The Beach by Jahfar

I went to the beach with my dad. The waves were huge. I got barreled. I had fun. Little John got there. Levi was excited.

Levi had to go to the store. He got sad. We stayed. A lot of other people left too. We had fun. After the beach Ayden came over. We rode scooters and caught air.

We had a slumber party. We woke up again. Then we went back to the beach. We surfed again. Levi kept on falling. We had fun. He didn’t go all the way out.

We got back from the beach. We went skateboarding.

My Pool by Ethan

I got a new pool. I like to dive off the diving board. Sometimes I do flips off the diving board. I really like to hold on to the diving board and hang so half of my body is in the water.

My mom ordered it. I like it a lot. It is ten feet deep. It is the most fun ten foot pool ever. One time I did five summersaults in a row.

It was really awesome. Anthony and Hannah had a
competition. It was so cool. Anthony started to win but then Hannah won and Anthony said, “I want a rematch.” Hannah said, “OK.” I was going say the same thing. I had a plan! I'm going to put so much soap inside the pool and then I'm going to mix it up with the wheel pumper. It was a really good idea.
Anthony won! At last it’s a tie I said.

My Birthday by Jasmine

This is my birthday party. They are my friends. All the people are my
best friends. I have many more friends though. My birthday was the 23 of August. The party was at my home. My party was in butterflies. My mom’s friend let us use one of their tents. We had one, too. Ours is blue. Theirs was green and white.

When I got there I played with one toy I got for my birthday. It was two of my Barbies. There was a little one and a big one. It was a school set. I like it. It is fun.

I like all my other presents. I had a lot of presents. I like my outfit that I wore yesterday. My Uncle Dale and his girlfriend got me that. The top was blue the bottom was brown. I had a bet it was brown. It had flowers. The flowers were all different colors like purple and pink. It was very beautiful. There were squiggles. The squiggles were a light brown.

There were a lot of people. Some were in my family. Four of them came except the two that live with me and my sisters, Julie and Jackie. My cake was chocolate. The icing was vanilla. The cake was good. I had ice cream. The ice cream was chocolate and vanilla and strawberry. The ice cream was good. Very good. I think everyone liked it. All the chocolate ice cream was all gone. The strawberry was almost gone. The vanilla was not gone but it was almost gone. I liked all the ice cream, but I just had chocolate.


I had three kinds of drink. One was green and one was orange and one was red. The drink was very good. I only had the green one. My mom and I went to Dollar Tree and when you walked in the drink was right there. The cake was from Food Lion up in Avon. I like the drink. I think that everyone liked the drink. All of the green was gone.

My cousin came. She did not play with us that much because none of my friends would pass my big beach ball.

Bad Dog by Olivia

My dog dropped the lamp then he got in his bed. When he got out of his bed he got water and he got food too. Then we took him outside to play ball. Then we took him inside.

Then I took him outside and we jumped on my trampoline together. Then we took turns. Then we went to get a drink. Then I went back outside to play in the water hose.

My Cousins by Jordan

My cousins are coming on October 11. My cousins are staying for one week. We are going to have fun. We are skateboarding and my cousins are going to skateboard too. One is 11. One is eight. One is seven.

Last time they were here we went to skateboard. When we went I went first down the half pipe. Then all of them went down the half pipe. It was the first time they had ever done it before. We went down the half pipe.

Then we went back home and we played my new game on my Game Cube. It is called Need For Speed Underground 2. It was a fun game. My cousins and I played my Game Cube. I let my cousins play it.

Then we went to ride my bike. I did a wheelie. It was cool. Then they all did it.

Going Batty!

This week we will concentrate on bats. We are going to complete a bat webquest to help Stellaluna! I know it will be fun!

Fishing by Caitlyn

Yesterday I went on the Miss Hatteras. I caught a big yellow fin tuna. The rest of the people caught Spanish mackerel and bluefish. Everybody was jealous because I caught the biggest fish and they didn’t. I reeled it in all by myself. My mom caught the biggest Spanish mackerel. I fished with Tommy and my friend. She caught the biggest bluefish. It flopped in her hands. Then I picked it up and it flopped in my hands too. But I didn’t drop it like she did. Jasmine was jealous because I didn’t drop it like she did. Jasmine is fourteen and that wasn’t her first time catching a fish. She touches fish all the time. She drops them and they land on her feet. Then I dropped it on my feet. Good thing I was wearing tennis shoes. But, she was wearing flip flops. Her feet were all slimy. She thought that was hideous. I thought that was cool. She got mad at me. She chased me around the boat. After she chased me I got a sip of root beer. Jasmine had Sprite and my mom had water. Tommy had Diet Coke.

Possum Possum Go Away by Sierra

Almost every night a possum comes to my house and my grand mom's house. The dogs start to bark. It gets annoying and I can’t go to sleep.

Over at my grand mom’s house. The possum eats Intruder’s food
and drinks his water. One time I heard something shaking. It was the possum eating Intruder’s food.

Horses by Savannah

My uncle is going to buy horses. Mine is going to be
Lightning. His is going to be Shiloh. We will give them hay. I will give them apples and carrots. I might have a pink saddle. I will go horseback riding on Lightning with my uncle. I will give them a blanket so that they will sleep good.

My Birthday by Rhiannon

I was having my birthday at Toppers on September 21. I had a flower cake and me and my brothers stuck their fingers in it. I had some friends over. My friend Hannah came over and she played with me. Then we went home and I got new clothes and my friend Hannah slept over. It was the best birthday ever. I will remember it.

Turtle Madness by Jack

I caught a snapping turtle yesterday. And I used a piece of hotdog. But he got away. This time I will use a hook. And this time I will use a piece of beef jerky. But this time I caught a tadpole. Just a big tadpole! Then I caught a Russian rat. Then I went home. Then I went back and I caught another snapping turtle and the line did not break. And I saw a snake and a lizard. The snake ate the lizard. I wonder why. Maybe it was hungry.

My Dad Goes to Work by Hunter

My dad goes to New York City. He goes to Alabama, South Carolina, and Long Island, New York. He did one house in Ocracoke and a lot in Hatteras and two in Frisco. He goes to do trim on houses so people have homes to live in.

Family by Carmen

I’m going to be picked up after lunch today because my
family is here. I want to be with them so I get to be with them. I only get to see them once a month.

That is a long time and I only get to see them for three days usually. But this time I get to see them until Monday. I get to see them from Friday to Saturday.

But this time it is longer. It is going to be fun because I will get to see my family. I can’t wait.

Snake Sighting by Brandon

I saw a snake. I stopped. I did not move. Then I went home. Then I came back. It was gone. Then I went back home. I did not want to get bit. I told my grandpa and then I watched TV.

Slumber Party by Belen

Saturday I am having a slumber party at 7:00. I am going to invite all my friends and my cousins too. Jeimy is going to help me make the cupcakes and some snacks and we are going to play games and have pillow fights and watch TV all night. We will watch a movie and we will eat popcorn too. My mom is going to put a movie on at 8:00 at night. We will watch the movie all night long. My mom will put another one on. In the morning we won’t be able to get up.

Fishing by Alastar

Yesterday at the harbor there was a fishing tournament. I
decided that I would fish in it. And I won with a perch with blue stripes. And I won my dad a new t-shirt. And it fit him perfect.

Then we fished at Jon’s. It was exciting when we got there. Straight when I got there I fished. First we fished in day. My brother caught two drums and one speckled trout. Then we fished at night. Jon hooked a big ray that weighed 100 pounds. We had to cut the line because we did not want it to sting us with his big stinger on his tail. And then we had to go to do homework to go to school in the morning.

Camping by Aaron

I went camping. I brought marshmallows. Then I ate one. So did my dad.
Then I played with my toy that I brought. Then I went home. I wanted to camp out one more night.

Publishing!!

We are presently wrapping up our first session in Writer's Workshop. We have been busily writing personal narratives based on our life experiences. The students have produced many wonderful pieces and I have learned quite a bit about everyone's interests. From the many pieces each has developed, only one can be published since authors do not publish every piece they create. After carefully rereading every piece s/he created, each student selected one to "fancy" up and publish. Not only did the selected piece have to be what the student thought was his/her best, it also had to be one the audience would (in this case fellow classmates) like. For this publication, the children are "typing" their texts into the Microsoft Publisher program. The text will be printed out and illustrated by hand. The students must decide how many pages to use to tell the story with both illustrations and words. As the students finish, I will publish the text of each on the blog. I will only use each child's first name and will let the child's family know when it has been published. Please help by leaving positive comments about the piece. Everyone has worked incredibly hard and a tremendous amount of writing has taken place. I am extremely proud of all the children! Way to go!

Weekly Update 9/11/06-9/15/06

Each week I will try to update the blog with news and sites that pertain to what we are learning in class. I will try to provide links to games and nifty information to accompany the topics we are focusing on during the day. :0)

Monday night is the first PTA program of the year. According to the flier, it begins at 6pm. The fifth grade is performing. As the parent of a fifth grader, I'll believe they will be performing patriotic tunes as a tribute to the catastrophe of 9/11. Hope to see you there.

I am also sending home a Scholastic Book Order on Monday. It will be due on Tuesday, Sept. 19th. Please make your checks payable to Scholastic.

Tuesday evening at 6pm is Second Grade Parent Night. Please come to our classroom to see what we do each day. I will be explaining many of the daily procedures and highlighting tips for helping your child succeed in second grade.

Wednesday is an early dismissal day for Staff Development. Students will be released at 12:45. The teachers will remain at school for educational training.

In math we will continue to work on patterns. I have been checking out the web to find some simple activities to provide some additional practice with this skill. The first one is a game called Pattern Mania. It is a simple game that requires students to select which shape should come next in a pattern. The second site provides a video lesson of patterns. The practice sections are decent, but the vocabulary is different than what we use. For instance, the video refers to the pattern unit (as we call it) as the "core of the pattern". Overall, however, it is a good resource. If you stumble across any others, let me know. We will also begin ordering numbers. Basically, we will explore two digit numbers (for now) and put them in order from least to greatest. A good way to practice this skill can be found at AAAmath.com. In the section entitled Ordering Numbers, students can play a game where they must decide whether one number comes before, between, or after two other numbers. Next week we will begin testing how well the students know their addition facts with sums up to 10. AAAmath.com provides practice for this skill as well. You may want to begin refreshing your children's memories by having them visit this site.

In Science we will continue to observe life cycles of living creatures. We presently have tobacco hornworms, ladybugs, and painted lady butterflies in our classroom. We are on the lookout for tadpoles. If you can help us out by bringing some in, let me know. :0) The ants will arrive within the next few weeks.

In Social Studies we are going to begin learning how our families are alike and different. More to come on this later.

In language arts we are learning how to expand our writing using the program established by Lucy Calkins. This year the entire school has a Writers Block where everyone writes. The students love this time of day. We refer to every student as an author and show them what authors do and then provide them with opportunities to put the skills shown during the minilesson to work. This is my first year implementing this program and I am very pleased with the excitement and skill demonstrated by the students so far. Additionally, we are reading a variety of stories and discussing story elements: characters (the who), the setting (where/when), the problem, and the solution. During our read aloud time we have already completed Horrible Harry and the Ant Invasion. The students loved hearing about Harry's escapades so much that they selected another book from the series for me to read during our read aloud.

Thanks for all you are doing to help your child adjust to second grade. Remember to check the homework folder daily. Once a book has been assigned as homework, it will come home every night to be read (except for the weekends). Have a super week!

Welcome!

Welcome to second grade! I am so glad to start the new year with such a wonderful group of students! We are going to have a fabulous year full of fun and learning. I hope you visit the blog often to find out neat sites to visit and information about our class. Please feel free to leave comments. Miss Kristin

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