Welcome to Second Grade!

Dear Second Grade Families!
I am so excited to begin this new adventure in second grade with you! What a wonderful first day we had!
Please use this blog as our way of communicating with us.  I will not be sending home a weekly newsletter. I will update the blog at least once a week, sometimes daily. You can post comments on here or email me anytime. I have to preview your comments before they are posted for everyone to see.

Today we talked about "jitters" and what makes us nervous. I learned a lot of new things about the children. I think they got rid of the first day jitters by the end of the day.

Our Back to School Night will be next Thursday, August 21 at 6:00 p.m.. I hope you are able to attend this special night to learn about our curriculum and routines of the classroom. I look forward to meeting you. If you need to bring your child(ren), childcare will be provided in the gym.

Thank you for allowing me to spend this year with your child. What  a great first day we had!
Mrs. Montes

Summer Reading

Parents,
I just wanted to share this great recourse with you for summer reading. It really helps stay up with our current reading level that we leave with in second grade. We want to come in as strong leaders like we left second grade. I will be doing it with my boys at home! Let me know if it doesn't work. Here is the link: http://www.bookitprogram.com/summer/parenttools.asp  There are a lot of great activities to do to motivate and keep your child reading over the summer.
Good luck!
Mrs. Montes

Happy Wednesday!

Hello!
Just a few updates to share with you about these last couple weeks of school. 

• Field Day is Friday, May 23. If you can help Mrs. Etnyre at a station please let her know! The Clydesdales will participate in the afternoon and the Appaloosas will participate in the morning. Please wear green or your field day shirt. Bring a cold lunch or order from two menu options: A Sub Sandwith or B PBJ). Be sure to send a water bottle, sunscreen, and a hat!
• Dismissal is at 12:20 on the last day of school. They may bring a cold lunch or order hot lunch. 
• Report cards go home on the last day of school. If your child earned a Magic Waters or Six Flags ticket they will be in the report card.
• All library books should have been returned to school. Please look for any books labeled "Montes" around your house and car. Please return my personal class library books by Friday. Thanks.

Have a great week!
Mrs. Montes

Thursday Updates

I just wanted to remind you that the Scholastic Book Fair will be open next week at Olson. This is our Spring Buy One Get One Free Sale. If you send money to school with your child, please do the following:

• Send money in an envelope or baggie with your child's name and teacher on it. 
• Please write the amount that is inside 
• Please make a good choice about how much money you send to school with your child. Also, please talk about your child's use of the money and good choices on what they can/cannot purchase. Sometimes kids want to share their money with others, so please discuss if this is allowed for your child. I would prefer each student just uses their own money. 

Along that note, I'm sad to say we won't be having any more Horseshoe Trading Days this year. Unfortunately, we have had several students with missing horseshoes (and other things) and several students with a lot more  horseshoes. We have talked with the classes about all of the pillars of good character: respect other people's property, responsibility, caring for others, trustworthiness, honesty, and fairness. It is difficult for Ms. Salas and I to be stuck in the middle of several horseshoe stories, and it is difficult to tell who is telling the truth. So for the remainder of the year, we will use only the clips for positive reinforcement and consequences in the classroom. Please have a discussion with your child around this topic. Some of the students are very disappointed, as we are also. I don't want all of the students to be punished or suffer for the actions of others, so we are certainly looking for more ways to reward those students in the classroom. Thank you for helping with this.

Field Day is Friday, May 23. Field Day T-Shirt Orders are due tomorrow. Please contact Mrs. Etnyre if you are able to volunteer that day.  Thank you. 

Have a great week. Maybe we'll actually see the sun?

Mrs. Montes

Happy Monday

What a wet way to start the week! :( I hope you enjoyed your weekend.
We will not have a new spelling list until Wednesday. This means no homework tonight, but Wednesday will be Xtra Math and spelling.
We have our final CPAA Testing in the computer lab today and tomorrow. Thank you for practicing those facts this weekend!
Remember: Yearbook Orders are due soon and Field Day T-shirt orders are due Thursday. If your green shirt from last year still fits you can wear it! This is just for those of you who need a new one.
Have a great week.
Mrs. Montes

Happy WEEKEND!!

Happy Friday!
We had a busy week! We continue to practice non fiction features and are learning about different geographic landmarks around our country. We are also beginning our mind maps on the computer for our natural disaster to study. This project will be completely done on the computer, but will have a diorama project to create at home that illustrates your natural disaster of study. More information will come home later about this project.
We begin our last week of CPAA testing next week, Monday and Tuesday. This is a chance to show what you know from second grade! Please talk to your child about the importance of reading through each question carefully and select the best answer. We have talked about process of elimination and reading through all of your choices to find the best answer. Please practice anything math over the weekend! We have covered a lot this year in math-so feel free to practice anything this weekend. I did send home some math for practice. It would be helpful to practice time, money, place value to the thousands with base ten, and two and three digit addition and subtraction. Thank you for taking this time to review and give your child extra practice at home. This week we continued with fractions and reviewed time, money, and addition and subtraction with 2 and 3 digits.
I hope you and your family get a chance to get outside and enjoy the weather today and tomorrow! Have a great weekend!
Enjoy the photos of our recent work!
Mrs. Montes

Wednesday News

Wow, do we have some talent here or what? Congratulations to our students who participated in the Variety Show today. What an amazing group of children! What a variety we had, too! We had magic and dancers! Thank you parents for your support and practice to prepare for this wonderful day.

April is flying by. We are finishing up our learning about natural disasters in our geography unit. In the next few weeks we will do some research and present it to the class. Most of the work will be done in class, but there will be a diorama project to be done at home. The research will be done at school, and the students will create a mind map on the computer and will type their report on the computer also. Any extra hands would always be appreciated during this time. If you are available please let me know!

Our geography unit test is tomorrow. The vocabulary words will be covered. They will also compare/contrast 2 different hurricanes, and create a table of contents based on natural disasters to tie in our non fiction features. We were busy practicing for the test today and yesterday to help prepare for tomorrow.

We are also writing an expository paper on Hurricanes and will turn these facts into our own non fiction book.

In math, we are finishing up fractions. Next week, we will spend some time reviewing time, money, two & three digit addition, and will move into two digit subtraction. Please practice those addition subtraction facts at home.

We are starting a BLURT ALERT in our classroom. We have several students who are having a difficult time with self-control and talking at appropriate times. It is important for the children to understand this is unacceptable behavior to blurt out their thoughts anytime they want to speak. This sets an example for others to do the same and interrupts our learning. We tally the blurts during the week. If your child has more than 3, on Friday they will write a note to you. Please sign it and return Monday or they will need to accompany me at recess.

Upcoming Dates:

• Yearbook Orders are $16.00 and should be returned quickly to guarantee a yearbook. 
• Friday, April 25: Mustang Big Give-A market of 4th graders are selling items for the students to purchase. The money raised goes to a charity of choice by each of the 4th graders. This is a great opportunity to buy special crafts and food for a good cause. Please send in money in a baggie if you would like to buy something. (Up to $5)
• Field Day is May 23-Let's hope for sunshine!!! T-shirt orders are due Thurs. May 1 and are $5 if you would like to order a t-shirt for your child. Otherwise, you can wear your shirt from 1st grade if it fits!

We will not have a new spelling and vocab list for next week. 

Have a great night!!

Mrs. Montes