Monday, August 31, 2015

Hello Room 14 Families!!
Welcome to the 2016-2017 school year with Mrs. Carter!  Please keep our line of communication open about your child.  Together we can help your child have a successful and FUN year! Please let me know if you have questions about anything from classroom behavior in Class Dojo to learning objectives, or how you can help in (or out) of our classroom!!  Please check my blog and Class Dojo frequently for updates, and email/call me with concerns.  Let's make this a wonderful year for your child!!

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Happy New Year!

My New Year's resolution………try to update my blog more consistently!

For our second semester of second grade we will be working on challenges for third grade!  In math: time & temperature, 3-digit regrouping, and multiplication- science: matter, life cycles of plants & animals- social studies: economics & geography- reading: responding to more difficult texts & picking out the main idea of multi paragraph texts- writing: developing our own memoir, short (fantasy) story, & research project- test taking strategies & working with technologies to publish our work.



Check out this 'status' from the Minds-in-Motion Facebook site.  Go and "like" their page- it has some really interesting research about young kids and the importance of movement!  Our TC second graders continue to partake in the Maze everyday for 10 minutes and sometimes twice a day!!


If we want children to sit still in school and focus, we must first let them MOVE! Especially on these cold, winter days! Teachers need to take to heart what pediatric therapists have been saying for years: The main reason students are so fidgety in school is because of limited opportunities to move. Our schools need to learn about an all important nerve in the inner ear, called the vestibular nerve, which serves to orient us in time and space and to turn on the focusing capacity of the brain. The only way to activate this important cranial nerve to do its job well is to MOVE - MOVE - MOVE!

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Too Much Time Sitting in School??

Not in my classroom!!!  Read this interesting article from the Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/07/08/why-so-many-kids-cant-sit-still-in-school-today/


This is why Minds-In-Motion is so important in schools today.  Our second graders at TC are getting this 'extra brain break' twice a day for 7 minutes, but it makes a huge difference in their day!!  Check out the Minds-In-Motion website:  http://mimlearning.com/

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Welcome New Families!!

I would like to welcome all of you to Room 14!  I am excited at the start of every new year to meet my new students and their families.  I hope that you utilize my blog to stay informed on what we are doing in the classroom & to gain information on how to help your child at home. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have about your child's learning!!  Together we can make this a GREAT year!

Monday, April 28, 2014

Great News!!

The project that I applied for through Donorschoose.org was fully funded in four short days!!  I am so excited.  Refer to my last post if you missed the details of my project.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Please help our classroom!

Subject: Help me build a better classroom. You can help by choosing to give through Donor's Choose or by forwarding this message on to people who may be interested in helping my classroom! 


Hi Friends,

I want to make sure my students have the materials they need to succeed, so I just created a request for my classroom at DonorsChoose.org:

The "STEM" of All Learning

Give to my classroom by May 1, 2014 and your donation will be doubled thanks to 100 Women in Hedge Funds. Just enter the code 100WOMEN on the payment page and you'll be matched dollar for dollar (up to $500).

If you chip in to help my students, you'll get awesome photos and our heartfelt thanks.

Thanks so much,
Holly

P.S. If you know anyone who may want to help my classroom, please pass this along!

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Animal Research Project

Nonfiction Research Sites

Dear Families, 


This week we will be starting a new project. We are going to study animals.
Each child chose their top three favorite animals and we did our best 
to pick their number one choice. Each student in our class will be assigned 
a different animal. The students' will be doing some research and writing 
a report. The step-by-step process of organizing and writing a report is more 
important at this early writing development stage than the amount 
information gathered. Each child will be setting up a research folder
with specific steps to follow. We will then create a nonfiction article along
a Quadrama about our animal. 
Here is an example of what a Quadrama looks like:



Learning Goal:
Students read to find information from a variety of reference sources, 
follow a structured writing process to complete a simple report, 
and practice basic computer operations as they research an animal and create a product.