December 5th-December 9th

Hello Team Blowey Parents!

We made it to another week!  This week starts with a bang with our Winter Concert!  The concert will be at 6:30 at the Middle School.  I'm so excited to see the Team in action, especially after hearing them rehearse today!

Our class fish, Paul Pierce (the team voted on the name), has settled in quite nicely!  We have two teammates working together to help take care of him during the week.  Jobs rotate weekly so every student will have the chance to take care of Paul Pierce.

This week in:

Reading:

Our new vocabulary words are:  imaginary, uniform, practices, starting, tryouts, and coach.  We'll be reading a story called Brian Gets Fit on the Field to help us with these words.  While we are working on these words, we'll have some practice learning about how some words have multiple meanings such as coach.  It could mean a basketball coach or Cinderella took a coach to the ball.  We'll be talking about how we can use context clues and dictionaries to help us figure out the meaning of the word.

We'll be continuing our practice with generating questions and making inferences while we are reading to help us with comprehension.  This week, we'll be reading a story called There's Nothing Like Baseball to help us practice these skills.

We'll also be doing some extra work practicing specific reading strategies this week.  We'll be focusing on looking at the pictures to help us figure out the tricky words and rereading words.  When we reread words we'll be asking ourselves these questions:  

-Does it look right?

-Does it sound right?

-Does it make sense?

If not, we'll stop and go back.

During our cafe menu time students are participating in fluency, accuracy, comprehension, expanding vocabulary and writing.  They are given different choices to practice each skill, some of which are individual work, and some of which are partner work.  

Writing:

This week, students are working on completing a very special project.  Unfortunately, I can't tell you too much about it.  It's a surprise!  You'll have to wait patiently until it is completed.  I can promise you, though, that you will love it!

Spelling:

We are continuing spelling at our own pace.  For the most part, we have gotten the routine down.  We're still working out a few simple kinks and making sure we are keeping track of our goals.  It's a work in progress! :)

Grammar:

We will be continuing to work on possessive nouns and the use of apostrophes. 

Read Aloud: 

Mr. Popper's Penguins

Math:

This week we are beginning a super cool project that combines literacy, social studies, and math!  We are creating books that will teach another class about place value but also about Dr. Greg Mortenson and how he built hundreds of schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan!  

Today, we read a book called Listen to the Wind by Greg Mortenson and worked to identify the author's purpose.  We talked about how an author writes for a reason and it's our job to figure it out by listening to the words and looking at the pictures.  We remember the purposes of writing by using the acronym PIE which stands for persuade, inform, and entertain.  We will use this information in our Pennies for Peace book.

The idea for the math project comes from a program called Pennies for Peace.  The program collects pennies to help bring hope and educational opportunities to impoverished countries.  While a penny might not do much in America, a penny will buy a pencil in places like Pakistan.  In our project we will be figuring out how many teachers, notebooks, and pencils we can buy from our 3 digit number of pennies as well as many other aspects of place value (i.e. skip counting, expanded form, number names, etc.)  When we finish the project, we will be sharing them with another class.

Homework:

Homework is the packet that was sent home today.  It looks the same as it did for the past couple weeks.  This morning student's filled in their goals, circled what activities they wanted to do in order to practice those goals, and gathered any worksheets they needed. 

Special Announcements:

Tonight:  Winter Concert!  6:30 at the Middle School

December 12th:  Fun Family Night!  Formal invitations will go home tomorrow.  Students and their families are invited for a night of winter fun!  Come in your pajamas, bring a pillow, and relax while you go on a magical ride on the Polar Express.  While the kids are watching the movie, I will be available to you for any questions that you might have regarding the new homework format.  I will also have a short presentation available for viewing on my laptop.  Kelly Thornhill will also be available to answer questions.

December 22nd:  Last day of school before break!

I hope you have an amazing week!

November 28th-December 2nd!

Welcome back Team Blowey Parents!

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing, and fun-filled vacation!  I was thankful to be able to spend some time with my family for Thanksgiving and eat lots of delicious food!  It was a great time for creating more happy memories together.  Of course, we had the normal family bickering but what would Thanksgiving be without that!

I did, however, re-injure my knee at school on the Friday before break.  It was rather upsetting after I was feeling so great!  Luckily (I guess)  I already had a doctors appointment set up for after school.  I did the same thing again.  I dislocated my kneecap but not as severe as the first time.  I will have to continue wearing a knee brace for the next month and do some physical therapy.  Hopefully it heals completely after that!  If not, surgery might be needed.  Yikes!  Fingers and toes crossed that a brace, physical therapy, and some rest will make it heal!

This week in:

Literacy:  

Our cafe time menu choices got a slight makeover over vacation so that students had a few more really specific choices to help them meet their goals for comprehension, accuracy, and fluency.  Our trial run today seemed to go pretty smoothly!  I'm hoping these new menu choices will help engage students but also give them a more specific focus during cafe time.  Our major categories now spell the word "FACE" and help us to build our reading skills.  They are:  fluency, accuracy, comprehension, and expanding vocabulary.  Throughout the week, we will have mini lessons to help model some of our new menu choices and hopefully help students become more comfortable with them.  

Our phonics lessons will revolve around introducing the long /i/ sound with i, igh, ie, and y. 

Our comprehension lessons will be centered on a story called Farfallina and Marcel by Holly Keller.  It is a fantasy story about a goose and a caterpillar.  While we are reading we'll not only be focusing on comprehension but we will also focus on building inferences  and generating questions.  We'll be talking about how generating questions about a story can really help us understand the story better and also how making inferences by using the clues in the story helps us answer those questions.

Our new vocabulary words this week are:  giggled, fluttered, peered, recognized, vanished, and snuggled.  We'll be talking with our elbow buddies about what the words mean and also how to use them in a sentence.  Then, we'll read a story called Leo Grows Up and listen for our new vocabulary words. 

In grammar we will be possessive nouns and how to use apostrophes when we write. 

In writing, we are still working on publishing our pieces on how to blow a bubble.  Some students, have chosen to take a different route with their "how-to" stories and have picked a different topic.  Soon, their writing pieces will be on display with an art project to go along with it!  I'm so excited to see how they turn out!  Team Blowey has been putting a lot of time and effort into these pieces and practicing so many writing skills, especially those transition words!

Math:  

We are still working extremely hard primarily on our math facts and on place value.  

Team Blowey is really spread out in our place value goals and our menu time is an excellent time for students to focus on specific parts of place value.  Right now, students are working on knowing how to read and write three digit numbers in words, with numbers, and in expanded form.  They also need to know what number is in the hundreds, tens, and ones place.  Additionally students are working on knowing how many bundles of 100s, 10s, and 1s can be found within a 3 digit number.  Finally, students need to know how to compare two three digit numbers using < = and >.  (Later, we'll be adding the topic of skip counting.)

Every morning, students have the chance to work on their own specific goals.  Many choose to focus on their math facts which is great!  I encourage you to work with your child even more at home to help them learn their facts in a snap!  Remember, in a snap means to know the fact in less than 3 seconds. By now, many students have great strategies to figure out addition and subtraction facts.  However, our goal in second grade is to know the facts fluently.

This week, we also bumped our practice with analog and digital clocks by finding out what time we do specific things in our schedule like lunch for example.  Students have been practicing how to right the digital and analog time for any activity we participate in.  

We've also been continuing our work with Team Blowey's piggy bank.  At every morning meeting, we have the chance to add up money to find out how much money we have added to our "piggy bank".

Science:

Soon we will be planting our very own plants and watching them as they go through their life cycles.  We'll be observing and recording what we see and what we find.  

Before break, students did a great job recording what they found when they conducted their experiment with food coloring, celery, and water.  There was a lot of descriptive writing and a lot of beautiful drawings!

Homework:

Homework packets will look the same as they did last week.  Students came to school today, earned points for the practice they have put in so far, and then chose the activities that they wanted to help them meet their goals.  If you have any questions, please let me know!

Our Parent Night is still TBD.  More information will come your way as soon as things have been set!

Announcements:

Team Blowey is VERY close to earning two very special rewards!  

If we earn a BINGO we will be getting a class fish!  If you and your family would like to donate any supplies for a beta fish, just send a little note my way so I know what to expect.

We are also close to filling the marble jar!  If we fill the jar, we will be making our very own team jerseys!  Once we are little closer, I'll send home some more detailed information for you.

Reminder:  The Winter Concert is coming up soon!  It will be on December 5th, at 6:30 and the Middle School.  I can feel the excitement building already!

As always, if you have any questions, observations, or feedback please let me know!

I hope you all have a joyous week!

Thanksgiving Break!

First of all, I hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing break! 

Second of all, you'll notice that homework is still in the boomerang folders.  Students kept their homework packets so that they may circle any activities that they happen to practice over break.  They can earn more points for their homework charts.  Remember:  50 points earns a prize from the prize box!

Also, here a link to a website with some fun Thanksgiving activities!  Give them a try!

http://www.ourclassweb.com/holiday_thanksgiving.htm

Special Announcements!

As promised, once the students got close to getting a bingo or filling the marble jar, I told Team Blowey that we would talk about what their rewards would be.  Here is what we decided:

Reward for Bingo:  Class fish!  Some of the students mentioned that they would like to donate supplies.  If that is something your family would like to do, please send a note my way first so I know what to expect.  Most likely, we will be getting a beta fish.

Reward for filling the marble jar:  Team jerseys!  We'll need lots of help for this!  When the time comes, I'll send out a paper asking for volunteers to help with the jerseys.  If you would like to donate any white t-shirts or fabric paint send them on in!  When students fully fill the marble jar, I will set a date for t-shirt decorating and send out all of the important information.

The team decided that the shirts would say "Team Blowey" on the front with some kind of team symbol yet to be decided and on the back students would have their last names and their class number.

Send any questions my way!

November 14th-November 18th

 

 Good afternoon Team Blowey Parents!

Today, students had a "Healthy Teeth" presentation from Mrs. Maine!  Ask your child what they learned about keeping their teeth strong and healthy.

This week in...

Spelling:

Team Blowey is making the transition to spelling at your own pace!  Today, we talked about what it means to be a responsible test giver and how to know when you are ready to take a spelling test (more detailed information in the newsletter that was sent home today).  Students were also introduced to their spelling game board.  The game board will be used as a way for students to track their progress.  The rest of this week we will be modeling and practicing this new system.

Reading:

We just started a new read aloud book called Mr. Popper's Penguins.  The book came highly recommended by a good friend of mine and so far we are loving it!  

Our new vocabulary words are:  serious, broken, personal, informs, and heal.  We'll be talking with our elbow buddies about what these words might mean and how to use them in a sentence.  When we finish our discussion, we'll listen to a story that uses all of these words.  When we hear a vocabulary word, we'll put a finger on our nose.

We will also be focusing on our ability to summarize stories and remember the sequence of events.  We'll be reading a story called A Trip to the Emergency Room and applying these skills.  

Our small reading groups will also be meeting this week to read some "good-fit" books together.  While we read together, we'll be practicing our decoding and thinking strategies that we got last week. 

Students continue their work during literacy cafe time as well.  They work on building their stamina, word work, writing, fluency, and comprehension.  This is a great time for students to work towards meeting their personal goals.

Writing:

Our new writing project is a "how-to" story.  Last week, Miss Blowey was taken over by an alien who needed to know how to make a soy nut butter and jelly sandwich.  The students tried to give directions but found that they needed to be more specific and give more details so that the alien (or reader) will be able to know exactly how to do something.  Right now, students are working on a fun writing piece called "How to Blow a Bubble".  When students finish their writing, they'll be able to work on a fun art project to go along with it.

As for grammar, we will be discussing a strategy called C.O.P.S.  This stands for Capitalization, Organization, Punctuation, and Spelling.  This is an editing strategy that we will be utilizing to help make our writing better.

Math:

Students are continuing to practice their fact fluency skills and working hard to meet their goals!  

We are also working on place value.   Our goals are to:

-Read and write 3 digit numbers

-Know what number is in the hundreds, tens, and ones place

-Know how many bundles of 100s, 10s, and 1s are in a 3 digit number

-Read and write 3 digit number names

-Read and write numbers in expanded form

-Compare two 3 digit numbers using < = and >

We're making great progress!  We've been practicing our goals with whiteboards, games, practice worksheets, buddy work, fun computer games, and soon we'll have some board games set up to help us practice as well!

Homework:

As you know, homework looks a little different this week.  This morning, students and I worked together to write down their personal goals and to pick which activities they would like to help them practice and meet their goals.

For more detailed information about how the new homework system will work, please read the newsletter that was sent home today.  If you have any questions or observations, please write them down on the homework or send them in the boomerang folders.

This is a trial run for homework.  A parent night will be hosted after Thanksgiving break.  More details will come soon.

I hope you all have a fun-filled week!

November 7th-November 10th

Hello Team Blowey Parents!

Team Blowey is off to great places! 

One of my goals is to make this blog a little more detailed for you so that you may get a clear view of what it looks like to be in room 10 with Team Blowey.  Here is my first attempt!

Reading: 

Our Literacy Cafe time continues as students practice comprehension, stamina, word work, writing, and fluency daily in the classroom.  Students are eager to improve and are constantly trying to meet and pass their goals!  In our Treasures curriculum, we continue to build on our comprehension skills by finding the main idea of a story and supporting it with details.  We are also working on our summarizing skills after our literacy lesson and our read aloud book in the afternoon.  Another skill that is constantly practiced is making predictions. 

Today, students received  a strategy sheet to keep in their goals folder to help them find strategies to figure out the tricky words in books and also strategies to help them think about what they are reading.  We'll use these daily.

Decoding Strategies:

-look at the pictures

-Slide through the whole word

-skip hard words and then go back and reread

-Get your mouth ready to make the first sound

-Reread (Does it look right?  Does it sound right?  Does it make sense?)

-Spell the word out loud

-Try a different vowel sound

-Think of a rhyming word you do know

-"Chunk It"  Look for smaller words hiding inside

Thinking Strategies:

-I wonder...

-Predict

-Infer (think of the meaning of a word by using the words around it)

-Make a text-to-text, text-to-self, or text-to-world connection (SCHEMA!)

-Think of the characters feelings

-Create a mental picture

All of the strategies above are what are on the strategy sheets given to the students.  Of course, they are much more colorful and have better visual cues!

We also continue our work with our weekly vocabulary. We talk to our elbow buddies about what a vocabulary word means and how we can use it in a sentence.  We then listen to a story with our vocabulary words in it.  When we hear a vocabulary word, we touch our noses.

Spelling:

Students are working on consonant blends this week.  Meanwhile, I am working with another teacher to set up a system where students will work through the spelling words at their own pace.  I will keep you updated through this process.

Writing:

Students are currently working on finishing their third piece of writing for me.  They were asked to show me what they knew about writing by creating three separate pieces of writing.  This will allow me to help create really specific goals to focus on for each individual student.  Once the goals are set, students will be practicing their goals during literacy cafe time.  Once they feel that they are ready to meet their goal and move on, they will show me three pieces of writing that demonstrate there goal being met, and then put their work in the check-me bucket.  Once they meet a goal, they will be given a new one to work on.

We are also working on grammar.  This week's focus will be on plural nouns.

Math: 

Team Blowey is plunging into place value!  Students took a pre-test to show me what they knew about place value.  From there, students will be given a specific goal to practice during math time to help them pass the place value standard.  Last week, we did some place value activities using base ten blocks, a place value mat, and white boards.  This week, I will be modeling some place value games for students.  They will also have various activities out for them to help them reach their goal.

We are also continuing our work with fact fluency!  Many of our teammates have passed their goals and are cruising on to new ones!

Science:

Last week, Team Blowey and Ms. Thornhill's class got together to talk about the parts of a plant.  After, students had the chance to create a plant of their own using crayons or watercolors and then labeling the different parts.  We had some very talented artists!  Soon, we'll be planting our very own plants and watching them grow!

Homework:

  

Thank you so much for all of your feedback on the parking lots!  A compiled parking lot with my responses will go home in the boomerang folders this week.  Your responses were used to tweak homework and homework guidelines.  The parking lot will give you more information about this.  If you have any questions or comments, send them my way!

Homework this week is outlined in the homework cafe packets.  Goals are listed at the top of each menu. 

I hope you all have an adventurous week!

Love, 

Miss Blowey

October 31st-November 4th

Hello, Spooktacular Parents!

I hope you're all enjoying a fun-filled evening with your kids!  We sure did enjoy ourselves at school today! 

Our morning was filled with some festive activities.  We rotated to every second grade class to see the other second grade teachers who had some fabulous things set up for us.  We created haunted houses, played games, and got our faces painted!  We even enjoyed a story book character parade from the first graders.  Later in the afternoon, we enjoyed our harvest party with some spooky tunes and delicious snacks.  Thanks to everyone who was able to contribute to the festivities!  Room 10 had a blast!

This week in literacy we are continuing our work with Treasures and Literacy Cafe time.  Each day we work hard to build our comprehension, vocabulary, spelling, fluency, stamina, and writing skills.  Our whole class readings will focus on plants which fits perfectly into our science unit. 

Last week, Team Blowey worked together to create a KWL chart.  That stands for what we KNOW about plants, what we WANT to know about plants, and when we finish our unit we will write down what we have LEARNED about plants.  This Friday, we will be working towards our goal of learning more about plants by combining with Ms. Thornhill's class. 

In math, we began unpacking our place value standard.  Once we are finished unpack, we will have a clear vision of what it will look like to pass the place value standard.  Students are also working really hard on their math facts!  We've have a lot of students pass some of their goals already!  Ask your child about the math boogie.   It's a fun way to celebrate when our friends meet their goals.

 Homework this week is the cafe packets once again.

Spelling:  Pick one activity a night.
Reading:  Read for 20 minutes every night!  (Scholastic News counts as your reading time!)
Math:  Practice on IXL for 30 minutes this week.  Remember any extra choices you make during the week will help you meet your goals faster!

BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR:

-Blue volunteer paper.  If you are interested in volunteering in the the classroom or even helping out from home, check out the blue paper that will be sent home in the boomerang folders on TUESDAY!
 

-Salmon colored parking lot.  In order to help answer any questions or be able to take any comments you have into consideration, I thought it would be most helpful to create a parking lot together.  Please fill it out with what you think is going well, what you think needs to change, what questions you have, and any bright ideas you might have to make homework better.  I'm hoping that using this tool will help us to work better as a team and to make any necessary changes to the homework.  This will go home in the boomerang folders on TUESDAY!


REMINDER:  Please send in last week's homework if you have not already done so. 

I hope you all have a joyous week!

October 24th-October 28th

I'm sure most of you have heard by now, I am on crutches.  Over the weekend, I dislocated my kneecap.  Fingers crossed I haven't torn anything!  My future doctors appointment will bring the news.

Thank you all so much for the conferences that we've been having!  I'm really excited about all of the action plans we are putting into place.  I really see a lot of teamwork going on and it warms my heart.  Team Blowey is off to great places!

After all of the conferences are over, I will be compiling all of your questions and concerns.  I'll use this information in a newsletter.  Hopefully we can tackle any of the issues soon and effectively!  It's all about the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, and Adjust).

Homework this week is the cafe packet.  You'll be working on spelling, reading, and math. 

Goals for homework:

Spelling:  One activity a night.  Shouldn't take you more than 15 minutes.
Reading:  15-20 minutes a night.  Remember:  You'll be recognized for every 300 minutes you read!
Math:  IXL 15 minutes, twice a week.  Math fact cafe is also an option for those you who would like more practice to meet your math fact goals. 

I hope you all have a marvelous week!

October 17th-21st!

Conferences are starting this week!  The first conferences are on Thursday.  They will continue on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.  Confirmation sheets were sent home today in the boomerang folders.  Please remember that you and your child should attend these conferences.  The purpose of these conferences is goal setting.  It's so important for parents, teacher, and student to be on the same team!

In literacy, we have been working to create specific goals for ourselves to really help our reading.  These goals are focusing on fluency, accuracy, and comprehension.  With these goals have come very specific techniques for us to be able to meet our goals.  Our work with literacy cafe has also continued and the students have been working hard to build stamina, fluency, comprehension, word work, and writing. 

In math we are wrapping up our unit on bar graphs and pictures graphs and have begun or menu work for fact fluency!  Math fact cafe is a GREAT supporter for this!  We've also introduced clocks and telling time.  Today we turned ourselves into a clock and used our hands as the hands of a clock to represent different times.  It was a lot of fun!  Time and math facts will continue throughout the year.

Homework cafe packets were sent home!  Each night students should try to do one spelling activity, read for at least 20 minutes, and have time to practice their math skills with IXL or math fact cafe. 

If you have any questions or observations you would like to share with me about how homework is going, please let me know!  I'll help in any way I can.

REMINDER:  In the newsletter that was sent home this week, I asked for students to please bring in an expo marker and an old (but CLEAN) sock to use as an eraser.  They will be used during whiteboard time. 

ALSO:  Please send in pictures of your kids for our Team Blowey News bulletin board.  We love seeing what our teammates do outside of school!

Have a lovely week!

October 11th-14th

Hello Team Blowey Parents!

I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend!  I spent mine down in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with my family getting a whole new look at America's history.  I had a blast!

This week Team Blowey is making the final touches on our ABC's of the Cumberland Fair book.  It's really starting to come together!  We're also continuing our work with literacy cafe time, where students choose what areas they are going to focus on to help them become better readers and writers.  They may choose stamina, fluency, comprehension, word work, or writing.  We're still learning about what it means to be responsible for our work and how to choose what we work on appropriately.  We'll get there!

In math some of our teammates have already begun passing our graphing learning target!  We've starting talking about fact fluency (adding and subtracting numbers up to 20 in our heads) and why it's so important.  Students will have the chance to explore and build on their fact fluency by choosing from their math fact menus.  When students feel that they are ready to move on to the next fact family, they may put their goal sleeves in the "check me" box so that I can test them.  If they pass, they get to move onto the next goal!

Homework this week is the same.  Homework Cafe packets went home in the boomerang folders.

Practice your spelling words!
Read every night!
Practice your math skills!  (IXL 30 minutes every week... facts as much as you need to move onto the next goal)

Just a reminder, ask your child to circle the day of the week they decide to do an activity.  This way I can see what they were practicing and also when they were practicing.  If students choose an activity like rainbow words or a math worksheet, for example, please send them with the homework packets as well.  I would love to see the progress students are making at home as well!

As always, please send any feedback or questions my way!  I wish you a marvelous week!

October 3rd-October 7th

Happy October Team Blowey!

This week, Team Blowey is off on some fun adventures! 

In literacy, we are building a classroom book!  After collecting the ABC's of the Cumberland Fair, we grouped all of our findings into one master list.  Each of us will be working on completing a page for the letter we picked out.  Some students will have the chance to work on two pages.  We're in the beginning stages of creating a rough draft.  We're creating sentences and pictures to really show what we found during our field trip!

In math, we are continuing our graphing unit.  Last week we pulled a mystery item from a bag (colored snap cubes) and from there we began sorting out the data.  We'll be working on creating our own graphs to represent the snap cubes we collected.  When we're finished, we'll be presenting our data to the class with lots of details about what we found.

In science, we are continuing to learn about plants.  Recently, Team Blowey and Mrs. Sylvester's class got together to watch a video about plant life cycles!  Ask your child about it.  We'll be continuing our plant unit with some fun activities later this month!

We also "unpacked" our math fact fluency standard.  Team Blowey is full of investigators who work really hard to solve the mystery of the new standard.  We pull out the really important words and break them down into smaller pieces so they are easier to understand.  Now we know what our goal should be when it comes to knowing our math facts!

Homework is in full swing this week!  In the boomerang folder you'll notice that there is a Homework Cafe packet.  The cover sheet gives you a little more information as to what the specific guidelines are.  Each week students will receive a menu for spelling, reading, and math.  They can choose different activities from the menu to help them practice the new skills.

As I have mentioned before homework is assigned on Mondays and due on Fridays.  However, if your family's schedule and your child work better over the weekend, homework may be turned in on Monday.  This basically means that students should be doing homework about 4 days a week.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Be sure to check out the classroom website at bloweyclassroom.pbworks.com.  There is a new video there showing you how to navigate mathfactcafe.com. 

September reading calendars are due!  Students should have been keeping a record of how many minutes they were reading during the month of September on the school calendar.  Remember to send those back to school!  Students will be recognized for every 300 minutes they read.

Remember if you have any pictures of your child doing fun summer or fall activities, send them in!  Our Team Blowey News bulletin board will be updated all year long.  We love seeing the fun and exciting things our team mates do outside of school!


I wish you all a great week!  Happy Monday!

September 26th-30th

Dear Team Blowey Parents,

I have to begin with a few apologies.  After being out sick for two days last week, forgetting my laptop at home, and then having limited access to internet I was not able to post earlier.  Also, because I forgot my laptop at home I wasn't able to access the documents I was hoping to send home in the boomerang folders today.  Sorry about that!  It's tough to get back into the groove of things after being out sick.  Hopefully I'm on the right track to be healthy again! And hopefully the members of Team Blowey are on the right track to being healthy again too!

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to send home a paper about IXL, the online math website for students to be able to practice at home.  My goal is to have students start practicing again by the end of the week. If you do not have access to a computer and/or the internet at home please let me know. 

REMINDER:  The Cumberland Fair field trip is this THURSDAY!!!  Your child will need to have a packed lunch and a water bottle.  We will be going rain or shine so please remember to dress appropriately.  Also, there will be no money coming along on this field trip.  The students are not permitted to buy anything at the fair. 

Parent volunteers for the field trip, I will be sending some more information home for you in the boomerang folders tomorrow. 

Again, I apologize for the chaotic start to the week.  I'm hoping yours will go a little smoother!

Have a fantastic day!

September 19th-23rd

We're now into our second full week of school!

After ending last week on such a high note (getting a marble for the compliment jar, ask your child about it) we started this week in high spirits.  As I'm writing this, Team Blowey is in Library and before I left, they told me that they were going to be working extra hard to get another compliment!  We'll see how that goes.  Fingers crossed!

Today we also learned a fun song to help us remember IPICK.  It's still new for us so your child might not be able to remember all of the words or motions yet.  We'll practice more as the year goes on.  IPICK, if you remember, is the phrase we use to help us find just right books.  Soon, your child will be sent home with a bookmark they created to help them remember this very important skill.

Math was a lot of fun today too!  I brought in a suitcase which automatically started a lot of conversation among students.  Some thought that I brought my newly adopted kitten, Daisy.  Some thought I might have had a snake!  But instead, inside the suitcase was our learning target for math.  This year, we will be "unpacking" standards with students so that they may fully understand what it is that they are trying to reach.  Together, we picked out the important words and phrases.   We then put on our thinking faces and turned into investigators to solve the mystery of the learning target.  As the unit progresses, we'll be revisiting this target often.  Math ended today with a fun game of "What's my rule?"  We'll learn more about this too.

Homework for this week is to complete the "All About Me" poster that is in the homework pocket of your child's boomerang folder.  This assignment is to be completed by Friday.  However, if you think that your child does better trying to finish homework over the weekend instead of during the busy week, that is just fine too.  I did not mention this to the students as I'm hoping to try and instill the importance of breaking up larger projects into smaller pieces.  If you feel like your child is stressing out over the project, though, just send a little note my way so that I know to expect your child's work on Monday instead of Friday. 

Students should continue to read nightly and fill out their school reading logs.  Remember, for every 300 minutes your child reads they will be recognized. 

I'm still looking for a few permission slips for book buddies and for the Cumberland Fair so please send those in ASAP!

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:  In your totes, you should have seen a reminder from Miss Bolduc about the roller skating event coming up on Saturday.  Since Miss Bolduc left so suddenly, she decided to keep this event so that the students may have another chance to see her.  I'll be attending too! We hope to see you all there!

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me.  Have a happy day!

Love,

Miss Blowey

September 12th-16th

Our first full week of school!  Woo hoo!

This week, Team Blowey is moving more into a traditional schedule.  We are continuing to work together to develop the Daily 5 as well as integrating our Treasures reading program.  We have also been working together to create graphs during our afternoon math time!  The graphs are representing data our class collected about themselves.  It's been a great time learning more about each other. 

We have even practiced what to do if there is a fire in the building.  Team Blowey did a great job!  We were quick and we were quiet!

We're also wrapping up our crayon presentations.  Last week we read a poem about a box of crayons that learned about working together as a team.  To help us understand that, we created our very own crayons that represented us and what we like to do.  They will be on display in the hallway sometime this week so if you're in the neighborhood please come down and check it out!  The presentations have been going really well and we have really been learning a lot about what a good presentation and a good audience looks like.  Ask your child about what they learned.


Just a reminder that the student reading survey will be due TOMORROW, Tuesday the 13th.  This survey lets me know your student as a reader a little more so that way we can be on the same page.  Students may ask for help if they need it.  There will be no other homework assigned this week.  Regular homework will likely start in the beginning of October.  In the meantime, students are always encouraged to read every night.

Today in the boomerang folders you will also see a permission slip for our field trip!  We will be going to the Cumberland Fair on September 29th.  If you are interested in being a chaperone please let me know ASAP.  Any volunteers who would like to come with us must fill out the volunteer paperwork, which also authorizes a background check.

Have a happy day!

September 6th-September 9th

We are now in the second week of school and things are really starting to roll!  We have been working together as a class to develop S.O.P.'s (Standard Operating Procedures) for many times throughout the day.  For example, morning arrival, getting ready for lunch, and dismissal time all have S.O.P's.  This way we all know what we are supposed to be doing and when we should do it.  It's going to take a lot of practice though for us to make things just right.

Speaking of just right, Team Blowey has begun our conversations about just right books.  We talked about an acronym to help us find the book that is perfect for us.

I look at a book
P urpose  (Why am I reading this book?  Example:  To learn more about a topic, to fill up time during a long car ride, Daily 5 time in the classroom, etc.)
I  nterest (Am I interested in this book?  Do I think this is a book I will enjoy?)
C omprehend (Am I understanding what I'm reading?)
K now all of the words (5 finger rule)


The five finger rule helps us find out if this is a "just right" book.  If there are 0-1 words on a page that we don't know, the book might be a little bit too easy for us.  If there are 2-3 words on a page that we don't know, then the book is just right!  If there are 4-5 words on a page that we don't know, maybe we can put the book back and try again later.

Our homework for this week is to find some books at home that we think are just right books.  Your child should have gotten a gallon sized ziplock with their name on it.  Put the books in there and bring them back to school.  Those will be our book bags for this year.  We will be constantly updating them as we continue to grow in our reading.  We will also use our classroom library and our school library to help us find more books.

Students will also recieve a reader's interest survey on THURSDAY night that they may complete with your help.  This will help me begin to understand your child as a reader a little bit more.

We're off to great places and we hope you are too!

First Day of School!

Team Blowey had a great day in school today!  We spent a lot of time getting used to the classroom and some school procedures but the best part of the day was definitely getting to know each other a little bit more!  We played some fun games to help us learn about each other (The Warm Wind Blows...) and also learn about working together as a team (Blob Tag!).  We even got to read a silly story about a mom who dresses up as a plant just so she can go to second grade again.

This year is shaping up to be a great one with lots of fun and learning.  We're all definitely excited to see how much we're going to grow.

Just a reminder:

If you haven't already sent in your child with their supplies, we're still missing some binders. Remember they can be two, 2 inch three ring binder with a clear plastic cover. We'll need one for math, and one for our other subjects.  Please try to do so before the end of the week.  Everyone came prepared with their pencil boxes today so kudos to everyone!  And a HUGE thank you to everyone who was able to donate some supplies to the classroom!  Team Blowey appreciates every little thing you do to help.  

Also, no homework this week!  The only thing I ask for you to do is take a look through the totes your child brought home today and also to initial the behavior slip your child brought home in their boomerang folders.  

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask!

WELCOME TO TEAM BLOWEY!

I hope you all had an AMAZING summer! I know I did!

I spent most of my days working outside in a pool. Thank goodness for all of that gorgeous weather we had! I was so happy to work with so many great kids and even happier that so many of them grew into fantastic swimmers. I even had some extra time to sit down and read some great books! (I hope all of you did too!)

I know you are all anxious to know what you will need for school so here is a list of supplies. 

-Two 2 inch three ring binders (one with the clear pocket front)

-Pencils

-Crayons

-1 package of square post-its

-erasers

-pencil sharpener

-pencil box

-1 package of 5 tab dividers

-water bottle

-***optional*** box of tissues for the class, disinfecting wipes, scotch tape, ziplock bags (large or small), plastic sheet protectors

 

If there is any reason that you will not be able to bring this items with you to school, please let me know and I will do my best to make sure that you get whatever it is that you need.

I hope you enjoy your last few days of summer so that you can come into our classroom and be energized and ready to learn! I look forward to seeing all of your smiling faces!

 

Also, here is another reminder about the ice cream social that will be happening on Tuesday, August 30th from 5-6.  This is a great time to see your classroom, meet me, and eat yummy ice cream!  I hope to see you all there!

Sincerely,

Miss Blowey