May 23, 2012
Welcome to Mrs. Vaughan's Class Page
CALLING ALL GOLFERS!!!!
Please join us Friday, June 1st for our 3rd annual Golf Outing.
Call 609-597-3800 for more information.
SPECIAL NOTE:
In the spirit of our shared faith, please be mindful that when inviting children to birthday parties, excluding only one or two students from a party invitation causes hurt feelings. Being inclusive allows all students to feel that they are a valued part of the class. Thank you so much for your understanding!
PEACE
Homework can be found in your child's BLUE PLANNER written under today's date.
Spelling words can also be found in your child's BLUE PLANNER for each week.
May 22, 2012
Look what's happening:
May 21, 2012
Religion
REMINDER:
May 20, 2012
What's New in LA!
T-shirt Day
June 8th, 2012
Students are to create a t-shirt based on a book they read and wear their t-shirt to school with their regular uniform pants.
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Students are making great strides in Language Arts! We have been learning about many different genres of literature and enjoying the stories and plays. We continue to practice our dictionary skills and learn to use those dictionaries as a resource when completing parts of speech worksheets.
Animal Anthologies are moving along!
Students have been busy working on their Animal Anthologies. These Antholgies are a collection of skills that we learned about one animal in particular. All the students have different animals that THEY chose in Media. For example; maybe your child will do an acrostic poem on dolphins, or a descriptive paragraph on pandas, or perhaps your child will do a Venn diagram with another animal! Ask your child what animal he/she has for their Animal Anthology. I can tell you that I get CHEERS when I say its Animal Anthology time!
Students continue to practice basic grammar and vocabulary skills daily.
Punctuation and capitalization are reinforced daily.
Phoneme skills we will be working on are; long and short vowels, initial consonant clusters, rhyming words as well as common and proper nouns, adjectives, verbs and sentence structure.
We also continue to write in our journals DAILY.
May 19, 2012
Math Update
Units of Measurement
<--ask your child about Super Gallon Man!
Students will be exploring various units of measurement these next few weeks.
Math is integrated throughout all subject areas. Second graders are encouraged to become "Problem Solvers" from day one. We challenge the students with Problem of the Day, EVERY SINGLE DAY. While we are very hands-on, we do Mental Math daily.
We also practice basic math facts with 5 minute math drills.
Many parents ask for copies of 5 Minute Math drills. For your convenience I have inserted a link to a site that offers free 5 minute math drills. Explore the site and you'll find many fun math drills for extra practice at home!
http://www.tlsbooks.com/fiveminutemathadditiondrills0-18.pdf
Students will have math homework almost every night. Their homework will be a review of what was learned in class that day.
For help with any of the math homework visit: www.harcourtschool.com
If it prompts you for a password, type in : Andrews
This site includes "Family Involvement-tips and Activities" as well as "Show Me" math models, a glossary of math vocabulary and GAMES!!!!!
May 18, 2012
Social Studies
May 17, 2012
WISH LIST
The following items are needed for the classroom - your generosity and support is greatly appreciated:
1. small paper cups
2. Germ-X
3. Baby wipes
4. Spoons
5. Tissues, tissues and more tissues!
I also allow students to keep a WATER bottle on their desks. If anyone would like to donate small bottles of water, (for students who forget or just need one), that would be very much appreciated.
Thank you SO MUCH!!!
Please know that it is important for us to encourage healthy habits within the classroom.
Science
SCIENCE
- Cycle 3 is Earth Science
Cycle1 - Life Science studying living vs. non-living things. We will be learning the characteristics and the needs of living things , natural habitats, how organisms interact with each other, physical characteristics, and animal adaptations. We will be using the smartboard in class to study these topics. I have included the websites we use in class, here on the website, so the students can continue their science learning at home.
In cycle one we will be partnering with the 8th graders in the science lab to disect a seed and begin studying about plants. We are very excited to begin this new venture!!
Cycle 2 - Physical science. Here are some fun websites the children can use to continue their science learning at home.
Solids, Liquids and Gases site http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/studyjams/matter_states/
Changing states of matter virtual lab http://www.fossweb.com/modulesK-2/SolidsandLiquids/index.html
Web sites used in class:
May 16, 2012
Favorite Links
Some Favorite Links:
- BrainPop
- Class Brain
- White House for Kids Excellent site filled with interesting material related to this year's Social Studies curriculum
- The Great Kapok Tree
- Ben's Guide Interesting site about topics we will be covering in Social Studies
- www.scholastic.com/sn2 Fun interactive activities
- www.primarygames.com Great learning games!
- www.playtolearn.com Online games for money and telling time.
- www.enchantedlearning.com Little explorers section has an on line dictionary and questions for children to look up the answers.
May 15, 2012
Write to President Obama
For any student interested in writing to President Obama:
President Barrack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
The Presidential Student Correspondence Fax Number is 202-456-7705.
LOOKING BACK:
In March of 2004, my class wrote individual letters to President Bush stating their reasons for leaving the words "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.
On June 14, 2004, the Supreme Court ruled to leave the words "under God" in the constitution. The ruling came on the 50th anniversary of the addition of the words "under God" to the Pledge. YAY!
