BINGO!

Thank you to all of our Woodland families that were able to make it to Turkey Bingo on Friday night!  Your attendance truly shows the support and committment our community has to offer Woodland.  I heard many stories from your children about getting Bingo, winning prizes, eating the yummy hot dogs and chips, and bidding on auction baskets.  This morning we had a discussion about fundraisers and their purpose.  The class is excited that the money earned from Turkey Bingo will be used to help better the building and support their learning.  Thank you for the wonderful items you donated towards baskets and a huge thank you for donating your time to be involved in this wonderful fundraiser!

“Reading Fun” Silent Auction Basket

Friday, November 13th  5:00 to 8:00

Woodland is hosting our annual Bingo and Silent Auction Night.  Every year classrooms put together baskets to auction off to raise money for the PTA. The money raised goes to support our children and their education at Woodland.  The PTA supports technology, music, art, reading, DARE, and many other programs at WD!  Our classroom has chosen a “Reading Fun” theme for our basket and we are very excited to work together to have fun and raise funds for Woodland.  We are asking each child to bring a new item that reflects our chosen theme or donate money to purchase items.  Donations will be collected in our classroom until  Tuesday, November 10th.  Please send your item and one dollar to help purchase a basket or container for our theme.  If the container is donated, we will use the money to purchase ‘final touches’ for the basket. Please notify us if you are able to donate this container. 

The theme for our room is:

If you are able to donate any additional items for the auction, it would be greatly appreciated.  All items must be new.  You could donate tickets for sports or theaters, gift certificates for movie theaters, stores, or entertainment venues, craft items, or any other items.  These donations can become part of a larger basket, added to another class or a basket of their own.  Feel free to create your own basket for the auction!  Perhaps your employer would donate a basket?  Thank you for your participation and your support!    Questions?  Email:  housmane@district279.org or WDPTA@yahoo.com

Subscribing to my blog

I have had a request on how to get notification for when I add a post to my blog.  Please copy and paste this link into your web browser for directions from Mrs. Brown on how to subscribe to blogs.

http://blogs.district279.org/brownrojanne/blog/2009/11/02/subscribing-to-a-blog/

Mix it up!

I have had several families give great ideas at conferences for new ways to study the weekly spelling words.  As the weeks go by, the lists are becoming more and more challenging and are requiring more time to master.  Of course there is the rote memorization way to practice spelling by writing the words over and over again until your child knows them by heart.  That is a proven method, but there are many others study methods that work as well.  I had a family tell me that their child gives THEM the spelling test daily at home and they purposely make mistakes so their child has to go through the test to fix it.  You could take it to a whole new level with some fun markers or pens and stickers to add some creativity and positive motivation to the task!  Another family referred me to a website called spellingcity.com.  This is an interactive website that can be used to help reinforce that studying at home can be fun!  I think it is important that your child still has opportunities to write the words out throughout the week as this is the way they will be tested every Thursday, but writing the words is just one piece to the puzzle.  Set up a spelling routine and keep it fun and interesting for your child so they are able to feel successful.  It is not meant to be a weekly battle.  I would love to hear any other ideas families are using to study that seem to be working!  I welcome you to reply to this post, but be aware that your comments will be open to the public to read!  Happy studying!

Math Differentiation

Second grade is proud to present math team time beginning this week!  Team time is similar to leveled reading in that your child will focus on a specific skill at their correct level of difficulty.  Team time will revolve around a weekly skill, groupings will be flexible, and instruction will be based on student needs.  Your child will meet with their group and teacher every day for a half hour in addition to the whole group math block in the afternoon.  Your child may move from group to group depending on their knowledge and experiences with the weekly skill.  This week second grade will explore and learn about patterns.  I look forward to this new math adventure and am excited to differentiate second grade math skills to help meet the needs of your children!  I’m happy to explain team time more in depth at conferences so feel free to ask questions!

Eventful short week!

We had an eventful short week in room 19!  The class experienced their first substitute for the year on Tuesday afternoon while I attended my much dreaded dentist appointment.  The sub left a positive report and I am very proud of the class for being respectful and responsible while I was away.

We experienced a lockdown drill and fire drill this week.  The students did not know about the drills, but acted quickly and followed procedures as if they had known they were going to happen.  Way to go kiddos!

Second grade also experienced our first reading calendar reward on Thursday.  Since the September calendar did not go home until the middle of the month we rewarded students who returned their calendar and met half of the reading goal.  Those that did not return their calendar or did not meet the goal were required to read in a quiet room.  We ask that students try to read 400 minutes a month, which equals out to be about 15 minutes per day.  I hope all students will be able to participate in October’s reading calendar reward!

Next week is a short week with Thursday and Friday off.  We are scheduled to start Walk to Reading (leveled reading) on Monday, October 12th.  The second grade teachers have taken quite a bit of time assessing and observing your children.  We compiled our data and have created appropriate groupings based on the data.  We will discuss this more in depth at conference time, but I’m sure you’ll hear about Walk to Reading starting this coming week!  Students are very excited!

Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm!  I heard it might snow…..brrrrrr.

~Mrs. Housman

Conference Scheduling

Happy October!

Last Thursday a conference scheduling form went home.  Please fill out your preferences and return it with your child as soon as possible.  I will try my best to schedule the conferences with your preferences in mind.  I will begin working on the schedule very soon!  I’m looking forward to meeting with you to discuss your child’s progress in second grade!

Brrrr….it’s cold!

Dear warm weather,

Where have you gone?  We sure miss you.  Students are coming in from recess shivering with pink noses and fingers!  Are you going to be coming back before our Minnesota winter begins?  I’ll chat with my students about wearing appropriate clothing for cold weather and keeping a sweatshirt/sweater in their locker.  Hope to see you again soon.

Missing you,

Room 19

Welcome back to school!

Hi second grade students and families!  Welcome to our classroom blog!  I intend to use this blog as a communication tool for students and families.

We are in our fourth week of school and having a great time! We’ve  gone through school/classroom routines and are spending a lot of time building a positive and respectful classroom community.  I am enjoying getting to know your children better.

It will be a great year!