Information

Parents,

I look forward to meeting with all of you next week for conferences.  Please go to http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0F4BAAAA2DA13-student to sign up for your conference.  If one of the times available does not fit in your schedule, please let me know as soon as possible so we can set up a different time.  Holy Spirit does expect 100% participation at conferences.  This conference will be teacher led in the second grade.

Over the weekend I was working on a spider costume for my son.  Make sure that you are getting your child's costume ready for the fall performance on Oct. 16th!  Mrs. Simms has asked us to remind you that costumes need to be sent to school on Friday, Oct. 12th for the dress rehearsal.  Please put the costume in a bag labeled clearly with your child's name and teacher.

Thanks so much!  Book orders are due tomorrow.

Mrs. Porter's Second Grade News

Week of Oct. 8-12

Calendar of Events

Wednesday, Oct. 10-Rosary at 8:10AM, Mass at 8:30AM

Friday, Oct. 12-End of first grading period/

Harvest Hoedown from 5:00-8:00

                            

Last Wednesday, we had an All School Assembly where Mrs. Parsons read a book to us.  The book was called The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon.  It was a wonderful story that told us all how to make each day better.  These are the top five rules that we learned from the book.  Please talk to your child about how he/she can start each day riding on the "energy bus!"

The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon

1. Create a Positive Vision

2. Fuel Your Ride with Positive Energy

3. No Bullies Allowed

4. Love Your Passengers

5. Enjoy the Ride

Mrs. Simms has asked us to remind each of you to make sure that you are getting your child's costume ready for the Fall program.  Also, have your child review his/her line every night.  If you have questions, please ask Mrs. Simms.  The program will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 16th at 1:30 and 7:00PM.

Parent/Teacher conferences are coming soon.  I'm excited to meet with each one of you and go over some important information about how we can help your child learn the very best way.  If any of you would like to meet with me after school on Monday, Oct. 15th, please e-mail me and we can set something up then.  I just know that it will be a tight fit on Oct. 17th!  Look for an e-mail coming soon about how to set up for a conference time online.

Our class is in fifth place in First in Math and first place in Box Tops for Education.  Thank you so much for your support in both of these worthwhile programs!   Continue to encourage your child to log on to First in Math every night and try all of the games in the K-2 category for sure.  Second grade is not participating in the Aleks math program this year, even though we were included in the math message.

I sent home an October book order last Wednesday.  Book orders are due on Tuesday, Oct. 9th.  Please send a check for your order.  It makes ordering much easier for me that way.  If you would like to order books online, just visit www.scholastic.com and go to Book Orders.  Our class code is GV3KZ.   The more books that are ordered from students, the more books that I'm able to order for our classroom library.

I am in the process of trying to expand the non-fiction portion of our library.  If you have any old issues of the Ranger Rick, National Geographic Kids, or other children's magazines that you want to get rid of, please send them our way.  I will add them to the library to be used by the students during Read to Self/Someone time.

As always, thank you so much for continuing to check your child's planner every night.  This is where much of our communication will be placed.  I appreciate those students who remember to ask you to sign the planner for them!  If your child comes home with incomplete work, please make sure that he/she completes the page and brings it back to school.  Thanks!

Here’s the scoop for next week:

Reading: Complete WRAPS assessments, go to all five Daily 5 stations, review long/short vowels and compound words

Religion: Chapter 5- We are Forgiven

Math: Learning doubles

Spelling: Review Words to Learn, and the words on the lined paper

Science: Life Cycles

Mrs. Porter's Second Grade Newsletter

Week of October 1-5

Calendar of Events

Monday, Oct. 1st-Energy Bus Assembly 9:10AM

Wednesday, Oct. 3rd- Mass 8:30AM

Friday, Oct. 5th-Turn in your trash bag sales-Last Day!

October is here!  It is time for end of the quarter report cards, conferences, and benchmark testing.  This past week, we started the benchmark testing on the net books in our classroom.  You will be receiving these results soon and I will be discussing them with you at conferences.  If you have a child who is struggling in a certain area, these tests will give us the information we need to better teach your child.

Hopefully, your child has been able to play on the "www.firstinmath.com" website.  I look for the player of the day each morning who gets to wear a special VIP badge for the day.  Students can play on the skill sets or go to the K-2 tab.  The more stickers he/she can earn the better.  If you don't have a working computer at home, I will be getting students on the site here at school as well.  I do ask that kids try the website during homework time whenever possible.

Don't forget to have your child read out loud every night.  I know that many students in the second grade can read on their own, but it is still very important to practice oral reading as well.  They also need to be able to answer questions about what they are reading.  After every few pages, ask your child to tell you about what he/she has read so far.  Can they re-tell the story in their own words?

Please keep sending in those box tops-especially on Thursday mornings!  Thanks for your support so far.  Our class continues to be in contention.

Here’s the scoop for next week:

Reading: Word Work, Text to Self, Using Schema(prior knowledge) as we read

Religion: Ch. 4:  We are sorry

Math: Story problems- strategies, using pictures, labeling

Spelling: Please review “Words to Learn” words every night! 

Science:  Plant/Human/Animal life cycles continued

Happy Monday everyone!  Just wanted to let you know that I taped your child's First In Math Username and ID to the inside cover of his/her planner.  Go to www.firstinmath.com and try it out!  Right now we are just exploring the website and trying out different things. 

Today, some of the lunchcards were dropped on the playground before lunch.  These students will not be charged for lunch today.  It will be taken care of.  Thanks!

Second Grade News

Sept. 24-28

 

Calendar of Events

Sunday, Sept. 23-School Mass day at Holy Spirit!  12:00

Come join us for mass at noon this Sunday at Holy Spirit.  If you wear your school uniform, you can get a dress down day from Mrs. Parsons.  Find her after mass and show her that you are wearing your uniform.  Hope to see you there!

 

Your child’s progress report is coming home today.  The “grades” were mostly based on classroom observations and participation.  I am starting to listen to each child read on an individual basis and I will share these results with you at conferences.  Please send these reports back with your child by Wednesday, Sept. 26.  If you have any questions, you can jot me a note on the back or by e-mail. 

I wanted to clarify some information about homework.  Every Monday your child will come home with some important words on a piece of lined paper.  This page is called the Word Preview page.  I would like you to practice these words with your child, though they may or may not be part of the spelling review that week.  I am asking students to write those 10 words in rainbow colors on Monday night.  I don’t care if each word is one color, or each letter is one color.  The colors of the rainbow are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.  ROY G BIV.  If you don’t have the colors indigo and violet at home, just use purple.

 

Students are doing really well on the Daily 5.  Today, we Read for 20 minutes and they could have gone even longer.  I am proud of their hard work and I know that we will just keep getting better every day!  We will be adding Word Work to our Daily 5 next week.

 

Look for Trash Bag envelopes coming home today.  This is another fundraiser for a good cause-a new playground!!

 

I will be taping a piece of paper in your child’s planner on Monday.  This page has the website and your child’s User Name and Password for the First in Math program.  I will talk to the students about this more on Monday, but please ask your child to show you where it is.  It will be assigned periodically for math homework for those of you who have working computers.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Here’s the scoop for next week:

Reading: Coaching lesson, WRAPS reading assessment

Religion: Chapter 3-We Reflect and examine our conscience

Math: Addition combinations

Spelling: Rainbow words Monday, review words throughout week, go over Words to Learn in green folder

Science: Life Cycles of plants

 

Mrs. Porter’s Second Grade News

Week of Sept. 17-21

 

Calendar of Events

Tuesday, Sept. 18-Happy birthday Giovanni!

Wednesday, Sept. 19-Mass at 8:30AM; Citizenship Day

Friday, Sept. 21-Progress reports

 

My blog is up and running-yeah!  If you want to have an e-mail notice whenever I update my blog, just put your e-mail address in the white box at the top of the page and press submit.  I will always have a new blog posted every Friday.  I will also periodically include things during the week.

 

We have officially begun our preparation for the sacrament of Reconciliation!  Look for some activities to come home that have to do with this sacrament.  Please make sure that you have paid $15 for the Reconciliation booklet to Gladys in the Religious Education office if you haven’t already done so. 

 

On Wednesday of this week, we will be discussing Citizenship Day in our classroom.  We will talk about how to be a good citizen and brainstorm ways that we can show good citizenship in our country, community, and school.  This will go nicely with our efforts to pass the light of Christ on to others.

 

Second graders will only be doing the “First in Math” computer program this year.  I will be introducing the program to the students in the next couple of weeks.  This is a fun website that promotes learning math through games and competition.  The Aleks program will not be used by second graders this year.

 

I am really hoping to start listening and assessing each student’s reading abilities this week.  I will be letting you know if I have a great concern about the reading level of your child.  This will also help students pick books at the appropriate level in the library and the classroom.  I will then base my results on forming my reading groups in the classroom.  The students keep improving their stamina during read to self, writing, and read to someone.  What a fun way to become better readers!

 

Part of the reading program emphasizes picking good fit books.  This is a way to help your child pick out books:

 

I- I choose the book

P-What is the purpose for reading it?

I-Does it interest me?

C-Can I comprehend(understand) what the book is about?

K-Do I know most of the words?

 

It looks like we will be using a “paper” progress report this quarter, while we hope to have the “My Student’s Progress” online grading system up and running next quarter.  This first quarter in second grade is basically review and learning procedures, so I have not had a great chance to record many grades.  Your child’s grade will mainly be based on observations in the classroom.

 

Don’t forget to send in those box tops!!  Our class is battling for the lead.

 

Here’s the scoop for next week:

Reading: Pick a good book for Friday book report.  Listen to reading, using prior knowledge in your reading. Read to Self, Read to Someone.  Building stamina!

Religion: Chapter 2 in Reconciliation book

Math: Make 10

Spelling: Word Preview/Rainbow words on Monday; Review test on Friday

Science: Work on science notebooks; life cycles of trees and humans

Tonight's homework was a little different.  From now on, I will be giving students a Word Work activity on Monday night that goes with the Word Preview words.  Remember, these are not necessarily spelling words, but your child can get to know them well.  The main purpose is to learn how these words are used in a sentence.

Tomorrow is gym and library day.  Students may come to school in gym clothes and make sure to bring your library book back.  Make sure to remind your child to pick a Good Fit book out at library time.

I will let you know what service our class will be providing on Friday.  I'm looking forward to see what it is.  It's always such a great idea to give back to the community.  It's what our Catholic faith is all about!  I will be sending my blog address on Friday.

Mrs. Porter