We are finishing up our ART MASTER rotations this week! The kids have produced some AMAZING art and learned about famous artists!
The kids have been practicing their reader's theater plays in class, and will be performing on Wednesday the 15th at 11:45 in the auditorium! The kids are completely in charge of making it all come together, and they are having a blast with it! We hope you all can make it!
State testing is over, I am so proud of the kiddos and all of their hard work.
Homework will resume on Monday the 13th as well as spelling.
Updates
Tomorrow is EXTENDED DAY! Awards assembly:12:00-12:30 Lunch:12:30-1:00
CST testing is from May 1st-May 8th. Please make sure your child has a nutritious breakfast, and is well rested. We will be testing first thing in the morning. Good news for my devoted parent helpers, you get the week off! Testing regulations mandate that only certificated personnel be present during testing! We will get back on track the week of May 13th!
After April’s homework packet there will be NO HOMEWORK until the week of May 13th. Spelling and Journals will not be required during testing either.
Multicultural Day: We will be rotating through the classes on May 3rd at 11:00 to learn a little about different cultures!
Mrs. Burris: France
Mrs. Perkins: Hawaii
Mrs. Vecchio: Mexico
Ms. Casey: China
We are starting reader's theater and will be performing for you on May 13th. More details to come soon!
FUN!
We had so much fun during our FOSSIL DAY! The kids loved becoming paleontologists for a day. I took many pictures and video.
Oral presentations have started! Please make sure your child is ready to present on their assigned day.
Monday: Aaron, Isai, Spencer F., Ashley G., Nicholas
Tuesday: Cassandra, Griffin, Hannah, Emily
Wednesday: Phoebie, Cana, Maile, Jakin, Ashley P.
Thursday:Spencer P., Riley, Chris, Denise, Haylie, Jacob
Please send in your child's interview (from the homework packet) as soon as they finish it so we can begin working on our project.
Leadership theme: Ingenuity
Welcome Back!
It is so nice to be back! I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Spring Break. Please don't forget that we have conferences this week! Email me if you need a reminder of your day/time. Check out the photo section, I put up some new pictures. Also, spelling words are under the homework section (scroll down).
Now Learning:
Math: Multiplication
Science: Frog Life Cycle/ All About Frogs
Writing: Narratives
Reading: Revisiting our reading strategies: visualization, determining important information, asking questions, summarizing, schema etc.
Social Studies: Continents
Wohoo!
The kiddos were dissapointed last week when I asked them what portion of a Hershey's bar they would like. Most of them said 1/12. I'm happy to say that they learned a lot about fractions as they ALL asked for either 1/1 or 12/12!
Don't forget that tomorrow is our READING DAY and the kids get to wear their pajamas! Only 2nd grade wears pajamas on Wednesday.
A yellow conference slip went home in your child's backpack on Monday.
Wonderful Week!
We have completed our writing assessments, I am very happy with how they turned out! Conferences will be held after Spring Break on the 26th, 27th, and 28th. I will be sending out your conference time shortly. I'm so proud of how far the kiddos have come and how hard they are working!! We will be taking our last NWEA test today and we will be going over their results during conferences. Please do not forget that extended day is on Thursday! All second grade kids will be participating in "Reading Day" on Wednesday the 6th. We will be having so many fun reading activities, rotations, and special visitors! More information to come soon!
Let’s Have a Whale of a Time!!!
We know you are as excited as we are about our upcoming trip on Thursday, February 21st.
Here is some important information you will need to know about our trip:
? Please have your child at the school by 6:30 AM. We need to beat the morning traffic to
make sure we reach our chartered boat on time. We will not hold the bus for any reason,
so please be there on time. Your child must ride the bus to Long Beach to be admitted
onto the boat.
? Please put sunscreen on your children before you send them to school. Please dress
your child in layers for the trip with their field trip tshirts
(blue ILCS shirt).
? Make sure your child has a sack lunch with their name on it and their teacher’s name.
? Please make sure your child has a backpack for their belongings. It must be light enough
for them to carry the entire day. Teachers and chaperones will not carry extra items.
Please DO NOT include any electronics in your child’s belongings. Cell phone rules still
apply during the trip.
Chaperones:
? There will be limited room on the bus for transportation to the facility. Please plan on
carpooling or talk to your child’s teacher if you would like to ride the bus. If you are
carpooling, please follow the bus to make sure that you arrive before the bus arrives. We
want to make sure we can get on the boat on time. There will be a parking fee at the
facility. In the past, the aquarium gives a discounted parking rate. You pay CASH when
you leave the facility.
? You will be responsible for a group of children for the trip. Please bring a lunch for
yourself as well since you will be expected to remain with your group of children during
the entire trip.
? You will be able to check your child out at the conclusion of the trip. There will be a strict
procedure for checking children out, though. We will be loading all of the students onto
the bus first. Afterwards, your child’s teacher may check the student out to you. This
may take 15 to 20 minutes, so please be prepared for this process, if you wish to check out
your child. Please understand this procedure is for your child’s safety. Thank you for
bearing with us during this process. Please let your child’s teacher know if you will be
checking out your child, so they can prepare a list to make the process go as smoothly
as possible.
We will be returning to school by 6:30 at the latest. We will keep you informed by School Reach
if we return much earlier or later. Thank you for helping us with this process.
I know I sent home the prestest on Friday for spelling, but with everything we have going on
NO SPELLING TEST THIS WEEK
2nd Grade News!
Field trip: If you had paid in full by February 12th, consider yourself going on the trip! Unfortunately, no additional chaperones can be added due to space.
Valentine's Day: We will be having a Valentine themed learning day. The students will be given time to pass out valentines and complete other fun activities!
Whale Week: We are learning all about whales as we are getting ready (and excited) for our field trip! We have researched real lengths of whales and used chalk to draw them out, read books, taken notes, watched a whale video, and will be completing writing, and other culminating activities after our field trip!
Fractions: Today we did a really fun opening activity for our unit on fractions where the kids got to choose the fraction of candy bar they wanted(1/2, 1/4, 1/1, 1/12). A majority of the class was sad to find out that they only received one little piece of chocolate (1/12) instead of the whole bar (1/1). We will do this activity again at the end of our fraction unit and hopefully they will have learned their lesson haha.
Lincoln: We had a WONDERFUL guest speaker today (thank you Spencer) who presented so many interesting facts and stories about Abraham Lincoln! The kids were so excited to relate what we had been learning in class to all the new and interesting information!
NWEA: We are completing testing this week and next. The results will be shared with you during conferences coming up in March!
Pictures soon to come under "photo" section!
NO SCHOOL MONDAY the 18th
Hi!
I have sent home permission slips for the whale watching field trip. So far, I have five parents interested in chaperoning. We will be having a fun learning day for Valentine's Day with more information soon to come!
NOW LEARNING:
Math: Time to the five minutes, elapsed time, time after the hour, and time before the hour
Social Studies: Abraham Lincoln and George Washington
Science: Motion
Language Arts: Determining important information from reading to then use as key ideas in writing
Writing: Persuasive writing, creating better topic sentences, organization of paragraphs (topic sentence, key idea, 2 details, key idea, 2 details, key idea, 2 details, conclusion), and using better transitions besides "first, then, and last"
Field Trip
Tomorrow, the kids will arrive back at school at 1:45.
I will be giving chaperones a detailed information sheet with times, and addresses. Please come school and follow the bus. We will be leaving approximately at 8:15. Our fieldtrip begins at the "Day Creek Park" (12350 Banyan st. Rancho Cucamonga, CA). We are planning on arriving around 9:15. There, we will eat our sack lunches and have a short play time. Then, we will continue on to the Lewis Family Playhouse in Rancho Cucamonga (12505 Cultural Center Dr. Rancho Cucamonga CA).
1/28 Reminders
*Our fieldtrip is this Wednesday. Please remember to have your child dress in nice clothes for the play.
*Thursday is extended day! Please turn in pizza money if neccessary.
*Let me or Mrs. Hensley know if you are interested in attending the GALA.
*Spelling words are up in the homework section.
1/15/13
Parents, if you plan on going on the fieldtrip, I will need $7.50 (check made out to ILCS or cash) as soon as possible. The KIDS DO NOT HAVE TO PAY (their tickets have been paid for by dollar a day).
Gala: There is an ILCS foundation gala coming up in February. Each class is responsible for selling at least five tickets for the event. The winning class gets a prize for selling the most tickets. Please see Mrs. Hensley about purchasing tickets for the event.
1/10/13
Please look for permission slips and fieldtrip information in your child's backpack today. Please sign and return as soon as possible! THANKS! Also, our computer day is on Thursday; please encourage your child to be ready to take AR quizes on Thursdays. My goal is to have ALL students take at least one quiz in the computer lab.
1/8/13 Welcome Back!
I hope you all had an enjoyable break! THANK YOU for all the wonderful, thoughtful Christmas gifts. I felt so loved!!! We had such a great start to the week!
Now Learning:
Social Studies: Martin Luther King Jr.
Science: Position of objects and motion
Math: Reviewing subtraction with borrowing and starting measurement
Writing: "Step up to Writing" program-learning to write strong topic sentences, comparing and contrasting the components in narrative vs. expository writing.
Leadership: Self-Control
12/11 Upcoming Events!
Craft Fair: December 14th 2-6 p.m.
We will be selling our cute crafts to raise money for our classroom (there will be a variety of crafts for sale perfect for Christmas presents).
Holiday Performance: December 18th in the Cubs' Den (BSC) 6:00-6:30 p.m.
You don't want to miss this! The kids have been practicing and will be absolutely adorable!
Grandparent's Day: December 19th in the Lions' Den at 10:15 a.m.
Come watch our holiday performance, then join us in the classroom for a quick craft!
Extended Day/ Christmas Party: December 20th
11/26 Welcome Back
I hope you all had an enjoyable and relaxing Thanksgiving! I have introduced the "Super Improver Wall" to the kids. They each have specific goals that we have discussed about how they can improve (use more adjectives in their writing, work on penmanship, explain their answers during math etc.) Once they get 10 stamps, they get to move up a level!
With trimester two beginning, we have started literacy and math centers to better target your child's academic needs.We have also started goals for Accelerated Reader. Each child has their own goal they are striving for based on their reading level.
Speaking of reading, the BOOK FAIR is here! We have visited the book fair and the kids wrote down their wishlist. The book fair is open after school to purchase books. I will be sending home a catalog. If you choose to purchase at home please help our school by going on scholastic.com/fair and entering our school before you purchase.
Just a reminder that this Thursday is Extended Day!
11/12 FUN Things
Check out some of our new pictures (I'm still working on the formatting, sorry they are a bit small).
I look forward to meeting you all next week! I will be sending home a little reminder with your child on Tuesday.
Thank you to all the wonderful parents who donated items and helped out at the Fall Festival, in the rain!! I saw some pretty cool painted faces as I walked around!
On Friday, we will be reserving the last 45 minutes of class to allow students to (use our new microphone) and say what they are grateful for. Gratefulness is our leadership theme this month, and with Thanksgiving coming up this is the perfect opportunity for the kiddos to think about all they have to be grateful for. They may bring something in like a picture of their family, a paragraph, or a homemade picture to help them remember what to say. I will bring in some pies and we will celebrate. You are more than welcome to come, just let me know so I can get enough pie!
10/31 Conferences
Below you will find the day and time that I have scheduled you for your conference. If you cannot make the time assigned, please let me know as soon as possible (rcase002@gmail.com). I tried to coordinate conference times with other siblings' (let me know if I did not).
November 13th Tuesday
1:20-1:40: Chris Reed
1:50-2:10: Ashley Parent
2:10-2:30: Nicholas Hensley
3:00-3:20: Spencer Payne
November 14th Wednesday
1:20-1:40: Jacob Sepulveda
1:40-2:00: Griffin Hutcheson
2:00-2:20: Phoebie Miller
2:20-2:40: Aaron Brown
2:40-3:00: Isai Cobos
3:00-3:20: Robby Massongill
November 15th Thursday
7:20-7:40: Haylie Sanchez
1:20-1:40: Jakin Norio
1:40-2:00: Spencer Fielder
2:00-2:20: Ashley Groth
2:20-2:40: Cassy Hermosillo
3:00-3:20: Emily McDonnell
November 16th Friday
1:20-1:40: Riley Gill
1:40-2:00: Denise Sainz
2:00-2:20: Hannah Leach
2:20-2:40: Cana Neal
2:40-3:00: Maile Nixon
10/30 FUN
We has so much fun on our feildtrip yesterday, I will be uploading photos soon!
We are having our "fun learning" day tomorrow, don't forget to send the kiddos in their pajamas!
The canned food drive has begun, if you can donate it would be much appreciated.
We will not be having a journal entry this week.
Thank you to ALL the parents who donated items for our learning day tomorrow and to our WONDERFUL room mom, Amaly, for putting this all together!
We are currently working on:
-The reading strategy inference
-Fossils
-Spiders
-Friendly letters
-Rules for plural and singular nouns
-Money
10/23 A Few Notes
This month has gone by so fast! We have had a lot of fun learning!
-Extended Day this Thursday!
-We will be making a class quilt on Wednesday
-Pajama day is on the 31st (no costumes)
-Our fieldtrip is on the 29th (Monday), I'm still waiting on three permission slips
-Conferences are the week of November 13th (No school on the 12th)
-A conference schedule will come out shortly, please let me know if you need to reschedule your given time (we tried to schedule siblings together).
Community Service Opportunity
Brunch for a Cause
Oct 22nd at 9:00 at Amaly Hensley’s House
They will discuss how you can be involved in this years 2nd annual Nicholas Knights and earn community service hours for a lifesaving cause!
Please contact Amaly Hensley (our room parent) for more information.
10/15 Changes
Happy Monday! Just a heads up, we took our NWEA test part 1 today, we take part 2 on Wednesday, and part 3 on the following Monday.
Spanish has been switched to Fridays at 10:15-10:55.
Math tests will come home tomorrow on plane shapes, and nobody tested out of our next chapter Solid Figures (they have to identify faces, vertices, and edges).
New spelling words are up under homework.
Please turn in permission slips for the fieldtrip ASAP.
A few cool things to ask your child about:
Symmetry Monsters, chalk designs, shape walk
Our story we are writing as a class (as a part of leadership)
Ask them to tell you what they know about visualization
10/9 Important
The match code is no longer "impact", this week only, the match code is PUMPKIN. This code will double all donations made for our field trip.
We just took our post test on comparing numbers, so those should be coming home tomorrow. We also took a pretest on plane shapes and one student (#15) tested out.
Please don't do homework assignments from the calendar if we have not gone over it yet in class (i.e. Native American story, solid shape hunt, etc.).
Please remember to bring in box tops so we can fill our rocket!
10/3 Whale Watching and Dollar a Day
We would like to take our BIG field trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific and go on a boat whale-watching with Harbor Breeze Cruises. Last year the 2nd grade classes raised the money to go and it was a fantastic trip. Mrs. Vecchio (is awesome) and wrote a grant to help fund our trip! We are aiming to get the field trip funded as soon as possible, so we can book our trip in February. The grant is posted on donorschoose.org. This is an organization that helps teachers get big projects funded. They are a nonprofit organization, so all donations are tax deductible. We have had complete strangers give to our grants because the organization receives thousands of donations and is promoted on many news programs. I will be sending home a letter with more information tomorrow.
ILCS has decided to forgo traditional fundraising this year. They are working with the Dollar a Day Fundraising Campaign. They would like each family at ILCS to give a dollar a day to support your child’s education. ILCS will no longer ask you to pay a donation for field trips and other school activities with this money (if enough money is raised). Any additional money we will receive will go toward field trips and classroom materials. Your child will not be asked to do fundraisers outside of this Dollar a Day Campaign. Here is the link for the Dollar a Day Campaign: http://www.inlandleaders.com/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=183022&type=d
10/1 Thank You!!
I just want to thank ALL the parents! Thank you for my belated birthday card and gift, I was so touched! Also, I’d like to give big thank you to Mrs. Hensley and a few of our room parents for putting together our AWESOME box top container (It's a really cool rocket), stop by and see!
Teamwork is our new leadership theme.
**I forgot to highlight the last box on the homework calendar labeled October poem! This is a required activity!
Please bring in box tops and Fresh n’ Easy receipts.
9/24 FUN
Let me just say I am having a blast with the kiddos; they make me laugh! We have a few important reminders. If your child has not turned in the family tree (list of names) they need to do so. They will be working on their family trees with Mrs. Vecchio on Wednesday during Social Studies time.
Thursday is extended day.
I told the kids that if they would like to start bringing in their homework creations to share at the end of the day, they may (pet rocks, raps, writing, etc).
We started our timed tests. As the children pass their timed tests they will be earning toppings for our ice cream party at the endJ I will send it home if they don’t pass to practice.
In math, we are working on place value. Today, we did a fun activity where the kids got to write a number in expanded form four different ways.
In writing, we just finished “My Everyday Hero” writing (they came out REALLY great). Fall is here (my favorite season)! We are now working on our Fall poems.
We are diving into solids, liquids, and gases for Science and then will be moving onto learning all about rocks! The kids have been asking if they may bring a rock in and they may. I just ask that if you expect the rock back, please put a label of some sort with your child’s name on it (We won’t start this for another week and a half).
We are learning about Johnny Appleseed in Social Studies as well as ancestors and family trees.
A BIG THANK YOU to the parents who have volunteered!
THANKS!
9/12 A Few Things
I apologize if you tried to get on my website the past couple days and have been unable to! Everything should be fixed:) It would really help me if you could send me an email so that your email address is easily accessible for me. Also, if I have not been in recent contact with you through email I would love to give you a personal update with how your child is doing. I should get back to you relatively soon after I receive your email. Thank You! rcase002@gmail.com
9/10 Volunteer Schedule
Here is a VERY ROUGH volunteer schedule. Some papers I received did not have names, so I did not leave you out on purpose! Please let me know if you don't find your name on the schedule, you need a different time than what is currently shown, or you have any other concerns. Thanks! :)
9/2 Scootpad!
Hope you are all enjoying the long weekend! Scootpad is up and running! Check out my educational links tab and find out your child's username and password :) I will be sending home a card with all their login information in their homework folders! We will have some time on Tuesday to explore the site in computer lab!
8/29 A Few Reminders
Volunteers: I will be sending out a Parent Volunteer Master Schedule next week. We will not officially be able to have parents in the classroom until September 17th (due to Megan’s Law clearance). I am so excited about the number of parents interested in helping in and out of our classroom!!
Homework: Homework will start next week Sept.4th (No school on Monday). I am excited to see how the kids (and parents) like the calendar and I would love feedback! I know it will be meaningful AND fun!
Extended Day: The kids will have lunch from 12:00-12:45 and we will have an assembly to discuss our leadership theme "orderliness" from 1:00-1:45. Then the students will rotate from teacher to teacher to learn more about orderliness. Pick up is at 3:00.
Thursday is our Spanish day (10:15-10:55)
Extended Day
What a great first week!! Just a reminder that extended day is next Thursday. Pizza will be served. Pizza is 27 dollars for the whole year (you can turn in a check), and it fast tracks the kids through the pizza line. If not, they can bring their lunch.
8/20 First Day of School
We had such a wonderful first day back to school:) I can tell this is going to be a great year! Thank you for sending your child to school ready with their supplies; they are so eager to use them:) Also, I was overwhelmed with your generosity with all of the supplies donated to our classroom! THANK YOU!
Your child should have a folder in their backpack with important documents that need to be returned as soon as possible. Please turn in the documents TO ME that are coming home in the first day packet.
On back to school night, you will receive a more personalized packet for our class where there will be 3 other documents needing to be filled out and returned. Back to school night is on Thursday at 5:30 pm in the auditorium. Following that, you may join me in our classroom at either 6:00 pm or 6:30 pm.
Welcome to Miss Casey's Class! We have a fun and exciting year ahead of us. Please be sure to check this website regularly for updates, homework and class information.