on our great news list...everyone enjoyed a yummy ice cream treat thanks to Mrs. O'Boyle. Thank you so much - we loved it!

Field trip permission slips were sent home on Thursday. Please return them by next Friday.

We have a math test on Tuesday.

Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Our Summer Bucket List

We had fun creating our bucket lists for this summer! Today we followed it up with a writing assignment where we chose one favorite item on our bucket list and wrote about it in detail. They are becoming wonderful writers!

In Social Studies we had a great lesson on the human impact to our environment. We studied four kinds of pollution: air, land, water, and noise. Then we made cards to remind people to unplug unused appliances at home.

Don't forget - tomorrow is Field Day! Be sure to wear your team color t-shirt. It's a free dress down day. It should be perfect weather for an afternoon outside!

$1 Dress Down Tomorrow!

We forgot to put $1 Dress Down in our assignment notebooks for tomorrow - hopefully everyone knows!

We had a wonderful debate today for current events! There is a national debate going on now about the new trend of schools rewarding kids with money and/or gifts for perfect attendance. We divided into two groups to debate whether or not that's a good idea or a bad idea. I'm amazed at the advanced thoughts in our class - great job!

In Math, we learned how to multiply by 3 today and we learned it's not as hard as we thought.

Tomorrow we start our "We are growing" chapter in Family Life.

Thursday is Field Day - students need to wear a t-shirt of their team color. Friday is our spelling test. Have a great night and enjoy this weather!

Many Fun Things This Week!

What a great week it's going to be!!! We have Field Day on Thursday (don't forget to wear your assigned t-shirt color & jeans/shorts). On Friday we're finishing up our read aloud book, Dr. Dolittle, and we're going to watch the original 1967 Dr. Dolittle movie on Friday afternoon.

Our spelling test is this Friday, and here are our "f" sound spelling words:
rough  puff  dolphin  phone  stuff  tough  giraffe  cough  photo  laugh  graph  cliff

Our extra-credit words are:  enough  physical  autograph

We also have a math test on Tuesday, 5/27 for lessons 110-119.

In Math, we're learning how to subtract three digit numbers using money. We also learned about parallel and perpendicular lines. In Writing, we're in the middle of printing our "sloppy copy" for our state report. In Science, we're finishing up erosion and moving onto studying layers of the earth. In Reading, we're focusing on comprehension this week, and in Social Studies we're talking about human impact on the earth's environment, both good and bad.

Our Character Education Team talked to us about manners again today, and we're asked to remember to hold doors for people, to listen to people when they talk, and to make eye contact with people as they are talking to you. We're going to practice those manners this week!

Fab Fun Friday

It was a very fun day in second grade today! We worked on our research projects, learned about erosion in science, and we're getting the the really good parts in our book Doctor Doolittle! We also loved our Friday Fun Math - we used mini Starburst candies to work on multiplication problems, and then we ate our answers! We also played math games at the end of the day.

Next Thursday, May 22nd is Field Day in the afternoon. We need volunteers to help us if you can. Also, everyone is asked to wear a specific color t-shirt on Thursday to identify each team. Your child's assigned color is written in their assignment notebook. It's a free dress down day on Thursday, too.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Getting Ready For Third Grade!

We are making sure that we're ready for next year! It's difficult this time of year - the weather is nicer (well, usually!) and we are already thinking about summer vacation. We're working on being ready for next year both with our behavior and our learning.

Today's reading goal was EXPRESSION! We have a few students who are great at reading with expression, and we're all learning how fun it can be.

In math, we're continuing our multiplication lessons. Now we're learning how to draw story pictures for these problems.

Our 5th grade Girl Scout troop is coming to talk to us about recycling today, and our 3rd grade Girl Scouts came to talk to us yesterday about water conservation. Thank you to both groups - it's a great addition to our Social Studies recycling unit!!!

Tuesday's Teachings

We're learning about multiplication in math, and it can be tricky! Today we reviewed multiplying by 2, and we learned that when we multiply by 2, we simply double the other number. (ex: 2 x 6 means we double the 6, so 6 + 6 = 12. That means 2 x 6 = 12)

In Writer's Workshop, we wrote letters to St. Joe's future second graders to tell them all about 2nd grade and what they can expect next year. We re-visited some fun memories!

We're starting the writing portion of our state research project. They have a good start!

We talked a LOT today about not "checking out" yet - we still have more than 20 days of school left and some of us are struggling to focus and stay on-task. Parents, please help remind your children that we still have many days of school left and it's important to make each one count. Thanks for your help!!

This Week's Adventures

We had our spelling test today and we won't have a new list this week because we want our focus to be on our writing (our state research paper) and on math (it's getting harder!). We'll pick up spelling again next week.

In Science we're starting a unit on weathering and erosion. We looked at examples today and will continue that through next week.

Congratulations to Sam on his Knights of the Round Table award today! He earned it for picking up other people's scrap paper without being asked. He enjoyed a root beer float at lunch today!

At this morning's Gathering, we continued our manners work by learning even more manners:

1. When someone asks you how your day was, answer their question and then ask them how their day was (or how they are doing).

2. When someone invites you to do something at their house (or somewhere else), remember to thank them for inviting you.

Today we also talked about how difficult it is to stay focused this time of year. The weather is FINALLY nice, we had a late Easter vacation which makes it hard to get back into studying, and we're staying up later because it's light out later and we have more going on now at home. However, it's important to remember that we have 22 more days of school so we need to continue to do our best. We want to be completely ready for 3rd grade and we can only do that by putting in our best effort until the last day. We can do it!

There Aren't Enough Words...

There simply aren't enough words to tell you how awesome these second graders are. They had a beautiful Mass and May Crowning service this morning AND our class won the "Minute to Win It" games at the end of the day!!! The three classes who collected the most change last week participated in fun games at today's Scattering in the gym, with help from students. Nathan, Sam, and Ceili were great helpers and WE WON!! Thank you!

Also, thank you to you awesome parents, too. I received so many heartfelt cards and gifts this week for Teacher Appreciation week - I'm overwhelmed and filled with gratitude. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms - have a great weekend!

What a Beautiful Day!!!

We've waiting a long time for weather like this, and we really enjoyed the outdoors today!

We're ready for our big Mass tomorrow and our May Crowning ceremony. We'll be lining up at 7:45 a.m. so we're looking forward to seeing everyone bright and early, ready to go. Feel free to stop down in the second grade room as early as 7:30 - I'll be there.

Father Dick came to talk to our class today about the host, the Monstrance, the Luna, the Blessed Sacrament, and the Tabernacle. We also learned why the alphabet is called the alphabet!

An e-mail came home this afternoon saying that we've moved our spelling test to Monday. We've worked very hard this week and we decided we need extra time to study. If anyone wants to take their test tomorrow, they can. Otherwise we'll take it on Monday.

Enjoy this beautiful weather!

Shhhhhh!!!

It might not seem like it, but we were soooooo very busy today! In fact, we had to re-arrange our math because we ran behind. We were busy second graders - working hard on a project for.....shhhhh!!!....we can't say! However, we hope everyone likes furry things with four legs!!!

Because of specials today and Mass practice this afternoon, our math was cut short. Therefore our homework for tonight is Facts Homework 111B. This is a review of what we've been working on for the past two days.

In Social Studies, we went on a nature walk today and found many interesting things: pine cones, buds, sticks, dandelions, rocks, and other outdoor items. We're turning these into posters so we can learn about the nature cycle then we'll learn how that relates to our environmental unit of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

It might hit 80 degrees tomorrow - we hope so!!! Just in case, it's a good idea to send a water bottle to school with your child.

Here's hoping for nice weather tomorrow!!!

Smart, Smart, SMART!!!

Our second grade is doing an amazing job! Not only did they celebrate an exhausting First Communion this weekend, but they are also preparing for a very special May Crowning Mass this Friday AND they are learning lots of new things in school!

In Math - we've started learning multiplication. We already learned that any number x 0 = 0. We also know that any number x 1 = that number. We ALSO know that we can skip count by 2 when we multiply by two. Today we started multiplying by 5. We learned that multiplying by 5 is the same as skip counting by 5.

In Writing - we talked about how to write a research paper. Several people are done with their state research and are ready to write. We talked about writing one sentence for every fact we wrote down, except for the picture of our state and our state flag. We're going to have fun drawing those later and adding them to the end of our report.

There is an important e-mail that I sent all of the parents today - it has information for this Friday's Mass. Please check it for more information. Also, please have your child practice their Mass parts which came home last week. There are some difficult words in their parts and they will need some extra work. They are doing a great job - thanks so much for your help at home!!

A Beautiful Communion Weekend

Thank you to EVERYONE for your help, support, and participation in this weekend's First Communion celebration. It was a beautiful service and our class did an incredible job...congratulations to all of you!

Another huge thank you to our Home & School for coordinating the fun flash mob this morning in the gym!!! What a great, "happy" way to start our day - thank you!

Our spelling test is this Friday, May 9th and our spelling words are the most challenging we've had so far because they all contain a silent consonant:

knock  sign  knee  wrong  write  climb  wrap  wren  gnat  lamb  comb  knob

Our extra-challenging challenge words are:  knuckle   plumber   wrestle

Today is Cinco de Mayo and we learned that it is celebrated because of a war between Mexico and France. Even though Mexico was outnumbered 2 to 1 and was expected to lose the war quickly, Mexico won. In celebration, we enjoyed churro chips for a snack today.

We are finishing up our state fact gathering this week and will move into writing our reports. They are doing an amazing job gathering their information and anxious to move onto their writing!

Happy Monday:)

Reminders!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's beautiful candles at First Communion rehearsal this Saturday! Please make sure your candles are decorated and dry when you bring them with you on Saturday. The candles will stay at church through May 31st and then you can bring them home.

We have our spelling test tomorrow. We talked about studying the words tonight - we have been working so hard on our state project that some of us are a little behind on our spelling. Let's put forth our best effort tomorrow!

We're continuing our unit on environmental change in Social Studies. We're looking at reducing, reusing, and recycling.

In Math we're learning how to add three digit numbers. We're starting with money amounts. Our test is Monday and we'll be ready!

Spirit Wear Tomorrow!

We have spirit, yes we do....  Tomorrow is Spirit Wear Day with uniform bottoms.

In Social Studies we are looking at environmental change and what causes it. Here's a sample of some great second grade work - thanks Megan!

Our "Earth Web" lists 10 different ways we can help our planet, such as reducing the amount of things we use, recycling what we can, and reusing items. We can also help by not littering, turning off unused lights, and using less water. Nice job!

Everyone brought home a copy of their states project template today. This is NOT homework, although I copied it and sent it home because their enthusiasm is catching! Many students asked to take a copy home and work on their project. It is not required at all, but they may work on it if they want. They are bringing home a copy of their packet - the original is here at school and will stay in the classroom until it's completed. They are really doing a wonderful job on it! Just a note - we are not completing the "sources" part of the packet. That part will come later.

Yesterday an order form came home for First Communion portraits. These are optional pictures which will be taken at noon this Sunday. If you want pictures, please make sure to complete the order form and bring it with you to First Communion on Sunday.

We're Kicking It Up!

Our class is doing a fantastic job getting started on their state projects! They are all researching a different state and completing a research project template. Once they have gathered all of their information (by next Friday, 5/9) they will start writing a research paper. We are using many resources for this project, including textbooks, research books, other people, our large classroom map, computers, and our new school iPads! You know a project is going to be a huge success when you have to tear them away from it! Many students have asked what they can do at home. It's not required, but they are welcome to look up climate, landforms, and three interesting facts about their state to prepare their report. Additionally, they are also researching their state's flag, governor, natural resources, interesting places to visit, that state's capitol, when their state became part of the U.S., and major cities within their state. They are doing an amazing job!

In Math we're learning how to count a combination of quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. We're also learning how to trade in amounts for fewer coins. Tomorrow we start learning about parallel lines. We have a test next Monday, May 12th.

Please check your e-mail for a notice about what's happening with First Communion this weekend. We are all looking forward to it!

It's So Good To Be Back!!!

It's wonderful to have everyone back together again - I enjoyed hearing about everyone's fun Spring Break adventures!

We're back and ready to learn. Our spelling test is Friday (5/2) and here are our prefix spelling words:

unsafe   preheat   rerun   disappear   unlock   retie   rewind   unpack   unplug   regroup   preschool  disagree

Our challenge words are: prehistoric   unfortunate   reunion

April reading logs are due Friday - please sign them and send them back to school with your child.

Our Character Education team has identified 25 "manner" traits that we will work on as a school from now until the end of the year. This week we are working on:
1. Saying please
2. Saying thank you
3. Not interrupting an adult when they are talking unless it's an emergency; and
4. If it is an emergency, saying, "Please excuse me - it's an emergency."

We'll introduce new manners traits each week. They are already doing a great job with "please" and "thank you" which means they are really trying!

Our First Communion rehearsal is this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. at the church. It should last about 90 minutes. Our First Communion is on Sunday and you will need to arrive by noon if you want professional pictures taken. If not, please arrive no later than 12:45. The Mass starts at 1:00 pm and will last approximately 90 minutes. Please keep practicing your songs at home.

We started our research project this week. This is new for us, so we're slowing down to make sure we understand it. Everyone chose a state today and we'll spend two weeks learning all about that state. Then we'll turn our information into a written research report. They are so enthusiastic - I can't wait to see the final projects!

Thanks for all of your support and help - I couldn't do this without you. Happy Monday!

We Are Filled With Good Deeds

Look at all of the good deeds we accomplished throughout Lent - and it's not over yet. Our good Lenten deed from now until Easter Sunday is to thank Jesus for his sacrifice for us.

THANK YOU so much to Mrs. Abraham and Mrs. Wozniak for a beautiful, respectful Lent/pre-Easter gathering in class this morning. We made key chains, had a delicious snack, and watched a Little Critter video about Easter. We all enjoyed it!

We finished our day with a school-wide Stations of the Cross. It was a perfect way to start our school break.

Your child brought home a collective list of computer user names and passwords today, in case they want to practice their math, reading, or language arts skills while on break. Also, there is May Crowning information in their folder, as well. More is coming home soon. Please keep practicing Blest Are We and Jesus In The Eucharist for First Communion.

I hope you have a wonderful, blessed Easter along with a relaxing break - I'll see everyone on April 28th!

Good Thoughts, Good Deeds

We started our Family Life unit today with a discussion about how we bring God's love into our home. Some of the great responses included praying, being kind to each other, and helping each other out when needed.

Our new Social Studies unit started today with Environmental Change - we looked at examples, talked about pollution, and then created our own "Wanted" posters featuring bad pollutants. If you look around the school, you will see the "Wanted" posters displayed all over!

Today's Math had us learning about advanced graphing - such as, "How many more people liked strawberry ice cream than chocolate ice cream?" We're starting to work on problems that take more than one step. We'll continue that after break.

Our good Lenten deed for today is to take out the trash at home (you're welcome!). Our good deed wall is so filled with fish and it looks wonderful!

One more day - we can ALL do it! Happy Wednesday!

We're Debating...!

Religion: We talked about how Jesus saves us from sin, and how that relates to Easter. Jesus died on the cross so that we could be saved.

Writing: We're using graphic organizers this week and learning all about setting, plot, and how to identify the main characters in a story.

Reading/Social Studies: What a fabulous group! We tried an experiment today. Once a week, we talk about social issues or current events in class. Today's story (from Scholastic Junior) was about a group who believes chimps should be treated more like humans because they are so closely related to people. We read the story and then divided up into two groups. Both groups had 10 minutes to come up with their arguments, and then we held our first ever second grade debate presentation! They did an amazing job! We can't wait to do it again.

Tomorrow: $1 dress down, library, gym

Our good Lenten deed for today: Pray for all of the sick children in the world.

Have a great Tuesday!

Counting Down...

We only have four days of school this week, and we're making them all count!

1.  We planted seeds in Science two weeks ago. Our plants are nice and strong; and ready to come home. Plants will be coming home Wednesday or Thursday. If you want to stop in and pick it up, just let me know.

2.  We have Gym tomorrow instead of Thursday so we'll need gym shoes tomorrow and Wednesday, but not on Thursday.

3.  Our good Lenten deed for today is to help our parents clean up after dinner - yay!!!

4.  There is no spelling test or math test this week. I told everyone I want our focus to be on Holy Week - remembering what events happened this week and the events leading up to Easter Sunday. We read a book today about the Easter miracle.

5.  We are starting new, more difficult lessons in Math this week. We're learning how to multiply by 1 and by 100, and we're also learning how to find the perimeter of a shape. We'll start learning these lessons this week, and we'll review them when we come back from Easter break.

6. In Writing, we are telling about our Easter break plans this week. I'm hearing some great plans - they are excited to put them on paper!

As always, please let me know if you have any questions. Have a great Monday!

Silver and Stripes

Some of our students put on a fun play today called, "Silver and Stripes." They did a fantastic job!!! I have a policy of not posting student pictures on the blog since it is a public blog, but we compromised today. Izaak, Paiton, Nathan and Braeden did an amazing job on their play, and the audience loved it!

Our good Lenten deed for the weekend is to pick up trash around our yard or somewhere. I'm hoping to hear great stories on Monday of how everyone completed their good deed!

Please set aside Friday, May 9th on your calendars. Second grade has mass that morning, and it's also May Crowning. More information is coming home soon.

Enjoy your weekend!

For My Family, Easter Means...

We finished our "For My Family, Easter Means..." projects and they are proudly displayed outside of our classroom. We had many great ideas about what Easter means to each of us. ThanksAva (2nd picture) for letting me use your work on the blog - great job!

We have lots of reminders today:
     ~Spelling test tomorrow
     ~Rice bowls filled with change due tomorrow
     ~Spring pictures tomorrow - dress up optional if you're having pictures taken
     ~Signed report card folders due tomorrow

Our good Lenten deed is to return our rice bowls filled with change tomorrow. If you don't have your rice bowl, feel free to bring in change to add to the school's collection.

This morning we practiced our First Communion with Miss Mary, so we know what to expect at rehearsal on Saturday, May 3rd and at First Communion on Sunday, May 4th. They did a great job. Keep working on the songs!

Some of our students are putting on a play tomorrow, because their current reading book is a play about animals in the forest. They are very excited, and we can't wait to see it!

Enjoy the nice weather!

Our Good Lenten Deeds Continue....

We are re-visiting one of our previous Lenten deeds - to do an extra chore at home without being asked. I'm so proud of all the good deeds our second grade class is doing!

Today in Social Studies we started a maps and globe booklet that uses everything we've learned about maps so far, including directions, longitude & latitude lines, continents, and oceans. It's due tomorrow and they are doing a wonderful job!

Please start returning your rice bowls filled with change. We would like them back by Friday if possible, but we'll take them anytime before next Thursday.

Also - please remember gym shoes on Wednesdays and Thursdays. We do a lot of running in gym and we need to be wearing the right shoes. Thanks!

We have a spelling test on Friday - we'll study our words in class tomorrow just to be sure we're ready.

Have a great Wednesday!

We're Letting Our Light Shine!

For one of our Character Education school-wide projects, we're letting our light shine! As Braeden and Ceili's example above shows, we're all to be celebrated! Each of our individual cut-outs will be joined at the hands (showing unity and solidarity) and displayed in the cafeteria. We're shining bright these days!

Our guided reading groups are having fun! One of our groups will put on a play this Friday based off of the book they are reading. Paiton, Nathan, Izaak and Braeden will be ready for a show! Another one of our reading groups is taking a big step into chapter book reading this week. We are ready!

Report cards go home tomorrow. Please look for them.

Our good Lenten deed for today is to be kind to our siblings. We can do it!

Don't forget Dine to Donate tonight from 4-7 pm at McDonald's in Big Bend. Come support this great fundraiser for our school!

Three final reminders: math test tomorrow, library books due tomorrow, and spelling test on Friday.

Monday, Part 2!

Here is a picture of the "He is Risen" project we completed today. In the middle is Luke 24:1-6. Great job Eli (top picture) and Izaak (bottom picture)!!!

Calling All Rice Bowls!

Our good Lenten deed for today (and the rest of this week) is to fill our rice bowls with spare change. We would like our rice bowls returned by this Friday.

Dine to Donate is tomorrow at McDonald's in Big Bend from 4-7 pm. Ten percent of the food sales during this time go to St. Joe's. Please come support us!

Our spelling test is Friday, and our spelling words are the suffixes ly, ful, er, and or. Our words are:

cheerful   visitor   slowly   weekly   teacher   helper   hardly   graceful   yearly   quickly   fighter   sailor

Our extra words are:   gardener   competitor   extremely
This is the last week of spelling words until after Easter break.

We have a math test on Wednesday covering our last 10 units, lessons 90-99.

Our writing assignment is to write about what Spring means to us, and we need five sentences completed in class by Friday.

I'll post a picture later of our "Jesus Has Risen" project that we worked on today. We talked about how Jesus died on the cross, how he was placed in the tomb, the tomb was covered with a bolder, and how the bolder was found moved on Easter Sunday. The tomb was empty - Christ Is Risen!

Hard, Hard Workers!

Our fabulous second graders worked so hard today...look at the wonderful maps they created in Social Studies! Awesome job, Sam! We ended our maps unit this week by creating our own countries, complete with cities, land forms, keys, compass rose, scale, boundaries, water features, and a title. The results were very impressive!

We also learned how to estimate totals in math today and we learned why it's important. For example, when we're walking through a grocery store, it's very hard to add up EXACTLY what we're spending as we toss things in our cart. However, we can estimate our cost by rounding the prices up or down. That makes it easier to add.

Our good Lenten deed for today is to pray with a sibling. I'm anxious to see how many come back with that completed deed!

As a reminder, I know the calendar says April but the weather says COLD!!! Please remember to send hats and gloves or mittens to school with your child. Spring is on the way, just not this week! Thanks for your help!

Wednesday's News

We started our "Make Your Own Country" projects in Social Studies to finish up our maps unit, and we have some incredibly creative students! I can't wait until they finish their projects tomorrow so I can post a picture or two. Our made-up countries will be complete with cities, names, a map scale, compass, a key, boundaries, and land forms. Their enthusiasm is contagious!

We're reviewing proper nouns and we know that specific people, places, things, days, months and holidays all get capitalized. We're also continuing our writing about the pros and cons of the classroom pet we wish we had.

Our cursive is coming along nicely. We'll be ready for third grade!

Finally, in math we learned that we can split even numbers into two equal groups, but if we try that with odd numbers, we end up with one left over.

Our good Lenten deed for the day is to make our bed before school - we can do it!

April Fool's!!!

We settled down at snack time for some crunchy, delicious, orange.....CARROTS?? That's right. Sam was the first to notice that something wasn't quite right with the feel and the cold temperature of the Cheetos bag!! When they opened up their snack that I gave them, out popped carrots!! We read "Arthur's April Fool" at snack time to go along with the prank! However...they did get me back at lunch. I was given a nice cold bottle of chocolate milk. When I opened it up to drink it, I found the milk container filled with crackers and other food! They got me!

Now for non-April Fool's news:  Library books are due tomorrow, and our parent-signed, March reading logs are due by Friday. This is the last month where we can earn a free pizza from Pizza Hut, but we'll continue our reading logs through the end of May. New reading logs are in your child's OCEAN binder today.

Brrrrr!! It's cold out! Many students were remembering the warm weather yesterday and didn't bring a hat or mittens. Unfortunately, it looks like we need to bundle up again for awhile. Keep the hats and gloves coming.

Thank you to the boys in class who brought in their Pinewood Derby cars and trophies to show us. Thank you, too, to Ceili and her mom for bringing in some awesome Chicago Blackhawks memorabilia to share with us!

We're Back!!!

Welcome back everyone! We are enjoying today's beautiful weather!

Our spelling test is Friday, and our words are:
too   new   fruit   blue    true   cool   suit   spoon   clue   juice   drew   flew

Our challenge words are:   cruise   nephew   shampoo

Our good Lent deed for today is to obey our parents! We're quickly filling up the wall of fish outside our room with great deeds. We have impressive second graders!

Last week our writing assignment was to write about our idea for a class pet and to describe it. This week we're starting a "pros and cons" unit so we're continuing our classroom pet theme. Everyone needs to write five sentences by Friday (in class during Daily 5) about the pros and cons of the classroom pet they chose. I love how creative they are!

We're finishing up our maps unit in Social Studies this week, and on Wednesday everyone is creating their own country, with at least two cities. I've asked everyone to come up with a name for their country along with at least two city names by Wednesday. They can be as creative as they want. As we work on this project, they are including key terms that we've studied over the past month: land forms (at least 2), cities, key (or legend), cardinal directions (or compass rose), a map scale, and city boundaries. They are excited to start this project!

In honor of the Badgers' basketball win this past weekend, Thursday has been changed to Spirit OR red Badger tops with uniform bottoms. Please make sure your shirt is of these two categories (sorry - no Bucks, Brewers, Packers or other team shirts). If you don't have spirit wear or a red Badger (Wisconsin) shirt, you can wear your uniform. Go Badgers!!!

Ready for the Weekend!

We had a great time shopping in Math class today, in fact your child probably came home with some of the items they "purchased"! We went shopping in class to practice our quarter addition. We also learned how to round to the nearest 10, and when a number ends in five we round up.

Our writing was so much fun this week! We wrote about what we thought our classroom pet should be. I'll admit that the three votes for a lion and one vote for a brontosaurus had me wondering, but they were wonderful writings! We're getting much better at our core writing: writing in between margin lines, using capital letters, and spacing between our words.

In Social Studies we learned how map scales help us tell us the distance between two points. We also talked about how scales can use many different units of measurement such as inches, feet, or miles.

Remember, keep doing those good deeds for Lent - our goal is to completely fill our wall!!! Enjoy your time off and I'll see you on Monday!

Celebrating Our Differences

Today we had a wonderful discussion about embracing our differences - they had great, insightful thoughts! We talked about how boring the world would be if all of us were tall, or had brown hair, or liked carrots, or played volleyball, or vacationed in Texas, or were good at math....we could go on and on and on! We agreed that being different was a beautiful thing and that we all have the opportunity to learn from each other's differences. Our Lenten good deed for tonight is to give a compliment to someone who is different from you, and to make the compliment about that difference.

In Math we started learning how to count quarters. It can be a challenge to count by 25! We've been reminded daily how important it is to include labels in our answers, whether it is the cents sign, dollar sign, or a word label. 

We have Library tomorrow so remember to return all books.

Lastly, your Seroogy Chocolate and Marcus Theater orders are due tomorrow. Home and School appreciates your support!

A Short Week

We only have three days of school this week, so we'll be doing lots of learning!

Our Lenten good deed for today is, "Do something nice for someone else without telling them." For Lent, we're also talking about respect - what it means, how we show it, how to live it. We show respect by listening to adults and classmates when they are talking, by smiling when we pass someone in the hall, by holding a door open for someone, or by understanding that we are not going to agree with everyone, but it doesn't mean we have to argue with them about it!

We have a fun writing assignment this week! If second grade could have any classroom pet, what would you choose and why? It sounds fun and it is! However, we're working hard to make sure:
1.  We indent our first line.
2.  We have spaces between our words and sentences.
3.  We write between our margin lines.
4.  We use capital letters at the beginning of our sentences and for naming specific people, places and things.
5.  We write on top of our writing line (not write sloping down the page or sloping up the page).
We have a check-off sheet to help us with these items now.

In math, we had a fun fruit loop lesson where we were introduced to multiplying by 10. We placed our cereal into groups of 10 and then counted how many groups of 10 we had: 4 groups of cereal with 10 pieces of cereal in each group is 10+10+10+10  or  10 x 4 = 40.

Boys can bring in Pinewood Derby cars to show the class on Wednesday. An e-mail was sent to parents today about that.

There are no spelling words to study - enjoy the short week!

Lent - What We're Giving Up and What We're Doing For Others

We are doing amazing things in second grade! We are filling up our wall with "good deed" fish so that we are reminded daily that the season of Lent is about giving something up that is meaningful, and that we do good deeds for others. As you can see, we've given up a lot and we've done a lot of good deeds! Our Lenten deed for the weekend is to be nice to our siblings (even when they might not be so nice to us!).

Don't forget our First Communion retreat is tomorrow at church starting at 1:30. I hope to see all of you there.

We had our math and spelling tests today - whew! It was our first math test without a practice pre-test but we studied hard this week. The good news is that there are no tests next week because it's a short week.

I heard that some of the cd's for the First Communion songs are not working. If yours is one of the cd's that isn't working, I would ask that you first try it in a different player if you can. If it still doesn't work, please let me know and I'll see if I can make another copy for you.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Wednesday's News

A huge thank you to Miss Danielle (a past student who is getting ready to attend college to become a teacher) and to my students for their wonderful understanding today! I've been battling a sore throat and it finally got the best of me this afternoon. Miss Danielle stepped in to teach our math lesson while I helped students. Our second grade was fabulous in listening to Miss Danielle and they were extra respectful while I was losing my voice.

Our math test is on Friday - we'll review tomorrow. Our spelling test is on Friday, too. We'll review for that tomorrow, too. No spelling words next week - it's a short week!

Today in Social Studies we learned about map grids and how useful they are to help people find things on a map. We also talked about reading with expression, and I modeled that with our Boxcar Children book we're reading in class.

We also studied social studies events today and learned about recycling, redwood trees, animal road crossings, and how the dry spell in certain areas is impacting the frog life cycle. They have lots of great information to tell you about these subjects!

Have a great Wednesday!

Tuesday's Rainbow

We finished up our rainbow art project today to officially end our St. Patrick's celebration!

This week's writing is a "How to" piece. We're writing about how to play your favorite sport. Today we talked about transition words to use in "how to" writings such as first, next, then, finally, or last. We wrote a story together today about "How to Catch a Leprechaun" and we used these transition words for practice.

In Religion, we're finishing up our Sacrament of Reconciliation unit in our books. We talked about God's grace in forgiveness, absolution, penance, and confession. We had a great discussion about knowing that none of us will ever be perfect, but God loves us anyway!

We have Library tomorrow so we'll need our Library books returned.

Also, please look for important information about our Seroogy's Chocolate sale going on from March 19th through March 26th. Info is in your child's binder today.

Have a great Tuesday!

O Leapin' Leprechauns!

Right off the bat we had Leprechaun trouble!!! A sneaky little Leprechaun found his way into our classroom. When Nathan stood up, a gold clue coin fell out of his jacket! From there, our silly Leprechaun led us on a clue chase around the school, including the gym, the art room, and the office! In the end, we found a treat that was left for us right on my chair! Then in the afternoon we had a fun rainbow craft that we worked on, played some silly St. Patrick's Day games, and listened to Irish music. A HUGE thank you to Megan's mom and Ceili's mom for the special treats today!

Back to business...our spelling test is Friday and our oi and oy words this week are:

joy   noise   royal   moist   broil   cowboy   spoil   joint   foil   enjoy   destroy   loyal

Our challenge words are: employee, corduroy,   turquoise

Our Lenten goal this week is to be prayerful, so our good Lent deed for tonight is to pray for the sick.

Looking ahead - we have a math test on Friday and we'll study for it in class on Thursday.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Quick Pie (or "Pi"!) Day Photo

Here's a photo of the staff before the infamous pie-in-the-face event!

It's FRIDAY!

We had a brownie treat party today because our beautiful second graders earned 12 brownie point compliments - it was fun!

Great job to our students for doing announcements this week. If you did not get a chance to say announcements this week, you will do them when we have announcements again in April.

Monday is St. Patrick's day - don't forget to wear green! It's also dress down day.

It's really, really wet outside for recess so it might be a good idea to pack a spare pair of socks in your child's backpack. We had lots of wet feet today!

Lastly, some of our teachers participated in the "pie-in-the-face" fundraiser today - thanks to everyone for being a good sport. I almost avoided a pie....but it was all in good fun!!!

Have a great weekend:)

Welcome to Barefoot Island!

We started making maps in Social Studies today, and it's been so fun!!! We're learning that maps need legends (or keys) to tell us what the pictures mean. We all created our own "Barefoot Island" map and used our imaginations to create our very own unique and creative place!

Our Lent deed for tonight is to do a chore without being asked. Our good deed "Fishers of Men" wall is filling up quickly with positive extras that we're doing throughout Lent. Great job everyone!

Today in Math we learned about using dollar signs and cent signs when counting money. In Writing, we working with a pot of gold graphic organizer that had us writing about finding a pot of gold:
1. Who would you share it with?
2. Where would you donate some of the money?
3. What one thing would you buy?
These answers made it easier to organize our sentences into a paragraph.

Don't forget - Communal First Reconciliation is this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. at church. If your child hasn't completed their First Reconciliation, Saturday is a great time to finish it!

Music To Our Ears!

Today we started practicing our music for First Communion. We are singing, "Blest Are We" for our Communion entrance song (we sing the refrain only) and we also listened to "Jesus In The Eucharist" as our song for receiving Communion. I made a CD for everyone and it is in their binder, along with a copy of the song lyrics. Our goal is to have both songs memorized by the end of April. I stressed the importance of being careful with the CD's, as I don't have any additional copies. Thanks for your help with this!

In Math we talked about strategies to subtract 5 from a number. We also worked on learning shapes.

At the end of the day, the kids read current events articles including one all about Ireland, an article about Dr. Seuss, and an article about the incredible Cassowary bird. We learned a lot!

We have Library tomorrow, so everyone needs to return their books.

Happy Tuesday!

Monday's News

We completed our spelling pre-test this morning, and our test is Friday. Here are our "ou" and "ow" words:

around   about   gown   sound   flower   howl   ground   pound   crown   south   mouse   downtown

Our challenge words are: mountain   boundary   drowsy

As a supplement to our math program, we started working with www.IXL.com today in computers. It's a wonderful program that is aligned with all of the math goals for second grade. User names and passwords were sent home today in your child's binder. We have a free 60 day trial, so we'll be able to use this program until May 8th. If we find it is something that really helps our math learning, we may ask for it to become a part of our curriculum. I'd be interested in your feedback - thanks!

Our writing is getting more difficult as we work toward becoming third graders. Our writing prompt for this week is: "If I found a pot of gold..."  We are writing 5 sentences about what could happen. We are not grading on spelling, but we are looking for capital letters at the beginning of sentences, punctuation at the end of sentences, spaces between our words and sentences, and not starting our sentences with the words and, but, or because. We've been stressing the importance of these traits for about two months now, and I am working more with writing groups as we progress.

Have a great Monday!

Good Deeds

As we move through the 40 days of Lent, we're reminded about giving and doing for others. We had our rice bowls blessed at Scattering this afternoon, and students brought them home to fill with spare change throughout Lent. As a class, we chose a good deed to do for the weekend we wrote it in our assignment notebooks: Have dinner as a family. We'll be choosing good deeds throughout Lent. We have a school-wide "Fishers of Men" project going on, where students can perform a good deed at home, write it on a paper fish and display it outside of our room. We have a great start!

In Science we researched insects and wrote down four fun facts about our bugs. Did you know that wasps eat spiders for food? Or that a grasshopper can jump 500 times its own height? Or that a queen bee lays 2,000 eggs at a time? We know all about insects now!

In Math, we studied parts of a fraction. We learned about numerators and denominators, and we learned how to write and say fractional parts.

Have a great weekend, and remember to continue our good deeds!

Which Direction?

Yesterday we learned about North, South, East and West (Never Eat Soggy Waffles!). Today we learned about Northwest, Northeast, Southwest and Southeast. We finished our lesson by making our own compass rose and they did a great job!

In math we studied pictographs where the key was 2 - for example, 1 ice cream cone = 2 children, or 1 pizza represents 2 students. Here is an example:


This is a new concept and it's more difficult. We'll keep working on it.

We're continuing our "Favorite Season" writings and we reminded each other that we are to complete at least one good deed per day through Lent.

As a reminder - there is no Mass tomorrow because we had Mass on Ash Wednesday.

Have a great day!

LOTS of Great Things Happening Today!

We started our day off on a beautiful note with Ash Wednesday service in the church. We continued that in the classroom as we talked about the importance of knowing that Jesus was betrayed and died for our sins. We talked about ways to show our love for our Lord, and there are Lenten activities and ideas in your child's OCEAN binder today. We also talked about fasting, or giving up something, and wrote about what each of us is giving up for Lent.

In Math, we took our test, continued to talk about the importance of using labels:) and practiced telling time to 5 minutes. We also learned about greater than (>), less than (<), and equal to (=).

In Social Studies, we started a unit on maps. Today we learned about a compass rose and about cardinal directions (north, south, east and west).

Class pictures came home today - they are in your child's binder. Yearbook order forms are also in everyone's binder.

Remember our Box Tops for Education contest is going on - bring your box tops into our room so we can get credit for them.

Happy Wednesday!

Tuesday Post #2 - Shout Outs!

In my earlier post I forgot to give a huge shout-out to Mrs. Neu and Mrs. O'Boyle - thank you for your wonderful help today during Mardi Gras! Our Cake Walk game was such a huge success that we raised $129.50! Congratulations!

It's Great To Be Back!

Thank you for everyone's well-wishes while I was out of state. I missed our beautiful second graders and I'm happy to be back!

Our spelling test is Friday and this week's words are "le" words:
ankle   title   apple   cable   purple   able   bugle   bundle   bubble   giggle   sparkle   tickle

Our challenge words are:  mumble   scramble   twinkle

Our math test is tomorrow - the students did a review yesterday and should be ready.

Thank you to Mrs. O'Boyle for her wonderful Paczki treat today for the class in honor of Mardi Gras!!! They were delicious! Thank you, too, to our fabulous second grade parents who provided beautiful cakes and cupcakes for today's Mardi Gras celebration! Our party is this afternoon and we can't wait.

Father Dick took our class to church today and went through First Reconciliation step by step. He talked about confession and repentance, and about absolution. Our second grade is ready for this sacrament! As a reminder, they can perform their First Reconciliation with the rest of the First Communicants on Saturday, March 15th at 10:00 a.m. in the church. Priests will be available to hear confessions. If you can't make it on that day, your child can come any Saturday between 4:00 - 4:30 (before Mass) to complete their First Reconciliation.

We have Library tomorrow - please return all Library books. We won't have gym because of Ash Wednesday Mass at 8:00 a.m.

Have a fabulous Tuesday!

Welcome to our Neighborhood!

We had a really fun Social Studies lesson today on neighborhoods. We learned about the similarities and differences between cities, suburbs, and rural (or country) areas. Then we created our own 1st and 2nd grade neighborhood. They did a fabulous job - thanks, Nathan, for letting me show your house!

In Math we learned about finding the median, or middle, number, and in Religion we practiced for Friday's Mass. Hope to see you all in church on Friday!

Tuesday's Teachings

I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend! We're back to learning.

A note is in your child's OCEAN binder today about our March 4th Mardi Gras celebration. We are asking each family to donate 12 cupcakes and one cake for our Cake Walk game that 1st and 2nd grade has chosen. Please drop them off on March 4th in the morning. For Mardi Gras, we are also looking for parent volunteers as well as bottled water donations. Your child will need to bring quarters to play games. That day the children can wear jeans along with Mardi Gras colors of purple, green, and/or gold. We're looking forward to a fun time!

In math, we're continuing our unit using base 10 blocks. With these blocks, we're learning place value to the hundreds and how to use pictures to create three digit numbers. Our math test is next Wednesday, March 5th. We'll have a practice test next Monday, Mardi Gras on Tuesday, and our math test on Wednesday.

In Writing, we're telling about our best memory. We have five sentences due on Friday. They are very creative, and I love hearing them read what they wrote!

Library books are due tomorrow - please send them to school with your child. Thanks!

Ready for a long weekend!

Our second graders have worked hard this week and they are ready to rest!

In Religion, we talked about the importance of First Reconciliation. We discussed that in order to take First Communion, we must be free from sin, and we do that through this sacrament. We started discussing the Act of Contrition prayer (which does NOT have to be memorized) and we looked at an "Examination of Conscience" which gives us ideas of what our sins might be. Please check your e-mail for important information about March 15th.

In Math we're using base 10 blocks to help us find the place of three-digit numbers, and second grade loves that!

In Science, we're finishing up our animal life cycle unit.

Reminder: our second grade is hosting Mass next Friday morning, Feb. 28th. Parts went home today. Please have your child practice their part so they are ready to practice on Tuesday next week.

Have a FUN long weekend - I will see everyone on Tuesday!

Whew! Busy, busy busy!

We started a new Social Studies unit today, and we learned how we are just a teeny, tiny, speck in a much larger world:

In Math, we learned about a gallon, half-gallon, quart, pint, and cup. We practiced measuring and guessing how much containers could hold.

In Religion, we watched a short video explaining what to expect at First Reconciliation.

Our Mardi Gras celebration is coming up on March 4th. We'll be sending a note home with all of the details, but 1st and 2nd grade will be hosting a Cake Walk game at the event. We are asking each 1st and 2nd grade family to donate 12 cupcakes plus 1 cake for that day's game prizes. It doesn't need to be fancy store-bought...homemade treats are wonderful! No nuts, strawberries or raspberries, please!

We enjoyed the nice weather today - hope you did, too!

Tuesday Happenings

We continued writing about the life cycle of a butterfly today, and we finished our life cycle posters.

In math we worked with base-10 blocks and had a fun time! The rest of this week we'll start on our subtracting 5 facts, and we'll learn about measurement with gallons, quarts, pints and cups.

Tomorrow is Library so everyone will need their library books. It's also $1 Dress Down Day.

Updates for 2nd grade...

We have our spelling words - but our test is not until Friday, Feb. 28th because we have two short weeks. That gives us LOTS of time to study! Our regular list words are:

put   cook   stood   full   wood   July   shook   push   pull   brook   hook   hood

Our challenge words are: pudding   cushion   footprint

We have Mass coming up on Friday, Feb. 28th for 2nd grade. We'll assign parts toward the end of this week so that your child can bring their reading home and practice over the long weekend. I hope all of you can make it!

Just a reminder - it's a good idea to send a healthy snack with your son or daughter in the morning. They have snack time at 10:15 each day and they get pretty hungry!

What a FUN Friday!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! A huge THANK YOU to Mrs. Abraham and Mrs. Molitor for a fantastic party this afternoon - we all had a wonderful time!

Here's what we did in Science today when we learned about the life cycle of a butterfly. We learned all about the eggs, larva, pupa, and butterfly stages in the life cycle of a butterfly.

Our writing assignment was to write an opinion about why you think St. Joe's school is the best. Their opinions were great and it made us proud to be a part of St. Joe's when we listened to everyone's responses.

We are happy to be outdoors again, but we are also struggling to remember the playground rules to ensure we stay safe. We don't allow "King of the Hill" type games, no throwing snow or ice, and no pushing or shoving out on the playground with all of the ice out there. It would help if you could continue this discussion at home. We're also working on our character education philosophies at St. Joe's, particularly inclusion and kindness. We're concentrating on not leaving anyone out and making an extra effort to include everyone what we do. We also talked a lot about "T-H-I-N-K". Before we say something to someone, we should ask ourselves if it is:
T - True
H - Helpful
I - Inspiring
N - Necessary
K - Kind

If not, we shouldn't say it. Mrs. St. Louis came to talk to our class today, as well, about making sure we are being kind to others at ALL times. We know we can do it!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Great Landforms!

Our beautiful landform cookies were a huge hit! We finished off our landforms unit by creating United States landforms using chocolate chips (mountains), toasted coconut (desert), green coconut (plains), blue candies (Great Lakes), and the Mississippi River (cherry licorice). They did a fabulous job, and then had fun eating their projects!

Tomorrow is red, pink, white and/or purple dress day with jeans. Happy almost Valentine's Day!

We are getting ready for our First Communion. We learned about First Reconciliation and we discussed repenting, confession, and reparation. We had some great discussions!

Last reminder - our spelling test is tomorrow. Be ready!

Lots and Lots of Landforms

Our 1st and 2nd graders are studying landforms and today we made salt dough landforms of what we would find in the United States. They did a beautiful job! Thank you Gianna and Tim for letting me post your work!

In math we talked about subtracting 10 from a number, and tomorrow we will measure and draw line segments to the nearest 1/2 inch.

Friday we're all looking forward to our Valentine's Day party! Also, Friday is the last day of our candygram sale. See yesterday's post for more information.

Don't forget about our spelling test on Friday - these are challenging words and we might need to spend extra time on them.

Enjoy your Wednesday!

It's Beautiful Outside!

We FINALLY were able to go outside for recess today - yay!!! If we did not have snow pants or boots, we had to stay on the blacktop today. If we have these items, we can go play in the snow.

There is new login information taped to the front cover of your child's take-home binder. Your child's user name and password are now the same for both sumdog and storybird. Also, you can get to storybird through our blog now!

We have a Valentine's candygram sale happening through this Friday. Hershey Kisses are 10 cents each and lollipops are 25 cents each. Your child can send them to anyone else in the school, and your child can sign the candygram or send it anonymously. The sale is in the lunch room from 11:40 - 12:00 noon through Friday. Candygrams are delivered each afternoon.

We have Library tomorrow so please remember to return your books.

Lastly, our February theme is "Love others as God loves you." We're talking a lot about this in class and you may want to continue that conversation at home:)

Hello Monday!

Guided reading is back! We are back to reading our group books and we're all doing a great job at reading!

Our spelling test is this Friday, Feb. 14th. Our regular words are all -er and -est words:

busier    busiest    fatter    fattest    happier    happiest    hotter    hottest    smaller    smallest    sooner    soonest

Our challenge words are: neighbor   question   laboratory

Today we started writing stories on the computer by using www.storybird.com - be sure to ask your child about it! They had a good time using it and they can practice it at home, too.

We have our Valentine's Day party this Friday afternoon -look for a note about the party in your child's binder.

Lastly, if you would like a conference about your child and didn't get a chance to sign up, just e-mail me and I'll be happy to set that up for you.

Happy Monday!

It's The Weekend!!!

Here's our continents and oceans project we completed last week:

Great job Eli!

Our Valentine's Day party is Friday, Feb. 14th in the afternoon. If you want, you can send a Valentine's exchange treat with your child on Friday. The second graders are excited about their party!

Coming up next week:
Math: We start our subtraction facts this week! We'll begin by subtracting two small numbers. We'll talk about solving a problem by guessing and checking, we'll learn how to create overlapping geometric shapes, and we'll measure and draw line segments to the nearest half-inch. Finally, we'll add two-digit numbers with a sum greater than 100.

Social Studies: We'll continue our unit on landforms and we have a fun project planned for Thursday!

Science: We are learning all about animal adaption and we're studying big words like mimicry and camouflage.

Religion: Our focus is preparing for First Communion. This past week we learned about the Communion host representing the body of Christ, and next week we'll continue with learning about the wine as the blood of Christ.

Writing: We'll continue with letter writing and transition into writing an opinion.

Have a fun weekend everyone!

We are getting ready for our First Communion - here is a picture of the Chalice and Host project we worked on yesterday. We talked about what they mean and how the Host represents the body of Christ. We talked about the importance of Communion and how it is one of the sacraments. If you would look under the white host, you would see a picture of Jesus. They did a wonderful job!

In Math we learned how to tell temperature to the nearest 2 degrees today, and also how to add 3 two-digit numbers. We have a test on Friday and our practice test is tomorrow. We'll bring it home so we can study.

Today we started a unit on landforms in Social Studies. We can now tell you all about mountains, valleys, deserts, plains, plateaus and coasts. We have a booklet we're completing on landforms as we learn about them.

We're having fun learning how to write letters using the date, greeting, body, closing and signature. We're writing letters to our parents and to our friends!

Our spelling words are all the long i sound and we're learning what letters make that sound. We'll be ready for our spelling test on Friday.

The students have a substitute teacher tomorrow because I will be a reading conference all day. I won't be updating my blog tomorrow, but feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions. Have a great night!

Kicking It Into High Gear!

We're kicking it into high gear to finish the year strong!

In preparation for First Communion, we started talking about the wine and the host, and how they represent the body and blood of Christ in communion. We started a beautiful chalice and host project that goes along with our studies. Please remember to keep working on the First Communion packets that all of you have at home.

In Writing - we started learning how to write letters using the date, greeting, body, closing and signature. We're writing letters to you parents about what we're learning in school!

In Math we're learning the difference between a.m. and p.m., and the difference between a dozen and a half-dozen.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we have library and gym, so please remember to bring library books and gym shoes to school. Also, our January reading logs are due this week. Please have them signed and turned in by Thursday. New February logs are coming home today.

Thanks for your help in continuing the reading homework at home!

We're worn out!

The second grade had a really fun time roller skating today! They were a great example for St. Joe's school.

Our spelling words for next week are:
blind   bright   child   cry   find   flight   fly   myself   right   sky   spider   wild

and our challenge words are:
daughters   youngest   luckiest

Our test is next Friday, Feb. 7th. We took our pre-test today and brought our words home for the weekend since we don't have school on Monday.

We'll also have a math test next Friday. We'll take a practice test on Thursday to make sure we're prepared.

Have a GREAT day off on Monday, and we'll see you on Tuesday!

Jump Rope For Heart Fun

We all had a lot of fun at Jump Rope For Heart this morning - it was a great way to get some exercise! We also got to go outside for recess today - yay!!!

Don't forget that Friday (tomorrow) is Retro Day and roller skating. We'll have Mass right away, go roller skating, come back for lunch, and hopefully get some math learning done in the afternoon. Today we learned about Venn diagrams in math, and everyone did a great job.

There's no outdoor recess tomorrow, because roller skating is our recess. You can leave your snow pants at home, unless you need them to get to school.

I'm looking forward to seeing the retro looks tomorrow!

We're Back!

Wow - that was a long weekend! We all had fun wearing our pajamas today and watching Snow Buddies.

Report cards went home today. Please return the blue envelope by Friday, and let me know if you have any questions about your child's report card.

Because of the short week, there are no spelling words this week and therefore no spelling test. We'll get back to that next week! Also, I'm hoping everyone is doing their reading at home each night. Our guided reading groups start back up next week.

Second grade is collecting washcloths for the Hope Center in Waukesha. Please feel free to send these in by Friday.

I'm sure one of these days we'll get out for recess, so make sure everyone has snow pants, boots, a hat and gloves, just in case. Thanks for your attention to this.

Tomorrow is red dress down day (red shirt) and we'll be participating in Jump Rope For Heart in the morning. Friday is retro day, so feel free to use your imagination and have your child come dressed from the 1950's, '60;s, '70's or '80's! As I mentioned to the students, just remember that you have to skate in whatever you choose to wear!

Welcome back - have a great Wednesday!

Come See Us!

There's so much happening this weekend and next week!

1.  Come see us on Sunday! Teachers are attending 8:30 a.m. Mass and then heading to their classrooms for open house at 9:30. I hope everyone comes to visit!

2.  Book Fair is open on Sunday starting at 9:30 - feel free to shop.

3. There was an announcement in the most recent newsletter about a service project headed up by Mrs. Haftarski with help from her Girl Scouts. Each class is bringing an item to donate to the Hope Center in Waukesha. Second grade is asked to bring in washcloths to school as our donation. Please send them in anytime next week. Thank you to Mrs. Haftarski and our Girl Scouts for this wonderful idea!

4. Pajama Day is on Monday - we can't wait! Kids can wear their favorite pajamas and slippers for the day. We'll watch a movie in the afternoon. Tuesday is Career Day - kids should dress for the career they want.

Have a fun weekend, and I hope to see you on Sunday!

Looking For Movies

Monday is Pajama Day and Movie Day. If you have a "G" rated DVD movie that you would be willing to loan the class on Monday, feel free to send it to school along with your child.

Hopefully we're all ready for our spelling test tomorrow - compound words can be tricky, but our super-smart 2nd graders can handle it!

Don't forget tomorrow is Book Fair shopping. If you send money with your child, they will book shop at 10:30 tomorrow morning. You can also shop during our Open House on Sunday from 9:30 - noon.

Have a great Thursday!

Across the Continents and Oceans...

Today we learned that there are 7 continents (North America, South America, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, Africa and Europe) and 5 oceans (although we're only going to study 4- Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic). We started a fun continent project using blue paper plates as the ocean and we'll place our continents on there as we go along.

Math is challenging us these days! Today we learned how to add two (two-digit) numbers when you have to carry over. We need to remember that we always add right to left, and that sometimes we need to carry numbers over to the next column.

Today we also toured the Book Fair and made our wish lists. We can shop on Friday if we bring money, or we can shop on Sunday with our families during Open House from 9:30 - noon.

We're all looking forward to next week, starting with Pajama & Movie Day on Monday!

Beautiful Job At Mass!

Our 2nd grade students did a FABULOUS job at Parent Breakfast Mass this morning! I'm so proud of them, and I know you are, too! It was so nice to see all of the parents in attendance. Great job by everyone!

Today in Math we learned about congruent figures (same size and shape). Tomorrow we start learning how add larger two digit numbers. This means we have to learn how to carry over from the right column into the left column when adding.

Tomorrow we start learning about oceans and continents in Social Studies. In Writing, we're talking about parts of a story - the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. We're also making our way through the cursive letters.

BOOK FAIR: Tomorrow our students will be creating "wish lists" during library time so they won't need to return their library books this week. They will pick out items they want and write them down. Parents, if you want - you can send money with your child on Friday so that they can purchase things from the Book Fair, or you can shop the Book Fair with them this Sunday between 9:30 - noon at our Open House.

CAREER DAY is next Tuesday. Students are allowed to dress up for the job they want. We have several wanting to dress up in sports attire which is fine, but no hats or helmets, please. They are allowed to bring "props" along (such as a football) as long as it doesn't become a distraction.

Thanks again for your support at Parent Breakfast Mass - second grade is the best!

Parent Breakfast Mass Tomorrow!

We're ready for our Parent Breakfast Mass tomorrow morning! We're glad everyone can make it. We've practiced hard and we're going to do our best. Don't forget that your child should dress up for Mass (no money - it's a free dress up day for Mass).

On Wednesday we'll be creating our Book Fair Wish Lists during library, and then we'll book shop on Friday. Please remember to send money with your child on Friday if they want to purchase books. I'll also have a "2nd grade wishlist" of books if you're interested in purchasing a book for the classroom.

Jump Rope for Heart money and forms are due this Thursday. Thanks to everyone for raising money for a great cause!

If you haven't turned in your St. Joe's Intention form or the roller skating permission slip and money, please send it in tomorrow.

Our spelling test is this Friday and our regular list words are all compound words:

backyard    basketball    bathtub    bedtime    birthday    driveway    mailbox    raindrop    riverbank    someone    something    weekend

Our challenge words are: believe    tomorrow    delicious

We are approaching the end of 2nd quarter, and we've been talking a LOT lately about our classroom goal of being ready for 3rd grade. A big part of that goal is making sure we complete our math and reading homework each night. Thanks for your support with this at home!