Our Cultures

Aloha families!  I can't believe that there are only two weeks left of this quarter.   Our time has gone by very quickly, mainly because we are a bunch of busy bees!!

I sent home our Wednesday envelopes early just to remind you of some things that are happening this week.  I talked with the students about bringing in an artifact today and they are very excited to bring in something to share. 

We are finishing up our family trees and they are going to be really cute!!

Just some other reminders.  Our school is scheduled for pictures on Friday September 21st. Unfortunately I will not be here:(  I have to attend a mandated district workshop and this Friday was the only time I could fit it into my schedule.  I am sorry that I will not be in the class picture.  I guess we will have to do a different picture at another time.

Thank you to all my volunteers who signed up to help in the classroom.  Lori Cataluna will be our room parent this year and Sofia Beschen has signed up to xerox for us.  If you would like to come in to grade papers I could use someone on Tuesday morning or Wednesday morning.

One last exciting thing. Our Donor's Choose project was fully funded last week!! Hurray!! We will be receiving 4 new individual CD players to use in the class for our Listening Center.

I just submitted another project for some new books on cd to our collection, which is pretty small at the moment.  If you would like to donate to this project please click on the following link and it will take you to the Donor's Choose site.  I am not sure how much longer we have for the Ala Moana match, but don't forget the access code is Mall.

www.Donorschoose.org/CelebrateSchools

If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me.



Timelines and Family Trees

Aloha everyone! Hope you had an enjoyable weekend! Thank you so much for all of the wonderful timelines, they are adorable!!  The students absolutely love looking at them and showing their growth over time. If you haven't sent it in yet please send it anytime.  We are displaying them until the end of the quarter which is the end of this month.

Today I sent home a Family Tree worksheet.  When you have some time please fill out just the first name of each family member if possible.  Students don't need to return them until Thursday.  We are learning about History and Culture for the rest of the month.  Next week we will be doing some activities that have to do with our different cultures.   I would like each child to bring in an item or picture that relates to their familie's ancestry or culture.  My family originates  from Mexico so I might share the Mexican flag and a maraca that I have.  I will send a reminder in the Wednesday envelope and they can bring it in anytime next week.



I would like to thank everyone who signed up to volunteer this year. I am sending home a note in the Wednesday envelope for volunteers to come in to grade/file papers and assist in the morning from 8:00-8:30, a Xerox person to come once a week, and a parent to come in to work on the books in our book hospital.  It is filling up with books in need of repair.

   Please send me an email or stop by if you can assist in any of these areas.

Again thank you for all of your assistance so far this year.

Open House

Thank you to everyone who came out to Open House on Wednesday night! It was so nice to meet and talk with everyone.  It was a very busy night and I apologize to anyone that I ddin't get a chance to speak with.

I hope you enjoyed seeing all of your student's work. They worked hard to do their best to show off a bit.

I am working on a schedule for volunteers.  I will just have a calendar for anyone to sign up  to come in to grade, file, xerox, or work on projects.

  I am in need of a few people who would be willing to come in on Wednesday or Thursday mornings from 10-10:30 to help type out student stories for them to publish during Writer's Workshop time.  Students would come to you and read their stories while you type them out.  We will print and then the students can illustrate their creations.

Please stop by in the morning or afternoon to sign up for any of these activities.

Here are a few pictures of some Friday Fun we had. I brought in some licorice for everyone to celebrate my birthday:)) They got very creative with it and some even created their own air conditioning.

 

 

Timelines, Surfer of The Week, and Open House

Aloha Families! I hope everyone had a nice three day weekend.  Last week we started learning about history through timelines.  Today I sent home a timeline with each student to complete at home.

I know that some of you may not have pictures for certain years, so please just improvise or have your child draw a picture of themselves at that age.  Remember this is a family project so please help your child to choose some pictures that are appropriate and let them do the writing and decorating.
Here is a sample timeline that my daughter completed last year.

This project is not due until September 7th so you can work on it a little at a time.

Don't worry I will return all timelines by the end of the year.

This week we also started our Surfer of The Week.

This week it is me:)

I brought in lots of items to share to teach the students all about myself.  I brought pictures, awards, toys, and drawings.   This gives the students lots of information so that they can write me a nice letter about all the things they like about me.

I also shared my timeline.

Each Friday I will pick a new Surfer of The Week.  This is a random drawing, so we never know who will be next.  If you child is chosen then they will receive a note to take home to tell families.  They will also get to bring home a special friend!

Skippy Jon will come home with your child for the weekend.  Your child will take good care of Skippy Jon and have lots of adventures.  In his weekend bag he will have his book and his journal.  Your child will write about the adventures and share with the class on Monday.  I will send home permission slips on Wednesday that explain it in more detail.

Don't forget that Open House in on Wednesday.  I will open the classroom at 6:15.  You are welcome to come in and see all the fu things we have been up to.  I look forward to meeting and talking with everyone on Wednesday.

Birthdays

We are finally getting into a nice routine and everyone is working hard at learning the rules and being a good surfer (citizen).  Our class has a Tropical Surf theme this year and it has been fun making our classroom bright and cheery.  We have a set of class rules that we follow, but we also talked about what it would mean to be a good citizen.  I made this poster for our class and we refer back to it quite a bit.

 

I saw a Surf  Etiquette poster like this once when I was on the big island and I loved reading it then.  A colleague of mine sent me these rules and told me she had used them in her Surf Themed class as well.  It is a fun way to review how we need to all work together and be repectful of each other.

This week we celebrated our first class birthday!! It was perfect timing with the Birthday timeline that we created in class.

Everyone worked together to figure out where their cupcake went and who's would be placed on the timeline first.  I will have the timeline up for you to see during Open House.

Our children's birthdays are always a special time to celebrate. I know many parents want to bring in goodies to celebrate, but I ask that you keep it healthy and simple.  Please do not send goody bags, candy, cake, ice cream, noise makers, pinatas, etc...  A simple treat such as a small cupcake, or cookie is fine.  Our district has implemented a strict healthy food policy which discourages sugary foods at school.  We also have a student in our class this year with a nut allergy, so please be aware of the ingredients.  If in doubt please just ask me.

Don't forget Tuesday and Thursday are PE days so please have your child wear tennis shoes, and bring a water bottle.

The First Week

Aloha everyone!! We made it through the first week of school and I hope your child had lots of fun.  We are taking things very slow as we learn the procedure and routines of our classroom.

I have had a few technical difficulties this week and was not able to send home our permission slip for class photos and volunteer forms.  I will send them home with Monday's homework.

This week we will begin our regular homework, Spelling and Math.  They will bring home their homework journal for Spelling and their Homework folder with their Math in it.  Please make sure you are checking their folder and initialing their Behavior Chart as well.

Let me explain our chart:)

Each day we come into class and everyone is on Green-Surf's Up Ready To Learn

When students complete work in a timely manner, show good behavior and a positive attitude they get to "Surf Up".  Each day they will color in their Behavior Chart so you will know what color they ended up on.  If they are on Yellow, Orange or Red please discuss with them what happened.  If a student end up on Red, most likely you will receive a call from me explaining why.

If a student ends up on purple-"Cowabunga" they had a fantastic day!  After earning 5 purples students will get their choice of a special prize such as lunch in the class, or sitting at the teacher's desk one afternoon;)

Thank you so much for all of the fruit donations on Friday.  The kids had a great time making Fruit Salad!

Most everyone had seconds and it was a nice healthy treat!  We talked about keeping our hands clean, not licking any fingers or knives, no sneezing on the food and good manners while eating.  We will have a class cookbook that will come home at the end of the year with all of the items we make this year.

I plan to post our classroom fun as much as possible, so don't forget to fill out the Photo permission form so I can include your child's picture. If not I will still post pictures, but your student will be in disguise:)

Welcome!

Aloha parents, students and families! Welcome to second grade and a brand new school year.  This year will hold many adventures and lots of learning.  I would love to keep you informed with what is happening in class each week here on our website.

You can find great links and information here to help you answer any questions you may have.  I also plan to post pictures of the fun activities going on in our class throughout the year. 

Please sign up by email so that you will receive any new post automatically in case you forget to check the site.

I will be sending home volunteer information in our Wednesday envelope on August 1st, so please check you envelopes weekly and send them back the following day.

On Friday August 3rd we will be making fruit salad! Please have your child bring in a fruit on that day to add to our salad.  Please DO NOT cut it up for them, that is their job and makes it much more fun!! We will be cutting it with plastic knives so please send something manageable for them:)

I plan to take lots of pictures this year and share them here and on my teacher site as well.  If you would like to have your child's picture posted please fill out the permission slip that will be in the Wednesday envelope.  If you do not want your child's picture posted, then just let me know and I will not include their pictures.

I am looking forward to sharing our class activities with all of you this year.