Wonderful Wednesday 8/31

Wow!  How did it get to be the last day of August already?  I feel like the school year just started yesterday!  There are some really great things going on in our room already, though!  We're hard at work for a lot of the day as readers and as writers.  Today we worked on the tools that writers use and WOW! we really took off as writers!  Many of us were very motivated to write!

Tonight's homework is #18, 19, and 20 on the colored sheet and practice 2-2.

Reminders:
Tomorrow is picture day
No school Monday
Open House is 6:30-8 on Thursday 9/8

Terrific Tuesday Update

Soooo....due to some schedule delays, we're putting off math until tomorrow.  Homework is just reading Meet Rosina and bringing library books.

Terrific Tuesday 8/30

Please remember your library books for tomorrow.
Homework is Math practice side 2-2 and read Meet Rosina (from our reading book).

Week of 8/29

Lots of exciting things are happening in second grade this week!  Click here to read all about it!

Exciting news!

This announcement appeared in our room today:

COMING SOON
Published authors
in Mrs. Leitze's room!

Celebrating this accomplishment at
Open house on September 8
School on September 9!

Wow!

Writers write things.

Here are the things we brainstormed today that we know  that writers write:

books - Jamie
pictures, riddles, rhymes, recipes, cookbook - Grace
titles, cards - Sami
poems, journal - Hannah
captions - Caleb McC.
memories- Robert
notes - Tyler
dictionary - Jamie and Grace
autobiography - Caleb McC. and Aidan P.
fiction- Jesse
newspapers- Emma
non-fiction - Noah
chapter books - Austin
realistic fiction - Aidan
history - Lydia
magazines - Dylan
study books (text books) - Addie
fact books - Caleb Ma.
invitations - Austin
biography - Sami and Aidan
lists- Mrs. Leitze

Wow!  So many possibilities for writing!  You know what the best part is?  We can choose any of them when we write in workshop!

Coming Soon:

Mrs. Leitze took pictures today of our Reading and Writing Workshops to give you a look inside.  Check back soon to see what we're up to and what workshop looks like in our classroom!

8/25 Homework

Homework is Math Practice 1-7

August 24, 2011

Our homework tonight is to read.  It can be out loud or alone, with a grown up, a pet, a brother or sister, a friend, etc.  It can be a book, a magazine, the newspaper, recipes...or any other reading material.  It doesn't matter where or what or with whom, but we're reading at least 15 minutes tonight.

Writers Write Books!

Today in writing workshop we took a big step forward.  We started writing books!  We worked on taking our ideas (from our brains or out of our writer's notebooks) and started getting them onto paper.  We made sure that our story had a beginning, a middle, and an end.  We've learned in reading that most stories have those parts!

We're learning that writers have no choice but to write and since we have a publishing deadline coming up, we're all hard at work.  Soon we'll be published authors!  It's so exciting!!

Help me help you

I just added some internet resources for kids and parents!  I'm working to make this a great place to come and get information.  I want it to be a great, helpful place for both my students and their parents to come.  Comment on this post and tell me something that you'd like to see or have available on our blog.

Mrs. Leitze

Tuesday

We worked through some of our math work on fact families together today.  We were running short on time, though, so I am going to be looking at homework to see how students did with it.  If your child is having difficulty with tonight's homework (1-6), just write a note on it.  I am planning to go back over it with those that need extra time during our math time tomorrow.

I forgot to remind students that tomorrow is library.  Don't forget your library books!

Have a good night!

Monday's Homework

Tonight, we have a math page working on subtraction (comparison stories) 1-5 and students need to remember their gym shoes for tomorrow.

Have a great night, and don't forget to read!

Our Special's Schedule

Monday - Art
Tuesday - Gym
Wednesday - Library
Thursday - Music
Friday - High Steppin'

Newsletter for the Week of 8/22

Here's the link to our class newsletter for this week.

8/18 Homework

Sorry all.  I ran out after school without updating the blog.  I needed to get to Nick right after school.  Several hours later and 5 x-rays later, I remembered that I didn't get the homework on the blog.  (No worries, Nick will be fine.)

Homework for the evening is to study for the spelling test and to do math enrichment page 1-4.

Sorry again for the delay!  Hope your night was filled with less drama than mine!

Mrs. Leitze

One more form

Parents,

In your child's folder tonight, look for one more form I'd like you to fill out.  It is asking for email and internet information, permissions for your child's name, picture, and work to be featured on our blog and also Mrs. Logan's Ball State portfolio, and for your insight into your child as a student.

Please fill this out at your earliest convenience and return it to me.

Thank you!
Mrs. Leitze

Wednesday Update

We've been working hard on all of our procedures for second grade.  It's going to pay off for the rest of the year when we've mastered these initial skills, because it will allow students to practice independent literacy and math activities and provide for opportunities for individual and small group attention for everyone.  This is absolutely essential in order to allow me to help each child grow to his/her fullest potential.

We also worked today on a few new things... 1) a reading strategy of tuning in to interesting words that we can learn for our reading and also to use in our writing,  2) using the part-part-whole model to show subtraction number sentences, 3) we met the main character of our new class chapter book for read aloud, Gooney Bird Greene!

Homework for tonight is math practice side 1-3.  I hope you're also going strong on the reading challenge!  We're really enjoying it at our house!

Mrs. Leitze

Because I'm curious...

Help me get you information in the best way for you. Please vote in the poll to the left!

A few things...

1) Our homework hotline/voice mail system is down today. If you're trying to call in, you won't be able to get to my extension to leave/hear the message.  In the past, I haven't been very diligent about leaving homework hotline information, but I will be recording one each night this year.  Please forgive me if I forget until I get into the habit!  Tonight's homework is Math 1-2 (Practice side only).

2) Math-  We are working our way through the first topic of the math series.  It's pretty basic for most of the students.  I realize that the content is easy.  We are mostly focusing on building good habits for math at this point.  We've been working on paying attention to the layout of our new worksheets, learning how to work together through the lesson part of math, and some of the routines for the leveled practice activities.  Soon, though, we'll be "kicking it up a notch" for those that need a challenge.  At that time, you may find that homework is different as this math series provides us with some leveled homework options.  For the time being, though, please don't be concerned if our math work is easy.  We're laying the groundwork and building good habits for the challenges to come.

Mrs. Leitze

Pete the Cat!

Hey look what I found!!!!

Now you can share Pete the Cat with your family!  Just click this link!

I also found out there is ANOTHER Pete the Cat book!  I am so excited!  I will try to have it to share with you soon!

Mrs. Leitze

Digital Newsletter

 Parents,
If you lose your spelling list or your newsletter, never fear!  Our classroom information is only a click away!  Here's the link for the newsletter for this week.

Leitze Ledger for Week of 8-15

Mrs. Leitze

Happy Monday!

Leitze's Learners,

I had a great time teaching you today!  Remember all of the work we did on choosing good fit books?  We're going to be using that all year!  I loved seeing how you are growing as authors, too!  You wrote today without telling me "I'm done!" before writing time was over!  We even had a good time working on some addition number sentences as a whole group and again with our partner game.  You know what my favorite part of the day was?  It was reading Pete the Cat with you!  I loved that you loved it so much we had to read it again right away!

I can't wait to share some more awesome things with you tomorrow!  Don't forget to do your homework and wear your gym shoes!

Hope your night is groovy! (like Pete the Cat)
Mrs. Leitze