Hopes and Dreams for Second Grade!

Today we continued to build classroom community with our morning meeting.  Beginning the day with a Morning Meeting sets a positive tone for the day and merges social, emotional, and academic learning. Each day, our morning meeting has 4 components: greeting, share, activity (song/game), and the morning message on the easel.  Ask your child to share about today's greeting, share, game, and morning message!  

We also built classroom community yesterday by sharing hopes and dreams for the school year.  We read the book This School Year will be the Best! and talked about what children wanted to learn and do in second grade.  Each child chose one goal for the year and wrote about their hope and dream.  We also began creating and practicing classroom rules together and we'll continue this work next week.

We practiced using the Smartboard in our classroom as well.  Using students' photos, each child dragged their picture into different categories (boy/girl, favorite ice cream, etc.) to practice manipulating objects on the screen.  They did a great job and we had many expert Smartboard users from first grade!  I'm excited to integrate many pieces of technology into our classroom this year! 

Next week will include beginning an immigration unit in social studies, working on building number sense and addition/subtraction strategies in math, and learning how to choose "good-fit books" for reading.  Students' math, writing, and reading skills will also be assessed.  Looking forward to another great week!

Have a wonderful long weekend with your family!  

Our Second Day

We had another great day in second grade today!  Our class created rules for our meeting area and we learned some new songs, "The Shark Song" and "The Pirate Song."   Our read-alouds today included David Goes to School and Cookie's Week.  We also had P.E. class and wrote clues about ourselves for a Who Am I? activity!  In math, we began our calendar routine and explored cuisenaire rods.

Today we also began our first component of literacy workshop called Read to Self.  Our class was able to read for two sessions using books from their book boxes.  Tomorrow and each day we'll increase our time reading to build independence and stamina to read for longer amounts of time.  Soon students will learn about selecting good-fit books for themselves from our classroom library.

Tomorrow we'll create drawings about our hopes and dreams for the school year and introduce the Smartboard!

Thank you for helping your child remember to bring their purple home folder to school!  I'm enjoying getting to know your second grader!

The First Day of School!

Our class had a wonderful first day in second grade today!  We began building classroom community by learning names, sharing a favorite food, and enjoying some new songs (ask your child to share their favorite)! We also read Wemberly Worried, had a fire drill, explored unifix cubes in math, and learned about the materials and routines in our classroom.  A highlight was checking out the construction for our new playground!   It was a busy day and we look forward to tomorrow!  

A few reminders:
Your child has a purple "Home Folder" in their backpack today.  This will be used to carry student work, homework, and important information to and from school.  This folder should come to school every morning and goes home everyday. Please have your child check their backpack and folder each day to build this routine.  

Please return your child's school information forms as soon as possible this week.  :)

Please don't hesitate to email or contact me with any questions or concerns!  Thank you and I look forward to working with your child this year!

Welcome!

Dear Families,                                                                         

My name is Tracy Mingarelli and I am very excited to be your child’s second grade teacher!  I am looking forward to getting to know you and your child and I would like to share a little about myself. 

I live in Warner with my husband, Ryan, our young daughter, Hailey, and our dog, Colby.  I have enjoyed teaching first grade at Bow Elementary for eight years now and I’m thrilled to be a part of Simonds School this next school year!  Outside of school I enjoy hiking, gardening, reading, and spending time with my family.  As a teacher, I am interested in the latest research in literacy development, integrating technology into the classroom, and creating a strong classroom community.  I also value strong collaboration between parents, teachers, and the school community.

  

In August you will receive an information packet about the school year. There is a new student “Meet and Greet” on August 23^rd from 2-3 p.m. if you are interested in attending.  Please check out our classroom blog with information about second grade and our class!  I am truly looking forward to spending time with your child.  We will learn a lot in second grade and we’ll also have a lot of fun! 

Enthusiastically,

Tracy Mingarelli