Hi there, THIRD GRADERS!!!
Wow! It's hard to believe second grade is over. Kids - I miss you already! We had an exciting and busy week this week and today we celebrated all of our hard work with Camp Learned A Lot and a class picnic! It was so much fun!
Camp Learned A Lot was great! In the morning we wrote about our favorite memory in second grade, we did a scavenger hunt to find out interesting facts about our classmates, we read on the Smart Board and we did the class favorite, math races! After math races the kids went to PE and they returned just in time for our picnic! After our great class picnic we had more Camp Learned A Lot. We did 5 centers:
1. Create A School - The kids created, designed and drew their perfect school! They worked together and they had lots of great detail!
2. Camp Learned A Lot - The kids got to show off their writing skills by writing all about the school year. The kids came home with a Camp Learned A Lot packet where they described what they learned and their favorite things from second grade.
3. Build It - The kids had a variety of unrelated materials and they had to work together to brainstorm and create new objects. They were all so creative and different!
4. Paint It - The kids showed off their artistic side by using water colors to paint flowers on coffee filters. They look so pretty and they reminded us of Eric Carle's art!
5. Fabulous Father's Day - This week in guided reading we learned about the history and celebrations of Father's Day. Today the kids made cards for their dads for Father's Day next month!
After centers we watched a video on Amazing Wild Animals! We enjoyed cupcakes AND donuts! Yum! Thank you so much to the children who brought treats in to share with the class.
We ran off our treats at recess and then we came back to say goodbye to our 5th grade friends in the 5th grade send off!
After the 5th grade send off there was just a little bit of time left...for Rainbow Club!!! As an end of the year treat, everyone was on Rainbow! It was a great way to end such a special day.
To my students: thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for such an amazing semester! I LOVED being your teacher and getting to know you and your parents. You are so smart and so special! I know that you are going to have a successful third grade year!
To the families: thank you so much for all of your kindness and support! It was so wonderful to know that I could count on all the great moms and dads to help out in the classroom and be such an important part of second grade.
Thank you for the wonderful and thoughtful gift cards! Mrs. Bennett and I are excited to go shopping and pick out our matching pink marathon outfits! I look forward to picking up some summer reading at Borders and getting some treats at Trader Joe's. Thank you!
Have a stupendous summer!
Mrs. Johnston
May 20, 2010
May 14, 2010
Friday Is Our Favorite Day!
Wow! Today was our last Friday in second grade! We have 4 days left to learn a lot and have a lot of fun!
Our Math Madness week was a success! We did two lessons each day and we are almost done with Chapter 10! In math we learned all about money and place value. We learned how knowing about money can help with our place value cubes. Kids - be sure to tell your parents how counting with money and counting with place value cubes are similar. We learned how to use place value tools. These will be great to use over the summer for math practice!
We are in the home stretch with our Eric Carle essays and some students have completed their books! This is a challenging project and I am so proud of the students for working hard to complete it. The finished books look great and I can't wait until all 25 are done!
We learned about persuasive writing! Mr. Johnston and I were trying to decide whether or not we should get another miniature schnauzer so Sophie Pink could have a sister (I was in favor and Mr. Johnston wasn't sure). This debate turned out to be a great teachable, real-life moment! We learned what it means to write persuasively and when persuasive writing can help. The students decided their position on the dog issue and wrote letters to support their position. The letters are sweet, funny and very convincing! How did things turn out? Check out the new picture on the blog to find out!
Get ready for a great last week of school! Our class will have a picnic on Thursday, May 20 at 11:30 in the courtyard. Parents are welcome to attend. It's going to be a great week!
Have a super weekend!
Mrs. Johnston
Our Math Madness week was a success! We did two lessons each day and we are almost done with Chapter 10! In math we learned all about money and place value. We learned how knowing about money can help with our place value cubes. Kids - be sure to tell your parents how counting with money and counting with place value cubes are similar. We learned how to use place value tools. These will be great to use over the summer for math practice!
We are in the home stretch with our Eric Carle essays and some students have completed their books! This is a challenging project and I am so proud of the students for working hard to complete it. The finished books look great and I can't wait until all 25 are done!
We learned about persuasive writing! Mr. Johnston and I were trying to decide whether or not we should get another miniature schnauzer so Sophie Pink could have a sister (I was in favor and Mr. Johnston wasn't sure). This debate turned out to be a great teachable, real-life moment! We learned what it means to write persuasively and when persuasive writing can help. The students decided their position on the dog issue and wrote letters to support their position. The letters are sweet, funny and very convincing! How did things turn out? Check out the new picture on the blog to find out!
Get ready for a great last week of school! Our class will have a picnic on Thursday, May 20 at 11:30 in the courtyard. Parents are welcome to attend. It's going to be a great week!
Have a super weekend!
Mrs. Johnston
Computers, 5/14
It's Our Last Computer Class!
Can you believe it's our last day in the lab? I hope you have had fun researching online, learning about technology, playing fun games, troubleshooting and problem solving!
You have 2 very important jobs today!
1. Write a comment on this blog. Your first job is to write about your favorite computer activity. Please describe what made it your favorite and why you liked it so much.
2. HAVE FUN!!! Your second job is to use this blog to have fun! First, vote on this week's poll. Then, you may visit any of our old computer activities or you may go to any of the links listed on my website.
Have fun!
Mrs. Johnston
Can you believe it's our last day in the lab? I hope you have had fun researching online, learning about technology, playing fun games, troubleshooting and problem solving!
You have 2 very important jobs today!
1. Write a comment on this blog. Your first job is to write about your favorite computer activity. Please describe what made it your favorite and why you liked it so much.
2. HAVE FUN!!! Your second job is to use this blog to have fun! First, vote on this week's poll. Then, you may visit any of our old computer activities or you may go to any of the links listed on my website.
Have fun!
Mrs. Johnston
May 11, 2010
Terrific Tuesday, 5/11
Happy Tuesday, Everyone!
Wow! What an awesome music performance! Thank you so much for all your hard work. It was so great to have so many family members there to watch and listen! Nice work, second graders!
It's hard to believe that this is our last full week of school! While we only have 7 days of school left, we still have A LOT to learn!! Summer is just around the corner and that is very exciting. That said, it is important for the students to remain focused and to know that we will be learning a lot of great information on each of those 7 days! Parents - please join me in reminding your child to stay focused and respectful. Please remind your child to continue to always do his or her best work! Thank you!
Our Math Madness Week is off to a great start! We're learning about money, calculator work and place value! We learned how important it is to remember our friend Zero The Hero when we write money amounts! Kids - be sure to tell your parents how to write 7 cents and 70 cents in dollars and cents notation. They are quite different! Zero is our friend and he is important!
We are busy in Writers' Workshop this week as the students are all in slightly different stages of their essay writing. We are learning about the importance of drafting, editing and re-writing. We will be putting the books together at the end of this week and the beginning of next week. They're going to be great!
In Making Words we practiced contraction families and suffix rules. The class is really starting to get a good grasp of many of the different contraction families and I am excited to see that the children are using the contractions in their writing. You're doing a great job! It's great to use contractions! Keep up the good work; you'll be experts in no time!!! (Get it?!?!). We learned quite a few rules and tricks of suffixes today. Kids - be sure to tell your parents what's special about words that end in "y" and why "give" and "find" follow their own rules!
Last week 3 students received prizes for being the first 3 students to correctly answer all the questions on my blog. Who will get the prizes this week? Please comment on THIS BLOG ONLY with your name and your responses to the questions. Please make sure your answers are in complete sentences. Good Luck!
Have a fantastic week!
Mrs. Johnston
Wow! What an awesome music performance! Thank you so much for all your hard work. It was so great to have so many family members there to watch and listen! Nice work, second graders!
It's hard to believe that this is our last full week of school! While we only have 7 days of school left, we still have A LOT to learn!! Summer is just around the corner and that is very exciting. That said, it is important for the students to remain focused and to know that we will be learning a lot of great information on each of those 7 days! Parents - please join me in reminding your child to stay focused and respectful. Please remind your child to continue to always do his or her best work! Thank you!
Our Math Madness Week is off to a great start! We're learning about money, calculator work and place value! We learned how important it is to remember our friend Zero The Hero when we write money amounts! Kids - be sure to tell your parents how to write 7 cents and 70 cents in dollars and cents notation. They are quite different! Zero is our friend and he is important!
We are busy in Writers' Workshop this week as the students are all in slightly different stages of their essay writing. We are learning about the importance of drafting, editing and re-writing. We will be putting the books together at the end of this week and the beginning of next week. They're going to be great!
In Making Words we practiced contraction families and suffix rules. The class is really starting to get a good grasp of many of the different contraction families and I am excited to see that the children are using the contractions in their writing. You're doing a great job! It's great to use contractions! Keep up the good work; you'll be experts in no time!!! (Get it?!?!). We learned quite a few rules and tricks of suffixes today. Kids - be sure to tell your parents what's special about words that end in "y" and why "give" and "find" follow their own rules!
Last week 3 students received prizes for being the first 3 students to correctly answer all the questions on my blog. Who will get the prizes this week? Please comment on THIS BLOG ONLY with your name and your responses to the questions. Please make sure your answers are in complete sentences. Good Luck!
Have a fantastic week!
Mrs. Johnston
May 7, 2010
Friday Is Our Favorite Day!
Happy Weekend, Everyone!
I feel like a broken record each time I say this; another week just flew by! We were busy all week learning about the history of Mother's Day, word choice and voice in poetry, measurement and essay writing!
The beginning of the week was filled with learning all about Marvelous Mother's Day! The kids did a great job reading to find out all about Mother's Day. They worked hard on their writing to make their Mother's Day presents. Moms - the kids' writing is so sweet! I hope you enjoy your gifts! Happy Mother's Day!
In guided reading we had fun learning about Shel Silverstein and his silly and funny poetry! This week we focused on voice. We read "A Cat, A Kid and A Mom" to learn about the importance of voice in poetry. Today we got to write our own version of "The Kid!" Next week we will study another poem. We will combine our knowledge of word choice and voice to write a whole poem.
Our Eric Carle essays are coming along! The children are learning how to use the notes that they took each day of our book studies to create one essay. Each day we focused on a different paragraph of the essay. Today we worked on the conclusion. Over the next few days, we will edit our essays. Once the final essays are complete, they will be combined with the graphic organizers from the study to create one Eric Carle book for each student! This project has been a lot of work and I am so proud of the kids for sticking with it! Soon we will have 25 wonderful books to share!
We finished our measurement study with our chapter 9 math test yesterday. The children did a great job demonstrating their knowledge of area, perimeter and types of measurement. We will continue to review taking careful linear measurements. We began Chapter 10 today and we focused on money. We had a lot of fun with our table race game. Kids - be sure to tell your parents about the table races! How did your table do? What was the prize?
To my students: I can't believe there are 9 school days left! I have so much to teach you and you have so much to learn! It's going to be a lot of fun these next few days! Keep focused and keep working hard. You can do it!
REMINDER: Our music performance is Monday, May 10 at 1:10 in the MPR. Kids - be sure to wear your colored shirt and bring a baseball hat/mit for the baseball song! Parents - I hope you can make it to the performance!
A big THANK YOU to the 3 children who correctly answered all the questions on my blog this week. I hope you enjoy your prizes. :) This week 4/25 children participated. Next week I hope that 25/25 (or 1 WHOLE CLASS) will be up for the challenge! Be sure to check my blog early in the week and see if you can answer all my questions.
You know how I love to give prizes to my friends who participate in the questions, so I'm going to give you another chance to win a prize! Here are some weekend questions for you:
1. What did you like best about math this week? Why was it your favorite?
2. How is your Eric Carle essay coming? Which paragraph do you think is your best one? Why is it your best?
Please post your comments on THIS BLOG ONLY by Monday afternoon and you will win a special prize! Good Luck!
Have a stupendous, fantastic and awesome weekend!
Mrs. Johnston
I feel like a broken record each time I say this; another week just flew by! We were busy all week learning about the history of Mother's Day, word choice and voice in poetry, measurement and essay writing!
The beginning of the week was filled with learning all about Marvelous Mother's Day! The kids did a great job reading to find out all about Mother's Day. They worked hard on their writing to make their Mother's Day presents. Moms - the kids' writing is so sweet! I hope you enjoy your gifts! Happy Mother's Day!
In guided reading we had fun learning about Shel Silverstein and his silly and funny poetry! This week we focused on voice. We read "A Cat, A Kid and A Mom" to learn about the importance of voice in poetry. Today we got to write our own version of "The Kid!" Next week we will study another poem. We will combine our knowledge of word choice and voice to write a whole poem.
Our Eric Carle essays are coming along! The children are learning how to use the notes that they took each day of our book studies to create one essay. Each day we focused on a different paragraph of the essay. Today we worked on the conclusion. Over the next few days, we will edit our essays. Once the final essays are complete, they will be combined with the graphic organizers from the study to create one Eric Carle book for each student! This project has been a lot of work and I am so proud of the kids for sticking with it! Soon we will have 25 wonderful books to share!
We finished our measurement study with our chapter 9 math test yesterday. The children did a great job demonstrating their knowledge of area, perimeter and types of measurement. We will continue to review taking careful linear measurements. We began Chapter 10 today and we focused on money. We had a lot of fun with our table race game. Kids - be sure to tell your parents about the table races! How did your table do? What was the prize?
To my students: I can't believe there are 9 school days left! I have so much to teach you and you have so much to learn! It's going to be a lot of fun these next few days! Keep focused and keep working hard. You can do it!
REMINDER: Our music performance is Monday, May 10 at 1:10 in the MPR. Kids - be sure to wear your colored shirt and bring a baseball hat/mit for the baseball song! Parents - I hope you can make it to the performance!
A big THANK YOU to the 3 children who correctly answered all the questions on my blog this week. I hope you enjoy your prizes. :) This week 4/25 children participated. Next week I hope that 25/25 (or 1 WHOLE CLASS) will be up for the challenge! Be sure to check my blog early in the week and see if you can answer all my questions.
You know how I love to give prizes to my friends who participate in the questions, so I'm going to give you another chance to win a prize! Here are some weekend questions for you:
1. What did you like best about math this week? Why was it your favorite?
2. How is your Eric Carle essay coming? Which paragraph do you think is your best one? Why is it your best?
Please post your comments on THIS BLOG ONLY by Monday afternoon and you will win a special prize! Good Luck!
Have a stupendous, fantastic and awesome weekend!
Mrs. Johnston
Computers, 5/7
Shel Silverstein!
Let's explore Shel Silverstein! Go here:
http://www.shelsilverstein.com/indexSite.html
Click on High Bandwidth.
Click on skip intro.
Click "About Shel" to read about Shel Silverstein.
After that, click "Let's Have Some Fun" and you can play the games!
When you're done, please come back to the blog and post:
1. One thing you learned about Shel Silverstein.
2. One thing you would like to learn.
3. Your favorite game.
When you're done, you may go on Ticket To Read or one of the links on my website.
Have fun!
Mrs. Johnston
Let's explore Shel Silverstein! Go here:
http://www.shelsilverstein.com/indexSite.html
Click on High Bandwidth.
Click on skip intro.
Click "About Shel" to read about Shel Silverstein.
After that, click "Let's Have Some Fun" and you can play the games!
When you're done, please come back to the blog and post:
1. One thing you learned about Shel Silverstein.
2. One thing you would like to learn.
3. Your favorite game.
When you're done, you may go on Ticket To Read or one of the links on my website.
Have fun!
Mrs. Johnston
May 4, 2010
Terrific Tuesday, 5/4
Happy Tuesday, Everyone!
THANK YOU to all my wonderful students for the beautiful pink flowers, the thoughtful cards, letters and poems and for your encouraging words! You are all making Teacher Appreciation Week so special for me! I am truly touched by your kindness. I appreciate all of YOU! You are the sweetest second graders around!
Our first week of May is off to a fun and busy start! There are just 12 more school days left. Can you believe it???
Yesterday and today we took a quick break from our Shel Silverstein author study and Eric Carle five paragraph essay. Our guided reading and writing focused on Mother's Day! We learned all about the history of Mother's Day and how Mother's Day is celebrated on the 7 continents. Our writing activities this week will have to remain secret until Sunday! Moms - your kids have been working hard in writing to make your day extra special!
Tomorrow we pick up with our Shel Silverstein author study. Our focus in guided reading is on the trait of voice and how it creates meaning in a poem. Tomorrow in writing we will work on finishing the 3rd paragraph of our Eric Carle five paragraph essay. We will also have time to finish our super secret Mother's Day projects! It should be a Wonderful Wednesday!
We finished our study of measurement today. We practiced weighing objects around our classroom using a variety of different scales. The children were introduced to new scales today; we learned about food scales, balance scales and spring and hook scales. Kids - be sure to tell your parents what we learned! Tomorrow will be a review day for chapter 9 and our test is on Thursday. We will jump right into chapter 10 on Friday and we will be busy mathematicians over the next 12 days of school!
It's the last call for BOX TOPS!!! Please bring in your box tops tomorrow, Wednesday, May 5. This will be the last collection for the year. Thank you for your participation this year!
We are in the final push! Let's keep working hard until the end!
Last week 5 students received a prize for being the first 5 students to correctly answer all the questions on my blog. Who will get the prizes this time? Please comment on THIS BLOG ONLY with your name and responses to the questions. Please make sure your answers are in complete sentences. Good Luck!
Have a super week!
Mrs. Johnston
THANK YOU to all my wonderful students for the beautiful pink flowers, the thoughtful cards, letters and poems and for your encouraging words! You are all making Teacher Appreciation Week so special for me! I am truly touched by your kindness. I appreciate all of YOU! You are the sweetest second graders around!
Our first week of May is off to a fun and busy start! There are just 12 more school days left. Can you believe it???
Yesterday and today we took a quick break from our Shel Silverstein author study and Eric Carle five paragraph essay. Our guided reading and writing focused on Mother's Day! We learned all about the history of Mother's Day and how Mother's Day is celebrated on the 7 continents. Our writing activities this week will have to remain secret until Sunday! Moms - your kids have been working hard in writing to make your day extra special!
Tomorrow we pick up with our Shel Silverstein author study. Our focus in guided reading is on the trait of voice and how it creates meaning in a poem. Tomorrow in writing we will work on finishing the 3rd paragraph of our Eric Carle five paragraph essay. We will also have time to finish our super secret Mother's Day projects! It should be a Wonderful Wednesday!
We finished our study of measurement today. We practiced weighing objects around our classroom using a variety of different scales. The children were introduced to new scales today; we learned about food scales, balance scales and spring and hook scales. Kids - be sure to tell your parents what we learned! Tomorrow will be a review day for chapter 9 and our test is on Thursday. We will jump right into chapter 10 on Friday and we will be busy mathematicians over the next 12 days of school!
It's the last call for BOX TOPS!!! Please bring in your box tops tomorrow, Wednesday, May 5. This will be the last collection for the year. Thank you for your participation this year!
We are in the final push! Let's keep working hard until the end!
Last week 5 students received a prize for being the first 5 students to correctly answer all the questions on my blog. Who will get the prizes this time? Please comment on THIS BLOG ONLY with your name and responses to the questions. Please make sure your answers are in complete sentences. Good Luck!
Have a super week!
Mrs. Johnston
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