Busy Week

Wow! What a wonderful and exciting week we have had in our classroom!
In Science we investigated 3 different types of soil by comparing and contrasting them. We now know which is the best soil to plant our seeds in next week. Ask your child which soil is the best and how they know why.
In Social Studies, Mrs. Cataldo, our pre-intern from UNF, taught us about maps. We now have a world map hanging in our classroom. Ask your child what a compass rose is and what they would use it for.

In Reading we have been comparing and contrasting stories and characters. Monday we read a story about Henry and Mudge going on a camp out in our reading text book. Wednesday we read another camping book, "Sleep Tight, Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite", by Diane DeGroat. We all sat in a circle on a blanket under the dark, night sky around a crackling campfire while we ate our s'mores. Mrs. Soles had to read the book with a flashlight!

In Math we have had a blast grabbing a hand full of coins and learning how to count them. We know to put the coins in order from the largest value to the smallest and then to count on. Next week we will start with paper money.
In Writing we are finishing up our realistic fictional narratives and will be polishing them for publication next week. We will be bringing them home for you to read soon.
Our RTI time is going great every morning from 8:45-9:15. Some of the students get to work on some more challenging activities, some of the students work on reviewing concepts that have been previously taught, while some students get remediation of the same concepts.
Our Family Literacy Night was awesome! I saw several of the students there with their families. Next week we will be celebrating Red Ribbon Week, which is the traditional "Say No to Drugs" week. The children are taught how to have a healthy life style.

Start the Arts Parade



Music

The students were treated to six different forms of art Friday. We started with music in the music suite. We listened to Mr. Nettles' intern tell us how to create our own music.



Dancing

Then we went to the stage to see a dancer show us how fun it can be to dance.

Mrs. Laubach tells about literature

Then we went to the Media Center to listen to Mrs. Laubach tell us all about creating our own literature and showing diversity in it.

Mrs. Gonzales tells about photographs

Next we went to the Resource Room and looked at all of the cool

photographs that Mrs. Gonzales has taken.

Then we went to the newsroom where the Morning News is produced. We listened to Mrs. Carpenter tell us how we can create our own videos.

Mrs. Carpenter tells us about how to create
our own videos

Mrs. Hadden and her guest artist

Last we went to the art room. Mrs. Hadden has a guest artist with her. We listened to how we can create our own art work, using paint or crayons.

 

The students took home a selection sheet Friday. If they are interested in entering their own form of art into the Start the Arts contest, they can bring in their entry form and I will send home the rules and directions on how to proceed in the contest. The children were all very excited and interested in seeing all of the different art forms.









2nd Grade Dance

Several students went to the dance Thursday after school. I didn't get any action shots because there wasn't much action! Just a lot of munching and smiles! The kids had fun! :)

Open House

Open House was a huge success! It was great to meet some of you for the first time and was good to see some of you again since we had already met at the beginning of the year orientation. I hope I answered all of your questions. I have already had several conferences with the students along with their parents. My goal is to have a conference with each parent once during each 9 week period so that you will stay informed about your child's progress in school. Remember that Progress Reports will be sent home September 26th. Please sign them and return them as quickly as possible so that I know that you received them. If you need a conference and have not signed up for one yet, please let me know what day and time is convenient for you. By the way, I still have not completed my beginning of the year diagnostic testing for Reading. As I complete the DRA's and FAIR test on your child I will be sending home reports letting you know what level they are reading on and some other information about their reading level. We started RTI (remediation) this past Monday morning. Students are being given differentiated work for their level to work on. Some are working with skills cards, some at computers, some are independently reading, some are revising and editing their writing, some are working on math facts, some on comprehension, and a few each day that need a little more guidance are working with me at my table.

Once again, it was great to see you at Open House. I have a great group of students this year with a great group of parents! Together Everyone Achieves More!!

Welcome to Mrs. Soles' 2011-2012 2nd Grade Class!!

I hope that you will drop by every now and then to check out our classroom blog. Some times I will be down loading pictures of the kids in action and sometimes the kids themselves will be writing the blog on what they are learning in class. Here are some recent pictures of our Skills Block in action.

2011 Play Day

Easter Egg Hunt

Butterfly Release

I know that you all heard about our butterflies in the classroom! Mrs. Olecki took some beautiful pictures of the children during the butterfly release!

Author's Night

I am very sorry that it has been so long since we have posted on our classroom blog. I was very pleased with the turn out for our Author's Night and wanted to post the pictures from it. Enjoy!

Cookies & Science Fairs

We had a great week in Room 148 last week. Mrs. Soles taught the children about Functional Writing and instructed them on how to make an Over the Rainbow Cloud cookie. The students were then supposed to write their own functional writing on the cookie. When they finished their writing, they switched with a friend and we passed out the ingredients for the delicious treats! Following their classmate's directions, they made the cookies. Some cookies turned out perfectly and some did not... But everyone got to enjoy a delicious snack after lunch!

In Science, we have been working on our Science Project with Mrs. Olecki. We finished it on Thursday and our project is on display outside of our classroom (stop by and check it out!) The title of our project is "Do plants really need water?" Our hypothesis was that they didn't really need water but that they just needed liquid. We tested this hypothesis by "feeding" four plants liquids other than water and "feeding" one plant water. The outcome was that fruit punch Gatorade makes plants grow the fastest. We learned a lot of cool stuff! We are also studying gases in Science. We did a neat experiment with balloons and water bottles. Be sure to ask your child about it!

We also had a test on two digit addition with regrouping last week. Mrs. Olecki graded our tests and sent them home on Friday. Please sign them and return them so your child can make a visit to the golden treasure box on Tuesdsay!

Hope you're enjoying your long weekend! See ya tomorrow!

Holiday Party 2010

Hello parents! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday break. Our class has been very busy since we came back to school last Monday. We are busy working on functional writing, reading comprehension, two-digit addition with regrouping, and preparing our science fair project! It is a very exciting time in room 148! Here are a few pictures from our holiday party. Thanks to all the parents who volunteered their time and/or contributed items to help make our holiday party great!!

Mrs. Soles and Mrs. Olecki