July 14 - 20 ~~ Back to School Deals!

I'm always looking for a deal! Here are a few back to school deals that you may be interested in that are lasting the remainder of this week.



Top 5 Cheapies This Week:

• Office Depot: Flexible Ruler - $.50 (Limit 3)
• OfficeMax: Schoolio 1-Subject Notebook - $.15 (Limit 5)
• OfficeMax: OfficeMax Brand Glue Sticks (4pk) - $.25 (Limit 3)
• OfficeMax: Schoolio 1-Subject Notebook - $.15 (Limit 5)
• OfficeMax: Purell Hand Sanitizer (1oz) - $.10 (Limit 6)

Here is a full list of inexpensive items sorted by individual store. Some of the office supply stores have per-item limits that vary depending on the item. Many locations will increase or waive limits for teachers. Be sure you check with a manager before you shop.

:: OFFICE DEPOT

• Filler Paper (150 sheets) - $.25 (Limit 3)
• 2-hole Manual Pencil Sharpener - $.25 (Limit 3)
• Crayola Crayons (24ct) - $.50 (Limit 3)
• Flexible Ruler - $.50 (Limit 3)
• Foray Single Pens - $.50 (Limit 10)
• Fashion Folders - $1.49-$1.99
• BIC Velocity Gel Pens (4pk) - $2 (*Use this Bic Coupon coupon to save more!)
• Scotch Color Masking Tape - $2
• Foray Liquid Ink Highlighters (5pk) - $2

:: OFFICEMAX 

• Woodcase No 2. Pencils - $.01 (Limit 20 & $5 Min Purchase)
• Purell Hand Sanitizer (1oz) - $.10 (Limit 6)
• Schoolio 1-Subject Notebook - $.15 (Limit 5)
• Schoolio Paper Folders - $.15 (Limit 10)
• Just Basics Ballpoint Pens (10pk) - $.25 (Limit 5)
• Office Max Glue Sticks (4pk) - $.25 (Limit 3)
• Wide or College Ruled Poly Notebooks - $1
• 1 or 1.5" 3 Ring Binders - $1 (Limit 5)
• Poly Folders - $1
• Office Max Jumbo Glue Sticks (2pk) - $1 
• Office Max Erasers (3pk) - $1
• Sharpie Highlighters (4pk) - $1
• Crayola Colored Pencils (12pk) - $1

:: STAPLES

• RoseArt Crayons (24ct) – $.25
• Slider Pencil Case – $.25
• Staples School Glue – $.25
• Staples Memo Pad with Magnetic Closure – $.25
• BIC Wite-Out Correction Tape (2pk) – $1 (*Use this Bic Coupon coupon to save more!)
• Staples Fat Book (200sheets) - $1
• Protractor or Compass - $1
• Zebra Z-Grip Mechanical Pencils (7pk) - $1
• Dry Erase Board - $1

 

:: TARGET   

• Up & Up Pencil Sharpener - $.50
• Up & Up Erasers (2ct) - $.50
• Up & Up Plastic Folder - $.50
• Up & Up 3x5 Index Cards (100ct) - $.50
• Up & Up Pencil Box - $.50
• Up & Up Wooden Pencils (24ct) - $1
• Up & Up Mechanical Pencils - $1 M"/
• Up & Up 8" Scissors - $2.50

 

:: WALMART

• Crayola Washable Crayons (4ct) - $.25
• Cra-Z-Art Crayons (24ct) - $.25
• Paper Mate Pink Eraser (1ct) - $.25
• Pencil Sharpener - $.25
• Elmers Single Glue Sticks (1ct) - $.25
• Paper Mate Ball Point Pens (4pk) - $.25
• Wooden Ruler - $.25
• Cra-Z-Art School Glue - $.34
• No. 2 Yellow Pencils (8ct) - $.47
• Index Cards (100ct) - $.48
• Elmers Glue Sticks (2pk) - $.50
• Elmers Glue (4 oz.) - $.50
• Cra-Z-Art Markers (10ct) - $.50
• Pink Erasers (2pk) - $.50
• Crayola Crayons (24ct) - $.50
• Fiskars Flexible Ruler - $.75
• Bic WiteOut (1 Count) - $.97
• Bic Crystal Pens (10ct) - $.97
• Cra-Z-Art Washable Watercolors (8 Count) – $.97
• Crayola Colored Pencils - $.97
• Crayola Markers (10 count) - $.97
• No 2. Yellow Pencils (20ct) - $.97
• Paper Mate Ball Point Pens (10ct) - $.97

Source

2013-2014 School Supply List

Below is 2nd grade's school supply list for the 2013-2014 school year.

Woot Woot! It's Summer!

It's summer and guess what Mrs. P has been doing...Working on school stuff. I just got back from a math conference in San Antonio and I'm excited to implement all the new games and activities that I learned. This coming school year is going to be FUN, FUN, FUN!

Penguins have overtaken Mrs. Prunes' room!

I have really fallen down on posting! Time has just gotten away from me. I cannot believe how fast the year is going!!

We have some EXCITING news in our classroom!! Santa has sent us a penguin to report back to him. Now, if you know anything about Santa (which I'm sure you do) he normally sends elves. But Santa knows how much I LOVE penguins, so he sent our classroom a penguin that is EXTRA special. He reportes back to Santa every night to inform him of who has been naughty or nice. Our class came together yesterday and they decided to name him Snowchip.

Every morning, when the kids return to school, they have to find our silly penguin and see what he has been up to. This is a picture of his first morning after the kids met him.

In other penguin news, I encourage you to come check out our pengiun bulliten board. The kids worked really hard on making a mosaic penguin, giving their penguin and name, and writing a story about their penguin's winter adventure.

Math and Spelling Games

I just updated out Math and Spelling page on the right-hand side with tons of games to play online. Check them out and let your child have fun learning.

Learning about Mass and Teamwork

This week we started learning about mass in science. I couldn't pass up sharing this great teamwork picture. The kids were discussing their predictions about what weighed more and less than a penny and then they were discovering by weighing the objects and comparing them with a pan balance.

Week 6 Peek and Spelling

This is a very important week in second grade. We will be having our very first reading benchamrk test on Wednesday and Thursday. Be sure you child comes to school well rested and with a full tummy.

Open House

**Open House - Sept. 27**

Come to our class and see what we have been up to. :) Can't wait to see you there.
5:00 - 6:30

Chunk the Chinchilla

I'm sure that your child has talked about Chunk at home. I thought I would share a picture of him. Chunk got to take a journey today to the vet's office. All of the ladies there loved him. He got checked out by the vet and is 100% healthy. When he got back to the classroom, he was very excited to be back in his cage.

If your child has not mentioned Chunk, here are a few questions you can ask about him.
-How does he take a bath?
-What is his favorite snack?
-Where is his favorite place to be in his cage?
-What does his fur feel like?

Peek and Spelling

Oops! Where did my post go?

Well, it seems that my spelling and peek post did not publish for this week like it should have. I'm so sorry. To make up for it, here is an awesome story elements rap that you can enjoy with your child at home. We will be viewing it in class, and I have a feeling that the kids are going to LOVE it. It goes over the five story elements (plot, character, conflict, theme, and setting) in a fun and exciting way. Encourage your child to practice identifying the five elements in their reading and writing.

Five Story Elements Rap

Week 3 Information

This week we are going to continue building off our skills from the previous two weeks. We are getting established into our classroom routines. Also, rules and expectations are starting to become second nature to the kids.

We are going to have another timed test over +1 facts on Friday. Be sure to practice, practice, practice at home every night. The students are expected to complete 50 problems in 3 minutes with no mistakes. Also, be sure that your child is practicing their spelling words every singe night.

We will continue building our addition and subtraction skills in math this week. We are going back over characters and setting in a story and we are using the text structure of our weekly story to help our comprehension.We are covering consonant blends in phonics (this is also our spelling skill). We are learning how to magnify topics in our writing to get interesting and clear ideas to write about.We are continuing our study on physical properties in science and we are learning about what makes a rural community in social studies.

As you can see, we are very busy with some fun and exciting lessons this week. I hope that your child is enjoying learning with me as much as I am enjoying learning with them.

Week 1 Down!

Wow! What an amazing first week. This, by far, was my best first week yet. My kids are amazing and we are diving head first into some awesome lessons.

Here are the spelling words and the peek at the week for week 2.

Are you ready?

I remind myself of a kid on the night before school starts. All of my plans are finished, my bags are packed and already in the car (thanks hubby), and I have my clothes picked out. I'm 100% sure that I will not sleep a wink tonight because I am so excited to start our new year.

I have not stopped thinking about all the precious faces that I saw at Meet the Teacher. I can already tell that I defiantly have the best class at PCA and I am so excited to get to know and learn with each one of my students.

Peek at the Week and Spelling

May 14 - 18

Peek at the week:

Reading:
Unit 6 Week 3

Weekly Story – A Birthday Basket for Tia

Genre – Realistic Fiction

Vocab – aunt, bank, basket, collects, favorite, present

Skill – drawing conclusion, questioning

Phonics:

Skill – Final Syllables –tion, -ture, -ion

Language Arts:

Writers Workshop

Spelling List:

1. mixture

2. nation

3. section

4. future

5. picture

6. action

7. caution

8. station

9. fixture

10. motion

11. nature

12. feature

Challenge Words:

1. celebration

2. tradition

3. flowering

4. beetle

5. abdomen

Dictation Sentence:

The picture station featured paintings of nature.

Buddy Reading

The kids LOVE the grab a book, a buddy, a pillow or stuffed animal, and read with each other. I believe that it's a great way to build strong readers. I love to listen and observe them buddy reading. They mimic my questioning that we use during small group time and it tickles me to see them "act" like the teacher. Little do they know, they really are teaching each other.

Peek at the Week and Spelling List

May 7 - 11

Peek

Reading:
Unit 6 Week 2

Weekly Story – Red, White, and Blue: The Story of the American Flag

Genre – Informational Text

Vocab – America, birthday, flag, freedom, nicknames, stars, stripes

Skill – Author’s Puropse, Summarizing

Phonics:

Skill – Abbreviations

Language Arts:

Writers Workshop

Spelling List

1. Mr.

2. Mrs.

3. St.

4. Jan.

5. Feb.

6. Aug.

7. Dr.

8. Ms.

9. Rd.

10. Oct.

11. Nov.

12. Dec.

Challenge Words

1. migration

2. hibernation

3. scientist

4. adaptation

5. journey

Dictation Sentence

Dr. and Mrs. Smith will be our neighbor on our St. soon.

Peek at the Week and Spelling List

April 30 - May 4

Reading and Language Art Peek at the Week

Reading:
Unit 6 Week 1

Weekly Story – Just Like Josh Gibson

Genre – Realistic Fiction

Vocab – bases, cheers, field, plate, sailed, threw

Skill – Compare and Contrast, Monitor and Clarify

Phonics:

Skill – Inflected Endings

Language Arts:

Writers Workshop

Spelling List

1. tried

2. trying

3. planned

4. planning

5. liked

6. liking

7. skipped

8. skipping

9. heavier

10. heaviest

11. lighter

12. lightest

Challenge Words

1. photosynthesis

2. germination

3. pollination

4. chlorophyll

5. cotyledons

Dictation Sentence

The woman tried planning the party and liked it.

Flip Books with B, M, and E!

In writing, we are working on pulling all the wonderful writing techniques that we have learned all year together into well written stories. We use this flip books for several things in class and I thought they are the perfect way to demonstrate how to segregate the elements of the beginning, middle, and end of a story but also how they work together to make a whole story.

We started with drafting our stories in our journals. The draft is seperated into the beginning (including the main characters and setting),the middle (including the problem that the character faces), and the end (including the solution to the problem). The students would write a section of their story and check that it included all the nessacary factors and also that their writing had lots of details.

Next, when they had comleted their story and each section flowed together, they got two friendsto  help edit their writing. When the editing was finished, they were able to make their flip book.

Here is an example of the book that I wrote about our class pet, Ollie, and how he came to be apart of our classroom.

Yummy Worms - Illustrations by Erin Gentry

Setting up the drafting paper.

Reading the beginning section of the story.

The whole story together.

The title on the back. 

Peek at the Week and Spelling List

April 23 - 27

Peek at the Week:

This week we are reviewing unit 5 and will be benchmark testing towards the end of the week.

Spelling:

I am very, very excited about spelling this week. Spelling time is one of my favorite times of the day. I always try to make our activities hands on so the kids enjoy and can retain what they are learning. I hope that they come home and tell you when we have a fun activity. Since this is a review week, our curriculum does not provide a spelling list. This means that I get to create a list that reflects the needs that I feel my students have.

This week, instead of having a high frequency word list with common misspelled words, I have decided to make a feeling words list. One of my goals in second grade is to get the kids away from writing simple words like sad, happy, and mad. I try get them thinking of higher level words that will enrich their writing or even their conversations amongst one another. So, this week we are working on feeling words and I am so excited about the learning that will follow.

1. terrible
2. annoyed
3. relaxed
4. concerned
5. bored
6. startled
7. impatient
8. delighted
9. bubbly
10. jealous
11. terrific
12. gloomy

Challenge Words:
1. measurement
2. area
3. perimeter
4. governor
5. children

Dictation Sentence:
Since we are working on creating sentences using feeling words this week, I am going to let the kids create their own dictation sentence to practice. They will be graded on correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.