June 9 - We appreciate all of you who joined us for our field trip to Share last week. The students were so excited to be there and pack the bags of food. When we returned to school and asked the students what they thought about our visit, everyone said they had fun but also made a point of saying how they enjoyed helping and doing things for others. Share is already looking forward to having us back next year. This week, we will wrap up lessons in all subject areas as well as gather end-of-year information through math and reading assessments. Report cards and spring MAP scores will be mailed home later in June. On Thursday, we will clean out our desks and send home most of the students' supplies and notebooks. We have some fun activities planned for Friday, along with Mass and handing out yearbooks. Thank you for helping to make this a great school year!
May 24 - It was a short but busy week. We wrapped up our practice of fractions in math. Next, we will work on pre-multiplication skills such as repeated addition and arrays (already appearing in Simple Solutions). In religion, we completed our discussions and reflections on Eucharist. Next week we will learn about Mary's life and the many different names she is known by. We will continue with habitats in science, focusing on the layers of the rain forest and ponds. Everyday we practice our reading and writing skills through Daily 5. We look forward to seeing you this week for our Celebration of Learning!
May 19 - Thank you to everyone who supported our Jog-a-Thon through pledges and lap markers. It was a big success! We will continue our practice of synonyms and antonyms this week. Fractions will continue to be the focus in math. Last week we began our final unit in science which is habitats. We will wrap up our discussions and reflections about Eucharist and then spend some time learning more about Mary. Don't forget that we don't have school on Friday for the holiday weekend.
May 12 - Happy Mother's Day! Thank you to everyone who donated reusable shopping bags for Share. We are working to get our field trip scheduled for the first week of June and will have details out as soon as we confirm. In math, we've been working on fractions. This week for grammar we will learn about synonyms and antonyms. We'll add to what we know about how Earth's surface changes by discussing how people can affect its change and what we can do to help. Mrs. Yarne's class wrapped up Junior Achievement last week and Mrs. Houser's class will finish this week. If you haven't already done so, make sure to send back your child's Jog-a-thon pledge form. Forms returned by this Wednesday, with at least 5 pledges, will earn students a Free Dress Pass. On Friday, dismissal will be from the classroom due to the Block Party that will be taking place beginning at 3:15.
May 4 - What a beautiful, sunny week! Last week, we had a visit from Fr. Gary to talk to us about preparing for First Communion. The students also had a chance to ask him questions, which they always enjoy. On Wednesday we had our guest from Share Vancouver to talk about the Backpack Program, which we will be supporting. She also read us a great picture book about being homeless, from the perspective of some sea creatures. We are excited to collect reusable shopping bags and help out local families. We wrapped up our Family Life lessons and began talking about Eucharist. So far we've reviewed the Last Supper and talked about meals we celebrate as a family. While studying poetry, we learned that alliteration is when the same beginning sound repeats in 2 or more words in a row in a poem. After hearing some examples, and listening to 'Bleezer's Ice Cream' by Jack Prelutsky, the students created their own ice cream flavors using alliteration. The creations will be hanging in our rooms soon!
April 26 - Wow! Flat Stanley went on some amazing adventures over the past few weeks! Thank you for supporting your students through this project. The display boards look great. If you weren't able to come visit the boards yesterday, they will be displayed in the main building hallway through next week. Next week we will begin MAP testing. The tests in reading and math will show the growth your child has made since the test was given in the fall. You will receive results of the test with your child's final report card in June. In reading, we've spent a lot of time focusing on fiction and non-fiction stories and writing. Next week we will explore poetry by listening to different kinds of poems, learning about alliteration, and writing our own poem. We look forward to seeing the student's creativity at work!
April 22 - Happy Easter! We are looking forward to seeing all of the wonderful Flat Stanley displays this week. Displays and journals are due by this Thursday. Since today is Earth Day, we will spend some time reading books that give us ideas about taking care of our Earth as well as do a fun writing assignment. If you'd like to know what we enjoy doing on rainy days, you can check out our On a Rainy Day writing on our hallway bulletin boards. In math this week, we will continue working on measurement, using different units and tools. We will also continue our learning about natural resources in social studies, which connects very well to Earth Day. In Religion, we will begin our Family Life unit which focuses on topics of taking care of ourselves & God's creation, making choices, and who makes up a family.
April 14 - Did your child tell you that the 2nd graders were surgeons for the day? They performed operations on words to make them contractions, after learning about them all week. Check out the Pictures tab to see students in action. We came together twice as a school to celebrate Mass. Through our discussions about the homilies, we realized that what we learned at both Masses connect together: Loving others as we love God = Being open to God. We have really been trying to live out our theme of being kind to each other. In math, we created surveys, which we used to collect data and then create bar and pictographs. The students have also been practicing their graph skills in the computer lab. As we enter Holy Week, we will be doing some traditional 2nd grade activities like making wooden crosses, wrapping up our Lent compliments, and learning how pretzels connect to prayer. We hope your Flat Stanley journals and boards are coming along. We look forward to seeing them soon!
April 7 - We hope everyone had a great Spring Break and look forward to seeing you tomorrow!
March 24 - It's so nice to be seeing signs of Spring! The students have enjoyed the warmer recesses. This week our accreditation team will be visiting. We're excited to share with them all that we do and our goals for the future to make St. Joe's even better. Flat Stanley information will be sent home on Monday. Please have your child share with you the information about the project. They are all very excited and can't wait to get started. Thank you to everyone who supported our school library by purchasing books at the book fair. Since we met our goal of selling 888 books, we will soon enjoy a rap performance by Mrs. LaRose!
March 16 - Beware of the Adjective Monsters! We spent our writing time this week focused on using adjectives to create monsters. The students used adjectives that described size, color, shape, and how many to tell about the different body parts of their monster. After creating a detailed paragraph and drawing of their monster, students were given someone else's paragraph, without the picture. They then had to draw the monster based on the description. We'll see the final results on Monday. All of the monsters turned out great!
March 9 - Thank you for joining us for our prayer service on Monday and Mass on Ash Wednesday. We hope you are using your child's Lent prayer chain to count down to Easter and guide your daily prayer. Over the next couple of weeks, we will take a look at the Stations of the Cross and the character traits they demonstrate, such as being brave, strong, and getting up even when we fall down. We will begin our geometry unit in math next week. We will learn about different 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes and their attributes. Our study of the Earth's surface in science is overlapping with social studies as we learn about maps. Due to the shorter week and a writing project that we will be working on, there will not be any spelling words this coming week.
March 2 - What a great way to end the school week - blue sky and sunshine! As we move closer to Spring and prepare for warmer weather, we also begin to prepare for Easter and get ready to start the season of Lent. We spent the middle and end of our week preparing for our Prayer Service, which is centered on Lent, as well as our Mass on Ash Wednesday. Fr. Gary even came for a visit, which allowed us to discuss further Lent and the things we during Lent. We look forward to sharing our knowledge with you on Monday. We will spend more time preparing by individually deciding what to fast from, give, and pray for. During the entire Lent season, the students will participate in a classroom activity that will allow them to focus on being kind to others and recognize all the good they each do. We hope you can join us Monday morning!
February 22 - We learned a lot over the past two weeks about Presidents' Day, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington. We'll begin a new social studies topic soon, but next week we are going to focus on land forms and the Earth's surface in science. Social studies will tie in with science when we study maps. We've been practicing different ways to say time, like quarter after 3 and half past 4. Understanding that quarter means 15 minutes and half means 30 minutes made it easier when we worked on telling time by 5 minutes. On Monday, we will spend some quiet time at Adoration. Through the rest of the week, we will be preparing for our Prayer Service, which takes place Monday, March 4 at 8:30. Our theme will be Lent.
February 18 - We had a wonderful Valentine's celebration last week. Thank you to those of you who provided help and/or treats! We will continue learning about Presidents' Day this week, focusing mostly on George Washington. Check out the bulletin board outside of the Art room for some great drawings of Lincoln and Washington. With telling time, we've practiced time to the hour and half hour so far. We began discussing time to the quarter hour, along with different ways to certain times (ex: 9:15 or quarter past 9). We will continue with quarter hour this week, as well as to the 5 minutes. We hope to see many of you at the Auction this Saturday!
February 10 - Thank you for supporting our Penny Drive this year! We'll find out sometime this week how much money we raised to help the Korean Veterans Memorial Wall. In math this week we will be testing on money and begin our work with telling time. The parts of the Bible, its format, and some important events will be our focus in religion. In preparation for celebrating Abraham Lincoln & George Washington's birthdays, we be learning more about the former presidents as well as Presidents' Day itself. We will also continue to use our reading strategies to help improve our comprehension and make sure that when we write the sentences are complete and clear.
February 2 - What a great way to spend a week, celebrating being Catholic. It was so much fun honoring all of the different groups within our school community through various assemblies, activities, and of course dress up days. The Penny Drive will continue through next Friday, Feb. 8. In social studies, we are learning about Chinese New Year (on Feb. 5) as well as about the Chinese culture in general. We wrapped up our study of matter in science and will now move on the Earth's surface. Money remains our math topic with a focus this week on equivalent money amounts and counting money that is more than one dollar. We are also finishing up learning about the parts of the Mass. We will talk about different holy actions and holy objects that we use/see at Mass, in the church, and in our everyday prayer life.
January 25 - Thank you to all of you who share your family members with us today! It was great to meet so many grandparents and other special guests. We hope they enjoyed their time visiting. Next week we will have a lot of fun events to help us celebrate Catholic Schools Week. Make sure to check the calendar sent home for the different dress up days. We have many fun events planned along with some of our regular classes. We encourage all students to wear their uniform to Mass this weekend to represent our school. Our official kick off of the week begins on Sunday the Dad's Spaghetti Dinner in Marian Hall at 5:45 and the Talent Show at 6:30. We hope you can join us!
January 19 - On Monday we spent time in the church for Adoration. This connected well to Fr. Gary's homily on Wednesday which focused on taking some quiet time to really be with God. We learned that Sabbath means 'resting in God'. This coming week we have an opportunity to serve our community through Homeless Connect, which takes place on Thursday. The school puts together care packages of everyday items for those who will attend. Second grade is asked to donate pocket sized packages of tissues. The tissues will be collected through Wednesday. Our middle school students will then assemble the care packages with all of the items school families are donating.
Safety: Please help keep all of our families safe by following the drop off rules in the morning. If you park in the parking lot, you must walk your child to the school campus. Please don't let them go through the parking lot alone. Due to Grandparent/Special Friends Day and noon dismissal on Friday, students will be dismissed the from the classrooms only. If your child walks or goes to Extended Care, they will be taken care of.
January 13 - Happy New Year! We had a busy first week of 2019. We enjoyed time together as a school for an All School Mass, our weekly parish Mass, and for the Christmas program (the older students came to our rehearsal). We had a safety talk to review safety procedures as well as an all school lock down drill (what we would do if someone unsafe was on campus or in our building). In math, we are wrapping up subtraction with regrouping. We will continue to practice this skill through Simple Solutions. Next we will move on to money. We spent time talking about and reflecting on Epiphany, thinking specifically about a time when we gave a gift to someone else. We also did some fun science experiments involving mixtures and solutions. At Mass on Tuesday, Fr. Gary reminded all of us how important it is for us to do our part at Mass by responding and singing. Please encourage active participation when you go as a family on the weekend. Especially for those students who are preparing for First Eucharist, this is the time when children should be doing less coloring/drawing during Mass and more listening/participating. To go along with this, we are learning about the parts of the Mass - the names of the parts, what we do during them & why, and what they mean. This will also be part of one of the First Eucharist classes.
December 16 - Thank you all for donating to Nathan's Toy Story toy drive this year. I believe this was one of our best years of collecting toys! We will begin the 3rd week of Advent with our all school prayer in the gym at 8:20 on Monday and we will end the week with prayer on Friday for the 4th week. We are making good progress with subtracting with regrouping. We know that we regroup a ten for 10 ones so that we have enough ones to subtract. We've done this so far with manipulatives and using expanded form. We will transition to the standard algorithm this week. For Monday's math homework, students are to use expanded form to subtract. For the rest of the week, they can use the standard algorithm. We will send examples of what this all looks like home on Monday.
December 7 - What a chilly week! We are definitely thankful for our warm, cozy classrooms. Now that we have addition with regrouping figured out, we will be moving into subtraction with regrouping. This skill takes a little more practice and understanding. We will begin with manipulatives, use expanded form, then use the standard algorithm. We will share with you each strategy and how it works as we go. We have moved onto timelines in social studies with the goal of creating a timeline of the history of Vancouver. We will continue working with nouns by learning pronouns and possessive nouns. We will also work on opinion writing.
December 2 - This weekend we begin the season of Advent, as well as a new liturgical year. We have been learning about the liturgical year/calendar including the seasons and colors. In math, we learned how to use the standard algorithm for addition with regrouping. We will continue to practice for the next few days, making sure that students can not only do the regrouping but explain the steps as they go and what it is they are doing. On Monday, we will send a graphic of the steps the students have learned and are using. Our grammar and writing has focused on nouns, including common & proper and singular & plural (this week). Thank you to everyone who has donated toys to Nathan's Toy Story so far!
November 25 - We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We are looking forward to a mostly full week of lots of new learning. Our annual Nathan's Toy Story toy drive begins this week. We are collecting new, unwrapped toys for children of all ages. Thank you for helping out if you can.
November 18 - To get in the Thanksgiving spirit, we will be doing many Thanksgiving themed activities this week, all practicing recently learned skills: writing strong sentences, adding 2-digit numbers, giving a survey & making a bar graph, writing a prayer of thanksgiving, and using reading strategies while listening to Thanksgiving picture books. Last Friday we sent home the Greg Tang Thanksgiving math packet. The directions are the same as they were for the Halloween packet and this is optional. Packets are due back Monday, Nov. 26.
November 12 - Thank you to everyone who supported our food drive for the Children's Center! As a school, we greatly exceeded our goal and will be helping many families here in Vancouver. In Religion, we have been discussing Reconciliation and we are learning the Act of Contrition. Though many of the students already know it, it is a second grade prayer the students are expected to know so we are helping everyone to learn it. Since the celebration of this Sacrament is being done differently this year, please let us know when your child makes his/her First Reconciliation so that we can recognize them.
November 2 - Wow, we had a busy week! On Tuesday, we celebrated Bat Tuesday and learned so many cool facts about bats. Thank you to all of the parents who helped us celebrate Halloween on Wednesday. We began the month of November with our All Saints Day Mass led by 4th grade. Fr. Michael reminded us to be like the saints by making choices that bring us closer to God. In math we are working on subtraction strategies and will soon start working more with adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers. Thank you for helping your child to complete the Baptism/Birth assignment. It was fun to hear all about them!
October 26 - What a great week of learning! We went on a scavenger hunt around the classroom for solids, liquids & gasses, learned why communities form governments, strengthened our brains with lots of math puzzles, and focused on writing strong sentences with details. We also learned about the Sacrament of Baptism and Jesus' Baptism. Over the weekend, students are to learn about their own Baptism (or birth if not Catholic). We have a busy week coming up, so make sure to mark your calendar for all of the important events!
October 19 - Thank you for meeting with us over the past 3 days to discuss your child's learning. We hope that you share with your child his/her MAP results and the strengths & areas for growth we identified. Also have a discussion about his/her self-reflection. It is important for the students to know that we are all working together to help them on their learning journey. We have a change to our schedule starting next week, the addition of Music class! The second graders will attend music on Tuesdays in the morning and the music room being used is in the back of the church. We are excited to have this program back at St. Joe's and to welcome Ms. Hand to our community!
October 14 - From rain back to sunshine! What a beautiful end to our week. We wrapped up our plant and communities units last week. In science, we will move to learning about matter. Soon in social studies, we will look at government, including our local leaders, how it works, and voting. This week students will spend some time reflecting on their learning so far this school year, their strengths and areas for growth, and goals they would like to set. We will share all of this with you at your child's conference. We look forward to meeting with you!
October 7 - The Fall weather has come and we had our first rainy day inside recess on Friday. Thankfully it was nice on Thursday when Fr. Michael led our Pet Blessing. We continued our practice of skip counting in math, as many students were having a little trouble. We will continue to practice this skill as we move on to addition and addition strategies. In social studies, students drew their neighborhood community and included details that identified it as rural, urban, or suburban. This week, students will work in groups to make posters of each type of community. Our apple seed life cycle learning will take place this week. Look for sign up information regarding conferences coming soon. We will have teacher/parent conferences and it is required for each student.
September 30 - MAP testing is a wrap! (at least for the younger grades). We have many students still testing, so individual student reports won't be ready for a little while. However, we will have general information to share with you regarding your child's results at parent teacher conferences later in the month. In math, we have been working on skip counting within 2 and 3-digit numbers. Next we will move on to number bonds and strategies for adding numbers. We will wrap up our unit on plants by creating a book about the life cycle of an apple seed. We are also learning about communities, not only where we live but within our Church. Each week we set one or two class goals with our students. You can see what these goals are when you check out your child's weekly report on Fridays. Talk to your child about how he or she can help the class earn our goals.
September 23 - We began our week attending Adoration in the church for the first time. The students noticed how calm and quiet it was and enjoyed the time talking to God. Sentences don't bug us! We practice writing the 4 types of sentences (statement, question, command, exclamation) by making sentences bugs. You can see them hanging in our rooms. Now that we have built our stamina during reading and writing, we will start working with small groups on specific CAFE skills. This Friday is the Sock Hop. Students are invited to wear 50's attire (or uniforms) to school for the day. We have PE so make sure to still have your child wear tennis shoes. We will end our day with an all school assembly and the family event begins at 6:00 in Marian Hall.
September 17 - We had a great first full week of school. Our reading and writing stamina has greatly increased and we now get to choose which activity we'd like to do first and then second (read to self, work on writing). This week, we will learn how to Read with Someone. We will also introduce Word Work activities, which allow for spelling and phonics practice. In science, we have been observing been seeds in plastic bags. Each bag has a paper towel either with or without water. We made predictions as to whether we thought the seeds will grow. Later this week, we will review our recorded data and make conclusions about our predictions. On Wednesday, we have Vision Screening. Please make sure your child has his or her glasses, if appropriate. We begin MAP testing this week with the math test. Mrs Yarne's class tests on Monday, Mrs. Houser's class on Thursday. Also on Thursday is Give More 24, a fund raising event. Aaron Meyer will perform a concert on the blacktop from 3-4pm. Wear your St. Joe's spirit wear shirts on Friday with your uniform.
September 9 - We are finally getting into the swing of things. We are learning new routines, expectations, and about each other. In reading we are building our stamina by staying focused and reading the whole time. We have also been building our writing stamina by staying focused and writing the whole time. We will start to move into curriculum for most of our content subjects starting this week. Order envelopes for individual pictures will go home on Monday, with pictures taking place on Thursday. Students may wear free dress. Appropriate shoes must be worn (no sandals/open-toed shoes) along with socks.
September 4 - We are into our second week of school and moving right along. We have spent a lot of time getting to know each other and our classrooms (expectations, routines). We have also spent time gathering information about your children, primarily in the areas of reading and math. By getting a better picture of where they are, we will be able to plan where we need to take them. We look forward to seeing all of you this Thursday at Back to School Night. The evening starts at 6:30 in the gym, before moving on to the classrooms. This night is for adults only, please. See you then!
August 29 - Welcome to 2nd grade and our class website! We hope that you all had a great summer. This site will be updated weekly to reflect what we are learning, upcoming events and reminders, and to let you know about fun things we've been doing. Pictures will be added throughout the year. We encourage you to check out the site at least once a week to keep up on things. Please feel free to email us anytime you have a question!
May 24 - It was a short but busy week. We wrapped up our practice of fractions in math. Next, we will work on pre-multiplication skills such as repeated addition and arrays (already appearing in Simple Solutions). In religion, we completed our discussions and reflections on Eucharist. Next week we will learn about Mary's life and the many different names she is known by. We will continue with habitats in science, focusing on the layers of the rain forest and ponds. Everyday we practice our reading and writing skills through Daily 5. We look forward to seeing you this week for our Celebration of Learning!
May 19 - Thank you to everyone who supported our Jog-a-Thon through pledges and lap markers. It was a big success! We will continue our practice of synonyms and antonyms this week. Fractions will continue to be the focus in math. Last week we began our final unit in science which is habitats. We will wrap up our discussions and reflections about Eucharist and then spend some time learning more about Mary. Don't forget that we don't have school on Friday for the holiday weekend.
May 12 - Happy Mother's Day! Thank you to everyone who donated reusable shopping bags for Share. We are working to get our field trip scheduled for the first week of June and will have details out as soon as we confirm. In math, we've been working on fractions. This week for grammar we will learn about synonyms and antonyms. We'll add to what we know about how Earth's surface changes by discussing how people can affect its change and what we can do to help. Mrs. Yarne's class wrapped up Junior Achievement last week and Mrs. Houser's class will finish this week. If you haven't already done so, make sure to send back your child's Jog-a-thon pledge form. Forms returned by this Wednesday, with at least 5 pledges, will earn students a Free Dress Pass. On Friday, dismissal will be from the classroom due to the Block Party that will be taking place beginning at 3:15.
May 4 - What a beautiful, sunny week! Last week, we had a visit from Fr. Gary to talk to us about preparing for First Communion. The students also had a chance to ask him questions, which they always enjoy. On Wednesday we had our guest from Share Vancouver to talk about the Backpack Program, which we will be supporting. She also read us a great picture book about being homeless, from the perspective of some sea creatures. We are excited to collect reusable shopping bags and help out local families. We wrapped up our Family Life lessons and began talking about Eucharist. So far we've reviewed the Last Supper and talked about meals we celebrate as a family. While studying poetry, we learned that alliteration is when the same beginning sound repeats in 2 or more words in a row in a poem. After hearing some examples, and listening to 'Bleezer's Ice Cream' by Jack Prelutsky, the students created their own ice cream flavors using alliteration. The creations will be hanging in our rooms soon!
April 26 - Wow! Flat Stanley went on some amazing adventures over the past few weeks! Thank you for supporting your students through this project. The display boards look great. If you weren't able to come visit the boards yesterday, they will be displayed in the main building hallway through next week. Next week we will begin MAP testing. The tests in reading and math will show the growth your child has made since the test was given in the fall. You will receive results of the test with your child's final report card in June. In reading, we've spent a lot of time focusing on fiction and non-fiction stories and writing. Next week we will explore poetry by listening to different kinds of poems, learning about alliteration, and writing our own poem. We look forward to seeing the student's creativity at work!
April 22 - Happy Easter! We are looking forward to seeing all of the wonderful Flat Stanley displays this week. Displays and journals are due by this Thursday. Since today is Earth Day, we will spend some time reading books that give us ideas about taking care of our Earth as well as do a fun writing assignment. If you'd like to know what we enjoy doing on rainy days, you can check out our On a Rainy Day writing on our hallway bulletin boards. In math this week, we will continue working on measurement, using different units and tools. We will also continue our learning about natural resources in social studies, which connects very well to Earth Day. In Religion, we will begin our Family Life unit which focuses on topics of taking care of ourselves & God's creation, making choices, and who makes up a family.
April 14 - Did your child tell you that the 2nd graders were surgeons for the day? They performed operations on words to make them contractions, after learning about them all week. Check out the Pictures tab to see students in action. We came together twice as a school to celebrate Mass. Through our discussions about the homilies, we realized that what we learned at both Masses connect together: Loving others as we love God = Being open to God. We have really been trying to live out our theme of being kind to each other. In math, we created surveys, which we used to collect data and then create bar and pictographs. The students have also been practicing their graph skills in the computer lab. As we enter Holy Week, we will be doing some traditional 2nd grade activities like making wooden crosses, wrapping up our Lent compliments, and learning how pretzels connect to prayer. We hope your Flat Stanley journals and boards are coming along. We look forward to seeing them soon!
April 7 - We hope everyone had a great Spring Break and look forward to seeing you tomorrow!
March 24 - It's so nice to be seeing signs of Spring! The students have enjoyed the warmer recesses. This week our accreditation team will be visiting. We're excited to share with them all that we do and our goals for the future to make St. Joe's even better. Flat Stanley information will be sent home on Monday. Please have your child share with you the information about the project. They are all very excited and can't wait to get started. Thank you to everyone who supported our school library by purchasing books at the book fair. Since we met our goal of selling 888 books, we will soon enjoy a rap performance by Mrs. LaRose!
March 16 - Beware of the Adjective Monsters! We spent our writing time this week focused on using adjectives to create monsters. The students used adjectives that described size, color, shape, and how many to tell about the different body parts of their monster. After creating a detailed paragraph and drawing of their monster, students were given someone else's paragraph, without the picture. They then had to draw the monster based on the description. We'll see the final results on Monday. All of the monsters turned out great!
March 9 - Thank you for joining us for our prayer service on Monday and Mass on Ash Wednesday. We hope you are using your child's Lent prayer chain to count down to Easter and guide your daily prayer. Over the next couple of weeks, we will take a look at the Stations of the Cross and the character traits they demonstrate, such as being brave, strong, and getting up even when we fall down. We will begin our geometry unit in math next week. We will learn about different 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes and their attributes. Our study of the Earth's surface in science is overlapping with social studies as we learn about maps. Due to the shorter week and a writing project that we will be working on, there will not be any spelling words this coming week.
March 2 - What a great way to end the school week - blue sky and sunshine! As we move closer to Spring and prepare for warmer weather, we also begin to prepare for Easter and get ready to start the season of Lent. We spent the middle and end of our week preparing for our Prayer Service, which is centered on Lent, as well as our Mass on Ash Wednesday. Fr. Gary even came for a visit, which allowed us to discuss further Lent and the things we during Lent. We look forward to sharing our knowledge with you on Monday. We will spend more time preparing by individually deciding what to fast from, give, and pray for. During the entire Lent season, the students will participate in a classroom activity that will allow them to focus on being kind to others and recognize all the good they each do. We hope you can join us Monday morning!
February 22 - We learned a lot over the past two weeks about Presidents' Day, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington. We'll begin a new social studies topic soon, but next week we are going to focus on land forms and the Earth's surface in science. Social studies will tie in with science when we study maps. We've been practicing different ways to say time, like quarter after 3 and half past 4. Understanding that quarter means 15 minutes and half means 30 minutes made it easier when we worked on telling time by 5 minutes. On Monday, we will spend some quiet time at Adoration. Through the rest of the week, we will be preparing for our Prayer Service, which takes place Monday, March 4 at 8:30. Our theme will be Lent.
February 18 - We had a wonderful Valentine's celebration last week. Thank you to those of you who provided help and/or treats! We will continue learning about Presidents' Day this week, focusing mostly on George Washington. Check out the bulletin board outside of the Art room for some great drawings of Lincoln and Washington. With telling time, we've practiced time to the hour and half hour so far. We began discussing time to the quarter hour, along with different ways to certain times (ex: 9:15 or quarter past 9). We will continue with quarter hour this week, as well as to the 5 minutes. We hope to see many of you at the Auction this Saturday!
February 10 - Thank you for supporting our Penny Drive this year! We'll find out sometime this week how much money we raised to help the Korean Veterans Memorial Wall. In math this week we will be testing on money and begin our work with telling time. The parts of the Bible, its format, and some important events will be our focus in religion. In preparation for celebrating Abraham Lincoln & George Washington's birthdays, we be learning more about the former presidents as well as Presidents' Day itself. We will also continue to use our reading strategies to help improve our comprehension and make sure that when we write the sentences are complete and clear.
February 2 - What a great way to spend a week, celebrating being Catholic. It was so much fun honoring all of the different groups within our school community through various assemblies, activities, and of course dress up days. The Penny Drive will continue through next Friday, Feb. 8. In social studies, we are learning about Chinese New Year (on Feb. 5) as well as about the Chinese culture in general. We wrapped up our study of matter in science and will now move on the Earth's surface. Money remains our math topic with a focus this week on equivalent money amounts and counting money that is more than one dollar. We are also finishing up learning about the parts of the Mass. We will talk about different holy actions and holy objects that we use/see at Mass, in the church, and in our everyday prayer life.
January 25 - Thank you to all of you who share your family members with us today! It was great to meet so many grandparents and other special guests. We hope they enjoyed their time visiting. Next week we will have a lot of fun events to help us celebrate Catholic Schools Week. Make sure to check the calendar sent home for the different dress up days. We have many fun events planned along with some of our regular classes. We encourage all students to wear their uniform to Mass this weekend to represent our school. Our official kick off of the week begins on Sunday the Dad's Spaghetti Dinner in Marian Hall at 5:45 and the Talent Show at 6:30. We hope you can join us!
January 19 - On Monday we spent time in the church for Adoration. This connected well to Fr. Gary's homily on Wednesday which focused on taking some quiet time to really be with God. We learned that Sabbath means 'resting in God'. This coming week we have an opportunity to serve our community through Homeless Connect, which takes place on Thursday. The school puts together care packages of everyday items for those who will attend. Second grade is asked to donate pocket sized packages of tissues. The tissues will be collected through Wednesday. Our middle school students will then assemble the care packages with all of the items school families are donating.
Safety: Please help keep all of our families safe by following the drop off rules in the morning. If you park in the parking lot, you must walk your child to the school campus. Please don't let them go through the parking lot alone. Due to Grandparent/Special Friends Day and noon dismissal on Friday, students will be dismissed the from the classrooms only. If your child walks or goes to Extended Care, they will be taken care of.
January 13 - Happy New Year! We had a busy first week of 2019. We enjoyed time together as a school for an All School Mass, our weekly parish Mass, and for the Christmas program (the older students came to our rehearsal). We had a safety talk to review safety procedures as well as an all school lock down drill (what we would do if someone unsafe was on campus or in our building). In math, we are wrapping up subtraction with regrouping. We will continue to practice this skill through Simple Solutions. Next we will move on to money. We spent time talking about and reflecting on Epiphany, thinking specifically about a time when we gave a gift to someone else. We also did some fun science experiments involving mixtures and solutions. At Mass on Tuesday, Fr. Gary reminded all of us how important it is for us to do our part at Mass by responding and singing. Please encourage active participation when you go as a family on the weekend. Especially for those students who are preparing for First Eucharist, this is the time when children should be doing less coloring/drawing during Mass and more listening/participating. To go along with this, we are learning about the parts of the Mass - the names of the parts, what we do during them & why, and what they mean. This will also be part of one of the First Eucharist classes.
December 16 - Thank you all for donating to Nathan's Toy Story toy drive this year. I believe this was one of our best years of collecting toys! We will begin the 3rd week of Advent with our all school prayer in the gym at 8:20 on Monday and we will end the week with prayer on Friday for the 4th week. We are making good progress with subtracting with regrouping. We know that we regroup a ten for 10 ones so that we have enough ones to subtract. We've done this so far with manipulatives and using expanded form. We will transition to the standard algorithm this week. For Monday's math homework, students are to use expanded form to subtract. For the rest of the week, they can use the standard algorithm. We will send examples of what this all looks like home on Monday.
December 7 - What a chilly week! We are definitely thankful for our warm, cozy classrooms. Now that we have addition with regrouping figured out, we will be moving into subtraction with regrouping. This skill takes a little more practice and understanding. We will begin with manipulatives, use expanded form, then use the standard algorithm. We will share with you each strategy and how it works as we go. We have moved onto timelines in social studies with the goal of creating a timeline of the history of Vancouver. We will continue working with nouns by learning pronouns and possessive nouns. We will also work on opinion writing.
December 2 - This weekend we begin the season of Advent, as well as a new liturgical year. We have been learning about the liturgical year/calendar including the seasons and colors. In math, we learned how to use the standard algorithm for addition with regrouping. We will continue to practice for the next few days, making sure that students can not only do the regrouping but explain the steps as they go and what it is they are doing. On Monday, we will send a graphic of the steps the students have learned and are using. Our grammar and writing has focused on nouns, including common & proper and singular & plural (this week). Thank you to everyone who has donated toys to Nathan's Toy Story so far!
November 25 - We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We are looking forward to a mostly full week of lots of new learning. Our annual Nathan's Toy Story toy drive begins this week. We are collecting new, unwrapped toys for children of all ages. Thank you for helping out if you can.
November 18 - To get in the Thanksgiving spirit, we will be doing many Thanksgiving themed activities this week, all practicing recently learned skills: writing strong sentences, adding 2-digit numbers, giving a survey & making a bar graph, writing a prayer of thanksgiving, and using reading strategies while listening to Thanksgiving picture books. Last Friday we sent home the Greg Tang Thanksgiving math packet. The directions are the same as they were for the Halloween packet and this is optional. Packets are due back Monday, Nov. 26.
November 12 - Thank you to everyone who supported our food drive for the Children's Center! As a school, we greatly exceeded our goal and will be helping many families here in Vancouver. In Religion, we have been discussing Reconciliation and we are learning the Act of Contrition. Though many of the students already know it, it is a second grade prayer the students are expected to know so we are helping everyone to learn it. Since the celebration of this Sacrament is being done differently this year, please let us know when your child makes his/her First Reconciliation so that we can recognize them.
November 2 - Wow, we had a busy week! On Tuesday, we celebrated Bat Tuesday and learned so many cool facts about bats. Thank you to all of the parents who helped us celebrate Halloween on Wednesday. We began the month of November with our All Saints Day Mass led by 4th grade. Fr. Michael reminded us to be like the saints by making choices that bring us closer to God. In math we are working on subtraction strategies and will soon start working more with adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers. Thank you for helping your child to complete the Baptism/Birth assignment. It was fun to hear all about them!
October 26 - What a great week of learning! We went on a scavenger hunt around the classroom for solids, liquids & gasses, learned why communities form governments, strengthened our brains with lots of math puzzles, and focused on writing strong sentences with details. We also learned about the Sacrament of Baptism and Jesus' Baptism. Over the weekend, students are to learn about their own Baptism (or birth if not Catholic). We have a busy week coming up, so make sure to mark your calendar for all of the important events!
October 19 - Thank you for meeting with us over the past 3 days to discuss your child's learning. We hope that you share with your child his/her MAP results and the strengths & areas for growth we identified. Also have a discussion about his/her self-reflection. It is important for the students to know that we are all working together to help them on their learning journey. We have a change to our schedule starting next week, the addition of Music class! The second graders will attend music on Tuesdays in the morning and the music room being used is in the back of the church. We are excited to have this program back at St. Joe's and to welcome Ms. Hand to our community!
October 14 - From rain back to sunshine! What a beautiful end to our week. We wrapped up our plant and communities units last week. In science, we will move to learning about matter. Soon in social studies, we will look at government, including our local leaders, how it works, and voting. This week students will spend some time reflecting on their learning so far this school year, their strengths and areas for growth, and goals they would like to set. We will share all of this with you at your child's conference. We look forward to meeting with you!
October 7 - The Fall weather has come and we had our first rainy day inside recess on Friday. Thankfully it was nice on Thursday when Fr. Michael led our Pet Blessing. We continued our practice of skip counting in math, as many students were having a little trouble. We will continue to practice this skill as we move on to addition and addition strategies. In social studies, students drew their neighborhood community and included details that identified it as rural, urban, or suburban. This week, students will work in groups to make posters of each type of community. Our apple seed life cycle learning will take place this week. Look for sign up information regarding conferences coming soon. We will have teacher/parent conferences and it is required for each student.
September 30 - MAP testing is a wrap! (at least for the younger grades). We have many students still testing, so individual student reports won't be ready for a little while. However, we will have general information to share with you regarding your child's results at parent teacher conferences later in the month. In math, we have been working on skip counting within 2 and 3-digit numbers. Next we will move on to number bonds and strategies for adding numbers. We will wrap up our unit on plants by creating a book about the life cycle of an apple seed. We are also learning about communities, not only where we live but within our Church. Each week we set one or two class goals with our students. You can see what these goals are when you check out your child's weekly report on Fridays. Talk to your child about how he or she can help the class earn our goals.
September 23 - We began our week attending Adoration in the church for the first time. The students noticed how calm and quiet it was and enjoyed the time talking to God. Sentences don't bug us! We practice writing the 4 types of sentences (statement, question, command, exclamation) by making sentences bugs. You can see them hanging in our rooms. Now that we have built our stamina during reading and writing, we will start working with small groups on specific CAFE skills. This Friday is the Sock Hop. Students are invited to wear 50's attire (or uniforms) to school for the day. We have PE so make sure to still have your child wear tennis shoes. We will end our day with an all school assembly and the family event begins at 6:00 in Marian Hall.
September 17 - We had a great first full week of school. Our reading and writing stamina has greatly increased and we now get to choose which activity we'd like to do first and then second (read to self, work on writing). This week, we will learn how to Read with Someone. We will also introduce Word Work activities, which allow for spelling and phonics practice. In science, we have been observing been seeds in plastic bags. Each bag has a paper towel either with or without water. We made predictions as to whether we thought the seeds will grow. Later this week, we will review our recorded data and make conclusions about our predictions. On Wednesday, we have Vision Screening. Please make sure your child has his or her glasses, if appropriate. We begin MAP testing this week with the math test. Mrs Yarne's class tests on Monday, Mrs. Houser's class on Thursday. Also on Thursday is Give More 24, a fund raising event. Aaron Meyer will perform a concert on the blacktop from 3-4pm. Wear your St. Joe's spirit wear shirts on Friday with your uniform.
September 9 - We are finally getting into the swing of things. We are learning new routines, expectations, and about each other. In reading we are building our stamina by staying focused and reading the whole time. We have also been building our writing stamina by staying focused and writing the whole time. We will start to move into curriculum for most of our content subjects starting this week. Order envelopes for individual pictures will go home on Monday, with pictures taking place on Thursday. Students may wear free dress. Appropriate shoes must be worn (no sandals/open-toed shoes) along with socks.
September 4 - We are into our second week of school and moving right along. We have spent a lot of time getting to know each other and our classrooms (expectations, routines). We have also spent time gathering information about your children, primarily in the areas of reading and math. By getting a better picture of where they are, we will be able to plan where we need to take them. We look forward to seeing all of you this Thursday at Back to School Night. The evening starts at 6:30 in the gym, before moving on to the classrooms. This night is for adults only, please. See you then!
August 29 - Welcome to 2nd grade and our class website! We hope that you all had a great summer. This site will be updated weekly to reflect what we are learning, upcoming events and reminders, and to let you know about fun things we've been doing. Pictures will be added throughout the year. We encourage you to check out the site at least once a week to keep up on things. Please feel free to email us anytime you have a question!
