The Toucan Squawk, Jan. 31st - Feb. 4th

Hello families, I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! 

The students are taking home a lunch ticket for Wednesday's half day.  Please fill it out accordingly, and return it by tomorrow.  This way, the cafeteria staff will know how many lunches they will need to make. 

The students are also taking home a pink piece of paper tomorrow regarding Gliteracy.  It's an all-morning event put on by Title I for the 1st and 2nd grade classes on Feb. 11th, which is next Friday.  This year, the students will be making a valentine's card in our room, and then circulate to the other 2nd grade classes to make other valentine's day related crafts.  If at all possible, please consider volunteering to assist with our class for that morning- it will be a great help, as you will move with the class to the other three classes and assist there as necessary.  It should prove to be a fun day for all of the students!

The students are reading a retold edition of the play, The Bremen Town Musicians, by the Brothers Grimm.  For the rest of the week, the students will be reading the story with partners.  We will then "put the play on" for the rest of the class.  The students have also been reading leveled readers from the reading series.  These readers are leveled by A.R. levels, and allow the students to read a story, not only based on their level, but also structered with comprehension questions and concepts.  Concepts such as how to read dialogue, how to read a play, and identifying the plot and other story skills are included in these readers.  They have proven to be good reads for the students are read in the levels available.  For the students who do not read within the available levels, I've been having them read either read a chapter book or a picture book within their level.

In math, the students have been working on telling time on analog and digital clocks.  This week, the students will be working on the language of telling time- for example, half past 8, quarter till 3, etc.  This can prove to a tough concept, because now the students are having to switch gears in terms of reading a clock the way it needs to be read.  Next week, the students will be working on understanding and creating graphs.  They are definietly ready for this concept, as they have seen it for the past few months in their daily Morning Work. 

Two weeks ago a yellow letter was sent home regarding setting up conferences.  As a reminder, these conferences are set up between the parent and the teacher based on academic and/or behavioral needs.  If you feel the need for a conference, please contact me as soon as possible so we can set one up.  It may not be on Wednesday the 2nd, but we can most definietly set one up based on our schedules.

Spelling Words

1. act
2. bake
3. cover
4. kind
5. like
6. luck
7. music
8. sick
9. wake
10. work

School News
Parent/Teacher Conferences     Feb. 2nd, early release at 10:45
Gliteracy                                  The morning of Feb. 11th
President's Weekend                Feb. 18th - Feb. 21st, no school

Birthdays
Shaylee     Feb. 9th
Frankie     Feb. 28th

Have a great week!

Elizabeth Townsend
Second Grade
Pueblo del Sol Elementary School
elizabeth.townsend@svps.k12.az.us
515-2970

Donations for Nurse's office

Throughout the year, there are plenty of falls and other accidents, and other clothing needs which require clothing to be replaced.  Because of this, we are asking for clothing and shoe dontations for the school nurse.  Clothing should be in wearable condition.  Any and all donations are always welcomed and much appreciated.  Thank you for your consideration! 

The Toucan Squawk, January 25th

Hello families!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  The students have been working hard on their unit on time, telling time on analog and digital clocks.  So far, we worked together as a class and in groups to master the skill.  For the rest of the week the students will be continuing to work in groups, by testing each other on writing the correct time on both types of clocks.  They will also be working individually, which will further enable me to see if specific students need an extra week on the skill, or if some students may need to move on to a more challenging skill in the same area.  Either way, as usual, mastery of the skill is key.

For the story of the week, the students are reading "Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats", another fact-based story about these creatures of the night.  The students have been working on journal responses regarding what they have learned so far about bats, from both this story and the story from last week.  Next week, the students will work on a final project to show their knowledge.

Please continune to send in the phone books.  The final date is Feb. 1st.  The city will be coming by with a dumpster for the phone books from the rest of the school.  The class with the most will earn a pizza party courtesy of the City of Sierra Vista.  The school with the most collected will receive the city's Recycling Award of Excellence.  So far, we have a wonderful 120!

As mentioned in the yellow letter sent home last week, conferences will be different this semester.  Teachers will be contacting parents of students who may not be achieving grade level mastery, and/or have negative behavior.  Our conference date is Feb. 2nd- Wednesday- which will be a half-day.  The rest of the week, however, are full school days.   

   
The spelling words are as follows:

1. beach
2. graph
3. phone
4. touch
5. catch
6. match
7. pitch
8. each
9. patch
10. sandwich

News
Feb. 18th - Feb. 21st          President's Weekend, no school

Birthdays
Jan. 13th                             Nicholas
Jan. 26th                             KeOra


Have a great week!

Elizabeth Townsend
Second Grade, PdS
515-2970
elizabeth.townsend@svps.k12.az.us

Happy 100th Day!

Today was a great day!  The students wrote about what they would do with $100, wrote 100 words, and even strung 100 Fruit Loops on yarn.  The students took turns making their 100 Day Mix (THANK YOU for sending in those items!), and were able to have their snack and take home any they had left over.  Tomorrow, the students will finish up their 100 grid, where they played a game with a partner to fill in the squares until the whole grid is filled in with different colors.

Thank you for the past 100 days with your students, and I'm definietly looking forward to the next 81!

Have a great rest-of-the-week! 

The Toucan Squawk, Jan. 17th - Jan. 21st

Please continue bringing in phone books for the Phone Book Recycling campaign.  Pick-up is scheduled for Tuesday, February 1st.  Remember, the class that collects the most phone books receives a pizza party, and the school that collects the most wins the Recycling Award of Excellence.

Please remind your children about tomorrow’s 100th day celebration; “Wacky Tacky Dress-Up

Day”.  Ice cream treats to all who participate!   

Please also ensure your students are in school and on time for 100 % attendance in our class, and in our school!

Our spelling words for this week are...

1. sleep
2. crops
3. fly
4. caves
5. nest
6. leaves
7. insects
8. scary
9. sight
10. den

A new student joined our class.  We welcomed Kevin from Missouri this morning by introducing ourselves and sharing something interesting about ourselves.  As usual, the students were so welcoming and kind.

This week, the students will be reading and learning about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his many accomplishments.  The students will also be learning about telling time on an analog and a digital clock, and continue a section of measurement to complete this unit.  The new story this week will be, "Going Batty for Bats".  This story is a non-fiction story about bats, seperating fact from myth about these creatures.  It should be a fun read for all of the students.

Have a wonderful week!

Amazing video to share

 http://video.yahoo.com/watch/100768/1248462

Wacky-Tacky Dress-Up Day!

In celebration of the 100^th day of school, and to promote all students attending that day, we will once again have a “Wacky-Tacky Dress-Up Day” on Wednesday, January 19^th.

All participating students will receive a vanilla ice cream cup during lunch.  Classroom and grade level winners earn additional prizes and are eligible for school-wide 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place.

Please remind your students of this event and encourage their participation.

Opps, a few more things...

PdS is still running the phone book recycling drive, so please continue to send in those phone books.  They should be from the years prior to the 2011 - 2012 version.  Thank you so much for your participation!

Please also continue to send in the items for our 100th Day snack mix!  The 100th day is on the 19th-  next Wednesday.  Along with mixing our 100 snack items, we will be completing math and art activities to celebrate this wonderful day.  The students will also be completing 100 PE activties on the field with the other 2nd grade classes.  Also, we are striving for 100 % attendance in the whole school!  If we receive 100 % attendance, the students will have an extra fun activity to participate in.  Please continue to encourage attendance.   

The Toucan Squawk, January 10th - 14th

It's hard to explain the events of this weekend to children in this age range.  Many children, if it hasn't been explained to them earlier, find it hard to express their feelings about death.  The death of a family pet or a family member can be extremely tough for a child at such a young age to understand.  And when such tragic events are televised perodically, young children are exposed to the information and pictures.  We did not discuss the events in class, as I've discovered this is up to parents to explain it.  It's hard to find the words to explain it, but I'm sure the children have some sense of an understanding about life.  If you feel the need, please don't hesistate to contact the school to arrange a couseling session with our school counselor, Mrs. Mazanek.  She's a wonderful confidant for the children at any age, and I'm sure they will find those personal chats comforting.

In an effort to save paper, I will no longer be typing and printing the weekly newsletter.  From here on out, I will be using our classroom blog for any weekly updates.  I will continue, however, to send any immediate updates on a daily basis as necessary.  It’s vital your student’s folder is checked each night to ensure any information is given to you as I have passed it out, as well as checking homework packets.

We do have a spelling test this week, and the words are as follows:

1. over
2. work
3. came
4. back
5. went
6. old
7. another
8. picture
9. such
10. air

We will be continuing our unit on measurement in math this week.  So far, we have discussed using inches to measure items.  For reading, the students are reading a story called "The Best Vacation Ever", about a family taking a cross country vacation for winter break.

January News:

·         Martin Luther King Jr. day                  January 17^th, no school

·         100^th Day                                           January 19^th

January Birthdays

·         13^th                                                    Nicholas

·         26^th                                                   KeOra

Phone Book Recycling contest!

The Phone Book Recycling Contest begins today!

Phone books will be picked up from PdS on Tuesday, February 1st. 

The class with the most collected will receive a pizza party. 

The school with the most collected will receive the City’s Recycling Award of Excellence.

Spelling, January 3rd - 7th

Just a reminder, there will not be a spelling test this week.  The homework packet being sent home today does not include them.  The homework does include math pages and stories to read and answer questions about.  We will resume our regular spelling schedule next week.  Thanks, and have a great week!