Week of June 1st - 3rd
I am not sure what to say in this final email of the year. As the children
and I talked this morning we all felt that this year went by very fast. We
have all been feeling a little sad these past few days, bittersweet memories
as I packed up my classroom and the children saw things being put away for
the summer. We've enjoyed learning about one another as we have our
curriculum. Many good friendships and memories were made this year that each
and everyone of us will carry in our hearts.
The report card envelope which came home today contains some important
information: the report card, the signed conference form, the Important Book
(which I hope will give much pleasure to the children as a keepsake) and some
ideas for summer activities.
I would like to say Thank you to all of you for your unending support as we
worked as a team; I could not have done it without your help and it is very
much appreciated. You all Rock!!!!! So as I say goodbye I would like to
wish you all a very safe and happy summer holiday. Make some wonderful
memories with your child and remember to always laugh and smile....with big
hugs and much affection....nasreen
Week of May 25-29th
I am copying the email sent out to everyone by Michelle Summers our homeroom
mum. Incase you did not receive it the information on our End of Year Party
is below. We've had a great week of finishing up Fairy Tales, reviewing
math, and spending time reading. We had our awards ceremonies this morning
and all the children are bringing home their awards along with all their
personal belongings i.e. notebooks, reading books etc. We have a few things
here that we will use next week. Report cards will come on Wednesday, June
3rd. If your child is not going to be here on the last day please let me
know when you will pick it u or who you are designating to pick up your
child's report card, second, you can send in a stamped and addressed envelope
and I will post it to you, or the third option is to collect it at the
beginning of the next school year. I have sent home a few important
information flyers regarding our last school days please read them over.
Thanks for turning in all the permission slips for the party - we are all
very excited!!! Have a great weekend and remember to enjoy a smile and good
belly laugh with your child.
Hello parents! Just a reminder of our end-of-the-year party. It will be
held on Tuesday from 9:30-11:30 near the basketball court. The kids need to
wear their swimsuits under their clothes (one piece for girls) and water
shoes (no flip-flops, crocks or jelly shoes would be good). They also need
to bring a towel and a change of clothes would be good too and also
sunscreen. I dont need any help with anything. But it would be nice to have
some parents there to help supervise.
The schedule for our class is:
9:30-10:00 Snowcones/Tattoos
10:00-10:30 Limbo/Dancing (will need two parents to hold the limbo stick)
10:30-11:00 Foam Pit (the rule is no laying down)
11:00-11:30 Water slide (no shoes)
We are going to be paired up with Mr. Tidwell's class. The DJ is supposed to
announce when we rotate to the next station so please keep this in mind. We
need to stay together and not get mixed up with the other groups. (I think
they want this to be as organized as possible). We will break into two
groups during the snowcones/tattoos and limbo/dancing so that everyone gets a
chance to do it all.
They are in need of extension cords and water hoses for the event. If you
can bring one of these, please bring it before 9:30 with your name on it or
you can bring it to Ms. Hussain's class on Monday. Please remember to put
your name on it.
Week of May 11 - 15th
Gosh! I don't about you but I cannot believe how fast the year has gone. It
seems like just yesterday that I was meeting all of you! We've we've been
very busy with assesments in reading, writing and math. We've explored Fairy
Tales from different points of view, written about them as detectives trying
to uncover the "true" story! We're beginning to learn multiplication as we
get ready to head into 3rd grade. In science we've planted seeds, examined
leaves and looked at different types of trees. It's definitely that time of
year when children are showing signs of being ready for summer! We have
worked really hard all year and although we will continue to learn and
prepare, we are going to relax a little and enjoy some fun activities these
last days. I wanted to thank each and every one of you for taking the time
out of your busy schedules to come for parent conferences. It was a pleasure
to meet with all of you and look at the progress that has been made. I am so
proud of every one of my kids. I hope that you will all enjoy the warm days
of summer; riding bikes, swimming, playing at the park and making beautiful
memories by laughing and smiling with your children....have a great weekend!
Week of March 23 - 27th
Well, what can I say! it was a tough week coming back for alot of the
kids...I think everyone wished that Spring Break would have miraculously
extended itself!!! Inspite of secret wishes, it was a good week. We
continued learning about Rainforests, practicing "showing not telling" in our
writing and strengthening our subtraction skills. Subtraction is a difficult
concept for children so please do allow for much practice in this area. It
doesn't require anything formal, just incoportate it into real life
situations, that is one of the best ways children can see the value of
learning the skill as well as applying it. Our spring picture day has been
shifted from April 1st to April 8th and this no April Fools joke either!
hahaha! Report cards will be coming home soon for the 3rd nine weeks. It's
hard to believe that we are in the home stretch of second
grade. Once again the weather has turned cold and offered us a wonderful
opportunity to stay in, snuggle with our children, reading a good book,
sharing laughter and smiles wrapped up in a soft, fuzzy blanket...have a good
one!
Week of March 2 - 6th
We had a wonderful beginning to our week by celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday
on Monday. We made Dr. Seuss hats, but got so busy over the week that I am
only completing putting them together today - so I apologise for that - they
will come home on Monday! We wrote our own stories using words most commonly
used in Dr. Seuss books and did some other fun activities. We have begun our
unit on Rainforests. The children and I are really excited and looking
forward to creating a rainforest in our classroom through our own work. Your
child has come home with a letter on their animal for research. I have put
several Rainforest web sites on this site under science, hopefully that will
help them. There are many additional sites that are accessible from home
under the supervision and guidance of parents. In math we have started
subtraction with regrouping. Please, and I cannot emphasise this strongly
enough, continue to work on all the concepts we have learned through the
year, fact families, expanded and standard notation, patterns, perimeter,
basic addition and subtration, place value. I wish you all a restful weekend
with lots of time for play, laughter and smiles...
Week of February 19 - 27th
We started working on our book of stories this week. We are in the process
of editing and revising our stories and will be typing them up to add as our
first writing piece in our book. The children are working hard on their
writing and I am very proud of their efforts. We finished our unit on the
Moon and learned many interesting facts about it. Please continue to work on
charting the moon every night. We finished our Addition with regrouping unit
and will be starting on Subtraction next week; we shall be grouping for that
as well. The children are enjoying the games on our website so please
encourage them to use it as an alternate way to practice their skills. We
will be celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday on Monday, March 2nd. There is a
note in their homework folder with information for that day please look
through it. I wish all of you a happy and restful weekend and don't forget to
laugh and smile!
Week of February 16 - 20th
We finished our poetry books! Whooo! hooooo! and they will be hanging
outside our classroom for those of you who would like to peruse through
them. The kids did a great job, we typed some in the computer lab, we hand
wrote some (to practice neat handwriting!) and they are all our own original
reflections. In Science we studied the Moon and it's phases. We will
continue with it for a few days next week before wrapping it up. There is a
month long assignment for them to do on Moon Observations which is coming
home today in their homework tracker. In math we began addition with
regrouping and have once again broken up into groups for teaching this
concept. I have added some fun web sites to my web page that children can
access. There are games for them to play to allow for additional practice on
skills learned. I wish you all a happy, relaxing weekend, the weather is
supposed to cool off with a cold-front heading in tomorrow so it will be a
great time to curl up with your child and enjoy a good book, share laughter
and smiles.
Week of February 9 - 13th.
Our week was filled with exciting poetry publishing in the computer lab.
The children wrote some great poetry in various forms from Alliteration and
Haiku's to Acrostic and Autobiographical and Free Verse. Contents varied
from crazy cats to flying kangaroos! We are working on creating our poetry
books which we wanted to present to the parents for Valentines. Sadly,
however, we have been struggling the past three weeks with many children
falling sick and thus have not been able to finish these projects.
Hopefully within the next week we should have them done.
We also worked on creating cards with messages of friendship. I am so proud
of my class, I wanted to help my children learn the value of love and
friendship without material exchange so we talked alot about ways to express
these emotions through words and actions. They filled my heart with joy as
they discovered their own ways to show this through things they can do
everyday. They are hanging in our classroom and serve as wonderful
reminders to the power of each individual to make a difference in the
world. The children will have a long weekend as Monday is a staff
development day. I wish you all a happy Valentine's day. May you all have
the opportunity to spend time together and show your love through laughter
and smiles...
Week of January 26 - 30th.
We had a wonderful week inspite of all the sniffles, runny noses and
coughing. We practiced simple fractions and word problems for math, we
continue to work on basic math skills through our math warm-ups. Please
make sure that your child does the corrections as well as the home practice
problem when they come home in the Tuesday folder. These do not need to be
returned to class. Also we are switching to a simpler homework procedure.
There will only be the red homework tracker coming home with their homework -
this will ensure that all the homework stays together. Once I have checked
it, it will be sent home. We are working on creating our own time lines as
well as working on the time line for a historical figure. The children
really enjoyed creating a Candy time line earlier in the week because we all
know that of all the time lines the candy one is the most important!!! We
are also working on making poetry books that will come home when we are
finished with it. I am going to start sending home reading folders with
some children for additional reading at home. Please make sure these
folders and the books are returned to class on the following Monday. The
books are from our Literacy library and need to be returned promptly. I
have spoken to the children about the importance of their responsibility in
this matter. Have a wonderful weekend everyone, and don't forget to laugh
and smile!
Week of January 19th - 23rd
A historic week was witnessed by all with the inauguration of our 44th,
first African American, President Barack Obama. We watched the oath
ceremony, talked about why this was history in the making vis-a-vis Martin
Luther King's dreams and hopes to tie into what we learned last week. We
spent some time reviewing math concepts that we had learned the first half
of the year. We learned about symmetry and the children are bringing home
an activity to test it out! We renewed our focus on journal writing; I
really want to stress the importance of encouraging your child to read and
write on a continuous basis. Both are contingent upon each other in order
for progress to occur across the board, not to mention strengthening
spelling and math. I have sent home alot, and I mean ALOT of papers! I
apologise that it has accumulated, but it is now home!!! PLEASE look over
their work, have them make corrections in spelling and math - you do NOT
need to return any of the corrected work. I have included a review packet
of math concepts that they should know and practice to hone their skills.
We touched on time lines this week and will continue working on that next
week for our social studies unit. In math we started fractions and will
continue on that as well. I wish you all a relaxing, enjoyable weekend and
share with your child a gift of time, laughter and smiles.
Week of Dec. 15th - 19th
We had a wonderful week of fun holiday activities! We finished our
Christmas in Texas books, made snowflakes, did Haiku poetry on Christmas
trees and read "Marley"! We ended our great week with a great party!
Thanks so much to all of you who were able to join in and enjoy it with us.
I appreciate so very much all the parents who helped make this possible for
my class - Thank-You! I want to most sincerely let you know that I feel
blessed indeed to be able to enjoy your child each and every day, each one
of my kids comes with such a unique set of gifts; the gift of humour, the
gift of understanding, the gift of happiness in their hearts, the gift of
compassion, the gift of organisation! I have appreciated them for who they
are and what they teach me every day. May you all be blessed with a happy,
safe holiday and with the best gifts of all - time with family, smiles upon
your face and laughter from your belly! Enjoy, cherish and see you in the
New Year!
Week of Dec. 8th - 12th
What a wonderful end to this week of pre-holiday celebrating. We enjoyed
the Musicats performance on Tuesday as they sang songs for the holidays and
today we enjoyed a whole-school sing-a-long! We worked on the Water Cycle
as part of our science unit and continued to learn how to tell time for
Math. We worked really hard all week on Circular stories and have completed
them - and WOW! what wonderful stories they are! They will be hanging
outside our classroom, if you are in the building please stop by and enjoy
them. I am still needing pictures for our holiday project which we will be
beginning on Monday so if you have not had the chance to send in photographs
of your child please do so on Monday - this special project CANNOT be done
without the photographs. Also we are requesting all books for the book
exchange be in early next week. We are having our Aluminum can drive on
Fern Bluff's back porch tomorrow morning from 9 am til noon! have a great
weekend everyone and don't forget to laugh and smile with your child/ren -
it's the best present of all!!!
Week of Dec. 1st - 5th
What a great first week of December! Our field trip to the Inner Space
Caverns was not only very interesting but also alot of fun. We all had a
great time learning and playing with friends. Thanks so much to all of you
who could come out and enjoy part of the day with us, it was good to see
you. As we head into holiday season, we are going to be working on special
arts and crafts projects so please do send in the photographs of your child
AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Also please remember to have a book wrapped and sent
in for our book exchange. It is not to exceed a $5.00 value and the book
should be appropriate for the same gender as your child. We began learning
about "Time" this week and will be in differentiated groups till we break
for the holidays. We are back to Summary trackers (they come back to school
on Thursday's) and homework folders are coming home as well. Enjoy your
weekend and this wonderful cold weather! (yeah! i'm a cold weather person!!!)
and don't forget to laugh and smile!
Week of Nov. 17th - Nov. 21st
We had a wonderful week continuing our learning of continents, maps and keys
in Social Studies. We started learning about number lines; counting and
finding numbers on the number line. Next week, we will expand on using
number lines for numbers above 100. We worked on either writing small
essays or acrostic poems, as choices, for our focus on Thanksgiving. Our
Thanksgiving programme will be on Monday, November 24th from 9:00 a.m. -
9:30 a.m. We hope that some of you will be able to join us. The children
are VERY excited and looking forward to it. I hope that all of you have a
wonderful weekend enjoying the nice cold weather by cuddling up together
with a good book, a great smile and lots of laughter. See you on Monday!
Week of Nov. 3rd - Nov. 7th
Wow! what a week! The classroom and school halls were buzzing with election
talk. We had a mock election in our class on the presidential candidates.
We also voted on our new cafeteria paint colour! The winner was Blue! We
have been working on campaigning for 2nd graders to vote for our class
cookie which is Iced Molasses! (and yes! we've had our share of jokes about
how this is a "senior citizen" cookie - but Hey! we've liked it!) We will be
going to the other second grade classrooms on Monday and selling the idea of
our cookies being the best and to vote for it! The children have written
letters to the President about things they are concerned about and a
probable solution to fixing it. Thank-You for submitting the Weekly Reader
dues, I very much appreciate it. As we head into Autumn and children start
coming to school with jackets and sweaters, it would be helpful to write
their name on the inside label so if it is misplaced it can easily be
retrieved. Have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy the beautiful weather and don't
forget to smile and laugh!
Week of Oct. 27 - Oct. 30th
We've had a wonderful week of learning about our three branches of
government, money and farewell cards. We are sad to be losing Uyen as her
family moves away. Our class would like to wish them all the best. As my
special treat to my children and their parents for Halloween, I thought I
would be kind! so for the parents I did not give the children any more candy
to get them even more hyper!!! and for the children I did not give them
homework. Have a great time tonight. We discussed safety rules so please
have your children review them. Enjoy the extra hour of slumber this
weekend! Have a good one and don't forget to smile and laugh!
Week of Oct. 20th - Oct. 24th
Our class is saying, "Gosh! time is flying by!!!". We can't believe that we
are getting ready for the last week of October! I very much enjoyed meeting
all of you during parent conferences this week. I feel that it is the
beginning of a wonderful year together as a team.
Second grade orders "Weekly Reader" as a teaching/learning tool. We have
begun to receive them and, ofcourse with that pleasure comes the drudgery
of yet another bill! Good news!it's not too bad! The subscription for your
child is only $3.99 for the year. I would appreciate it if you could please
send in a payment for it as soon as possible. The cheque may be made out to
Weekly Reader.
Week of Oct. 11th - Oct. 17th
Wow! What an awesome Field Day we had today! We had a blast! the weather
was perfect, cloudy and cool but no chance of meatballs! The T-shirts came
out great, the kids participated happily and with much energy, and we had
only one minor injury. Thanks so very much to all of you parents who came
out to help, support our class and just hang out! We have parent
conferences next week and I look forward to seeing all of you then. Have a
wonderful weekend with lots of laughter and smiles! nasreen
Week of Oct. 6th - Oct. 9th
As we have had a short week with Early Release today as well as Staff Dev.
Day tomorrow, I have not sent homework. Please continue to work with your
child on their daily reading and completing their summary to be turned in by
Thursday of each week. I have also sent home a note in your child's
backpack if i do not have you scheduled for a conference time. Please ask
your child and check their backpack for it; i would appreciate it if you
could fill that out and return to me by Tuesday. You are most welcome to
email your preferred times to me so that i may schedule you in as soon as
possible. Have a wonderful long weekend! For those of you travelling, be
safe and have a good trip! nasreen
Week of Sept 29th - Oct. 3rd
Gosh! I can't believe we are already in October! Time is flying by and we
continue to grow together as a class. We are enjoying each other and
learning alot about one another in the scope of our day to day interactions
and lessons. Parent conferences are coming up in the third week of
October. I am sending home sign-up sheets for parent conferences. Some of
you who attended Parent Academic Night and signed up then will not receive a
sign up sheet, only the goals and expectations sheet. Please indicate your
1st, 2nd and 3rd preferred times and I will do my best to accomodate you. I
would also appreciate it very much if you could return the conference sign-
up sheets, goal setting parent's sheet and goal setting child's sheet back
to me as soon as possible. I hope that you are all able to relax and enjoy
the beautiful weather we are having this weekend! Next week is a short week
with Early Release on Thursday at 12:45 p.m. and a staff development day on
Friday. Thanks for all that you do! nasreen
Week of Sept 8 - 12th
Dear Parents,
Wow! this was our first full week and it went by so fast. We learned about
Matter, it's properties and forms. We will continue to explore this science
concept through next week. In math we worked on place value for ones and
tens; we will expand on that next week to include 100 place. An excellent
way to practice and review this is to look at numbers and ask questions such
as where each number is in place value, how many tens are there, how many
ways can you make the same number etc. In Language Arts we discussed the
purpose of a post card, and are drafting a postcard to someone special in
our drafting journals. We continue to read daily during DEAR time, Read-
Aloud's and Buddy reading. We have homework this week. It will come home
every Friday and be due at the latest by Thursday of the following week.
I hope that each and everyone of you is safe through whatever weather
situation befalls us due to the hurricane. I hope that if you have family
with you that it will be an enjoyable, spontaneous re-union of sorts. Have a
wonderful, safe weekend. nasreen
Week of Sept 2 - 5th
Dear Parents,
We spent a full week working on assesments for Reading, Writing and Math.
These assesments allow us to formulate specific goals for each child based
on their current abilities and get ready for Fall conferences.
We had our first Library day today. The children were happy to be able to
check out both non-fiction as well as fiction books. Please have your child
share them with you. Children make wonderful memories of cuddling and
reading with parents and this foster's a lifelong love of reading. We work
alot on reading and writing, and both complement each other the more they
are practiced at home.
We wrapped our week by finishing a Junie B. Jones book and starting a new
one. The children are thoroughly enjoying it as am I!
We have had several children in class with colds, allergy symptoms and
generally with low levels of energy. I have asked the children to please
make sure they get plenty of rest and good food. Thanks for all of you who
have been sending snacks in with your children. It is a long spell between
breakfast and lunch; we take a short 10 min. snack break at 9:30 a.m. to re-
fuel and re-energize. I am also emphasising the need for thorough hand
washing and sanitizing to minimize the spread of germs.
Wishing you a great and relaxing weekend! Nasreen
Wow! what a wonderful first week back to school! We had alot of
fun learning about each other and making new friends. We have settled in
well as a small community of learners and are looking forward to an exciting
and fun year together. I want to thank all my parents who so generously
donated items for our class - we sincerely appreciate it. Have a wonderful
long weekend!
