Dec. 18

REMINDER- Gift exchange and Baby Jesus gifts need to be here by Wednesday, Dec. 19th.

No liturgy this week, but we will attend the Fourth Wiseman at 9:15 on Friday.

We lit our rose candle today which means joy - joy that Christ's birth is near. I hope the kids are using their Advent calendar activities and "Lighting" their candles on their wreaths.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed 2008!

Dec. 12

Oh, Christmas tree....

What great, creative trees have arrived in our classroom! I loved them! Thanks for working with your children on this project. I really like how each one is different - that was the idea!

YES, WE ARE ABLE TO GO TO COURT MANOR TOMORROW! A note went home today along with the note about the Christmas gift exchange and party.

We will do our Math test tomorrow. Remind your children to study for their spelling test, too.

Have a great evening!

Dec. 11

We have been learning more things about Advent, the Jesse tree, St. Nicholas, and tomorrow and Thursday we'll talk about St. Lucia. We've made ornaments for the school's Jesse tree, stained glass pictures, and our December quilt squares for The Polar Express. These all have turned out so well! I am amazed at what second graders can do! I also plan on having my kids make cards for Fr. Conan and the residents as well as a sympathy card for Mrs. Belknap and her family. We received word yesterday that her mom died. We hope everyone will keep Mrs. Belknap and her family in their prayers.

There are still some students who have not turned in their permission slips to go to Court Manor. They were supposed to turn them in by Monday. If I don't get permission, these students will not be able to go with us. I am hoping Bro. Thinh can drive for us or else we won't have enough drivers. If this is the case, I will send a note home.

Practices for the Christmas program continue daily. They are doing well. Remember, the program is this Friday night.

There's a benefit for Jim Miller tomorrow night. I hope many of you will be able to attend. This is a very worthy cause!

A special "thank you" to the Gregoire family who donated some money to our class! I purchased some art supplies and some treats for the class. We appreciate your gift!

Have a good evening!

Nov. 29

We are at the end of another month. Can you believe it? Advent begins Sunday. We will be working on different projects for Advent these next few weeks. We try to focus mostly on Advent rather than Christmas until closer to Christmas.

We had our Chapter 7 Test on money yesterday. While some did really well, I felt there was room for improvement. We reviewed the test yesterday, and then I told them we'd do a second version of the test today. I said I'd give them the better of the two grades. Nearly every student improved!!! We will still be working on money next week for sure. It's a hard thing for some kids to comprehend. If you can spend a little extra time working with real money with your child if he/she is struggling, that'd be great.

Work has begun on the December books. I have some ready to type!

I plan to invite a police officer to our class to discuss the booster seat law and help me decide who actually needs one. The law seems a little confusing so I want it clarified. I won't take risks with the children or have drivers pay fines if children don't have a booster seat.

Mrs. Trapp has been having an extra practice every day for the Christmas program. She does such an excellent job with the kids - and to work with Kindergarten through fourth grades all at once is amazing! I know it will be a great program. We are lucky to have Mrs. Trapp here!

Book Fair starts tomorrow. We will be browsing, but Mrs. Belknap will allow buying also. She does a lot of extra work to get these book fairs up and running. Monday and Tuesday students who have money will have a time to go and buy both of these days.

November 26

Oops! I hit the wrong button and it published only the date. Sorry about that!

This week we are working with consonant digraphs - that is, the th, sh, wh, ch, tch. We are also working on base words and the -er and -est endings. Our new words for the week are: during, heard, lion, winter.

In Religion today we talked about Faith in Action - doing things for others, treating others the way we want to be treated, including everyone in activities or on the playground, etc. The kids understand that we do for others as a way of putting our faith into action!

We are still practicing with money. Some are struggling with counting coins. For example, adding a quarter, a dime, and a nickel. It's hard for some to understand you count by ten with a dime and five with a nickel. We will be having a test on money on Wednesday. If you have time, use some real money ( we use play money in school) to help them count.

Error Nov. 14

CORRECTION FROM MY LAST POST! It should read we had 100% of parents from second grade attend conferences.

Thank You!

We had % turn out for conferences! Thank you!!!! It is so important for the children to know how much you care. I appreciate your support and ideas.

Today is our liturgy with the third graders. I know it will go well as it always does.

We are just beginning our December books. The kids are just beginning their first step of the Writing Process which is Prewriting. They have a copy of the steps here at school, and they can also ask you about each step from the list I sent home in October. I wrote a story using their names, and when I have it finished, I will let each child take it home one night to read it to you.

Tomorrow is our Thanksgiving Dinner. We are asked to dress up for this dinner. Please remind your child about this. Thanks!

I have attempted to change my settings in order to let you post comments if you'd like to do so. I hope I did it correctly! :-) I am happy to know that so many of you do read this blog.

Have a great day!

Good week!

We had a good week! As usual, it was a busy one but fun! On Tuesday, the kids made the Prayer Request boxes for the holiday bazaar. Thanks to Mary Grubisic for giving us the materials for this project. The kids enjoyed it, and the boxes looked great. I hope you had a chance to get down to the bazaar and buy some. We made the dog biscuits for the bazaar also. This was so much fun for the kids to roll out and cut out the biscuits. I had hoped to add pictures of these to my blog, but it seems they are having problems which haven't been fixed yet.

This week we will be doing Theme Tests for Reading. It's hard to believe we've already finished another theme. We have six themes for the year.

I am planning on having the kids start their December stories this week also. They need to use the five steps of the Writing Process each time they write. These steps were sent home last month to help you know what's expected.

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you at Parent Teacher Conferences on Tuesday! Have a great day!

November 5

Tomorrow is the official end of the first quarter. Can you believe it? Nine weeks finished! I think we have accomplished quite a bit this first nine weeks. My kids and I have gotten to know each other better, we're all getting used to new books and a new room, and we are ready to move ahead to the next nine weeks. These really ARE super kids! I enjoy having them in my class.

We are already having another Math test tomorrow. They are just so good at Math that we move pretty quickly. We have been doing graphs for this chapter. I don't think they will have any problems with their test.

In Religion we are learning about the Holy Trinity and being disciples of Jesus. Today they worked in pairs to try and come up with some new ideas to show the Trinity. They really had some "original" ideas! I think that was a hard thing to do. It's always nice to work with others - not quite so difficult as working alone.

We will be doing two things for the Holiday Bazaar this weekend. We will be making Prayer Request boxes tomorrow. Thursday we will be making dog biscuits. Last year my fourth graders made them...I believe the second graders will do equally well.

We had a good time making the Pan de Muertos on Friday. Some of the kids liked it and some didn't. There is anise seed in it and orange juice for the glaze, so if they didn't like those, they weren't too thrilled with the taste of the bread. Some took some home. I hope those of you who got to taste it enjoyed it.

Remember to try and get to the holiday bazaar this weekend. Recipes were sent home today for the cookies!
Have a good day!

October 30

We now have "published" authors!!! Students read their books to Kindergarten and First Grade students. Wow! Nice job! My kids are so proud to be able to have a book to take home. We will plan to do more this year. I think the next one will be Christmas stories because I don't think we have enough time to do a Thanksgiving story.

Tomorrow is Halloween. The kids may bring treats if they wish to do so. They are not required to bring anything.

This week we are working on consonant clusters ( tr, bl, gr, sw, sp, st, etc.) as well as the two sounds of C - the "k" sound and the "s" sound. We are practicing finding Facts and Opinions, too.

We read about different saints for Religion to prepare for All Saints' Day on Thursday. Friday is All Souls' Day, and we will watch a Spanish lesson unit on how this day is observed. I hope to also have them make Pan de Muertos - "bread for All Souls Day". Miss Nancy is very willing to let us use the kitchen for our baking. Thanks, Miss Nancy! If anyone would like to join us and help, I'd be happy to have you.

Hope you enjoy all the little ghosts and goblins tomorrow night!

Oct. 22

It's time to write! Our class will be writing Halloween-type stories this week. These will fit with our Reading-Writing Workshop plans to write descriptions. You should receive information from your child tonight about this project. I have included a blue sheet with the Steps of the Writing Process and ask that you hang onto it to help remember these steps when the kids write. You may type the final copies later this week for your child. I envision large fonts and writing at the bottom of the pages so the kids can draw and color a picture to go with the writing.

One of the things we are asked to do for Religion is to give information about being safe. This is part of the Safe and Sacred program which the diocese requires of all teachers and catechists. Today we viewed a program called The Safe Side. It was very well done. I had borrowed it from our diocese's media center. In this video. many tips were given to help children stay safe. John Walsh was one of the narrators in this video. We discussed the situations and why knowing about these can help children stay safe. It included not talking to strangers, maintaining their own personal space, not allowing themselves to be tricked ( e.g. Can you help me find my kitten?), and finding three safe people approved by your parents to help. This might be like picking your child up at school, for example. It was a good reminder to children about staying safe.

This Wednesday is a prayer service instead of liturgy! Our liturgy is with the seventh grade next week, Oct. 31st. Hope you can make it!

Oct. 17

Today was a nice day! We had liturgy, and I was happy to see we had more of our fourth grade parents attending. Parents are always a welcome addition. I think the children's liturgies are so special, and our priests are so great with our kids! Fr. Henry had the patience of a saint today with all of the answers of "Don't be mean to..." They could have gone on forever! :-). By the way, our next liturgy will be with the 7th graders on Halloween. There will also be an All Saints Day liturgy on Nov. 1st.

Tomorrow is the feast of St. Luke. I will read about him to the kids. Maybe you could ask your child about him. You might learn something new about him yourselves.

We worked on ordinal numbers as well numbers "just before, just after, and between" in Math today. They did really well on them. The last Math test wasn't as good as some of the others, so we'll need to do some reviewing.

This week we are studying the CVCe words. This means consonant, vowel, consonant, final e words. These are long vowel sounds . Words such as Pete, rule, and note are examples of this. We also are studying hard and soft g sounds. The soft g sounds like a j such as in gym, and the hard g is like the g in give.

In Social Studies, we practiced map skills and had a map of the U.S. with the capitals. We talked about who went where in the U. S. I was surprised at how many kids have been farther than Minnesota and Michigan! We will be learning more about our community.

We are learning about nonliving and living things in Science. My kids took paper and clipboards outside to draw things they saw and then decide if they belong to living or nonliving categories. Of course, that's just when it decided to rain!

Many of us are looking forward to Alex's mom's wedding this weekend! It's great to have such a joyful event to look forward to.

Have a great day!

Oct. 11

We had a nice liturgy today again. After that, we worked on our theme skills tests for Reading. Next, we had a fire prevention program with a young firefighter who showed us a video as well as a fire truck. It was interesting, but it was VERY cold out in that wind. Please be sure to send your child with WARM OUTDOOR clothing.

Yesterday was a great day for us teachers! I've always wished parents and students could be there just for the liturgy. It's amazing! The church is filled with so many voices joined together in song and prayer. It is always the highlight of our trip to Rice Lake. We are all there to praise and thank God, and we are all as one in our ministry as teachers, catechists, DRE's, priests, etc. It was the first mass we had been to where the Bishop has presided. He's wonderful! I hope all of you get to attend one of his masses and meet him.

THANK YOU to all who sent in paper towels, paper punches, markers, and disinfectant wipes! We appreciate it.

I would like to take my class to see Father Conan at Court Manor Golden Living Center one day soon. It would mean everyone sending their child's booster seats and needing more drivers due to the booster seats. I'll see what we can do.
Have a good day!

Oct. 9

We are very busy these days! Yesterday we had another Math test, and the kids did GREAT again! I'm so proud of them! We are in the process of making triangle flash cards which the kids can practice at home. These are addition and subtraction facts all in one. It's good for the kids to know the fact families. They should be finished with them this week. Please take time to practice with them or have an older sibling help.

We are starting our first theme skills tests today in Reading. I believe they will do well on these tests,too. We've been working on the short vowel sounds and the long vowel sounds with consonant/vowel/consonant/ final e. They are good at predicting and know the difference between fantasy and realism.

We are working on our rosary booklets. October is the month of the Rosary. I've been reading about the mysteries of the rosary including the newest mysteries, the Luminous Mysteries. I feel it is important that our children learn about the rosary and why we pray it.

NO SCHOOL TOMORROW, OCTOBER 10TH. WE GET TO GO TO RICE LAKE AND LEARN FROM OTHER EDUCATORS! Stop by and buy Indian Tacos for your lunch!

Have a great day!

End of Sept.

Can you believe it is the end of September already? Wow, did this month go quickly!

My kids did so well on their Spelling and Math tests again this week! I am proud of them :-) and know you are also proud of them. When practicing our Math facts, we have been practicing the fact families. For example, if I give the addition problem 5 + 3, students will say 5+3=8, 3+5=8, 8-5=3, and 8-3=5. They are getting pretty good at it. I encourage you to practice with them. Knowing their facts is really important. We will be making triangle flash cards for them to take home and practice.

You may have heard your child speak of the V.I.S.A. in our room. This stands for Very Important Student Assistant. Each child will get a week (or 2) this year to be VISA. This student helps do little extras like putting the "mail" in their mailboxes, drawing the popsicle sticks for reading or doing Math problems, etc. They will also help pass out books or put papers in order by "student numbers" when kids hand papers in. It is a good way to let them know they are valuable and is also a help to me. Kids enjoy this role!

Next week we will be reading Mrs. Brown Went to Town in our reading books and practicing long vowel sounds. The stories are really fun to read. They go with the theme "Silly Stories". This past week we learned how to separate fantasy from realism.

This week in Religion we will be hearing about St. Therese of the Child Jesus on Monday. We will also be practicing for liturgy on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Guardian Angel day, students will view a short video on angels. October is the month of the rosary, so we will be studying that as well.

Have a good day! Next Sunday is Apple Festival, but it's also our first All School Liturgy. Hope you and your kids can make it to 9:30 mass before going to Bayfield!

Friday, Sept. 21

Today my kids turned in their first stories. They were excited to read them to the class and be able to take them home tonight. What fun!

Next week we'll be starting subtraction and practicing with fact families. This past week we practiced with counting on, and next week we'll be counting backwards. Today was the Chapter 1 Math Test. Wow! We had some terrific grades on them. You can be proud!

We'll be reading the story "Julius" in reading and doing more practice with short vowels. They will receive their spelling list on Monday, and I encourage them to make an extra copy of them to keep in school to study when they finish work. We had good grades on their tests today! I told them I will be giving them two challenge words next week - of course, they groaned :-)

Remember to encourage the selling of magazines. Also, please save and send in pennies for our "FATHER CONAN PENNY JAR". Anyone can send pennies in even if they aren't at our school, like grandparents, friends, aunts, and uncles. We'll be more than happy to accept them.
Have a GREAT weekend!

Tuesday, September 18

We are doing well so far! Some of the things we are working on are new to my second graders. For instance, Reading-Writing Workshop which we are doing this week is new. Yesterday students were to think about what kind of things they might like to write a story about. I read them a story I had written to help them get idea. That was part of the Prewriting step in the writing process. Today I gave them a graphic organizer to help plan their stories. They filled in what they would write about, their characters, and what they do in the story. Those who finished that could begin writing. I don't expect long stories, just long enough to tell me a story.

In Math, we did our first Word Problems in which they drew pictures to help them solve the problems. It helps to have those pictures in front of them.

I read about Jacob and Esau today in the children's bible. Then we talked about the many different names for Jesus such as the Good Shepherd, Savior, Redeemer, Lamb of God, Son of God, etc.

REMEMBER - tomorrow is Grandparent's Liturgy and refreshments in the social hall after liturgy. It's always great to see so many grandparents and "adopted" grandparents.

Have a good evening!

OFF TO A GREAT START!!

Welcome to a new school year! We are truly off to a great start! The second grade students have been busy. It's exciting to meet a new class at a new grade level. I know I am enjoying your children a great deal. I love to see how eager they are to learn.
We read Bible stories at the start of each day from the book Everyday with God.
The kids give such good answers and listen and discuss the stories. We also read about the creation story in our textbook. I am happy to know I will get to prepare them for First Communion and First Reconciliation! They are so important to our faith.
In reading our first theme is Silly Stories. We have read our first story in our reading book, and by now you should have seen two phonics library stories. We've practiced short a and short i sounds as well as finding base words with -s, -ed, and -ing endings.
We are practicing addition facts in Math. In Science we are reading and doing activities in our Healthy Habits booklet. In Social Studies we learned about world maps.
What a nice group of children to work with this year. I am blessed!