School Survey

Please click this link to take our 2nd grade survey- 2nd grade students only!

2nd Grade Survey

Summer Camp Opportunity

Hi families!

As our science teacher and parent to a science loving child, I've been on the look out for science education opportunities in our area. One that I found, and signed my son up for, is Camp Invention, created by the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The closest location in our area is Lothian Elementary. Check it out if you're looking for a fun, STEM focused summer camp!

http://campinvention.org/

Finland!

Hello everyone!

Today, I'm off on the journey of a lifetime to Helsinki, Finland! I'm going with a cohort of educators from Notre Dame of Maryland University to study the highly ranked curriculum and schools in Finland. The Finnish school system is quite different from ours- for example, students do not start school until the age of 7 and most are finished school for the day shortly after lunch time.

I'll be posting pictures and information about our observations and experience on a blog for my NDMU class at www.NDMFinland.blogspot.com. Please feel free to check it out!

I will be missing three CCPS school days, but the wonderful Mrs. Donaldson will be taking over in my place. If you have any urgent questions or concerns during the days directly after Spring Break, please refer them to the BES front office. Thank you!

Free Books for Kids this Summer!

Check out this article about the Barnes and Noble Summer Reading Program!  https://www.thebalance.com/barnes-and-noble-summer-reading-program-for-kids-1356824

Spring Updates

We are moving full speed into spring! In Math, we are continuing our study of place value by practicing using 2 digit numbers in addition and subtraction and working with three digit numbers. We will also soon be working on counting coins, repeated addition, and adding 3 two digit numbers.

In Social Studies, we just wrapped up our My American Life culture project. The kids did a fantastic job brainstorming, writing, editing, and creating final drafts of their projects. They even presented them to the class and took time to answer some of their classmates' questions. Next, we will be learning about national symbols and monuments to help prepare for our May 1st trip to Washington, D.C.

In Science, we just started a new unit on magnets and magnetism. Students are learning about the scientific terms attract and repel and are doing in class experiments to learn more about the properties and uses of magnets.

Online Math Games

Hello everyone!

Here are some great websites with games to practice our current math topics:

3 Digit Place Value Game : Penguin Place Value Games
Addition and Subtraction Baseball
Hundreds Chart Game
Lifeguard Place Value
Base Ten Modeling

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.

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! 

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.

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.

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.

 

Our Back to School Night Prezi Presentation

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!

What a wonderful year!

A free slideshow by Smilebox

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

We love our community!

The holiday season is a time for giving, but many of us (especially our kids!) think of the getting first! This year, as part of our ELA and Social Studies units on communities, we decided to take some time to give back to our community. Our second graders brought in donations for our local animal shelter, including towels, cleaning supplies, pet food, and toys! Due to some availability issues with our original recipient, we will be donating our supplies to the Humane Society of Calvert County. Thank you to the volunteer staff at the Humane Society for all of your hard work taking care of the animals in our community.

Another way that we decided to give back to our community was by creating Christmas and holiday cards for the senior citizens that visit the North Beach Senior Center. Many seniors live by themselves and may not have family to visit over the holidays. The Senior Center is a wonderful place for seniors who live an active and social lifestyle. Two visitors from the Center, Mr. and Mrs. Etchison, stopped by to pick up our cards and thank our classes for their caring and effort. They also answered quite a few questions about the Senior Center and I think many of our students would like to visit once they're over that 55 mark!

Have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.  I hope that you're all able to use this break to rest and spend time with family and friends.

November Update

Can it really be November 13th? Wow, time sure flies when you're having fun!

In Math:

We have been reviewing and extending the math skills that we learning in first grade, including our fact fluency, addition and subtraction within 100, data and graphing, shapes, and place value. These skills may seem easy, but they are truly the building blocks for the more advanced math that we will be doing this year and that your child will be doing through high school and college!

In the next few weeks, we will be focusing on addition and subtraction to 20, including adding and subtracting 2 digit numbers and adding up to four 2 digit numbers. We will be applying the strategies that we've learned to these greater numbers, focusing on the relationship between place value and addition. We will be story problems by identifying the question, the important information, and the operation required.

In Science:

We completed our first unit, Animals of Long Ago. Students studied fossils from plants and animals that were native to Calvert County. We discussed how fossils were made and where they've been found. Students completed a research project about an animal of long ago and they created their own pressed "fossils."

Next, we'll be studying life cycles, including the life cycles of the frog, butterfly, chicken, and plant.

In Social Studies:

We've been studying citizenship and communities. Students learned about the qualities of a good citizen, and they learned about different types of communities, such as rural, urban, and suburban. Students became city planners on our field trip to the National Building Museum, thinking about all of the ways we arrange our buildings to function for our citizens.

Next, we will be studying geography and culture while learning about winter holidays around the world.

Three Weeks In...

Wow! I can't believe we're already starting our third week of school, how time flies!

I wanted to take a second to thank everyone for the kind words, concern, and prayers for my daughter, Lily. As I'm sure your child told you, I was out of school last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday due to Lily having eye surgery on Wednesday. She had surgery on both eyes to correct an alignment issue called exotropic strabismus. She is recovering well and the doctor is very happy with her progress so far. Mrs. Brumley, our substitute, tells me that the kids did a great job in my absence and I greatly appreciate that! I think we've got a really good group in our room this year.

So, now, back to business! Here is what we've been up to and where we're heading in the coming days:

In Social Studies, we started the year learning a bit about the qualities of super heroes and heroes, and how those qualities can apply to a "hero" student as well. We talked about a few real life heroes, people who have worked hard and persevered to help make life better for others, through enacting social or legal change, through inventing and discovering, for being willing to break barriers and make our world a better place. We will be adding to our Wall of Heroes throughout the year as we discuss people related to different topics that we're covering.

We also completed a small CCPS Health unit on life skills such as communication, goal setting, and making good decisions.

In Science, we are introducing our first unit of the year, "Animals of Long Ago." This unit focuses on animals of the ice age, especially those whose fossils we can find here in Calvert County. We discuss that scientists use clues, including animals of today, to figure out what an animal of long ago was like.

In Math, we are reviewing addition and subtraction strategies learned in kindergarten and first grade. As part of this review, student have had the opportunity to play a chutes and ladders style game featuring the focus strategy each day. These games will be coming home in students' binders (my homeroom) or in their home folders (Mrs. Seibert's homeroom.) When they come home, please play these together! They can be played independently, but, as with any game, are much more fun when played with friends and family. Students should write the equations they solve, with answers, on a recording sheet. When they turn in a completed recording sheet they will earn a Beach Bravo. This is an unlimited offer! The more practice, the better!

We are also taking a fact fluency test each day as a pretest. If students pass these tests with a ten out of ten, fantastic! This tells me that they've already mastered this strategy and will not have to retake the test or spend class time studying this strategy. However, if your student does not pass the test on the pretest, no worries! When we finish our reviews in the next week or so, we will return to the strategies that we need to work on. Students will have many opportunities to pass their fact fluency timed tests throughout the year. Practice at home is essential! Board games, flash cards, pick up sticks, and XtraMath are all great practices!

Our first math homework came home today! Please remember that each week you will receive something from me at the beginning of the week, either the weekly homework or a letter explaining why there is no homework!

I hope you've enjoyed our first few weeks. Over the course of our year, if you ever have any questions or concerns, please let me know. My email address is grenierc@calvertnet.k12.md.us. Our school phone number is 410-257-1512.

Schedule

Our daily schedule, on a regularly scheduled day, will go as follows:

8:40-8:55 Arrival
8:55-9:15 Morning Work and WBES
9:15-10:00 Resource
10:00-12:00 Integrated Literacy (Reading & Language Arts)
12:00-12:30 Lunch
12:30-1:00 Recess 
1:00-1:30 Flex Time (Will begin at a later date)
1:30-2:15 Science or Social Studies
2:15-3:30 Calendar Math & Math
3:30-3:40 Pack Up and Check Out
3:40-4:05 Dismissal

Our Resource Schedule




Today we started with an A day. The schedule will follow A-E, skipping over planned days off. In the event of an unplanned day off, we will miss that resource day as the rotation will stay the same. 

A: Media
B: P.E.
C: Art
D: Music
E: P.E.

Welcome to the 2015-2016 school year!

It's that time again, the beginning of a brand new school year! This is a wonderful time of the year, full of potential, kids hoping to make new friends and great first impressions, and a full schedule of things to learn and discover. I am so excited to meet our new students and to get started on all of the important work we have in store for 2nd grade.

Throughout the year I'll be posting updates here on our website, and you'll also find links to many of the sites we use for math enrichment.

Take some time to explore the site! If you have any questions or concerns at any time, please let me know! Email me at grenierc@calvertnet.k12.md.us, call me at 410-257-1512, or get in touch through our Bloomz app!