Happy Friday

Our Reading Challenge is moving along very well! Congratulations to the Appaloosas for making 80% or better all 3 weeks! Congratulations to the Clydesdales for making it 2/3 weeks. Last week the Clydesdales name was drawn for the class that gets to spend 30 minutes of physical activity with Mrs. Frisbie! Congratulations! We are hoping next week will be the Appaloosas! Next week we finish on Feb. 7. Please return Six Flags and the reading log on this day. Final dress up day is "Rock Star." Thanks!
Conferences are approaching in two weeks. We are doing our best to accommodate all of the requests. The notes should go home Tuesday to confirm your times. Thank you for your cooperation!
With all of the snow days, late starts, Martin Luther King Jr., and ACCESS testing we finally started our weather and seasons unit in literacy this week.This connects to Ms. Salas' science unit with the sun, moon, and stars.  I apologize for sending home the spelling and vocabulary words so long ago. These words will all pick up next week. This week we have been busy writing about why we honor Martin Luther King Jr. Next week we really dive into the reasons for the seasons and typical weather patterns in each season. We will be doing several writing activities with this unit.
In math we are learning about place value. I am impressed at how quickly the classes have caught on to counting hundreds, tens, ones, and using base ten blocks. We are getting into adding two digit numbers next week. This week we learned to add two digit plus one digit and make a trade. Keep practicing those facts! This makes adding two digit numbers much more fluent when we can add quickly.
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Montes

Happy Thursday!

Dear Parents,
Tomorrow is the first day of our reading challenge turn in. Please add up your child's reading minutes for this week (total at least 175 minutes), initial it, and turn it in tomorrow!!! We hope to have 100% participation!!!! Reminder it is Wacky Dress day also for participating in the reading challenge.
We have two days of ACCESS testing this week and next week. This is testing for the bilingual students to see how they are acquiring English. Because of this, we will be taking our spelling and vocab test the week after. Our new unit is weather and seasons. We will be learning about the holidays and weather patterns during each season.
Have a great day!
Mrs. Montes

Happy New Year 2014!

Hello! Welcome back to 2014!!! I apologize for that other post last night. I had been trying to post some updates over break but had a difficult time getting the blog to cooperate. That was as far as it would let me go was to wish you a Happy New Year! :-)

Olson's Reading Challenge begins this Friday!!!

2013-2014 Olson Reading Challenge Presents:

Reading Gives you Super Powers to “Be Incredible!”

Week Number/Dates	Prize Awarded	Spirit Day Events on Friday-Every Friday is turn-in day
January 10 Kickoff Friday!	Culver’s bookmark	“Super Hero” Dress Day Character “Trustworthiness” DEAR
Week 1: January 13-17	Super cape, pencil, Culver’s scoop	“Super Wacky” Dress Day (Backwards, glitter, neon, etc.) Character “Respect” DEAR
Week 2: January 20-24	Nick’s Pizza, Extreme Wheels	“Super Fan” Dress Day- Dress like a crazy fan Character “Fairness” DEAR
Week 3: January 27-31	Magic Waters Scholastic Book Fair $5 coupon	“Super Comfy”  Dress Day Character “Caring & Citizenship” DEAR
Week 4: February 3-7	Rockford Icehogs Red Robin Kid’s Meal Six Flags	“Super Rock Star” Dress Day Character “Responsibility” DEAR

•          Kickoff- Jan. 10:  Dress up as Super Heroes! Students are encouraged to dress up in their most "super suit!"

•          Second Grade Required Reading Minutes- 25 a night/175 minutes a week.

•          Fill out the Book-It reading calendar and return it each week on Friday. Log the minutes in each box. Add them up for the week. We will send it back home. If you are absent, return it on Monday. Students will still earn their Pizza Hut coupon during this time.

•          Six Flags and Magic Waters are given out in May. A certificate will go home saying you will receive the tickets later in the year. You must record the Magic Waters and Six Flags with title and signature and turn it in for weeks 3 and 4. All the minutes read go toward Magic Waters and Six Flags, even from week 1 and 2.

•          PLEASE FILL OUT THE BOOK-IT FORM AND RETURN IT EVERY FRIDAY IN JANUARY!

Super Prizes:

•          The classes that have 80% or better for that week will be put in a drawing. Class earns 30 minutes of activity time with Mrs. Frisbie.

•          The individual students who make the challenge will be rewarded for their Super Reading too! All of the students who make the challenge all 4 weeks will be invited to attend the viewing of The Incredibles on February 12, in the gym with pajamas and a blanket/towel.

Good luck! Remember to Be Super!!!

Please remember to send appropriate winter gear for outdoor recess: hats, gloves, boots, snowpants, and winter jacket. 

Our Spelling Bee will be this Friday for our school. We will be cheering on Sofia as she competes against the top two winners in each grade level. Good luck Sofia!

Have a great week! Stay warm!

Mrs. Montes

Happy New Year!

Wishing you a great holiday break!

Dear Families,
I want to thank you so much for sending the holiday pictures my way. I really enjoyed them. However, we didn't get a chance to view them in class, we are sharing them on here. I love seeing the traditions in your home. Thank you for sharing.
What a wonderful week of presentations we had. I loved hearing about each and every one of the children's heritage. I learned some interesting things about each one. The children did a fantastic job presenting. Thank you for your hard work in making that happen. I still have more pictures to post. I'm trying to find the time for all of these things this week.

Wishing you and your family a joyous holiday season. Enjoy the break and time with family and friends. Thank you for each of the blessings that were poured on Ms. Salas and me this week. We are blessed to spend the days with these children.

Mrs. Montes

Holiday Images

Dear Parents,
I would love if you can share some images of your holiday traditions in your home, or just some pictures of how you decorate for the holidays.  If you can take a picture and email it to me that would be great! I will be sharing the images with the classes while we talk about our holiday traditions in our home.
Thank you.
Mrs. Montes

Whew, it's Friday!

Wow, it's been a crazy week! I can tell break is upon us.

I am so proud of all our students for trying so hard and having courage for the spelling bee on Thursday. They were all so nervous. We had a lot of butterflies flying around that day! Congratulations to Sofia for making it to the Olson Spelling Bee! She will compete against other winners from each grade level at Olson on January 10.

Our presentations are off to a great start. I've shared some of the below. I can tell the students are working hard to prepare by practicing. Thank you for your help and input. Just a reminder, the work should be done by the student. Today we learned that most of the ancestors came from another country and got married here in the United States to someone else from their country. We learned about Poland, Chile,  Norway, Mexico, and England. We will continue on Monday. Keep up the good work.

Because of our presentations, we did not have time to do the spelling and culture vocab test today. We will not have new words next week, but we will take the test on Monday. We did a practice today with one class, and I could see they needed more time to study. Take the weekend to practice. I actually sent the test home as a study guide. There will also be some pictures to match the vocabulary words with.

Next week we continue learning about Cinderella stories, presentations on other cultures, and Germany and the United States. In math we continue counting coins to make a dollar and some are counting beyond a dollar. Our math test on money will be next Friday. We have a half day next Friday.

Also, on Thursday we will be having a Winter celebration with popcorn, juice, and candy canes. We are trying to keep it simple with our limited time on this busy week. If you can send in some popcorn, please let me know. We haven't heard from anyone yet if they can bring anything. Thanks.

Have a terrific weekend.
Mrs. Montes
Enjoy these images of culture presentations below!