DEC. 11TH

Dear Parents,

We have been working hard on European Traditions. Please look at our artwork and stories from many of the countries in Europe in the hallway when you come to the Christmas Sing.  There are also letters in the hallway that the students wrote to Santa.

 Our class store will be Thursday December 17^th. This will conclude our Economic unit where we have talked about consumers & producers, needs & wants, supply & demand and checks & visas.  In order for this to work we need you to donate used toys, clothes and nick- knacks from home. Please do not buy anything just send items to school you no longer need. The students have been saving money and getting a check for the work they do in class to spend at our store.  Some have been charging money on their visa too. 

In math we are working on money. Many of the children are having a hard time recognizing the coins and counting them.  Please allow them to use real money at home and practice counting with real money.

 There will be no homework this week except to read.  Please have your child continue reading during the break. I have included a graph where the children can mark the time they have read. Each box equals one minute. Be sure to write the total amount they read.  I will count this for a free reading homework assignment or extra credit, which everyone they need most.

We will be decorating Christmas Trees   (ice cream cones) with frosting and small candies on Friday Dec. 18^th. If you would like to donate a small bag   ($1.00 size) of M&M’s, skittles, nerds etc. to help defray the contest I would really appreciate it. I will supply the rest of the materials.

The students wrote really impressive summaries this week and they did amazing on our place value test in math.   EVERYONE GOT 90 0R HIGHER!  Thanks for all you do.

  Have a Merry Christmas,

 Mrs. Kitchen

 

DEC 4

WOW!!! Almost everyone got 100% on spelling, vocabulary and writing this week. Also the students summaries were really good.  We are learning about money and still reviewing base 10 blocks. The students are excited about the class store. They can start to bring in their toys to sale. We are planning on having it on the 17th. It has been a great week.

NOv. 23

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nov 13th

Please make sure you read the “Take Home Books” if you are signed up for them and return them each day. Many of the students are forgetting their library books on Thursday. I am proud of each student and the progress they are making. We finished the unit on arrays, odd/even, and skip counting. There are a few students who did not pass with 90% so I will continue to work with them.

Nov 6th

We are almost ready for our math test. One more day of good reviewing and we will be able to take our test on odd and evens, skip counting by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s and number arrays. We have been writing Thanksgiving poems and sequencing in reading. We have a new way to make reading time fun. We turn our chairs upside sown and lean against them. They are just a little hard so if the students want they can use their coats or a small blanket/pillow to put under them. I told the students the pillows or blankets have to fit in their backpack and be taken home every night. They need to be clean.  We are almost finished with our moon unit.

Thank You

Thanks to Mrs. Marshall who shared her puppets and read us fun Halloween Stories and to Mrs. Evans and Mrs. Beck for having 3 fun games and spider cookies to make. It was a fun Halloween. All the children looked so cute in their costumes.

Halloween

Thanks for all the pumpkin seeds. We counted by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s with them. I had the students mark up their Halloween stories looking for capital letters, key words, characters, settings, character traits, nouns and adjectives. They were graded this week on how they followed directions when we were finding these items and marking them with different colors of crayons. We have been studying skip counting, arrays and odd and evens in Math. We will be reviewing this week and hopefully taking a test soon. We are still working on the moon and observable things in the night sky unit in Science. In reading we have been working on taking notes on sequencing in reading to build our comprehension.

Oct. 23

We have had a fun week with RED RIBBON WEEK. Lots of crazy hair and funny socks.  We are in the middle of our MOON studies. This week we copied a Summary that the class wrote and the students corrected them on their own. In math we are going to start our unit on skip counting and odd and evens on Monday. We are hard at work trying to get our Halloween stories finished. I am excited to see all the students Halloween Costumes.

Friday, Oct. 16th

We took our first math test and the class did pretty good. Those students who did not get 90% or higher I will work with until they can pass the test. We have wrote our first draft of our Halloween stories. In reading we have been doing some drama activities to help us build comprehension. We acted out the story as Mrs. Kitchen read it. We did an activity called "Hole on the Wall" where 3 students layed down on a butcher sheet and we drew them. Then we wrote down what activities were taking place. The last activity we did was taking two of the characters and practicing the dialogue that would transpire at the end of the story between them. We finished our unit on maps and we will be moving on to the MOON.

Oct. 9th

It was so great to meet with  most of the parents. We have a great group of students.  This week we watch some 2nd grade students actually doing "Genius Hour". Then we figured out what groups we were going to be in and what our topics are. They seemed really excited about their research. We are continuing to review in math "Number Sense". We did not get summaries written this week, but we will do them on Tuesday. There will be no homework next week. Have a fun and safe Spring Break.

Oct. 2

We went to the ZOO and a wonderful time. I was so proud of the students. Thanks to the parents who helped. We could not do it without you! We have been working so hard on finishing up our auto biographies. We hope every parent comes and reads them at Parent Teacher Conferences. I really enjoy Parent Teacher Conferences and meeting with each parent. We have to work together to help each one of these unique children. So, Please come and visit with me.

Sept. 25

We had a fun week, but Friday was the best. We did the Walk-a-thone and celebrated United States and North America by feasting on hot dogs, apple pie, lemonade, and cracker jacks. We sung "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" and "What's More American". We started to make a "Me on the Map" flip chart to put in our journal. We did our 2nd summary. We have just learned hoe to do the beginning so far. In math we continue to review "Make a 10" and did some double subtracting.

SEPT. 18

We had a fun day today. We played drums as we skip counted by 10's. We made towers out of marshmallows and spaghetti. We continue to learn that the team who always wins is the team who works together.  Everyone in the class has passed off the first math drill and we got the most 100% on our Spelling Test this week.  On Thursday we wrote the beginning of our first Summary. I was impressed how many students wanted to go on to the middle. Thank You "First Grade" teachers. They knew the key words. We are excited about our upcoming field trip to the ZOO! I told the students to start thinking about what they are passionate about to Research. Maybe at the zoo they can find an interesting animal to research.

Sept. 11th

This year we are starting a new activity called "Genius Hour". Right now we are learning how to work together as a team. Eventually the students will research about something they are passionate about. Our activity this week was to take a hula-hoop across the room only using 2 finger tips of each person in the team. There was a tight part where they really had to be careful. If they used more of their fingers or let go they had to start over. We were racing in teams and being timed.  We had a great discussion on using every member of the team, balancing the size difference of the students and how high the hula- hoop needed to be and how effective a team leader is who listens or takes over.  We had a great week.

Sept. 8

Ask your child how to find a “Just Right Book”. See if they can tell you 3 ways. Ask them how to play “Guess My Number” and see if they can guess your number (1-100). This week we talked about our Community, practiced “Counting On” and asking questions to find a number on the 100”s chart. We have been working on FLUENCY in reading and Word Attack. Thanks for following thru with “Take Home Reading”. If you are not getting books it is because I have not got a permission slip. I hope you are enjoying Raz-Kids. You should see out class walk down the hall. They are the BEST!!!!! It’s cold in our class; please send jackets for the students to take on and off.

Aug. 31-Sept. 4

We have had a great start to school. The first day we made cookies and the rest of the week we practiced routines. We are best at walking in the halls. We counted by tens using our class drums (BYU ice cream buckets). We have been doing testing in reading and learning about "Just Right Books" and attacking words we don't know while we read.  In Social Studies we have been talking about how we fit into the world around us. Each student has their own passport and we have made a map of our home, neighbor hood, and school. This year I am starting a Genius Hour where students work in teams or individually creating something they are passionate about. We started by dividing into 4 teams and creating something. They each were given tin foil, pipe cleaners and tape. The students created the Eiffel Tower, a statue of hearts, a big group of spiders and the last one I could not figure out.  It was great to see most of the teams work together and create things. Two of the groups could not come up with or agree on any one item.  We have some work to do on cooperation and letting everyone have a chance to lead.  We made rough drafts of "How To Make A Great Classroom".
    Please remember to return the "Information" and "Take Home Reading" notes. Our library day is on Thursday. Take Home Reading will start on Monday to all students who said Yes and have returned their permission slips. 
    I am excited to be teaching your child.
Mrs. Kitchen

May 15th

We have been working hard on our program that will be held May 19th in the Kiva at 10:45- 11:45. We have some last units in math that we have not conquered yet, We are still working so we can get 90% or above on measurement, geometry and 3 digit subtraction with regrouping. We are almost finished with our Animal Reports.

May 1

This week we started our unit on ROCKS. The students can bring 3 of rocks they have collected to school so we can compare them. We also looked at books of different countries from South America. We talked about their culture, land formations, different habitats we would find their, what oceans surround the continent and what types of animals and food they eat. We then ate rice, beans, chips & salsa.  We continue working on 3 digit subtraction and in reading we are focusing on finding the main idea and supporting details.

April 24

We finished our unit on weather an seasons. The students wrote a 6 paragraph opinion essay on their favorite season. They did super job. We are so close to being finished with the DRA testing. Every student made progress. We took a  Pre Test on 3 digit addition. We still have a few that need some more work.  The students animal reports are due Friday May 1st. The requirements are on my blog sight and have been sent home 3 weeks in a row with homework. I hope you all have a great week.

April 17th

We had fun sharing our habitats with the 1st and 2nd graders. We have finally finished writing our "Twisted Fairy Tales" and will be putting them up in the hall. We are also making a class book for everyone to read. In math we finished our place value to the 1000's. We are still working on measurement and will start on 3 digit addition on Monday.  We also are going to start taking our last DRA in second grade next week.

April 3

ANIMAL REPORT REQUIREMENTS

Due May 1

COVER PAGE:

            TITLE

            PICTURE

            AUTHOR

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE

            CHAPTER HEADINGS

            PAGE NUMBER

 4 CHAPTERS: (possible choices-you only need 4, you can choose different ones then suggested) NEED: INTRODUCTION PARAGRAPH, 3 SUPPORTING IDEA PARAGRAPHS (WITH 3 DETILS EACH), CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH. This is how we learned it in school. I know that it is not always possible to do a 5-paragraph essay for each chapter. Try to do at least 1 chapter this way. The students will get full credit for each chapter if they have a topic and 3 supporting details.  

SUGGESTED TOPICS:

INTRODUCION

BABIES

ADULTS

FOOD

SHELTER

HABITAT

WHERE THEY LIVE

PROTECT THEMSELVES

LIFE CYCLE

INTERESTING FACTS

GLOSSARY

             3 WORDS AND DEFINITIONS these are your bolded words in the text of your             report

INDEX

             3 IMPORTANT WORDS AND PAGES YOU WILL FIND THEM

ILLUSTRATION (you can draw your own picture)

LABLES (1-2 words can be on a picture, illustration, map or diagram.)

DIAGRAM

PHOTOGRAPH (does not need to be colored)

CAPTION (At least 1 sentence. Can be on picture, illustration, map, or diagram.)

HEADER (title)

BOLD PRINT (In your text, a word in your glossary, you can highlight them if you are writing it out by hand.)

MAP

           

March 27

The students wrote their first non-fiction summary from their notes. They are to have a 5-paragraph essay with an introduction, 3 supporting details and a concluding statement.  I haven’t seen their final work as I get these packets ready earlier, but I think they are going to do a great job. They were able to do their worksheets fairly easy.

     We are in the middle of making our habitats. This usually takes us all week.

     We are also finishing our “Twisted Fairy Tales” for our writing project this month. 

     We will be finishing our TIME unit and start on number sense and place value to the 1000”s in math. Thanks for the cute door, notes, and gifts for teacher appreciation week.  I have an amazing class with amazing parents.

March 20

We had our feasts for Antarctica and Australia. We finished writing about them in our passports. We are in the middle of our Non Fiction and Fairy Tale units for reading and I am hoping that we are understanding quarter after and quarter till. It has been a great week. I am really proud of the students. They had a fun Friday with their Teddy Bears. 

March 13

Everyone has officially passed 2 digit subtraction and money with 90% or higher. We did our first Non Fiction Summary. I was impressed!!!  The students really thought about the answers and worked hard.. They were not perfect, but the students did better than I expected. You will see lots of marks on their papers as we talked about and ask questions to see how they could improve. You will see how I crossed off lots of words. I am trying to model how good writers and thinkers are. That it is OK to make a mistake and make changes. These summaries are not final publish work. We are PRACTICING and trying to become better. We are in the middle of our clock unit and the hardest part for the children is to do quarter after and quarter till. Any help at home with this would be great!
We are going to be making our HABITATS in Science and every student will need to bring a shoebox and at least 1 batch of salt dough.  Any extra silk or plastic flowers and greenery that is no longer needed at home would be appreciated.

Salt Dough

3 cups of flour

2 cups of salt

2 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 cup of water (put in a zip lock bag)

March 6th

We had a great week!  We are moving on to "Time" in math and we kicked it off by making giant clocks with "Fruit Loops" as our minutes. We divided the clock in hale and then into fourths. We labeled and colored each section. Then the students made their own small ones.  Time is a hard concept for the students to get. So we will be studying it for awhile.  We finished our Non- Fiction Text Features book and you will be getting them when we start our animal books. We are studying about HABITATS in science. Great week!!!  Great Students!!!

Feb 27

We  are just finishing up subtraction and money. Hopefully we can all pass with 90% are higher by Friday. We will be starting a fun unit on habitats. We continue to work on non-fiction text features and finding the main idea and supporting details  in a non-fiction text.

Feb 13th

We have been studying about the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The students are having fun drawing a life size Abraham Lincoln. We celebrated Valentines all day Friday. We passed out cards, wrote "Get Well" cards to one of our classmates, we counted to 1674 with Fruit Loops, and played "Flying Hearts" with a small parachute.  Their summaries were amazing. I was so proud of each one of Them. 

Feb 7th

Thank You to all the parents who came to Parent Teacher Conferences. We had a fabulous turnout. I love visiting with the parents and the students.

I HOPE TO SEE EVERY PARENT AT PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES. I LOVE TO SHARE HOW WELL YOUR CHILD IS DOING!!! WE HAVE AN AMAZING CLASS.

Jan 25

We are working hard!

Jan 16th

We have almost all of our DRA test finished!!!  We had fun doing science experiments om matter.

Welcome Back

I was so glad to be back to school and on a routine. The students were fabulous.  I gave them a math pretest to review and to see who need some extra help. Almost everyone passed with 90% or higher  on the Pre Test, and 2 days later everyone passed plus they did and other cumalative  review test and everyone got above 90%. All I can say is "WOW".  There summaries this week were very impressive.
We started to study "Matter" in Science and "Asia" in Science. We have been focusing on "Characterization" and "Inferences" in Reading.  Our next unit in Math is "Double Digit Subtraction" and we are doing a work at your own pace packet on "Data".