our Tanksgiving

by: Chandler

I can't wate for the play. we got to see a blackwidow. we are going to have a great Tanksgiving. I'm glad we got to wear are costume. We are exited about our play. The boys looked like skotish dansers. I'm glad we are going to have are play.

MRS. BRUNO'S NOTES: The day of our play has finally arrived. I hope that we remember our dialogue and our blocking. But, most importantly, I hope that we are able to teach people something about the Colonial times. We wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Fantastic Friday

Emmy wrote: Today we are haveing fun making owr set for owr play. And we are so happy abawt owr play.

MRS. BRUNO'S NOTES: After much stress and loss of sleep, I'm finally beginning to think our play will come together. The kids had me a little worried, but they're really coming through for me. We can't wait to share our knowledge of the Colonial days with our families. The kids have done a wonderful job on the sets. I'm very proud of them!

We're really looking forward to our Thanksgiving holidays!!! Have a good weekend!

The Wednesday

Reagan B wrote I cant wate in till are book is the Libearey.Icant wate in till the play is over.

MRS. BRUNO'S NOTES: What a crazy and hectic day we had today. Not only did we run to the amphitheater to try our first run-through of the play, but we also started set design today. We are really feeling the pressure!!! Lots of people didn't even have their scripts at school today, which makes it really difficult to run lines. We're a little nervous and hoping we'll be ready in time.

WE'VE BEEN PUBLISHED!!!

I forgot to have the kids write about our math book being ready to publish when we blogged Monday. You can see our final copy at http://paineprimarypublishers.shutterfly.com/

We're so excited. We're ordering a copy of our book for our classroom library, as well as for our school library. If you'd like a copy of MATH AROUND YOUR SCHOOL, you can order it at the above sight!

Seeing Our First Space Shuttle

blog by: Ed

I am so excited that I soll a secent spase shuttle in my life.I am excited that our class soll a spase shuttle in Florda. Sebastian Fun to see the shuttle lonch.I was excited that I soll a space shuttle.

MRS. BRUNO'S NOTES: This morning, I gave a crash-course in space. The kids quickly learned the history of space flight, in order to prepare them for today's shuttle launch. I'm very passionate about space and always wanted to be an astronaut. I remember being glued to the television on a snow day when the Challenger exploded, as well as exactly where I was and what I was doing when the Columbia caught fire upon re-entry a few years ago. I took my daughter to her first shuttle launch this past March, and I had planned to attend this launch on its original launch date of Nov. 12. When it was postponed, I cancelled my trip. I love to bring these experiences to my class, so today, at 1:28 pm CT, we watched as Space Shuttle Atlantis launched and began its voyage to the ISS.

Your children sat mesmorized while they watched, just as I did as a child. They asked great questions, and I assume they'll come home talking about it this afternoon. You might not believe it by their conversation, but we did do other things in school today, as well.

Unfortunately, the space shuttle fleet will be retired after 2010, so if you have the opportunity to take your child to one of the remaining launches (Feb, March, July, and September 2010), I highly recommend it. I plan to go to at least one more.

Ooooooo . . . Friday the 13th!!!

This afternoon, we learned new math. We began practicing subtraction with regrouping, and we're finding out that sometimes we have to borrow from the next-door neighbor to make a problem work. We used branching. Mrs. Bruno took someone to "Math Jail" for going the wrong way down "Subtraction Street." She cuffed him in the number 8! (Hee hee!)

Emmy's step-dad is headed to New Mexico, so we found it on a map. We decided it was west of Alabama.

We're finished with our math book. We have to go back and proofread all of it with a fine-toothed comb. Look for details on how to purchase your own copy coming to you soon! We've sure enjoyed writing and illustrating it.

We also finished our read-aloud, Clementine.

Have a happy weekend!!!

Sluggish "Second Monday"

After a vacation day yesterday, we feel like we're starting the week all over with our "second Monday."

We're excited that Mrs. Ward will be sitting with us during Mrs. Bruno's two meetings. We finished taking our pictures today for our math book. We gave our book a title Tuesday. It will be called Math Around Your School. We tried to finish putting it together, but had trouble with the internet connection. We'll try again this afternoon! We only have a few more pages to go! We're also finishing our letters to our elves this morning! We are so glad that we didn't have another soggy day yesterday!

Beginning Monday, students will be typing the blog, instead of Mrs. Bruno. All of the ideas and sentences have come from the students, but Mrs. Bruno has been the typist. We'll be taking over on Monday! Yippee!

Here are some of our final pictures that will appear in our math book:

Very Busy Morning

This morning we headed to the library and started publishing our math book. We ran into lots of problems, but we were able to figure them out with the help of Mrs. Brockman. We learned that we couldn't have a page in our book with just text. Every page must have at least one photograph. If our particular group wasn't typing, it began a new problem for the book. We'll get together and vote on which additional problems we want to add to our storyboard. Only two groups were able to complete their pages today, and we'll continue working on them tomorrow.

We just got back from lunch, and we'll head to counselor after reading another chapter in Clementine. It's been a very busy day!

Spectacular Friday

We made our clean copies of our word problems today. We have a date with Mrs. Brockman on Monday to begin our next step . . . publishing. Yes, we're FINALLY there! We'll add our pictures in, and be almost done. We're hoping that we can ask for our parents to buy us our published book for Christmas!!!! It's precisely what we would like!

Mrs. Bruno announced that Mrs. Schmitt would be observing our class today, and she came to visit at 9:45. Ms. Morris did a wonderful job with her phonics lesson today. She taught us the schwa sound and had cute apparel to go with it! A blue t-shirt hung on our board that said "Schwa happens!"

We are hoping to have a mellow weekend and come back to our fellow students relaxed and not glum.

Did you notice the WOW words in italics? We're actively expanding our vocabulary!

Thursday Thoughts

Today, we added, yet another word to our WOW words on the ceiling. Today's word was "wobble." I challenge you to use this word with your children three times this week. Tomorrow's word is "anxious," but the kids don't know it, yet. I'm ANXIOUS to let them in on the secret!! : )



The children shared their favorite things of the day with me. Here they are:

Reece liked it when we went to the halls to take pictures of teachers for our math book illustrations.

Jordan was excited about our compliment party this morning.

Makenzie W. is in the editing stage of the writing process for her letter to Santa's elves.

Reagan B. can't wait until we finish our math book.

Keaton is excited about today being ART day! : )

Emmy can't wait for the elves to write back.

Xavier is looking forward to Mrs. Schmitt observing in our room tomorrow.

Ethan is impressed with the big vocabulary words we discussed.

Edward is excited about learning who the room mother was when we finished our current read-aloud, Gooney Bird and the Room Mother.

Sebastian liked it when we took a listening comprehension test on Gooney Bird and the Room Mother.

Kimberly really liked the way that Gooney Bird pronounced "suddenly" in our read-aloud book.

Taylor is thrilled that we have so many WOW words on our ceiling.

Beginning a New Month

We've started a new month in second grade. Can you believe it's already November and almost time for Thanksgiving? How time flies!!

We've had a fun-filled week of school, but we've also learned a lot. From working on word problems and continuing to write our math book to studying nouns and doing readers' theater, we've been working our fingers to the bone. Here's what some of our classmates said about the past few days of school:

Emmy-We took some great pictures for our class math book.

Kimberly-We are practicing writing friendly letters by writing to Santa's elves.

Jordan-I liked going to the Good Character program the other day because it taught us about having good character.

Keaton-I really enjoyed taking our math book pictures.

Makenzie W.-I enjoyed voting on which pictures would be included in the book.

Edward-Taking the pictures on the playground seemed like extra recess, but it was really school work.

Reagan B.-I can't wait until we publish our book!

Ethan-I'm excited about an extra music class. We're calling it our "special" special! : )

Carmen-We listened to Christmas music this morning to get us in the mood to write to Santa's elves.

Reagan P.-I am almost done with my note to Santa's elves, and I can't wait until one of the elves writes me back!

Westin-I started my letter to the elf!!!

We're about to begin working on our Thanksgiving play, and, boy, will that be a blast!!! Happy Wednesday!!!