We have had a great 2 days!!!  Just a super quick post about what we have been working on during the past few days and also tomorrow.

Our Small Moment Stories

Our beginnings are finished!  We made sure that our stories started with a lead, introduced characters, and described the setting.  I am having trouble getting the video of the kids sharing what is in the beginning of a small moment story to upload, but you can view the video here.

ST Math
I sent home directions for logging into ST Math yesterday.  It is different than when the kids login at school.  Hopefully these directions clear that up. :)  Also, I have opened up several different lessons for the kids to work through from home.  All the activities that I have opened up are things that we have covered.

Grammar
We started grammar today.  We talked about what a noun is and what an adjective is.  Our definition of a noun is a person, place, thing or idea.  Our definition of an adjective is a word to describe a noun.  We are going to do an activity tomorrow where the kiddos will use adjectives to describe different nouns.  Your child can bring to school an object to be used in this activity.  The object must be able to fit into your child's backpack.  Help your child make a good choice of an object that is school appropriate.  A paper came home with your kiddo today but can also be found here.

Math Wizard
I am so proud of how the kiddos are progressing on their Math Wizard Tests.  We are in the process of getting a bulletin board set up for the kiddos to show off when they are an addition, subtraction or mixed math wizard.  Please be practicing with your child on the facts that s/he is working on.  If your child is having trouble with addition or subtraction facts starting with +1 or -1, then moving on to +2 or -2, etc.is helpful.  Allow your child to find success and then move on to harder facts.  Our goal is by January for your child to be fluent in addition and subtraction facts.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Historical Fiction Books
Our kiddos are really enjoying reading historical fiction books.  Today we read two different books that took place in the south during the era of segregation. We read The Other Side and White Water.  We had a great discussion about these books and even made a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two books.

Due to the rainy day, we ended up not being able to go outside for both of our recesses.  I hope that the rain holds off and the kiddos have a chance to be able to get outside today and get some more of their wiggles out.  Have a wonderful evening! :)

Terrific Tuesday

Today in writing, we worked extremely hard on identifying the 3 important things that MUST be included in the beginning of a small moment story.  These 3 things are a lead, describe the setting and introduce the important characters in your story.  The kiddos developed their own definition of these 3 important things, and our definitions even have movements!!!  Ask your kiddos about what a lead, setting and characters are in a story and make sure that they do the motions. :)  We will post a video this week of these!!!

Remember to be practicing your math facts tonight because we have our Math Wizard test tomorrow!

Also, our spelling words this week are focusing on short and long a.  Short Vowel: glass, fast, last, snap, & sack and Long Vowel: make, page, face, same, & came.  We will be testing over these on Friday.


Do you need an excuse to not cook tonight?  What better reason than...

 

Tonight (4:00-8:00), at the Rock Bridge McDonalds (Nifong), a percentage of all sales will be given to RBE.  Come out & eat dinner and help support your school.  If you come between 4:30-5:00, I will be there.  I hope to see you tonight! :) 

Please remember to have your child use a pencil on his/her math homework.  This will be an expectations through high school that math is completed in pencil.  Using a pencil allows for quick & easy erasing if a mistake is made. :)

Materials Needed! :)

During a portion of our reading time, students are working on their reading fluency by listening to short nonfiction passages on CD players.  Currently, we only have 8 CD players.  If you have an individual CD player (walkman) that you are no longer using & would like to donate to our classroom that would be wonderful!!!  Also, to keep life to the CD players we are in need of AA batteries.  We would appreciate any donations of batteries or CD players.  Thank you for your help!

The RBE Chicken BBQ is only 11 days away!!  If you have not purchased your bbq meal tickets or game tickets there is still time!!  Send in the baggie with the order form in it with money.  If the order form/baggie is lost you can send in a paper with your child's first & last name, teacher's name and how many tickets you are needing with the money - adult meals ($9), youth meals ($7), child meals ($5).

Also, be thinking about Teacher Town!! :)  There are a few items that you might be interesting in bidding on...

A signed class picture or a signed picture of Mrs. Ross & our class

Class STEAM Bus for a Day!!!

A day for the whole class to spend doing STEAM activities from the STEAM bus!!!

I hope that you have a wonderful evening & enjoy eating some McDonalds!!

We have had a great short week!

Happy Crayon Day!!!  The kiddos are showing off their favorite colors with a crayon topper! :)

National Custodian Day is October 2, and because Mr. Jim keeps our school looking so wonderful we had to celebrate him!  Yesterday, the kiddos each wrote and a drew on a key to say thank you for something that he did because "Mr. Jim is the 'key' to keeping our school clean!"  This morning we gave him all of our keys and sang him a song.

Today we had Makers Space.  This is always one of the kiddos favorite things that happens on Fridays!  We made bookmarks out of duct tape.

• Social Studies:  Today, we challenged the kids to define culture, civics, history, geography, and economics.  At the meeting I went to on Monday with CPS's Social Studies coordinator, he discussed the importance of students knowing a common vocabulary in social studies from elementary school through high school.  We first showed them the words and they discussed with a partner, then we showed them pictures and they added or changed what they thought, then we labeled the pictures with the 5 vocabulary words, and they changed or added to their definitions again.  Ultimately, we came up with a child friendly definition of these social studies words.  I am so impressed with how hard the students worked and they did an AWESOME job creating these definitions.  As we were discussing geography, we looked at Google Earth.  The students absolutely loved it, so they may be asking you get on Google Earth at home. :)
• History: something that happened in the past (a long time ago)
• Culture: things that represent different countries, differences among countries, people of different countries
• Geography: study and use of maps/lands
• Civics: government
• Economics: study of money
  
  
• Writing: We have continued working on writing leads this week.  A lead is the first sentence of a story and purpose a lead to grab your readers' attention and make them want to read your story.  We talked about sound, question, talking and action leads.  Your child has tried out these 4 different types of leads for his/her small moment story.  Next week, the kiddos will choose their favorite lead that works the best for their story.  
• Reading: We finished our discussion on problem/solution.  After your child is finished reading a book at home have him or her tell you the problem/solution of the story.  Next week, we will be talking about decoding strategies and what to do when we come to a word that we don't know.  
• Word Study: We have been working with "Magic e" and understanding that adding an "e" to the end of a word makes the vowel change from a short vowel to a long vowel.  We did not have a spelling test this week, but we will next Friday.  The spelling words are: glass, make, last, same, came, fast, page, face, snap and sack.  When working with your child on his/her spelling words please have them practice identifying if the vowel is short or long and explaining why.  This is a rule that is super important both as a writer and a reader. :)
• Math: We finished up talking about standard and expanded form.  The kiddos know that a number written in standard form is the "typical" way we write numbers (ex: 678) and that standard form is stretching the number out so that each digit is represented by it's value (ex: 600 + 70 +8).  We also started talking about coins, what they look like (including who is on them) and how much each coin is worth. Below is the poem.  Next week we will continue to work with coins and counting coins.

Good Citizen Club

We have had a great 7 weeks of school - can you believe we have been in school for 7 weeks!!!  Starting next month I will be starting a good citizen club.  Being a good citizen at school means:

• Your homework every night (including parent initials for reading log & math game/fact practice)
• Your work is completed in class and do not have to stay in at Study Hall to finish
• You do not have to fill out a Think Sheet (in any classroom),
• You do not receive an office referral. 

Being in the Good Citizen Club is rewarded every two weeks. So, starting on October 3-14, if a student meets all the criteria for being a good citizen

McTeacher Night is this Tuesday, October 4, from 4:00-8:00.  A percentage of the total sales from that evening will be given to RBE!  Mrs. Ross & I will be there 4:30-5:00.  If you are able to come during that time, we would love to see you!

The RBE Chicken BBQ is 15 days away!!!    RBE has had a chicken bbq for 59 years and we need your help to make it happen!  Ways to help:

• Continue to sell meal, game & raffle tickets (a RBE BBQ bag came home a few weeks ago - so return it if you haven't already).
• Volunteer to work a shift.
• Donate pies (make or bring a pie or have Peggy Jean's Pie bake the pie for you).
• Shop the Silent Auction & Teacher Town.
• Things to look for at Teacher Town:
• A class picture that all the kiddos have signed.
• A cute combination picture of Mrs. Ross's class & ours forming heart that all the kiddos in both classes have signed.
• A lunch pizza party for your child & 2 friends (I will provide pizza, drink & dessert).
• A day on the STEAM bus for our entire class (this would be a super fun & the kiddos would love it).  If parents wanted to get together & pull their money - this would allow for a higher possibility of our class winning this AMAZING activity!!

As a reminder, the Book It! program starts in October.  The reading goal for October is 300 minutes of reading.  Your child is bringing home the Book It! reading log and information in his/her Friday Folder.  If your child is interested in the program please fill out the number of minutes read each night and add the total for the week (this is great real-world adding that your child can participate in).  The Book It! reading log must be turned in by November 2nd to receive the Book It! certificate for a personal pan pizza.  A new reading goal and log will come home for November.  

We will have a Veteran's Day assembly on November 9.  I will send out the time once it is finalized.  The students will be performing a song at the assembly.  Please have your child wear red, white and blue to school on November 9.  Also, there will be a slide show of veterans.  If there is a veteran in your family that you would like to be recognized in the slide show, please send a picture of the veteran (as well as their name, your child's name and their relationship) to Mrs. Sharp (esharp@cpsk12.org).

Have a wonderful weekend! :)

A Few Odds & Ends

Just a few odds & ends that I wanted to mention...

We discussed "Magic e" today and the kiddos have a good understanding that CVC (Consonant, Vowel, Consonant) words (example: mad or rob) make a short vowel sound and CVCe (Consonant, Vowel, Consonant e) words (example: made or robe) make a long vowel sound.  Today at the Word Study Station, the kiddos had "Magic e" wands and turned CVC words into CVCe words.  Tomorrow, the kiddos will get their Word Study spelling packet with their spelling list.  As a reminder, the spelling words this week and next focus on short & long a words:  Short a Words: glass, fast, last, snap, and sack. Long a Words: make, page, face, same, and came.

What's your favorite color?  September's spirit day for RBE is Crayon Day.  On Friday, September 30, your child can dress in his/her favorite color from head to toe!  Also, there are Spirit Days every month and I have now added them to the Upcoming Events section of our blog. :)

It seems that everyone is getting in the routine of homework!  We had a conversation today that the math portion of the homework needs to be completed in pencil.  Mistakes happen in math and pencil allows your child to erase and not have to scribble out answers.  Thanks for your help with this.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Today in PE, your child ran the half mile.  In May, it will be the first time in PE your child will run a full mile.  Some kiddos were super excited about running and Ms. Moore mentioned to them that the Pumpkin Fun Run is happening on Saturday (October 1).  Some kiddos are bringing home a flyer (they had a choice), however, if you would like additional information you can checkout the website!

The kiddos are really enjoying listening to Emily Arrow during writing time and watching her videos as we wait for buses to be called.  I wanted to pass along the link to her website her again because there is so much interest in her songs! :)  Her songs are great and are all made from books!  She's super creative!  RBE PTA is paying for her to visit our school in December...so exciting!!!

Coming home in Friday Folders is a Book It! form.  Book It! is a reading promotional program through Pizza Hut.  I will be discussing this with the class on Friday, but wanted to go ahead and let you know that we will be participating in the program this year.  The goal that the second grade teachers has set is for each student to read 300 minutes each month at home (they would be able to meet this goal if they read 4 extra minutes each night for homework, or read for 15 minutes 5 nights instead of 4 nights).  Your child's responsibility is to fill in the number of minutes read each night & then add the total minutes for the week.  October's Reading Log is due by November 2nd.

Have a wonderful night! :)

Terrific Tuesday! :)

We had a great day back!

Today was picture day!!  All students had their picture taken.  If your child did not have a picture order form or a receipt from an online order, your child is bringing home a paper in case you still want to order pictures.  Also, since all the kiddos were dressed in their best, we took a few extra class pictures for Teacher Town at the RBE Chicken BBQ.  A sneak preview of the pictures are below! :)

The RBE Chicken BBQ is less than 3 weeks away on October 15!!!  There are many ways to be involved: you can come & eat (make sure to order meal or game tickets), work at a station, donate pies, bid in the Silent Auction & Teacher Town.  Teacher Town is a special part of the Silent Auction where teachers put items in that are either made by the class or a special activity to be done with your student.  There are a few different items that you might be interested in:

• We will have a class picture that all the students in the class will sign.  This is our silly picture that we took today. :)

• Mrs. Ross & our class also took a picture together.  This is also our silly picture, but the one that will be in the auction the kiddos used their hands to make a heart and the caption say, "We love RBE!"

• I am also auctioning off a pizza party for a student and 2 friends.  The pizza party will be at lunch.  I will be providing pizza, drink, and a dessert.

• Also, there is an activity that the whole school is able to bid on...the STEAM Bus for a day for one class!  The STEAM bus is full of really cool activities.  This might be something that a group of parents from our classroom might want to come together and bid on (just a thought).

We also finished up our Constitution project today.  The kiddos worked so SUPER hard on them.  The students wrote down 5 freedoms that they are glad that they have on the fingers on one of their hands, drew 4 symbols that represent the U.S, and designed a background.  These posters are on display on our bulletin board outside our classroom.  You should come and check them out! :)

With pictures, library checkout, and finishing up our Constitution project from Friday, our day was a little "off."  Due to this, I did not teach the class about the "Magic e" that changes a short vowel to a long vowel.  The spelling words are on top of your child's homework this week, but they were not introduced today.  As a reminder, these will be your child's spelling words for the next two weeks.  We will talk about the pattern tomorrow!

I did have a discussion with the class about how the weather is getting cooler, and what the second grade requirements are for the temperature.  The Recess Weather Expectations are posted by our door.  Please help your child make good choices of items that s/he would need at school each day (our two recesses our at 9:50 & 11:25).

As a reminder, information on our first field trip to Bird Day came home with your child in his/her Friday Folder.  Please return the bottom portion of the form as soon as possible.  Thanks!

Have a wonderful evening and I hope you get to enjoy this beautiful weather we are having!