Star of the Week

This week our star student in Ashly!  Ashly shared that she was born in the summer and that she really likes doing gymnastics!  Her favorite author is Robert Munsch and she has a dog named China Ray, as well as fish!  Ashly hopes that someday she will become a vet so that she can help cure animal diseases - we hope you do Ashly!  :)  Ashly brought in lots of great pictures to share and then picked her favorite ones to put on the board.  We especially liked the one where she and the Beluga whale are looking at each other!  It sounded like Ashly goes on many great trips and has a lot of fun with her family!  She also brought in her stuffed dog to show the class - he had a fish hiding in his zipper pocket and he made snoring noises that we all thought were funny!  Thanks for sharing Ashly - we hope you have a great week as STAR!  :)

Winter Concert

On the Thursday before vacation the second grade took part in the Winter Concert.  They put on two shows: one in the morning for other students and a second for parents and families in the afternoon.  Both shows had packed auditoriums and the students sang beautifully!  Well done second grade!  :)

They performed 3 songs, the last of which was "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" which I tried to capture on video.  Click below to try to view it!  (The light in the auditorium is horrible - I apologize if your student was in the back two rows as they are very difficult to see in the video!)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a wonderful end to 2011 and a great start to 2012!  We are back from vacation and getting busy once again.  Prior to the vacation we had two star students that I have not yet recognized on the blog.

Aidan D. was STAR back in December and we really enjoyed learning about him!  Aidan told us he was born in Abu Dhabi, which is in the United Arab Emirates - very neat!  We learned that Aidan has an older brother and a younger sister and that he enjoys playing soccer and likes dogs.  He also shared pictures of himself at "Ferari World" and riding a camel!  Aidan likes being at Forestdale school, but misses his friends in Abu Dhabi.  Thanks for sharing Aidan - we hope you had a great week as STAR!  :)

Right before the winter break Zachary was STAR and shared all about himself!  We learned that Zachary really loves football and reading nonfiction books!  He likes dogs and playing video games, and also hopes to someday visit Aruba to see lizards and fish!  Zachary enjoyed sharing pictures of his little brother and his football team, and later showed us his toy car!  Thanks for sharing Zac - we hope you had a great week as STAR!   :)

STAR Students!

I have to apologize for my lack of updating the blog lately - between being sick, finishing up my graduate classes, the holidays and the business of the daily classroom, the blog has taken a back seat!  Most importantly, I want to make sure we acknowledge our STAR students of the last few weeks . . .

Alain was our STAR right before Thanksgiving.  We learned that Alain likes playing basketball, eating pizza, and reading "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs"!  Alain also told us that when he grows up he would like to be part of the Secret Service so that he can help keep our President safe!  Good for you Alain!  We hope you had a great week as STAR!   :)

Last week Michael was our STAR!  He shared that he likes baseball, monkeys, and the color red!  We also learned that Michael's favorite author is Mo Willems (one of mine too!)  Michael has visited Universal Studios before and would like to someday visit Aruba to see the pink sand!  Michael also brought in his snowboard to share with the class.  All the kids were really interested to hear about his mountain adventures!  Thanks for sharing Michael!  We hope you had a great week as STAR!   :)

Lastly, this week Rena is our STAR student!  Today she share that she enjoys soccer, Christmas, and the book "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake."  She also told us that she has a cat named Cookie and visits family in Greece every summer!  Someday Rena would like to be a veterinarian so that she can help animals (and maybe even a tiger - yikes!).  Rena brought in a Monster High Doll to share with the class.  Mrs. Gavalis was really surprised that her hands, arms, feet, and legs come off!  Thanks for sharing with us Rena!  Have a great week as STAR!   :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

On Wednesday we celebrated having earned 100 marbles with a Read-Over!  The students wore their pajamas and slippers and brought stuffed animals, pillows, and all sorts of reading materials!  Mrs. Gavalis and Mrs. Carney read some favorite stories, the students read to their stuffed animals, with partners, and in the dark with flashlights!  Later we enjoyed our breakfast feast - a big thank you to all the students and families who contributed!  Check out all the pictures below from our special morning (the dark ones are from our flashlight-read)!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your families!  See you on Monday!     :)