Dec. 15

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FIRST RECONCILIATION DATE IS FEBRUARY 9TH AT 5:30

January 8

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!