Scaredy Squirrel

     Halloween is officially over.  We have a full "normal" week of school (thank goodness).  This week is Scaredy Squirrel week.  Scaredy Squirrel is a character created by Melanie Watt.   We will be reading and playing Scaredy Squirrel games all week.   Scaredy is simply adorable.

     Tuesday is Election Day and Trotting Tuesday.  Walking Wednesday has been changed to Trotting Tuesday due to the unfavorable weather forecast.  We want to KEEP THAT TROPHY.  So strap on those sneakers, bundle up and walk to school.  Also, don't forget to get out and vote and send in some $$$ if you would like your child to attend the bake sale for treats or raffle tickets.

     Our school is collecting food items to share with those less fortunate during the holiday season.  Second grade was assigned stuffing, jars of gravy and crackers, but any food item would be great.

 

Spider poems

Pumpkin heads

          Remember your XTRAMATH.

Spooky Web Sites

     Stuck in today with electricity (hopefully).  Check out this blog Technology Rocks. Seriously for some fun Halloween web sites.

Halloween Party

     What fun.  Mrs. Fishlin and the rest of the PTO did a FANTASTIC job with the school Halloween party last night.  The children looked great in their costumes and had a blast dancing with DJ extraordinaire Fred Flintstone, AKA Mr. Stevens.  We even had one of our students win a dance off.......nice moves.

Oopsies

     Well I did it.  I told you I would.  I messed up the gym day.  We had gym on Wednesday even though I wrote Friday on our homework packet.  I explained to the substitute gym teacher that if anyone was not wearing the right shoes it was my fault and everyone got to participate.  Sorry.   I do ALWAYS double check, it was just a matter of time.

     Exciting news, our winning classroom will be featured in the district newsletter for winning the Walking Wednesday trophy.  Keep your eye open for that.  It should be coming out shortly.

     Our Halloween party will be on Halloween.  Each child will bring home a decorated lunch bag to bring back on party day with their special snack and drink for the party.  This can be whatever you choose, but it is something just for your child, not for sharing.  This is in addition to their morning snack.  We will begin our party after lunch.  Don't forget to pack your child's costume for the parade at 1:45.  Please label your child costume and leave your axes, guns, swords etc. at home.  Also, have your child practice putting his/her costume on by themselves (an hopefully over their cloths).

     We are reading up a storm, lots of Halloween books.  After reading about Spookley, the square pumpkin that discovered it's good to be different, we made these different pumpkins (without scissors) and labeled them with adjectives to describe them.

     Don't forget to practice rhyming at home.  We did some this week and it wasn't pretty.

Busy Busy

  The Woburn school community raised over $5,000.00 for the Fisher family.  Our class alone raised $69.  I think that's pretty remarkable and thank you all.

      We're in full swing and ready for Halloween.  Wicked witches were made last week in art and we've been reading some Halloween books.  Today we made a chart of facts we know about bats and read Stellaluna.  Ask your student to tell you all about it.  We then created a venn diagram comparing bats and birds.  We watched a short video with a little (tricky) quiz at the end on the phases of the moon.  Click here to check it out.  We watched a school house rock video on nouns.  I remember them all so well which is surprising because they were on TV wayyyyyy before my time.  Check it out here and a fun Halloween song that you can see here.  The children really liked the song.

     Did you notice our spelling list is up to 14 words?  They are getting tricky.  I went easy on the homework this week to give your child more time to practice them.  Please don't forget to do your xtramath and check out spelling city if you haven't.  We visited that site today in the computer lab and the children were really enjoying it.

PUMPKIN PATCH & GREEN DAY

     A special thank you to Mrs. Miller, who came to school on Wed. with pumpkins and decorating supplies for the WHOLE class to celebrate her daughter's birthday.  SUPER FUN.  Here a picture of our pumpkin patch.  

   Here is the picture of our planet paragraphs that I promised.

     I felt super special when a former student invited me to the Boys and Girls club for "Feature a Teacher" Day.  I got the grand tour from her (and a few others) a delicious cupcake, and a goodie bag that she made.  I was thrilled that she wanted to share all that with me.  The club seems like a VERY FUN place to be.

     Friday is Green Day.  Wear green to school on Friday and donate a dollar (or more) to support the family of Allen Fisher, whose life was tragically cut short when hit by a car after his son's football practice.  Such a heartbreaking story.

     On a lighter note, the children were asked to complete a sentence that started like this:    Things I like about our school ....... There was maybe one or two that liked the nice teachers.  Most kids wrote recess, lunch, gym, snack or something like that.  One boy went as far as listing it all.......health, art, gym, library and music.  EVERY SUBJECT THAT I DON'T TEACH.  My feelings were hurt for a second but I'm POSITIVE  it was just an oversight.

Loving Compliments

     WOW.  I heard a few things that got me super excited this past week.  First, not one, but TWO parents commented to me on how much their child is enjoying READING.  WHOOP WHOOP.  That is music to a teacher's ears.  The second thing was that someone told me they LIKED MY BLOG~~YIPPEE.  I was tickled pink to hear that.  I'm just glad someone is reading it.
   We started reading Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots.  As I predicted, the children love it. The students at the Baily City Elementary School have reason to believe that their teacher is a vampire although she's been very nice. We are still hopping along with Frog and Toad.  Our planet homework has been turned into paragraphs and posted on the bulletin board (I'll post a picture of it later this week)
     Here is one of the websites we visited in the computer lab this week http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/clubhouse/index_pre.html .  It's about identifying different sentence types.  Not everyone got a chance to check it out so if you can, let your child give it a go.