Senora Boyce visited our classrroom and gave us our first Spanish lesson today. We will enjoy learning Spanish throughout the next few months. We are so grateful for her ability to challenge us with learning a new language. Thank you Senora Boyce for sharing your gifts and talents with us!
To My Dear Second Grade Students,
Thank you for your beautiful cards, candy, and gifts for Valentine’s Day and my birthday. You know how to fill my bucket with joy and laughter! I love and appreciate you all very much. Mrs. W.
Dear Second Grade Parents,
Please email me by February 27th with three Great Person presentation times that would work for your second grader. Parents are invited to be a part of our audience. We hope you can come.
Monday 5th & 12th – 8:30 9:00 10:00
Tuesday 6th & 13th- 9:00 10:00
Wednesday 7th & 14th- 8:30 9:00
Thursday 8th & 15th- 8:30 9:00 12:00
Friday 9th & 16th- 8:30 9:00
Mark your calendars: Great Person Hall of Fame will be the morning of March 22nd.
We wanted to thank our wonderful dads for coming to and working at our Valentine’s Breakfast. It was a very exciting day for the kids and a special memory of spending time with dads, grandpas, and friends. Thanks to all of our families that contributed items for our celebration. We especially want to express our appreciation to Dardee and Suzanne for organizing the details of our party and making sure everything went well.
Dear Second Grade Parents,
Just a reminder that our online Spring Conference sign ups will begin on Tuesday, February 14th. Please go to our blog and click on Parents to get to the link.
Have a great week!
Dear Second Grade Parents,
Please notice that the passwords for the links on our blog are back on the blog site. This should make it possible for you to get into our research links for Great People. I hope your research is going well with your child.
Help Needed:We are in need of extra classroom volunteers the next couple of weeks to help guide students through making their great person. Please let me know if you can help on February 6th, 7th, or 8th from 8:15 -10:50. You do not need to stay the entire time. Please email me with the time and date that works for you. Thanks!
Important Dates:
February 8th- Early Release
February 14th- Dad’s Valentine’s Day Breakfast
February 17th- Staff Development-no school
February 20th- Holiday
February 28th, 29th, and March 1st -Conferences- sign ups coming soon! No school on March 1st.
Our Valentine’s Day Breakfast is on Tuesday, February 14th, from 7:50-9:00 am. We want to invite our dads (grandfathers, uncles, or friends can step in to be “dad” if you can’t make it) to help us celebrate this special day. Dads will be serving breakfast and our wonderful party moms will take care of the food details. Let’s enjoy some waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, milk and juice together. We’ll enjoy a little Valentine game and story after the breakfast! A class list of sweethearts will be coming home soon so kids can make their valentines. Dads, sign up slips will be coming home this week.
Thank you for helping your second grader with the memorization of their partner poem at home. Most of the kids have their poetry almost memorized! We have had a lot of fun working with our partners at school. I am very proud of the kids and their hard work and great attitudes. We are excited to perform our songs and poetry for our families. We are looking forward to seeing you at our Evening of Poetry and Song at 6:30 on January 26th.
This month we will begin to study great people in the world. As second grade families begin the process of choosing one person to research, enjoy exploring the links on our blog. I encourage you to select 3 people by January 30th. A great person is someone who displays gifts and talents that have made a difference in and for our world. A form will be coming home for your child to fill out on their 3 selections. A homework packet will also be coming home soon to explain our great people study in more detail. On January 30, we’ll make the final selection from the 3 people you have submitted. At this time the links on our blog are listed under the research heading. Have fun learning about these incredible people!
We are excited to welcome Carlos, who is a new student in our classroom this week. Carlos has quickly become a part of our classroom family. Our thoughtful second grade stars have done an amazing job of making him feel at home in room 27!
Dear Second Grade Parents,
I wanted to thank all of you for the very thoughtful script, cards and gifts. I truly am overwhelmed by your thoughtfulness and generosity. Of course, the best gifts of all are your precious children. They are such a blessing to me!
Our Holiday Party was so much fun! Thanks to all of our parents who came to celebrate and help today and also for our parents who donated goodies for our party. A very special thank you to Dardee and Suzanne for their organization, hard work, and time. The kids were absolutely wonderful!
Thank you all again for your amazing support. Have a relaxing and memorable holiday break.
Warmly,
Julie
In December and January we will be reading poetry and creating our own poems. We are looking forward to presenting our poetry to you at our Evening of Poetry and Song, Thursday, January 26th from 6:30-8:00. It will be a great night where we celebrate both our reading skills and our incredible second grade community. Please mark your calendars for this memorable evening.
During this season of giving we have been given an opportunity as a school to make a difference in the life of a student at Pakati School. We have been challenged by a service learning group (an enrichment class) here at Stafford to help send at least one student to school for a year by raising $25.00 before the holiday break.
They are asking each Stafford student to bring in pennies and put them in theirPennies for Pakati box that they will put in each classroom. What a great way for us to help make a difference–one child at a time. Let’s do what we can to support their efforts. Here is their presentation!
Our holiday Polar Express Party will be on Friday, December 16th from 8:00- 9:00 in our classroom. Students are invited to wear their pajamas, robes and slippers and join us on the Polar Express! Later we will enjoy apple strudel toast and hot chocolate as we watch the holiday movie, The Polar Express.
It’s hard to believe it is November and Thanksgiving Break is here. I would like to express my gratitude to all of you who so graciously support our classroom at school and at home. I sincerely appreciate you and your amazing children and enjoy working with them each day. Have a happy and relaxing time with your family.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Second graders had a peek at the second stage in the life cycle of salmon this week. Most of the eyed eggs have hatched into alevin with bright orange “lunch sacs” still attached to their bodies. Inside each sac is a mixture of protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. We are all excited to see this remarkable event! Please come by to check out our salmon tank.
As a continuing part of our study of “Communities” we will start to document life stories of our families and relatives. Throughout November and the Thanksgiving Holiday, we want to interview family members to gain a better understanding of the importance of the family unit as the foundation of a strong community. Spending time with family members and listening carefully to stories they tell about their lives is an important way we learn about family values and traditions. This is the perfect time of year to look to our families and listen to their stories. Enjoy this time over the next four weeks documenting the life stories of your family and relatives. Second graders will also be thinking of special traditions that their families cherish. Between Thanksgiving and the Winter Break, we will be presenting family traditions to our classmates. Look for detailed instructions in your child’s homework envelope.
Dear Second Grade Parents,
You are invited to join us for our classroom Harvest Party on Friday, October 28 at 12:30. Second graders can change into a simple costume at 12:25. Costumes are optional. Hope to see you on Friday!
What is a mystery reader? Mystery Readers are special guests who come to our classroom to read a story to students. A mystery reader can be a parent, grandparent, relative, friend, sibling or educator.
When do mystery readers come to read? A Mystery Reader emails me and we set up a flexible time that works for both of our schedules.
Why should I be a Mystery Reader? This is a great way to model your love for reading and enjoyment for books.
How does the Mystery Reading Program work? The first step is to email me and we will confirm a time and date for you to visit. Start thinking about the book you would like to read to us. A few days before you come to our classroom, please email 5 clues about yourself so we can try to guess who you are. Clues should be somewhat general and at the end be a bit more specific.
This is really a fun and worthwhile activity. I am looking forward to hearing from you!
We are happy to announce the arrival of 500 Chinook salmon eggs in our second grade fish tank! They have been entrusted to our care for the next 6 weeks or so until they reach the “fry” stage. At that point we will release them into the Clackamas River to continue on their amazing journey. As young wildlife biologists, we will be tracking their growth over time and will keep a log filled with our observations. Thanks to a PTSA grant we have an underwater camera, so we can watch them “live” on our projector from the classroom. It is awesome! You are all invited to stop by and see “our” salmon.
The video we are sending to our sister school in Ntandabala, Tanzania is called A Simple Gift. It was made for our friends at Pakati School. The idea for this project came from a group called The Africa Bridge Kids Team, who have been working together with Jody Amri and the second grade classes over the past 3 years to build our relationship with the students at Pakati School. Thanks to the current 5th graders Hannah, Katie, Sheridan and Courtney for their creativity and dedication to making a difference in the lives of others! They are role models for us on how to think globally and take action to reach out to help others all around the world.
Watch our movie! It is a simple gift for our friends but it has a big message.
Visit From the West Linn Police
As a part of our study of our community, Tuesday we will have a policeman visit our classroom as a guest speaker. Please ask your child what they learned about and what they did.
Fall Conferences – October 10th, 11th and 12th
Students, I am excited to talk about your goals with your parents, and share some of the great work you are doing in class. Parents, I look forward to conferencing with you next week.
Field Trip
Our community field trip is this Wednesday. Please remember to send a disposable sack lunch and drink with your child. Parents who wish to chaperone can meet us at The Market of Choice around 9:15.
We will be visiting Market of Choice, Key Bank, Sierk Orthodontics and the West Linn Library as we explore what it means to live in a community and and learn about the different goods and services our community provides us. Please return your child’s permission slip by Friday, September 30th.
Our homework packets came home today. Please take a moment to look at your child’s folder with them. Remember the enrichment is optional. Folders should be returned in the envelope by or on Friday. We talked about being responsible for their own work, pacing themselves, and having a positive attitude about homework. Thanks for your support at home.
Have a great week!
There are so many places to practice your reading: cereal boxes, traffic signs, your iPod (or iPad), house numbers, your list of chores, computer games, instructions for your new lego set. This week I want you to be focused on reading BOOKS! Do you know what makes a great student? A ferocious reader. So, this week I want you to jump into reading books like a ferocious lion! I want to know what you are reading and how long you are reading (10-15 minutes is a minimum). Thank you for returning your Star Reading slip for last week.
Happy Reading!
Mark your calendars for Curriculum Night on Thursday, September 22nd. We will meet in out classroom from 6:00-6:45 to talk about the learning opportunities your child will have this year. At 6:45 everyone will meet in the gym with Ms. Freeborn and the staff. I am looking forward to meeting with you.
