September 22: Newsletter

IMPORTANT DATES:

September 29: Maize and Blue Day/Popcorn Day!

October 5: Hearing Testing

October 13: Early Release Day (students dismissed at 12:15)

October 17: Marco's Pizza Night (Don't forget to mention Bauer when ordering.)

October 26: Picture Retake Day/BPC Skating Party (details coming soon)

October 31: Classroom Halloween Party 9:30-10:30

What a HOT but fun morning we had during the Walk-A-Thon! We were able to "stroll" around the track, drink lots of water, and have a yummy treat afterwards!  A big thank you to all of our parents who came to help out or support us.  Also a HUGE thank you to our amazing parent club for organizing the event! 

READING:
We continued to refine our practice of building good habit as readers. In addition to finding good fit books, we learned how to categorize books into reading genres.  I bet your child can identify at least one characteristic of the fantasy, realistic fiction, poetry, science fiction, historical fiction, and mystery genres.   Next week we will focus primarily on building our reading fluency.  As fluent readers, we will pay attention to our accuracy, read with appropriate expression, read smoothly with careful regard to punctuation, read with a natural pace, and comprehend what we are reading.

WRITING:

This week we finished up observing what good writers do as they think about, plan, sketch, and write a whole story.  Next week we will learn how to write as story tellers by adding in feelings and a catchy lead.

MATH:

We spent a great deal of time this week practicing the Make-A-Ten strategy to find a teen total.  The students are doing a great job with this strategy and can even show their thinking in multiple ways.  We are learning that this strategy helps us to be efficient and careful as we add and subtract.  Next week we will use this learning to help us better understand odd and even numbers, double facts, and working through word problems.  

September 15: Newsletter

IMPORTANT DATES:
September 20: Picture Day
September 22: Walk-a-Thon (10:45-11:30)

We are excited to be rolling out SCHOOL FAMILIES for the 2017-2018 school year and they started TODAY!  The goal of our of school families is to unit our school (Pre-K through fifth grade), while putting an emphasis on the 7 habits of happy kids.  Today our goal was to tell what a family is and learn the names of the members of our school families.  I hope your child can tell you all about the fun we had in our school families today.

READING:
We are working hard to develop skills that good readers have and building up our reading stamina.  I am also finishing up my reading assessments with all students.

WRITING:
Next week we will practice the many ways writers plan their stories before beginning to write.  We will also work on writing like storytellers by using details to help the reader picture our small moments.

MATH:
This week we spent time understanding a math mountain.  The cards have a large number at the top (the total) and two smaller numbers at the bottom (the partners or addends).  We have learned that we can write two addition and two subtraction equations to match each math mountain.  Please see the Family Letter in your child's Friday folder for further information on using math mountain cards at home.  Your child will practice using these cards next week and will even have a set to take home as well.

WALK-A-THON REMINDERS:
Our Walk-a-Thon is this coming Friday.  Please have your child wear comfortable shoes to walk/run in that day.  We will spending roughly 45 minutes outside and our goal is to stay moving the whole time!!  Also, you can have your child turn in his/her pledge envelope anytime this week.  All pledges  should be turned in no later than Friday, September 29.  Pledges submitted by this date will be eligible for our raffle drawing as well as classroom and individual prizes.
We would love it if you could join us at the Walk-a-Thon to cheer us on.  We could even put you to good use and have you help mark the lap tracking cards as students race past the finish line.  We hope to see you there!

GROWTH MINDSET:
This year I will be implementing many growth mindset strategies and activities into the classroom.  I bet you may be wondering...what is growth mindset?  We used to think that our intelligence was fixed (meaning we were either smart or we weren't).  Scientist have proven again and again that simply is not true.  Our brains act like a muscle-the more we use it, the stronger (and smarter) our brain becomes.

A person with a fixed mindset may do these things:
*avoid challenges
*give up easily
*ignore feedback
*become threatened by other people's success
*try hard to appear as smart or capable as possible

A person with a GROWTH MINDSET may do these things:
*embrace challenges
*give their best effort
*learn from feedback
*become inspired by other people's successes
*believe their intelligence can change if they work hard

This week we spent time talking about failure and how it can make us have GRIT!  As we learn, we need to know that failure can (and often does) happen and IT IS OKAY!  Remind your child that each time they fail and try again, our brains grow stronger!  Don't step in to prevent your child's failure-this is how they will learn to persevere in the face of challenges.  In class, we often say "We've got grit!  We don't quit!"  I see 2nd graders learning from their mistakes and working hard through their challenges everyday.

 
Have a great weekend!!!

September 8: Newsletter

UPCOMING EVENTS:

September 15: Early Release-dismissal at 12:15

Please have students wear “Be Awesome” Bauer t-shirt

September 22: Walk-a-thon 10:45-11:30 (Raindate September 29)

The second graders are becoming more and more consistent with our daily routines.  I am very proud of their dedication to their learning and each other.  Most morning the students have roughly 10-15 minutes to interact with a tub of manipulatives called their “Good Morning Tub”.  This time first thing in the morning allows students to begin their day interacting with their peers and using their imagination to build new creations and projects.  Please ask your child what they created using their Good Morning Tub this week.

READING:

This week I had the opportunity to read with many of the 2nd graders.  I loved the time I had to read with students one-on-one.  As I complete a reading assessment with each student, I will be able to identify an independent reading level and set individualized reading goals to promote further reading growth.  I will continue to complete reading assessments next week with the rest of the 2nd graders.  

WRITING:

Each Monday we will begin our day with a “weekend report”.  Students will be asked to write about one thing that happened over the weekend.  The event can be happy, exciting, sad, or even disappointing.  Please help your child brainstorm at home some writing ideas from the weekend.

MATH:

Next week we will officially begin our math lessons.  Students will use math mountains to help understand the relationship between addition and subtraction.  We will also learn the strategy of making a ten when we add.  For example, to solve 8+?=12, we know that we can count on from 8 two more to get to ten, and then another two to get to twelve.  Two plus two makes four!

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Our first Social Studies unit begins with a review of families.  We will discuss how our families give us love and provide for our basic needs.  We will then brainstorm ways that families rely on the community to meet their basic needs.  The rest of our Social Studies lessons relate to the study of COMMUNITIES.  We will start by learning why people live in communities and begin to notice characteristics in different communities.  

OTHER NEWS:

We will have library every THURSDAY this year.  Please help your child remember to return their books by Thursday each week.  Thank you!

Please remember to have a pair of gym shoes for your child to keep in his/her locker.  We only had a handful of 2nd graders with a pair of shoes to change into for gym class this week.  Having an extra pair of shoes at school really helps make sure we are ready for all gym activities as well as keeping our gym clean and ready for the next class.  

Thank you to all of the parents that took time to fill out the parent survey that went home last week.  The information you provided is extremely helpful.  If your still have your parent survey at home, please turn it in by the end of this week.  

Have a great weekend!

Friday

This Friday, September 8 will be a busy day!  We have our evacuation drill at 10:00 A.M.  We practice this in the case that we would ever have to move staff and students away from a threat in our school.  All classes will walk to the Georgetown Ice Arena.  We have police assistance during the drill in its entirety.  The kids love seeing the police officers!  When arriving to the arena, we all sit for a moment to check in and then we walk back to Bauer.  This is just a drill and is simply a way to practice a safety procedure.  Plus, it gives us a chance to have a nice walk together.  Please let me know if you have any questions about this drill.

News and Updates

We made friendship bracelets today.  Each colored rubber band represents a different characteristic (# of siblings, love of reading and math, # of sports played, etc) .  This was a fun project to build community and to get to know each other better!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

September 15: Early Release

Please have students wear their “Be Awesome” Bauer t-shirts!

September 22: Walk-a-thon 10:45-11:30 (Raindate September 29)

OTHER NEWS:

• Thank you for all of the generous donations to the classroom.  We are well supplied with glue sticks, pencils, sticky notes, recess games, and much more.  I greatly appreciate your generosity.

• Today you should have received your child's Friday folder.  Each Friday (or the last day of the week), all the notes from the school and the classroom will come home in the folder.  One side of the folder will hold the papers and information coming directly from the office.  The other pocket will be information from me or papers that your child completed in class.  Your child is to return the Friday Folder to school on Monday.  You may include inside the folder, any items that need to be returned to school.

• This year we are a peanut free classroom when it comes to classroom treats.  Individual students may have treats containing peanuts in the room.  However, all treats for the entire class must be peanut and tree nut free (including processed in a factory containing peanuts).  Thank you for keeping this in mind when planning for birthday treats and/or other classroom celebrations.  

• I am still looking for a head room parent for each of our holiday parties.  Please let me know if you are interested in helping to plan and organize our Halloween party, Winter party, and/or Valentine's Day party.   This does not have to be an extremely time consuming job.  I would greatly appreciate your help and will assist you in the planning process as much as you need.  Also, we have many helpers signed up for each party so you are not in this alone.  Let me know if you are willing to be a head room parent.  If not, soon I will start begging! :)

Here are the dates of each party for you to check your calendars for availability:

Halloween Party: Tuesday, October 31

Winter Holiday Party: Thursday, December 21

Valentine's Day Party: Wednesday, February 14

A FEW SNAPSHOTS FROM OUR WEEK:

This week we spent time learning about how our brains work.  We learned that our brains grow as we try challenging things and even make mistakes.  This year we will focus on the importance of making mistakes, see how they help us learn, and celebrate them daily!   Below you will see a paper that students made this week and will keep in their desks.  It shows our brains in the center and all of the learning that can happen through mistakes.  The colorful lines represent our brains growing from mistakes.

We also purposefully made mistakes in a drawing to turn them into something beautiful!  This really made us use your creativity and imagination.  I was blown away at their results!  Check out their beautiful drawings!

A fence was turned into a spider web.

A ring was turned into a castle.

A trampoline was turned into a bounce house.

A waterslide was turned into a bunny eating a BIG carrot.

A soccer picture was turned into ducks by a pond.

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing all of these smiling faces on Tuesday!