Super Second Graders

January

2012-01-29T11:18:00.000-08:00

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS' WEEK! Monday is movie day, Tuesday is Bishop's Mass, Wednesday snowshoeing and sliding day (remember to turn in permission slips), Thursday is Spelling Bee for older kids, and Friday is Talent Show! It promises to be a busy week! ALSO, REMEMBER TO TURN IN SLIPS FOR SUNDAY LITURGY. WE NEED MORE KIDS!

Wanted: water bottle caps or pop caps ( the little white ones or clear ones.) Thanks!

January 26

2012-01-26T11:15:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our newest member of our Church! Nakiah was baptized at Our Lady of the Lake, and we had a "surprise" celebration for him in our classroom. We are proud of him!!!

We had our second liturgy of the year on Wednesday. The kids did really well. We have such good readers in our class!

Soon we will be finishing up our penguin unit. We had stories and an Art project with our Kindergarten friends. Friday we will have a movie and popcorn with them!

We had a treat on Tuesday. Mrs. Zifko invited our class to do the Chinese New Year cooking of wontons that she did with other classes. It was a fun experience and delicious, too! Mrs. Pliss also helped her with this project. THANK YOU, LADIES!

We have done our Math test on telling time. Most people did really well! We also had our mid-year Spelling Achievement Tests and our Leveled and Fluency Reading tests. Good Job, Kids!!!

We are looking forward to Catholic Schools' Week and especially the Mass with Bishop Peter on Tuesday. Wear RED!

January 5

2012-01-05T17:30:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We're all back and ready for a brand new year! There's so much we have to learn yet, and the time goes so quickly ( though I do have to admit - some DAYS go by slowly! :-)

We had a very nice liturgy for the Epiphany/Christmas on Wednesday. The kids helped and the teachers were the choir. Mr. Bell played the organ. It is so nice to be able to sing Christmas carols. We all got to view Father Paul's gifts for the Three Wisemen - gold, frankincense,and myrrh. It was fun to see them!

Today Mrs. Urling came in and read about Snowflakes. There was a discussion about snowflakes, too. Then the kids made beautiful and bright snowflakes, and they wrote a poem to go with their artwork. Mrs. Urling showed them how they did Reading, Science, Poetry, and Art all in less than an hour! Good job kids! Thank you, Mrs. Urling!!

We are working on various subjects with our new mimio board. I have a lot to learn yet on making things work properly! I actually have had some success with it, and the kids enjoy the activities because they are interactive. I look forward to using it for many activities which will add to our learning.

Our next liturgy for grade two will be on January 25th. Maybe you can plan ahead and be able to attend it with us. Our kids do so well, and they will make great lectors, greeters, and ushers as they get older!

We are working with analog clocks now. Some kids are a little confused when it comes to the quarter hour, half hour, and 45 minutes. It takes time and practice to get this. They are doing well with counting by 5 minutes for after the hour times. Maybe you can ask them to tell you the time if you have an analog clock available, and that will give extra practice. Keep practicing addition and subtraction facts daily, too!

We would like to thank Mrs. Marita and her family and friends who helped her collect Sunny D labels. Her time and effort awarded our class 20 new books for our classroom!!!! Thank you, Mrs. Marita! We appreciate it!!

Have a good evening!

Dec. 15

2011-12-15T13:27:00.000-08:00

St. Lucy activities with our Kindergarten friends on December 13. We made headbands, colored pictures, heard the story of St. Lucy, and made St. Lucia Rolls. It was a fun project!

December 15- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY JESUS!

It was our annual Baby Jesus Party. I began this party MANY years ago when I taught fourth grade, and it eventually included more classes until today when we celebrate with Grades One through Four! THANK YOU TO ALL WHO SENT GIFTS FOR "BABY JESUS"!!! This year our gifts are going to The BRICK. Linda Barnes, the director, came to our party and was very happy to have the BRICK receive the food and other baby items to give to their clients. It makes us feel good, too, to be giving to others, which is our main goal with this project. We made cards for residents of local nursing homes, and then we enjoyed cake, ice cream, and punch together. We listened to and sang Christmas carols - a good "practice time" for our caroling day on Monday!

We continue to learn about Advent as well as preparing for First Reconciliation. There's so much we can learn, and it's a joy to be teaching it!

We are still working with money - making change, using the fewest coins,etc.

Tomorrow is the chapter test on that, and we'll see how much more practice we need. We pretended to be a clerk and customer to count back change. They really enjoyed that.

Have a good evening!

Dec. 8

2011-12-08T05:33:00.000-08:00

We have liturgy this morning for the feast of the Immaculate Conception. We have begun our First Penance preparation, and we will continue to do so until January. Rememember to mark your calendars for January 11th. It will be at 5:30 or 6:00.

Tomorrow is our K-8 Christmas Program at 6:30 in Church. Notes went home regarding this night. All students should wear their Sunday best. They should not wear perfume, cologne, or scented hairspray due to students who have asthma and reactive airway disease which are aggravated by these products. Students are to leave their coats, boots, etc. with parents in Church as the doors to school will be locked. Students need to be here between 6 and 6:15. We will be in our classroom prior to the program. Thank you!

Tomorrow we will learn about St. Juan Diego. Monday is Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast day, wo we'll learn about her, too. Next Tuesday, we will be doing projects with Kindergarten to celebrate and learn about St. Lucy.

DECEMBER 19TH WE WILL PLAN TO GO CAROLING WITH THE 1ST, 3RD, AND 4TH GRADERS. PERMISSION SHEETS WILL BE SENT HOME.

REMEMBER OUR BABY JESUS PARTY NEXT WEEK - DECEMBER 15TH. GIFTS MAY BE SENT IN ANY TIME PRIOR TO THAT DAY. WE HAVE A BOX FOR OUR COLLECTIONS.

Have a good week!

NOVEMBER 29

2011-11-29T05:59:00.000-08:00

Wow! Another month gone! December always goes by very quickly with all the activities during the month. We will be working on Advent activities in Religion as well as beginning our Reconciliation preparation.

We have begun learning about money in Math. We use our "fake" coins to practice counting. It would be helpful if you could use real money at home to give the kids extra practice. Keep practicing Math facts, too!

Remember our field trip to the Visitor's Center this Thursday, December 1. Please send BOOSTER SEATS. I may need another driver if I don't hear from anyone today or tomorrow.

Here's a SECOND GRADE WISH LIST:
If you have any portable/personal cassette players no one uses and headphones, we could use them for our Listen to Reading times. If you have any personal CD players also, we may be able to record books onto CDs to use, too.

If your children have "outgrown" or no longer read paperback books you have around the house, we can always use those,too. My kids are now "into" the My Weird School book series. I was at Sam's last week, and I noticed they have an entire SET of 21 books, but I didn't have the $50 to buy it, of course. I have purchased several of them, but not as a set. I really like that they are enjoying them and will read more!

We could also use craft containers with 26 compartments for our magnetic and other letters to practice spelling words.

Thank you!! Have a good day!

November 18

2011-11-18T05:42:00.000-08:00

THANK YOU! We had 100% for our Parent-Teacher Conferences! That is wonderful! I was happy to meet with all of you!

We have a "tentative date" for First Reconciliation. We hope to have this on Wednesday, January 11th at 6:00. I am waiting to confirm this date with Father but right now it looks OK. I will let you know for sure when it's set.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving break, and we wish all of our hunters a safe and successful hunt!!!

Keep practicing those Math facts and Spelling words as well as Reading each night. It makes a big difference, and our scores are showing this improvement! Hooray!

Have a good weekend!

November 14

2011-11-14T12:16:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more pictures! Halloween, Respect Award, and Lunch with Firemen!

This week we will be doing our usual work, but we will also be making our turkey centerpieces for our Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday, November 17. Hopefully ALL kids will eat hot lunch on this special occasion!

Our mimio board is here and will be put up as soon as our maintenance men have the time to do it. They have much work to do every day, and we are thankful for these type of EXTRAS we ask them to do!

REMEMBER: PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES ARE THIS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17. I KNOW WE WILL HAVE 100% PARTICIPATION!

Our school did a good job with the Stuff a Truck project. Thanks to all who helped.

LOOKING AHEAD:

We plan on having a Baby Jesus Party again this year in December. We will be bringing in gifts for babies such as diapers, wipes, shampoo, powder, formula, food, etc. This year the Baby Jesus gifts will be given to The Brick. More information on this will follow when we have a date set.

Thanks for all you do!

November 7

2011-11-07T16:16:00.000-08:00

Friday is our Veteran's Day Program. Our class, along with grades 3 and 4, will be doing the music for the program. Boys are asked to bring their "cowboy" themed costumes by Thursday. Girls will have costumes at school. I'm looking forward to seeing this program! Ms. Betzold does a super job! She works hard and has extra practices to make this a good program. Thank you, Ms. Betzold!!

Today we did our fluency tests for Reading. These are one minute tests where kids read a passage to see how many words they can read correctly in one minute. They did a wonderful job of improving! I am proud of them!

Remember to send things for Stuff the Truck! We need LOTS of goodies!

We have two retired teachers who are now helping us each week! Thank you to Mrs. Gundelach and Mrs. Setzke! You are appreciated!!!

Are any of you interested in coming in to make Christmas ornaments for the for the State Capitol tree? I know there are some creative people out there, and I'd be happy to have you come and do that with my kids. They are to be "handmade by students, lightweight, and 4 to 6 inches in size. They also need to be strong enough to handle shipping and storage. They want ornaments that represent our community and/or school. The color should contrast with the tree color for maximum visibility." The ornaments will not be returned to us, and they need to be sent in by Friday, November 18th. Let me know if you have great ideas and would like to do this project.

Have a great day!

OCTOBER 31

2011-10-31T05:40:00.000-07:00

PUMPKIN NIGHT FUN!!!

THANKS FOR ALL WHO COULD ATTEND OUR PUMPKIN NIGHT! IT WAS FUN!

REMEMBER LITURGY TUESDAY AT NINE! PLEASE JOIN US!

REMEMBER, TOO, TO HELP US STUFF THE TRUCK! MR. BELL IS GOING TO GIVE A PIZZA PARTY TO THE CLASS WHO HAS THE HIGHEST WEIGHT OF DONATIONS!!!!

OCTOBER 26

2011-10-26T14:23:00.001-07:00

Pictures from our Science experiement, rock painting, and the Pumpkin Patch field trip! Lots of fun things to do!!!

Our field trip with the Kindergarten class and Mrs. Westlund was a lot of fun! Thank you to those who drove and chaperoned!!! We are looking forward to tomorrow night, our PUMPKIN NIGHT! REMEMBER - 5:30! BRING YOUR PUMPKIN CARVING KITS!! FUN AND TREATS! BE SURE AND JOIN US!

Next TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1ST WILL BE OUR FIRST LITURGY that we host for this year! It is All Saints' Day, so I hope you will all be able to join us! Fourth grade will help us since we need a few extra kids.

Another reminder - November Lucky book orders are due this Friday, October 28th. The next one will be due November 1st. Please send a check made out to Scholastic Book Clubs. Thanks for supporting us so we can get free books for the classroom.

More Excitement!!!- We will SOON be getting our Mimio Board!!! Hooray! It will be fun to learn about using this and being able to supplement our lessons with interactive lessons using the mimio board.

Keep practicing Math facts, reading each night, and study Spelling words!

October 13

2011-10-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a full day at Rice Lake! I only wish our kids could hear and see our liturgies! They are SUPERB! Bishop Peter even commented on how much he enjoys the full participation of all of the teachers and clergy who attend. It is the BEST part of the whole day! The keynote speaker was AWESOME! It's a good boost for us to attend these sessions and Mass with so many Catholic School teachers and staff - and Religious Formation teachers, too!

Today we had a guest speaker from the New Day Shelter. She does an excellent job with our kids! She talked about personal space and feeling safe, unsafe, and risking on purpose. The kids have a paper to show you of My Helping Hands and a "gingerbread type" drawing. Have them explain it to you! The speaker complimented the class on how well they listened and participated. Hooray!

Remember the All School Liturgy at 10:00 this Sunday. Even if the kids haven't signed up yet, they may still participate by being in the choir! Please come if you can!

Book orders for Oct. 14 are due tomorrow. Remember to write checks to Scholastic Book Clubs rather than send cash.

Thanks!

OCTOBER 4

2011-10-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Francis Day! Today I read about St. Francis, and because we weren't in school on Saturday, I also read about St. Therese whose feast day is October 1. Next week we will begin our lessons on the Rosary since October is the month of the rosary.

Last Friday, we had a great time painting rocks with Mrs. Worrall and the fourth graders! I hope the kids took theirs home to show you! We had some great rock painters! I hope to get pictures on our blog when I get the parent permission list.

We have had several children out sick these past three days! We sanitize desks at the end of the day, but we all know germs are everywhere! Let's hope they get well soon! Mrs. Parent is still at home recovering, so we include her in our prayers,too.

We are working on missing addends in Math, and some of the kids had a difficult time with this yesterday. I encourage you to spend some time each night practicing Math facts with your child. ( As well as Reading, of course :-)

Just a couple of reminders:
BLESSING OF ANIMALS TOMORROW AT 2:30 - Animals should not be sent with the children.
ST. FRANCIS LITURGY WED. AT 9 YOU ARE ALWAYS WELCOME!
NEXT MONDAY AND WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10 AND 12 THERE'S NO SCHOOL FOR THE CHILDREN.

Have a great day!

September 25

2011-09-25T07:30:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was Native American Day at our children's liturgy. It was so nice to see our kids wear their regalia and process in with Father. Many places celebrate Native American Day the third Friday in September. In keeping with that, we used our Social Studies class to learn more about our Native culture. We had a discussion on pow-wows, the kinds of dances, the meanings, eagle feathers, the honoring of nature in the Ojibwe religion, and story telling. I read several stories that my kids really enjoyed. They decorated "parfleches" and wrote about the stories or a thank you note for the things Native Americans have taught. I also made Indian Fry Bread for them to have for an afternoon snack. It was an enjoyable day!

We worked on making words with letter cards in Spelling and also played "Sparkle", a game to practice spelling ( but it's also one they need to be good listeners and follow directions to stay in the game.) They love it! We are working on stories for our Reading-Writing Workshop, but we will be writing often. We also have journals they can write in.

We have been practicing our fact families in Math and subtraction. This week we will take our Chapter 1 Test and begin Chapter 3. I ask the kids to practice Math facts each night (along with their 20 minutes of reading, of course :-) !)

In Science we are learning about living and nonliving things. We went outside to observe and list things that are living and nonliving. They did a great job! We came back inside and compared lists. This week we will learn about what animals need to survive.

Friday we will do an Art project with our fourth grade buddies. We will paint rocks! Mrs. Worral is our in-house expert on rock painting, so she will be helping kids do this. If you haven't seen some of her rock painting, make it a point to ask her. She's wonderful!

Have a great week!

September 10

2011-09-09T05:24:00.000-07:00

A week in, and things are going well! The dinner last night was very nice. Thanks to the families who were able to make it, and the ones who came to our open house! I know there were soccer games and other activities going on last night, too. It's always busy in September.

We have worked on our Reading Level tests and fluency tests for reading this week. I"ve read quite a few books so far - something I enjoy doing very much. I try and incorporate books into every subject. I also did a Math Inventory test which everyone did well on. We read about Science Inquiry Skills and Science Tools for our Science this week. The kids wrote about their first day of Second Grade.
We learned about the Apostles' Creed, and we also celebrated Mary's birthday yesterday with a coloring page and a book called MARY, MOTHER OF GOD which told of her life and was written as if she were writing the story. I also read the books IF JESUS CAME TO MY HOUSE, and IF JESUS WALKED BESIDE ME.

I would encourage any of you who would like to volunteer in the classroom or drive on field trips this year to really make an effort to attend the Safe and Sacred training since it is a diocesan requirement for working with kids in our school. Mark your calendars! It is next THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 IN OUR SOCIAL HALL. REGISTRATION IS AT 5:15. IT IS ONLY AN HOUR TRAINING. Those who had the training last year do not need to attend since the training is good for 5 years. Grandparents and any others who want to volunteer should also attend. Hope to see you there!

Have a good weekend!

August 19

2011-08-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another school year! I am gearing up for a new start with a new group of students! I've been working in the classroom for the past two weeks. It's beginning to feel like I'm almost ready - just need to get a few more things done, including a schedule for the year. I hope the children are looking forward to a new, exciting year! See you soon!

May 17

2011-05-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is our liturgy. I hope you can make it since it's our last one this year!

We are always busy learning new things. Last week, Mrs. Reed brought some of her Spanish students here to have them read books to our kids. The book for our class was LOS ANIMALES, and the students drew their own pictures to go with the Spanish words. Then they gave each of our kids the Spanish name which was closest to their own names. It was fun!

We are speeding along in Math! We have done Geometry, Measurement, and Ordering and Comparing Numbers. Next up is fractions. Those are always fun!

Keep on Reading and practicing Math Facts with your kids!

Celery, Seaweed, and Pretzels!!

2011-04-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

Here are some recent pics! We painted flowers with celery last week. Today Officer Brinker came in and read YOKO by Rosemary Wells, and he brought seaweed for us to try! Everyone at least put it in their mouth to try! :-)

We made pretzels as a Lenten project to remind us to pray!

APRIL 5

2011-04-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

FIRST COMMUNION LETTERS WENT HOME. I HOPE EVERYONE RECEIVED THEIRS! IF YOU DIDN'T, CHECK WITH YOUR CHILD. THEY ARE IN ENVELOPES. THE PART THAT I NEED SIGNED AND RETURNED IS THE SHEET AND MONEY IF YOU WANT ED MONROE TO TAKE YOUR CHILD'S PICTURE ON FIRST COMMUNION DAY. The other part is for your information. Remember to contact Kelly at the Parish Center by THIS FRIDAY if you are interested in a brunch. Remember, too, you can purchase First Communion gifts at the Parish Center! Next week, April 14th, we will be "trading up" classes!! Those in my class will go to 3rd grade for the day, and I will have the present first graders with me. It should be a good day to meet and work with our upcoming classes! We are still working on subtraction in Math. They have picked it up and are moving forward. Hooray! Soon we will be having our Unit 3 Review, and then will move on to Geometry. In Science, we are learning about natural resources and reducing, reusing, and recycling! Our Religion is First Communion lessons as well as Lenten activities. I hope to make pretzels with my class next week. My class does this as a symbol of remembering to pray. The pretzels symbolize arms crossed in prayer.

March 8

2011-03-08T13:38:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrated Mardi Gras! We had King's Cake and popcorn. We made jesters for Art, and wore masks and beads! I read about Mardi Gras so the kids would know what it was about. Last year they made masks, so we did the jester this year. I'm grateful for dollar stores - that's where I bought the beads and masks.

Tomorrow is ASH WEDNESDAY. I hope you can make it to Church with us! We will be doing different projects during Lent, but they all will help us learn about Lent and our faith.

The kids are supposed to do extra reading for Officer Brinker. This is in addition to the 20 minutes they're to be reading for me each night. The more they read, the better they get!!!

Keep Sister Margaret Ann in your prayers. She is having some health issues.

Have a good day!

February 25

2011-02-25T08:45:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures with Officer Brinker. He is AWESOME! He comes to our classroom and reads ( actually he does that in other schools, too!) He speaks to the kids about important things in life and making good choices. This week he also showed the kids some of his equipment that police officers carry with them.. He let the children try on his vest. That was fun! Each child was given a reading record sheet to encourage the kids to read more. This record is in addition to the 20 minutes per night the kids should be reading. He said he'd like them to read " a little bit more each day". I like his thinking!! :-)

Another week in, and March is almost here - WOW! Unbelievable, isn't it?

We had our Math Chapter test yesterday on two-digit addition. We will be doing more addition next week.

We will soon be gearing up for First Communion! May 1st isn't all that far away. We will be doing many activities and lessons to help prepare for this wonderful Sacrament!

I was pleased to hear how many children brush and floss each day! Our Weekly Reader this week was on tooth care.

Yesterday in Science we did an activity with rock salt and sand to show how Earth can change shape. They enjoyed that very much, and we had fifth graders helping us.

Have a good weekend!

Feb. 22

2011-02-22T09:11:00.000-08:00

It was nice to have a few days off!

Just thought I'd share a picture of some of my kids making homemade lemonade! Their reading group read the book HOW TO MAKE LEMONDADE so I brought the things needed to have them follow directions to make some for the class. They enjoyed rolling and squeezing the lemons, but they enjoyed drinking it, too!

February 11

2011-02-11T13:38:00.000-08:00

Monday is Valentine's Day! We will be exchanging valentines at the end of the day. You may send treats if you would care to do so.

The kids REALLY have cabin fever after being inside ALL week! We all need them to get out and use up some energy. I'll bet parents feel the same way. IF the forecast is true, we'll be out next week with warmer weather - HOORAY!

Reconciliation went very well on Wednesday night. Both priest said all of the kids were very well prepared. Thanks to Sue Erickson, too! She has a large group to work with this year. On to First Communion preparations now. REMEMBER, make plans now, especially if you will have out of town guests for this special occasion. It is at the 10:00 Mass on May 1st.

We are working very hard at learning our cursive writing. We have only done the undercurve letters, and I have asked them NOT to try writing at home. I want to be certain they are learning it the correct way and not developing habits that are difficult to break. Today they are taking some practice sheets home they traced today. I have tracers showing the correct form, plus we do this on paper without tracing. I show them on the board and place a dot where they begin. I wil continue to have them put the dots until I am sure they are beginning and writing correctly.

I am doing some Math assessments individually to see if they are where I'd like them to be. We've done assessments on number sense and expanded notation. I also do individual oral tests for the facts through the nines. Keep practicing!

Next Friday will be a review spelling test from words in Units 1-18. Many of the words in Sitton repeat from test to test so I continue to encourage students to study. They have weekly words in their planners except for the weeks I do a review test. Then I practice with them during school. I have a sheet with the words they've had in Units 1-18 that they'll be using in school, too. Last time, I gave them a sheet to practice from Units 1-12 and most of the sheets didn't come back, so I won't be sending these home this time.

Wednesday, Bev Hanson, grandmother of Riley, Reece, and Ross Larson, came to our classroom and read the book WHO TOOK THE COOKIE FROM THE COOKIE JAR? The kids loved it and chanted the phrases along with the book. Then Bev gave them sugar cookies and let them frost and decorate them with colored sugar and sprinkles. She also made chocolate chip cookies because that's the kind that the book showed. We are very appreciate of Bev coming in to read and the cookies! Thanks, "Grandma Bev"!

SELL THOSE PIZZAS!!! Have a warm weekend!

January 27

2011-01-27T12:20:00.000-08:00

It's a PENGUIN PARTY!
Today we finished up our Penguin unit with a party. The kids finished their reports on Monday and presented them to the class. Today we played "Roll a Penguin" with dice, did the penguin egg race ( pretending to be a penguin parent with the egg on their feet - a white beanbag), read a penguin play with each child taking parts ( fluency practice!), and then had treats. I bought swedish fish, whale crackers, blue jello, blue Hawaiian punch packets to put in a bottle for each child, and made "penguins" out of oreo cookies with a Hershey kiss. The kids seemed to enjoy it. While eating, they got to see a penguin video.

We also finished up our reading assessments for this nine weeks. I like the improvements I see! We also did fluency assessments to see if they have improved this 9 weeks. We'll talk about their assessments at conferences.

I would very much like to know the kids are reading each night. No child has turned in the reading calendar. Children are asked to read 20 minutes a night. Please work at this. Like I tell the kids, "The more we read, the better we get!"

We worked on calendars and estimating as part of our learning about telling time. Keep working on practicing math facts, too. It's important!

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS' WEEK NEXT WEEK! Hooray for OLL!!!

January 20

2011-01-20T11:46:00.000-08:00

January 21 no school! ( for kids- but not teachers!) Hope you all have a nice weekend!

We are working on time in Math. I think some need more practice with analog clocks and minutes before and after the hour, so we'll keep on that.
Today I did individual Math facts oral tests. We've gotten up to the 6s in addition. I will test through the 9s, and then I will start on subtraction facts tests. They need to know facts through 18 or 20, so keep ( or start) practicing with your children. You can do this in the car, while making supper, etc.

We will be finishing up on our penguin reports next week. Each child has a certain penguin to find information on, and I have made this information available for each one. They may also work at home if you'd like to do so. They will need the reports ready to go next week - the "published" (final copy).

Reconciliation preparations are in full swing. I hope your child is taking the lessons home for you to read the "parent" section. I 've asked them to do so. We are also viewing some Reconciliation videos to add to our classroom lessons. They are videos we order through our diocesan media center.

Our Mass with Bishop Peter was so nice yesterday! The kids did very well on that long bus ride, too! It was a good chance for kids to see the cathedral also since most kids never get to do that.

We continue to keep the Eaton family in our prayers. Please keep them in yours too.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES WILL BE ON FEBRUARY 7TH!

January 10

2011-01-10T06:33:00.000-08:00

FIRST RECONCILIATION DATE IS FEBRUARY 9TH AT 5:30

January 8

2011-01-08T20:14:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you had a nice Christmas break! My family took turns having the stomach flu (It was bad! 11 of us got sick!)

It took some kids a bit of time to get back into the swing of things, but we're going full speed again. :-) We are practicing money since not enough of them passed the test to my satisfaction, so we're reviewing. We are also going to be learning about telling time. There are so many digital clocks around that some kids struggle with analog clocks.

This week we will be starting our Penguin Research project for Science. The kids will get a different penguin to find information on and write a report to share with the class. It wil be fun!

Spelling words are written in their planners each week and should be practiced each night - don't forget Math fact practice nightly, too! Sometimes we have a review test, and this coming Friday will be one of those. I'll pick words from any of the previous units. Later this month, we'll also do a mid-year achievement test and compare how they did on the first test to this one.

Reconciliation lessons are in full swing, too! Father Gary mentioned the date, and somewhere I had the 6th written down. It WON'T BE on a Sunday evening!!! It will be on Wednesday night. You WILL be receiving a letter on the information about the Sacrament time and date soon!

DECEMBER 21

2010-12-21T14:28:00.000-08:00

One more day! Tomorrow we will be practicing for the Christmas Eve Children's Liturgy after Mass. We have about 35 kids who have signed up to participate!! It will be a great way for our school families and parish families to celebrate the birth of Christ!

Some of the kids did our Christmas tree project, and the pics show a couple of them. Good job!

We are ALL looking forward to a nice break!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

December 10

2010-12-10T13:45:00.000-08:00

Whew! What a busy day!!! The kids all loved shopping!!!! We had great helpers from the eighth grade. Thank you eighth graders!! After all that excitement who should show up unexpectedly but SANTA AND MRS. CLAUS!! Each child had a chance to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they want for Christmas. He asked them to try and not fight as much with siblings and to help Mom and Dad more. The kids were very honest about answering his questions about helping at home and getting along with brothers and sisters. :-)

We had our Advent Retreat on the 6th with the 3rd grade class. We went to the Pastoral Center to have our retreat. During this retreat, we made Advent wreaths and doves. We prayed around the Advent wreath four times, sang "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel", watched a video The Christmas Gift, and also a St. Nicholas video since we also celebrated his feast day. It was a very nice way to add prayer and meaning during the Advent season as well as to be buddies with another class!

We learned about Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe this week also. There's so much to learn about our faith and the holy people who lived their faith so well!

Next week we will begin our preparation for First Reconciliation! The date will be February 9th at 5:30 P.M. It is an exciting time for us. All too soon we will be doing special lessons to prepare for First Communion.

On Monday, we will be going to County Market to ring the Salvation Army bell. It's a nice service project - one I'm able to do because of the small class size. Also on Monday, we will be learning about Santa Lucia with our Kindergarten friends! We will make Santa Lucia rolls for our snack and do art projects.

Thursday is our Baby Jesus Party. Remember gifts for Baby Jesus need to be unwrapped. It's going to be nice!

HAVE A SUPER WEEKEND!

NOVEMBER 30 CORRECTION!!

2010-11-30T05:21:00.001-08:00

CORRECTION!

SHOPPING DAY FOR THE STUDENTS IS DECEMER 10 (not the 17th - sorry for the error)

November 29

2010-11-29T16:19:00.000-08:00

Advent has begun! We are already learning about the Advent wreath and its symbols. We will continue to learn about Advent and light our candles each day at prayer time. We'll put up a paper Jesse Tree and talk about the symbols on it. Next Monday, December 6, we will be having an Advent Retreat with the third grade class in the Pastoral Center. This will just be in the afternoon.

Looking ahead to the following week, we will be having our annual Baby Jesus party! I started this party many years ago, and it's a fun way to celebrate the birth of Jesus and helping other families who are not as fortunate as we are. This started out with just 1st and 4th grade and has since expanded to include grades 1 through 4. You will be receiving a letter about this soon. For those new to our school, the kids bring in unwrapped baby gifts to honor Baby Jesus. These gifts go to our local ABC Healthy Families program to be distributed to some families in need. At this party, the children will be making Christmas cards to distribute to local nursing homes. The kids love this, and the residents enjoy receiving their cards so this is another way of serving others - our elderly and sick.

I am considering setting up a time my kids could ring the bells for the Salvation Army. We have a small enough class to do this, and I think the kids would enjoy it, too. I'll let you know more and send permission slips if I can arrange this activity.

This Wednesday, we will be working with our fourth grade buddies to paint rocks. Mrs. Worrall is a wonderful rock painter, and she has graciously offered to help us with this project!

We will, of course, continue with our "regular" studies each day. This week we are working on double final consonants including "ck". We will be practicing exclamatory sentences for English. In Science, we're learning about stems, leaves, and roots. In Math, we are continuing to work with money. Today we found many different coins to make $1.00 which was fun - and a little confusing to some children, too.

WANTED: PERSONAL TAPE PLAYERS - like the Walkman players that used to be sold. I am finding these aren't sold around here. Most are CD players.

DATES TO REMEMBER:
DECEMBER 6 ADVENT RETREAT
DECEMBER 16 BABY JESUS PARTY
DECEMBER 17 KIDS SHOPPING DAY AT O.L.L.
DECEMBER 20 CHRISTMAS CONCERT 6:30

Thanks for all you do!

November 12

2010-11-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

One more week before the kids are home for Thanksgiving break! I hope you are looking forward to that special time!

We finished our Chapter 6 Math test and the kids did a great job! Our next test will be our Unit 1 Test on Monday. Then we will start on money - sometimes a challenge for kids. Hopefully, they have counted money when buying things to give them a start on learning about money counting.

This week we worked on multiple meaning words, fact and opinion, and sentences that are commands. We also worked on consonant blends such as br, tr, sw, sp, pl, etc. and the two sounds of c - hard c and soft c.

This week's Weekly Reader was on the flu and the differences between the flu and a cold.

Next week, we will be learning the parts of a plant for Science - stems, roots, leaves, flowers.

In Religion, we'll be learning about God the Father and His love for us! We always enjoy our Good News for Children lessons each week. We use these at the end of the week to prepare for the Sunday liturgy readings. They are high-interest and meaningful lessons.

REMINDER: PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16TH. SEE YOU THEN!

October 29

2010-10-29T13:29:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! We had a nice day, and it was a fun one, too! We had a story How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?
We played Halloween bingo, and Mrs. Panasuk read the kids a book Can God See Me in the Dark? Thank you to Mrs. Lindman for the treat of Dilly Bars! We also did an activity called Roll -A-Scarecrow with dice. I had planned on taking pictures to put on here of the kids in costumes. Wouldn't you know it? My camera needed to be charged!

We finished Chapter 5 in MATH this week and started on Chapter 6 which is on graphs.

Next week, we will be working on writing a description for Reading-Writing Workshop. We'll be talking about using sensory language and adding details. We'll also practice words that are frequently misspelled.

We'll be working on capitalizing titles and names and the Long I sounds with different spellings.

In Science, we'll learn about the life cycles of a cat, frog, and sea turtle.

Our November quilt will go along with the book Knots on a Counting Rope.

REMEMBER OUR LITURGY NEXT WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3!!! HOPE YOU CAN JOIN US!

October 22

2010-10-22T17:12:00.000-07:00

We had another good week, and we finished the theme skills tests. We also had a Math test, so it was a busy week as usual.

We are currently working on getting our October stories "published". We are making our own books. We have two completed! The writing process steps seem to be difficult for the kids. They hadn't had any experience with it last year, so it's a whole new thing to learn!

Our all school Rosary on Wednesday was very nice! It was so helpful for the children to be able to follow along with the prayers on the screen. Thanks to Mr. Bell for putting it together, for Mrs. Parent for taking care of the technical part of it for us, and for Mrs. Marita for leading us in song! It was really a team effort! It's great for the students to be introduced to the rosary - even the Kindergarten have been learning it!

This week we practiced long vowel sounds with words having a vowel-consonant- e pattern. We call the final e our "magic e" since it's the one that magically makes the first vowel a long one! We also learned the two sounds for G. Our reading/spelling/phonics all fit together.

Next week, we will spend more time on our small reading groups, practice nouns and verbs, and finish publishing the October stories.

Spelling words are given on Fridays for the following week. They put them in their student planners. In addition, the kids are asked to study the words they've missed on the weekly spelling test. Many of these are repeated, so it's important to keep a list for them to study at home.

Our second grade liturgy will be November 3rd. Hope you can make it!

October 11

2010-10-11T14:34:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe we are in the middle of October already, isn't it?
We are already finished with our first theme in Reading. We'll be doing our theme skills tests this week.

We have begun our Rosary unit for Religion. We will be going through all of the Mysteries of the Rosary and, of course, how to pray the rosary. I know all of the kids received a rosary last May, but if they can't find theirs, I have more. We will spend time praying it this month.

In Science, we are learning about what plants need to grow. We'll have our first Chapter Test on Thursday. It will be an "open book" test.

In Math, we are learning about place-value with tens and ones. The children enjoy using the work mats as well as the base ten blocks.

The past couple of weeks, Sara had a chrysalis in the office. One morning I came in, and there was the beautiful butterfly!! The Weekly Reader for this week will be about the Monarch Butterfly!

Thanks to all who came for Grandparent's Day! What a great turnout!! I enjoyed seeing everyone! Here are some pictures of the day.

September 21

2010-09-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

We are hard at work learning and practicing behaviors for our Daily Five. Today we made our chart for Work on Word Work, and then I showed them the many choices we have for doing word work. After that, we took time to practice. We also reviewed our Read to Self and Work on Writing I charts. We practiced them for a short time also. They are really "getting" the idea of what they need to do to make this work for everyone in the classroom! We even talked about how this is like our monthly theme of TEAMWORK.

I hope to get to each reading group this week. That means the kids will have to work independently while I am with each group so we don't have interruptions. Part of this learning is also good manners - not interrupting ( unless it's an emergency.) Students will not necessarily "stay" in the same groups. Once they've progressed, they can move to a different group. The idea is to learn at each student's level.

This week we are working on possessive pronouns, compound words, long e sounds, ou and ow sounds, and synonyms.

In Math, we continue to work on simple addition and how it relates to subtraction. Please practice the fact families with your child. This can be done in the car, while setting the table, doing dishes, etc. We practice this way: If I say 3+5, kids need to say 3+5=8, 5+3=8, 8-5=3, and 8-3=5.

In Science, we used the balance to learn about mass. Thursday we will do the Chapter Review.

Social Studies is our map study continuing from last week. My kids are really pretty good at this! This week our Weekly Reader is on Hispanic Heritage Month.

In Religion, we read about God's Stories and related this to family stories of our own. They learned the Bible is divided into the Old Testament ( before the birth of Jesus), and the New Testament (after Jesus was born). They've also learned that Psalms are prayers and songs and most were written by David.

Another new and fun game to learn spelling words: We played Sparkle! They love it! It's also excellent for listening skills as they need to listen to what the person before them says. Ask them about this game!

Have a good week!

September 9, 2010

2010-09-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of you who were able to attend the family dinner! It was a good chance to see each other once again. I also enjoyed seeing the new families who've joined our school family this year!

We've been working on Reading Assessments this week, but I'm not quite finished. These assessments will help me know the abilities your children have - and I can work with their levels at their pace. Sometimes students will move up levels during the year- not at any particular time, but when they are ready. I will be working at implementing the Daily Five this year. So far, we've learned how to choose "Good Fit" Books. The way they do this is to use "I PICK" which is I choose, what's my PURPOSE for reading this book, why am I reading it- am I INTERESTED in it? C is for COMPREHEND. Can I understand it? K is for KNOW. Do I know most of the words? These are questions students ask themselves when choosing books to read. The next thing we will learn about and practice will be "READ TO SELF".

In Science, we are reading about Inquiry skills -observing, comparing, hypothesizing, communicating,...

In Religion, we have been talking about creation. We learned a little more about Mary, the Mother of God, on her birthday, September 8th. The kids wrote in their journals what they know about Mary. Then I read the book Mary, Mother of God while they were working on a picture of Mary. After that, we went to Liturgy which was the Mass of the Holy Spirit. It's always nice to be able to share in the mass with our entire school family!

We read the Weekly Reader today and learned how apples get from the trees to our stores. There was a diagram of an apple for the kids to read. Being able to read diagrams is an important skill for kids to learn.

We are working on addition in Math. Today we did doubles and doubles plus one. The addition table was very difficult for most of the children. After much practice, there was that "AHA" moment when they "got it"! Some of them were able to see the pattern of doubles and doubles plus one - for a while I wasn't sure if they were going to understand it. Those AHA moments are what make teaching fun!

Sunday is our Open House from 9-12.
REMEMBER- Monday Night is Grade two Parent Night! We'll meet from 5:30-6:00 so it won't take too much of anyone's time. See you then!
Have a good weekend!

September 3, 2010

2010-09-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to a new year of school! We are off to a good start! These first three days were all about learning routines, procedures, etc. I have asked students to read 20 minutes a day, and they should have a reading bag like last year and a reading calendar to be signed by parents. Thanks for taking time to do this!

We practiced Math facts yesterday and used triangle flash cards. The kids really liked those! It is to help practice the four facts - two adding and two subtracting. For example: 2+3=5, 3+2=5, 5-3=2, 5-2=3. Today we were working on some review of first grade lessons.

I love to read to my kids, so we've heard several stories and poems. They love it! Next week I will be working on Reading Assessments to see where your child is at so I can provide the needed instruction at his/her level. This year I will be attempting to use the Daily Five for my Reading and Writing. More about that at parent night on September 13!

Book orders will be sent home today. There are three - Yes, more paperwork at the beginning of the year! :-) I would like them returned by September 20. Remember, you can order online and our class will still get credit for your order. If you prefer to send an order with your child, cash is not accepted by Scholastic. They need checks made out to them. (not to me or school.) Thanks!

Hopefully , all of you will go to the Safe and Sacred Training so you can be a driver, helper for our class. It's only an hour. Mark your calendars. I know Mr. Bell sent this message home already, but I strongly encourage you to go to it - grandparents or any other family member who might drive or volunteer should do this also.

Have a great weekend!

May 22

2010-05-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

We are continuing to work hard! In Science, we learned about the phases of the moon and the changing of the seasons. In Reading, we are on the last of our six themes. Beginning Monday or Tuesday, we will be starting our theme tests! In Social Studies, we've done some map work, and our last weekly reader was on ANTS. We have begun Geometry in Math. The kids are finding the plane figures SO EASY so we are moving right along! In Religion, we've been learning about the Sacraments. We had a very nice all school rosary on Friday. Mr. Bell had a nice powerpoint so the kids could just hold their rosaries and not try and handle papers, too. We included the Fatima Prayer and Hail Holy Queen. We added the Memorare Prayer,also, which is one of my favorites!

We are sorry to hear about the loss of Dr. Nancy Betzold, the sister of two or our teachers, Ms. Betzold and Mrs. Swiston. We pray for the family!

We hope all of you will be able to attend the 10 o'clock Mass this Sunday to honor Mrs. Urling as she retires!

Happy Weekend!

April 30

2010-04-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

It was so nice to be able to have the second graders receive Communion with the rest of OLL school classes on Wednesday! Let's hope, as Father reminded the kids, families remember to attend Mass on Sundays, too. It is so important to be at Mass with our Church family as well as our school family! Ed Monroe delivered the First Communion pictures already!! Kids should be taking them home tonight. Ed did a really nice job!

Officer Brinker was here for the last time this year for Cops for Kids Program. The kids each received another book, and one child ( who was the only one to turn in his reading sheet for Cops for Kids) received a second book as an extra prize for all his reading. Officer Brinker brought carrots, crackers, and Starbursts for the kids as a treat, too. He read many good books and taught some very helpful lessons.

We begin our last theme in Reading next week! This theme is Talents. There are some very good stories in this theme,too. We continue to work on phonics, verbs, and comprehension.

Have a good weekend!

April 21 READING AND SEAWEED

2010-04-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

Officer Brinker came in again to read to our class today. He read the books, Previously, The New Girl, and The Giving Tree.

He had promised us he'd bring in dried seaweed to taste, and he did that today! I even tried some! Not too many kids liked it very well, but like he said, "Think of trying new things. Think of it as being "different" not bad." He also showed us his taser gun. It was very interesting - something else for me to learn as well as my kids. He was introduced to it at a training about ten years ago, and he told us they are a safe way to handle someone who is trying to hurt the police, another person, or him/herself.

Thank you to everyone who came to First Communion practice last night. It went well, and I am confident it will be a great day on Sunday! How exciting!!

I was very happy today when my kids "got it" for the borrowing in subtraction. Hooray!! It's fun to see the success and smiles on their faces when it connects. :-)

Have a good evening!

April 19

2010-04-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

Countdown to our First Holy Communion! What an exciting time!!! We are so looking forward to this special day!!! This week we will continue to learn about the Eucharist and this very special Sacrament. REMEMBER PRACTICE AT 5:30 TUESDAY IN CHURCH - APRIL 20.

In Math, we are practicing our two-digit subtraction with "borrowing" (regrouping). Most kids have picked this up pretty well with the help of our base-10 blocks.

We wil begin Weather in Science, including seasons, weather patterns, temperature, wind, and precipitation.
Our Weekly Reader for this week also works with this as it will be about sun and wind power.

For English, we'll be using is, are, was, were and choosing the correct one. We'll also use dictionary skills in finding words with endings in the dictionary.

Thursday is Earth Day, so our art will be tied in with this day.

We will be reading the story "Thunder Cake" this week. We will be practicing our sequence of events skills. We will be working with -ed, -ing endings as well as silent consonants gh, kn, and b.

Have a great week!

March 25

2010-03-25T06:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we made our pretzels to remind us to pray. This is a great Lenten activity the kids really enjoy! The pretzels are "arms crossed in prayer". Most kids chose to take a copy of the recipe home for you to try with them. Kosher salt for the top can be purchased at the grocery store if you choose to do so. In addition to Lent activities we are also preparing for our First Holy Communion. Even those who aren't making their First Communion get to do the lessons with us which are all part of our basic Religion class.

We are going to be learning to subtract 2-digit numbers beginning next week! We continue to practice our facts. Hopefully, the students are practicing with them at home, too. Each child was given a laminated practice sheet ( which I would like returned after they know those facts), and they can get the next one to study.

In English we are doing more possessives and next week will be present tense verbs. In addition, we do Daily Language Practice each day. This is a sentence on the board which they "proofread" and correct to help them learn about capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar. They have been doing really well with this daily practice.

In Science, we are learning about water as a resource. We made a chart of as many ways as we could think of that we use water every day, and then tallied how many times that day we used water in those ways.

Next week is Holy Week. May it be a blessed week with prayer and worship!

March 5

2010-03-05T07:38:00.000-08:00

Next week we will be finishing up our 4th theme in Reading. That means only two more to go! We will be doing our Theme Skills Tests and hopefully begin a March story.

I will be gone on Tuesday and Wednesday. Mr. Bell and I will be at St. Louis School on the validation team. It will be different to be on the "other side" of the site visit!

Next week, too, we will begin our lessons in preparation for First Holy Communion which is on April 25th. It's coming sooner than we might think!

Our Lent projects and meditations have been going very well. We all enjoy the peacefulness of the meditations and writing our responses or prayers about the meditations. We do them once a week, and the theme is from the Sunday's Gospel.

We are working on two-digit addition in Math. This is going MUCH better than telling time! :-) We're having fun using the base-10 blocks as well as the overhead projector.

We read "The Great Ball Game" in reading this week. The phonics lessons included OA, OW, O words for the long o sound. We also reviewed Cause and Effect.
In English, we are working with plural possessives. They "got" the singular possessives, but the plurals are more difficult.

We are learning about rocks and sand in Science. We looked at different kinds which the kids enjoyed. They knew some of the rocks such as the granite which is pretty plentiful around here. Of course, quartz and sandstone are also, which they recognized.

Have a good weekend!

February 18

2010-02-18T11:30:00.000-08:00

Happy February! Is is really the 18th?? I have not added to this blog for quite some time - not that we aren't doing anything - just that time is getting away from me with all the hustle and bustle of things to do!

We are working on Lent projects including daily "stepping stones" on our journey with Jesus. Today we had our first Lenten meditation and wrote in our Lent Journals (myself included.) We talked about Ash Wednesday on Tuesday and then again before mass Wednesday to remind the kids what it's all about. We'll be doing different activities and art projects during Lent.

We are working on TIME in Math. It's before and after the hour, estimated time, and time relationships. It's so hard for the kids since they are dependent on digital clocks. Just when I think they've "got it", I find they don't! If you can work with your children at home with this, too, it will help.

We have begun the next unit in Science. Today we did an investigation using rock salt, sand, and water. Kids used magnifying glasses to observe the rock salt before adding the sand and water, and they shook the jar for 5 minutes and then observed the rock salt after that. They did really well on figuring out WHY and HOW it changed!

We are learning about the branches of our government in Social Studies. It's geared down so this age can grasp it without using the big words Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. We also do our Weekly Readers for Social Studies, and they always have interesting topics about current news.

We did reading assessments and found out that we are on the right track! The kids have "moved up" in levels - some as much as a few levels. A new program added last week is called Cops for Kids Reading Program. Officer Gene Brinker is coming in one day a week to read to my kids. You will receive information on this soon. In addition to reading to them, he also discusses the books and ideas from them. Yesterday he read BRAVE HARRIET and he talked about her difficulties as a woman trying to fly across the English Channel as well as how women didn't always have the same rights as men. He chose the book because it reminded him of his mother who NEVER complained and how gentle and kind and smart she is. It's a great idea and the officers who do this are wonderful!

January 15

2010-01-15T06:10:00.000-08:00

What a busy week! The validation team was here and have told us we are once again accredited! We knew we would be because we have an awesome school!! It's a great feeling to know people outside of our area feel the same way!

Today we'll take our test on money. Some are still having some difficulties with it, so we'll see how the test goes. We may need to stay with it for a while.

This week we worked on long a sounds spelled AI, AY, as well as compound words. We also practiced homophones. The write/right and there/their continue to be confusing for several of the kids. We'll keep on reviewing. Next week we will be doing OU, OW words and -ly, -ful suffixes. In English we'll be doing plurals.

Today our Good News for Children is about the Sacraments.

Have a good weekend!

January 8

2010-01-08T07:47:00.000-08:00

Back after vacation and working hard! We are working with counting money and using the fewest coins to get the same amount. Some kids are having a hard time with money. It would help if they practice counting coins at home, too. Give them an amount to make with coins and ask them to show two ways to make that amount including one way with the fewest coins. We used the overhead projector ( they call the "ooh- aah!" machine) and coins yesterday. They like to work with the overhead projector.

I was so pleased with how well the kids did at First Reconciliation Wednesday night! Thank you for all your help in preparing them for this wonderful sacrament! It won't be long before their First Communion on April 25th!

In Science, we've been studying food chains and food webs. The kids seem to really understand these.

This week for Reading-Writing Workshop, the kids are writing a friendly letter - to ME. :-) We are still using the Writing Process to do this even though it isn't a story. I hope you liked their December books. They were pretty proud of them! I hope to have them make a February book also.

We reviewed the four kinds of sentences and how they are punctuated. Now if I could only get everyone to capitalize the first work in each sentence!! We'll keep working on that!

Our January quilt is going up today. I read the story THE SNOWY DAY as well as some snow poems and The Adventures of Snowwoman.
I always like to include books as often as I can in all subject areas. They are so much fun to read and hear!

HAPPY 2010!

NOV. 11TH

2009-11-11T13:51:00.000-08:00

Veteran's Day - we pray for all of our Armed Forces, both living and dead who have and are serving our great country! We owe them a great deal for our freedom. We had a nice service with our area veterans today. It was well attended. Yesterday, we read and discussed Veteran's Day in our Weekly Reader.

This week we are doing our Theme 2 Reading-Writing Workshop. We are working on descriptive writing. We use the writing process steps when we write. I read a story and a book so we could pick out words that describe. They can see how it adds to the story to describe in detail. It's a little hard for them to put down in writing, but I think most are beginning to "get it".

Next week we will be doing Theme 2 skills tests. I will have Theme 1 Tests for you at conferences.

In Science, we're studying life cycles of plants and animals.

We are learning about graphs in Math. We used a horizontal and vertical bar graph as well as a tally table. It's a fun thing for kids!

We did our 6th Reconciliation lesson on Monday, and we made Welcome Home posters. Remember to ask to see your child's lesson as they add a parent note on the last page.

**PLEASE MAKE A NOTE**
1ST RECONCILIATION DATE HAS BEEN CHANGED TO JANUARY 6TH AT 5:30. This is necessary with Fr. Paul working alone.

See you at conferences next Tuesday!

Nov. 1st

2009-11-01T11:07:00.000-08:00

The Halloween/Honors Party on Friday was a big success. The kids had a good time. It could have been for a shorter time so we could have had a classroom party, but I did let them have their treats for morning break. :-) I hope they all had a great time trick-or-treating!

This week we'll be working with words with double consonants. I have a little game to play with them. I am pleased with how well they are doing in spelling now that they have had 7 tests and have figured out that a lot of the words repeat from week to week. This helps them learn the words and use them in their writing rather than learn them just for the test and forget them.

We pray for Father Paul's family as they mourn the loss of their mother. We also pray for members of our families, the soldiers, and many other intentions every day. I love how it helps them think of others and their needs.

Remember there's only 1/2 day of school ( for the kids :-) not the teachers) on Wednesday! October went by so fast, and with Thanksgiving vacation coming soon, it will be a short month for November.

Thank you for all who donated to Stuff-A-Truck and for sending prizes for our Halloween bash! We appreciate everything you do!

Oct. 16

2009-10-16T05:37:00.000-07:00

Fall has certainly arrived! Some days I think Winter has arrived - WAY TOO EARLY! :-)

This week we heard the story of Christopher Columbus and did the art project of a ship to represent the three ships with Columbus. We also had Theme Skills tests for Theme 1 in Reading. We are currently working on rough drafts for our stories. They use storyboards to plan their stories, and then we use them to write the story. It's new to my class and is a bit difficult, but it'll get better as they get used to it. We worked on sentences that are statements. I usually try to "trick" the kids by giving them a trick sentence like throw in an incomplete sentence or a question, and they are so smart they catch the trick. Hooray! In Science we had pictures of animals and found many ways to sort them- by number of legs, fur, feathers, habitat, etc. They did an excellent job of sorting. In Math, we have begun place-value and are using our base-ten blocks. Some are finding the place-value confusing so we'll keep working on that, too.

We have completed our second lesson for our Reconciliation preparation. The kids should have brought the sheets home as there is a note to parents on the last page of the pamphlets. Please look through these. We are also working on learning about the Mysteries of the Rosary. The booklets do not include the Luminous Mysteries, but they are on the other sheets the kids have on the rosary.

Next week we will begin Theme 2 in Reading. The theme is Nature Walk. We will be practicing comparing and contrasting. We'll be working on words with Vowel-Consonant-Final E long sounds of o,u, and e as well as the two sounds for "g". In English we'll do more practice with statements and questions. For Science, it's learning about reptiles, amphibians, and fish. We'll finish up the chapter in Math, and then the next chapter we'll start with ordinal numbers and comparing numbers with greater, less than, and equal to.

We will be doing games in our rooms for grades K-5 for our Honors/Halloween party on October 30. We plan to have the kids move from room to room with the aid of our Junior High students. We are asking for donations of prizes for these games. If you can help with the prizes, please sent them in to me. THANKS!

Have a great weekend!

October 8 OOPS! Hit the wrong button!

2009-10-08T11:51:00.002-07:00

I'll try this again!

We had a great day of learning at the Diocesan Workshops in Rice Lake yesterday. The liturgy itself is worth the trip! Bishop Peter even commented on how great it is to have so many together praying and singing in unison. It is awesome! Getting together with so many other educators and staff is a great opportunity to get new ideas and share some of ours. We always get a boost from this day.

Today we went to Walmart for our Reading Event. Heidi read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We got fruit to eat to go with the book and the fruit the caterpillar ate. Then the kids got to draw pictures and share their pictures and stories with each other. We also got fresh, hot pretzels and lemonade! It was a fun trip! I took pictures, and I will share some of our class when I get the list of who can/cannot have pics on the blog or press.

We're starting our lessons for First Reconciliation this week. It's exciting to know the kids will be receiving the sacrament in about 8 weeks!

Have a good evening!

October 8

2009-10-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

October 1st

2009-10-01T14:19:00.000-07:00

Is it really October already????? It's hard to believe!
Today I read Stellaluna and the kids made their quilt squares to go along with our story. They look really cute. One square has a black tree and the other has a "bat".
I also started to read The Quilting Bee to help them learn about making quilts and the kinds of squares and quilts people make.

NEXT THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8TH, we plan on going to Walmart for the Read for the Record. We'll leave about 9:45 for the 10:00 program and activities. You will receive the permission slip tomorrow (Friday). If you are going to drive, the school must have driver information/insurance papers filled out as well as an Adult Waiver. These are required by the Diocese of Superior. Remember to send your child with his/her BOOSTER SEAT.

This is also PICTURE DAY, but we will make plans to have pictures taken before or after our field trip.

We are working on subtraction in Math. I am still having them practice the entire fact family when we do problems. Keep practicing with your child each night. The basic facts are SO important. If you have a computer, there are a couple of websites that I know are helpful but you may know others. One I use often is APlus Math. Click on the flashcards and kids can practice both addition and subtraction. Another fun way of practicing is using dice. Have the child roll two dice and give the fact family for the numbers rolled. This can even be done with playing cards. It's easier for the kids if we make it fun. :-)

In Science, we are learning what plants and animals need to live. We covered quite a bit today, and the kids are pretty sharp in this area!

Today we heard about St. Therese of the Child Jesus - or "The Little Flower" and colored a picture of her. Tomorrow is Guardian Angel day so we'll learn about them, too. Since October is the month of the Rosary, we'll be doing learning activities with that during the month. The non-Catholic children are welcome to participate in the coloring pages which are scripture.

Also, next Thursday I plan on beginning lessons to prepare the children for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Again, non-Catholic children are welcome to take part in watching videos and reading the pamphlets unless I am told by parents they should not do so. These lessons will usually be on Mondays and Fridays.

Have a good evening!

Sept. 22

2009-09-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

We are beginning our Subtraction lessons. Even though we are practicing our subtracting, I am also practicing the addition facts. We do the two addition and two subtraction facts for each. I don't think we can practice too often. They need to know the facts up to 20 by the end of the year. I also showed the kids how to use our triangle flash cards. This is new to them, so it's kind of fun. If you'd like to make some for home, I can give you a pattern. As they get older, they can also make multiplication and division triangle flash cards.

Two other things we're doing that are new are the use of "vowel sticks" which I made from popsicle sticks and vowels. I call out words and they hold up the stick showing me what vowel sound they hear in the word. Sometimes I can trick them and use two vowels. Right now we are working with short vowels. In Spelling, the kids use letter cards to make words. We had fun with that today. We can change words from an to fan to tan, or ten to net, etc.

We will be reading the story "Julius" this week and will be doing an art project to go along with this on Thursday. I will be having a junior high student help us with Art each week. Those who said they'd be interested in doing an Art project with the kids or reading to them, just let me know when you want to do something,and we'll arrange it.

We are planning our first liturgy which will take place next Wednesday.

Sept. 19

2009-09-19T13:26:00.001-07:00

What a nice day it is! I hope you and your family get a chance to get out and enjoy this nice weather.

We had another good week of school - our first 5 day week this year. I am getting closer to working with small groups at their pace. The assessments took longer than I'd planned. Mr. Bell listened to some of the kids read, and he assessed them. That helped me!

We will be planning our liturgy for September 30th. Please mark your calendars and join us if you can. Grandparents, friends, anyone is welcome!

A note went home about the Reading calendars. Please sign/initial them each time your child reads. They should read 20 min. a night. The more kids read, the better they become at it. Also included in the note, I've mentioned that we would welcome any books your children have "outgrown", including older siblings. If you see books you think may be appropriate for our kids at garage sales, etc. we 'd be happy to accept those donations, too.

We had our first Spelling test with the new program. The kids did very well Most had 90% or better which included words in the sentence dication also. Hooray!

Have a good rest of the weekend!

Sept. 14

2009-09-14T05:47:00.000-07:00

We had a good, but warm first two weeks of school! It sounds like the humidity isn't going to be much better this week. If you would like to send a water bottle with your child, that would be fine with me. They just need to be sure it stays on the desk and not get knocked off and break or not play with it :-).

The kids will be assessed this week for their reading levels so we can get started on small group lessons in addition to the whole group lessons. I will be assessing them fairly regularly to see when they might need to move to a different group.

On Friday, I took the kids to Church to learn about the places and objects used during Mass, etc. I have made "flash cards" that we will use throughout the year. Some of the things they learned ( and some parents might not know) are: lectern or ambo, lectionary, sacramentary, corporal, ambry, tabernacle, etc. We didn't have time to finish our "tour" of the Church so we will do so another time.

Keep Cool!

Sept. 7

2009-09-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

We had a good first week of school. This is a great class!
This week we will begin our "regular" schedule. They will be having reading assessments to find out each child's level so I know where to begin with for our reading. Math is always a "review" of what they've had prior to second grade so it's pretty easy for kids. In Social Studies we'll be learning about maps. Spelling is different this year as they don't have a "list" to study form each week, and some weeks we won't have a test on Friday depending on how long we spend working on the activities for Spelling. They will have a test on each unit. In Religion we're reading about creation and how we use the things God created for us. In Science, we'll learn about Inquiry skills.

REMEMBER: PARENT NIGHT IS TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH AT 5:30. SEE YOU THEN!

First Day of School

2009-09-01T11:42:00.000-07:00

We had a great first day - one of many, I'm sure! Your children are AWESOME!
Much of today was reviewing procedures - fire drills, tornado drill, lunchroom, and the rules for these and playground. I read some books aloud on using good manners, playground safety, and a book I wrote about the party at Trevor's. We did a couple of sheets on colors, and one was the first graph they said they've made!

Remember that your child needs separate shoes for gym. I'd like an extra set of clothes and an extra sweater/sweatshirt in case kids get cold, wet, etc.

You will be receiving a note from me in case you'd like to volunteer. If you choose to do so, please send that back. The school office is sending a medical information sheet home, too. That sheet needs to come back for sure.
Thanks!

LOOKING AHEAD:
NEXT TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH WILL BE THE FIRST AND SECOND GRADE PARENT NIGHT. Plan to be here for that. It will be at 5:30 and won't take more than a half hour or so. It's a night to meet other parents and to find out what my hopes and expectations for the year are, and if you have questions that's a good time to ask.

Tomorrow is our first liturgy at 9:00. Please feel free to join us each Wednesday and invite grandparents, friends, etc. We'd love to have you there!

September 1st

2009-09-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

AUGUST 29

2009-08-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!
I'm excited and happy to begin a new school year! We will learn a lot and have fun, too. This year is an especially happy time for our second graders as they make their First Reconciliation and First Communion! I love it!!!

Last Tuesday, we had such a fun time at Trevor's house with a back-to-school party hosted by Trevor's parents and Matea's mom and grandma. It was great! Thanks to all who helped make this a fun evening! It was nice to meet the new students and parents.

I will try and keep you updated about the second grade news and happenings at least once a week.

HAPPY NEW SCHOOL YEAR!

June 4

2009-06-04T17:34:00.000-07:00

We are working hard to learn all we can before the end of school! We've covered a LOT of pages in Math because the shapes are fun and easy. Some of the papers sent home are just ones they can do for fun and practice. I don' t need them returned. They are really eager to practice cursive writing - especially now that we are connecting some letters!

Next Thursday, June 11th, we'll go to Kreher Park with the 1st grader for a picnic. We'll leave at 11;30, eat and play there, and then we'll walk to DQ. You should have received the permission slip and note about it. The cooks will provide lunch which will be deducted from their hot lunch account. Let me know, in writing, if you plan to go with us, and if you'd like to buy a lunch through school also. Please have the permission slip in NO LATER THAN the morning of the 10th. If I hear from you that you are going I can send the Adult Waiver home for you to sign and return before we go. Thanks! In case of rain we'll just eat at school. Children may bring no more than $2.00 for DQ. That is so some kids won't buy a large item ( and not eat or drink it anyway :-) when others may not be able to afford larger items.

Have a good evening!

May 26

2009-05-26T13:48:00.000-07:00

Supplies are running short again. Does anyone have any extra Antibacterial wipes we could have? Students use them each day after breakfast to clean their desks so they go quickly. Many students are in need of pencils, so if they have them at home send them with your child for his/her use. I have been providing pencils and erasers for the kids to "borrow and return at the end of the day". The cup is now empty as kids don't return them. Some of the kids have begun to use the mechanical pencils. As long as they don't press too hard and keep breaking them, I like them using these. It keeps from using the pencil sharpener all day :-).
Remember to send extra lead if they are using these pencils. Thanks!

Please practice Math facts EVERY night.

Remind your child about dressing properly for Church. They may change into shorts after church. Some are still forgetting not to wear clothing with writing on it other than OLL shirts.
Writing on the back of pants isn't OK any day. Please save those for after school and on weekends.

Thanks for all you do!

May 20

2009-05-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

ONLY in Wisconsin can we go from 39 and freezing winds to 80+ in a matter of hours!! Wow! Can you believe it?

Next week, we will be doing our Theme 6 skills tests. We are on our last story for this theme. Don't worry - we WILL be doing Reading, English, and Spelling activities as well as writing stories. The Spelling words for next week are on page 243 of the Student Handbook. They are:
took, fly, good, riding, high, room, night, find, chased, hoping, hook, mind, using, liked, making, zoo, light, named, sky, moon. Challenge Words are: school, reply, flight, teasing, and decided.

Science and Social Studies are connecting. We are reading about Natural Resources. It's great we are on similar chapters in both of these subjects! Today we made a chart on using water.

Our cursive writing practice is coming right along. I am hoping the kids use the correct formation at home. I let them take home some of the work after we have practiced the correct way of forming them. Some have tried connecting letters. I don't want them to try that until they learn the correct way to join them. Please encourage them to just practice the individual letters. They are doing GREAT with that!

Have a great evening!

May 15

2009-05-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from today. Ms. Betzold had Gene A. come in to talk about Hawaii. He sang songs and played music for us. It was fun! Remember the "Found a Peanut " song from our childhood days? He sang his version of it, and the kids loved it!

We also went to see all of the projects at the Science Fair today. That was fun!

Have a good weekend!

May 14

2009-05-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

We had a busy week with two field trips! The trip to MMC was interesting and informative for the kids. It was kind of rushed, but they have other second grade classes to get through, too.

I think the demonstration of how much sugar there is in different foods made an impression on them. It was amazing!

Court Manor was fun for us. They played "musical hat", tossed chickens in the hat, and played make a basket with a ball. I didn't take my camera as they don't allow pictures with the residents due to privacy issues.

Tomorrow Ms. Betzold is having Gene Aina come in to talk about Hawaii. The kids have been learning about the culture and music, so this will be a great treat to hear from Gene!

Next week, the story will be "The School Mural". The new words are: neighbor, below, should. The spelling words are on page 243 in the student handbook. They are: liked, hoping, baked, using, chased, making, closed, hiding, named, riding. The Challenge Words are: teasing, decided. Phonics will go along with these words with using -ed and -ing endings.

We will continue with subtraction in Math. PLEASE practice the facts with your child EACH night.

I am receiving very few reading calendars, both on Fridays and at the end of the month. I do count the reading as a grade, so please have your child read the 20 min. each night and sign the calendar. These need to be turned in on Fridays. Thanks!

Have a good evening!

May 8

2009-05-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

Next week we will be reading "Moses Goes to a Concert". The new words will be :heart, mind, alphabet.

Phonics and spelling will be long I sounds spelled igh, ight, and ie.
For English, we'll be learning about the articles a, an, the.
Spelling words are: sky, find, night, high, fly, try, light, dry, right, mind, eye, buy. Challenge Words: flight, reply.

We are continuing to work on subtraction in Math. The two-digit minus two-digits are a little more difficult, so we may need to take more time with that.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL YOU MOMS AND GRANDMAS OUT THERE!!!

May 5

2009-05-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

Next Wednesday, May 13 is our second grade liturgy. It will be the last one of the year for our class. I hope you can join us!

STUDENTS SHOULD BE TAKING SOME FIELD TRIP SLIPS HOME TONIGHT. PLEASE SIGN AND RETURN THEM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE (but no later than the 11th)AS I NEED TO BE SURE WE HAVE ENOUGH DRIVERS. I will be taking the school van so I can take 5 without booster seats. If your child uses a booster seat, please be sure and send it for those two trips.

We have four students absent today. I don't know if they are ill or not, but please remind your child to cover nose and mouth. I know they say cough or sneeze into their sleeve, but I'd rather they use a kleenex. We have plenty in our room! We could use some more antibacterial wipes also if you'd care to send some.
Thanks!

April 28 FIRST COMMUNION PICTURES

2009-04-29T05:20:00.001-07:00

What a BEAUTIFUL First Communion we had!!! The children looked like little angels! It was such a happy day! I hope everyone will be sure the children get to

Church on weekends so they can continue to receive Jesus every week!

This week we are reading The Art Lesson. The spelling words can be found on page 239 of the Student Handbook. We are also learning about irregular verbs such as come-came, give-gave, run-ran, etc.

This month's quilt story is The Great Kapok Tree. We are making quilt squares with umbrellas, and using animal paper and red or yellow paper for the squares. They turn out really well each month.

Next week we will be doing our Reading-Writing Workshop. This will be writing instructions. We will be learning about sequencing steps, using time-order words, and using exact verbs. The Spelling words are Frequently Misspelled Words. They are: tried, never, going, coming, new, very, other, started, something, school, outside, people, and the Challenge words are enough and through. These can be found on page 241 of the Student Handbook.

In Math, we are working on subtracting. The kids did pretty well on addition. They STILL need to practice their facts through 18. I really think daily practice is the answer. They need to know these for 3rd grade.

LOOKING AHEAD:

We will be going to Memorial Medical Center on Wednesday, May 13. We'll leave here about 1:00. This is a yearly visit for all area second grade students, and it's a very worthwhile field trip.

We will be going to Court Manor on Thursday, May 14. We will leave school about 9:50 and will be back for lunch. I was happy the staff at Court Manor gave us a special invitation to do this for Nursing Homes Week.

I WILL BE TAKING THE SCHOOL VAN, BUT I WILL NEED DRIVERS FOR BOTH OF THESE TRIPS.

Have a good week!

APRIL 20

2009-04-20T07:21:00.000-07:00

This week we will be taking our Theme 5 tests. The Spelling words are review words found on page 239 of the Student Handbook that you have at home.

We are getting very excited about First Communion on Sunday!!!! What a SPECIAL day it will be! If you haven't gotten your picture money in, please do so soon. I need to have it by THIS THURSDAY, April 23. REMEMBER PRACTICE IS ALSO THURSDAY AT 5:30 in Church.

In Science, we have begun learning about weathering, erosion, earthquakes, and volcanoes. We continue to do two-digit addition in Math. The kids are doing well with that!

**Looking for someone to make a holder for my bulletin board materials**
Does anyone know of someone who has extra wood and/or the ability to build a cart to hold my large bulletin board materials? Mr. Bell said they'd like to get rid of the cabinet in the hall, so I need a place to put my things. If you know of anyone who'd like to donate materials or volunteer to make this, please let me know. Thanks!

New Pictures

2009-04-08T15:02:00.001-07:00

Very Important Pupil bulletin boards!

Pictures of mixing up our Chango Bars! The recipe was from our reading story Jalapeno Bagels. We thought they were delicious!

HAPPY EASTER!!

2009-04-08T14:39:00.000-07:00

We are all ready for our Easter break and hoping for nice weather! This week we just did some review and extra activities for Religion since it is Holy Week. Today we had a Northland student do a lesson on sentences so she could be observed by her professor. The kids were really good - so I gave them 5 marbles.

Before I forget: FIRST COMMUNION PRACTICE WILL BE ON APRIL 23 AT 5:30 so please mark your calendars as it's important that at least one parent be there with your child.

Next week we'll be reading Thunder Cake. The new words are: air, child, heavy, hour. We will learn ing endings with double consonants (shopping), and silent consonants gh, kn, and b.

We did a one minute Math Facts test today. I was pretty disappointed in the amount of problems they did. It was only for the fact family 2+1, 1+2, 3-1, and 3-2. They NEED to know the facts through 18. PLEASE practice with your child every night. Mix them up rather than learn them 1+2, 1+3 etc. Thanks!

Several of the kids have completed their March books so they are now "published authors". We put them in the cloth covered books with a title, dedication, and author page with their picture on it. They enjoyed having these in print and sharing with the class.

We will be going to MMC in May for the second grade visit. It's a terrific field trip! I will be looking for drivers again :-)

Have a blessed and joyful Easter!

March 30

2009-03-30T07:41:00.000-07:00

This week's story is "Carousel". Our new words are: aunt, million, pair. Our skills are the prefix "un" and the "Y" at the end of longer words. Our spelling words are: puppy, baby, lucky, happy, very, lady, funny, silly, many, only, cookie. Challenge words: furry, angry.

We hope to make pretzels on Wednesday. We make these to remind people to pray. The pretzels symbolize arms crossed in prayer. The kids will each get a recipe to take home. Be prepared for them to want to make some at home :-)!

We have begun our First Communion lessons. In addition to the lessons they take home, I also supplement with other activities and videos. Father,Mrs. Gierczic, and I are working on preparations for the big day! Remember it will take place on April 26th at the 11:00 Mass. We will be sending letters with more information such as seating, etc. We randomly pick names out of a hat for this so no one feels like others have been favored as to seating. Each family will have one row. Additional family members will need to sit elsewhere in the Church. Kelly will let me know about the meal afterwards. She will be doing a mailing about that soon.

I will be doing one-on-one oral testing of Math facts this week. Has your child been practicing these? They need to know their addition and subtraction facts through 18 by the end of this year.

Have a good day!

March 24 Baptism celebration and Jalapeno Bagels!

2009-03-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

We celebrated with the students who were going to be baptized during our vacation!

Yummy bagels!!!! We loved them!

Two of my granddaughters helped me make Jalapeno Bagels which went with our story this week.

March 23 We're Back!

2009-03-23T07:44:00.000-07:00

We've had a nice break and are back ready to learn! This week's story is "Jalapeno Bagels", and the new words are: early, hair, instead. The skills are contractions and -le endings.
In English, we'll do verbs that tell about now. The spelling words are contractions:
I'll, we've, I'm, you're, isn't, didn't, you'll, I've, it's, we'll, can't.The challenge words are: they're and wouldn't.

In Math we are starting to add tens.

Remind your child to finish his/her March story. We already have three published!

REMEMBER WEDNESDAY NIGHT! It's a VERY important night - First Reconciliation! One thing you might want to know ahead is that while your child is making his/her confession, parents will stand by the first pew. Mrs. Gierczic and I will be there in front to welcome you. We'll go in order from front to back. When your child has finished, you will meet your child and he/she will then light a candle. Then you will return to your seats to pray. Everyone will remain in church for the closing prayer and song.

Have a nice day!

St. Mary's March 5

2009-03-05T14:11:00.001-08:00

With Fr.Frank

Main altar at St. Mary's

Statue of Kateri Tekakwitha

Beautiful beaded pieced hand-beaded by the women of St.Mary's Parish

Outside the Church

We had a WONDERFUL mass with Fr. Frank today! He made it a "teaching mass" in which he explained the what and the why of the Mass. It was very informative for the kids, and the adults even learned! We appreciate Fr. taking the time to say this special mass for the first and second grade students!!!

Next week, we will be doing our Reading-Writing Workshop. It's on personal narratives,but I am going to let kids write "made up" stories also. They are very excited about being able to write one they make up. We will still be using Mr. Bell's curriculum format with the "I feel" statement, storyboard, partner reading, rough draft, revising and editing, and publishing. This time we will publish as a "book".

Spelling words are found on page 235 in the Student Handbook. They are: who, a lot, were, many, our, friend, cannot, here, first, today, would, could and the Challenge Words are heard, again.

We will be reviewing money in Math and also all of the material in Unit 2. We will also have a Unit 2 Test. Then Chapter 11 will go into 2 digit addition. I will be doing one-on-one oral tests of math facts to 18 tomorrow. Keep practicing those facts with your children!

We extend our condolences to Robyn Lulich and her family in the loss of Julie. We continue to pray for them in their sadness.

Have a good weekend!

MARCH 2 - DRIVERS NEEDED!

2009-03-02T07:36:00.000-08:00

We only have ONE driver for Thursday. Can anyone help? Are there grandparents, aunts, uncles, anyone who has been approved for helping? I need drivers for 6, and I believe the first grade still needs drivers, too. Please let me know ASAP. Thanks!

Our story this week is "Brothers and Sisters". New words are: middle, trouble, and ending.
Spelling words are: flower, water, under, over, better, sister, brother, mother, father, after, and the Challenge Words other and center. You can see by the spelling words that the phonics for the week is working with words that end with -er. We'll also review long o sounds of OA, OW from last week. English is working with VERBS. A verb can name an action run, swim, etc. or a verb can name an activity that can't be seen such as hear, think, and worry.

We are still working with TIME, and some kids are still struggling. I will send a sheet or two home for the kids to practice.

We did our 6th Penance lesson today. It' s about being welcomed home by God. The story was the Prodigal Son.
1st Reconciliation is at 5:30 on MARCH 26. It's coming up quickly!

Have a great day!

Feb. 20

2009-02-20T14:49:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let you know that I will be sending the new student handbooks home on Monday! I had forgotten that we'd started our new book, and there's a new handbook with the spelling words from this book. I will try and remember to also put the words on the blog!

Have a nice weekend!

2-19 Mark your calendars!

2009-02-19T17:24:00.000-08:00

Good news! Fr. Frank has agreed to have a special mass with grades 1 and 2 out at St. Mary's Church in Odanah! I thought it would be a great experience to have our kids see this small but beautiful Church that some of our students attend. If you've never been there, maybe you could be a driver for us. We'll be going on March 5th and will plan on Mass at 9:00. Let me know if you can drive. Of course, a permission slip will also be going home prior to this trip.

Next week, Feb. 23-27, we'll be finishing our fourth theme in Reading. This means only 2 more to go! We'll be doing our theme skills tests next week. The Spelling words are review words:

farm, bring, hold, park, thing, boat, smart, sing, snow, yard, thank, blow, load, party, hand, most, cold, think, send, road. The Challenge Words are: department, grand, young, goal, and rainbow.

We continue to prepare for our First Reconciliation. I believe the kids understand a lot and are eager to participate in this wonderful sacrament. This week we again discussed the 10 Commandments. One thing we talked about is the importance of attending Mass every week. Some children seem to think our Wednesday Masses take care of the Sunday obligation. I told them it's just a bonus mass. It doesn't take the place of any other mass. I hope parents recognize the importance of it - especially with Reconciliation and First Communion coming soon! First Reconciliation is March 25th at 5:30. First Communion is April 26 at the 11:00 Mass.

We had our Chapter Test on Telling Time. I was disappointed in the scores. Ben was the only one with 100%- way to go, Ben! Needless to say, we'll be practicing more. ( We'll also return to money a little later on.) We made Sunshine Clocks for Art this week, and they turned out pretty cute!

FEB. 13

2009-02-13T07:43:00.000-08:00

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TOMORROW!
The kids are certainly excited about their valentines and treats. They'll have a good time!

We are nearing the 100th day of school, so today we get to celebrate it with the Kindergarten and First Grades. They'll do activities for 100 seconds, put 100 piece puzzles together, and have snacks.

Next week, we'll be reading "The Great Ball Game". We will be practicing the OA & OW for the long o sound. New words are: ago, field, war, and half.
Spelling words for next week are: boat, cold, road, blow, gold, old, load, snow, hold, most, toe, do ( no idea WHY they through that in there ), and the CHALLENGE WORDS are goal and rainbow.

Have a great weekend!

FEBRUARY 9

2009-02-09T14:19:00.000-08:00

Thank you for all who have sent in erasers, glue sticks, antibacterial wipes. etc. I appreciate it!

Several students have not returned the parent slips about the First Communion dinner. They were due today. Please check with your child and see if he/she still has theirs and send it in tomorrow. Thanks!

With the economy as it is, people have quit sending things in for the soldiers, so we will give up this project. We can still send cards, notes, etc. but we won't be sending any packages after the last three we have ready to go. I sent two more on Saturday and used my own $24 for that. I simply can't afford to pay for the rest of the boxes. We have two more at $12 each and one smaller one to go yet. If anyone can help with postage for these last packages, we'd really be grateful. I know you have been asked to donate a lot this year for our class and the school, and you have done a great job! Thanks for all you do!!

We planted bean seeds today for science. I hope they grow! We are studying about the life cycles of plants.

In Math, we practiced time BEFORE the hour today. That's a little harder than time after the hour, but we'll get it! They like it when I use the overhead projector and they can take turns on it showing how to set the clock to the time. ( We use the overhead for other subjects, too.)

Because of the rain off and on at noon, we stayed in again. Today I put on a Denise Austin kids exercise DVD for them. They seemed to enjoy it. We just need more room for two classes to move in here :-) At least they were able to move and use some energy!

Have a good evening!

February 7 Penguin Party!

2009-02-07T18:33:00.001-08:00

We had a GREAT Penguin Party to celebrate the end of our study of penguins! The kids got a black and white placemat that they used to make their picture of a penguin from Roll A Penguin game. They got to walk with their egg and see who could get to the finish line first. They heard us all the way to the office!!! We had black and white plates ane napkins, and the kids and I wore black and white. The penguin cake came from Scorch and Terri at the DQ. Thanks so much Scorch and Terri!! It was terrific! They also had goldfish crackers, swedish fish, and oreo cookies. They watched March of the Penguins which Mathew and Marques brought in for us. I think it's something the kids will remember. They each read their penguin reports to the class so everyone could learn a little about the penguin they researched.

They are now working on their research papers for our Reading-Writing Workshop. This report is on an animal of their choosing. For this report they will need to write sentences/paragraphs rather than list like they did for the penguin reports.

Spelling words for this week go with the story "ANT". They are: king, thank, hand, sing, send, think, bring, bang, end, thing, and the challenge words are grand and young. These go with our phonics skill of final consonant clusters nd, net, mp, ng, nk. We'll also do base words and enings, -s, -es, -ies. For English, we'll study possessive nouns.

We are learning TIME in Math, although we need more practice on MONEY. I'll try and do more practice with money in addition to time. They need to learn how to read an analog clock even though most watches and alarm clocks are digital.

Have a good day!

Feb. 2

2009-02-02T11:20:00.000-08:00

Here it is Groundhog Day! Another month has gone very quickly.
Catholic Schools' Week went very well! We are so proud of our school! Yesterday's closing liturgy was so very nice. I enjoyed seeing the family of Sally Pufall as well as Sr. Margaret Ann and the other Sisters get well-earned recognition for their service to our schools.

This week's Spelling list is from Theme 4 Reading-Writing Workshop. This week we will be doing research papers on animals (other than penguins) to go with our Reading-Writing Workshop.

Our penguin unit will be wrapped up by Friday. Most have finished their reports. We'll read them aloud to the class. ON FRIDAY, THE KIDS ARE ASKED TO DRESS IN "BLACK AND WHITE" to finish our penguin unit.

We have done our second lesson of eight for our First Penance preparation. We read about loving God as a friend, a father, and God. We acted out the play on the back about four of Jesus' apostles and their choice to follow Him. Students are asked to take these lessons home and share them with you. The back page has a "To the Parents" section for you to read.

I'm finding the need to do more work with money. Only one or two kids did well on the last test. It would help if you will practice "counting on" money and making change with "counting back." For example, 25 cents plus 4 cents - count 26, 27, 28, and 29 cents. When making change, students count back to the person as if they were a store clerk. It costs 49 cents, you give the person $1.00. To count back change to the person, count from 50 cents to $1.00. We will retake Chapter 8 Test on Wednesday.

Have a good evening!

January 22

2009-01-22T13:41:00.000-08:00

In case you are wondering, the spelling test tomorrow will be on the words from Jamaica Louise James since we missed it last week. We are doing Theme Skills Tests this week, and the words are just review words anyway.

The trip to Superior was great! It was so cool to see our Bishop Christensen interact with the kids and sign all those autographs, and then to take pictures with the classes. He's special! It was a long bus ride for some kids. They were pretty tired, but it was worth the trip! It was nice to see so many kids dressed up and lots of red and white, too!

We will be working on penguin research next week, too. Catholic Schools' Week is going to be busy. The kids will get to do hat day, pj day, spirit day, and our special liturgies.

Have a good evening!

JANUARY 12

2009-01-12T11:37:00.000-08:00

I am fully recuperated from my last bout of "viral" problems! It certainly takes a lot out of me when it lasts days. That's the third bout of sickness I've had since the middle of August, and I am NOT a patient patient - too much to do. Like everyone else I haven't the time to be sick :-)

This week is our story "Jamaica Louise James". Our skills are vowel pairs ee, ea, and endings
-tion, and -ture. Our new words are believe, whole, and lady.

We are working on money in Math. Some of the kids are having a hard time counting coins. Today we worked on finding an amount using the fewest coins. They can get how to make an amount, but to do so using the fewest coins is hard for some. If you get a chance, practice with your child using real money. We will keep working on it here, too.

We are working on our January quilt squares. The story is "The Snowman" by Raymond Briggs. I wanted to get the book, but it's been checked out at the Vaughn, so I got a video. It is a "wordless" book/story which was different for the kids! It's about a boy who builds a snowman, watches it come to life, then joins it on a magical adventure.

In Science, we're learning about the parts of plants.

Good news! Mr. Bell said they are going to order Social Studies books for us!!!! Hooray! It has been difficult for all the kids to see because we've just had one big book. It will be great for the kids to have their own books!

We have received our laminated world and U.S. maps which we were able to purchase with money donated by friends and family of one of our students! We also purchased some other language art materials and will have a few dollars left to buy more art materials when we need them. We are appreciative of these monetary donations!

HAPPY 2009!

DECEMBER 17TH

2008-12-17T14:48:00.001-08:00

Our Baby Jesus Party was another success! Thank you for sending gifts to honor Baby Jesus through gifts for needy families! The kids all worked hard at making their cards for the residents at the nursing home. These gifts will make older people and young children happy! They also benefit our children by helping them feel good about doing nice things for others.

Not getting outside to play and being excited about Christmas has these kids SOOOO wired! Whew! I am exhausted by the end of the day! Two more days!

May all of you and your families have a safe, wonderful Christmas and New Year! God's blesssings!

See you in 2009!

Dec. 10

2008-12-10T14:02:00.000-08:00

We made it to Court Manor today after all. Thanks to Mrs. Rasmussen, Mr. Brown, and Sara for driving! We had a major scramble to get booster seats! I guess I "assumed"parents would send booster seats, and I didn't send a reminder. Thanks, Ashley, for bringing yours, and to Mrs. Rueckert from borrowing some for us, and to my husband for going home and bringing two of my granddaughers' booster seats!
It was fun to watch the kids help the residents play bingo. They each got a treat from the nursing home, and we even got to sing Happy Birthday to one of the residents. She enjoyed having the kids sing to her.

I think doing these service projects are valuable for our kids. They receive pleasure from helping others. I hope helping others will stay with them as they grow up.

CHRISTMAS PROGRAM TOMORROW NIGHT - KIDS NEED TO BE HERE AROUND 6:00 BUT NO LATER THAN 6:10. Please follow this as every year we seem to have some kids running in at 6:28 and if everyone else is ready, it holds them up, and the program doesn't start on time. Thanks!

Dec. 9 Pictures

2008-12-09T12:48:00.000-08:00

Plans are to go to Court Manor tomorrow. We didn't get enough drivers, so instead of canceling we are trying to work out where someone can watch the office and Sara can drop students off and then come back and pick them up.

The pictures are from 1. Court Manor 2. Very Important Pupil 3. December quilt squares for North Country Night

Have a great evening!

Dec. 8

2008-12-08T13:23:00.000-08:00

We went to Church today for the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Tomorrow we'll learn about Juan Diego and see the story on video. Friday is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but we'll also talk about Saint Lucy whose feast day is Saturday, the 13th. We continue to work on our Advent Wreaths, calendars, and cactus pictures. Students also have a manger they are working on. When they do something nice for someone they can add straw and hope to have it filled for Baby Jesus by Christmas. This same idea is used to color flowers on their Christmas cactus.

I still need permission slips for Court Manor and drivers for 5 kids. Also, the gift exchange slips as well as the Christmas Eve liturgy slips. Please send them in tomorrow. Thanks!

We will not be having spelling words to study as we will be trying out the new lessons this week. The test will be a cloze story word test. This means students will have a paper with blanks in the story. We read the story aloud including the test words, and the kids will fill them in. This spelling program, if I understand it correctly, has an expectation of words kids should already know. Various skills are practiced throughout the week which builds on the skills.

Our reading skills this week include words with AI, and AY as well as compound words. We've practiced several of these today. We'll be reading the story " A Trip to the Firehouse". If you'd like your children to do the spelling pages that go with the story, you may do so. They will not be required this week. These would be pages 167-169.

Remember to start getting gifts for our Baby Jesus Party which is a week from Wednesday! They are unwrapped, and the list was sent home earlier.

We will have liturgy on Wednesday this week as usual.

Remember to have your child here no later than 6:10 on Thursday for the Christmas program.

December 2

2008-12-02T05:46:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I think the kids were ready to come back and see their friends.

Here's planning ahead:

Baby Jesus Party on Dec. 17th at 1:30 A note will be sent home soon!
We WILL have a classroom party on the 19th. I will send a note about that also.
Christmas program at 6:30 Dec. 11th
4th Wiseman on Dec. 19th about 9:15

This week we will be learning how to write friendly letters. Then we will write to some of the other soldiers that are on our bulletin board in the hallway! The spelling words for this week are the ones for the Reading-Writing Workshop for Theme 3.

Speaking of Spelling - Next week or the week after, we will be trying out a new spelling plan to see if we like it. It is different because the kids will not have a list to study from. This plan has kids use the words in various ways, and there are only five words. The test is a dictation test where the kids will figure out the words that will fit in the sentences. I haven't had a chance to study it yet, but we will try it soon. We have been looking for a new spelling plan for a few years now.

REMEMBER THE PARADE THIS SATURDAY! OUR SCHOOL WILL BE REPRESENTED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN QUITE A FEW YEARS! HOORAY!

Keep warm!

NOV. 18

2008-11-18T13:52:00.000-08:00

We finished making our Thanksgiving dinner centerpieces today, and we also made cards for the residents at the nursing home to take with us when we go on Thursday. A FEW KIDS HAVE NOT RETURNED THEIR PERMISSION SLIPS. I NEED THEM TOMORROW.

We read and discussed our Weekly Reader today. It was about the symbols of our nation. The kids do the back page, and on this, they had ABC order for five words. Tomorrow we will practice ABC order to the 2nd and 3rd letters.

The kids are working on short stories. I hope we have three finished and ready to publish SOON.

We will be learning about the parts of the Mass. We have begun learning about the items in church such as the Sanctuary Lamp, the lectern, the ambry ( Do YOU know what that is? :-) I use flash cards and give the meaning/description, and the kids tell what it is. It's a fun way to learn!

Ms. Betzold has begun extra music practices to get ready for the Christmas program. I give her a great deal of credit for working with such big groups at one time. She does a WONDERFUL job!

A NOTE ABOUT BOOSTER SEATS:
The Wisconsin Child Passenger Safety Law
A child at least 4 years old but less than 8 years old, weighs at least 40 but not more than 80 pounds, and is no more than 57 inches tall must be properly restrained in a "child booster seat".

Ages 8 or older or exceeds the weight or height limits above, must be properly restrained by a safety belt.

This means most of my kids will NEED a booster seat. Please remember to send one on Thursday. Thanks for those who are willing to send an extra one we can borrow!

Have a good evening!

November 11

2008-11-11T19:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we welcomed a new second grade student to our class. We are happy to have Andrew with us!

Today we had a very nice Veteran's Day program in Church. Our band, choir, 3rd and 4th graders did a good job with the Music portion, and the Junior High students had good messages to share about the Veterans. We are very happy to be a part of thanking our vets for all they have done and do for our country!

THANK YOU to all who came for conferences!! It's so important to meet and discuss the progress your children are making. There is a lot more to 2nd grade than 1st grade when you compare what things they are reading compared to last year. Their Kindergarten and First Grade teachers have done a great job in helping them learn to read!

We are taking our Theme 2 skills tests this week. The spelling words are the review words for Nature Walk, page 239 in the Student Handbook. They are: these, use, swim, glad, club, all, bone, cute, next, brave, add, mess, egg, hope, trip, stone, lost, off, grass, hill. The challenge words are: drove, mule, space, storm, across.

November 5

2008-11-05T05:41:00.000-08:00

Here it is November already! Where did October go? We have begun our second quarter, and I look forward to seeing all of you at conferences on Monday.

The spelling list for this week is from Around the Pond story. We are working on words with double final consonants including ck. For the English part, we'll be learning about exclamations. We work on capitalization and punctuation every day in our Daily Language Practice. We still need to work on those.

Our Thanksgiving Dinner is on the 20th. I am also hoping to take my class to Court Manor, as we have been invited to go and listen to Granny Goose there. This would mean some of the kids would need to bring car seats, and I will need one or two drivers. The office needs your insurance information if you drive. This is updated each year.

We are celebrating Red Ribbon Week. We have all received red ribbons to wear each day, and Mr. Bell picks numbers each day and kids win a small prize. We've talked about how smoking and abusing alcohol and drugs can hurt our bodies, and the kids made a bookmark. It's important for everyone to help kids learn to say "No" to drugs.

Have a good week! Remember that Friday is a half-day for the students.

Prizes Wanted

2008-10-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

We are still looking for prizes for the honors party Friday. These can be small items such as pencils, erasers, small candies, etc. although the kids will get more than enough candy for Halloween! Also, if anyone can help with the games and set-up or clean-up, it'd be great.

We went to Eucharistic Adoration for about 10 minutes today. I wanted to give the kids the experience of this devotion. We didn't stay long because they have a hard time staying focused for too long, plus we had Library.

I believe the discipline plan with the yellow slips is working. Last month there were a lot more slips going to Mr. Bell, and I've seen a decline this month. That's great!

PLEASE make sure your child has WARM CLOTHING for outside including HATS, MITTENS, WARM JACKETS, and a change of clothing that's kept in the lockers. Get ready for snow season by investing in SNOWPANTS and BOOTS now so kids can get out and get fresh air. Teachers have noon duties every day this year, so there will be NO inside recess for kids who don't come dressed warmly - kids WILL be going out. Goodwill, Bargain Hut, and Thrift Store probably have some of these items in . It's always nice to have extra hats, mittens, etc. which we keep in lockers just in case kids "forget".

Next week is the end of the first quarter already. Conferences will be on November 10 so mark your calendars.

Oct. 23 I'M BACK!

2008-10-23T11:25:00.000-07:00

I have been ill since Sunday. I hadn't planned on going to the doctor because it's usually spending money to be told "It's just a virus." By Tuesday, I wasn't getting better so I went in and found out I DID have strep! Then I couldn't come back until I'd been on the penicillin for 24 hours which is why I couldn't be back until today. I get VERY sick with strep. I am on the mend... I hope.

Because of my absence, there will be NO SPELLING TEST on Friday. We'll do it next week, and play catch-up with what I missed this week. The story and spelling list go with Exploring Parks with Ranger Dockett. The phonics are the consonant clusters: tr, fl, st, tr, gl, fl, br, sl, cl... We are also learning the two sounds for c (k and s). We'll be practicing Fact and Opinion also.

My kids made Halloween cards to send to the soldiers today. They also helped pack a box of books and another care package. We are spacing the packages so they don't get there all at one time, plus I'm sending to different people in my nephew's unit. Soon we will have the address for another soldier who has just been sent to Iraq. I told her Grandma we will send her some care packages too.

Prizes are needed for the Halloween Honors Party next Friday. I think the cost shouldn't be over a dollar - the pencils, erasers, that type of prize would be fine. Please send whatever you can. I know with the soldier packages, the Stuff-A-Truck and everything else we ask you to do, it's just one more thing. Please help if you can. Thanks so much!

Oct. 14

2008-10-14T05:36:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures from our bake sale!

October 13

2008-10-13T07:42:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a nice, warm morning it is! I LOVE Fall!

This week's new words are: beautiful, even, quiet, straight, and year. We will be learning about the long vowels O, U, E using the Consonant Vowel Consonant final e patterns. We will also be practicing the 2 sounds for g- the g sound and the j sound. The spelling words this week are for the story Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night story.

We are learning about the rosary and today we will see a video The Rosary for Little Children. We may see another one or two later on this month.

We hope to have a guest speaker from the Day Shelter on Thursday. She had planned on being here last week but was called away.

Thank you to all who donated goodies for our bake sale! It was a huge success! We made $92.25!! We had a glitch with our fry bread sale as our outlets kicked off, and I had to stand in the hall and fry out there. Thank you to Melissa R. for helping out as well as Ms. Eaton, Kristen, Nick, and Mary from our junior high! You made things go so much easier for us!!! I will try and publish some pictures from it tonight or tomorrow.

October 6

2008-10-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

BAKE SALE THIS FRIDAY - OCTOBER 10 AT 12:30 IN OUR CLASSROOM.
This will be to help pay for postage for our soldier packages. Please send items in Friday morning.

We are taking our Theme 1 Tests this week. I hope to have the results for you by Friday. These are the skills tests which go with our reading books.

Students should be studying their math facts. We had our chapter test, and it looks like some need to practice more. Remember to do the fact family ( 2 addition facts, 2 subtraction facts.)

Today we had our Fire Prevention program. Firefighters Tim and John helped the kids learn more about safety. They encouraged the kids to ask you if they could test your smoke detectors tonight. It is important to have an escape plan for your homes, too. The men did a nice job. They said our class was the best behaved one they had today! That was nice to hear!! :-)

REMEMBER - NO SCHOOL FOR THE KIDS ON WEDNESDAY. Teachers get to go and learn at Rice Lake! Also, support the school by going to the Indian Taco Sale that day.

Have a good evening!

October 2 More Pictures!

2008-10-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

I plan to send a copy of one of these pictures to the press to let people know about our Support Our Soldiers project, so I took a couple of pictures of the girls who brought things in for the soldiers. We hope to get a package ready to send tomorrow. I hope to plan a bake sale soon to pay for postage since we don't have the money for that part of our project. Be looking for more information on the bake sale within the next few days.

Reminder - Spelling Test tomorrow!

We had pictures taken today. Some parents must have forgotten about it, so the kids will have to take pictures on retake day if they didn't have their money today.

Have a good evening!

Oct. 1

2008-10-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the previous post! I kept trying to get it arranged properly, but the preview showed it differently than it actually posted. Hope you can figure it out!

October 1 - Pictures from Sept.

2008-10-01T16:16:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from September. The kids were decorating the paper to cover the Support Our Soldiers boxes for the North Entrance hallway.

I have also included our V.I.P. ( Very Important PUPIL) Each student will get to have their pictures, etc. on the V.I.P. bulletin board for a week or more. Parents will get a letter prior to the week your child will be V.I.P. It gives ideas of what your child might want to bring.

Something else we do in second grade which is fun is to have a student who is V.I.S.A. (Very Important Student Assistant). This child gets to do little extra things to help me and/or other students. Everyone will have turns all year long. It goes with the weekly chores such as line leader, messenger, pass papers, etc. The kids enjoy this job!

Mr. Bell came to our room again today to show the kids the next step in their writing. He is proving to the kids that writing is easy, and they CAN do it! They are very receptive to his ideas. I'm sure we'll invite him in again!

Liturgies have been especially nice this year! Today Mr. Bell was song leader as well as playing the organ at Communion time. For the closing song, he and Ms. Betzold both played. Wow! I don't believe I' ve ever heard our organ and piano playing at the same time. It was awesome!! What is even more awesome, is that some of the kids were talking today and said they "love going to Church!" I think it's such an uplifting yet calming place to be, and when we are all a school community there at once it's even more of a blessing!

Have a good evening. REMEMBER PICTURE DAY TOMORROW!