Friday, August 17, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Welcome Back 3rd Graders!
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Winding Down
Can you believe the school year is almost over? Where did the time go? Second grade was such a marvelous and exciting year and Mrs. Tsengas and myself are so proud of each student. Hard work, dedication, and perseverance were some of the key qualities this class possesses. Before we unleash the children back to you for the summer, there are a few reminders of upcoming events/house keeping. *tear*tear*
*Flag retirement ceremony is Friday. Please wear your Chets Creek t-shirt
*Return ALL LIBRARY books from our school and classroom
*Pictures must be paid for or returned in order to collect your child's report card. *Our Award Ceremony is on Tues., June 5 at 9:15. Field Day will follow in the afternoon.
* The last day in Thurs. and is a half day. Make sure you are aware of your child's transportation arrangement indicated on the "End of Year" sheet.
We hope you enjoy the last 2 weeks of second grade. You have made our year wonderfully outstanding already!
Friday, April 6, 2012
Tomie dePaola
This week we have begun studying Tomie dePaola. He is an extremely well known author/illustrator of children's books. He's been publishing books for over 40 years and has written and/or illustrated nearly 250 books! Over 15 million copies of his books have sold all over the world.
During our study, we will be completing an attribute chart on each of his stories. We will keep track of each stories theme, genre, characters, setting, plot, movement through time, and special author's crafts. This is a great way for students to see the connections between stories and learn how to analyze books.
We will also be writing a response to one of Tomie's stories. This response will include a summary, theme, claim, compare/contrast, and connection paragraph. Students will learn how to use specific evidence from the story to support each of their paragraphs.
I can't wait to dive into more of his stories during the next few weeks. Feel free to browse and learn a bit more about Tomie below. Also, check out your local library for some Tomie books!
Tomie Website
Book Summaries
During our study, we will be completing an attribute chart on each of his stories. We will keep track of each stories theme, genre, characters, setting, plot, movement through time, and special author's crafts. This is a great way for students to see the connections between stories and learn how to analyze books.
We will also be writing a response to one of Tomie's stories. This response will include a summary, theme, claim, compare/contrast, and connection paragraph. Students will learn how to use specific evidence from the story to support each of their paragraphs.
I can't wait to dive into more of his stories during the next few weeks. Feel free to browse and learn a bit more about Tomie below. Also, check out your local library for some Tomie books!
Tomie Website
Book Summaries
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Homophones, homonyms, and homographs...OH MY!
We are not in the land of Oz anymore. Last week we have been talking about common homophones, homonyms, and homographs. Students have learned to use context clues and read after the word to understand which meaning is used. Wait, wait, wait...what is the difference you might ask?
HOMO ("same") + PHONE ("sound")
HOMO ("same") + GRAPH ("writing")
Homophones -Homophones are words that sound alike, but have different meanings and spellings. Examples of common homophones include:
their and there
deer and dear
hear and here
to, too, and two
Homographs- Homographs are words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings and may have different pronunciations.
Examples:
does and does.-He does like to run. Does are female deer.
wind and wind. -She has to wind up her toy. She flew a kite in the wind.
Homonyms-Words that are spelled the same and pronounced the same, but have different meanings.
Example:
Can-Can I help you? Give me the can of beans.
PHEW! That is quite a bit to take in! Now, the fun part......
Pick the WRITE-RIGHT homophone
Homophone quiz
Witch-which word test
Homophone Jeopardy
This site has matching, word building, and memory. Go to homonyms or try old skills!
Games
HOMO ("same") + PHONE ("sound")
HOMO ("same") + GRAPH ("writing")
Homophones -Homophones are words that sound alike, but have different meanings and spellings. Examples of common homophones include:
their and there
deer and dear
hear and here
to, too, and two
Homographs- Homographs are words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings and may have different pronunciations.
Examples:
does and does.-He does like to run. Does are female deer.
wind and wind. -She has to wind up her toy. She flew a kite in the wind.
Homonyms-Words that are spelled the same and pronounced the same, but have different meanings.
Example:
Can-Can I help you? Give me the can of beans.
PHEW! That is quite a bit to take in! Now, the fun part......
Pick the WRITE-RIGHT homophone
Homophone quiz
Witch-which word test
Homophone Jeopardy
This site has matching, word building, and memory. Go to homonyms or try old skills!
Games
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Report Writing Super Stars
Have you heard there are a bunch of animals running all over the class? Well this is quite true as we have begun doing our animal reports. I'm not 'lion'!
We have leaped right back into learning here in our classroom.
We have leaped right back into learning here in our classroom. We began studying Non-fiction Reading and Writing. First, the students brainstormed possible topics they were interested in. After this, I went to the Media Center to retrieve books for them to research with. However, some books were not long enough to gather enough details to write a report. As a result, we discussed other ways besides reading books to learn information on their topic. One way is to visit the Internet. 
Here are some websites I have found that your child can go to and print out information for their animal.
Also, you can always visit other libraries to find more books. The Pablo Creek Library here in Jacksonville is wonderful. It is right down the road from Walmart on Beach Blvd. You can check out the magazines and books they have to choose from for free!
Happy hunting!
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Being the best you can be- Doing the extra practice
This week we have been discussing the importance of responsibility and motivation. As the 3rd grading period is almost half way done, students will soon be off to 3rd grade.
In each grade they will continued to be challenged and their minds will be stretched as this is when students make the most discoveries about learning AND themselves. We want students to be proud of themselves, set goals, hold high self-worth, and be self-motivated. This was shown as several students have already gone above and beyond to practice skills at home and by using games on the blog. Students were shown another fabulous site to assist with spelling in class.
In each grade they will continued to be challenged and their minds will be stretched as this is when students make the most discoveries about learning AND themselves. We want students to be proud of themselves, set goals, hold high self-worth, and be self-motivated. This was shown as several students have already gone above and beyond to practice skills at home and by using games on the blog. Students were shown another fabulous site to assist with spelling in class.Spelling City- You can enter your spelling list, take a test, be taught the word/meaning, or play a game. Print off your practice and earn CLASS BUCKS!
Destination Succes-Reading, Lang. Arts, and Math practice! The password/username is the same as their student log-on in their planner.
I have been so proud of all the improvements I have seen in class with each student. You all have done an amazing job and have grown so much already this year. Bravo and keep reaching for your goals!
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