Happy Friday! Happy Weekend!

We worked very hard this week! Thank you so much for doing a fantastic job on the first week with the Family Journals. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. I know Thursdays became my favorite day of the week when my son brought his home. Remember that your child may choose to share their journal when they bring it back. We had a lot of fun sharing them today. The children were so proud and excited to share their love notes from you. Thank you for your time and kind words that poured over their journals. No wonder these children are so amazing, they have amazing parents! Remember the journals are always due on the day we return from a weekend so you have the whole weekend to respond.
Next week we will begin a non-fiction study on Friday. Please have your child bring in a picture of themselves doing something.... anything! Eating, sleeping, playing a sport, posing.....etc. We are making a non-fiction journal and will start with a photograph of ourselves as we write captions and explore the wonderful world of non fiction. You will get the photograph back, but it will be glued to the journal. So don't make it a very special picture because it will get sticky!
We read a lot of stories this week and made connections to our schema. Hopefully they can tell you something about Ruby, a crafty chameleon, or even Oscar! Our lesson this week was "Being Me" first and no one else because me is who I am made to be! I hope that our good character will shine in each of us as we make good decisions about who we are and encourage others around us also. We are learning to be children of good character and show integrity.
Parent Volunteers-thank you those of you who already started coming in. I really appreciate it. I do not have the "schedule" ready yet because of MAP testing these next two weeks. We can always use helpers 8:00-11:20. Thank you!
Have a great 3-day weekend! Enjoy the time with family and friends. Hoping for some good weather this weekend, as my family and I are going camping.
:) Mrs. Montes

Xtra Math

It looks like everything will be changed when we send home the parent flyers. Tonight's homework is just an addition/subtraction math practice. Starting next Wednesday we will have Xtra Math for homework every Wednesday. Feel free to do the program as many times as you want to practice, but it must be done at home on Wednesdays. Your child's login/username may change here at school but everything should transfer when you get your login sheet. I will send these home tomorrow so you can try it out. Hopefully, we will have all the glitches out by next Wednesday. Thank you again for your patience and for your help!
If you haven't sent in a composition journal please do that tomorrow!
Book orders are due tomorrow also. Thank you to the few of you who already placed an order. I will send it out tomorrow.
Mrs. Montes

Tuesday Update

Thank you so much for all of your help with the blog this week. I loved reading your comments about "schema." The children are doing a fantastic job at connecting events in the books to their own schema. I hope they continue to share with you.
Please remember to send in the composition journal by Thursday. We hope to send home our family journal for the first time this week.
Spelling City is up and running. You can go there and check out our spelling words and vocabulary words for this week. There is a link on the Blog page.
I am still working on Xtra Math. I will let you know when we can start that again.
We are off to a great start this year.
Mrs. Montes

Happy Friday

We made it through our first week of school! What a great week it has been. I'm really looking forward to this school year. The children are off to a fantastic start, which makes me thrilled for all the wonderful things we are going to be able to accomplish this year!
Please remember to send in $1 for the composition journal or to get one this weekend. We will be starting the Family Home Journal on Thursday next week. We are so excited to start communicating to you all the fantastic things we are doing already!
We have learned about "schema" this week. I hope the children can come home and share with you what this word is and what it means to us. If they can tell you, please post their comment here on the blog to recieve a horseshoe on Monday. I can't wait to hear their wonderful ideas!
Next week we will be MAP testing all week from 12:15-1:15. Just a heads up in case you were planning to come in and volunteer. I will have the volunteer schedule ready to begin on Tuesday after Labor Day. I look forward to all the wonderful volunteers we have already.
I hope you are enjoying the poetry binder that comes home on Fridays. This week we added Ms. Salas' Cancionero poem to the binder. Remember to read each poem 3 times and have at least 3 signatures/comments on the picture page. I hope you enjoy them this weekend! They sure created some fun titles and creative illustrations!
If you have not signed up to follow the blog yet, please do that this weekend! This will be the last newsletter I send home. All classroom information will be on the blog from now on.

To subscribe, please go to our website,

 http://www.MrsTMontes.blogspot.com

Click on the “Follow me by e-mail” link on the right side.  Enter your e-mail address.  The site will send you a confirmation e-mail.  You must open the confirmation e-mail and click on the link to activate the subscription. 

Have a lovely weekend.
:) Mrs. Montes

Welcome 2012-2013 Second Grade Dual Families

Thank you for viewing our classroom blog.  I hope you will enjoy this communication tool and "follow" me by email. This way you will receive a once a day notification of any current updates. I will be giving our new blog codes next week so please do not allow the children to comment yet. This way we are sure to practice Internet safety!  Students will receive this information on Friday and our blog will become interactive at that time. 

Save the date!  Wednesday, August 22, 2012 from 5:30-7:00 is Olson's Open House.  This special evening has been planned so parents can learn more about Olson Elementary, the staff, and the great learning opportunities we have to offer our students and families!  I look forward to seeing each of you here on Wednesday at 5:30! Thank you!