We are happily rolling along in room 24!  I cannot believe that October is almost here already.

• Today everyone brought home a reading calendar that goes along with the Book It! Program.  Hopefully the note that is attached helps explain the program, but let me know if you have any questions.
• We also brought home our “walk to school” signs that we made in art. Next Wednesday is National Walk to School Day, so we are encouraging everyone to walk at least part of the way to school.  Students can carry their signs as they walk in the morning on Wednesday.  There is a note with more information – if your child grabbed the things in their mailbox then they have it in their folder today, otherwise I will make sure they grab the note from their mailbox on Monday.

Here are a few pictures of us from the week (investigating matter in science, more Mona awards in art, and some of us with our 4th grade buddies) 🙂

• An enormous THANK YOU to our parents who came in yesterday to help decorate notebooks.  We couldn’t have done it without you 🙂
• Book orders – I will be finishing the book order on Sunday, so there is still time…If you would like to order, please go to scholastic and enter our classroom code MK4VL to link to our class.
• We played our first game of Homeworkopoly today!!  Everyone who earned 3/3 on their spelling homework last Monday AND turned in their math homework on time earned a chance to roll today 🙂
• Art – Mrs. Thomas has honored a few students who have “mastered the Mona Lisa”.  These students showed excellence in having their eyes watching, hands resting, and ears listening during art class…

Today we celebrated the International Day of Peace with pinwheels we made in art with Mrs. Thomas and a song the students have practiced with Mrs. Ventura 🙂

• Spelling:  We got a new set of words today.  We did one activity in class.  Students are expected to do 2 more activities at home and return their notebooks on Monday. I have created a new page on the blog for spelling.  This page has examples of the activities they do in their notebook.  If you are not sure what something is supposed to look like, click on the name of the activity and it will show you a picture.  I will update the page as I introduce new activities to the class. As I look around, I can see that a few students left their notebooks at school so I will make sure they put it in their backpack as soon as they get to school tomorrow.

• Decorating notebooks:  The pictures for the notebook can be of anything that is meaningful to your child.  They can be pictures of themselves, family, and friends.  They could also be pictures that were cut out of a magazine or printed off the internet of things they love, like dance, soccer, the grand canyon, the beach, or a famous athlete.  Please have these brought in by Thursday morning.  We are all set for volunteers for Thursday morning – if we don’t get everyone done, we may need a little more help on a different day 🙂

• Thanks so much for taking the time to visit during Open House last night.  We had an amazing turnout.  It was so nice to get to see some familiar faces and meet some new families, as well!

• Book orders:  If you didn’t grab your child’s book order last night, they are bringing it home today in their folder. You can place an order by going online to scholastic.  (Click on “parents” and then enter our class code – MK4VL.)  OR, you can fill out the order form and send it in an envelope with the money and I will enter it for you.  I encourage everyone to think about ordering a book or two – the students love it when their books are delivered 🙂 Orders should be sent in or placed online by next Friday, September 22nd.

• Reminder:  Spelling homework is due on Monday and we will take our test Monday morning, as well.

•  We are getting started with Work on Writing as part of our Daily 5 choices.  One thing I like to have the students do is decorate their folder with pictures and/or stickers.  Try to start collecting some this weekend.  My plan is to do the decorating at the end of next week.  I would love, love, love 2 or 3 parent volunteers to help with this.  If you are available next Thursday or Friday and are willing to help, please send me an email or comment on this post 🙂  Here is an example of a decorated notebook:

We all logged on to Xtra Math today in class to take a look and try it out.  In our folders today we brought home the directions to connect to our Xtra Math account from home.  Please take a moment to sign your child in from home so that they can use Xtra Math a few times a week to practice their basic math facts 🙂

• Homework:  Everyone has a quick homework page to work on. Please return it completed on Monday.
• PBIS:  We will start card flips/color changes for behavior on Monday.  We had a good talk today about ways to be respectful, responsible, and safe – these good choices will help us stay on green (or even flip up to purple for an extra reward)!
• We were busy today!  Here is a peek at us playing Fishing for 10 and saving Sammy the Worm:

at us today.  I didn’t move fast enough to get everyone, but don’t panic, there will be plenty of pictures in the future 🙂

Hello Families 🙂  I just wanted to make sure you caught the few things that came home in today’s folder…

• Emergency cards – please be sure to check the info on the card.  If there is anything that needs to be updated, please write the correct information on the card.  All cards should be returned by Friday.
• 2nd grade flip book – this contains information, procedures, and expectations for our classroom.
• Free/reduced lunch forms – all students received one. Please read the information and return the completed application if you are eligible and wish to apply.
• Lunch menu – this is stapled at the back of the free/reduced lunch applications

We also brought home our planners today!  We will write reminders and/or homework in our planners each day.  Please plan to take a quick check into the home folder and the planner EVERY day.

We visited the library today, as well 🙂  Students were given the choice of bringing the books home or putting them into their book box.

Our second day of second grade was awesome!  (We even had a snowball fight, LOL)

We had a fabulous first day of school today!!  What an awesome group of students you are sharing with me 🙂  Thank you so much for all of the classroom supplies and donations you sent in.  We spent some time organizing it all today.  If you still need a supply list, I have attached it here: Second Grade Supply List

Our classroom information letter will come home tomorrow.  We should also have lunch menus ready to send home, as well.  If your child plans to buy lunch on Wednesday, 1st choice is pita/hummus and 2nd choice is cheese pocket.

We talked a little bit about snack today.  We have 2 nut allergies in our classroom (peanuts, walnuts, cashews…) so please do not send those in for snack.  Here is a peek at our brainstorm:

If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an email.