Winter Break

I hope that everyone is enjoying their Winter Break! Here in the Holbrook house we are taking full advantage of the time off. :) I thought I would post a picture from our holiday party. It was a great time, and I just love the reindeer antlers. Thank you to all parents who came and helped make the afternoon a success. See you January 2nd!

Weather of the Day Jonathan

Here is Weather Reporter Jonathan!

Holiday Celebration

Please remember that this Friday we will have a holiday celebration in our room. If providing a book for the Book Exchange is a hardship please let me know, and I will provide a book for your child to exchange.

Water Cycle Song

Today we learned about the water cycle. There are some tricky words to remember in the water cycle (evaporation, condensation, precipitation), and to help us remember we learned a special song. Here it is for your viewing pleasure. :)

Weather of the Day (Erin Dec. 8)

Another fantastic weather report from a fantastic 3rd grader! That word precipitation can be a mouthful. :)

Holiday Cafe

We had a great turn out for the Holiday Cafe! We earned a total of $112.00 for our classroom. I was so proud of the products the students made. We had gingerbreadmen ornaments, holiday cards, and bracelets for sale. A BIG thanks to Angela Trevino for helping us out in a pinch. You are great! Check out Josiah, Lucy, and Julianna at the big event.

Tye the Weather Reporter Dec. 7

Weather reporter Tye-4 takes later. Silly guy! lol!

Weather of the Day (Kennedy Dec. 6)

Meet weather reporter Kennedy!!

Weather of the Day (Anna Dec. 5)

Sorry for the delay...here is the Weather from Anna!

Today's Weather Dec. 2

Everyday our class will be using our weather tools that we have made to collect information about the weather. We will be able to report the temperature, wind direction, wind speed, humidity, precipitation, and sky conditions. We will be sharing this report with you using our weather station. Every student will get the opportunity to be our weather reporter for the day. Here is our first report. We are experimenting as we go along with this blog so bare with us if there are technical difficulties. Introducing Drew...the weather reporter.

Weather Quiz

Look in your child's binder tonight for an important Study Guide! There will be a quiz on Friday! It will cover weather instruments. Students should be able to identify the instruments and what they measure. We will be making our own weather instruments and collecting weather data during the month of December.

Congratulations!

Winners for the Camping Quilt Contest were announced last night at Family Reading Night! Congratulations to Jazmen for winning the 2nd grade category, Lucy for the 2nd grade runner up, and Zoe for 3rd grade runner up. These ladies are quite creative!

Believe

I don't know about you, but I am feeling the holiday spirit! Use the following link to enjoy some holiday cheer with your child: http://social.macys.com/believe/#/home Your child can create a magical letter for Santa using a quill pen and then decorate it with fun holiday stamps. The letter can be printed out, stamped and addressed to the North Pole, and dropped off at Santa's special letterbox in Macy's. For every letter received Macy's will be donating $1 to the Make A Wish Foundation up to one million dollars! Macy's will also be taking all stamped letters to the post office to be mailed to Santa. What a great way to support the Make a Wish Foundation! Have fun. :)

Coverdell World Wise School Matchup

Today our class was introduced to Kristin Caspar a Peace Corp. volunteer stationed in Liberia, West Africa. Kristin will be corresponding with our class about her time teaching at Martha Tubman senior high. Kristin lives in Salala, a small village in Bong County. She teaches Geography, History, English and Physical Education to the 10th, 11th and 12th graders. We are excited about our correspondence with Kristin and learning about life in Africa! Here are a few pictures of our new friends across the world!

No Weekly Spelling Homework

For the past few weeks 2nd graders have had weekly Spelling homework. Please be aware that students will not have this, this week. Students will still have nightly homework. Thanks!

A Different Way to Memorize Addition and Subtraction Facts

2nd grade students have been learnng different strategies to add and subtract. Mr. Krueger shared the following example with teachers, and I thought I would pass it along to you. This is a great model for visual learners!

A number bond is a mental picture of the relationship between a number and the parts that combine to make it. A student who "knows" this number bond should be able to immediately fill in any one of these three numbers if it were missing, given the other two, without having to "work it out".

Peace Corp. Speaker's Match Program

One way students can begin to understand diversity is through their family life. We have really enjoyed sharing our perspectives on family and seeing the similarities and differnces among us. Today we had the opportunity to hear about family life in another country. Mr. John-Mark Hack came to visit us today to share about his experiences in the Peace Corp. Mr. Hack was stationed in Costa Rica and had lots of great information for us! The class loved seeing his pictures of this beautiful country! Thank you, Mr. Hack for making the trip to Stamping Ground Elementary!

More Rain Forest Pics

If you did not get a chance to come in and experience our rain forest for yourself I thought I would add a few more pictures so you can see it for yourself.

Save the Rain Forest

Here we are in our "rainforest" in the 2nd/3rd grade hall. I am so proud of all the work the kids have put into thier rainforest opinion letters. Check out the website for the Protect- an- Acre Program here: http://rainforestheroes.com/protect-an-acre/

Welcome to Blogging

Well...here goes nothing! I am excited about this blog and the possibilities of staying better connected with the parents of my students. Blogs have always been intimidating to me, but how can I expect my students to stretch thier wings and try new things if I won't. So, I am eating my words. :) Happy Blogging!