News from Mrs. Porter’s Class

Jan. 28-Feb. 1, 2013

 

Calendar of Events

Wednesday, January 30^th-All School Mass-8:30AM

Talent Show in the gym-6:00PM-Bring canned food for admission

 

It’s Catholic School’s Week!!  We will be celebrating Catholic School’s with a theme each day.

 

News and Notes

 

Monday-       Bully prevention day-Wear a purple shirt with uniform

                    pants/jumpers

Tuesday-      Service day-Wear a green shirt with gym pants

****One of the homework assignments that night will be to

          complete an act of “service” at home:  Clean your room, help

          with the dishes, read to your baby brother/sister, call you

          grandparents, etc.  I will want the kids to write down their

          service for the evening. 

Wednesday-Friendship Day-Wear a yellow shirt with uniform pants/jumpers

Thursday-   Pink with a purpose day-Wear an appropriate pink top/ribbon

                    with uniform pants.  This can be any cause close to your heart. 

                    (Relative with cancer, in memory of someone who has died, etc.)

Friday-        Green and Gold Day!  Wear your spirit wear.  Staff vs. Eighth

                    grade volleyball game at 1:00PM

 

I appreciate all students who turned in a coloring page for the coloring contest.  I had some wonderful ideas and pictures in here!

 

Don’t forget to remind your child to take his/her Mass journal to church over the weekend.  All students need to bring this back on Monday.  If you can’t make it to mass, please have your child jot a note on page 4 that your couldn’t make it. 

 

For the second week in a row our class is leading First in Math in the whole school.  Way to go!  Please continue to work on Just the Facts addition and Skip Math.  Over the weekend, I will be checking each student’s progress in every area and assigning new goals for students who have passed each challenge that I have set.

 

Week at a Glance

 

Religion-Complete Chapter 1-Sacraments of Initiation

Reading-Small groups/Daily 5/Amelia Bedilia/Biographies

Spelling-Unit 18 words:  another, came, come, work, three, friend, house, school, wanted, left

Math-Unit 3 test on Tuesday, Begin Unit on Data

Science-Air and Weather

Mrs. Porter’s Second Grade News

Jan. 21-25, 2013

 

Calendar of Events

 

 

Monday, January 21^st-No School-Martin Luther King, JR Day

Tuesday, January 22^nd-Coloring Contest paper is due

Wednesday, January 23^rd-8:30AM-All School Mass

 

 

News and Notes

On Wednesday, all of the students received a Mass journal. Father has asked that the students bring these journals to church over the weekend and jot down any thoughts that they may have about the mass in the journal. On Monday mornings during circle time, I will have the students share their journals with the class. If the student is not catholic, he/she may jot down notes from his/her own celebration. If you did not make it to mass, please make a note of that on the journal page. This weekend, students should be writing on the third page since it’s the third Sunday of the year. These journals were provided by the school, so make sure to remind your child to take good care of it.

I am sending your child’s benchmark results home today. Please look over these scores. I was very pleased with the progress that the students have shown this year. If you do have a child whose scores went down, I have made a note of it and we will be working on some strategies for how to bring it up next time. One strategy that we will be starting with the third grade teachers is to break all 2/3 students up in to the appropriate leveled reading group. We are really hoping that each student will be able to accomplish some individual goals by being in an appropriate leveled group. This will take place during Daily 5 reading time and the teachers are working hard to set up the groups and activities that will take place. As always, these groups will be very flexible and fluid.

Your student needs to bring his/her First Communion book to school. We will begin our lessons about this special sacrament next week.

The winner of our class spelling bee was Madison Hines and the runner up was Keaton Thibo. On Wednesday, January 23^rd, Madison will be recognized at the School spelling bee. Way to go!

Last week, I sent home information about a coloring contest that the second graders are participating in for Catholic School’s week. Please have you child complete the sheet that was attached and turn this in on Tuesday.

Please continue to send in socks and shoes for the children of Honduras. We also continue to collect Box Tops.

Ask your child how his Daily 5 book bag is doing. I am asking any student whose bag is torn, or the straps have broken, to please donate $1.00 to replace it. We did buy these bags at the beginning of the year with the hope that we would be able to use these each year. Unfortunately, some students haven’t taken the best care of the bag. Thanks so much!

Finally, our class has earned a special celebration based on our good behavior as a group. We work together to fill in a "pencil" in the front of the room by walking quietly in the hallways, lining up correctly in the classroom, and earning complements during Unified Arts classes. Next Friday, we will have a Game Day to celebrate. The students are allowed to bring in any games/toys from home to play with. This includes electronic devices as well. We will see if we can earn another fun day by the end of the year!

Reading- Small group work/biographies

Spelling-No spelling this week

Religion- Chapter 1 in First Communion book

Math -Tens and Ones/Counting by 2s, 5s, 10s

Science- Air and Weather

 

Calendar of Events

Sunday, January 13^th-First Communion meeting at 4:30PM.  Meet in the church.  One parent must be present with your child.

Monday, January 14^th-Honors ceremony for the second quarter at 7:45AM

Wednesday, January 16^th-All School Mass at 8:30AM

Friday, January 18^th-Class Spelling Bee-The winner will be announced at the School Spelling Bee on January 23^rd.

 

The benchmark testing has been going really well this week.  I am very pleased with a lot of the results.  Most of the students have scores that have improved.  If you have a child who didn’t improve, I have noted this and will be working on new strategies for how to teach him/her to their best ability.  The scores will be coming home next Friday so please look for that and discuss it with your child.  I did have a few students retake the test because they rushed through it.  Their scores reflect what can happen when we take our time and do our very best.

 

You have received several reminders about the First Communion meeting scheduled for Sunday at 4:30AM in the church.  Parking will be limited because of the large visitation for Mr. O’Donnell. What an exciting time for these second graders.  We will begin our lessons on the Eucharist in the next few weeks.

 

Before Christmas break, I sent home the second grade spelling bee words with each student.  All students will participate in our class spelling bee.  Encourage your child to review these words each night and maybe he/she will be our winner!

 

The Family Connect for the lifeline “Problem Solving” is due on Monday.  I would like to see a little work at the bottom of the page by each student.  Have your child write 2-3 ideas about how to solve a problem.  We will continue to work on Just the Facts-addition for one more week.  I only have a couple of students who haven’t achieved at least 50% complete.  Keep up the great work!  I will be looking for students who can achieve 100% by next Friday!

 

We do continue to collect Box Tops, so please keep sending them in!  Remember that if you collect 50 in a bag your name will be included in the drawing for a TV.  Make sure that you put your child’s name on the baggie with the Box Tops.

 

Thank you for sending in the dove for your child.  I am very close to having everybody’s here at school.  I really appreciate it! 

 

Finally, you will be receiving your child’s progress report for the second quarter today.  Printing of the actual report cards continues to be an issue and we’re working to resolve that.  Please make sure that you continue to check your child’s progress on www.mystudentsprogress.com. 

 

 

Reading- Fables/Nonfiction in small groups/Martin  Luther King stories

English/LA-Homophones

Spelling-Long i/spelling patterns/words that rhyme

Religion- Chapter 5

Math-Even and Odd/ Tens and Ones

Science-Air and Weather

Mrs Porter’s Second Grade 

Weekly Newsletter

Week of January 7-11

 

Calendar of Events

Monday, January 7th-Wear jeans and Notre Dame colors!  Go Irish!

Wednesday, January 9^th-All School Mass 8:30AM

Friday, January 11^th-January book order due

 

Happy New Year and welcome back to school!  I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and a relaxing break from school.  We battled some sickness in our home, but still had some time to play in the snow and celebrate the birth of Jesus. 

 

My next challenge for the students in First in Math is to work on Just the Facts.  First, on the main page, click on Just the Facts.  Then, go to Whole Numbers.  After that, click on the addition sign.  It’s easier for the students to use the number key on the keyboard to type in the answer then to try and use the mouse.  The goal for all students is to complete 50% by the end of the week.  I do still have about 4 students who need to complete the See3 challenge.  I do count these as part of the math grade so please encourage your child to get on the computer every night for a little while.  (I set the timer in our house for 10 minutes.) 

 

On Monday, you should see a note from me in your child’s Take Home folder.  I am asking parents to write a dream or dreams that you have for your child on the attached dove and send this in by Friday, January 11th.  This is a project we do in memory of Martin Luther King’s dreams.  Your child will be filling out a dove as well and these will be displayed in our hallways.

 

Before Christmas break, I sent home a list of spelling words with each student.  These words will be used in a classroom spelling bee that we will be having in a couple of weeks.  It would be a good idea to set aside some time and work on these words with your child so that he/she may become our classroom champion! 

 

 

Reading- Small group work on questioning-using words like who, what, when, where, and why to answer questions about a story.  Daily 5 continues.

Religion- Epiphany of our Lord-Unit 1 review

Math- Number strings, place value, story problem strategies

Social Studies- People who work in communities/Dove

Science-Air and Weather