VACATION

   Yippee!  It's vacation week.  We had a super fun day today and I'm sure everyone is glad to be starting vacation (well parents maybe not so much).  I hope everyone has a fun break and wish you all the best for the new year.

 

Crafties

     What a fantastic day.  We were super lucky to have four moms come in and lead us in some great crafts.  The children made cool snowmen and a beautiful hanging snowflake mobile.  Everyone loved it. Me most of all, because these ladies did all the work from planning, implementing to cleanup.  I sat back and drank my tea.  That is MY kind of craft.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!

     This afternoon we "played" in three different learning centers.  We added candy cards with regrouping, wrote long silly sentences and made words plural.  By 2:40 I felt like the poster child for a calgon commercial--"Calgon take me away"--but to be honest, I wouldn't trade a second of it.

     I'm pleased to report that Dasher the elf has been behaving beautifully.  He has even surprised us a few times.  He put festive, sparkly, warm fuzzies in our jar and left some holiday pencils for us.  I'm sure that he's been reporting only good news about us to anyone who cares to listen.

     Friday is a half day and PAJAMA DAY for the whole school.  So wear your pj's and pack your robe and slippers.  We are also having our class party so don't forget to send in a snack and drink.

     Now is a great time to replenish your child's school supplies.  It's amazing how short lived crayons, scissors, markers etc. are in a second grade classroom.  I wonder if some creature comes in and eats them after dark?  HMMMMM
 

Home Stretch

     We are coming to the home stretch.  A few more days until Christmas break and excitement is mounting.  I hope everyone feels relaxed, ready and peacefully enjoying the season.

     We have an exciting week planned with all sorts of fun crafts and activities.  Tomorrow is our day to shop at the Holiday Workshop.  Gifts (for immediate family members only) will be on sale for a dollar each.  Wednesday we have some parent volunteers leading us in a craft or two.  Friday morning we will be joining Ms. Cotter's class for our party and sing/dance along, which is great fun.  The children will have to bring in their own treats and drinks.  Dismissal is at 12:30 and our party starts at 9AM so keep that in consideration when you are packing a party snack.  I suggest a donut or muffin, but it's your call.

     We went to the computer room today and played a telling time game.   I hope the children learned something new.  I did-I learned very few of them can tell time.  Please practice at home.  Click here and here for the games we played today.

     Be sure your child keeps plugging away at xtramath and finishes all his/her homework this week (wink wink).  I thought you'd appreciate the room cleaning and household help.  That's my little holiday gift to you.

   

On Broadway

     We were TERRIFIC!!!  What a show.  I'm so proud of the children.  They did a fantastic job.  I hope that when they are older and accepting their Tony or Grammy awards they remember this day and thank their second grade teacher for all she's done.  (Although, the music teacher taught them the songs and I really had very little to do with the performance at all)  It would still be exciting to be included in an acceptance speech.

Books Galore

     We have been reading like crazy.  There are so many books that I want to read and that the kids want me to read that we just can't keep up.  We've been trying hard to get to them all.  Ask your child to tell you how similar all the Anansi stories were.  They were crazy excited when they made the connections.  We finished Stink today and we've been reading holiday books.  I promised that I'd get to some snowman stories that the children are begging me to read.  It's it FANTASTIC.  EVERYONE is super excited about READING.  YIPPEE.

     We have quite a few fun writing assignment that I hope to tackle before the break.  We finished one titled Santa's Stuck.  It had a fun crafty to go with it.

Here are some other random photos.

     Friday is our Holiday show and gym.  Please dress for the show and not gym.  We want to look our best.  You can pack your sneakers in you backpack.

     Dasher the elf has been TOTALLY well behaved.  I am one happy teacher

Best Day Ever

     Yesterday was my birthday.  I know what you are thinking.  Aren't you at an age when you stay in bed all day and hope no one notices you are a year older?  ABSOLUTELY NOT.  I love my birthday.  Let me tell you why.  I received a stack of love notes, hearts, pictures, and cards from students who worked on them all day by "sneaking" their creativity as soon as they had a free second.  I was visited and sung to by THREE classrooms.  I was surrounded by children who appreciate the fact that you should feel special all day on your birthday.  Best of all, when I told them I turned 22 MOST of them believed me.  One students who questioned it said he knew for a fact I was 32.  Everybody was ON BOARD with that.  It gets even better.  When I admitted to 32 and proclaimed that "I look WAYYYY younger than that."  Thirteen little heads nodded in absolute sincere agreement.  What's not to love about THAT?

     We had a gingerbread kind of day yesterday.  We sorted gingerbread sentences.  We grouped gingerbread synonyms and we colored by reading our ordinal numbers.  Some students got to create gingerbread cookies on the computer.  We ran out of time so click here for the link so your child can play at home.  Our computer room got new lap tops this week-YIPPEE.  I promise the children we'd hit the gingerbread site on Monday in the computer lab as well.

   Our elf, Dasher has been a bit mischievous.  He made a mess-TWICE.  Thank goodness for my birthday he was VERY WELL behaved.

     We're still reading Anansi stories and started Stink.  Ask your child to tell you all about them.  We have also been practicing for the Holiday Show which is next Friday at 1:30.  I'll send the songs home next week so your child can practice some more.

Science Guy

     We had a special assembly today.  Keith the science guy came.  He was wonderful.  He cracked a bull whip, the first tool to break the sound barrier.  He suffocated a candle, showed (faux) scat from different animals.  The kids loved that.  He dissected an owl pellet.  We got to see the bones and of course the best was saved for last.  He made slime.  This is definitely on my agenda of things to do.  I just need to find time to find the ingredients.  FUN FUN!

     It's the first week of December and we had a VERY SPECIAL guest visit our class.  He was hanging out in my marker basket.  Be sure to ask your child who it was.

     You may have noticed a change in our spelling list and homework.  We are going to spend another week on Anansi.  Our spelling words coincide with our reading series, so if I stall in reading, we have no spelling.  I thought it would be fun to create a math word spelling test.  Hopefully your child can explain all those words to you.  These words won't be found in spelling city.  As far as the homework goes, you can thank my son Derek for the easier packet.  He and I had a knock down drag out last week about finishing homework and doing it correctly.  I was trying to explain he had one wrong answer and OF COURSE I didn't know what I was talking about because "that's not how his teacher does it".  I further tried to explain that I teach SECOND GRADE and clearly SECOND GRADE teachers know more than FIRST GRADE teachers.  He wasn't having it.  It reinforced to me how DREADFUL homework can be.  So hopefully you will now find our packets more user friendly.  You are welcome.

     We didn't start a new chapter book last week like I had hoped.  I hope to start a STINK book this week.  He is the main character in a series of chapter books.  Although, I have only read one, it was adorable.  I know the kids will love it.  Stink and his friends are on a mission to find homes for over 100 hamsters.

     Remember, tomorrow is a half day and Wednesday is WALK TO SCHOOL DAY.   There is a big push to get another class to steal our trophy.  I'm not worried.  That baby is OURS.

     Next Friday, Dec. 14th, is our holiday program in the afternoon.  Mark your calendars.