2H Class Blog!

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Welcome to the World, Colin Richard Healey!

Hello, Amazing Owl Families! My husband, Chris, and I are pleased to introduce you to our healthy baby boy, Colin Richard Healey!

Born Sunday, Mar. 24th, at 9:36PM, Colin weighed 7lbs 10 oz, and measured 20inches long. We are all doing well and getting settled into our new family life :)

We wanted to thank you again for all of the support, kind words, and well wishes (not to mention all the gifts!) you have showered us with over this incredible journey! We look forward to seeing you all soon and wish you well as you finish off your incredible second grade year!

Tucker doesn't mind walking with his little brother :)

Never too young to start reading! Colin sure loves all the books you all gave him! :)

Keep up the hard work! I miss you and look forward to visiting soon! <3

Sunday, March 17, 2019

Mar. 17th News

On Wednesday, Mar. 13th, Peter Kaiser became the first musher to cross the Iditarod finish line in Nome! We enjoyed tracking the race and celebrated as Peter claimed his first, first place finish (after ten tries!)! He finished the race in 9 days and 12 hours.

While the Iditarod may have been won, our IditaREAD is still fully underway! Over the past week, we celebrated several students as they read their way across the finish line.

All our mushers have made it to, or are approaching, the halfway mark and I encourage them to keep on reading! It's quite an accomplishment to be able to say, "I've read 1,000 minutes!" Thank you for your continued support and for helping promote the importance of daily reading. They've all grown SO much as readers!

Highlights from our week:

*Math: Over the past few weeks, our math workshop has centered around telling time. Students have been choosing from a variety of math menu activities allowing them to practice telling time to the nearest five minute mark, understanding AM and PM, and exploring elapsed time word problems. A favorite activity this week was, "What time is it?" Sporting paper watches, the Owls had to approach each classmate and ask, "What time is it?", and then correctly read their watch!

While we'll be wrapping up this unit this week, please continue to provide opportunities for your child to discuss time (it's amazing how unaware they are about what times of day certain activities happen or for how long they happen for!). We've added time card to our schedule to help create an awareness of our school day :)
*5th Grade Buddies: We were back to design engineering with our 5th grade buddies this week! Students were tasked to build a chair, that could support the weight of a stuffed animal "pet", using just two pieces of paper and tape. Nearly every group was successful and each design was creative and unique!

*Saying Good Bye: As you know, I informed the class that my last day will be on Wednesday, Mar. 20th. While I am SO sad to say goodbye to this wonderful group of learners, I am confident they will continue to thrive under the guidance of their long-term guest teacher, Mrs. Brandie Bolduc. Brandie has been spending a lot of time in our classroom and will continue to do so as she becomes familiar with our classroom routines, procedures, and students! We predict a seamless transition :) Again, I truly can't thank you enough for the kindness and support you've given me this year. I can't wait to share with you the news of our new baby's delivery and come back to visit the kids very, very soon!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Have a great week!

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Questions to promote "School Talk":

-What is something you might be doing at 3:30PM? 3:30AM?

-Tell me about our new read aloud, The Tale of Despereaux.

-What is your read goal? Who is in your goal club?

-What did we build with our 5th Grade Buddies this week?

-How is your slideshow coming along? Are you ready to share for your learner-led conference?

-Who is Mrs. Bolduc?

-What did Mrs. Healey share on Friday for show-and-tell?

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Coming Up:

-Scholastic Book Order Due: Monday, Mar. 18th

-Early Release (Parent Conferences): Thursday, Apr. 4th and Thursday, Apr. 11th (sign up here)

Sunday, March 10, 2019

Mar. 10th News

What a wonderful, jam packed week we had back to school! Coming off the vacation week, all of the Owls settled right back into our routine and were ready to work!

Highlights from our week:

*Iditaread: Our Iditaread is well underway! This past week, every musher has made significant progress on their reading journey towards Nome. I have been extremely impressed with each reader’s motivation in this challenge. Keep it up contestants! We’ve also been having a lot of fun closely following the real Iditarod race as those mushers make their way towards Nome as well. Our reading challenge continues until our last musher makes their way to Nome (just like the real race!) Just a reminder, students need an adult signature for each entry and need to turn their reading log in everyday (most have been doing a fantastic job with this!) Please help remind your child of the importance of reading every night. It has been so fun hearing what books are hooking each reader and helping them make their way to the finish line.

*Reading: In this unit, we will continue to "amp up" our reading power! This week we learned that one of the most powerful reading tools we have is.....OUR PARTNER! Students had the opportunity to choose the same book as their partner to practice using this great "tool". Later in the week, each reader was given an "Emergency Reading Tool Kit" equipped with a special pen and lots and lots of post-it notes. One strategy readers can use when they're stuck at a confusing part, or if they want to hold on to important information, is to "stop & jot" their thinking on a sticky note. We had a lot of fun practicing using our tool kits during various shared reading experiences.

Designating a "stopping spot" with your partner is the first step!

Then it's time for a book talk!

Next week, we will review all of the strategies we've learned this year. After creating individual goals, we will create "goal teams" to help each other reach our reading goals!

*Science Buddies: Thank you for sending in snow gear last week. I think I can speak for everyone when I say we were able to complete our most exciting engineering challenge EVER!! Working ALL together, 2H, 2D, and KMM teamed up to build an "igloo" that could house all 60 of us!! It was amazing how quickly our structure came together with all hands on deck! Take a look at their fabulous work!

It's going to be hard to top this design challenge, but we'll certainly try!! :)

*Scholastic Book Orders: March book order forms were sent home early last week. As always, Scholastic's full catalog is available online. Orders are due Monday, Mar. 18th.

*Leaner-Led Conferences: A MAJOR highlight this week (for me as well!) was the preparation we began for our Learner-Led Conferences! While it can be extremely difficult to identify our strengths and areas of growth, these Owls did a TREMENDOUS job owning their learning---they know themselves well! After brainstorming together, they then each wrote their own reflections and have begun creating a Google Slideshow to share with you. After just the first day or two working with Google Slides, these technology savvy kiddos can now independently sign into their Google account, open their slideshow, insert text and images, and have fun customizing the font color and style. Wow! I truly cannot wait for them to share their hard work with you!!

We'll work on finishing up our slides next week so they can begin rehearsing their conferences and be more than ready to share their learning with you! Be on the lookout for a SignUp Genius Link coming your way soon!