We've Got the Music!!

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.

 

Thank you and email me if you have questions: ldeptula@sd25.org

Len Deptula (Dryden Music Teacher)

“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.”

Aloha! Genius Hour #2

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

Dryden Food Drive

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!

Week of 10/22 in 2-3

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

Today in 2-3

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

The Book Mobile Visits 2nd Grade!

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.

2-3 Reporters Rock!!

Check out the video edition of the Porte Post by our classroom reporters!

Our Week in 2-3

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

Our Week in Review

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!!

- Danielle Porte

Our First Genius Hour

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.

Adios,

Mrs. Porte

Citizenship by Ellie

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.

-Ellie

Porte Post Video Edition

Here are our reporters for the September 28th video edition of the Porte Post.

WE Made Our Mark Because WE MATTER

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!

- Mrs. Porte

Gravity Day by Ellie

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!

-Ellie

We Like to Move It!

As we wrap-up our Motion unit, we wanted to share some photos of the fun we've been having during our experiments!

Our Week So Far by Ellie

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

Our First Field Trip

Hello 2-3 Families!

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!

-Mrs. Porte

READ CALENDARS -- SEPTEMBER

Can you believe that it is OCTOBER already!?!?

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!!!

-Mrs. Porte

Say CHEESE!

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