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Second Grade |
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Mrs. Barends
WELCOME TO OUR WEB PAGE!
Flat Stanley Update! A great big thank you to everyone for helping us get off to the most successful start ever with our Flat Stanley postcard project!
\We have already recieved postcards from every continent. (Except for Antarctica, but we are sure that is on the way too!)
\Check out the map to see all the states we have already. We have colored in the state if we have a postcard. In a few cases, you may see a sticky note indicating that a postcard has arrived but we haven't colored the map yet.
\We were very excited to get a package from Wisconsin with cookies and dried cranberries!
\We also got a Flat Stanley back dressed as a gaucho from Chile. along with Thank you to everyone for sending postcards.
Check back from time to time for further updates!
OUR SPECIAL SCHEDULE 2008-2009:
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Read all about last year's class events below for a preview of things to come! You'll get to meet our new class mascot for the 2008-2009 school year in September!
Have you met Splash our class mascot? Splash is a sea turtle who has been traveling with our class since Septemember with members of our class. Splash has his own journal that tells all about his travels. Watch for more about Splash including photos!
Here is Splash at the highest point in Arizona over Labor Day weekend!
Your child will be bringing home a collection of spelling words as they have been introduced in class. (A new list may, or may not, come home weekly depending on the group and the skills we are working on in class. We will indicate it on the assignment sheet when a new list is sent home.) Reinforcing what we have done in class will ensure that these words and the spelling principles they represent are mastered. These activities have been modeled and practiced in school, so your child can teach you how to do them. (You will want to cut out the cards and store them in an envelope or baggie in a safe place so they can be used over and over again until a new list comes home. You may keep old lists to revisit too.) Please choose from these activities and try to include Word Sorts into your homework routine at least 3 days a week: · Remind your child to SORT THE WORDS into categories like the ones we did in school. Your child should read each word aloud during this activity. Ask your child to explain to you why the words are sorted in a particular way- what does the sort reveal about spelling in general? Ask your child to sort them a second time as fast as possible. (SPEED SORT!) You may want to time them. · Do a BLIND SORT with your child. Lay down a word from each category as a header and then read the rest of the words aloud. Your child must indicate where the word goes without seeing it. Lay it down and let your child move it if he or she is wrong. Repeat if your child makes more than one error. · Assist your child doing a WORD HUNT, looking for words in a book they have already read that have the same sound, pattern, or both. Try to find two or three for each category. · Do a WRTING SORT to prepare for the class assessment. As you call out the words in random order your child should write them in categories. Call out any words your child misspells a second or even a third time. In my class, my assessments will include words from the word sort cards, previous lists, as well as, challenge words. (Words that were not included in the word sorts, but follow the same sound pattern.) I will also be looking at skills such as using the proper punctuation marks in the sentences dictated. I have found that by expecting and providing repetitive opportunities to write dictated sentences, the children begin to carry these skills over into their every day writing. I will be assessing the children continuously throughout the year as the children work with word sorts and progress from one spelling stage to the next. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions or concerns about our spelling word sorts or if you come up with other activities that you and your child enjoy doing at home with the word sort cards.
SCHOOL FOLDER DAILY FOR SPECIFIC ASSIGNMENTS &SPECIAL
PROJECTS!
BUSY HAPPENINGS:
Read all about events from last year's class:
You can also preview the beginning of the book on at this site.
We have selected as the first second grade class to work with Mrs. Widdoss on the Kossmann School Newspaper: Fun with Kossmann Kids: All About Our Fun School. We get to be the reporters and interview and write the articles for the newspaper which is only published five times a year. So far we have written our questions and surveys, learned how to use the tape recorders and started to interview teachers. We'll let you know when we have finshed writing our articles and are expecting the paper to go to press.
We have received postcards from every state except: NE,OK, SD, ID, IA, AR, MS, LA, WV, Vt, IN, NH, AL, and WY. We're still hoping to get postcards from every state before the end of the school year in June. We finally got a postcard from Africa, so we have now gotten postcards from every continent!
News Flash! We have received not one, but TWO postcards from Antarctica! We still need one from Africa to complete our goal of getting a postcard from every continent! We also got postcards from Montana, Texas, Minnesota, North Dakota, Maine, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and New Mexico. Keep sending the mail! Please remember to send us postcards from your travels to:
Mrs. Barends' Class Kossmann School 90 Flocktown Road Long Valley, NJ 07853
(old News)
Filming with Dar! Author/Artist Dar Hosta visited our class on Monday, November 19th and made a short video film. She plans to use this video in workshops for teachers. Everyone in the class who wanted to participate had the opportunity to have a speaking part for this special project. We also wrote a poem with Dar about a tree and then we made tree collages. We can't wait to see ourselves on film and to see what she does with our tree poem and collages! Learn more about Dar at: http://www.browndogbooks.com/HOME.html Colonial Day Celebration On Tuesday, November 20th, parents and friends joined our class and Mrs. Young's class for our Colonial Day Celebration.Everyone looked awesome in their "colonial outfits", and we had a terrific time with the many projects. The sock dolls turned out fantastic, and it looks like the hammering of the tin-punch ornaments actually resulted in more nails being hit than fingers! The beaded necklaces that we made in Art with Mrs. Hemberger were strung and admired by all. There were plenty of other activities including: stenciling, quill writing, silhouette tracing, and pot-pinching going on all morning and of course the food sampling was enjoyed by all. A big thank you to everyone who sent in goodies for us to sample. It was a feast! Thank you also to all the parent volunteers and guests for making this day such a big success! Flat Stanley News! Flat Stanley has been very busy and has visited many places since we sent him on his way back in September. We have already received postcards from the following states: New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ohio, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Missouri, Colorado, Oregon, Illinois, Virginia, Hawaii, Nevada, and Washington. That's a great start!
We have also received mail from several countries in Europe and Asia, and even Australia. We got amazing package from down under with lots of information pamphlets and books and even some food from Australia! We all tried the Vegemite and crackers but we loved the Tim Tam biscuits! This was not our first package. Earlier in the year we got a package from Cailfornia with seashells for everyone!
This site designed and maintained by Deb Barends using graphics from Graphic Garden. Click on the link below.
Graphic Garden
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Mrs.
B.'s Class!
WEEKLY HOMEWORK:
