Job well done!

NOTE TO ALL 2nd Grade ADVENTURERS:

Just wanted to say how proud Mrs. Tsengas and I were of all of the students in the Holiday Performance this past week.

You all worked so hard and were so patient during our manyyyyy practices. It still amazes me how you learned those words and languages. Congratulations boys and girls!

P.S. Thank your parents too! I'm sure they heard those songs over and over and over again during these past months. Also, thank them for the delicious cookies and punch they sent in.

Grandpa's Teeth

Each week we enhance our vocabulary by studying various books in our "Text Talk" Series. We try to use these words as much as we can. Then, at the end of each book we have a quiz over the words and add them to our Text Talk word poster. This week, we begin the study of the story Grandpa's Teeth by Rod Clement.

Here is the synopsis of the book:

"Grandpa's teeth, handmade by the finest Swiss craftsman, are gone -- stolen from his bedside table! Grandpa suspects anyone who doesn't smile widely enough to prove that their teeth are their own. Soon everyone in town is smiling -- all the time -- and their ghastly grins are frightening the tourists away. Can the culprit be caught before the whole town cracks up."

Please review the following words at home:

mystery: something that cannot be explained

description: details of what something is like

sleuth: someone who solves mysteries

suspect: to think something is true

complain: to talk about something you don't like

conspiracy: a big secret plan

grave: very serious

Responding to the book of the month

After reading, A Plump and Perky Turkey, we decided to respond to the book by writing letters. In the letters students were told to try to convince the people of Squawk Valley to not eat them. Then, they were to recommend another food besides turkey. They worked so hard and thought of some very creative ideas and suggestions. These letters are going to become a class book that is being sent in to be actually published! Order forms went home yesterday if you'd like to purchase one. Please send them in ASAP as the order is being sent in this week. Enjoy the letters!

Standard Snapshots, Report Cards and Award Ceremony

Report cards were sent home on Friday. Inside of the envelope (That needs to be returned with the small, cut-out blue part of the report card) were 2 pieces of work: One Narrative Writing and One Math Sheet. These are called "Standard Snapshots." It is a way for you to see a sample of a child who is either meeting the standard, or working towards the standard. This is a great tool for you to see where your child is performing compared to what is expected of them. Please take time to discuss these with your child and praise them for the aspects of the standard they have met or need to work towards.

After you have read the report card, please cut out and sign the bottom part. You can the actual report card. Return the bottom portion in the envelope by Wednes. DO NOT lick and close this because we will reuse the envelopes each quarter. Thank you!

Now, TIME TO CELEBRATE! We will have an Award Ceremony on Tues. November, 18th at 2:15 in the classroom. Due to the lack of space, we will have them in our separate classrooms based off your child's homeroom teacher.

Hope to see you there!

Cause and Effect

What happened? Why did it happen? These were the two most common questions of the week flying around our class. We explored cause and effect in the stories we read. The students learned that every effect has a cause and every cause leads to an effect.

First, we read Cookie's Week and saw how Cookie had some pretty bad effects because of her actions. For example, she fell in the toliet (cause) and water went everywhere! (effect)

Later on we watched a DVD reading of the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. The students made their own book with a cause and effect from the story. Ask your child about a cause and effect from this story!

Here is a website full of activities for this book.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Here are websites to practice these newly learned skills. Students very often confuse the two. Remember, the cause is the WHY and the effect is the WHAT.

Cause and Effect practice

Cause and Effect matching

Fall Festival Festivities

Boy did this week sure fly by! The students and I had a very fast and thrilling week of the first 9 week grading period. We were busy with literary pumpkins, our class party, Literacy Character Day, and the Fall Carnival. Sounds like a tough week huh?

We started the week off with decorating our class pumpkin for the Literary Pumpkin Contest. If you are not familiar with this, each class decorates a pumpkin based off of a book. Then, it is sent up with all the other class pumpkins to a huge display in the front of the school. Our class decorated our pumpkin to the book, Mr. Tanen's Ties. In the story, Mr. Tanen wears a tie for every little occasion at school. The students each decorated a tie with their own personal touch. Mr. Tanen was transformed into a pumpkin and you can see the many options of ties he now has thanks to our class!

On Thursday our school celebrated Literacy Character Day. Students were allowed to dress like their favorite character from a book. We had so many creative costumes! They were so excited to explain their costume. Any excuse to dress up at school is always fun right?

Is that a lion in our room? Oh no, just Miss E dressed like Leo from the book Leo the Lion.

We ended our Thursday with a little celebration. Thank you so much for the donations for our party. These fun events are possible because of you!We had cookies, doughnuts, candy, pretzels, goldfish, juice boxes, candy, candy, candy, and I think candy. YUM! We all loved this end of the day pick-me-up.

Thank you again Mrs. S for coming in to help with our party! Kids and candy can be a dangerous combination.

The Fall Carnival was a huge success too. Thank you Mr./Mrs. A for running our class football toss booth. It was so nice to get to chat and visit with parents and students.

When we return back on Monday, we will start the 2nd 9 weeks. Don't forget to check out our new Standard Based Bulletin Board for your child's Narrative Writing. Also, remember that every 9 weeks Mrs. Tsengas and I switch classes. Therefore, if you have me as a homeroom teacher you will now go to Mrs. Tsengas in the morning. See you Monday!

The Wonders of Publishing

Hip Hop Hooray for all our writers! This week the students finished publishing their Narratives, or short personal stories. They have been working SO hard each day in class. Take a look at that dedication!They were so proud to finally have produced amazing true stories about their lives. Students are now familiar with all the parts of the writing process.

1. Prewriting-Free writing, journalling, listing, brainstorming.

2. Drafting-Selecting best ideas, getting the stories down, speed writing, using timelines. This is time to load up on details and write everything they said, felt, thought, remembered, etc.

3. Revising- 'Dressing up' the story, checking sequence, add/delete/move sentences around. During revising, stories often become written all over. They were taught how to 'cut and paste' sentences and how to use numbers to add more details on another page.

4. Editing-'Stain Sticking' the story for punctuation, capitals, and spelling. Students used editing checklists, rubrics and peer edited as well.

5. Publishing-Rewriting our final masterpiece! They get fresh, clean paper and copy over their seed journal onto publishing paper.

Don't forget about the cover page! Students made a cover page that illustrated an important event in their story. What beautiful cover pages they were!

Congratulations again to all authors and illustrators!

Quotation Marks

"Oh my gosh! I heard Miss E is teaching quotation marks." Sarah exclaimed to Doug.
Doug asked, "Well, they are learning how to add details to their writings and Miss E always says to write EVERYTHING."
"There are a lot of rules though," Sarah said,"I think I better practice."

Yes, this is true. This week the boys and girls learned about quotation marks and talking tags. We discussed how quotation marks show readers when a character is talking. The actual words that are spoken need to be surrounded by quotation marks. Also, we learned that talking tags (She said, he stated, Miss Evanko whispered) tells us who/how the person is talking. Learning how and when to use them is so important because it will help them understand stories they read and they will use dialogue more in their writing. As we investigated in books we discovered the rules to using quotation marks. Here are some the rules:

Quotation Mark Rules
-Use a capital letter with the first word when the talking tag is first. She said, “Where are we going?”
-Do not use a capital letter if the quote is first and the talking tag isn’t a proper noun. “Let’s hurry!” she said.
-Do not use a capital letter with the first word if the talking tag interrupts and continues later in the sentence. “I love to go biking?” Tommy told his mom, “can we go now?”
-Use a comma to introduce a quotation after a talking tag.
-Begin a new paragraph each time a new character is talking.
-Put punctuation mark before the quotation mark when ending your sentence.
-Use one set of quotation marks even if the person talking says more than one sentence. “I brought my folder. I thought I left it at home,” I told my teacher.
You do not need quotation marks with indirect quotations. It often begins with the word that. Bob said that he was thirsty.

If you child is confused, don't panic! There are quite a few rules to using this tricky marks. Below is a great site to help them practice looking for where to add quotes, capitals, and commas.

http://edhelper.com/Quotation_Marks.htm

"I'll see you on Monday!" Miss Evanko told all of her Blogger friends.

What an AMAZING Open House!

I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed our Open House tonight! It was such a pleasure to talk and get to know you all better. I appreciate the time you took to come into your child's other world outside of the home. :)

The children were so excited to have you come in as well. Their faces were glowing with pride as I watched them show you their writings. I am so proud of them!

The scavenger hunt was a great way for them to be able to (teach) you a thing or two about school. I loved the way I heard them explaining items in our class. Here are my favorite lines of the night":

• "NO MOM! GET UP! You can't sit in the share chair unless you are sharing your writing."
• " Put the book back in the RIGHT reading level!"
• Miss Evanko says, "Books are great presents....much better than a Wii...laugh laugh.."Well I already HAVE A Wii"
• "DON'T put my stuff in my partner's side of the desk!"

Oh the laughs! They really took ownership of their things and our room!

Thank you for all of your support and help throughout this year. I am grateful for being able to teach such wonderful children.

If you could not attend tonight, or want to view it again, I added the PowerPoint Presentation to this blog under "Class Updates." Enjoy!

Till next time, adios!

We've got the MAIN IDEA in our hands!

Last week we were on the hunt for the "Main Idea" of the stories we read. In class we discussed how the main idea is what the story is all about. It is a few short sentences that summarizes everything we read. If you are familiar with the Hokey Pokey, (Don't lie you know you are starting to hum it), we changed the words to help us with the main idea: The main idea is what it's alllllllllllll about!

The students were taught several strategies for catching this sometimes tricky idea. First, we discovered a trend: The title of a book sometimes tells you the main idea. Example-Arthur's Loose Tooth was about a boy who had a loose tooth and wanted it out. Also, we saw that the pictures and first sentence of a story give you a clue. The students were shocked to find how easy it was to figure out the main idea by using these clues!

Later on in the week, they were taught to catch the main idea with their hands. Students used each finger to answer the WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN and WHY to grab the main idea.

Finally we used a 'thinkmark' (bookmark that requires them to think and write on) to find the Somebody, Wanted, But, So of the story. On this 'thinkmark' they wrote who the Somebody-Character, Wanted-What they wanted but can't do/get, But- the problem, So-What the character did to fix the problem...AKA...the solution!

Ask your child to practice these reading comprehension strategies on the books they read at home. Understanding the main idea will help them understand the purpose of their readings and clarify any confusion they might have had with the story.

Happy reading!

Reading tests and grades

As you may know, each week we take a reading comprehension test. Their score on this test is their reading grade on their report card. There actual reading level (I,J,K) is not a factor. In class we have been learning different test taking strategies that will help them not only with these tests, but with all tests the rest of their lives! I have attached this file for you on the right side of my blog. Please go over these with your child as you discuss their grade each Wednesday night. They should know what you mean if you say things such as: Did you find and underling proof? Use snake fingers? Scramble and number your eggs? Cross off ridiculous and wrong? Match the vowel sound? See the odd man out?

As a reminder EVERY READING NEEDS TO BE SIGNED AND RETURNED BY FRIDAY. THANK YOU!

Also, progress reports and scholarship warnings will be sent home early this week. They are due back on Friday. There has been a change in the grades this year. Language Arts and Spelling are now ONE GRADE!! The weekly quizzes over L.A. skills and Spelling tests are now combined.

Their Reading Grade is only based off of the 2 reading tests so far. Therefore, do not panic if they did not do as well as they liked on one and they have a low grade. We will have many other tests and there is still time to increase their grade.

Let's have another great week! We have the Book Fair to go to and we're beginning to write our first Narrative. Check our Newsletter for our scheduled times and other upcoming events in the class.

Woohoo 2nd Grade!

A Peek into Writers Workshop

We had a blast this week exploring the world around us in Writers Workshop. The students were taught how good writers often use their 5 senses and observe their surroundings to get inspiration for stories. I took the children outside where we got to observe and write about all the things we see on the playground and basketball courts. Students journaled about the many sounds they heard, smells, new sights, and they made connections to what each reminded them of. They did a marvelous job expanding on this writing further on in the week when we discussed how to expand on old writings and find treasure "new writing ideas" from trash "old writings". Their seed journals are really starting to grow. Nice job to all of my young authors!

Our first fabulous full week

We had such an amazing and busy week down in South America! The students have learned the routines of the school and classroom very quickly. Each day we have made new friends and have dived right into Readers and Writers Workshop!

The students were given their very own writing journal this week. As they have been returning to school they have been looking fabulous! We have seen such a wide variety of decorations: Pictures, stickers, book covers, wrapping paper, ribbon... The list goes on and on. Thank you for taking the time to help your child add a personal touch. These will now stay at school for them to journal in everyday.

Another new item students were given this week was their PLANNER. Please check and sign the planner daily. This is a great tool for you to know how your child's behavior was and is so important for our communication. I will write reminders and notes for you and your child. We talk about 'student responsibility' in class and failure to bring your planner to school results in not being able to particpate in Lunch Club on Friday.

The weekly newsletter also went home on Monday with The Connection printed on the back. It is extremely important that you read both so you are informed on what is going on in our classroom/school for the week.

FOLDER UPDATE: We are still in a great need of the 3-prong (duo-tang), 2-pocket, plastic folders in red, green, yellow, and blue. I know how hard it has been this year to find these and I appreciate you continuing to check for them each week. The folders need the 3 prongs in the middle and two pockets for all their papers. We need folders for each child for reading, writing, homework, and math. I have heard a rumor that Office Depot currently has them. Thank you again for your patience and dedication for hunting them down.

Other than the folders, the classroom is really stocked well for the year. The Ticket Tuesday collection is wonderful and Mrs. Tsengas and I appreciate everyone who has brought in their materials and picked up composition notebooks as well. Thank you all very much!

HOMEWORK: You know it's a good sign when each day last week I was asked"When are we starting homework?' Well, it is arriving this week! Your child will bring home their homework folder and inside will be papers for you on the left, and homework in the right. It will be checky twice a week on Wednesday and Friday. Obvioulsy we won't have homework on Monday this week so Tuesday's homework will be checked on Wednesday. On Friday, we will check and discuss Wednes. and Thurs. homework.

The homework is based off of what we are learning in Skills Block and incorporates our weekly spelling words. Please encourage your child to complete their homework with their best effort and discuss and questions they might have with them.


Their spelling words for the week will also be in their folder. We have weekly spelling tests on Friday. A great tool to help them study their spelling is www.spellingcity.com
Directions for the website will be in their Homework folder. Basically you go to 'Find my List', enter my name (Evanko), select the week, and you can play games with our spelling words. I love this site and the children really seem to enjoy it as well. I also listed other helpful sites on the right side of my blog.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your long weekend and feel free to write a note in your child's planner for me or send an email.