Monday, November 14, 2016
Animals of Long Ago
As part of our study of animals of long ago, we've been using a great website, www.fossilguy.com! Check out the area of the site focusing on our own Calvert Cliffs.
Friday, October 28, 2016
PTA Auction
Our "Cooking with Kids" auction basket is ready! Thank you so much to the families who sent in donations for our PTA auction basket. A special shout out to Mrs. Wagner, who assembled all of our items at home and brought them in to add the finishing touches.
Remember, the PTA Auction is Friday, November 4th! We hope to see all of our parents there!
Monday, October 17, 2016
October Fun
Hello families!
Just a reminder that, as we go about our learning and exploring, I'll be adding photos to our class Shutterfly account. Information about the Shutterfly account was sent home earlier this year, and you should have received an email at the address that you signed up with or the address that you put on your child's school forms. I'll be adding photos in files according to the events, however please remember that you an add photos, too!
If you were a chaperone on one of our field trips, or you come in for one of our future in school events, and have pictures to share, you can upload them on the "Family Pictures" album. This way, if there are 3 smiling students in one picture, all three families can download or print a copy. One word of caution: If a photo that you take or download has more than one student's face visible, please check with the other students' families before posting the photo to any social media sites.
Halloween is just around the corner, and BES will be having our annual holiday parade on Monday, October 31st. A detailed schedule will be sent home in the next week! We would love to have a few class volunteers that afternoon to help everyone get ready and to help us celebrate with snacks and a small craft afterwards.
Just a reminder that, as we go about our learning and exploring, I'll be adding photos to our class Shutterfly account. Information about the Shutterfly account was sent home earlier this year, and you should have received an email at the address that you signed up with or the address that you put on your child's school forms. I'll be adding photos in files according to the events, however please remember that you an add photos, too!
If you were a chaperone on one of our field trips, or you come in for one of our future in school events, and have pictures to share, you can upload them on the "Family Pictures" album. This way, if there are 3 smiling students in one picture, all three families can download or print a copy. One word of caution: If a photo that you take or download has more than one student's face visible, please check with the other students' families before posting the photo to any social media sites.
Halloween is just around the corner, and BES will be having our annual holiday parade on Monday, October 31st. A detailed schedule will be sent home in the next week! We would love to have a few class volunteers that afternoon to help everyone get ready and to help us celebrate with snacks and a small craft afterwards.
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Dreambox and XtraMath
Hello families!
You may have heard about our new Dreambox Championship competition. I will be taking a look at our Dreambox stats each Sunday and finding the top three students in each class to be named our weekly Dreambox champions!
Now, what does it mean to be the top? I'm looking for quantity and quality when it comes to our Dreambox time. Students must complete at least 5 lessons to be considered for the championship. Beyond the 5 lessons, I am looking for the amount of time spent doing quality work on the site.
Dreambox is a responsive program, which means that it adjusts your students' work and lessons depending on their performance. If a parent or sibling decides to "help out" by doing some of the lessons, Dreambox will think that your child has a firm understanding of the concept and will move onto the next skill. This can cause problems if your student is not truly ready for that next skill!
Conversely, if a little sibling decides to push random buttons and click on random things, the student account will be moved backward because Dreambox will think that your student is having a lot of trouble. It is always best to let students work on their own lessons at their own pace, however you can definitely help them out and coach them through if necessary.
Please be sure to log into Dreambox through our class site, using the link to your right. This will take you straight to the BES Dreambox page and will save a lot of hassle. Also, if your child's birthdate password starts with a 0, some accounts are not using that 0. Try with the 0 first, and if there is a problem, try the same number but without the initial 0. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!
While Dreambox focuses on numeracy, the understanding of numbers and number relationships, XtraMath focuses on fluency. Fluency is the ability to recognize and recall math facts quickly. The CCPS standard for fluency is 3 seconds per problem! In 2nd grade, students are expected to achieve fluency in addition and subtraction facts to 20. XtraMath operates much more like an online set of flash cards, testing students on their ability to solve quickly. When students show fluency in a certain fact, XtraMath will move along to continue their growth.
You may have heard about our new Dreambox Championship competition. I will be taking a look at our Dreambox stats each Sunday and finding the top three students in each class to be named our weekly Dreambox champions!
Now, what does it mean to be the top? I'm looking for quantity and quality when it comes to our Dreambox time. Students must complete at least 5 lessons to be considered for the championship. Beyond the 5 lessons, I am looking for the amount of time spent doing quality work on the site.
Dreambox is a responsive program, which means that it adjusts your students' work and lessons depending on their performance. If a parent or sibling decides to "help out" by doing some of the lessons, Dreambox will think that your child has a firm understanding of the concept and will move onto the next skill. This can cause problems if your student is not truly ready for that next skill!
Conversely, if a little sibling decides to push random buttons and click on random things, the student account will be moved backward because Dreambox will think that your student is having a lot of trouble. It is always best to let students work on their own lessons at their own pace, however you can definitely help them out and coach them through if necessary.
Please be sure to log into Dreambox through our class site, using the link to your right. This will take you straight to the BES Dreambox page and will save a lot of hassle. Also, if your child's birthdate password starts with a 0, some accounts are not using that 0. Try with the 0 first, and if there is a problem, try the same number but without the initial 0. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!
While Dreambox focuses on numeracy, the understanding of numbers and number relationships, XtraMath focuses on fluency. Fluency is the ability to recognize and recall math facts quickly. The CCPS standard for fluency is 3 seconds per problem! In 2nd grade, students are expected to achieve fluency in addition and subtraction facts to 20. XtraMath operates much more like an online set of flash cards, testing students on their ability to solve quickly. When students show fluency in a certain fact, XtraMath will move along to continue their growth.
Code.org
We are learning to code! Some students are currently meeting with me during flex time to learn coding using the website code.org, and others will be meeting with me later in the year! However, all students have access to code.org right now using the link to the right side of our website. Students will scroll down to click on their homeroom class, select their name and their secret password picture, and they are logged in! Follow the lessons to learn computer programming in a fun and educational way.
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Welcome to the 2016-2017 school year!
We've completed our first full week of the 2016-2017 school year! I've so enjoyed getting to know our new students, in both my homeroom family and Mrs. Seibert's friends. We have a lovely group of second graders.
We spent our first week of school getting to know each other, discussing our classroom community and the characteristics of good friends and students, establishing our math routines, and learning about our math centers. I hope my homeroom friends took the time to share their very first weekly letter. If not, please check out the #5 section of the WOW Binder each week to find our weekly letter.
Next week, we will begin using those centers as we start our first math unit on addition and subtraction to 20, place value in the ones and tens, and the differences between odd and even numbers. We will also begin our first science unit on the life cycles of plants, frogs, butterflies, and even chickens!
Schools are closed on Monday for Labor Day. I hope that you and your family have a fun and relaxing day! Tuesday will be an A Day, which means that we will be starting the week with Media. Wednesday is a B Day, P.E., Thursday is a C Day, also P.E., and Friday will be a D Day, Art.
This weekend, I will be working on adding my first group of photos to our class shutterfly site. Once they are uploaded, I will send out the invitation emails.
Have a great weekend!
We spent our first week of school getting to know each other, discussing our classroom community and the characteristics of good friends and students, establishing our math routines, and learning about our math centers. I hope my homeroom friends took the time to share their very first weekly letter. If not, please check out the #5 section of the WOW Binder each week to find our weekly letter.
Next week, we will begin using those centers as we start our first math unit on addition and subtraction to 20, place value in the ones and tens, and the differences between odd and even numbers. We will also begin our first science unit on the life cycles of plants, frogs, butterflies, and even chickens!
Schools are closed on Monday for Labor Day. I hope that you and your family have a fun and relaxing day! Tuesday will be an A Day, which means that we will be starting the week with Media. Wednesday is a B Day, P.E., Thursday is a C Day, also P.E., and Friday will be a D Day, Art.
This weekend, I will be working on adding my first group of photos to our class shutterfly site. Once they are uploaded, I will send out the invitation emails.
Have a great weekend!
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Moon Phases
Here is a great website for checking out the nightly moon phases. It is also interesting to see that we can look at moon phases in the distant past and in the future due to the moon's very predictable moon phase pattern.
http://www.moonconnection.com/moon_phases_calendar.phtml
http://www.moonconnection.com/moon_phases_calendar.phtml
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