Happy New Year!!

 We had a fantastic Winter Party!

We made decorations out of foam and glitter.

 Many thanks to Mrs. Vrabel for planning and preparing for the party!  Thank you to Mrs. Grohovac, Mrs. Hill and Mrs. Murray for helping with the party.

 We played two toss games and decorated snowman melting cookies.  We got to eat our creations!

 We made an awesome sock snowman!
The next day we had our Read-a-thon.  We read with partners and read on our own.  We listened to reading and we had yummy snacks.  It was a great day!

We also made bookmarks that Mrs. Tussing gave us!

Penguins!!

Hello!  We have been having lots of fun learning about penguins!  It all started when I began reading aloud the book, Mr. Popper's Penguins.  (The book is very different from the movie!)  The book is a fictional account of a man who receives a penguin from the South Pole and goes on to have many adventures. 
The students were so excited about the book that I decided some nonfiction learning was in order.  We read nonfiction books about penguins and made a HUGE list (5 chart papers) of facts about penguins.  The students each chose one fact about penguins to write out and display in the hall.  We also made a penguin craft to display. We enjoyed penguin jokes and I will be sharing penguin poems with the students soon.  It is so fun to see the students enjoying learning!!
In math, we are using base ten pieces to learn about larger numbers.  We are learning how to write in base ten shorthand to show a number.  Ask your child to show you a number with base ten shorthand!
Before winter break we will be having our party and winter read-a-thon.  More information will be sent home about the read-a-thon next week.  We are also going to make a snowy craft that requires LOTS of scotch tape.  If you are able to send in a roll of tape, that would be great.  It can be one that you've already used part of...anything will help:)  Thank you!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello! Our Family Customs Oral Speeches were a great success! The students all did an awesome job and we learned about so many different family traditions. They were so happy and proud.

Conferences are next week! Your conference time was listed in a letter sent home with report cards. I look forward to meeting with all of you and discussing your child's progress.

PTA's Winter Wonderland is having a Bake Sale. If you are able to send in baked goods on Friday, December 2nd, that would be wonderful! The PTA does so many great things for your child including funding our assemblies and donating money for special projects.

Have a special Thanksgiving with your family! I can tell by the feathers that the students made that we all have lots to be thankful for.

Happy Halloween!

We were very involved with Halloween activities the week of our party! In math, we measured Halloween shapes in inches and centimeters.

During writing time, we wrote wonderful, spooky stories. First we brainstormed Halloween nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Then we used those words to help us write a story. We have a whole book of the stories that you will be able to see at conferences.

Students also did an OUTSTANDING job on their storybook character pumpkins! Everyone was creative and did such a nice job writing their sentences and presenting their character to the class. We have a book about these characters, also!

We read lots of great Halloween books. One of our favorites was Every Monster Needs a Haircut by Matthew McElligott. It's not necessarily a Halloween story but it is certainly a fun book full of surprises.


















Of course, we had an awesome Halloween party planned by the wonderful Mrs. Vrabel. The kids loved the games, food and crafts!! Special thanks to Mrs. Moriarty, Mrs. Gromala and Mrs. Jarayaman for helping.

Gurnee Firemen Visit

Hello! This week the Gurnee Firemen visited us! They played a game with us about fire safety.

The class worked together to remember fire safety facts from last year.

It was amazing how much the students knew about being safe if there's a fire.

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This week we also finished our unit on Communities. Next up is our science unit about Light and Sound!

We filled our Classroom Bucket! We counted 575 pom poms in the bucket. That means that the students have given 575 written bucket fillers to each other so far this year:) We celebrated by doing a Halloween craft.

In math we have been working to measure items with inches and centimeters. We will continue to measure next week!

We are busy with our Daily Five. Everyday the students are reading and writing. Many students are working on nonfiction reading responses. We will all be doing this soon.

Reminder! Our Story Character Project is due on Wednesday!

Harvest Garden

Did you know that Elementary West has a Harvest Garden? It is back behind the school. Our Harvest Garden is planted by second graders in the spring and the produce is taken to local food banks. We visited the garden to see what it looks like at the end of the season. In the spring we will grow plants in our classroom and then plant them in the garden. Families volunteer to help over the summer to weed, water and harvest the produce.The first plant that we saw when we went to the garden was this giant sunflower!

The flower head was enormous!

We saw cauliflower, broccoli, and tomatoes.We saw pumpkins, peppers and herbs.
We picked a few pumpkins, peppers and squash.
We shared our harvest with the principals.
and kept two pumpkins that are now at home in our classroom!

Be a Bucket Filler!

Hello! At the beginning of the school year, each classroom received a copy of the book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud. In the book we read that everyone carries an invisible bucket that represents how we feel about ourselves. When we are happy and content, our bucket is full. When we are sad, our bucket is empty. We can help other people to fill their buckets by giving compliments and treating them kindly. When we help others to fill their buckets, it fills our buckets too! If we say unkind things or we are mean to others, then we are being bucket dippers. We are taking happiness out of someone's life. When we dip into other people's buckets, we dip out of our own bucket too.

We have a chart board in our classroom that helps us to remember to fill other people's buckets. Each child has their own pocket. There are slips of paper in the classroom that the kids fill out with a compliment for someone. They put the slips in a basket on my desk. Then I put them into each child's pocket. We are working on giving "inside" compliments. Those are compliments that are not about how we look or what backpack we have. Inside compliments talk about who the child is. For example: You did a great job in soccer at recess! or Thank you for reading with me today!
After a bucket filler compliment is written, the bucket filler child may put a pom pom into our green class bucket. Once we have the bucket filled, we will celebrate!
If you would like to check out this book to read with your family at home, please let me know! I would be happy to share it with all of you!!

Important Information:
*Your child received his/her spelling packet on Friday. I will be sending them home on Fridays from now on. This will give kids extra time to study if they need it.

*Starting in October, students will be working to earn a free personal pizza from Pizza Hut. This is called the Book It program. All your child needs to do is successfully complete her/his reading log for each week in the month. The program will run from October - December.

*I will be sending home a new book order on Monday. Feel free to order if you wish. You may order online or send in a check. I do get bonus points for every book ordered and I use them to buy books for our classroom library!

Have a great week!!