Sunday, September 23rd

We certainly were busy this past week!  We began with picture day on Tuesday, continued with another guest reader on Wednesday, and rounded out the week with a great visit from author/illustrator Katherine Roy.  She shared with us her research adventure to Africa, where she learned about elephants in order to write her most recent non-fiction book.  The children were enamored with the videos she showed of different elephant families.  One of the things the children learned was how to tell the difference between males and females.  
What a great opportunity for our students!  Thanks to our school librarian, Joanne Sergeant for arranging this for our second and third graders.

Wednesday, September 13th
Our Character Trait of the Month is KINDNESS.  We will celebrate a new trait each month this year.
You will see a graffiti board in the lobby filled with thoughts about what kindness means to members of the Ray School Community.  In our classroom, we have read many books about kindness, talked about how we demonstrate kindness, and how it feels when we are kind to other people and others are kind to us.  We watercolor painted these squares and each student chose a specific time/example of when kindness was demonstrated by his or herself, or someone else.  We used the Adobe Spark App to take pictures of the squares and then recorded student voices reading their sentences.  This slideshow was presented at our K-2 assembly Friday afternoon.  The squares will be arranged in the shape of a quilt in the display case in the front lobby sometime next week.  Take a look!


Please check Ray School page for the following information.  You will find it under Teacher Pages and then my name:

Specials Schedule - this is updated and posted for your reference

Guest Reading Link - when you go to rayschool.org, select:
Teacher pages
Mrs. Stone
Class Information on the right in purple
Guest Reading along the bottom in purple
Scroll to the bottom of the final page and click on Guest Reading again


Parent Information Night/Student Open House

This year we are combining parent information night and student open house.  On Wednesday, September 27th from 5-6pm we invite parents and second graders to come to school.  The first half of the hour, 5:00-5:30 parents will gather in the multi to get an overview of second grade curriculum and expectations.  During this time, students will either be supervised in structured outdoor play or another quiet activity in the building.  At 5:30, students will be brought to their respective classrooms where they will meet their parents and give them a tour around the classroom.  Second graders are your tour guides and will have chosen several things to show and tell you about our classroom, daily routines, or work they've completed.  Unfortunately, we do not have enough supervision for siblings to attend this event.  If this is a problem for your family, please let me know and I can do my best to supply you with the information you might miss if you are unable to attend the first half hour.

Wednesday, September 6th

I am excited for this blog to be up and running!  This is where I will write all of our upcoming news, reminders, and classroom events.  The other pages (Math, Language Arts, etc, ) will be updated with photos and information from our week's work as often as I take pictures.  Each of these pages may not be updated each week, but I will try to highlight at least one each week and share with you any new and exciting learning we've engaged in.  On this HOME page I will notify you when any one of those pages has been updated so you know to go and look there for something new.  Each time I update you will get an email with a link to the blog.  I hope this is useful and enjoyable for you this school year.  If you ever have any questions or feedback regarding the blog, please let me know.  You will see the most up to date version of our schedule at the bottom of this post.

Here are some important things for you to know about our classroom this year.

First, Picture Day for our class will be Tuesday, September 19th @ 12:50

Second, you will have many opportunities to come in and volunteer.  One weekly opportunity is something we call Guest Reader.  I invite each of you to come in on Wednesday afternoon from 1:15-1:50 to read to our class.  If you choose to be a guest reader it is your responsibility to find books to bring to read.  Often parents share books that were favorites when they were little, or favorites of their second grader.  Since the time frame is about 30 minutes, this is usually enough time for 2-4 picture books depending on their lengths.  I would also welcome anyone who wants to start a chapter book to come in on consecutive (or near consecutive Wednesdays) to read.  If you sign up to be a guest reader around any holidays, we welcome holiday themed books as well. Once I know who our room parent(s) will be, I will meet with those individuals and ask them to establish a sign-up, usually in the form of Sign-Up Genius or something similar.  You will be able to see available dates, enter your name on specific dates, and also enter in the books you plan to read or a TBA if necessary.  Since the PTO is trying a new way of recruiting volunteers and room parents this year, I'm not sure when I will know of people's interests.  If you already know you are interested, please send me an email and that way I'll have a heads-up and we could even start to plan for our guest reading slots ahead of the PTO's schedule.  

Thirdly, in case you didn't see my email this past weekend, we are a PEANUT/TREE NUT FREE room this year.  When packing snacks, lunches, and preparing birthday snacks, please keep this in mind.  If you are unable to find granola bars or snacks that have been processed in a factory without this contamination possibility, it is okay to send it in with your child.  We'll be aware that this situation may be possible and we will be extra alert.  Thanks for your flexibility with this.

Lastly, I will be updating the HOMEWORK section of the blog in the next few days.  Please take a look for more details regarding homework (i.e, expectations, goals of homework, and my philosophy.)