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!