Week of Dec 17

Thompson Class News Week of Dec. 17, 2012

There’s so much happening this week.  We had Reading CBA this morning and tomorrow we will have our Math CBA.  Early release this week on both Thursday and Friday, at 11:55.  Our class party starts at 10:15.  I need about 4 or 5 parents to help run games/stations I have for the kids.  If you are able to come please let me know.  Also, if you’re interested we will be doing the chapter book exchange.  Just send a book wrapped to stick under the tree.  Those that bring a book will go home with one.  

In light of recent events I wanted to let you know how precious your child is to me and that the staff of Galloway goes to great lengths to keep them safe each day. If I don’t get a chance to see you or speak with you before, have a Merry Christmas!  NO HOMEWORK this week!

Week of Dec. 10

I had a wonderful weekend, Preston had his 12th birthday and Johnny Manziel won the Heisman.  We have a very busy couple of weeks leading up to our Christmas break.  Remember to bring candy bars and mugs by Wednesday if you haven't already.  I've had quite a few green party letters returned. YES!      We still need a few drinks some chips/fruit/cupcakes if you haven't already committed to bringing something.  Also don't forget your three dollars if you haven't already paid.  I mentioned in one of my recent letters that we will have a book exchange.  Know that this is not mandatory, but wanted to offer it for the kids that chose to participate.  Just bring a wrapped chapter book the day of the party and we'll exchange them!  Next week we have our 6 weeks CBAs.  Yes it's another Six weeks with only 5 weeks.  We have Reading Monday and Math Tuesday, make sure they sleep and eat well!  We've continued to have results higher than the district average and I know it's all the help they get from you at home! Our class party will begin 10:15 Friday the 21st. We'd love to have you!



This Week in our learning
Reading: Digital media
Math: 2 digit subtraction w/ regrouping
Science: Insect life cycles
Social Studies: Civil War
Writing: Persuasive texts
Spelling: ire-ure, MORE R words???!!!!

Week of Dec. 3

Thompson Class News Week of Dec 3

Three short weeks until the end of our six weeks and until Christmas break.  We will be visiting the library for Twelve Days of Christmas.  One of the days’ crafts require a candy bar.  Mrs. Sadler has assured me any candy bar would work.  If you could send one with your student by the end of the week it would be a big help.  One candy bar is not so pricey, having to buy 750 is a bear!  Progress reports will go home this week, as well as Christmas party letters.  Our math carnival is this Thursday from 6-7:30.  Hope you can make it!

This week in our learning:

Reading: Types of media

Math: 2 digit subtraction

Science: insects

Social Studies: colonial America

Writing: procedural text

Spelling ir-er-ur

Week of nov 26

Thompson Class News Week of Nov. 26

I hope you enjoyed a nice long break.  We have four short weeks until our Christmas break.  The kids are starting to get the “itch”.  Please talk to your student about your expectations for while they’re at school.  We’re having some behaviors creep up that are distracting our learning.  Look for info in the next week or so about our Christmas party. 

This week in our learning:
Reading: features of text (determining type)
Math: two-digit addition (with regrouping)
Science: Life cycles
Social Studies: Columbus
Spelling: ore/oar
Writing: procedural text

Thanksgiving Week

I wanted to take the opportunity to let you know how THANKFUL I am to have each one of your students in my class.  They are areally sharp bunch and they make me smile each day. I truly enjoy each day we spend together.  I am also very thankful for such supportive parents. I hope you all have a fabulous holiday and get to spend lots of time with one another.  When we come back we will have 4 short weeks before we will break for Christmas.  YOU CAN BRING YOUR RECIPE TOMORROW IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!

PTA Glow Party

We only had one student join PTA this year :(  But she sure had a blast at the glow party with the rest of second grade.  Have a fabulous weekend and don't forget recipes next week!

Late Breaking News!

Well parents it's one of those weeks where we have lots going on that wasn't mentioned in our Monday newsletter.  Student Council is collecting change for Hurricane Sandy victims. this competition is a boys vs girls competition. I've heard this is a weight competition, so while dollars are nice, a dollar's worth of coins would be even better. My sixth grader has asked me to take him to the bank to get five dollars worth of pennies. Clever boy! Student Council is also sponsoring a fundraiser for Hat Day.  For a dollar donation kids can wear any hat they want to school.  Money is to be turned in by Tuesday the 20th if interested.

Parents please send a favorite family recipe with your student for a writing assignment we will be doing next week.  It can be handwritten or typed, make sure it's something you don't mind me keeping.

There was something else, but it's escaped me now.  If I can think of it, I'll come back and add it.

Have a fabulous day, see you at 11:55.

Ms. T

Week of Nov. 12

Thompson Class News Week of Nov. 12

It was so nice to meet with all of you last week.  Remember report cards go home on Thursday.  We have early release on Wednesday at 11:55.  We dismiss next Tuesday at our regular time 2:55.  Next Tuesday there will be no tutoring. We will have the rest of the week off for Thanksgiving.  Classes will resume Nov. 26.

This Week in our Learning:

Reading: Literary Nonfiction

Spelling: -er, -ir, -ur

Math: Probability

Science: Moon/Night sky

Social Studies: Spanish and missions

Writing: Biographies

Did you see my Aggies beat Alabama this weekend? Thrilling! Gig 'em Aggies!

It's Officially Official!

It's official. After spending the week talking about voting and participating in the schoolwide election I am able to report that by any overwhelming majority (85%), Ms. Thompson's class is a blue room.  Ms. Thompson's class has chosen Barack Obama to continue with a second term as president.  We conducted a secret ballot vote and the students also got their voter registration cards.  Have a wonderful day!

Nov. 6th

Thompson Class News Nov. 6

This week is the last of the second six weeks.  You’re right, there were only 5 weeks.  This means that while we meet for parent conferences, report cards won’t come home until next week (Thursday).  CBAs this week are Tuesday and Thursday.  We have an early release day next Wednesday the 14th.  Remember we now dismiss at 11:55 for early release.  We will have off the 21st-23rd for Thanksgiving.

This week in our learning:
Reading: similarities and differences in plots by the same author
Math: review 6 weeks material
Science: Earth’s resources
Social Studies: Landforms
Spelling: Review high frequency words
Writing: Personal narratives


Almost forgot!  We are collecting dollars this week for our annual Dollar to Make a Difference!  Consider donating a dollar to Mesquite Social Services so that every child will have a Merry Christmas.

A Post Halloween Treat

Well tried desperately to upload a little Reader's Theatre we performed on Wednesday, but it won't upload so instead....How about a few Pumpkin reports

Arthur pumpkin

 SkippyJon Jones was a popular pumpkin

A Mummy's Curse pumpkin

Week of Oct. 30

Thompson Class News Week of Oct. 30

Parents don’t forget pumpkin reports are due TOMORROW.  Please send back the Conference letter ASAP.  I will send home confirmation letters on Thursday to let you know what day and time we will meet.  We will also have Math and Reading CBAs next week.  Please make sure your student is well fed and well rested.  Shirts are coming home today.  We would like to all wear our shirts on Friday.  Book Fair is open all this week.  What a busy week!

This Week in our Learning:
Reading: character traits
Math: telling time to 5 minutes
Science: weather/water cycle
Social Studies: Elections
Writing: Personal narratives
Spelling: ee/ea patterns

You're Invited!

I meant to send home notes today, but  in the hustle and bustle of the end of our day it was forgotten....(some days I am shocked we make it out to the porch on time). However, I wanted to invite you to my church's Trunk or Treat, tomorrow from 5:30-8:00. It's First Christian Church of Mesquite at 827 S Galloway Ave.  We'll have trunks of course, a bounce house and food.  All free and all welcome!  So if you haven't already got plans for tomorrow night, stop by and say hi!

(Also look for parent conference letters Tuesday.  Parent conferences will be Nov 5th, 6th and 7th, so start thinking about which day/times would work best for you.)

Red Ribbon Week

Today was clean and green day!   We wore green for Red Ribbon week.  We choose to be drug free.

Tomorrow is cap day.  Wear your favorite cap to class.  Have a great week.




And here is the class keeping a cap on drugs.

Tomorrow is College Shirt/Jeans for "JEANious" Day

Week of Oct 22

Thompson Class News Week of Oct. 22

It’s getting closer to Halloween.  While we’re not allowed a party, we are allowed to pass out treats at the end of the day if you’re interested in sending them.  We have 20 students.  Speaking of Halloween, remember book report pumpkins are due Oct. 31.  We will have a lesson using egg cartons tomorrow, if you have an extra one or two we are in need.  My kids at home are tired of eating eggs!  Next Monday will be a staff development day, so NO CLASS.

This week in our learning:

Reading: elements of fiction                                   

Math: Money

Science: weather tools

Tues. wear red and crazy socks Wed. wear green Thurs. wear caps Fri. jeans and college shirts

Research writing and Egg Cartons

Today we began our research writing and chose topics that were related to our science curriculum

We're studying weather in Science, so we researched different weather phenomena.  

Next week we will need egg cartons for one of our lessons, if you happen to have any empty egg cartons we  could sure use them.

Week of Oct 15

Thompson Class News Week of Oct. 15

We made it through testing week, hooray!  Book order forms that went home last week will be due this FRIDAY!  If you care to order anything please have your money in by then.  I enjoyed a great football weekend.  I got to see students shining outside the classroom.  If your student is involved in extra curriculars let me know, we love to go see students perform.

  Oct 31 we will be holding a schoolwide Mock Election in observance of our upcoming election.  Exciting stuff is happening in Second Grade.

Our learning this week:

Reading: Main Idea

Math: comparing numbers to hundreds place

Science: Weather instruments

Social Studies: Government (local/state/federal)

Spelling: ai/ay

Writing: nonfiction writing

If you need me don’t hesitate to email/call/hunt me down in the hall: sthompson@mesquiteisd.org or 972 882-5101 x3000

  

Week of Oct. 8, 2012

Thompson Class News Oct. 8, 2012

Parents we will have early release on Wed. at 11:55.  This is earlier than in years past, we will eat lunch in the classroom before dismissal.  CoGAT testing begins tomorrow.  Make sure your student gets enough rest and eats breakfast.  It makes a difference!  We have about 4 students that need to turn in money for t-shirt.  Please get that in to me by the end of the week.  If you don’t want your child to get a shirt please let me know.  This week is college week, we will be talking up college here in the class.  I encourage you to keep the discussion going at home. 

This week our focus is:

Reading: Nonfiction text features/interesting vs. important

Math: Patterns/place value

Science: Weather

Social Studies: Government

Spelling: c/k words

Writing: report writing

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/moneymatters/a/edandearnings.htm

One of the reasons why a college education is so important

Extra Practice

Looking for another website to practice concepts in the classroom?  Just looking for some good sites to send your student to online?  Never fear!  More ideas on the way!

khanacademy.com

This recommendation comes from our very own principal, Mrs. Mingle.  She turned me on to this site and said there are some great math/science games and videos on the site. It's always great to have administrators that want to support what we do in the classroom and actively seek out sources that can reinforce these ideas at home. Thanks Mrs. Mingle!

Time for Science

Well today after P.E. we found time for a little Science experiment.  Science makes us all smile!  Ask your student what they learned about balloon rockets.  We learned lots while having fun too.

Week of Oct. 2

Thompson Class News Week of Oct. 2, 2012

Parents I hope you had a terrific Fair Day!  It’s hard to believe it is October already.  If you haven’t already sent back the t-shirt form please do so as soon as possible.  We want to order these soon, so that we can wear them throughout the year.  Report cards will go home next week.  Thursday is Math CBA. Please make sure your student gets plenty of rest and eats a good breakfast Thursday morning.  Next week we will begin COGat testing. It’s not too late to join PTA, so far we have one lonely student bring in the green form. If you need another copy let me know.  Graded papers will be sent home today since I was not here Friday afternoon to pass them out.

This Week in our Learning:

Reading: setting a purpose

Math: patterns/CBA (curriculum based assessment)

Science: weather

Social Studies:  Maps

Writing: Nonfiction

Spelling: high frequency words

As always I can be reached at sthompson@mesquiteisd.org 

Week of Sept. 25

Hope you enjoyed another long weekend!  The teachers were busy at meetings preparing to better teach your children.  We're looking forward to using our new knowledge.

Special Note:  Popcorn will be sold for $.25 on Friday.  The students should bring their quarter in early so teachers may place their "order."

Remember, breakfast is 7:15- 7:45!  If you want to eat, don't be late!

Studies for the Week:

Reading:  Monitoring Comprehension; Asking Questions
Writing:  Writing information text
Spelling:  Hard and soft g and c
       This weeks words:
cabin, came, cash, circle, cent, circus, giraffe, giant, gym, golden, glue, guy
Math:  Patterns, patterns and more patterns!
Science:  Weather and Air
Social Studies: Types of Communities

College tid bit for the week:


The first college established for African-American students was the Ashmun Institute on April 29, 1854.  It was named after Jehudi Ashmun (1794-1826), an American minister who helped establish Liberia.  In 1866, Ashmun Institute was renamed Lincoln University.

Oberlin college was the first college to grant degrees to women in 1841.  It was also the first college to grant a bachelor degree to an African-American woman in 1862.

Week of Sept. 17

We are now in week 4 of our year together.  We're sure of routines now and authentic learning is starting!

Parents, earlier in the year you should have received by mail your credentials to log onto Parentconnect which is our online gradebook.  If you have any questions about what your student is/is not turning in, or what grade they received on a certain assignment you can find it 24/7 there.  One of the features as part of the site is email.  Would you please log in with your credentials and email me from parentconnect?  Apparently the district wants to make sure this feature is up and running.  You can get to parentconnect by logging onto the school website and clicking on the homepage where it says *View your child's grades.

Please make sure your child is using the bathroom before school. We are losing a lot of instructional time going to the bathroom.
Make time to join us Thursday night at our Healthfair from 6:00-7:00.  Lots of info and free goodies too!
We have next Monday the 24th off for Staff development.
The following Monday Oct 1st we will be off for Fair Day.

This week in our learning
Reading: Nonfiction text features (pictures, captions, graphs, illustrations,etc...)
Math:Addition/Subtraction
Writing: Nonfiction writing
Social Studies: Celebrate freedom (U.S. symbols, important documents)
Science: Air/water fountain, balloon rockets
Spelling: more cvce words

Extra Practice?

There are some really great websites out there to reinforce what we do here in class.  The one I'd like to focus on this week is arcademicskillbuilders.com  This site is great for working on math fluency, being able to recall sums of math facts automatically.  Plus it doesn't hurt that it's fun!

Parents, do you know of any fabulous sites for kids?  I'd love to hear about them.

This year our school is emphasizing going to college by designating every Friday as "wear your college shirt or college colors" day.  We also are learning various facts about the colleges some of our teachers have attended.

Canisius College, located in Buffalo, NY, has a mascot called the Golden Gryff.  Their mascot is like the Gryffindor in the Harry Potter series.

The University of Texas at Austin was founded in 1883.  It currently has an enrollment of 51,245 students.  Can you name a Galloway teacher that graduated from UT? It wasn't Ms. Thompson, I'm an Aggie! by way of Commerce

Wow, that's a lot of students!

Parents, remember that the tardy bell rings at 7:55.  Please have your child here on time!

Individual school pictures will be this Thursday.  Be sure your child is wearing dress code appropriate clothes.

What we are learning:

Comprehension:  Monitoring comprehension; re-read when something doesn't make sense.

Spelling and Phonics:  CVCe words; words that end with an e usually have a long vowel sound. Example:  cake

Math:  Ordering and comparing numbers to 99

Science:  Air

Social Studies: Communities

Have a great week!

I found this cool site of free games at cookie.com  If your child has access to a computer, let me know what you think!

Good News for Public Schools

Just a little FYI for those who think Charter Schools outperform us.


We are having a PTA membership drive.  Green sheets with info were sent home yesterday.  We would love to have 100 % class participation (we earn a popcorn party).  Dues are $7 per year.  If any of you are interested in helping out with the board or volunteering your time for other activities, reading to/listening to a student read, running copies for teachers, I would be more than happy to pass your info on to our PTA president.  This is my first year to serve on the board both as a parent of a sixth grader and a second grade teacher, and I am so excited to see what great things we will do this year.

I had some parents ask about Book order forms.  About once a month I will send home an order form for you to look over.  If there is something you would like, you can send cash or check to the school with the filled in form or you can order online at Scholastic.com with the code on the back of the form.  The great thing about the new online ordering is that you can access different catalogs so if you have someone who is above/below grade level you have easy access to books that are just right for them.  (Plus, they tell me for every online order we get free books for the classroom SCORE!) This is through the same company that does our book fair, but this way we aren't limited to twice a year for some great cheap books.  Each month they even offer a couple dollar books.  If you have any questions feel free to email/phone/stop me in the hall.  It's new to me too, so we can work through it together.  I'm mailing off the first order tomorrow. (The kids that have turned in money keep asking me if I've sent it off yet...LOL).

One more thing, I got the gradebook working this afternoon, so be expecting to see some graded papers come home next week.

As always, ever grateful
 Ms. T

First Week

What a great first week we are having.  I have really enjoyed getting to know the students and our new class routine.

Here's a look at our learning for this week:

Reading: Comprehension, thinking about what we read.
Math: Addition facts to 18
Social Studies: Rules, why do we need them?
Science: Safety and what is Science anyway?
Spelling: short vowel words with initial blends

Please return all forms to class by Sept 6th (Thursday).  If you have any questions you can always email me at sthompson@mesquiteisd.org

Thanks for you support

Supply Drop Off

Tonight was amazing!  Got to meet almost all of my students and their families.  Thanks to all of you who came up, I can't wait to get started on our amazing year together!