Farewell to 2015 : )

Hi 2-F Families,

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and that you are enjoying your vacation thus far. Throughout the month of December, we were able to enjoy and participate in many exciting activities. Some of our favorites included a visit from the New England Percussion Ensemble, singing live on the radio at the North Shore Toy Drive, performing in the 2nd Grade Holiday Music Concert, a special visit from Mr. Neal Nichols of The Geography Game Show and last but certainly not least, our Fuller Meadow Holiday Sing-Along.

As I reflect back on my own memories of 2015, I can't help but smile recalling so many of them that include my current 2nd grade students and the larger Fuller Meadow school community. Being new to Middleton/Fuller Meadow, I was a bit nervous back in August about what new changes this year would bring, but I couldn't be happier or more pleased with how well our first four months together have gone. I am SO lucky to work with such terrific families and I am so thankful that you have entrusted me with one of the most important jobs there is- being your child's teacher. : ) I know I say it often, but I couldn't imagine working in any other profession and I am so grateful for each and every day that I get to spend with my students. I'm looking forward to continuing our fabulous school year together in 2016 and I hope you all have a happy, healthy, restful and joyous start to the New Year!

I can't wait to see all of my favorite faces on January 4th, but in the meantime, I thought I would share a couple of videos from our special December events. : )

2

Geography Game Show

Last Friday, all of the Fuller Meadow 2nd grade students (and their teachers!) took an exciting field trip around the world. We visited all seven continents, learned a ton of new information about various countries, cultures and languages and we were even back in time for lunch. Wondering exactly how this all happened? Don't worry, no real passports were needed for our travel excursion, instead we were able to participate in a fabulous in-school field trip called The Geography Game Show. This wonderful presentation featured Mr. Neal Nichols, who has been sharing his love of geography and drawing with students from around the world for over 20 years.

Mr. Nichols is an immensely talented artist and traveler, originally from Wellfleet, (Cape Cod) MA, who visits schools across the United States and abroad to share his passion for geography, culture, and artistic expression. During our time with Mr. Nichols, he not only drew an extremely detailed map of the world (from memory!) but he also explained and shared numerous facts/tidbits about each continent and the countries/cities/bodies of water/etc. that are located there. We learned SO many new and interesting things and Mr. Nichols kept us on our toes by asking a series of questions throughout the program to test our newly acquired knowledge (hence the Geography Game Show title : ) Following the 2nd grade assembly, Mr. Nichols visited each of the 2nd grade classrooms individually to share more about his artistic ability and how he first learned how to draw and sketch. We were in awe of Mr. Nichols talent- simply incredible! : )

Thank you SO much to Mr. Neal Nichols for visiting our school and a HUGE thank you to our wonderful Middleton PTO for bringing in such a great in-school field trip- we had a blast on our travel adventure! : )

0

Snow Globes : )

It is officially a Winter Wonderland in 2-F! There may not be snow outside, but our recent snow globe project definitely has us all in a winter mood. We made these snow globes as a special present for our wonderful families and we hope they love them just as much as we do!

*If you would like a copy of the directions sent home or e-mailed, please send me a quick note and I am more than happy to forward them on. It is by far one of my favorite projects and after five years of doing them, I think I've mastered my technique/process. : )

4

WIN Time: Creative Problem Solving : )

I am always on the lookout for how I can incorporate activities during our WIN block (What I Need) that are challenging, engaging, and based on the idea of students working to solve a particular problem.

The best part of all is that most of the time (nearly ALL of the time! : ) the students don't even really SEE it as a problem, but rather as an opportunity to work with cool hands-on learning manipulatives and to think creatively about solving the task at hand. I love to observe them tapping into their different skill sets and getting to see them have their 'a-ha/light bulb moment' is just the icing on the creative cake. 

Over the past couple of weeks, I have noticed that (at times) our desks look as though they've played host to a super-fun party attended by a group of mischievous elves. These elves were no amateur party-goers either, we're talking pencil shavings, crumpled papers, unwrapped/broken crayons, papers not in their proper subject folders (oh my! ; )

So therein lies this week's problem or rather 'creative challenge': use the magnetic building shapes to create something that could hypothetically help to keep your desk organized throughout the week. I have to say, I was blown away with the creativity and innovation shown by these future engineers. I have a sneaking suspicion that we'll see these kids doing big things in the future! : )

0

Holiday Traditions

Writer's Workshop this week has been dedicated to brainstorming, drafting, and discussing many of our favorite family holiday traditions. I LOVE listening to the students tell me about their special traditions and wanted to give everyone an opportunity to share and contribute to our Padlet. Please feel free to share your special traditions with us by double clicking and typing on the Padlet below. : )

Created with Padlet

0

North Shore Toy Drive Radio Broadcast

Hi 2-F Families,

I hope this post finds you well. I am so fortunate to have had the opportunity to sit down with many of you earlier this afternoon for conferences and I look forward to seeing many more of you tomorrow afternoon.

As you probably already know, our class was one of three 2nd grade rooms chosen to sing on the radio at the North Shore Toy Drive being held tomorrow (Dec. 10th) at The Flint Library. As you can imagine, our reaction to hearing such exciting news from Mrs. Alvarado was comparable to winning the mega millions! ; )

2nd graders from Fuller Meadow, along with the Howe-Manning chorus will be singing from 9:00-10:00 a.m. While we would love for you to join us at the library, we understand that the timing may make it difficult to attend. Either way, I wanted to be sure to send out the link, so that you can tune in from wherever you are to hear our wonderful singing. You can listen to the 104.9 live broadcast by visiting http://www.northshore1049.com and clicking on 'Listen Live' at the top of the page.

Thanks so much for reading, please be sure to congratulate our students on this very special selection and accomplishment. As Mrs. Alvarado pointed out during rehearsal this morning, not many 2nd graders can say they have sung on the radio! : )

0

Celebrating Hanukkah with Mrs. Karas!

This week, we had a VERY special visitor come in to teach us all about Hanukkah. Mrs. Karas (Danny's mom) came in on Thursday afternoon to help us learn about Hanukkah, The Festival of Lights. : )

Mrs. Karas shared with us the history of Hanukkah and talked about many of the special traditions that are commonly celebrated during this wonderful holiday. We were able to look at many beautiful menorahs and learn all about the significance of the candles/lights. After listening to a terrific read-aloud, we also got to play the Dreidel Game in small groups. We learned what each side of the dreidel means (GIMEL, NUN, SHIN and HAY) and even got to play a round using math manipulative coins.

Thank you SO much to Mrs. Karas for spending this special time with us! : )

0

Home Journals

Hi 2-F Families,

This afternoon during Writer's Workshop, our rock-star authors worked so hard on their home journal letters, but unfortunately in the midst of the busy Friday afternoon pack up, they didn't quite make it into backpacks! I apologize for this and will be sure to send them home on Monday afternoon. The good news is their talking turkey projects, thankful pies, snowflake templates, chapter review math papers and report cards all DID make it into the folder! : )

0

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi 2-F Families,

Happy Thanksgiving! (I know I'm a day late, but in my defense, we did do all of the cooking/cleanup yesterday so we were quite busy. : ) I hope you all had a wonderful day filled with lots of fun, family time and delicious food.

As I reflected yesterday on all of the things for which I am most thankful for, being a member of the Fuller Meadow school community ranked very high on that list. I cannot thank you all enough for welcoming me with such open arms and for helping me to feel like I've been here for years. I am consistently filled with gratitude to be able to do a job I love and to work with such amazing children each and every day, as well as their incredibly wonderful families.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for all that you do! : )

*This past week, we got creative (and silly!) with our persuasive writing and got to take on our decorated turkey's personna to try and encourage people to eat something else for Thanksgiving dinner! Check out our awesome Chatterpix project by clicking on the link below.

Mrs. Frey's Thanksgiving Chatterpix: "PLEASE DON'T EAT ME!" : )

*One last note- thank you all SO much for your non-perishable food donations. We collected a grand total of 1,004.59 ounces (62.786875 pounds) of food. The students were so excited to make such a large donation and to give back to the Middleton community. Thank you again!

0

Mystery Objects Bar Modeling

Would you feel brave enough to reach into a bag of unknown objects and turn it into an awesome bar modeling math story?! Well luckily for me, my students are! We had a super successful math exploration today where we turned an ordinary mystery object into a fully detailed, 'graphically organized', bar-model-built math story-- and the best part of all...it was all STUDENT created/delivered.

One of the best feelings as a teacher, is being able to see your students share their new knowledge with their peers and to see them exude such excitement and confidence in 'teaching' the class. Rock on, 2-F Mathematicians- you're doing great and you continue to amaze, impress, and inspire me each and every day! : )

0

November Food Drive

Throughout the month of November, 2nd graders at Fuller Meadow School are collecting non-perishable food items for our November Food Drive. This important community service project also correlates with our monthly calendar graphing activity.

The concepts and skills that we have been focusing on this month are collecting and recording data, reading and interpreting data on a bar graph, sorting and classifying a collection, and comparing and weighing using pounds and ounces.

While I am so impressed by how well they are applying their newly acquired math knowledge each day, I am MOST proud of how committed/dedicated they are to giving back to the Middleton community and how excited they are about being able to donate food to those in need. Our 2-F students have such wonderful, generous, and kind hearts and I am so happy to be able to share in this special initiative with them. : )

*One of our favorite parts of the Food Drive so far, has been totaling up all of our donations each week. As of November 12th, we had collected 576.94 ounces (36.05875 pounds) of non-perishable food! We've since collected many more items, so stay tuned for our next ounces/pounds update! : )

0

Happy Veterans Day!

We would like to extend a very special THANK YOU to all of our brave veterans for their courageous and patriotic service. We are so appreciative and grateful to each and every one of you for your dedication, sacrifice and efforts to protect our country. You're our HEROES!

We had a wonderful opportunity to share our gratitude and appreciation in honor of Veterans Day at our school assembly this morning. Thank you to Mrs. Alvarado for coordinating such a special event.

Happy Veterans Day!

Love, 

Mrs. Frey and the students of 2-F

Click on the link below to hear the entire Fuller Meadow school community sing God Bless America together to honor our veterans! : )

https://youtu.be/gVey9cjkGng 

1

Writer's Workshop

Our 2-F writers continue to impress me daily with their amazing work! We recently completed our very first personal narrative piece and they all did such a great job with each step of the Writing Process.

All of the students take such pride in their writing and I could not be more proud of the progress they are making, as well as the stories they are telling. I have learned so much more about my students through their personal narratives and one of my favorite parts of the Writing Process is getting to conference with them to hear all about their writing.

Our first personal narrative piece was centered around the topic of 'My Special Place' and our next piece (which will be published this week!) is based on 'My Special Day'. I feel so fortunate to be able to get a glimpse into the many special adventures, stories and memories of my students. I even got to share my own personal narratives with them, which I think they enjoyed- sometimes I think they forget I was once 8 years old too! : )

 

 

Second Grade Common Core Standards:
W.2.3 Writes narratives to recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, in which they include details, transition words, and a sense of closure.
W.2.5 With guidance and support, focuses on a topic and strengthens writing as needed by revising and editing.

0

Tricks, Treats and a whole lot of FUN!

We had a GREAT time celebrating Halloween today in 2-F! This morning we walked in the Fuller Meadow Halloween Costume Parade and ended our day with an awesome Halloween party- which was full of super fun centers, activities and crafts. 

Thank you SO much to our amazing parent volunteers, Mrs. Bream (Jaxen's mom), Mrs. Velardo (Cole's mom) and Mrs. Serio (Sarah's mom) for all of your help in coordinating and organizing this fun day. Wishing you all a healthy, safe and spooktacular Halloween weekend! : )

1

Adopt-a-Tree

Every year 2nd graders at Fuller Meadow get to 'adopt' a special tree from the school yard, as part of our science curriculum. Throughout the year, the students act as scientists and observe the tree and record their observations during each of the four seasons.

We began this wonderful project during the very first week of school, by selecting and adopting our tree. After we decided which tree we wanted to adopt, we recorded our observations and scientific findings for the summer season (don't forget, our first day of school WAS in August, after all! : )

We made sure to choose a tree that we could see from our classroom window. This way, we can keep a close eye on it throughout the entire school year. During each visit, we take our time to notice all of the important details of the tree (both big and small). We record all of our observations using a combination of pictures and words, while paying close attention to the leaves, branches, bark and roots.

Last week, we got to officially visit our tree to record our observations for the fall. While our own adopted tree hasn't changed that dramatically, we did see many trees nearby whose leaves have completely changed colors. The fall foliage in our very own schoolyard is absolutely beautiful- we are very lucky to have these views from our classroom! : )

I do love that we live in New England and are able to experience four different seasons, but I have to admit, I am completely biased when it comes to my favorite season. Fall is just about perfect in EVERY way! Do you have a favorite season? Please be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section below- we LOVE to hear from our blog visitors. Thanks so much for reading and don't forget to get outside and enjoy the beautiful colors of fall! : )

0

Our visit with the GIANT Pumpkin!

We were SO lucky to have the 2nd place winning largest pumpkin from this year's Topsfield Fair come to visit us at school this past week. We learned so many new things about growing pumpkins, as well as some pretty amazing facts about this year's giant winner! We are so grateful to Mr. Lancaster for sharing this awesome pumpkin with us, teaching us about growing pumpkins and for answering all of our questions. Thank you again!

Giant Pumpkin Facts:
-It weighs 1,954 pounds
-It took three and a half months to grow
-The pumpkin seed was the size of a fingernail
-It needed 50 gallons of water each day
-Mr. Lancaster has been growing pumpkins for 18 years
-Mr. Lancaster was inspired to grow pumpkins after first starting it with his young son
-If it had hooks, it would take about 20 people to carry it
-They use a special mechanical lift to transport it
-Each year, Mr. Lancaster plants the seeds in the spring
-Mr. Lancaster and his family will be carving it into a GIANT Jack-o-Lantern to display at their house! : )

1

Welcome to our BRAND new blog!

Hi 2-F Families,

I hope this (very first- yay!) Blogger post finds you well and enjoying the weekend (as well as gearing up for tomorrow's big Patriots vs. Jets game!) I am SO happy and excited to announce that we have officially switched over to Blogger. We are thrilled that you have found us here at http://mrsfreysclassroomcorner.blogspot.com/ and we hope that you'll 'Bookmark' it so you can check back often.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to transfer the majority of the content from our previous blog, however, my goal is to get multiple new posts up each week to help keep you updated and informed on everything that is happening in 2-F. : )

*Also, new information magnets have already been ordered (with the new blog URL) so hopefully they will arrive within the next week or so and as soon as they do, I will be sure to send them home in the blue folders.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a couple of updated classroom pictures. It seems as though our room continues to grow and evolve each day and you'll probably find that it looks much different from even Open House. I'll also warn you that I LOVE to switch things up in the classroom and have been known to move ALL of the furniture multiple times throughout the year! I believe doing this keeps it new, fresh and exciting (my colleagues, fellow teachers, family & friends probably just think I'm nuts! ; )

Anyways, I hope you LOVE the new blog just as much as I do and I'll look forward to posting and sharing news/updates/reminders/photos throughout the year. Thanks so much for reading!

GO PATS! (or in my husband's case, GO JETS! You can't reaaallly blame him, we are from upstate NY after all!)

1