Week of 10/29

Book Celebration
Tomorrow, October 31st, we are having our Robin Hood book celebration.  Students may dress up as a character from the story.  They may wear their costume all day.  Modesty dress code rules apply, face masks are not allowed.  Students may not bring toy weapons of any kind.

We will be watching the cartoon of Robin hood at about 11:00.  From 1:45-2:50 we will ave our Robin Hood activities.  If you would like to join us, that is the best time to come.  I have heard from two parents that they would like to bring snacks for our activity time.

Conferences
Friday, November 2nd is conferences.  I am looking forward to meeting with all of you.  I haven't hear from 5 of you.  I sent home a note yesterday.  I would appreciate it if you would return the note or fill out the form on the link attached below.  I have sent confirmation emails to everyone I have heard from.

Grades
Before you attend conferences, make sure you have had an opportunity to see your child's grades.  If you don't know how to get on to Parent Portal, please email Mrs. Brown and she will be happy to help you, crystalbrown@visioncsd.org. 


I've attached this week's spelling and math.

Spelling List 8 - Test on 11/6

Math Study Guide - Week 8

Conference Schedule Form

Week of 10/22

Welcome back!  I hope you enjoyed fall break.

Wednesday is the end of the first quarter.  Conferences will be on November 2nd.  I will be sending more information about the conference schedule at the end of this week.

Career Week
This week is career week.  Students may dress up for their favorite career on Friday, October 26th.  There will be prizes for the classes who have the most participants.  We also have a guest speaker, a retired police officer, visiting us on Friday.

Book Celebration
This year's book celebration will be on Robin Hood.  Students may dress up as their favorite Robin Hood character on Wednesday, October 31st.  They may wear their costume all day.  Modesty dress code rules apply, face masks and face paint are not allowed.  Students may not bring toy weapons of any kind.

We will be doing some activities and watching the cartoon version of Robin Hood.  If you do not want your child to see the movie, please let me know.  If you are interested in participating in our book celebration, or bringing treats let me know and we can organize everything so we don't end up with 100 napkins.

Harvest Festival at The Farmstead
Vision is having a Harvest Festival at the Farmstead in Meridian on Monday, October 29th from 6:30-8:30.  They are offering discounted tickets of $6/person for anyone who mentions Vision Charter School at the ticket office.  The Farmstead will give $1 to Vision for each ticket sold.  There will be a raffle and silent action plus the Kiss the Pig Contest.  This evening is in lieu of doing a carnival in the spring time so please come out and enjoy this evening with us!

Kiss the Pig Contest
Who would you like to see kiss a pig, Mrs. OldenKamp or Mr. Casey Boothby?  At the Harvest Festival at the Farmstead on October 29th, one of these lucky individuals will be doing just that!  Students may decide by voting.  Students can cast their "vote" by bringing their coins or dollars in support of who should kiss the pig to the school office or to Farmstead from 6:30-7:30 pm.  The person with the most money (votes) will pucker up and plant a big kiss on a pig at 7:30pm at the Farmstead!  There will also be a few raffle items available.  Raffle tickets are $1 each!

I've attached the spelling words for next week and the math study guide.

Spelling list 7 - test on 10/30

Math Study Guide - Week 7

Week of 10/8

Field Trip

The field trip is on Friday.  We will board the buses at 10:10 and will arrive at Linder Farms around 10:40.  If you are chaperoning you may follow the buses or meet us there.  Please read the information about what to wear and what not to wear since we will be outside on a farm.

Special Field Trip Request
If you are planning to chaperone and are able to drive a truck so we can bring our pumpkins back to school in the back of your truck and the students don't have to hold them on the buses.  Please email me if you are willing to transport our pumpkins.

Fall Break

Next week is Fall break.  Homework went home regularly this week.  It will all be due when we return.  I don't expect students to work through fall break.  If they maintain their normal homework schedule, but skip a week, they still get a nice break.

A Request from the Office:

Collecting Items for Raffle and Silent Auction:
If you have any items that you are able to donate to the school for us to use to raffle off or have as part of our silent auction during the Harvest Festival at the Farmstead on October 29, 2018, please email shereeboothby@visioncsd.org.  We are not able to accept baked goods.  This year the Harvest Festival is in lieu of the spring carnival and we appreciate your support and generous donations.

What Not to Wear to Linder Farms

Spelling List 6 - Test on 10/23

Math Study Guide 6

Week of 10/1

Papers, papers, papers

I know students bring home many papers.  Any paper that is clearly marked with a grade by me was an assignment or assessment that I entered into the grade book.  Before I give students grades on new skills we spend a lot of time practicing; therefore, they will bring many of those practice activities home.  In class, they use white boards, paper and the computer to practice all the skills they are learning.

If a practice paper comes home incomplete, you can ask students why it isn't finished and take the opportunity to make sure they understand the skill.

Dates to remember:
October 12th: picture retakes
October 12th: Field trip to Linder Farms

October 15-19: Fall break

October 31: School wide book celebration of Robin Hood

Homework update:
Next week the reading logs and fluency will come home on Tuesday instead of Monday.  Homework will be due the week after fall break.

Don't forget to return the field trip permission forms.  If I don't have your form by the end of the week, I'll send you a reminder email in case you forgot.

Spelling List 5 - test on 10/9

Math Study guide - test on 10/4

Linder Farms Field Trip Permission Slip

Week of 9/24

Last week I sent home a note about our field trip on October 12th to Linder Farms.  I've already gotten many permission slips and money sent in for it.  I have attached the note to the bottom of this post in case you didn't see it come home.

You will also find next week's spelling list and math study guide attached.  Students are struggling with time and money so any opportunities to practice those things at home will help.

This week 24 out of 28 students returned their homework!  That is a record.  We are shooting for 100% next week.

Today, students celebrated their second marble party.  They enjoyed wearing their pajamas and getting to snuggle up with something soft.

Next week is homecoming week so the whole school can dress up throughout the week.  Please, no masks, no face paint, and no toy weapons of any kind.  Modesty dress code guidelines are to be followed for dress-up days.

Here are the themes for each day:
Monday, 10/1 - Back in the Day
Tuesday, 10/2 - Opposite Day
Wednesday, 10/3 - Movie Character Day
Thursday, 10/4 - Superhero Day
Friday, 10/5 - School Color Day

Spelling List 4 - Test on 10/2

Math Study Guide 4 - Test on 9/27

Linder Farms Permission Slip

Week of 9/17

Students aren't quite used to the cold read routine on Mondays yet and it took a bit longer than expected to get through everyone.  About 5 students did not get their fluency homework on Monday, but it will come home today.  Please look for it.

Last week students did their second writing assignment.  They wrote about the positive points of second grade to go along with a cactus art piece they made.

They also built a model of a living thing and came up with a definition to describe what makes living things.

Mark your calendars for our field trip.  It will be on Friday, October 12th.  I will send more information when the time gets closer.

Below is the math study guide and this week's spelling list.

Math Study Guide - week 3

Spelling List - Week 3

Week of 9/10

This group of second graders is amazing!

They celebrated their first marble party on Friday.  It only took them 11 days to earn all the marbles.  They have already started working on their next party.

Picture Day
Don't forget, picture day is Friday, September 14th.

Math
Right now students are practicing manipulating numbers and reviewing facts.  Students who have these skills mastered get to try more challenging skills.  We are also adding coins.  It is important for students to know the values of coins and to know which are which.

Spelling
As students practice their words, it is a good idea to think of other words that rhyme with the spelling words.  In this way, learning to spell fine can help students spell mine, pine, and line.   We practiced finding some of these words yesterday.

Reading
Students have taken the IRI.  I will be spending time helping students increase their skills and become excellent readers. It is very important that they continue to read at home.

Don't forget the reading logs are due each Monday.  This Monday, I sent home the first fluency passage.  The directions are in a sheet protector in your child's home folder.  Remember that the 5 minutes spent on fluency can count towards their 20 minutes.

Writing
Students are working on writing at least two complete sentences with correct punctuation.  A few students have already mastered this and I have given them their own goal.

Science
Students are learning that scientists ask questions and make observations about what they want to learn more about.  We will continue practicing these skills be studying the diversity of life this month.

Spelling List - test on 9/18

Math Study Guide - test on 9/13