Summer Reading "Book Nook"

I love summer. I love reading. Summer reading is one of the pleasures of having a long vacation. Please share any exciting, silly, scary, or informative books that you are or have been reading. Here's your chance to be a critic. Tell us what you liked, loved, or disliked. Make suggestions or recommendations for your classmates (and me)! I'll be sure to check in and let you know what I'm reading as well.

Happy reading!

Thank You

Dear Parents,

As I look back and reflect on the 2008-2009 school year, I wonder how the time has gone by so quickly. The children have all come so far and grown so much in body, mind, and spirit. They frequently made me laugh (which makes me cry as I’m sure some of you may have heard). They have driven me crazy at times, made me sad at others, while also filling me with joy and gratitude (and that could occur before snack time on any given day). They’ve tattled, lost teeth, grown new ones, and celebrated accomplishments and frustrations together. With all that the children and I have done, we’ve done it together.

I will miss these 20 very special girls and boys but I know that they are ready to move on to new beginnings and new challenges. I am so proud of all their accomplishments and I know that I am passing them along to a school filled with very talented and capable teachers at T.Z.E.

Please accept my sincerest thanks for all of your help and support this year. The year’s success certainly couldn’t have happened without you. I truly appreciate your support, patience and understanding. Your encouragement and reinforcement are truly what make this experience so triumphant.

Have a fabulous summer vacation. Please keep in touch. Thanks again for sharing your children with me this year.

With great appreciation,
Randi Stern

PS-I am going to try very hard to have the Year in Review CDs finished and mailed to you by next week. Also, I will be sure to pass along the Scholastic books that were out of stock as soon as I receive them. The free coupons are yours to use for a future order.

Friday, June 19, 2009

This week we had lots of fun! We continued celebrating the success of First Grade with our June activities and also celebrated lots of summer birthdays!

Earlier this week we had Beach Day. In the classroom, Ms. Stern had different pictures of the beach on the Smartboard. We listened to beach music. Everyone got to read on their towels on different rugs in the classroom. Some people were embarrassed to be in their bathing suits in school. Other people couldn’t wait to take off their clothes and walk around with their flip flops and bathing suits only. After recess, we had a water balloon toss. Each time the balloon was caught, the person holding had to step back. Daniel and Darren were really good at it. They won a few times. After that, we moved to the grass and played Duck, Duck, Squeeze. It’s just like Duck, Duck, Goose except you use a wet sponge to pat on people’s heads during the “duck”s and then it gets squeezed on the person’s head when they say “goose.” Everyone got wet!

When we had the tag sale, Ms. Stern gave us a container with 50 cents in it. There were yellow signs at each table that told how much the items cost. The prices were: 50, 40, 30, 25, 15, and 10 cents. Ms. Stern called tables to shop one at a time. While the tables were shopping, the rest of the class was watching the cartoon version of The BFG. Kaitlyn had SO much fun because she got to shop for things that she wanted after browsing first. She bought a play dough set, a doll, 3 books, a calendar, a pencil, and something else (all for 50 cents!). Joshua go a yo-yo, bubbles, and 3 cars. Michael bought 3 books, a tiny baseball, a saw, a Hess airplane, bubbles, and a ruler. Emily thought the most fun part was shopping. Mia enjoyed everything because she liked watching the movie and choosing so many great things!

Today the dads came to school for the Father’s Day celebration. There was a table full of food by the window. The dads got served first (by the kids). Then the kids got to serve themselves, just like at Mother’s Day. After everyone ate, the kids came to the rug to read a poem for the dads. Then we started the clues. Isabella thought the dads did pretty good guessing even though some kids wrote the wrong information (oops)! A few dads needed some clues repeated but they eventually got it! Nolan thought the whole thing went perfectly!

Monday is our Sundae on Monday party. Don’t forget about our Year in Review on Tuesday! Parents are invited to come in for our look back at 2008-2009.

Have a great weekend!

Friday, June 12, 2009 IMAX: Under the Sea

All About Our Trip to the IMAX Theatre: Under the Sea
*A lot of fish were eating other fish. -Anthony
*The movie was in 3-D. There was this fish that had a white thing that popped out and ate another fish. –Carly
*It was very exciting. –Kevin
*I thought it was cool and I learned that sometimes sharks avoid stingrays, but not always. –Axl
*It felt like I was under water and I was seeing what the cuttlefish was doing to the other fish when it ate it. It was like I was right in front of it. –Isabella
*I was a little scared when the white part came out and ate the fish. –Gianluca
*When a school of black and yellow fish came on, I put my hand out and it felt like my palm was getting bitten. On the screen it looked like it was like a wave. –Sammy
*The great white sharks like to eat seals. –Nolan
*I liked when the squid was hiding by the rock and was trying to eat a little crab. He went toward it and the squid ate it really fast. It was kind of weird because it didn’t fit in his mouth. -Bartosz
*The whole movie was fun. At one part, it felt like part of my neck was above water and part of my body was under water. The photographs were graceful and beautiful. -Mia

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Today was Book Character Day. When we came in this morning, we discovered that we had a substitute in our classroom, which said Room 207. It was Miss Viola Swamp, from the book Miss Nelson is Missing. Gianluca thought she was very mean when she said, “You don’t have recess for a month!” Anthony thought she was really strict and mean. Carly thought she was more strict than Ms. Stern. Rebecca was kind of scared when she saw her. Miss Swamp had a black dress on. She had black moles on her face and blue-green eye shadow on her eyes. Her lips were black and her hair was puffy on each side. After morning meeting, Miss Swamp had the book characters introduce themselves. Kevin wore a squid shirt and brought in I’m the Best Artist in the Ocean. Kaitlyn was dressed as the Littlest Princess. Carly was Diana White, a ballerina in the book Ballerina Dreams. Sean was Scooby Doo. Sammy was the cowboy from The Adventures of the Brave Cowboy. Zoe was a cheerleader from High School Musical 3. Anthony was dressed as Big Anthony. Sophia dressed up as Daphne Grimm from The Sisters Grimm. Nolan was Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Since we didn’t do our 100 facts yesterday, we did them today instead. Ms. Stern was hoping that more children would have improved their scores. So far, of the papers that got corrected, only two children beat their best scores. Next week, we are all going to try to do our best and stay focused to do our personal bests! We also continued to talk about money. We learned about the penny today. Carly learned that Abraham Lincoln is on the head. Bartosz learned that a penny is worth one cent. Joshua discovered that it says In God We Trust on the head. Sammy wanted to know how many pennies it would take to equal $1,000. We figured out that it would take 100,000 pennies to equal $1,000.

We had Writer’s Workshop before lunch today since Mrs. Barsanti had to go to a meeting this afternoon. Everyone continued to work on their non-fiction books. People continued to write, draw, search for features, and create glossaries for their books.

At gym, we played catch with our partners. We used different shaped balls. Then we played Star Wars. Isabella was a Jedi because she didn’t have a partner. Jedis can tag people who were out. Children who didn’t get to play because they didn’t have sneakers were the sweepers and the people who put the dots out.

We read 2 more chapters of the BFG, Journey to London and The Palace. The BFG and Sophie passed the nine giants coming back from finding their dinners. They traveled all the way to London from Giant Country. The BFG was able to blend into shadows so he wouldn’t be discovered. He and Sophie made it safely through Hyde Park Corner and arrived at the Queen’s palace, where the BFG left Sophie to rest on the window sill while the Queen had her dream.

During Reader’s Workshop, we only had time to read for 26 minutes. It was time to get ready to go home so we couldn’t read for as long as we normally do.

Tomorrow is Gum Day. Remember to bring in gum to chew in the classroom only. Gum may not be shared or be brought out of the room. We will have a bubble blowing contest in the afternoon.

Friday, June 5, 2009

We had Crazy Hair Day today. Some people had unusually colored hair. Other people put gel in their hair. Daniel, Carly, and Anthony put things on their heads. During snack, Ms. Stern picked 2 people to do her hair. She thought of numbers between 1 and 15. Sophia and Bartosz were chosen to give her crazy hair. Bartosz changed his mind and decided to let Sammy do Ms. Stern’s hair instead. They used clips, bobby pins, and elastic bands to give her a fancy ‘do. At the end of the day we had a contest to see who had the craziest hair. Daniel got six votes, which meant that he had the craziest hair in the class.

This morning we had a year-end spelling bee! Sean came in first place. Sophia was second, Nolan came in third, and Sammy was fourth. When it was your turn, each contestant had to say the word, spell it, and say it again. If the word was spelled correctly, we went to the end of the line. If it was wrong, Ms. Stern asked us to sit. Joshua thought the spelling bee was easy because he practiced the words at home. Michael thought it would be harder than it really was. Kevin thought it was a little bit hard. The words got harder each time he had a turn.

Today was our last day to do book exchange in the library. All books have to be returned to school by next Friday!

During Writer’s Workshop, we continued to work on our non-fiction books. Sammy went to the library to get the photographs for people to include as features in their work. Others were still writing and drawing.

Dads, please remember to RSVP for our Father’s Day Celebration. Monday is Stuffed Animal Day. Have a great weekend!

Field Day Photos

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

This morning we went to TZE. That’s where we’re going next year. We rode on a bus with Ms. Ferzola’s class. Axl and Nolan were surprised to be on the bus with their bus driver! When we got to the school we went to the cafeteria. We met Mr. Soss and Ms. Lipton before we watched a slide show that showed us the teachers in the school. It also had a map of the building. Isabella learned that our school has lots of rectangular halls and TZE has circular ones. Next, the audience got to ask questions to second graders who took turns answering them. Sean, Mia, Axl, and Sammy all got to ask the second graders questions. After that, we headed to Ms. Galvin’s class. She wasn’t there but Ms. Hastings and Miss S. were there. Ms. Hastings had the children stand and recite an acrostic poem that spelled Tappan Zee Elementary School. Each letter told us something about the school. Then we went on a tour of the school. We saw the art room, speech, reading, the library, some third grade and second grade rooms. We learned that Mrs. Stern’s class is going to move so that the music teacher can move into that room. The trip helped Darren learn a lot. He learned that lots of things were similar in Ms. Galvin’s room as in our own. Isabella was a little confused at first. She thought the building seemed like a maze but it got easier because the halls are all different colors. Everyone is ready to go to TZE now!

When w came back to school, Ms. Stern read the next two chapters in the BFG. The first was Journey to Dream Country. On his way to Dream Country, the other giants were playing a game tossing the BFG around, while Sophie hid in his waistcoat pocket. When Sophie and the BFG finally got to Dream Country it was all gray, misty, and cold there. The BFG caught a golden phizzwizard. It’s the best kind of dream to have. He also caught a trogglehumper. That is a really terrible nightmare. When the BFG catches the dreams, he puts them in glass jars, listens to what they’re about, and then puts them in his suitcase to put in the rooms of children at night. The BFG saves the bad dreams and explodes the trogglehumpers so that “chiddlers” don’t have them. Mia is wondering how the BFG explodes them. Darren is wondering if Dream Country has mostly good dreams or bad ones. Ms. Stern is curious why there is no color in Dream Country.

After art we went to Technology since we didn't get to have it on Friday. This Friday is going to be our last opportunity for book exchange. Remember to return your books so that everyone can take them out for one last time at the end of this week!

Tomorrow is Favorite Photo Day. Remember to bring in a favorite photo to share with the class!

Homework: Questions about TZE

In the comments section below, please write at least 2 questions that you have about TZE or second grade. Feel free to write as many questions as you have. They might be about the school, teachers, homework, playground, work, or anything else that you're wondering about. Are you ready for our trip tomorrow?