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. : )

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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! : )

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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. : )

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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! : )

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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

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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! : )

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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! : )

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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! : )

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