dressel

September 28, 2007

Can't believe we are already entering the month of October!!!  Speaking of October, next week is the last week to work on learning play parts.  We will start practicing the play during the second week of October.  At that time your dragon must know their parts, as we will work on scenes and when to enter.  Thanks again for your help.  See you on October 24th at 8:30am.

Weren't the school pictures well done?  They are the best that I have seen.  If you are interested in a retake, these will take place next Thursday.

Please remember that the Octoberfest will take place next Saturday.  Thank you to Mrs. Newhouse for the pumpkin decorating.  Wait until you see it....so cute.  You will have an opportunity to bid on pumpkins at the Octoberfest.  Also, each teacher will be auctioning off an event.  Second grade is going bowling in January.  It will be the first Friday in January when we come back from Winter Holidays.  We have so much fun at this event, so hope that you will bid on it.

Next week in math I hope to finish unit 4.  This unit is full of strategies to use in addition.  The children are learning about the associative, commutative, and identity properties.  Our timed tests will be on +7's.  Soon we will be taking the 7 minute 100 problem addition test.  Students must get 90 problems out of 100 to pass.  Keep studying those addition facts. 

We will read about Christopher Columbus next week, and make connections to fact and opinion and subject and predicate in English.  On our contracts the children are now expected to answer comprehension questions in sentences.   

We have been busy in social studies learning about maps and landforms and will soon move these skills into a study of communities. 

Hope that your weekend is merry.                                  Linda

Number Grids

As you can see, we have been very busy constructing individual number grids.  We brought these home to hang so that the children could use them for addition and subtraction homework. The basic knowledge of the placement and value of numbers is important for all, so hope that your dragon is enjoying the use of their grid.

Happy Numbering!!!   Linda                                                 

September 20, 2007

Thank you so much for the huge response at our Card Party on Wednesday.  Your presence meant alot to the children.  Hopefully, you are having fun playing the new games at home.  We will have some homework card playing soon!!!

Did you get your dragon's play part on Thursday?  We highlighted parts in class and talked about costumes.  Please save the date and help your child learn their part.  We will only have time to practice 4 times in class, so your help is essential.

Next week we will continue our study of maps and landforms in class.  Our Flat Stanley letters were mailed today, so we look forward to our response.  In math we will test out of unit 3 and start unit 4 next week.  In reading and English we will learn about fact and opinion and subject and predicates!!! 

Thank you to Mrs. Newhouse for taking on the challenge of decorating our class pumpkin for the auction at the Octoberfest on October 6th.  Hope to see you there. 

I think that I have an opening for story parent on September 28th.  If you can read from 1:30-2:00 that day, please let me know. 

Have a great weekend.                                             Linda Dressel

Great idea!!!!!!!!!

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September 14, 2007

It's Friday!!!

We had fun this week finishing our matter unit.  The test on this unit is the making of a flap book, which the children will bring home today.  It is due next Wednesday.  The instructions are with it as is the matter booklet, which all of our material on matter came out of. 

Next week we will begin a social studies unit on maps and landforms.  The unit begins with the reading of a story called Flat Stanley. You may have heard of him?????  Anyway, each child will be asked to bring to school an envelope with a stamp attached.  This envelope should be addressed to a friend or relative who your child can mail a letter to.  We will be asking them to answer our letter and to include a photo of themself with Flat Stanley at an interesting place in their town.  Our goal is to get letters from different places around the world.  We will chart these on a hall bulletin board. 

In math we will finish our unit on graphs and surveys.  Our test will be a week from Monday.  Our timed tests will be on +5's.

Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea will be our story of the week.  We will write about him and use the story to learn about verbs.

Hope that you are planning to come to our Card Party?  The children are practicing the card games to teach you.  I know these will help with the learning of math facts. 

See you Wednesday.               Linda              

September 7, 2007

Happy Friday!!!

We had a great inschool field trip this week which complimented our matter unit in science.  I hope that the children told you about the fun ways they learned to measure and describe matter.

Our class is still in need of a Foundation Representative.  It really is not a difficult job.  The main purpose is to help collect items for our basket in the spring.  This will be auctioned off at the Fun Run.  Last year, we chose a theme and then the rep and I came up with 20 ideas for the basket.  She then emailed the parents in the class and gave them these choices for donations.  Anyway, if one or two of you are interested, please let me know.

  We had great improvement in our classroom behavior this week.  So many students were able to choose their seats on Thursday.  This as you have heard is available for any dragon who has not lost a peg all week!!!!!! It took forever, but was worth it.  We did have an upsetting event occur on Thursday, which you need to be aware of.  Snacks and candy have disappeared.  Even my donut!!!! We have had a class meeting and hopefully have resolved this issue.  I will let you know.

Next week we will test out of math unit 2 and begin unit 3. It happens to be on bar graphs and Venn Diagrams.  This will coincide nicely with our language arts units on comparing and contrasting while using Venn Diagrams.  Our timed tests will be on +4's.  These are getting harder and need more work.  We are beginning to use card games to practice our math facts.  We will soon invite you to our class to learn them too, so you can help your dragon!!!  Save the date...September 19th.

We will continue to use the computer lab on Mondays, so make sure that your child's Accelerated Reading List is up to date.  Also, our library visits will always, we hope, be on Tuesdays. 

Thank you to my helper parents this week... YOU were wonderful.

Have a fun weekend and read.  Logs for August and September are due on September 28th.

Linda Dressel