November 1, 2023

 November 1, 2023

IMPORTANT DATES:

• Wednesday, November 1st: two hour delayed opening, No School for PreK
• Friday, November 3rd: Picture Retake Day
• Frates/Coyle Parent Teacher Conferences-Monday, 11/6, Tuesday, 11/7, Wednesday, 11/8 and Tuesday 11/14
• Friday, November 10th: No School, Veteran' Day   
• Monday November 13th: No School, Teacher Professional Development
• Thanksgiving Break  Wednesday - Friday, 11/22, 11/23, 11/24 
• Tuesday, November 28th: Trimester 1 ends

We had a great celebration of Show and Tell.  Colin brought in his frog which was a big hit. 

Reading Workshop:

We continue to practice fluency.  Everyone is making progress and enjoying using expression, accuracy and punctuation by reading and performing Readers Theatre.

In Fundations, we are working on syllable types (currently closed syllables), suffixes, bonus letters and vowel teams.  After learning each new rule we then practice writing and marking words, highlighting words we notice and finding words in a wordsearch.  

Math:

In math we are working on place value.  We have made groups of ten with our digi-blocks and counted by 100 all the way to 1,000.  The students were able to see how many tens in 100 and how many hundreds in 1,000.  This is a key tool we have been using to solve both addition and subtraction story problems within 1,000.  It is a work in progress at this time.  The kids are working hard while learning a new skill.  

Thank you to those who sent back their October Encouragement Homework sheet.  Some kids were excited about showing us the spelling words they practiced and how much they read.  We are sending home a November Encouragement sheet this week with the hopes that it helps with any friction at home when you ask your child to practice reading and possibly practicing spelling words as well as play math games. We'd love to hear if this sheet is helping you at home.  

Sadly, it is time for us to say good-bye to our Student Teacher Paitra Martin.  She has been with us since the first day of school and leaves on November 19th.  She has made incredible connections with all kids, is a very capable teacher and has been a pleasure to have in class.  We are lucky enough to add her to our lunch crew in the cafeteria until she finds a teaching job.  She will be with us for conferences so you will have an opportunity to say good-bye and thank you.  BEST OF LUCK PAITRA!  YOU WILL BE AN INCREDIBLE TEACHER WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR OWN CLASSROOM.  

We look forward to seeing all of you for parent conferences.  Please feel free to contact us at any time if you have any questions or concerns.  We are enjoying our year and look forward to seeing everyone's continued progress.  

Betsy, Kelsey and Paitra

October 11, 2023

 IMPORTANT DATES:

• Tuesday, October 31st; WES Halloween Parade 2:15 PM
• Wednesday, November 1st: two hour delayed opening, No School for PreK
• Friday, November 3rd: Picture Retake Day

FRATES:          NEXT CELEBRATION:  WEDNESDAY - OCTOBER 18, 2023

Mrs. Frates and Ms. Martin's class has earned another celebration.  They voted to have a 'show and tell' day.  Everyone can bring in something to share with the class.  In the past we have had kids bring in Pokemon cards (some had binders, others just brought in cards), shells and told where they got them, a favorite toy and talked about why its their favorite, dolls, pictures of a family vacation etc...Some kids sent me a video of them doing something special or pictures that we put on the screen and they shared that with the class.  If you have any questions, please email us and feel free to ask.  

COYLE:            NEXT CELEBRATION:  FRIDAY - OCTOBER 13, 2023

Our class earned our next celebration! Costumes can be worn all day with the exception of face masks.  We ask that no face masks or weapons be apart of costumes.  Thank you for supporting us!

There is a Pumpkin Encouragement Chart coming home in your child's folder to go home tomorrow.  The directions are on the top of the paper.  There are a few different ideas on the bottom of the paper as far as how they can practice their skills in order to fill in a pumpkin.  Reading is a requirement for Second Grade Homework.  You only need to read or be read to for 20 minutes each night.  Spelling and Math skills are not a requirement but if your child is needing extra support this is a fun way to help them practice.  

Second Step:

Frates' class has been working on Bullying during Second Step (our social, emotional curriculum).  They understand that bullying is when the same person repeatedly does or says something mean to you.  We talked about it having to be repeated by the same person for it to consist of bullying.  This is recognizing bullying.  Then we talked about the 3 R's - Recognize, Report and Refuse.  By reporting the bullying action to a safe adult you are reaching out and asking for help to solve or stop the problem.  With the hopes that the action will stop then students followed protocol.  However, if it doesn't stop, the kids are learning to keep asking an adult until the issue is resolved.  Then refuse is being assertive with a strong, confident voice and telling the bully, "Stop.  That's bullying."

Coyle's class is learning to differentiate between peacemmakers and peacebreakers. We generated a list as a class of what each looks like.  Some examples we came up with of peacemakers are: being safe, using kind words, staying in line, being respectful.  A few examples of peacebreakers included: unkind words, not saying sorry, arguing, and being disrespectful.  We will be using this language in our classroom to encourage students to be a peacemaker and highlight students who are exhibiting these behaviors.  We will be discussing how our behaviors create a "ripple effect," if we treat others with respect, that will trickle down, if we are unkind, that will create a negative ripple effect.

Reading Workshop:

We just finished learning and practicing words that have bonus letters and glued sounds.  Bonus letters are very hard to grasp - ll, ff, ss, and zz are bonus letters and come at the end of a word after a short vowel.  Glued sounds are all, an, am, ang, ing, ong, ung, ank, ink, onk, unk and make their own sound because the vowel isn't long or short when with these consonants.  We will continue to review these skills as we move along and learn new rules and skills.  Our next unit is introducing exceptions to the rules and closed syllable words.  Exceptions to the rule, ild, ind, old, olt and ost are exceptions because the vowel is long even though they are followed by a consonant.  They will also be exposed to vowel teams but not having to master them yet.  

Math:

In math we are continuing to practice our combinations to 20 as well as solving story problems.  Story problems are both addition and subtraction.   Everyone is learning to visualize (sometimes act out) what is happening in the problem, talk about tricky words so they can comprehend the problem and then they are able to solve the problem and show their thinking.  

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us via email.  

Have a wonderful fall!  What a nice 

September 11th

September 11, 2023

IMPORTANT DATES:

• Both Class Celebrations will happen this Friday, September 15th.
• 2F:  Stuffy and P.J. Day - Please wear appropriate pj's that are not see through and a stuffy that can fit in their back pack.
• 2C:  Toy Day - It has to fit in their backpack, can't have a noise component to it as well as not electronic and should be school appropriate. 
• 
  
• Tuesday, September 12, 8-9 AM: PTO Coffee Hour in the STEM lab
• Friday, September 22nd: Picture Day
• Wednesday, October 4th: two hour delayed opening, No School for PreK
• Saturday, October 7th: PTO Prosper Harvest Supper @TPVS
• Monday, October 9th: No School, Indigenous Peoples Day observed

                          Miss Paitra Martin       

Welcome to our Second Grade Blog.  We will be posting on this blog once a month.  The blog will ALWAYS have important dates and information.  It will include our planned celebrations, items you might need to send in with your child, any scheduled fieldtrips and pictures of our second grade wonders!!!  We will send you an email with the link to the blog when it is ready to view.

I want to introduce you to Paitra Martin.  She is a Student Teacher in Mrs. Frates' Second Grade Classroom.  She has already made nice connections with all the students in class and will continue to do so until November.  Please be sure to say hello and make her feel welcome. 

Please read and find out what we have been busy with since the opening of school.  

SPECIALS:

Second Grade Coyle               Second Grade Frates

Monday-P.E.                                                   Monday - Spanish and Art

Tuesday - Library and Art                         Tuesday - Spanish and P.E.

Wednesday - P.E.                                          Wednesday - S.T.E.M.

Thursday - Spanish and S.T.E.M.           Thursday - Health and Music

Friday - Spanish and Music                       Friday - Library and P.E. 

Please make sure your child has proper footwear for their specials and return their books back for Library day.  

Second Grade has spent a great deal of time learning new routines and reviewing school and classroom rules.  We have been practicing what it looks like and sounds like in the classroom when we are being safe, respectful and ready to learn.   The kids are working hard to be good role models for our first grade friends across the hall.  

Your child will be bring home a blue file folder EVERY Thursday.  It will have important papers for you to look at.  Some of the papers include your child's hard work and other papers will be something to read, sign and return.  There will also be papers you may get from the office, programs around the community and/0r units in health that our Heath Team will teach your children throughout the year.  Please look carefully through your child's folder weekly and send the folder back with signed papers if appropriate OR empty NO LATER THAN TUESDAY.  We hand back papers to your child everyday and ask them to put it in their folder so it is easier for them to do so if their folder is in their cubby.  Thank you for paying attention to this consistent and important detail throughout the year.

Math:

In Math we are working on Unit 1 of our math curriculum INVESTIGATIONS: coins, number strings and story problems.  We have been exploring tools we will use throughout the year and review how to show our thinking when solving problems.  Below you can see the creations a few students built after counting 50 - 100 items.  

Literacy:

Literacy has many components to it this year.  We are currently focusing on reading with fluency.  This week we practiced reading with expression.  This involves using the punctuation the author inserted and paying close attention to speaking loud if the words are printed bold and soft when needed.  It has helped the kids have a goal to work toward while reading.  Ask your child to read with you at home and use their voice the way the author wants the reader to use it.  

Second Step:

Second step is our Social Emotional Program used throughout the school.  We began by reviewing our rules, acting out different situations as others guess what that rule could be and working on flip books with illustrations of our rules.  We will be focusing on RESPECT for lesson 1.  

We are enjoying getting to know your kiddos. We look forward to building a supportive and collaborative relationship with you as parents, so you child can continue to grow as learners and community members.  If you ever have any questions or concerns you'd like to dis communicate, feel free to contact us via email.  Below you will find our email address.  We will return an answer or ask for more information as quickly as possible.  It may be hard after hours but we will do our best.  Enjoy the week!

Betsy Frates - betsy.frates@mtnviews.org

Kelsey Coyle - kelsey.coyle@mtnviews.org