Thursday, May 30, 2013

Your Thoughts Are Needed and Appreciated!

Communication between families and school is so important! Please take a moment to fill out this survey (or the one sent home with our Friday News) and let me know your thoughts on communication this year.

It is a super quick and anonymous survey that will really help me better meet the needs of families in terms of communication methods, frequency, and content. Please take the time to fill it out, your thoughts are important and highly valued. I would really appreciate it!
Thanks in advance!
- Rachael

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Too Talented!

Second graders are illustrating, writing, adding nonfiction text features, designing and planning scenes to photograph, and photographing their creations. These creators had to plan out what they wanted to make and request materials. They were then provided with whatever they needed and then voila! Here we are...extremely busy and loving every second of it!
Sharing ideas and animal facts....those are the faces of learners and teachers.



Spoiler Alert! Here is a glimpse at the pages authors and illustrators are creating on KidPix.
(This is what it looks like on the KidPix screen!)



Ask your child what the best part about this project is and the most challenging part is.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Helping Your Child Write and Spell

Hello Families!

Check out this video from the Launching Young Readers series on Reading Rockets. Reading experts explain why families should encourage and provide opportunities for their children to write! There are some great ideas on this short video, for example: creating a grocery list together in the car. Super simple, but effective in helping your child become a better writer, speller, and reader!



ELF Moves

Our class loves to move and Miss Laurie had a great idea for a lesson. She taught these movers about movement and how it benefits the brain. She had another two movement-based activities too! One of the lessons Miss Laurie taught us was that it's important to reflect on how you moved and how you felt when you moved. Ask your child about how they felt during these different activities!
Types of movement in the Brain Dance and what do they do for us?
Moving to the music. Seaweed or fish?
Totem Pole activity!

Can you believe we've been through all of the ELF lessons? A HUGE THANK YOU to all of the parents who acted as ELF teachers to us this year! Melinda, Cassie, and Laurie you three have helped to continue make learning fun! Thank you again, our class has enjoyed and appreciated the time you've spent with us! :)

Race to Read

We did it! Our second grade readers worked hard toward reading 15 just right books all month! As a result, they got to sign the hood of Troy Kingsbury 's race car - "The Green Lantern."
So excited to look at the car and sign it!
The #39 race car stayed in the trailer so we could see how it got it's name...it lit up!
Look closely...do you see any familiar signatures?
Ask your child about this memorable experience!