A Chance to Donate

Here are two chances to donate to our classroom!  

So many of you already help out, but I thought I'd share two projects I'm working on in case you or a grandparent or a friend is looking for a great project to help fund:)

Do you have any personal CD players that you don't use?  You know those listening devices we used back before the days of the ipod and iphone?  We can use them at school.  They become a mini listening center!

Here are some friends of mine from last year.  They are reading to each other with books from our classroom library.  Currently I have a project up on DonorsChoose.org to get more "boy" books into our classroom.  You can click on the link above or the button on the side of my blog to read more about it.  Every little bit helps! Some companies even offer matching gifts.

Thanks for ALL you already do:) 

Happy Halloween!!!

 We had a spooktacular time at our Halloween party!!

The pictures tell the story!

We made a neat pumpkin craft!

 We played an awesome mummy game!

 

We played a terrific ring toss/witch hat game!

We also played a chocolate-frosting-on-your-nose game! 

Our treats were wonderful!  Our round table was spread with healthy and yummy food!

THANK YOU to Mrs. Danca for planning and organizing our party.  

Thanks also to Mrs. Duray, Mrs. Hubbartt, and Mr. Tyler for helping at our party.

Storybook Characters

We had an awesome time sharing our storybook characters today!  It was so fun to see everyone's different character and how they made it.  It was also interesting to hear about the character!

 Our storybook characters are on display outside our classroom.

 You can also catch a look at our "haunted house for sale" final drafts and designs.

The kids had a great time with both projects and are very proud of themselves!!  I am proud of them too:)  Thank you for your help in creating your child's storybook character!

October is Fire Safety Month

Firefighters from the Gurnee Fire Department visited our class today.  We played a game with Mrs. Sniegowski's Class to review the fire safety guidelines.  Several students spoke for us and called on friends to speak.

 We had a great time!  The students know lots about fire safety.  They remembered Stop, Drop, Roll, and Cover Your Face.  They know to have several places to meet with family outside if there is a fire in the house.  They also know that it is important to have more than one way to get out of the house.

We had fun and talked about important things!   Be sure to review this important information with your child.

Stop, Drop and Read!!

During October, Elementary West is celebrating reading by holding a "Stop, Drop and Read" time once a week.  During this time the students get to pick what they want to read, pick a place to read, and spend time enjoying their choices.  Here are a few snapshots of us enjoying reading!!

September!!

September was a busy month for us!  We spent time getting to know each other, learning the classroom routines and LEARNING!!  

In reading we reviewed and practiced the strategy of a story's structure and the order of the story sections.  We are now moving on to figuring out the main idea and supporting details of what we are reading.  The two pictures show kids reading one of the stories we investigated last week, "Fighting the Fire."

In math we are working on our fact fluency to 20.  This is a skill that we will work on all year.  It's important that students understand the concept of adding and subtracting.  The next step is to become fluent in the facts so that we can move on to more difficult problems.  I really suggest that parents buy two sets of flashcards with facts to 20 to practice at home.  (You would have to get two sets, addition and subtraction.)  I will be sending the teens paper facts home later this month also.   We have been working hard on word problems and will continue that throughout the year also.  Next week we start our unit on measurement.  We start most days in math with our "Number of the Day."  Ask your child what we do during that time!
In writing we are busy working in our journals.  We are learning to find ideas to write about, brainstorm about the ideas and then write.  We also wrote the Stripes projects that you saw at Curriculum Night.  Coming soon is a fun Halloween writing project that I know the kids will LOVE!
In Social Studies we reviewed and extended our learning from first grade on mapping and communities.  The students learned that there are three main types of communities: rural (farming), urban (city), and suburban (where we live).
Thank you so much for your support of our classroom!  Together we are making a difference in your child's life!

What a fantastic group of second graders!!

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We are enjoying getting to know each other, reviewing ROAR guidelines and academics, and having fun:)  It has been such a joy getting to know each child!  We started our year talking about our hopes and dreams for second grade.  Then we made posters for them that are displayed in our classroom.  The posters will help us to remember all year what we want second grade to be like.  We also wrote our own classroom rules to help us achieve our hopes and goals.  The rule poster is below.  (You can click on both pictures to make them larger.)

Hopefully the worst of the hot weather is finished after today!  It has been very hard to concentrate and learn when the rooms are so hot.  (No, we don't have air conditioning.)  We have been drinking water and taking air conditioning breaks for the past several days.
Please plan on attending our Second Grade Curriculum Night!!  The date is next Wednesday from 6:30-8:00.  This is a very important night where you learn about your child's second grade year.  The students always love when their parents visit.  (Remember, only adults come to Curriculum Night.) I look forward to seeing you there!!