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!