Bucket Filler!

Tyler was selected as bucket filler of the week and as a participant to turn Mr. Boeve into a human ice cream sundae!  Tyler has been showing Bucket Filler qualities by being a wonderful listener, helping friends, and being respectful to the students, other teachers, and myself.  I've really noticed Tyler's effort to be a good friend and student.  Way to go, Tyler! Keep it up!

 Polar Express Day

Maggie and I dressed in our pajamas with our moose!

Hallie and Rylie

Jake and Braden

Sam began reading the Polar Express to himself and more and more kids began to sit around him to listen to the story, again. :)

 Christmas Party

We had very brave parents willing to participate in the build-a-snowman competition!

Team Kueper snowman!

Team Kueper snow woman! 

Team Cornwall snow woman!

Team Alger snow woman!

Students had to follow directions to draw a snowman on a paper plate without looking at what they were drawing!  We had some very interesting art work! :) 

Just a couple things....

No Word Journeys this week.

We will be having a special lunch on Wednesday in celebration of being Bucket Fillers!  Feel free to join your child at lunch on this day.  It is also our Christmas meal. :)

Christmas Party Thursday afternoon.  Please check your email if you are on the Christmas committee. :)

Letter from The White House

During election time, each student wrote a letter to the candidate of their choice explaining why they thought that person (Barack Obama or Mitt Romney) should be president.  Today, we received a response!! It is very exciting to receive mail from The White House!

FRIENDLY REMINDER:

Please make sure you are sending boots, snow pants, hats, and gloves to school with your child.  When there is snow on the ground, students are not allowed to be off the cement without snow pants and boots. :)

Thursday, December 13th 

This week we are focusing on The Polar Express.  Students are invited to wear their pajamas to school on Thursday!  We will pretend we are boarding the Polar Express train.  We will also enjoy hot chocolate. Students may bring their favorite stuffed animal and a cookie treat to school, if they choose. :)

Friday, December 14th

We will be attending the Nutcracker at the Sami Center at 1:15 p.m.

Thursday, December 20th

Christmas Party at 2:15 p.m.

Friday, December 21st - January 2nd NO SCHOOL

QUESTION :) (If students come to school tomorrow (Dec. 11th) and tell me this question and answer, they may put a cotton ball in their bucket): 
What continent is Germany on?

Concert @ 9 a.m. THURSDAY

Please remember we have our Holiday Concert tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m.  We also have P.E. tomorrow.  Do NOT forget to send tennis shoes to school with your child as many will have fancy shoes on for the concert! :)

Word Journeys!

      

A little water and instant Snow To Go! and we made practicing our spelling words even more fun!

Updates

Second Grade Families,

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  Things get a little crazy getting back into the swing of things after a break from school.   So everyone is on the same page, today is Day 2 (Library/SMART) and tomorrow we have Music/P.E. (Day 3).

Special Dates

FRIDAY, November 30th:          Book orders are due!

Thursday, December 6th:          Winter Concert at the Sami Center 9:00 - 10:00 a.m.
Thursday, December 20th:        Christmas party in our classroom 2:15 - 3:00 p.m.

December 21st - January 2nd:   NO SCHOOL
Thursday, January 3rd:              School resumes

2nd Grade News

We have started talking about our family heritages and will begin discussing holiday celebrations around the world.  We are basing our studies on where our families originated.  A few countries we will be discussing are: America, Germany, Spain, Mexico, and Ireland.  If you have any information about your family heritage, please share it with your child!

We are also having a theme every week up until Winter Break.  The theme this week has been Gingerbread.  We have been reading and comparing the different versions of the gingerbread stories, along with creating our own gingerbread story.  The next three weeks we will be focusing on reindeer, The Polar Express, and The Grinch.

We are working on telling time and money in math class.  If you have a few spare minutes at home, ask your child to tell you what time it is or ask them to give you change for an "item you would pay for".

Bucket Fillers

Alex joined our class about a month ago and has been a great addition!  She is a great friend and is found filling other kids' buckets often!

Sam has been a great example the past few weeks.  He is always volunteering, showing enthusiasm, and has been a great friend to all the kids in our class.  He always raises his hand to participate, too!

Pep Rally

Sending the football team off to the UNI Dome at the pep rally this morning for the Championship game tomorrow.  The McKim's made our class some awesome signs to show off at the pep rally!

Mikayla and Sarah

The football players loved our signs, too!

The sun was a little bright. :)

Decision 2012

The voting booths in our classroom today.  

 

Hannah and Jake casting their votes!

The votes were counted and it was a close race at first, but then Mitt Romney took the lead and won 15 to 6!

Bucket Fillers

Last week's Bucket Filler was Cale!  Cale has been showing characteristics of a bucket filler by being thoughtful and caring.  He has also been respectful to others by listening while others are speaking.

 Allison was named Bucket Filler of the Week today!  She always has a smile on her face and I have heard several times from other students, "Allison filled my bucket."  She is a great friend and has a big heart.

Happy Halloween from 2nd Grade!

Cale, Sam, and Jake getting ready for the parade!

Braden, Drew, and Tommy during the Halloween parade!

Happy Halloween! 

Addisen, Allison, Cale, and Mallory enjoying snacks at the Halloween party!  Thanks again to all the parents who contributed to the party!  We had a blast! :)

Mummy wraps!

Candy corn toss!

Busy, busy, busy...

Our class has been so busy the last couple weeks.  I have seen students grow so much already since the beginning of the school year.  We are currently focusing on the elections and presidents, past and present.  Students have chosen a candidate to represent and are "campaigning" for the person of their choice.  Second graders have so many great ideas and I can't wait to see how everything turns out- from debates to commercials and posters to talk shows.  Their job is to convince the rest of the class to vote for their candidate- Barack Obama or Mitt Romney.

Other Things Going on in Our Room...

Classroom Coin Challenge!  This is a huge fundraiser to help put books into the hands of children in our community.  We will have a collection container in our classroom to collect loose change from students during the week of the book fair.  The classroom in each grade level that collects the most change will receive $25 in free books for their classroom.  Help our class collect the most change!  This will start next Monday, October 29th and end November 8th.

Halloween Party: Next Wednesday, October 31st - Students can wear their costume to school.  They will participate in the parade Wednesday morning and then costumes will be taken off.  We will have our class party at the end of the school day.

Conferences: November 5th and 8th at the time assigned to you (Please send your yellow half sheet back with your student if you have not done so already.)

Bucket Filler

Congrats Mallory!  You truly are a bucket filler! I called all of the previous bucket fillers to a meeting and they decided that Mallory deserved the title last week.  I couldn't agree more!  She is a very caring friend and a great listener.  She is always willing to help anyone in need and is always filling buckets with compliments and good thoughts.

iPads

The iPads are here!!!  They arrived last Friday and we've been using them non-stop!

Connor and Addisen

Tommy and Hannah during social studies yesterday.

Bucket Filler!

Mikayla was named the Bucket Filler of the week, last week.    Mikayla is such a nice friend and is very reliable.  I can always count on her to help another friend in our class.  She is very polite and has great manners. :)  Way to go, Mikayla!

Great Citizens of 2nd Grade

We have some pretty awesome kids in our class.  I told the kids about an old friend of mine that is collecting items to donate to the Children's Hospital in Iowa City.  Her son passed away when he was two from a brain tumor and every year for his birthday she tries to do something in honor of him.  I told the kids that it is their choice if they want to contribute and they were all so willing to help!  All of the students made cards today to give to other children their age.  They are also working on making two blankets to donate, too.  If you have items on the U of I Children's Hospital wish list that you would like to donate, please send them to school by Friday as I will be giving them to her this weekend.

Things I heard the students say: 

"We are filling other people's buckets and we don't even know them!"

"I hope this makes another kid smile."

U of I Approved Donation List Items:
http://www.uichildrens.org/childrens-content.aspx?id=226280
http://www.uihealthcare.org/otherservices.aspx?id=225476

Our Week in Review

Fire Safety at the Fire Station

Practicing getting low if there is a fire or smoke in a building.

Aim the water towards the bucket!

Bucket Filler!

Our bucket filler of the week!  Way to go Maggie!  Always a great listener and friend to everyone in our class!

 Social Studies

Presidential speeches were given by each of the students, as we are learning about the presidents of the past and the election coming up in November!

Book Orders

Book orders!  Our class was able to receive free books for our classroom because we had parents order books online!  Every time you order online (or by paper) we receive points so we can "purchase" books for our classroom, too!!  When you order online, you also receive a $5 free book of your choice!

To order online go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs  

Use our one-time class activation code to register: LB6PH

Time for Math! {Estimating and Rounding}

Estimate the number of seeds in the pumpkin.  Round your answer to the nearest ten. 

What will be the fastest way to count the seeds?  By ones? Twos? Fives?

Put everyone's rounded estimate in numerical order.

Maggie, Sam, Jake, Rylie

Jayden and Mallory

Drew and Gabe

Apparently, ALL pumpkins have about 500 seeds in them, regardless of the size of the pumpkin.  

We counted 518!!