May 7

Hello Parents!

Another week has flown by. Our field trip on Friday was a success! Thank you for those of you that volunteered. Were you as exhausted as I was?

I hope you all saw the Monday folders that came home today-they were packed with important information. One of the most important things in there was a math test that we took last week. It is a cumulative test of things we have learned this year. I will be giving a similar one next week. This test follows the exact criteria of the math section of their report card.  If you can take some time and go over problems they missed, or give them similar problems to practice on, that would be wonderful. We will be reviewing all this week in class as well, but I just can’t get to everyone one-on –on.  I did not grade the1 minute timed fast fact portion of the test. Some of them were confused on that part. Let me know if you have questions, or would like me to send home any practice materials. The internet is a wonderful resource full of websites for practicing math, or worksheets to print out.

A little highlight in our class right now is our writing. As a final project, I have given each student a small hardback book that they are choosing to use any way they like. They have been loving this project. I have been blown away by their creativity. We have quite the variety- Books about black holes, football, or hamsters, joke books, fairy tales, How-to books, etc. It has been a task to manage it all and keep everyone going, but they are so entertaining! I am excited for you to see the finished product.

We finally earned a class party today. We will be doing it on Thursday, May 10^th. They chose to have a  “camping” themed party. They are allowed to wear their pajamas, bring a blanket, and any treats to eat around the “campfire”. I will bring some treats as well.  

15 days left of school! Blows my mind! As much as I am ready for a break, it will be a sad day. I have loved this year. Thank you for having wonderful children. Talk to you soon!

Miss Jensen

Field Trip

Hello Parents!

 I am excited for our field trip this week! I think it is going to be a lot of fun. A few things to remember-

-I still don’t have everyone’s permission slip back. I sent home an extra copy in Monday folders today for those that I haven’t received yet. Please get those back to me tomorrow. The lunch count has to be in by the morning.

-We also just got things approved to have a COMMON DAY on Friday. I think this will make things much smoother. That means everyone will arrive at 8:00 am and go home at 2:15.  THERE WILL BE NO 2^nd TRACK! I will be sending a note home tomorrow about that that needs to be signed. Please send it back ASAP, just so I know you got the memo.

-Friday is supposed to be beautiful weather. We will be outside for a large portion of the time. Remember sunscreen!

-Some students were asking me about bringing things on the field trip-money, games for the drive, etc.  We are asking that no one bring anything. There won’t be a need to have any money and having to carry things around the whole time will be more of a hassle.

-I have had 4 parents respond to chaperoning so far- I will get in contact with you tomorrow. If you can, send me an email if you know you want a sack lunch from the school.  If there are others that may want to come, you are welcome to join us, but would have to provide your own transportation.

Let me know if you have other questions! Hopefully we all survive!

April 23

Hello Parents!

We have another wonderful week planned.

Math: Measurement

Reading: I will hopefully be finishing up reading testing this week. We also just performed some plays today for one of the 1st grade classes. I wish you had all been there. They were hilarious! I split them into groups and just let them adapt a short story into a play. They were so creative.  Not only did they have fun, but working on plays is so great for reading comprehension and fluency. It really requires them to get into a story and character.

Writing: We are doing some “How to” writing this week. I have let them write about whatever topic they want. They have been really entertaining.

A few highlights:

“How to make friends”

“How to catch a butterfly”

“How to get strong”

“How to break your let”

“How to use the bathroom” (typical 2nd grade)

“How to sink the Titanic”

Science: We got our caterpillars on Friday, and they have brought a lot of life into our classroom.  They each got to pick their own and give it a name. They should be in our class for about the next 2 weeks.

Do any of you have any time to spare in the next few days? I have been putting together the animal books we wrote as a class and would love an extra pair of hands to compile pages or do some binding. Let me know if you would like to help.

I hope you all saw the note about our fieldtrip coming up on May 4th. Don’t forget to fill out the paper and send it back! It should be a lot of fun.

Also, is there anyone who would like to take Geckster home that has not yet had a chance? If I don’t hear back from anyone, we will start round 2 for those of you that want to take him on again.  Thank you for being willing-it is one less thing for me to worry about on the weekends.

Let me know if you have questions. Have a wonderful week! Only 30 more days of school!

Miss Jensen

April 18

Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a wonderful spring break! I sure enjoyed a little rejuvenation! I have a feeling the rest of this year is just going to fly. Thank you all for making me feel so appreciated last week. You were all so thoughtful. I really feel lucky to be able to be with your kids everyday.

Here are a few things going on in our class this week:

Reading: I have started to do the final reading testing of the year this week. So far I have been so excited with the progress that has been made. I hope you are seeing it too!

Writing: I have been letting the students do some free writing of their choice this week. They have been writing stories about whatever comes into their mind, and they are pretty hilarious.

Math: Graphing/Measurement

Science: We have been discussing life cycles this week. We are going to be getting caterpillars hopefully on Friday of this week. We will have them in our classroom for the next few weeks, and we will be observing them as they go through their life cycle. I think this will be a lot of fun!

I also just wanted to remind you of raz-kids.com. There are hundreds of books online with comprehension questions that go along with them. The books can be found by level.  It really is an amazing resource- Take advantage of it!

Let me know if you have any questions. See you soon!

Miss Jensen

March 26th

Hello Parents!

We are beginning a new week and we have some great things planned. Here is a little peak into a few things we are learning…

Math: We have been doing some exciting things in math lately. We have been working on multiplication and division. They couldn’t be happier to finally be doing “times”.  It has been a good change from the place value and addition and subtraction stuff we were doing.  In doing multiplication in 2^nd grade, the focus is on their ability to count things in groups, and realize that multiplication is repeat addition. We aren’t worried yet about speed and memorizing, just introducing the concept and building a concrete concept of what “times” actually means.

Reading: We have been focusing on non-fiction books-analyzing their different structure and learning how to pull information from them.

Writing/Science: We are finishing writing our non-fiction animal book this week. It has been a great project for them. Having to make their own book has required them to really think about the different aspects of non-fiction writing. It has also given them a purpose to seriously edit and revise their work. A few students mentioned bringing in photographs of their animal from home-I am totally fine with that, but it is not necessary.

           

I also wanted to touch base on the gecko-Is there anyone else that would like to take him for a weekend that hasn’t gotten a chance? No one has signed up for this weekend. Let me know if that works for you.

We are also running low on glue sticks and tissues. If you happen to have any extra, I would love them!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Miss Jensen

Cookie Mix up

Hello!
A few of you noticed we got things mixed up with the cookie dough fund raiser packets. I did not realize they had names on them and just sent them home randomly. As long as you write your own name on the packet and cross out the sticker, it doesn't matter which one you have. Sorry to make things more complicated.
I hope you are all having a wonderful week. We have really been doing so much in our class lately. One of the highlights right now is the animal reports we have been writing. We will be making our own non-fiction book. They chose to make it all about animals and have each chosen an animal to research and write about. I have been so amazed with how engaged they have been in the project and their writing is really coming along. It is so exciting to see.
I so enjoy being with your kids everyday! I feel like they are making great progress. I hope you can see it too! As always, feel free to contact me with any questions or thoughts.

Miss Jensen

Jan. 30

Hello Parents!

I am really excited to get the chance to see you all this week. Hopefully you can make it to the time you signed up for!  Let me know if there is a conflict and I can squeeze you in somewhere else. 

The take-home reading program is really in need of a 2^nd grade volunteer for March and May.  If you could possibly help out, even half of the time, let me know. It would be every Monday for 1-2 hours.  Younger siblings are welcome to come along.

Thank you to those of you who  turned in your Jazz reading minutes yesterday. If you forgot, send them in as soon as possible. They are supposed to be in on Mondays.

Also, I want to do a project next week that requires small boxes. If you have any extra shoe boxes or tissue boxes, bring them in!

See you all soon!

-Miss Jensen

Jan 24th

Hello Parents,

Just wanted to touch base with you about this week. The 2^nd grade bazaar is coming right up. It will be for 2 days-Thursday our class with be selling and Friday we will get to shop.  Please talk to your kids about what they could possibly sell. We have brainstormed some ideas in class, but they need to have something pinned down as soon as possible. I am really interested to see how it goes, I think it will be a learning experience for all of us.  We would like to have as many parents involved as we can. We will need some “bankers” to help trade money, as well as just extra adult supervision.  Even if you can only help one of the days, feel free to stop in.

Last week I failed to mention anything about the Jazz reading competition. I think it was distributed last week on the day I was gone, so I was a little out of the loop. It started last Friday. Every week, on Monday, I will be turning in the total minutes our class read the previous week. Each student’s minutes are entered in individually. Each week there is a winner in each class and grade level for the most minutes read outside of school. Yesterday I only had 5 of you turn in your recording sheets. If you lost the half sheet of paper, but read from Friday-Sunday, just write me a note and I can still include those numbers in our total. A new recording sheet went home in the Monday folders yesterday.  Keep track of the minutes, and return the paper next Monday. I hope that all made sense.  Let me know if you have questions.

Here is a little snapshot of what we are learning this week:

Math: Time

Reading: Fiction story structure/summarizing

Writing: Pen Pal letters- I have a roommate that teaches 2^nd grade at a school in Salt Lake and we are going to be writing letters back and forth with her class.

Social Studies: Chinese New Year, Economics (Supply/demand, goods/services)

Science: Rocks

            I am excited to be able to get a chance to see you all next week during our conferences-don’t forget to sign up for a time!

-Miss Jensen

           

Rock Assignment

Rock Collection Assignment

Due: Monday, January 23^rd

Assignment: Bring in a rock for each of the following characteristics, neatly labeled (by # or attribute) and displayed.  How you display them is up to you.  In the past students have used egg cartons, glued them to a board, etc. 

1.     A rock smaller than the fingernail on your little finger.

2.    A “square” rock

3.    A very rough rock

4.    A shiny rock

5.    A round, smooth rock

6.    A rock with more than one color

7.    A rock that “makes you feel good”

8.    A rock that would make a good paperweight

9.    A rock that would make a nice gift

10.A rock that is very light or dark in color

We will be displaying our collections for our classmates, and doing various activities with the rocks.

Please contact me with any questions or concerns.

Thank you,

Miss Jensen

sarahjensen@alpinedistrict.org

Jan. 17

I hope you all had a nice long weekend. I sure enjoyed the extra day to get caught up on life.  I attended a training today for all the second grade teachers in the district. I learned some great things and can’t wait to implement them into our classroom. I hope your children survived with the sub.

We had a wonderful week last week. It was good to finally be settled back into the swing of things. Our classroom has just had a really great feeling in it lately. Last week we had several people that work in our school come in and tell us about their jobs. We ended up writing them all very large “thank you” notes and delivered them around the school on Friday as a part of our party. The kids loved it and so did the staff.

Our Boxcar party was a hit last week. One student said, “This is the best day of my life!”.  That pretty much made my week. Thank you for being a good sport and letting them haul pillows and blankets to school.

I hope you all received the rock assignment in the Monday folders today. Thank you for being willing to work on things at home. I think this will be a really fun thing to get them thinking as we begin learning about rocks in class. Feel free to bring them to school when you finish them.

I also wanted to make you aware of a little class change that we will be going into effect this week. Up until now we have had time for sharing every other Friday. It has been really fun, and they LOVE it, but I am feeling like there are more effective things we can be doing with our time at this point in the year. We may occasionally have times to share in the future, but it won’t be on a regular basis. I hope you can understand my reasoning.

A few things we will be working on this week

·      Contractions

·      Addition/subtraction story problems

·      Rocks

·      Acting out scenes from the Boxcar Children

·      Reading non-fiction text

Thank you for having wonderful kids! I hope you can tell that I love being with them everyday!

-Miss Jensen

Jan 11

Hello Parents,

            I hope you are having a wonderful week. I want to apologize for the lack of communication since the break-I am resolving to do better.

You may have already heard word of a class party that was finally earned today. We have an ongoing point system between the class and myself. They receive points when they do things that are really great, or get a compliment from another teacher.  Today they hit 10 points and got to choose a party.  They chose to have a “Boxcar Children” party.  This is the book we are reading together as a class. They have been so into it!  I kind of wanted to cry when they chose a book theme for our party when they could have chosen anything. We are somehow going to make a boxcar shape with our desks-this was all their ideaJ. I told them they could bring a favorite pillow, blanket, dog stuffed animal, or anything else that goes along with the book.  I will supply some snacks, and we are going to finish the book.

Here is a quick overview of what we are learning-

Math: Story problems

Writing: We are just finishing up some winter poetry. Some poems have been so tender and others hilarious. I am excited for you to see them.  Tomorrow w will be starting to write some “I have a dream” papers in connection with Martin Luther King Jr. about their own dreams.

Reading: This week I started doing some testing. It is the same testing I did at the beginning of the year.  It has been so fun for me to see the progress they have made.

Social Studies: Last week and this week we have been talking about community. We have discussed ways we can help our class and school communities.  We have also been learning about the roles of different workers in our school. We have had a variety of school employees come into our class and tell us about their jobs. Richard, the janitor, was definitely the favorite.

Phonics: We have been learning how to make words plural.

Art: This week we did some art by tearing paper. We talked a little about perspective and how objects appear smaller when they are farther away.

Let me know if you have any questions.  I’m looking forward to being able to meet with you all again in a couple weeks!

-Miss Jensen