Progress Reports

Please send progress reports back to school signed. When a signed progress report comes back to me, I will send you a copy to keep. Thanks!

Extension Activities

I have made a new section for our classroom blog.  This section is for all students, but is great for GT students needing "extra homework".  I have labeled the section Extension Activities, and it can be found in the right column of the blog.  This section will have extra projects, Writings, and experiments that you can do at home.  You will be able to present your findings, or read you papers to me or the whole class.  Some of these things will be great little activities to even do with the whole family.  Don't think this section of the blog is just extra work.  Think of it as extended learning possibilities and have fun with it.

I'm Ready For Volunteers!

Okay! It's been a long time coming, but I'm finally ready for my volunteers.  My sister introduced me to a website called sign up genius, and I'm going to give it a try.  I have posted LOTS of ways you can volunteer from now until the end of 2013.  In order to sign up for something, just click on the link below, and put your name in the slot that you would like to help with.  Thanks to those who sign up for a job!
I am definitely okay with not having all the slots filled up...like I said, there are LOTS of slots to choose from. Some jobs start this week so make sure you are looking at the dates and times carefully when you sign up.
I would also like some feedback on the website.  If it works well, I would like to know so I can use it again in the spring.  If it is not user friendly and you don't like it, let me know that also...then I will be sure not to use it for sign ups again.

Here is where you sign up:
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C44AEAB23A5F85-hive

P.S.  Remember that if you would like to volunteer in the school, you need to fill out a volunteer application.  This is to keep our students safe.  :)

Hive Helpers....aka Volunteers

Okay...I think I'm ready for my volunteers. This weekend, my job is to make a list of what everyone is willing to help with and get ya workin'! Give me a bit of time to get it all organized, but I have lamination to send home and have cut, I have parents I want to come in and read, the kids are ready to publish their writings, and much more!  I appreciate everyone who has signed up to be a Hive Helper!  Please make sure that you have filled out the appropriate paperwork to enable you to work at the school. I will work on putting a link on this post to get volunteers who are not registered to volunteer ready. Thanks in advance for all your help. I appreciate you all.

Poster Math

Yesterday we has our first poster math lesson. It went very well. Poster math helps with problem solving, gives the kids to discuss and explain why they think the way they do, and also gives them a chance to present their findings. Poster math is something we will do every other Friday. This week we did it with Mrs. King's class, but normally we will be on our own. 

Some students missed our first poster math session....they even missed our matter changing popsicles. 

Please make sure that your child is at school ALL day. We work from 8am all the way to the last five minutes before dismissal. I don't want anyone missing out on the fun we are having!

Popsicles and Changes in Matter.

Sometimes, Mrs. Humphrey opens her big fat mouth as babbles about cool thugs you COULD do to further experiment with a topic. So this week, when I told the class "Popsicles are a great way to show a change in matter, and you could make then in any container to show how a liquid takes the shape of its container....and you can even change it back to a liquid by using heat in your mouth!" 

 Well, the classes response to that was "Can we do it!?" And so we did...

We made apple juice popsicles and we ate them on Friday. Lots of YUMMY fun!  I had so much fun that I'm thinking of making some jello too!  (Don't tell them, it's just a thought. Hahaha) jello is a great way to show how a solid becomes a liquid and then back to a solid, but it look totally different. It also shows that some solids can be poured (as long as the can form a heap like the jello powder would). We do have a cool experiment with dry ice next week. The kids can't wait! Neither can I. ;)

The Human Number Line

Most of you have been told by myself that I hate paper!  Doing things the hands on way is definitely the way I would like to go with everything. Unfortunately, we have to have a way to see what the kids know on their own and use paper to get grades. Uhhg! Grades. Ha!  Anyway, we have been doing lots of hands on things when I can fit it in.  This week we continued to work on comparing numbers. But new for this week was comparing numbers on a number line. What better way to learn a number line than to become one!  We went outside and we each received a numer. The kids job was to put themselves in order as they would see them on te number line. We had lots of fun with this. We used just tens, made a number line of fives, odd numbers, even numbers, lots of different ways. 

We will continue to practice this. Some of them have difficulty when te time line counts by four or if you have to find a number greater than a given number an less than a given number. 

Look At Him Grow!

Look at Mr. Potato Head sprouting parts! We only have a fee more pieces till we are done putting him all together. I told the kids when he was done being put together that we would have a gum party!  I know some of the kids in the class have retainers and such, so I will be sending home a letter regarding some of our special treats. Just to make sure it's okay. If they can't have gum, they will still get a treat....just don't know what it is yet !

Verbs

This week we talked about verbs. Verbs are action words. They are what you do.  I introduce everyone to my good friend Vikcy Verb. Of course , she's likes to DO things with her good friend Nicky Noun. Her favorite thing to do is read a book while ridin on the bus. We all took turns thinking of things Vicky can and would do, and put them on a sticky note and stuck them to her. 

Their favorite thing we did with Vera this week was to act them out. We played "verb charades"!

I have some video of some of the kids lin action!

As a MATTER of fact....

We have been talking about matter in science. The kids were so excited that we finally got to do an experiment...especially after all the talks we had about safety. 

This week we talked about the different states of matter: solids, liquids and gas. 

In ours experiment we talked about the changes water goes through. We took 10   ice cubes and heated them up with a hot plate. We watched the mercury in the thermometer go up and down as the ice changed in states. We melted the ice to the point of boiling and talked about how the steam was a gas. We also talked about the condensation the steam left on the side of the beaker which was another change in matter!

Then we took the experiment a little further. We timed how long it took the ice to melt in the classroom at room temperature, on the hot plate, and then outside. 

We put out findings on a chart in our science interactive journal and then changed the data into a bar graph.....lots of fun!!!!

I have a challenge for all my students who said they don't get enough homework 😱. 

Conduct an experiment at home showing the effect time of day has on the time it takes to fully melt ice. Or, vindictive the experiment in the shade and then in full sun. 

Anyone who dares to take this challenge can bring their findings back to school and present their data to the class. Happy experimenting!

Read For A Better Life

This Wednesday was the start of the CISD celebration called "Read For A Better Life". It's just a way the district emphasizes the importance of reading. Second grade had two special guest readers. 

One was Mr. Uher!  Mr. Uher read Calvin Can't Fly. Our other guest was a Conroe High School Senior Football Player. Who read a book about Eli and Payton Manning called Family Huddle. 

We Enjoyed both stories they read.  

Here are a few pictures I took. 

Mr. Potato Head: positive reinforcement

Look who it is!!! 

Mr. Potato head will be hanging out in our classroom. He doesn't have all his part though. His parts must be earned by the class. 

When the class is complimented, or doing an awesome job at anything, they can earn body parts for Mr. Potato Head. When Mr. Potato Head has all his parts, the class will get a special treat.

Right now we are working on earnig all his parts so that we can have a gum party! 

This is just one of the things I have in place to positively reinforce the kids for there good behavior. 

This is what Mr. Potato head looks like today...

Non-Fiction Text Features

We have spent a while talking about non fiction text features. Today we went on a scavenger hunt for the features in books from the library. These are some of the features we found!

Maps

Labels

There's a caption at the bottom if the page on the right. 

The index is usually found in the back of the book. 

Table of Contents

A photograph of a cat, and also a caption. 

More labels!

A glossary

A timeline

Another map!

Its hard to tell from this picture, but the word hibernate is bolded. 

Apparently everyone wanted to be on the blog, so here's most of the class showing glossaries. 

Today I sent home a study guide for the features of non fiction. Go over them with your child. If you have a book at home, you can do what we did in class. Find as many features as you can!

Place Value

For the past three weeks we have been working on place value and comparing numbers. I showed the students a cool way to find out the expanded form of a number. Expanded form means showing the number in a bigger or longer form (we remember this by the word EXPAND). 

Anyway, when we began to talk about expanded for I gave each of the kids 3 cups. We talked about the place value of ones, tens and hundreds. After doing this, we listed those values on a cup. One cup we used for ones, another one we wrote the value of tens, and lastly hundreds. When we stacked these three cups, we could make numbers. We rotated the cups as if we were making numbers for the pass code to a briefcase or safe. We could make any combination of a number to 999. When we wanted to know the expanded form of that number, we EXPANDED the cups!

Here is an example. 

If we chose the number 952, our cups would look like this. 

Now to see the expanded form: 900+50+2

The kids really liked using the cups, and we're very excited that thy got to make their own cup. The cups were suppose to be sent home today, but we were so busy that I forgot all about it. 

I will be sending the cups home on Monday (if I can remember).  When they come home, please throw a few numbers at your child and see if they can show you the expanded form. By now, your child shouldn't have to use the cups, but it's a great way for them to check to see if they expanded numbers the right way. As an extension, you can add a 1000 place value cup into the mix. See if they can expand even larger numbers!

This week...

Wow! This week was a busy week for me and the kids. For the past two weeks we have been doing beginning of the year testing. Your children were tested on reading, fluency, writing, math and phonemic awareness. I will be sharing my findings during our up coming conferences. If you haven't signed up for a conference please do so. I sent conference sign up papers home on Thursday. 

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Please look in BEE Binders to find a confirmation slip for your scheduled conference. Conferences begin this coming Tuesday. The confirmation slip has a small portion that you will return to me to let me know we are still on for the date you chose. If at anytime you feel the need to cancel your conference, let me know ASAP. This will insure I am not waiting for you, and can plan my day accordingly. 

Thanks in advance!

Watch DOGS Kickoff

I had a blast seeing everyone from class and their dads tonight!  I appreciate all the dads who have signed up to be a watch dog this year. It's a great program, and the kids love seeing you around the school. 

We Remember September 11th

So I went home on September 11th after school and could have kicked myself....

I never got a chance to talk about September 11, and why it was important to our nation. So, on Thursday morning I mentioned it a bit, and the kids were intrigued with the topic. Having to move on after a 20 minute conversation, I told them I would show them pictures on Friday.....(today)

So today after showing them many different pictures of the catastrophe, they really began to ask questions. We spent another 30 minutes on the topic and I had to stop, even though there were some unanswered questions by some of the kids. 

I told them that I would post a few pictures that we looked at on here (the blog) for some conversations about the topic at home. I told them that their parents probably watched it on the news when it happen, and would know all about it.

 I also mentioned that I was in college when it happen. One student responded. "Wow, then you must be really old then!"

It's amazing to think that they weren't even born when this event happen. 

Anyway, here are the pictures I promised them. 

Non Fiction Features

There are certain features/characteristics that many non fiction books have, and we are trying to remember all of them. Genre is a very important skill in second grade. Because of this we have spent the week talking about these features and comparing them to the features of fiction books. 

Today we made our very own posters about Non Fiction features. This poster will be taken home to use as a reference. 

Do you have any non fiction books at home?  See if you and our child can find some of the features we have put on our posters in your books. 

US Symbols

This week in Social Studies we have been talking about US symbols. The ones we focused on were. The Statue of Liberty, The Bald Eagle, The Liberty Bell, The American Flag and National Anthem, and Uncle Sam. As we go over each symbol, we have been making pages of a NON FICTION book. (We have been working on fiction and non fiction features in language Arts). Our books have a title and even a table of contents. The table of contents was filled out all by theirselves! 

Ask your kiddos about these symbols. They should be able to give you a few facts about each of them. 

Cover Up: Comparing Numbers Math Game

Today we played a game in math to practice greater than and less than. The game was called Cover Up.The kids were very familiar with the terms, and had fun comparing numbers in this little game. I sent the game home so that they can practice with an adult. 

Here's how you play:

1. Roll a dice to get a number. 

2. Spin the greater than less than spinner to tell which number you should cover up (according to the spinner and dice). 

3. The winner is the person who gets five in a row (like BINGO). 

Calling all Hive Helpers!

I think I'm at the point where I can use a little help. There are a few things I would like to make for the kids and need a few helpers in the hive. This weekend, I will send an email to those who have said they are willing to volunteer. Thank you in advance to anyone who can help!

The Desk Fairy

I almost couldn't believe it myself....

The Desk Fairy has made a spontaneous visit to our classroom!  I think she stopped by everyone's desk and left them a little note. The kids keep asking me if she was in the classroom at the same time as me, but I told them no. Never saw the fairy in my life...but I do like her. I hope she can get the kids to stay a little more organized. 

One of the kids left their note on the table, so I took a picture.:

Parent Information Night

Thanks to all those who came out to parent information night. I hope I answered any questions you may have had about the " ins and outs" of our class. If haven't answered a question you may have had, please be sure to send me an email or a note. I will answer your questions to my best ability, as fast as I can. Thanks for all you do!

Where's Mr Potato Head

Im thinking about doing a class incentive program which would involve a Mr. Potato Head. Anyone have an old one they can donate?  (He has to have his parts)

Happy Birthday!

Homework

Fluency homework is due tomorrow! I will be collecting the yellow folders to look over the completed homework.  Please make sure you are signing your child's homework assignment page daily. This page is located in the bee binder, behind the last tab. The kids can earn pride bucks just for your signature, so don't let then down. 

PTA

Please don't forget to sign up for the PTA. Membership dues are $9. For every membership out class gets, we get a paw print added to our train car. 

Right now Mrs. Christiansen's class is in the lead with seven paw print!  

Come on Mrs. Humphrey's class....I'm too competitive to let Mrs. Christensen's beat us. We can do it!  Bring your PTA membership dues in ASAP!!!

Only two paw prints so far. We need more! 😕

A Visit to the Library!!

Today we went to the library for the first time this year. As a second grader, your child may check out two books at a time! Please remember these books are borrowed and should be taken care of. 

Something new that the librarian has implemented is to keep library books in a gallon sized bag when placed in yourbackpack. Last year, lots of books were damages due to water bottles and lunches being spilled into backpacks. Hopefully the plastic baggies will help with this. Remember, we want to build our library, not take books away from it. Keep your books safe!! 📚

Nicky Noun

Today we talked about nouns. A noun is a person, place or thing. For this very reason, I introduced my friend Nicky Noun. He loves people, places and thing a whole lot!  His favorite is to take his backpack (thing) to the mall (place) with his best friend Vicky (person). 

Here is a picture of us sticking different examples of nouns on the Nicky Noun poster?  This poster will stay up in our classroom to remind us of what a noun is.