Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Say do you remember, planting in September?
Hello and welcome to our classroom blog! We have had a busy year so far! The first week of school was spent getting to know one another and establishing classroom routines.
The students have been busy in our classroom garden! We read the story Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, and then worked in small groups to plant chrysanthemums.
I am a huge supporter of the movement to make September 11th a national day of service. Each student was given a bulb to plant in our garden on September 11th. We discussed as a class how planting and gardening can be a meaningful service. Students said that the flowers make the school look better, they are good for the soil, and provide oxygen for us to breathe! WOW!
Coming up this week is our trip to the Great Frederick Fair! This is one of my absolute favorite field trips, and I am sad to miss it :( Thank you in advance to those of you who are able to chaperone on the day of the trip. Mrs. Clark will be my substitute for the day, she has been an AMAZING sub/volunteer/PTA rep at our school for a few years, and is familiar with most of our students and their families. Thank you, Mrs. Clark! :)
Enjoy what is left of our short week, thank you for your support!
KM:)
Monday, May 7, 2012
Thank you very much to the families who contributed to Josh and Mrs. Oliver's last day gifts! With the money we collected, we bought Josh a green (favorite color) basketball, a stuffed bear, and two Eric Carle books! The students signed the basketball and one of the books. We purchased two beautiful bracelets from Chico's for Mrs. Oliver, as well as a lovely planter filled with daffodils. Thank you so much for your contributions towards the wonderful gifts for our wonderful friends. WE MISS THEM!!
Thank you very much to the families who helped with the Strawberry Festival. A special thank you to Mrs. Humbert for arranging the sign up sheet for the game. We lucked out BIG time with the weather!
We will be finishing up the school year with our drama unit. Students will be reading and performing plays, designing sets, and learning the construction of how a play is written.
Thank you for your continued support - have a great week!
:) KM
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Long time, no blog!
Well, hello! Long time, no blog! I appreciate your patience and support as I have not been updating the blog nearly as much as I orginally intended to.
I know some of you are aware of the situation with my father. He has been recovering from a traumatic brain injury he sustained from a fall on Thanksgiving. Thank you so much for your kind words, thoughts and prayers during this time. I am so fortunate to have such supportive and understanding parents and students, thank you.
Next week's homework assignments have been posted, and the spelling words for next week will be available on Spelling City (link is in the "Links for Students" section of the blog) The spelling lists will be titled by number, as they are on the upper right hand corners of the lists that are going home. (For example, "List 21") Your best bet is to search by teacher name. Surprisingly enough, they're aren't too many Mawhinneys out there ;)
We have started our study of novels in Language Arts - we've started Freckle Juice by Judy Blume. This unit focuses more on the structure of a novel (chapter titles, table of contents, etc.) and provides opportunities for the students to utilize the before, during, and after reading strategies they've been practicing since Kindergarten.
We've wrapped up Chapter 5 (subtraction with regrouping) as of 2/23/12, and will be starting our Data Collection Unit! This involves using different types of graphs and surveys to show and use various forms of data. The link for "Create a Graph" is a fun website for students to explore the different types of graphs and plots.
Thank you again for your support! Enjoy this BEAUTIFUL weather!
:)KM
I know some of you are aware of the situation with my father. He has been recovering from a traumatic brain injury he sustained from a fall on Thanksgiving. Thank you so much for your kind words, thoughts and prayers during this time. I am so fortunate to have such supportive and understanding parents and students, thank you.
Next week's homework assignments have been posted, and the spelling words for next week will be available on Spelling City (link is in the "Links for Students" section of the blog) The spelling lists will be titled by number, as they are on the upper right hand corners of the lists that are going home. (For example, "List 21") Your best bet is to search by teacher name. Surprisingly enough, they're aren't too many Mawhinneys out there ;)
We have started our study of novels in Language Arts - we've started Freckle Juice by Judy Blume. This unit focuses more on the structure of a novel (chapter titles, table of contents, etc.) and provides opportunities for the students to utilize the before, during, and after reading strategies they've been practicing since Kindergarten.
We've wrapped up Chapter 5 (subtraction with regrouping) as of 2/23/12, and will be starting our Data Collection Unit! This involves using different types of graphs and surveys to show and use various forms of data. The link for "Create a Graph" is a fun website for students to explore the different types of graphs and plots.
Thank you again for your support! Enjoy this BEAUTIFUL weather!
:)KM
Sunday, October 16, 2011
It's conference time! I'm looking forward to meeting with you all!
Since our time will be brief, I hope to maximize our time together. I'll be sending home a small form tomorrow for you to write down your top-priority questions or concerns that you have for our conference. I hope to have the answers prepared beforehand in order to allow for more discussion time :) Thank you in advance!!
We've started our Short Stories unit in Language Arts. The focus of this unit is for students to be able to identify the story elements and their connections. This is one of my most favorite units to teach - the students get to read some wonderful stories, all while learning the components that make them work.
We've wrapped up with money and time in math, for now. We'll be working on writing word problems, problem solving skills, and reviewing some of the more challenging place value and number sense concepts.
Thank you for your continued support, have a great week!
:) KM
Since our time will be brief, I hope to maximize our time together. I'll be sending home a small form tomorrow for you to write down your top-priority questions or concerns that you have for our conference. I hope to have the answers prepared beforehand in order to allow for more discussion time :) Thank you in advance!!
We've started our Short Stories unit in Language Arts. The focus of this unit is for students to be able to identify the story elements and their connections. This is one of my most favorite units to teach - the students get to read some wonderful stories, all while learning the components that make them work.
We've wrapped up with money and time in math, for now. We'll be working on writing word problems, problem solving skills, and reviewing some of the more challenging place value and number sense concepts.
Thank you for your continued support, have a great week!
:) KM
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Greetings from second grade!
Our field trip to the Great Frederick Fair was a huge success! The students had a great time looking at the different displays and animals. A huge thank you to the Maryland Geographic Alliance, Frederick County Public Schools, and the the Great Frederick Fair for keeping this field trip opportunity available to us!
This week in Language Arts, students will begin having some homework for their Guided Reading Groups. At this point in the year, students will be expected to read and reread the books/magazines they were assigned in class. As the year progresses, students will also have some comprehension questions to answer in their Reading Response Journals. You will be informed of when this change takes place via the students' agenda books, as well as the BLOG. This week, students will have either a National Geographic book or magazine to read and reread at home. This book will come home in their Book Baggie - a gallon sized Ziploc bag with his/her name on it. Students will earn smiley faces on their baggie every time they bring their baggie to group. Every time the students earn ten smiley faces, they will earn a prize coupon! Please treat this baggie as you treat the Home-School folders and Agenda Books - from home to school and back again everyday. Like we say in class - it lives in your backpack! :) Thank you for your support!
Wednesday afternoon we will be planting bulbs in our garden! In the spring, we will be studying life cycles - including that of plants. So, we are planting bulbs now to see them in the spring. I don't anticipate it being too dirty of an experience, but I wouldn't recommend coming to school in your Sunday best either. If you would like to help out, you're more than welcome to join us! We'll be doing this in the afternoon, at about 2:30. If you have any small gardening tools (small hand shovels or bulb diggers would be ideal) that you would like to contribute, they would be MOST useful. Please have your last name written on them so they can be returned. Thank you in advance!
We will be meeting our Junior Pals class this week! The Junior Pals program is new to UES - and it fits in perfectly with our Positive Behavior System that's already established. Primary grade classes are paired with secondary grade classes, and students within those classes are partnered up to form friends. Our classes will have times to read together, work on math skills together, and participate in school events together! We will be meeting our Junior Pals class on Tuesday afternoon, so please be sure to ask your student about their new 5th grade friend. Our class is paired up with Mrs. McLaurin's 5th grade class - looking forward to it!
Just a reminder that there is no school on Thursday, and a two hour early dismissal on Friday. Thank you for your continued support and communication - have a great week!
:) KM
Our field trip to the Great Frederick Fair was a huge success! The students had a great time looking at the different displays and animals. A huge thank you to the Maryland Geographic Alliance, Frederick County Public Schools, and the the Great Frederick Fair for keeping this field trip opportunity available to us!
This week in Language Arts, students will begin having some homework for their Guided Reading Groups. At this point in the year, students will be expected to read and reread the books/magazines they were assigned in class. As the year progresses, students will also have some comprehension questions to answer in their Reading Response Journals. You will be informed of when this change takes place via the students' agenda books, as well as the BLOG. This week, students will have either a National Geographic book or magazine to read and reread at home. This book will come home in their Book Baggie - a gallon sized Ziploc bag with his/her name on it. Students will earn smiley faces on their baggie every time they bring their baggie to group. Every time the students earn ten smiley faces, they will earn a prize coupon! Please treat this baggie as you treat the Home-School folders and Agenda Books - from home to school and back again everyday. Like we say in class - it lives in your backpack! :) Thank you for your support!
Wednesday afternoon we will be planting bulbs in our garden! In the spring, we will be studying life cycles - including that of plants. So, we are planting bulbs now to see them in the spring. I don't anticipate it being too dirty of an experience, but I wouldn't recommend coming to school in your Sunday best either. If you would like to help out, you're more than welcome to join us! We'll be doing this in the afternoon, at about 2:30. If you have any small gardening tools (small hand shovels or bulb diggers would be ideal) that you would like to contribute, they would be MOST useful. Please have your last name written on them so they can be returned. Thank you in advance!
We will be meeting our Junior Pals class this week! The Junior Pals program is new to UES - and it fits in perfectly with our Positive Behavior System that's already established. Primary grade classes are paired with secondary grade classes, and students within those classes are partnered up to form friends. Our classes will have times to read together, work on math skills together, and participate in school events together! We will be meeting our Junior Pals class on Tuesday afternoon, so please be sure to ask your student about their new 5th grade friend. Our class is paired up with Mrs. McLaurin's 5th grade class - looking forward to it!
Just a reminder that there is no school on Thursday, and a two hour early dismissal on Friday. Thank you for your continued support and communication - have a great week!
:) KM
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Thank you to those of you who were able to attend Back to School Night on Wednesday! I hope the session gave you a good idea of what to expect in second grade. If you have any questions or concerns, please email me at Kelly.Phelps@fcps.org.
We talked briefly about 9/11 on Friday with our lesson. The story we shared, The Little Chapel that Stood, gave appropriate insight as to the events of that day, and focused on the positive results of the tragedy. For example, people working together, helping each other, caring for one another, and other examples of good character. I hope that on this September 11th, that you and your families were able to spend some pleasant time together.
Last Friday I gave the students a quick quiz in math to see where they stand on what we've been learning. The quiz also had a basic facts section. They students did a great job! These quizzes will be coming home this week. My plan is to give the students a quick quiz at the end of every week/every two weeks to check in on what we've been learning in class.
Thank you for your continued support! As always, should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.
Have a great week!
:) KM
We talked briefly about 9/11 on Friday with our lesson. The story we shared, The Little Chapel that Stood, gave appropriate insight as to the events of that day, and focused on the positive results of the tragedy. For example, people working together, helping each other, caring for one another, and other examples of good character. I hope that on this September 11th, that you and your families were able to spend some pleasant time together.
Last Friday I gave the students a quick quiz in math to see where they stand on what we've been learning. The quiz also had a basic facts section. They students did a great job! These quizzes will be coming home this week. My plan is to give the students a quick quiz at the end of every week/every two weeks to check in on what we've been learning in class.
Thank you for your continued support! As always, should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.
Have a great week!
:) KM
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)