A September to Remember!

The students reading the note from Zero the Hero!

On the 10th day of school the C8 children found a note left by Zero the Hero. Zero is a math superhero who visits our class and provides the students with math challenges. If they succeed at meeting the challenge, they get a treat from Zero. The first math challenge was to draw a picture of what they think Zero looks like. Then Mrs. Riordan read this book that Zero left for us.  He also left us a jar full of zero treats….AKA Life Savers.

The children can’t wait to see what will happen on Day 20!

Arrgh! Check Out Our Pirate Crew!

We also celebrated “Talk Like a Pirate Day!” on September 19th. The children (and Mrs. Riordan) had the opportunity to dress up like pirates and learned how to talk like pirates. We had pirate music playing, drew pirate flags and read pirate stories. We did a pirate math worksheet and wrote a pirate story. If someone clipped down, we called it “walking the plank!” Twas a fine day to be a pirate!  

We have been celebrating Say Hello week at Brookside this week. We are learning the importance of including others and being friends.

Here’s a photo of us saying hello! (If you can’t read the sign, look below!)

Thank you to the parents and guardians who took the time to come to Curriculum Night!

Last Wednesday was Curriculum Night. Parents and guardians had the opportunity to come to school, see the classroom, meet Mrs. Riordan and learn about the second grade curriculum.

Here is a copy of the presentation from that night. Second Grade Curriculum Night presentation

Here is a view of our classroom for those who were unable to attend Curriculum Night.

We have been studying about our community and our place in the world in Social Studies the last few weeks. We made these flip books and displayed them on Curriculum Night.  

September is almost over but our second grade adventures have just begun!

 

Goodbye September…Hello October!

It’s hard to believe that we have finished our first month of school. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the parents who attended Thursday’s Curriculum Night. It was nice to be able to meet you and tell you about our second grade classroom, the curriculum, and the expectations. If you were unable to attend, I sent home a copy of my presentation as well as other important papers and my contact information  with your child on Friday.

I look forward to meeting all the parents at our Parent-Teacher conferences on November 14th. We had signups for the Parent-Teacher conferences at Curriculum Night. Those who weren’t present will be assigned an afternoon conference time as all the evening time slots have been filled.

I also want to thank all the parents who sent in supplies for our classroom. Special thanks to the parents who hand-delivered supplies on Thursday night. Please let me know if you need the bag that you brought the supplies in back and I’ll send it back with your child.

A quick reminder that I will be collecting the September Behavior/Responsibility charts from your children tomorrow so please leave it in their homework folder. Also I’d like to remind you to please return the volunteer form if you are able to volunteer in our classroom. Volunteers are so helpful for providing extra support to our classroom.

 

Another School Year Starts!

Welcome back to a new school year at Brookside Elementary School! 

I spent my last week’s of summer preparing the classroom for my new second graders.

I am sharing some photos of our C8 classroom with all of you!

The bulletin board that greeted the students on the first day!

Our word wall, seasonal bookshelves and computer center!

Our classroom library!!

Mrs. Riordan’s desk and our small group table.

Our three tables of desks and the rainbow rug.

I hope that you will come to see our classroom in person on Curriculum Night/Orientation on Thursday, September 27th! Looking forward to meeting you then!

Our Classroom Library Ribbon Cutting!

It’s official! We have opened our classroom library today. Each year, I wait a few days to get other classroom routines down before I allow the children to use our classroom library. I explained this to the children and Elizabeth, one of our students, asked if we would be having a ribbon cutting to open the library. I thought, “Why not?” So today, our captain, Maria did the honors and cut the ribbon to open our library! The children were very excited! They are taking turns filling their classroom book bags with wonderful books to read that are “just right” for their learning. Hopefully we will be finished shopping for books by tomorrow!

Thank you to all the parents who came to Curriculum Night (Orientation) last night. I was nice to meet so many of the families and to talk about learning in second grade in C8. If you were unable to attend last night, I sent written information home to you with your child today. The QR code needs a QR reader which is a free app you can download. It’s a quick way to get to our classroomwebsite/blog. I also sent home a blue sheet for signups for Parent-Teacher conferences in November.

I would like to briefly mention two things I spoke about last night but didn’t put in the handout. To cut down on the amount of homework, I do not want the children to do the remembering side of the math homework paper at home. They will do that side of the paper in class.  Also, please don’t write notes to me in your child’s assignment book (homework notebook). I would appreciate it if you have any notes or messages that you want to get to me, you can either email me at mriordan@dracutps.org or send in a note with your child on a piece of paper. We have a very short time before we go to special in the morning and I don’t have time to check 24 notebooks each morning. I’d hate to miss something important that you wrote in the notebook that your child didn’t show to me.

Thank You and a Request!

Thank you to all the parents who attended last night’s Orientation Night.  It was nice to meet you all and share with you our curriculum and how our classroom operates. Each year I try to remember everything I want to say and I usually end up forgetting something.  If you were in the first session,  I forgot to talk to you about the Highlights forms that I put on each desk.  If enough parents send back the signed form, we can get FREE materials for our classroom. It doesn’t matter if you check yes or no.  I just need the form with your signature. (You don’t even need to fill out the rest!) Last year, our class had enough forms to get a huge container of foam dice to use in math that usually costs over $30.00. So my request is that you fill out the form and return it and help C-8 get some more FREE materials. If you need a replacement form, let me know and I’ll send one home.

If you were unable to attend last night’s Orientation, I am sending home a packet of papers with your child which includes the entire Powerpoint I showed. Please look at these materials and contact me if there is anything you need me to clarify for you.

Thank you to Madison and her family for placing an Scholastic Book Club online order! It’s the only order I have so far.  So I am extending the Scholastic Book Club order to Tuesday,  September 23rd to avoid any confusion with the Book Fair.

Thank you again for attending and if you have any questions that I did not answer last night, feel free to contact me with them!

Welcoming a New Group of Second Grade Friends!

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I can’t believe that our first full week of school is over! We are getting to know each other and are learning how to work together. In addition to seeing our specialists we met last year (Mrs. Turnbow for music, Mrs. Sorbello for computers and Mrs. Costello for library), we’ve met our new art teacher, Ms. Mullins and our new physical education teacher, Mr. Rivers.  We also met other educators (Mrs. Nelson, Mrs. Marvin, Mrs. Charette, Mrs. Smolko, Mrs. Wagner, and Ms. Jacobs) who will be working with some of our C-8 students this school year. We did a lot of assessment this week so I can better know the students’ skill levels. We even had a fire drill!  I think my favorite activity was when they played a “Getting to Know You” game to help them learn more about each other! Here are some photos of the students enjoying this activity.

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T.J. and Shiwaum discussing their summer activities.

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Discovering how our friends spent their summers!

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Madison and Elizabeth sharing information.

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Look at all these second graders actively engaged in the task of getting to know each other.

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Mary and Brooklynn make new friends.

I am looking forward to meeting and getting to know my new C-8 parents at our Orientation Night on Tuesday night at 6 – 8 p.m.  Hope to see you then!

Thank You!

Thank you to all the parents who attended last night’s Orientation Night. It was so nice to see all of you. If you were not able to attend, I sent home all the papers you missed. Please review my presentation when you get the chance.

Today we started doing partner houses in math and we learned how to choose “just-right” books for our independent reading bags. We talked about how some behaviors support us reaching our second grade hopes and dreams and some behaviors get in the way of us or our classmates from reaching our hopes and dreams. Then we wrote a “Class Constitution” that we as a class community will use to remind us of what we need to do to be successful in second grade. We will all sign our constitution tomorrow.  We also had a visit from “Zero the Hero” and he brought the class a treat. We read a story about Zero and learned a lot of math concepts along the way.  Oh, we were so busy today that I forgot to stamp the tutor sheets. (Sorry!) I’ll catch up on stamping them tomorrow!