Welcome to our PORTE POST ONLINE NEWS BLOG. We are 2nd graders at Dryden Elementary School in Arlington Heights. On our blog you will get to take a peek into our classroom and read/see what we have been working in 2nd grade.
Today my husband, Jeremy, and my mother-in-law (The other Mrs. Porte) came in to help the kids with a special holiday project. After our project was complete, Jeremy and Kate led us in some holiday songs played on the guitar. It was so much fun! Kate has been working on her guitar skills all fall and she is such a great player. Here are couple video clips and photo of our fun today in 2-3. Happy Holidays!!
I hope you are all doing well. I had some technical issues with our blog last week, but I have been able to resolve everything. Here is a look at what we have been up to the past two weeks.....
LANDMARK PRESENTATIONS
I am so proud of the work the students in 2-3 did on the Landmark Challenge projects. Last week they had the opportunity to share their projects with their classmates. Last Friday, the kids got to do something really special with their projects......the presented their work to Mrs. Johnson's and Miss Giovannini's first grade classroom. What a great experience for the kids in 2-3! We covered so many wonderful US Landmarks. Check out our photo gallery below.
TREASURES UNIT 2 IS A WRAP
Last Friday the kids took their Unit 2 test in Treasures. This unit covered a variety of comprehension strategies, synonyms, antonyms, graph reading, and various grammatical topics. As I mentioned to each family during conferences, this was the last time I would read a test to the class. From now on, the students will be taking their tests independently. We talked about the importance of taking your time, reading the questions carefully, and checking our work twice. The kids have been doing a great job of taking their DOL and Grammar quizzes independently so I am looking forward to watching them continue to progress from developing learners to independent learners.
MR. ROBINSON'S TRIP TO CHINA
We were so excited to have Mr. Robinson visit us to talk about his trip to China. We learned about the culture, food, and what school is like for students in China. Did you know that since students in China have such long school days they stay over at school on Monday-Thursday!?!?! Thank you Mr. Robinson for telling us about your trip to China.
HOLIDAYS AROUND THE WORLD
This week we started about new social studies unit learned about December holidays around the world. This week we learned about Christmas, St. Nick's Day, and Hanukkah. This unit provides us with such a great opportunity to expand our world focus and learn about other cultures. I believe that music is such an important part of a culture so for each type of holiday we have/will learn about, I have been playing music that accompanies what we are studying. Today we listened to a Hanukkah channel and sang, Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel.
PORTE POST REPORTERS
Checkout our fabulous reporters in action!
IN OTHER NEWS
Last week my brother, Colin, spent an afternoon with us to see what life in 2nd grade is like. He enjoyed seeing all the learning in 2-3 and interacting with the kids.
We had Mystery Reader visits today and last Friday! They were awesome! Don't forget to check out our Mystery Reader page to see photos!
Thank you Mrs. Woodland for letting me know that the app, MyCreate is FREE TODAY!! MyCreate is a stop animation app using the iPad camera. Thank you Mrs. Woodland for sharing this with us!
I'm looking forward to meeting with you all next week! Here is the latest news from our classroom..
Report Cards
You will find your child's report card and the MAP test scores in the envelopes that were sent home today. Please make sure to look these over before we meet so that we can go over any questions or comments you may have. Please sign and return the report card folder. We will use the same folder throughout the year. You can bring them to conferences if you would like. I am happy to start collecting them right away!
And the Winner Is..............
Last week we had our own classroom election where we chose our new class pet (stuffed of course!). The kids have been working very hard on their Citizenship unit and have learned about the election process. The kids chose the candidates, created campaign posters, and gave speeches for their stuffed candidates. The class even filled out their very own Voter Registration Cards before filing into the voting booth to cast their ballot. Check out the slideshow of photos and the campaign speeches below.
Oh wait, you probably want to know what pet won.......Class, take it away!!
Mayor Mulder Visits 2nd Grade
Last Friday Mayor Mulder also took time out of her busy schedule to come and visit the 2nd grade classes. We talked about the Presidential election, our local elections, and the duties of the Mayor. Here are some photos from her visit with us.
Treasures
It's hard to believe that next week is another review week for Treasures and the class will complete their Unit 2 Treasures test. This week in Treasures, we worked on a variety of blends that make the long O sound....oa, ow, oe. We also continued working on singular possessive, plural possessive, and plural nouns. This is a very tricky concept to grasp and is something that will take continual practice. The kids are working very hard on this though. After the Unit 2 test, the kids will begin taking their tests individually. Up until this point I have read and explained the tests to them. Now that they are familiar with the process and expectations, they will be working independently on the tests. I will be reinforcing that they take their time and double check their work.
Scholastic Book Orders
This week I sent home a few different Scholastic orders. With the holidays around the corner, I often have parents who want to order books as holiday presents. If you want to order something without your child knowing, just let me know and I will arrange for you to pick-up the book order without them knowing! Please submit your orders online or to me by November 30th to ensure delivery before winter break.
Math
The kids are continuing to work hard on their math facts. I know I say this all the time, but PRACTICE MAKES PROGRESS! Having your child practice their facts at home using the Everyday Math login information, XtraMath, or other means of practice are so important for their continued growth. Having a solid grasp of these skills will make the transition to subtraction much smoother this winter. We have also been practicing how to make change by counting up. This strategy encourages the kids to start with the total cost and count up to the amount they paid with to determine how much change they should receive. You will also notice that in chapter 4 some of the problems will have multiple steps. Answering these types of problems takes quite a bit of practice to master. I have been reinforcing to the class that it is not important how fast you finish your work, what is important is taking the time to double check your work to avoid silly mistakes and errors.
I wish you all a safe, relaxing, and wonderful Thanksgiving break. I look forward to see you next week at conferences!
Our classroom blogger, Sara, would like to tell you a little bit about our week....
We got a new class pet. It is a penguin. We watched the 3rd grade musical. We did a fall project. We made a tree. We said different things we were thankful for..our family, our friends, our world. We had a great week!
Hello 2-3 Families! I told you last weekend that this was going to be a busy week and it sure was!! We had so many wonderful things going on in and out of the classroom. Here's a look at our week in 2-3.
CONFERENCES
Thank you to everyone who has turned in their conference form so far. They are due on Monday (November 5th) so please make sure to send them back with your child on Monday if you have not done so. Attached to the conference form was an optional survey for you to fill out about what YOU would like talk about at conferences. Our time together is so important and goes by quickly so I want to make sure I cover the topics that are important to both of us. I am looking forward to meeting with all of you!
BREAKING NEWS.....2nd GRADE MUSICAL ROCKS!
To say the 2nd grade crew is talented would be an understatement! I am so proud of the incredible performance 2-3 gave during the musical. I was so proud to see all the kids sing, 7 Continents Make Our Globe, which is a song I wrote a couple years ago. Check out the photo gallery and special video clips that Mr. D put together for the musical. GREAT WORK KIDS!!
VAMPIRES, and NINJAS, and SUPER HEROES....OH MY!!
We had so much fun during our Halloween parade and party! Thank you to our volunteers and Room Moms for organizing such a great party for the class. There were treats, games, and even a dance party with Mrs. Sessler. Check out our slideshow below.
THANK YOU MISS O'DONNELL
Today was our last day with our D214 student, Miss O'Donnell. She has been a wonderful member of our classroom for the past 10 weeks. We are sad to see her leave, but wish her all the best in her future studies. The kids created a book of letters telling her what they enjoyed most during her time here and the advice they have for her if she becomes a teacher! Thank Miss O'Donnell for being a part of our class this fall. You are always welcome to come and visit.
TREASURES
This week in Treasures we took a trip to the ER with our story from Time for Kids. We had a great discussion about visiting the ER using real life stories from some friends in class. We also continued our discussion on how a story can be segmented into what happened “first, next, then, and last.” Understanding the sequence of a story is an important part of comprehension in 2nd grade! We had a GREAT grammar week this week. We are continuing to work on making singular nouns plural (because PRACTICE MAKES PROGRESS!!). The students were also introduced to proper nouns. A proper noun names a specific person, place, thing, month, or day. The class has worked very hard this week in grammar and it is a concept we will continue to work on throughout the year!
FIRST TRIMESTER ASSESSMENTS
This week I began giving the 2nd graders a variety of first trimester assessments to see how their skills have grown in math, writing, and spelling. The class has been working so hard since school has started and I am very proud of their growth. The end of the first trimester is next Friday, November 9th. Progress Reports will go home on Friday November 16th. Your child must be here in order to receive their report card.
UPCOMING DATES TO REMEMBER:
Tuesday November 6th: NO SCHOOL Friday November 16th: REPORT CARDS GO HOME Monday November 19th: Conferences Tuesday November 20th: Conferences Wednesday November 21st-Friday November 23rd: NO SCHOOL Have a safe and happy weekend! -Danielle Porte
Tomorrow night is the 2nd grade musical! Here is some helpful information from Mr. D about the festivities...
The evening performance is tomorrow, Tuesday, October 30th @ 7pm.
Children should come to school that day wearing Fall-colored shirts and jeans (or dark pants).
The students should be at the school no later than 6:45pm and the doors to the school open at 6:30pm. The students will be led to their classrooms at 6:40pm.DO NOT come before that or you will have to wait outside. The reservation of seats are not allowed at anytime. (except for the family that won them in the 2011 Progressive Party Gift Winner) All "other" seats are first-come, first-served.
“Individuals with disabilities should notify the Building Principal if they have a disability that will require special assistance or services. Please give the building principal advance notice of 24 hours. Thank you.”
Hello 2-3 Families! Here is a look at our second Genius Hour in 2nd grade. This time we traveled to the beautiful island of Hawaii. The topics the kids chose to research this time were....Surfing, hula dancing, pineapples, about Hawaii, volcanoes, and humpback whales. Just as we did during Genius Hour #1, we used the FlipSnack website to conduct our research. This time, the students created a video presentation using the iPad App, StoryRobe. This app allowed the students to use Google to select an image that would represent their research, save it to their photos, and then import that photo into StoryRobe. The students would then record their voices to create a slideshow presentation. This was a great app to use and I am looking forward to having the students work with it again. Check out their final projects below. This Friday we will travel to Morocco so stay tuned for our next Genius Hour recap. Mahalo! - Danielle Porte
We are continuing to spread the message of empowering our students to make their mark on our world. The kids have the opportunity help show others that THEY MATTER by participating in the Dryden Food Drive. This drive will take place from October 29th-November 15th. Check out the flyer below for more information and what items are most needed. Thank you for supporting our community! YOU MATTER!
Hello 2-3 Families! To say this week has been busy is an understatement! Just wait until next week :) It has been a busy week filled with learning and fun. Here is a look at what we were up to.
TREASURES
This week our Treasures Unit on focused on “Animal Rescue.” We discussed how sometimes animals need people to help them in order to survive. Our main story selection this week was called, “A Seal Pup Grows Up.” Sidney the seal pup lost her mother and is very hungry. When people notice the lost pup on the beach, they call the wildlife patrol to save her! We learned the different ways the staff nursed Sidney back to health. Our comprehension element again for this week focused on SEQUENCING. While I love sparkly sequins, the word sequencing means something different. When you are sequencing events, you are putting the story in order of “FIRST, NEXT, and LAST.” We will continue to work on this skill in greater depth next week. During grammar this week, we learned about plural nouns. Plural nouns means that there is more than 1 of something. We learned that when the word ends in an s, x, sh,or ch we add an –es to make it plural. Ask your child to sing you the little reminder when the word ends in y (except when preceded by a vowel).
MATH
This week in Math we worked on the topics of time and money. The class is doing such a great job of telling time. We discussed how both analog clocks and digital clocks help us tell time. We are going to continue practicing these topics throughout the year. Counting money and making change can be challenging topics. When making change, I taught the kids to use the counting up strategy. They will take the total of their purchase and then count up to the amount they paid to find what the total is. The kids really enjoyed working on the Making Change activity sheet that used their classmates in the story problems. To continue reinforcing this skill at home, talk about shopping and making change at home. Let your child use actual coins to practice with.
CELEBRATING EID
This Friday was the Muslim holiday, Eid-al-Adha. We were so lucky to have Mrs. Gavin come in and speak with us about this wonderful celebration of sharing. The themes of sharing and friendship that are celebrated during Eid-al-Adha tied in perfectly with our celebration of Red Ribbon/Character Counts week this week. Mrs. Gavin gave a wonderful presentation with photos to inform the class about this important holiday. She also gave each student their own candy bag to take home since presents are exchanged during Eid. Per Dryden policy, these were store bought candies so you can see the ingredients. The students were not allowed to eat anything until they brought their bags home. Thank you so much Mrs. Gavin for teaching us about Eid Today.
A NEW PAGE FOR OUR MYSTERY READERS and STAR STUDENT!
I have created a new tab that is just below the main picture of our blog that will take you to the slideshows of our Mystery Readers and our STAR STUDENTS. We are so lucky to have so many parents/family members sign-up to be a part of our Mystery Reader program. Check out their photo galleries and what they read to the kids in 2-3. Thank you Mrs. Erickson and Mrs. Nicioli-Douglas for being our first two Mystery Readers. The Star Student gallery will launch next week.
OUR COMMUNITY HELPERS RESEARCH PROJECT
During the past couple weeks, the 2nd graders at Dryden have been learning about jobs in our community that help us. Mrs. Dufern and Mrs. Powers created such a research project for the kids. They were broken up into 5 groups: Firefighters, Mail Carriers, Nurses, Librarians, and Park District workers. The kids created wonderful KWL charts that also included a column with the letter H that represented HOW they were going to find the information to their questions. Yesterday, we were lucky enough to have members of each of the 5 community worker areas come and speak with the kids. Next week, the entire 2nd grade team will present their community worker job research to each other. Such a great project to showcase how important these jobs are to our community and what our taxes support. Thank you again to our parent volunteers and Mrs. Dufern and Mrs. Powers for creating such a great project.
SPELLING
Just like I am creating a new Mystery Reader page, I will also be creating a SPELLING page. Each Monday afternoon, I will post the spelling list for the week. That way, if your child misplaces the list during the week, you will have access to the spelling words.
LOOKING AHEAD:
Tuesday 10/30: 2nd grade muscial at 7PM -- Students in 2-3 will meet in Miss Chiappe's class. Please take your child's coat with you before they go down to Miss Chiappe's room. Tuesday 10/30: Conference confirmation forms go home. I was a week ahead of myself last week, I apologize! Please send back the slip I send home on Tuesday confirming your time by Friday November 2nd. I look forward to meeting with all of you! Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade at 1:15. Mr. Robinson and Mrs. Sessler have sent out the guidelines for celebrating Halloween safely at Dryden. Please make sure your child's costume is appropriate safety-wise and that they are dressed for cold weather. We will be walking through the neighborhood and it is only supposed to be 46 degrees on Wednesday. Friday 11/2: Conference confirmation forms are due. Have a safe and warm weekend! Remember, PRACTICE MAKES PROGRESS! - Danielle Porte
Please welcome Matty, our classroom blogger!! We learned about what happens if there is a tie in the Presidential election. We also had Art Appreciation today. We learned about Michelangelo. He liked sculpting better than painting. Today we pretended that we were Michelangelo by lying on our backs under our desks and drawing a picture that was taped to our desk. I thought it was kind of hard and painful to our back and kind of to our head. That's what happened in 2-3 today! -Matty
It may have been a gloomy day, but we were so excited that the AHML Book Mobile visited Dryden today! Miss Teri and Miss Julie gave us an awesome tour and told us lots of interesting things about the Book Mobile. If you would like to see where and when it is in your neighborhood, you can visit http://ahml.info/services/bookmobile . The students who had library cards were able to check out 2 books or 1 book and another type of media. These items can be returned directly to the AHML.
Hello 2-3 Families! I hope you have all enjoyed this beautiful fall weekend. Here is a look at what we were up to this week....
CONFERENCES
I know it's hard to believe, but conferences are less than a month away!! On Tuesday, your child will be sent home with your conference date and time that has been assigned to you. Please sign the confirmation sheet and return it back to school with your child.
POLICE DEPARTMENT FIELD TRIP
The weather was on our side for our walking trip to the Arlington Heights Police Station. Thank you to Ms. Bae, Mrs. Erickson, Mrs. Lytle, and Mr. Pancerz for joining us on our trip to the police department. A big THANK YOU to Officer Doug for giving us such a great tour of the station. We are so lucky to have such a dedicated group at the police station who protect us every day! The highlight of our trip was meeting police dog Marco! He was so kind and playful with the kids. We were ALL very excited to meet him. Check out the slideshow of our fun field trip.
CHARACTER COUNTS/RED RIBBON WEEK
Tomorrow launches our week of celebrating making healthy choices and showing good character. We know that in order to be good citizens of our community, we need to show good character and make healthy choices in our life. Tuesday's pillar will be CARING and we are encouraging everyone to wear RED on Tuesday. Friday's pillar is CITIZENSHIP and we would like to see everyone in their Dryden/Red and White gear to show our pride for being citizens of Dryden! Throughout the week we will be learning about how to make good choices when it comes to treating people and taking care of our bodies. On Wednesday and Thursday we will be taking a tally in the lunchroom of who brings fruit and vegetables in their lunches!!! While it is always important to include fruits and/or veggies in your lunch, we are encouraging the kids to make sure their lunches have fruits and veggies for our friendly lunchroom competition on Wednesday and Thursday.
MATH UNIT 2
Last week we wrapped up unit 2 in math. The kids are continuing to work hard on their math facts. In the next couple weeks, the class will make taking their FIRST TRIMESTER math test that covers ALL of the topics that we have covered so far this year. I continue to remind the kids that they need to take their time and double check their work to avoid silly mistakes.
HOMEWORK REMINDER
Each Monday, I send home a Fluency Log and new spelling list with your child. They should be reading the Fluency Log every day and choose 1 day to answer the questions. The kids should also be working on their spelling words each night using the green activity sheet I provided everyone with at the beginning of the year. Remember, PRACTICE MAKES PROGRESS! -Mrs. Porte
Hello 2-3 Families,
The students of 2-3 have been so busy! Here is look at what they have been up to...
Treasures Unit 1 is DONE! This week was our Unit 1 review week in Treasures. On Friday, the class took their first Unit test. This test is similar to the bi-weekly tests they have been taking. This one is about double the length of the bi-weekly test. Since it was their first time taking a Unit test, I read the test to the class. I will read the bi-weekly and Unit 2 test to the class as well and then beginning with Unit 3, they will take the tests on their own.
Bus Evacuation On Thursday we had a BUS EVACUATION DRILL. During this drill, each class boards the bus and is instructed by a bus driver about what the students should do in case there was an emergency on the bus. I was very proud of the class for being able to answers the driver's questions about what they should do in emergency.
Citizenship As Ellie mentioned in her blog post this week, we began our Citizenship unit. During this unit, the class will have the opportunity to learn about how we can be good citizens of our community and what our government is all about. The kids created a wonderful KWL chart this week where they listed what the Know about citizenship, what they Want to know about citizenship, and as we go they will fill in what they have Learned about citizenship. On the 17th of October, the class will have a special research time in the library where they will learn about various jobs that people have in our community. Thank to my parent volunteers who will be helping out with this research project! On Friday, October 19th, we will be visiting the AH Police Department. This is a walking field trip so please make sure to dress your child appropriately for the weather. Right now it is supposed to be 50 with a chance of rain.
Progressive Party Project Thank you Mrs.Woodland and Mrs.Colias for putting together an AMAZING project for the Progressive Party. If you have not seen the raffle prize yet, here are some photos. Mrs. Woodland created the most adorable "Countdown to Halloween" calendar and Mrs. Colias put together a cauldron of Halloween goodies that everyone will love. I sent home tickets entries with each student last week. Please join the raffle for our class project!!
Hello 2-3 Families, In September, I introduced you all to our Genius Hour project. I am amazed by your children each day! There was lots of planning and preparation that wen into our first Genius Hour. In order to prepare them for our first project, each student was given their own genius badge to wear while conducting research....
Genius Hour is ALL about what the students want to learn about and for our first GH, the kids would be researching various topics about.....MEXICO! The class was split into 6 groups. Each group had its own topic to research. The topics that were researched about Mexico during our first Genius Hour were: Facts About Mexico, Chihuahuas, Quesadillas, Iguanas, the San Quintin Kangaroo Rat, and Mexican Food.
In order for the students to safely conduct their research online for this topic, I did some work in advance to prepare for the day. My colleague, Mrs. Yanong, introduced me to the amazing website, Flipsnack. Using this website, I was able to create a webpage that included links to websites I had already deemed safe for the kids to use for their research. The kids were able to easily navigate the links to conduct their research. I also created GH packets for the kids to compile up to 10 interesting facts they found on their topic.
Now that the kids were ready to conduct their research, we had to set the mood for Mexico! We played Mariachi music while we worked and also projected a huge photo of my Chihuahua, Hua, on the white board for the kids to enjoy......she was ready for a fiesta!
Not only did the class work to compile up to 10 interesting facts about their topic, they also had to come up with a background design they wanted to use when shooting their pictures with Patches, Hermie, and Funky Monkey on the green screen. This was so much fun! The kids pictures started out like this...
and ended up looking like this......
The best thing about the Genius Hour project is seeing the kids have control of their learning. They are the ones who think of the topics they are going to research, what photos they want to use, and the information they choose to present to their classmates. I am amazed and inspired by what these kids can do!
We are gearing up for round 2 of Genius Hour this week when we research.....HAWAII. Before I say ADIOS, check out our slideshow of the kids working on their Mexico Genius Hour.
Today we learned about our government and how people should respect each other. We also put all of our stuff we learned about Mexico on our Genius Hour board. We presented our facts to the rest of the class. Mrs. Porte put our pictures on the white board behind us and made them so big. When we came into our classroom this morning it was all decorated for Halloween. That is what we did today in 2-3.
On September 14th, we celebrated International Dot Day with over 500,000 other students around the world. Using Peter Reynolds book, The Dot, we talked about the importance of being brave and making our own mark on the world. I am currently working on editing a video that shows how our ENTIRE school celebrated, but I wanted to post the clip of 2-3 and their class celebration. I have a classroom full of amazing children who know how important they are to this world. I'm so proud of them!
Today we learned about gravity. We dropped balls to see which one hit the ground first. It was really fun for us. We learned that they will hit at the same time because of the gravity. We also experimented to see which ball would make the biggest mark in the sand. The heavier ball made the bigger mark in the sand. Our high school teacher, Miss O'Donnell helped us with our experiment today. Today we had an awesome day with our awesome teacher!
Welcome to 2-3! This week are learning about motion. We are using a push or a pull to move all of our stuff. We experiment with our friends a lot! We're also getting to do a blog. We also made dots in our classroom that mean we are special. I'm looking forward to choosing our new class pet when we learn about voting. In Treasures we are learning about new stories. Some are fiction and some are nonfiction. That's what we're doing in 2-3! -Ellie
Just wanted to make you aware that a field trip permission slip went home with your child today. We will be visiting the Arlington Heights Police Department on Friday October 19th. Please make sure to sign the permission slip and send it back to me with your child. This is a walking field trip so make sure to keep an eye on the weather forecast that day! Looking forward to learning how the police department protects our community!
Today the September READ Calendars were due. If your child did not turned their calendar in today, please make sure they do so tomorrow! I am so proud of 2-3 for working so diligently on their reading minutes! WAY TO GO!!!
Today was Picture Day for Dryden. I loved seeing all my friends with their best smiles for their photos. If your child did not bring in a picture order form today and you are still interested in having pictures, you will need to contact Life Touch Studios Directly. You can do so at....(630) 910-6800 or go to lifetouch.com
Today we did our first rotation of centers. I did the writing center and wrote about FALL. We also did MOTION today. We used marbles, string, tubes, straws, and tape to make a car move. Eden and I used the tape and put it on the tube. We attached the tube to the lunch bin and we put the car at the bottom of the tube ramp. We dropped the marble down the tube and the marble made the car move forward.
Hello 2-3 Families and Friends, Dryden School is a finalist in the Stemie Awards and has the opportunity to win $15,000 worth of iPads for our school all because of our AMAZING art teacher, Mrs. Fuglestad. Voting ends on Wednesday, so PLEASE take a moment and VOTE FOR DRYDEN!!!
This week, Ryan is our classroom blogger. He will be keeping you posted on some things going on in our classroom this week. Everyone welcome, RYAN!!! Today in 2nd grade we learned about the Constitution because it is Constitution Day. The Constitution is the law of our country. We also did our spelling test and had our first math test. We did grammar too. We were hoping that it would thunderstorm because Mrs. Porte has a special book to read to us during a storm. Have a great night! -- Ryan
