A few readers notebooks

Our favorite quick write sentences

Elliette: I sat on a snapping turtle.

Maddy: I love school. 

Payton: I caught a frog with my friend.

Landon: I love football and basketball.

John: How did Horsehead Nebula get its name?

Clayton: I'm going tot the movies with my dad and his girlfriend.

Gavin P: I almost got hit with a baseball. 

Whitney: I love my mom and dad.

Brooklynn: I have friends because I'm nice.

Katlynn: I love God, my sisters and my brothers.

Happy birthday, Eric!

The Readers Notebook before and after mess

Wait until you see what our Readers Notebooks will look like!

Happy birthday, Clayton!

News for this week

I hope your week has been super, because we've had a pretty wonderful week here at NWES! 

This week we have: 

...learned strategies to implement when we come upon tricky words while reading.

...been working on telling time to the hour and half hour.

...started our word study with small groups with Mrs. O.

...made fact families in math.

...completed MadLibs and learned nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

...worked in our writers notebooks and added things writers add, like lists, memories, etc.

Important things you need to know:

1) We will begin spelling tests next week. Each spelling list is individualized for each student, based on test data and what they have showed me they need to know. Most of them each week will have five high-frequency words (common words like "are," "there," etc.) and five words that have some sort of pattern they need to recognize, such as adding -ed to the end of a word to make it past tense, etc. I'll explain to you what your child's word pattern for the test will be when the words are sent home. The test will be on Friday.

2) We will be taking a field trip to Doud's Orchard in Denver, IN, on Wednesday, October 23rd. We've received word that all parents are welcome to attend (yay!), so mark that on your calendars if you'd like to come. I'll send more information as we get closer to the trip. 

3) Conferences are Thursday, October 3rd. You MAY NOT receive a notice to come visit me, and that's just fine...and just because I request to see you doesn't mean your child is having trouble either. :) If you'd like a conference and I don't send you a request, please let me know and we'll work that out.

4) You'll notice midterm grades are in. You also might notice your child is receiving lower grades than you expected, especially since the only graded work you're seeing is math. All the evaluations for grades are done one-on-one so I can get a true measurement of where your child falls compared to other second-graders nationwide. If you see a "C," that means that compared to all other second-graders, s/he is average. The bottom line is we will (most likely) see improvement as we move through the year, so if s/he started with a "C," we will probably see that improve between now and Trimester 2. Please call me or come visit if you're concerned.

Have a super weekend!

Substituting words we know for tricky words.

All text taken from the book "June 29,1999" by David Wiesner.

Writers write things in their notebooks they want to always remember.

Kaydin

Katlynn

Jaycie

Trinity

Maddy

Lynk

Why we read

Link: I read because I like to read.

Clayton: I like to read because I want to be smart.

Landon: I want to learn how to read because if something gets broke--like our tractor--I want to be able to read the directions.

Logen: I read because I love reading.

Payton: I read so I can get smarter and learn new facts.

Maddy: I read because I love to read and I can get smarter and learn new things.

Katlynn: I learn new things and I get smarter.

Elliette: Reading is very fun and I want to be smarter. 

Whitney: Reading is fun!

Brooklynn: Sometimes the pictures are interesting.

Gavin G.: I like to read because I want to get smarter.

Trinity: I read because I want to get a good job and I want to be a teacher. 

Mason: I like to read because I think it's fun imagining what the characters can be like.

Jadyn: When I go in the army, I'll know from reading if it's my enemy's place or my ally's.

Kaydin: I want to get smarter and do more things.

Will: I want to be in college and go in the army so I should read because then I can go to college and be trained.

Second Grade Teachers: 2nd place runners!

You can't scare us...we teach!

Walk-a-thon Ready!

A big thanks to all our students who helped raise money for our Walk-a-thon! We have lots of money for our school library now. Super job!

Happy Belated Pirate Day!

Mrs. Overman was missing for International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so we're celebrating today instead. Better late than never, mateys!

Mrs. Ayres read "Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies" to us!

Books We Like

We met with our reading buddies and figured out the kinds of books they like to read. We're learning about how to recommend books to each other.

Jadyn likes to read zombie books.
Kaydin likes mystery books.
Gavin P. likes Scaredy Squirrel.
Logen likes pirate books.
Eric likes Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Mason and Clayton like scary books.
Payton likes mystery and adventure books.
Elliette likes funny stories, weird stories, and fun stories, and mysteries.
Katlynn likes to read about cheetahs.
Gavin G. likes Junie B. books.
Cheyenne likes zombie books.
Landon likes snake books.

Pirate Pallooza!

Hi Everyone!
We've had a death in our family and I will be out for three days. :(  Sooooo...pirate pallooza will be on Friday instead of Thursday this week. Thanks for understanding!
Mrs. Overman

News for the Week

My apologies for totally forgetting to post the newsletter last week! I'm off to a great start.... :)

This week we have:

• started to share reading lives with our reading buddies. We've learned that reading buddies can make us have GREAT reading lives that will last forever!
• worked in our Writers Notebooks. We made maps of our hearts, favorites places...check it out here.
• played lots of fun games to learn about telling time to the hour and half hour. We're beginning to learn what times of day we do things as well.
• celebrated friendships and learned how to be good friends.

Important things to know:

• If you ordered book order books, they will arrive early next week.
• Next Thursday is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. We'll be having a jolly good time, and if your child would like to dress up as a pirate for the day, we'd LOVE it!!! (no weapons, please).
• Next Friday is the Walk-A-Thon. Pledges are due Monday. Second grade will be walking from 12:30-1:00, then everyone will be outside for a 2:00 teacher race! Please come if you'd like!
• Still no spelling tests yet, only word work. It doesn't always come home, though, because often we do word work in the form of manipulating word cards, using markerboards, magnetic letters, etc. I'll let you know if there's a concern.  

Have a super weekend!

Telling Time Go Fish!

It's harder than it looks!

Maps In Our Notebooks

Writers make maps in their notebooks because they remind us of stories. Our maps aren't finished yet, but please enjoy our work in-progress.

Here is Haylee's family map.

This is Jaydin's map of his dog.

Here is Logen's dog map.

Trinity made a map of the Fun Center.

Maddy's bedroom map

Lynk's heart map

Whitney's heart map

Kaydin made a map of the beach.

Elliette made a treasure map!

Will is making a color map.

Maps In Our Notebooks

Writers make maps in their notebooks because they remind us of stories. Our maps aren't finished yet, but please enjoy our work in-progress.

Here is Haylee's family map.

This is Jaydin's map of his dog.

Here is Logen's dog map.

Trinity made a map of the Fun Center.

Maddy's bedroom map

Lynk's heart map

Whitney's heart map

Kaydin made a map of the beach.

Elliette made a treasure map!

Will is making a color map.

Lynk's Notebook

Look! All these kids have loose teeth!

Ewwwwwwwww!

Jadyn's notebook

More notebooks