Happy Holidays!

We have had a wonderful week.  We learned about Christmas in Mexico, Australia, Germany and China. We discussed the similarities and differences in our cultures. On Thursday, the Columbia Marionette Theater presented Santa's Christmas Party. The children were enthralled by the puppets and entertained by the humor. My homeroom class won the loose change contest and were rewarded with cupcakes after the performance. Thanks to all who contributed.

Today, we had our Christmas celebration. The children have been waiting all week for this and they had a ball!

They loved the bag exchange...

and just having fun together.

We said goodbye to a friend and look forward to a new year.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas, Christmas Time is Here!

Here we are writing letters to Santa:

 Thanks to our teacher cadet, Ms. Frazier, for reviewing the parts of a friendly letter with us.

Nothing says "Christmas!" like a decorated tree.

Finally, we were super excited when this little visitor showed up.

Christmas Party

Almost two weeks ago a letter was sent home with information about our Christmas Party. Each child is to decorate the brown paper bag attached to the letter and write his/her name on the bottom of the bag. This is to ensure that your child does not receive his/her own bag. Inside the bag should be the following items:

 *a juice box (or Kool-Aid Jammer)

  *a small bag of chips (pretzels, popcorn)

  *a chocolate item

  *a candy item

  *a non-candy “Christmas” item

    (Dollar Store ~ such as, stickers, or toy)

In order for our party to be a success, each child must bring a bag. Please have all bags prepared and returned by Wednesday, December 16th. Thank you!

Here are our children studying map skills:

I hope that everyone got to see the wonderful musical put on by Mr. Laber and our students:

Thank you to Mrs Kittrell for making our classrooms ready for Christmas:

 

Marionette Show

Thank you parents for sending in your loose change! The  Columbia Marionette Troupe will be at EPS on December 17, 2015. The class that raises the most loose change will receive a special treat after the performance. We will be collecting loose change until December 16th. All change will go toward the cost of the show.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that everyone enjoys this time with family and friends. Here are a few pictures of our children learning about the very first Thanksgiving.

A Veterans Day Close Reading

Last Wednesday, we discussed Veterans Day. A lot of the children shared which of their family members have served our country. They were so proud to share about their moms, dads, grandpas and uncles. We watched a video on the history of Veterans Day and completed a Veterans Day Close reading. During this activity we read a passage several times so that we could learn new information and dig into the details of the text. Next, the students answered comprehension questions based on that same passage and highlighted the evidence within the passage. These skills will be very beneficial to our students during MAP testing. To all of those family members who have served in the armed forces and those who are actively serving, Thank You!

Awesome Adjectives

Whew! We made it through a whole week of testing. Our children worked very hard and I am so very proud of them. To celebrate, we wrapped up our adjectives unit by brainstorming awesome adjectives or words that describe nouns. We began by using adjectives to describe one of our classmates:

Adjectives used to describe Kyner included: handsome, friendly, nice, and smart. Thank you Kyner for being such a great sport!

Then we moved on to describing something we all love, pizza! We came up with adjectives that describe pizza based on our five senses.

The children then decided which adjectives described their favorite pizza and completed the following activity:

Speaking of pizza, congratulations to Mrs. Kittrell's class who won a pizza party. During the book fair, they collected the most loose change to purchase books for their class.

Testing

Today we began ITBS/CoGAT testing. This test will help identify children qualified for the Gifted and Talented program for the 2016-2017 school year. Please encourage your child to take it seriously and to do his/her best. We will begin testing at 8:30 am each morning this week. Please make sure your child is on time and well rested.

Congratulations to all students who received an award today at our first Honors and Awards program!
Way to go! I am looking forward to handing out even more awards next nine weeks.

For those who could not make it to our book character parade last week, here is a look at some of our costumes:

Calendar Changes/Graded Papers

There will be some changes to the calendar due to the days we missed because of the flood. Report cards will now be issued on November 4, 2015 and a new date for Honors and Awards Day will soon be announced.

Also, graded papers were sent home today for ELA. Please check your child's binder or bookbag. If you have concerns, please let me know on the cover sheet and I will set up a time for us to meet and discuss all concerns.

 Students did not receive language arts homework today due to our copier being out of order. Please encourage your child to read from their baggy books for at least 20 minutes tonight.

Fall Is In The Air!

We can definitely feel fall in the air. This also brings to mind that cold and flu season is around the corner.It will become even more important for our children to wash and sanitize hands to prevent the spreading of germs. With this in mind, I'd like to share the results of a health lesson we had on hand washing. This lesson/experiment was conducted in Mrs. Kittrell's classroom and we monitored the results in our own room.

Three slices of bread were sealed in Ziploc bags. The first was handled by Mrs. Kittrell wearing gloves, the second slice she placed in a bag using her bare washed hands. The third slice was passed around the classroom for each student to handle and touch without washing or sanitizing their hands.

These are the results after watching our bread slices for about three weeks:

The bread slice handled by gloves looked practically the same:

The bread slice handled by washed hands did not fare so well:
   

The slice passed around to unclean hands was gross!

 This really showed the children how important it is to make sure we keep our hands clean!

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Parents, please check your child's B.I.R.D Binder for the form to request a time slot for Monday, October 19, 2015. If possible, return it by Wednesday so that I can send you a scheduled time to meet. I look forward to seeing you all.

Cancelled Field Trip

Unfortunately, our field trip scheduled for last Friday had to be cancelled.  Second grade teachers are in the process of working to schedule another trip for the near future. Details will be released as soon as they are finalized. Students who had already paid for their trip will have those funds applied to the upcoming field trip. Thank you for your patience!

Second Grade Field Trip

Second grade will be going on a field trip to The Circus of the Kids at Carver-Edisto Middle School on Friday, October 9, 2015.  Information and permission slips were sent home late last week. Please return signed permission slips and payment of $6.00 by October 6, 2015. The $6.00 will cover the cost of admission, transportation and concessions. For further information on The Circus of the Kids you may visit www.circusofthekids.com.

Social Studies and Fun

We are exploring the different types of communities:

But this is our favorite part of the day:

Narrative Writing

We have begun our writing unit on narrative writings. Narrative writing is just a fancy way to say stories of our lives. Students were asked to brainstorm special times in their lives or events that stick out in their memories. They have been adding these ideas to our "Heart Maps" and these ideas will become writing topics.