In the Classroom...

Reading- We will continue our reading unit on friendship. We will be reading a variety of books and students will be working on recounting story events. Students should be reading every evening and completing their Reading Log. The month is almost over and they will be collected soon. Students that meet the monthly reading requirements will be rewarded with a Pizza Hut coupon for a free pizza.

Writing- Students will begin brainstorming topics for writing a personal narrative. Once a topic has been selected they will begin prewriting their story by organizing their thoughts and gathering details to start a draft of the story.

Math- Students will learn how to use repeated addition to write number sentences and solve word problems, use counters to help build arrays and use the arrays to write addition sentences, and identify even and odd numbers. Please make sure your child completes the homework to get the additional needed practice to master these skills.

Classroom Photos

We have been working hard in Centers. Centers gives us an opportunity to practice and reinforce important literacy skills, like independent reading, writing, and phonics skills. It also allows us to work on cooperating with others, and to have fun!  Here are some photos from our hard work in Centers.

Uniform Reminder

We've had a very busy first month of school. It's great to see most of my students arrive to class in full uniform and ready to learn. I wanted to give you a few reminders so that this can continue.

• Shirts must be tucked in for both girls and boys and be a solid red, black, or white
• Shoes must be solid black or brown. Students can change into gym shoes for gym class, but they must wear their school shoes for every other part of the day
• Pants with belt loops must be worn with a solid black or brown belt
• Socks and stockings must also be solid colors - no stripes or designs
• Sweaters may be worn in class, but they must be sweater material (no sweatshirts or jackets), be a solid red, black, or white (no designs, patches, emblems, etc.), and can't have a hood
• Shirts must have a collar (no T-shirts) 

Thank you for ensuring your student adheres to these guidelines.

This Week in School...

The following was sent home in a paper newsletter this week. I will not be sending home paper versions much longer and I will just update classroom happenings on the blog. 

Reading- We will continue to learn about author’s purpose. This week’s focus is on writing to inform. Students will explore books that were written to inform the reader of factual information. We will pull out examples from texts to prove the author’s purpose.

Writing- Students will learn how to create a list of possible writing topics. They will choose a topic from their list and brainstorm possible details for the topic and begin a draft paragraph. We will be working on paragraph structure and writing complete sentences.

Math- Students will find, identify, and apply number patterns to numbers on a hundred chart. They will skip count by different amounts on the number line and use the patterns to identify the numbers that come next. We will review comparing numbers numbers using the symbols <,>, =. However, will use three-digit numbers instead of two-digit numbers.

Welcome To Our Classroom Blog

Welcome to our classroom blog! This is the best way to keep up with our school and classroom news since I generally don't send paper newsletters home.  I will restate the instructions for following the blog that was sent home in the "2nd Grade News" on Monday.  You just need to subscribe your e-mail address so that you received an e-mail whenever I update the blog. I put classroom information, updates, reminders, forms and pictures on the blog.

If I have your e-mail address (on the student contact form) I will enter it for you.  Then you will receive a confirmation e-mail from "feedburner" and you just need to click on the link in order to receive updates.  If I do not have your e-mail address then you can enter it on the blog yourself.  There is a box on the right side labeled "Subscribe."  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Happy Reading!