Kids Are BUGGING Me

     HA HA but not how you think.  I got this beautiful bug today and I LOVE it.

     We've had a wonderful week.  I think spring fever has passed and we are all back to our old selves.  We have finally finished Cinderella and are reading some other fairytales this week.  The students are also using arrays to do MULTIPLICATION!  They feel super cool and grown up.  They ARE almost THIRD GRADERS!  YIKES

HOT HOT HOT

     If the meteorologists are right, summer will be hitting us hard by the end of the week.  Keep in mind that your child is welcome to keep a water bottle at their desk.  They can refill it as needed.  Although I love summer, I don't love the heat so I have mixed feelings about 90 degrees.  Keep cool.

Broadway

     Broadway here we come.  The students were so fantastic in the the Memorial Day program that I'm sure Broadway is in the future of quite a few of young ones.  As a fan of musical theater, I expect all my tickets comped. Hee hee

     Apparently, I'm not the ONLY cool one in the school.  Check out this picture.

     Keep your eyes on the weather.  It looks like summer will be here by the end of this week. Although I'm looking forward to the beach, I'm not looking forward to a HOT classroom.

     Did you check out my new "blog bling"?  I love it.  It's the flashing circle to the right.  Blog bling is not a term I made up, it's what all the bloggy people call it.  I'm looking forward to having NOTHING to do and catching up on some books I've been wanting to read.  Here's how I count down~only 5 more Wednesdays left of school.

2nd Grade Parents Rock

     The Wyman staff has been spoiled this month.  Parent's from each grade have fattened  us up with either a luncheon or breakfast twice a week.  Today was 2nd grade's turn and it ROCKED.  Hands down the best so far!!!  Thank you.  It is super appreciated.

     I  hope you've had a chance to check out the website set up to help the St. Martin Family. One of our own kindergarten mothers is battling breast cancer with three boys aged 8 months-six years of age.  Any support you can offer I'm sure will help her manage the road ahead.  Please click here to lend a helping hand or contact Mrs. Connors for more details.  If anyone wants to send in a cash donation, I will be sure to put it toward a dinner gift card for the family.  Just mark the envelope Helping Hand and send it in with your child.

BEST DAY

     Hi all!  We had the best day ever today!  The children were so well behaved, that I wondered if it was even my class.  We all earned warm fuzzies and signed the gold book as a class.  The day absolutely flew by and was full of laughs.  It was a day that reminds me how much I love my job.

     We started with more Cinderella.  We read Princess Furball, which was quite different than the other Cinderella stories we've read and one that the children have been anxious to read.  We then moved on to the play Cinderella Bigfoot.  Boy did the children enjoy that story!!  Some of them were laughing so hard that they could barely read their lines.  It was great fun.  We loved it so much, I think we will change rolls and read it again tomorrow.

     We got handmade postcards from our pen pals too.  This is their last week of school.  We quickly made them bookmarks with some summer reading suggestions from each of us.  I put them into the mail and their teacher said she'd mail them to the students along with their report cards.

      I am personally feeling SUPER hip these days.  This weekend, I took the family to Library Park for the Relay for Life.  While there, I got this super cool purple streak in my hair.  Then today, a wonderfully creative parent used my hand as a palatte for this totally awesome henna tattoo.  I L-O-V-E it.  My daughter is SOOO jealous and I feel like a million bucks!

tattoo step one 

finished product

Bad Picture but COOL hair

     

     Remember, progress reports go home Friday and closed toe shoes must be worn on the climbing structure for recess.  Pack safe shoes for your child to change into for recess if they are wearing sandals.  

     Here are some more pics from our classroom.

charting our stories

Learing about magnets

Our biographies

     Memorial Day program Friday at 1:30!
 

   

Cinderella and Magnets

     We have been reading a different Cinderella each day.  We've read The Egyptian Cinderella, The Korean Cinderella, Tattercoats, and Yeh-Shen.  Be sure to have your child tell you about the similarities and differences in each country's story.  We still have LOTS more to go.  Perhaps we'll start "two a days" next week - hee hee.

     We have had some magnet fun with our science unit on forces and motion.  We've played, made predictions and conducted a few experiments with magnets this week.  More magnet fun to come next week as well.

     Miss Dulong, our high school helper, has left us for bigger and better things.  She's off to Saint Anselm's in the fall.  We will certainly miss her and wish her all the best.

     Our biographies have all been presented and are proudly displayed on our bulletin board.  The children did an OUTSTANDING job with their projects.

     The school is collecting can goods to help Social Concern feed hungry families throughout the summer.  Please consider donating a non-perishable food item to our second grade collection box.

     I do have some disappointing news to report.  Our class had to be given assigned seating in the lunch room.  Our behavior has been less than desirable in the cafeteria.   I'm expecting all great reports from here on out.  We want to earn extra recess by completing the rays on our sun.

     

Fairy Tales

     Today we started our fairy tale unit.  I LOVE this unit.  We will be reading all sorts of fairy tales and fractured fairy tales.  The best part is reading Cinderellas from all over the world.  We started today by brainstorming a list of fairy tales we already know, reading Rumpelstiltskin and listing some of the elements of a fairy tale. We will dive into that more tomorrow.  I found this website that teaches all about fairy tale elements while reading Cinderella to you.  Click here to check it out.

     A happy belated Mother's Day to all you mom's out there.  I hope your day was wonderful and you were pampered by your family.  I had a great day.  I spent the day with my husband and sons and I spent the evening with my daughter and mom.  We had a fantastic night.  Kaycie, my daughter, booked a paint night for Mom and me.  We had a nice dinner then a paint lesson right in the restaurant.  Trust me when I say I have NO artistic ability but I thought my painting came out GREAT.  They all did. Click here for the company website.

          We will be performing in the Memorial Day Program, which will be Friday, May 24th at 1:30.

      Last chance to share your home address with your child's pen pal.  Send in a note with your address (if you haven't already) if you want me to share your address with them.

     Did you hear all about the circus?  It really was fantastic and I think everyone had a good time.

Behavior Management

     Howdie!  I feel like I haven't been updating as much as I'd like.  I think with the nice weather and the boys sport schedule my free time is pretty much nonexistent.  I'm sure you all can relate to that.

     The newest thing going on in our classroom is our behavior management chart.  This was a necessity.  I'm not sure what happened after April vacation but I think there is a BAD case of spring fever going around.  I've been hearing more complaints and have come home with more headaches than I care to.  I was at the breaking point so we started a cloths pin chart.  The details were sent home in the report cards.  We have created a calendar (dated 2012 oops), for them to keep in their home folder and each afternoon they color the date with the corresponding color on the chart they ended the day with.

     Mrs. Zottoli also made us a "lunch sun".  If we earn 15 "rays" we get extra recess.  If we get a bad report, seats may have to be assigned in the lunch room.  I'm hoping we have some incentive to be the best we can be.

     We've been making and reading lots of graphs in class as well as working on our biographies.  They should be ready to go home to practice this week so we can present them Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week.  The students are encouraged to dress up as their characters.  This doesn't have to be elaborate.  It may just be a prop.  For example, an apple for Johnny Appleseed.  We also finished reading Horrible Harry and the Dragon War.  Be sure to ask your child what the war was all about.

     Friday is circus day!  Please pack a lunch and snack in two separate disposable bags.  If the weather is nice maybe we can picnic on City Hall Plaza.