Mrs. Foux's Second Grade Class

Foux's Footprints

2012-01-27T11:44:00.000-08:00

Howdy! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of January 30-February 3, 2012

WRITING
Our outlaws are running wild, hopefully to be caught soon. Come by and see their wanted posters on the bulletin board!
Last week, we learned in reading about myths, legends and folktales and how to find the theme in the story. This week, we will create our own legend how of something came to be. Students will pick their topic (i.e. how a leopard got his spots, how an elephants trunk became so long, how a mountain became the shape of a triangle, why a rainbow doesn't have brown, etc), then create ways their legend can happen. This is one of my favorite writing projects because the class really gets to be creative!
READING
We are focusing on folktales this week. A folktale is story or legend handed down from generation to generation usually by oral retelling (starts as an oral story, not a written story) and does not include the element of magic. We will discuss the origin of the story and the cultural values and themes that the story carries in it.
SPELLING
This week we will work on sounds of Y (y as 'i'-try and y as 'e'-bunny). Your child will get their list on Monday, and the test will be on Friday.
MATH
Our fractions unit is over and we are turning back to addition and subtraction. We will quickly review our fast facts and focus on 2 digit plus 2 digit and introducing regrouping. We will continue to focus on adding from the ones column first, then the tens column and word problem strategies (cross out the junk, circle important numbers, underline the questions).
SCIENCE
We will review and test on the water cycle the first two days. On Wednesday, we will introduce the night sky and aspects of the moon. What is it? Where is it? Why is it always changing shape? Why is it always moving? At the end of the week, we will make our own moons using tasty materials.
DONATIONS
We have two fun activities to help us learn about the moon phases next week. We will need 70 oreos, one roll of paper towels and 3 cans of regular shaving cream. If you are able to donate any of these items, please let me know.
REMINDERS
Jan. 31 - Science Fair
Feb. 1 - Early Release
Feb. 4 - Celebration of Families, RRISD 9am-2pm
Feb. 8 - Spirit Night out at Mimi's Cafe
Feb. 9 - Valentine Boxes due
Feb. 14 - Valentine's Party

Foux's Footprints

2012-01-20T12:15:00.000-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of January 23-27, 2012

WRITING
We are going wild in writing! The Wild West that is! The students will find their 'inner outlaw' and create a story that goes with their character along with writing a wanted poster. Their story will include their outlaw name, crimes, setting, problem they face and what happens when they are captured. Our main focus will be creating a beginning, middle and end that flows and is easy to understand. We will post the stories at the end of the week.
READING
We are starting a new unit filled with folktales, myths and legends. The vocabulary words of theme and morals will be introduced and the students will see each day what makes these three types of stories unique. This theme will carry over into our reading groups as well.
SPELLING
This week we will work on long I vowel patterns (-i_e, ie, igh, ind). Your child will get their list on Monday, and the test will be on Friday.
MATH
Our fractions unit will come to a close as we review the difference between unequal and equal parts, numerators and denominators, how to read fraction drawings and solve fraction word problems. We will review on Thursday and test on Friday.
SCIENCE
We are moving from weather to the water cycle. The class will dive in to the vocabulary of evaporation, condensation and precipitation. We will make rain makers, water wheels and follow the drops to explore the properties of water and just how much there is on Earth.
THANK YOU!
Thank you for all the donations items for our fractions unit! The kids have loved the activities!
REMINDERS
Start saving your SHOE BOXES for a fun February activity...more to come later:)
Science Fair- Jan. 31
Early Release - Feb. 1
Celebration of Families, RRISD 9am-2pm - Feb. 4

Foux's Footprints

2012-01-16T19:44:00.001-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!

Newsletter for the Week of January 17-20, 2012

IN HONOR OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., THERE IS NO SCHOOL ON JANUARY 16TH.

WRITING
We are showing off our poetry skills! This week, we are making poetry books to display our alliteration, rhyming, acrostic and concrete poems. With our knowledge of understanding poetry, we will use our sensory language to "Show and Not Tell" what we are thinking, seeing or feeling in our writing. The students have the opportunity to share and show off their completed piece throughout the week. We have some truly amazing poets in our class!

READING
Our focus in reading this week will be in understanding the poem. The strategies we will cover are:
Preview the poem and read it aloud
Visualize the images of what is written
Clarify the words or phrases
Think about the author's heart and message

We will practice these steps with numerous poems throughout the week and give the students opportunities to show their comprehension with an independent assignment at the end of the week

SPELLING
This week we will work on long E vowel patterns (-e_e, ea, ey, ee, -i). Your child will get their list on Monday, and the test will be on Friday.

MATH
We are continuing our work on fractions this week. Our fraction fun will involve making caterpillars and fruit salad, a skittle activity and bingo. Our goal is to reinforce the teachings from last week about the numerator and denominator, equal parts and problem solving skills.

SCIENCE
We are starting our unit on weather, climate and seasons. With the crazy weather in Texas, we will explore what is a normal temperature to have during the four seasons and in different climates.
We will carry over our math skills of reading a thermometer, into science. The class will go outside, see what a thermometer is made of and what makes it move up and down (we will be using mercury thermometers, not digital).
The students will get a chance to write their own weather report for a specific region, with a distinct climate. They will experience what it is like to give a weather report, like the forecasters do on the news!

DONATIONS
We need snack size skittle packets for our fraction activity this week! Please let me know if you are able to donate to the class. Thanks for your help!

REMINDERS

Holiday (MLK Jr. day)- Jan. 16th
Science Fair registration forms- Due Jan. 17^th

Choir Registration form- due Jan. 17th
Science Fair- Jan. 31st

Foux's Footprints

2012-01-06T10:28:00.000-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of January 9-13, 2012

Writing
We are continuing to work on poetry this week. We are going to be putting powerful thoughts into tiny packages. We’ll discuss how poems have ingredients like a recipe, one is precise words and another is music. Using expression with a poetry voice will be another focus for the week. We’ll practice “trying on” different voices while reading poems to see how expression makes us feel when we hear them. We’ll write poems using our feelings and share them with our classmates. I can’t wait to see what wonderful poems our class writes.

Reading
Our focus in reading this week will be on repetition in poetry. Students will read a variety of poems aloud for fluency.
We’ll discuss the following types of repetition poems:
End Rhyme Repetition: the repetition of the ending sounds in two or more lines,
Alliteration Repetition: the repetition of initial sounds in two or more words,
Assonance Repetition: the repetition of vowel sounds within words.
Consonance Repetition: the repetition of consonant sounds within words, often with a variation in adjoining vowels.
Whole Poem Repetition: when poems have consistent repetition carried throughout the entire poem.

Spelling
This week we will work on long a vowel patterns (-a_e, ai, ay, eigh, -ea). Your child will get their list on Monday and the test will be on Friday.

Math
This week, we will begin our unit on Fractions. In this unit, students will be expected to identify fractions up to 1/12. We will do several fun activities this week, including an activity with fraction tortillas and making pizza fractions. Problem solving will be a daily focus so kids will need to put on their thinking caps! Vocabulary words that will be introduced are numerator and denominator. We'll definitely be having fun while learning about fractions!

Science
We are continuing our unit on natural and manmade resources. We’ll discuss the differences between renewable and nonrenewable resources. Several examples of both will be introduced as well as how we can reduce, reuse and recycle some of our resources. There will be an assessment on Friday over the concepts we’ve learned.

Reminders
Science Fair registration forms- Due Jan. 17th
Holiday (MLK Jr. day)- Jan. 16th
Science Fair- Jan. 31st

Foux's Footprints

2011-12-16T12:34:00.000-08:00

A Special Thank You
I would just like to say thank you to all of my students and parents for the wonderful gift cards to Alamo Drafthouse and Starbucks, as well as some of my favorite stores! It was truly a surprise and I was overwhelmed by your thoughtfulness and generosity. Mr. Foux and I are going to enjoy them together over the holidays. I have enjoyed all of my lovely gifts so much. You are all so giving and I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season filled with love and blessings. From my family to yours, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Seasons Greetings,Mrs. Foux
WINTER PARTY!
What a fantastic Winter Party we had yesterday! Thank you so much to Jennifer Fagan and Christy Higdon for organizing the festivities and thank you to all the parent volunteers who helped make it such a success! The kids had a super time and I really enjoyed visiting with everyone.

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of January 3-6, 2012

Writing:
We will begin our poetry unit this week. We will use our "poet eyes" and sensory language to write our own poetry. This is a good time to introduce the poetry genre at home if you haven't already. Children love poetry! We will also start our individual "Life Journals". They will come home on Tuesdays and then will need to be returned each Friday so we can use them during our sharing time. I will introduce them when we return and explain how they will work in class.
Reading:
We will be reading poetry this week. We will be focusing on looking for rhyming words and fluency. During our guided reading time we will read and discuss several fun poems. Daily 5 will continue this week also. Keep up your reading minutes at home!
Spelling:
Spelling for this week will focus on digraphs ph-, -gh, and -tch. We will send home your child's words on Tuesday and the test will be on Friday.
Math:
We will continue learning about money this week. We will review the names and values of each coin and learn strategies to count coins. We will have a review on money this Thursday and then assess on Friday. Over the holiday break, please have your children count coins and practice with different combinations of the same amount. This is a life skill that really needs as much reinforcement as possible. A fun game we played in class is “Race to a Dollar”. It’s where you roll a dice, then count out that amount of coins and record your total. Then continue to roll each time and add that amount of coins to the total until you get to a dollar. It works really with kids getting practice with counting out change and then changing out coins for fewer coins of the same amount. For example: if they are up 10 pennies, then they recognize that they can switch those coins out for one dime.
Social Studies:
We will compare natural and man made resources this week. We will determine why certain objects are categorized into natural or man made. We will discuss how useful objects from each category are as well.
Reminders:
Science Fair registration forms- Due Jan. 16th
Holiday (MLK Jr. day)- Jan. 16th

Foux's Footprints

2011-12-07T07:48:00.000-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of December 12-16, 2011

WRITING
Our "All About..." books are published and displayed on the bulletin boards. Each student worked so hard to show the depths of their knowledge in their book. This week, we will be get in the holiday spirit and channel The Grinch! We will become very creative in our ways to figure out ways to make the Grinch smile and why those ways would be successful.
SPELLING
We will continue our spelling this week with words that have consonant digraphs (sh, th, ch-hard and soft-and wh). A list of your child's words will come home in their communication folder on Monday and the spelling test will be on Friday.
READING
Our class is great at the challenge of identifying key sensory words. We will continue to develop this skill by reading more great stories such as Through Grandpa's Eyes and Owl Moon. We will also rotate through the Daily 5 stations and work on reading in groups.
MATH
This week you may hear the Apprentice tune in your head -Money, Money, Money, Money...Money! We will start our unit on coins - the best strategies to use when identifying coins, counting coins and comparing collections of coins. The main focus will be on the five coins (no bills): penny, nickel, dime, quarter and half dollar.This concept can be difficult for children to grasp. A fun way to practice counting money at home is to get a handful of coins and race your child in counting out different amounts, trying to use as many combinations as possible.
SOCIAL STUDIES
We will continue studying historical figures and end with making a paper doll of our favorite person we studied. Along with the doll, we will compose a brief description of what the person looked like, why they were important and why they are still remembered today.*If you have any scrap cloth, buttons, plastic eyes, yarn, etc. we would love to use it for our dolls! Please send it in with your child by Wednesday.
TOYS FOR TOTS
Our class will be participating with their fourth grade reading buddies in Mrs. Creger’s class in a Caraway Cares project for one more week. We will collect NEW, unwrapped toys for "Toys for Tots" from December 5-16, 2011. We will take them to Camp Mabry that following Saturday. We will keep a count of how many toys we donated to report to the Caraway Cares group. This is a wonderful opportunity for your child to feel the joy of giving to those in need. Toys can be brought to our classroom any day until December 16th. Thank you for your generosity during this giving season.
CLASS PARTY-A note from our room mothers:
The party will be on Thursday, December 15th from 1:30PM - 2:30PM. This year the kids are going to decorate sugar cookies, enjoy a hot chocolate bar, make a craft and enjoy other tasty snacks. Afterwards they will all gather around to sing karaoke. It should be very entertaining! We also thought it might be fun for the kids to bring a silly hat to wear during the party.
Christy Higdon has volunteered to do all of the shopping if everyone could send in $3.00 to cover the costs. Please send your contribution in an envelope with my name on it to school with your child by next Tuesday and Mrs. Foux will send it home with Erin. If you would like to provide an item for the party instead, please feel free to contact me or Christy and we'll happily share the shopping list.
Also, your help with set up and/or clean up would be greatly appreciated. We will begin setting up around 1:15 PM. If you are available to help, please let me know.
Finally, due to limited space, please make arrangements for younger siblings. This is a special time for you to spend with your second grader.
Thanks in advance for making the party fun for the kids!
Jennifer Fagan (Erin's Mom)
REMINDERS
December 15th- Class holiday party at 1:30
December 19-January 2 Winter Break

Foux's Footprints

2011-12-02T12:22:00.000-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of December 5-9, 2011

Writing
This week we will continue working on our "All About" books. The kids are experts on so many neat things from "taking care of a horse" to "picking the perfect hairstyle". It is really neat to see how they are using different types of writing to share their knowledge. We will edit and then get to share our books with the class later in the week.
Spelling
We will continue our spelling this week with words that have inflectional endings (-ng and -nk). A list of your child's words will come home in their communication folder on Monday and the spelling test will be on Friday.
Reading
Your kids have loved being detectives and figuring out examples of sensory language in the stories we've read this week. We will continue to develop this skill by reading more great stories such as Owl Moon and The Ghost-Eye Tree. We will also rotate through the Daily 5 stations and work on reading in groups.
Math
This week we have some neat games and activities to continue learning about 2-digit addition and subtraction without regrouping ("borrowing"/"carrying"). We will have a fun Jeopardy review on Thursday and then an assessment on Friday.
Social Studies
We will focus on rights and responsibilities in our community. We will begin discussing what a good citizen is and learn about some historical figures such as Paul Revere and George Washington Carver. We will be studying even more historical figures next week.
Winter Party
Our Holiday Winter Party is being planned. Our fearless room mothers will be contacting you soon with all the fun details!
Reminders:
December 7th- Early Release Day at 12:45
December 5th-9th Book Fair
December 15th- Class holiday party at 1:30
December 19-January 2 Winter Break

Foux's Footprints

2011-11-22T11:44:00.000-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of November 28-December 2, 2011

WRITING
This week we will be picking a topic that we are experts in to write an “All About” book. We will use nonfiction characteristics that we have been learning to include in our books, such as diagrams, table of contents with chapters, and how-to writing. Throughout the week we will organize our ideas and begin writing our books. This will be a two week project and will cover grammar and editing skills.

READING
This week, we will continue the Daily 5. Reading groups will focus on sensory text. Our whole group instruction will focus on visual imagery and mental imagery from the text being read. Students will learn to recognize that some words and phrases have literal meaning and non-literal meaning. The books we will be reading to explore sensory language are The Napping House, I Love You the Purplest, My Many Colored Days and Dear Mr. Blueberry.

SPELLING
This week we will work Silent E (a_e, i_e, o_e, u_e). Your child will get their list on Monday and the test will be on Friday.

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week, we will introduce our social studies unit on government. We will discuss the roles of the local government including establishing order, handling conflict and providing security. We will discuss why we need rules and why we need rules for citizens. State and national government roles will also be learned as we make a government roles booklet to organize our information.

MATH
We will start our two digit subtraction unit (without regrouping). Students will learn that, similar to one digit subtraction problems, addition facts can help you solve two digit subtraction facts. Students will get the opportunity to play games reinforcing their skills learned in subtraction and addition!

LIBRARY
Library checkout is on Friday! Please remind your child to bring their books to school.

Reminders
Nov. 23-25 Thanksgiving Break
Dec. 7 Early Release 12:45 p.m.
Dec. 15 Winter Class Parties 1:45-2:45pm
Dec. 15 Family Art Night 6:30-7:30 p.m.
December 19-30 No School-Winter Break
Dec. 29 Family Ice Skating Event, Chaparral Ice in Northcross Mall
Jan. 3, 2012 School resumes
Jan. 31, 2012 Science Fair

Foux's Footprints

2011-11-18T10:41:00.000-08:00

Howdy! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the week of November 21-22, 2011

WRITING
The word of the week is gratitude! We are going to be writing about things we are thankful for in our lives this week. As a class, we will brainstorm things we are thankful for and make a list. The one thing that each child is the MOST thankful for will be what they write about.
READING
This week, we will continue to rotate the Daily 5 stations. We will evaluate our knowledge of fiction vs. nonfiction and discuss all of the characteristics each genre has in class. Students will be given elements of both types of books and choose if it is fiction or nonfiction. A Fiction vs. Nonfiction flip book will be made by each student with elements of each in the correct section to assess students’ knowledge of these genres.
SPELLING
No spelling this week
SCIENCE
We are going to be talking a mile a minute in science this week! Students will tell a partner how much they know about rocks and what they are used for in one minute. We will rotate around with partners as a fun review on our study of rocks. An assessment on rocks will be given Tuesday.
MATH
We will begin learning 2-digit subtraction (without regrouping) using the place value chart and hands on manipulatives. We’ll challenge our brains with word problem strategies with two digit subtraction. We’ll also have some fun learning how to play our new math board games. Math centers will be exciting as we review our addition and subtraction facts throughout the short week.
LIBRARY
We won't have an official library checkout this week, but students can return books and checkout for the holiday break. Please remind your child to bring their books to school.
AT HOME PRACTICE
I know this is a time for family and fun, but if your child is in need of something to do, please continue reading over the break. Also, don’t forget First in Math! It is a great way to have kids play games while still learning.
Reminders:
Nov. 21 & 22 Annual Turkey Trot on your child’s PE day
Nov. 23-25 Thanksgiving Break
Dec. 7 Early Release 12:45 p.m.
Dec. 15 Family Art Night 6:30-7:30 p.m.
December 19-30 No School-Winter Break
Teacher's Note
I just have so much to be thankful for this year, so I wanted to share some thoughts. I am so thankful for this class and group of parents. Your children have inspired me to create new lessons to enrich their learning because of their wonderful attitude and cheerful spirits. All of the parents in this class have been so gracious and supportive. Whether it was bringing requested items for a lab, tracing and cutting for a lesson, or volunteering in every way that you do. It takes a village and I'm very fortunate to have you all! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
I leave you all with my favorite Thanksgiving poem by the amazing poet Jack Prelutsky:

The Turkey Shot out of the Oven by Jack Prelutsky
The turkey shot out of the oven and rocketed into the air, it knocked every plate off the table and partly demolished a chair.

It ricocheted into a corner and burst with deafening boom, then splattered all over the kitchen, completely obscuring the room.

It stuck to the walls and the windows, it totally coated the floor, there was turkey attached to the ceiling, where there'd never been turkey before.

It blanketed every appliance, it smeared every saucer and bowl, there wasn't a way I could stop it, that turkey was out of control.

I scraped and I scrubbed with displeasure, and thought with chagrin as I mopped, that I'd never again stuff a turkey with popcorn that hadn't been popped.

Foux's Footprints

2011-11-11T06:06:00.000-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of November 14-18, 2011
FIELD TRIP
I hope you enjoyed the pictures of our field trip! Thank you to all the chaperons who braved the rain, the walk and the bats!
WRITING
This week we will select one of our procedural writings and take it through the publishing process. We will learn new punctuation that can be included in our How-To writing (parenthesis, colon and commas). As we finish, we will add our books to the class library!
SPELLING
This week we will work on ending consonant blends. Your child will get their list on Monday and the test will be on Friday.
READING
Daily 5 will continue as well as our reading groups. We will continue to read for the purpose of researching butterflies. Last week, we learned that a fiction book on butterflies can be fun and enjoyable, but for the purpose of research we need to stick with non-fiction and the facts. The children will use many resources to research the topic as a class. We will continue to add to our research chart throughout the week with information we gather.
MATH
This week we are reviewing our word problem strategies (crossing out the junk, underlining the question and circling important numbers). We will be using games (board, dice and card) and competing against our classmates and even the teacher. Our goal is to quicken our recall time and effectively use numerous strategies to solve each problem.
SCIENCE
We are continuing our study on rocks! We will go on a class nature walk and collect samples of different rocks on the trail. As good scientists do, we will keep a rock booklet identifying and classifying our rocks according to their size, shape, texture, weight, and color. Using our adjectives and comparative skills, we will play 'Who Am I?" with the rocks and descriptions given by each student.If your child has a rock collection they would like share they can bring it any day this week.
REMINDERS
Library Day: Friday
No School: Nov. 23-25

Inner Space Caverns!

2011-11-10T10:41:00.000-08:00

Look at the enthusiastic group of cavers? We had so much fun and this was before our hike down into the cave. The kids were so great!

Field Trip Fun!

2011-11-09T11:41:00.000-08:00

We had such a good time at Inner Space Caverns! We learned so many interesting facts about caves and got lots of cave kisses (ask your child what that means)! The rain did not damper our day at all and we got to see amazing cave formations. Thanks again to our wonderful PTA and great supportive parents for making this trip possible!

Foux's Footprints

2011-11-04T12:06:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of November 7-11, 2011
Writing:
This week we will work on procedural writing. We will be studying books that explain how to do things and then write our own stories of how to do something. We will pay special attention to adjectives this week. We will do an activity with popcorn to help understand how adjectives are used in our writing. We will be starting our Handwriting Without Tears program to improve our penmanship.
Spelling:
This week we will work on beginning blends. Your child will get their list on Monday and the test will be on Friday.
Reading:
Daily 5 will continue as well as our reading groups. We will read for the purpose of researching this week. Our topic will be butterflies. The children will use many resources to research the topic as a class. We will be updating our "knowledge tree" throughout the week with information we gather.
Math:
This week we are working on applying knowledge of basic skills such as counting on, doubles, bridge to 10 (tens frames). We will use addition strategies and things such as dominoes, ones/tens blocks, and hundreds charts, and games to help with our understanding.
Science:
We are starting a 2 week unit on rocks! We will get to sort and classify rocks according to their size, shape, texture, and color. We have some neat activities and interactive games to engage and explain the vocabulary about rocks. If your child has a rock collection they would like share they can bring it any day this week.
Field Trip:
Our field trip is Tuesday, November 8th. We will leave the school at 8:45 and return around 1. There will be 4 tours. The first group starts at 10 and then a new group goes in the cave every 15 minutes. Each tour lasts about 1 hour. We will eat lunch outside at the picnic tables and then return to school. Tennis shoes are mandatory.
Reminders:
Harvest Festival- November 5th from 12-3pm
Field trip- bring a lunch and wear tennis shoes, November 8th
Family Skate Night- November 10th, 6:00 p.m.

Our Science Lab on Chemical and Physical Changes

2011-11-01T07:02:00.001-07:00

Foux's Footprints

2011-10-27T09:22:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the week of October 31-November 4

Box Tops for Education drive: WE WON 1st PLACE in Second Grade! The kids will have an extra recess as their reward! Thank you for your support!

Reading Buddies
Our class will be meeting with our reading buddies from Mrs. Creger's class for the first time this Monday, 10/31. We will have a fun activity with them while still learning. We are going to follow a recipe and get to know each other while making a tasty snack. If you would like to donate items, we will need 4 bags of pretzels sticks, 3 bags of mini marshmallows and 5 big boxes of raisins. Fourth grade will also be contributing to the ingredients needed. Please email me to let me know if you will be bringing an item. Thanks in advance for all your support!

Writing
This week will be focusing on letter writing. We'll discuss parts of a letter: date, salutation, closing and signature. We will write letters to Mrs. Hohmann and Mrs. Thompson about how to behave in the classroom. Our 4th grade reading buddies will also get a fun letter from their second grade buddy about Halloween or another fun fall memory. We will also combine our "How To" procedural writing with a letter to a person in the class on how to do something and share with a partner. Throughout the week, students will have a teacher conference to discuss their writing progress and editing.

READING
We have been successfully rotating groups in the Daily 5. I am so impressed with all of the students' progress with independence while I work with small reading groups. This week, we will continue with procedural texts. We will review what a procedural text is and it's features (ex: diagrams, captions, photos, step by step instructions). Fact and opinion will be discussed through this process and the use of the text features. Students will be assigned a procedural text and a partner to work with throughout the week. Together, they will become experts on their procedural text. At the end of the week, they will present their topic to the class and discuss the step by step instructions.

SPELLING
The spelling pattern this week will be beginning blends sounds such as sp, st, sw, sn, sm, sc, sk, tr, tw). Please check your child's folder on Monday for a list of their spelling words.

SCIENCE
We've been discussing energy the past couple of weeks on roll, spin, slide, light, heat, sound, and magnets. This week, we will review the topics we've covered and there will be an assessment at the end of the week. We will be doing some fun activities with making a flipbook with objects that roll, spin or slide. We're also going to be making a clothespin button race car and test them on different angles of ramps to find the fastest ones. If you would like to donate items, we will need buttons, pasta wheels, bread ties and coffee stirring straws.

MATH
We learned all about graphing last week. We made pictographs, bar graphs and real object graphs with our shoes. This week, we will learn about patterns. We will create number patterns and learn how to continue a pattern that is given to us. For example, if one tricycle has three wheels and two tricycles have six wheels, how many wheels will four tricycles have? We will also create patterns with shapes, colors, pizzas, jack-o-lanterns and spooky hotel patterns for our class to solve.
REMINDERS AND DATES
Library Day- Friday
Reading Buddies- October 31st
PTA meeting- November 1st
Harvest Festival -12-3 p.m. on November 5th
Field Trip to Inner Space Caverns- November 8th

Foux's Footprints

2011-10-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of October 24-28, 2011

READING
This week we will continue to read nonfiction texts, focusing on procedural writing. Students will learn about the purpose of procedural texts and key words. The reading skill instruction will focus on drawing conclusions, summarizing, and multiple meaning words.
WRITING
At the beginning of the week, students will complete a district writing benchmark. Students will be given a topic and will be asked to plan and write a paper about this predetermined topic. Benchmarks will be graded to determine future writing instruction and needs.
Students will also spend time this week discussing forms of writing other than stories. With a topic of their choice, students will write poems, letters, songs, or lists. They will then revise, edit, "fancy-up", and publish their pieces. We are excited to see their writing creativity!
MATH
This week, we will be learning more about each other as we create GRAPHS! Students will learn to survey, tally, record data, create graphs, and analyze information. Be sure to stop by our classroom to see the variety of graphs that the class creates.
For our graphing fun, please see the email from signupgenius.com if you would like to donate items needed for next week Thanks in advance for all the items donated! It makes their learing so much more exciting!
SPELLING
The spelling pattern this week is another review of short vowel sounds. Please check your child's folder on Monday for a list of their spelling words.
SCIENCE
This week in science we will be continuing our discussion on energy, but our focus will be on motion. We will do several activities to discover the energy behind rolling, spinning, and sliding. Next week, we are going to need 4 buttons and 1 clothespin per child. Will you check around your house to see if you have any of these items you could donate? We would greatly appreciate it.
LUNCH RECESS
As you know, our Caraway students are privileged to have recess after lunch each day. This time allows the children to have an extra recess in addition to their grade level recess. Lunch recess is celebrated and favored among the students, but safety and supervision has become a concern. We want your children to be safe at all times, and lunch recess is no exception. This is where we need your help. Parent volunteers are needed to help in the cafeteria and at lunch recess to ensure the safety of all students. Without the proper supervision, lunch recess may cease to exist. If you can help, we would greatly appreciate it. And your child would appreciate it, too! The sign up form can be found on the Caraway PTA website:
http://caraway.my-pta.org/content.asp?PageID=28
Thank you for considering this opportunity! We hope to see you on the playground!

PTA membership drive: WE WON 2nd PLACE! Thank you for your support!

REMINDERS AND DATES
Library Day- Friday
Early Release Day (school ends at 12:45)
Red Ribbon Week- October 24-28
Harvest Festival -12-3 p.m. on November 5th

Foux's Footprints

2011-10-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of October 17-21, 2011

Reading
This week we will continue to read nonfiction texts. We will pick a topic to learn about and research that topic through both fiction and nonfiction texts. During this process we will also discuss the author's purpose, the difference between main idea and topic, and features of each text that we read. We will gather information on sticky notes about our topic and at the end of the week we will discuss how to organize this information in a logical manner.We will also continue with our leveled reading groups, and Daily 5 reading stations.

Writing
This week’s writing is going to be a lot of fun! We are going to write our first expository piece, and it will be a “How To" story on blowing a bubble with bubble gum. We will have to chew some gum in class so that we can document the steps of blowing a bubble. Then we will talk about word choice and turn our steps into a story that captures the reader's imagination.

Math
We are going to be going over both subtraction and addition strategies this week. We will review what we have learned and discuss recognizing when a problem is addition or subtraction. Then we will review on Thursday and assess these skills on Friday. You can help your child at home by reviewing basic math facts that add up to 18 with them at home. First in Math is a great way for your child to practice their math facts. Please make sure your child stays on an appropriate level for their grade (ex: not doing the decimal section or higher grade levels).

Spelling
The spelling pattern this week is a review of short vowel sounds. We will put the sounds all together and work on recognizing what sound is being used in a word. Try this fun website to help you study, too! http://www.spellingcity.com/

Science
This week in science we will be discussing energy. We will look at heat, light and sound as forms of energy. We will do several experiments to investigate energy. We will look at heat during our balloon and butter investigations. They will learn about opaque, transparent and translucent materials when we discuss light energy. Then during our sound energy investigation they will create their own musical instrument. We will need several materials for our experiments this week. If you have empty milk cartons or shoe boxes at home, then please send them in before Friday for our musical instruments.

Reminders and Dates:
Library Day- Friday: All books need to come in, even if they are just being rechecked.
Oct. 26th- Early Release Day (school ends at 12:45)
Red Ribbon Week- October 24-28 (information coming soon)
Harvest Festival -12-3 p.m. on November 5th

Foux's Footprints

2011-10-10T10:56:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of October 11-14, 2011

Reading
This week in reading we will continue to work with our Daily 5 groups, and we will begin to explore non-fiction texts. We will look at text features, discuss monitoring our reading for comprehension and also deciding between fact and opinion.

Writing
This week the students will be working on writing summaries and writing in a booklet format. The students will write a short summary of something the class has done in a fun booklet format to share with the class.

Math
We will be starting subtraction this week. We will focus on subtraction strategies and we will play many subtraction games. On Friday we will be making fun "Domino Fact Families" out of graham crackers, icing and raisins. Ask your child to share with you what they learned about fact families during this exercise.

Spelling
The spelling pattern this week is short u. Feel free to look up other short u words so that you can point out the pattern to your child. Try this fun website to help you study, too! http://www.spellingcity.com/

Science
We are going to finish up matter this week and test over matter on Wednesday. On Tuesday we will review everything we learned about matter. We had so much fun with all of our matter experiments last week! Thank you to everyone who helped us out in the lab and with supplies. Thursday and Friday of next week will be dedicated to the using the 5 senses like a scientist and then magnet exploration will be our final activity of the week.

PTA Membership Drive
If you have not joined the PTA, then it is a great way to support your child's school. We currently have a contest that is almost up! Last week we were winning with 48%! Help us win by signing up for the PTA!

Box Tops for Education!
Box top collections are almost done! This is the final week to send in box tops! Send them in soon if you can to help us win this competition.

CONFERENCES

Thank you for coming to your child's conference. We still have some more, but I have really enjoyed meeting with everyone. Conferences are always a neat opportunity for parents and teachers to team together for the benefit of the child. I appreciate you taking the time and for taking an active role in your child's education.

Reminders and Dates:
Box Tops for Education ends- October 14th
Library Day- Friday

Foux's Footprints

2011-09-30T13:01:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of October 3-7, 2011

October is here! Fall is well underway, and hopefully the temperatures will be dropping soon. Your child is also well on their way in second grade. This is already the seventh week of school! Soon the first nine weeks will be over, conferences will be done, and report cards will be going home. This will be a busy month with a lot going on, but for now read over the blog and see what is happening in our class this week!

Reading
We have now gone through all the parts of the Daily 5 reading program. Your child will be practicing this week with working in different stations and staying on task while reading groups are being pulled. We will spend a lot of time on these skills, because the foundation of this program working is being able to meet with groups on their reading level while others are working meaningfully and independently. We will also work on the comprehension skill of "making connections" as our reading strategy this week. We will focus on how good readers make connections to themselves, other books and the world as they read in order to create meaning.
For grammar, we will focus on pronouns and how to use them correctly in our writing.

Writing
Our "Dream Boards" are finished and displayed on the wall! Please come by and look at our boards and read the stories we wrote about our dreams for our future. This week we will continue with Lucy Calkins lessons on writing with a focus on organizing our writing, types of writing and sounding out words that we have difficulty spelling. These lessons will set the stage for our writing program for the rest of the year. At the end of this week every child in the class will know what types of writing they can do during writing workshop, what to do if they get stuck on writing a work, and how to organize their writing.

Math
We are still focusing on addition strategies this week. We are learning strategies to make us faster and more efficient problem solvers by giving us several ways to solve a problem. We will learn addition strategies like "making a ten, making 10 to add 9, making 10 to add 8, count on 1, count on 2 and count on 3." These are strategies that your child can apply to a lot of problem and it will help them think about number sense. As we go through the week you can ask your child which strategies they are learning each day, and ask them to show you the strategies they have learned.

Spelling
This week’s words will focus on the short o spelling pattern. Your child's list will come home on Monday, and they will have a spelling test on Friday. Feel free to look up other short 0 words so that you can point out the pattern to your child. Try this fun website to help you study, too! http://www.spellingcity.com/

Science
This week in science we will be talking about physical and chemical changes.
Chemical Change-change on a molecular level- changes what the matter is made of (rusting pipes, burning sugar).
Physical Changes-motion, temperature, pressure, size or shape (folding paper, crushing a can). This is a tough concept, and we will be spending time this week doing experiments of chemical and physical changes to demonstrate the two types of changes. This Friday we will be trying to do several science stations showing these two types of changes. It would be wonderful to have parent volunteers to help manage the stations. If you are available on Friday then please respond to the signupgenius.com.

PTA Membership Drive
There is a classroom contest for PTA membership! The class with the most PTA memberships in each grade will have a chance to win a glow in the dark basketball! PTA membership forms went home this past Tuesday, and there are more located outside the front office. If you have not yet joined and you plan to, just fill out the form and send it back in with your PTA dues. Remember, both parents and grandparents can even join. Even Mr. Foux is a PTA member!

Box Tops for Education!
This contest is in the last two weeks of its run, and there are prizes to be won! Keep sending in those box tops! If your child sends in 10 Box Tops, then they can get a coupon. Just have them write their name on a baggie or envelope to keep their Box Tops together. We win extra recess for our class if we are the big grade level winners, and there are probably many items in your house that already have box tops on them!

CONFERENCES
Please sign up for a time if you have not, using the password of "Foux" on the website http://www.signupgenius.com/index.cfm?go=c.SignupLogin&id=229296 . If you have any questions, please let me know.

Reminders and Dates:
Box Tops for Education ends- October 14th
Library Day- Friday

Shared Writing

2011-09-29T09:16:00.001-07:00

On a moonlit summer night I was peacefully sleeping in my comfy bed. It had been a long day and I needed some rest. All of the sudden I woke up to the most annoying loud sound, I jumped out of bed and screamed, “What’s that? What’s that? What’s that?” I tracked down the noise and discovered it was my dog CiCi. She was in the laundry room where she sleeps, sticking her head out of the miniature doggie door that was not made for her. CiCi was fearlessly barking at the night creatures that explored our backyard woods. I yelled in a hoarse voice, “CiCi stop that! That door is not for you!” She froze like and ice cube then quickly scrambled back to her snuggly doggy bed. Lucky for her I fell right back to sleep. The next morning I asked Mr. Foux, “How did you sleep through all that ruckus?” He said “I can sleep through your snoring, so I can sleep through anything!”

Foux's Footprints

2011-09-22T14:11:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!

Newsletter for the Week of September 26-30

It is the last week of September! Time is flying by as your children get into the groove of second grade! We are in full swing academically and our class is doing very well with the set expectations for behavior and responsibilities! Way to go!

Reading
We are almost done introducing our Daily 5 program! This is the last week of introductions before our program is in full swing. This week we will introduce Listen to Reading. Listen to reading is often a favorite of the students, because they get to use CD players and laptops to listen to stories. We listen to many books on CD, and we also listen to stories on the computers on sites like "Tumble Books” and "BookFlix." The kids find this exciting and at the same time it is great for them to hear fluent reading on books of their choice.
We will continue practicing the other 4 parts of the daily 5 each day, too. Soon we will be doing all the different parts of the daily 5 each day at different times. We will also meet with our reading groups on our guided reading level during this time. Our reading groups are all set now that our district reading assessments are done. Our reading program is well underway, and your children are doing very well with the system.

Writing
We are still working on our "Dream Boards" this week. We have completed the boards, and we are almost done with our stories. Our stories should be done and out in the hallway before the end of "College Go Get It Week!"

Math
We have completed place value and ordering numbers. We will now be moving on to addition and subtraction strategies. We will use strategies like adding doubles, near doubles and making a ten to add. We will use hands on materials like cubes, dice and white boards. We will also play games like adding dice rolls and "Doubles Simon Says." This is a week were we review a basic skill, but in a fun and engaging way that will help each child learn a basic that they can apply to much harder numbers. Please continue practicing math facts at home.

Spelling
This week’s words will focus on the short i spelling pattern. Your child's list will come home on Monday, and they will have a spelling test on Friday. Feel free to look up other short i words so that you can point out the pattern to your child.

Science
We have a lot of science experiments this next week as we continue to introduce the process of an investigation. We will discuss classifying items and introduce states of matter to the class. We will have some time to explore liquid, solid and gas and how matter can move from one category to another.
This is an exciting week in science, so feel free to ask your child what they do in science each day!

College Go Get It Week is this week. Encourage your child to dress the part each day. We will be discussing colleges and college careers each day next week.
What to wear each day:

MONDAY: “Give a Hoot/College Bound” Students and teachers wear Kathy Caraway t-shirts.
TUESDAY: “Dress for Success” Students dress up in career outfits or as if they are going for an interview.
WEDNESDAY: “Step up for Education” Students and teachers wear sneakers or tennis shoes.
THURSDAY: “Hats off to College” Students and teachers wear favorite collegiate hat.
FRIDAY: “Show Your College Spirit” Students and teachers wear their favorite collegiate t-shirt.

Box Tops for Education!
Keep sending in those box tops! The class in second grade that gets the most box tops gets extra recess, and the school wide winners get a trophy and extra PE time with choice of activity! Also, if your child sends in 10 Box Tops, then they can get a coupon. Just have them write their name on a baggie or envelope to keep their Box Tops together. We will be collecting box tops through October 14th.

CONFERENCES
Fall conferences are right around the corner! I will have a signupgenius.com account set up by Tuesday, 9/27 so parents can get a conference that best fits their schedule. More details to come.

Reminders and Dates:
Box Tops for Education ends- October 14th
Library Day- Friday

Foux's Footprints

2011-09-16T08:06:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of September 19-23, 2011

Thank you to everyone who donated to our Caraway Cares Drive! Our class gathered a huge amount of new socks, underwear and other supplies to donate to the people who lost everything in the recent central Texas fires. If you have not been able to donate yet, then there is still time! The drive ends on September 23rd. We are collecting new underwear and socks in our room and you can drop off gift cards into the box in the office. Thank you for all your support!

Reading
We will continue introducing our Daily 5 program and reviewing the parts of the program that we have already learned. Last week we did Read to Self, Work on Writing and Read to Someone. This week we will introduce Word Work to the students. Word Work will allow the students extra time to work with their spelling words each week. Students will take their spelling words and use magnetic letter, play-doh, and stamps to "write" out their spelling words for extra spelling practice. We will also continue to practice reading strategies this week for reading comprehension, and we will be completing the DRA. The DRA is a reading assessment that each student takes individually, and that will allow me to create our reading groups.

Writing
We have been working on writing stories and using a sketch of a picture to help us get our thoughts out. This week we will use that skill as we create a "dream board." This is a collage that we will create to show our future goals and dreams. We will then use this board to help us write stories about our goals for college, career, hobbies and family. This will be used as an introduction to Education Go Get It Week, which is the following week.We will also do some comparing of common and proper nouns next week for our grammar lessons.

Math
We continue to work with comparing and ordering numbers up to 999. We will review the skill on Thursday and test on Friday of this week. This skill has been covered for the past few weeks, and most of the class is doing beautifully with this skill. If you would like to help your child review at home then using the language of before, after, and between when comparing number placement on a number line is a great start. Also, using greater than >, less than <, equal to = language and symbols will help your child prepare. This can be done by comparing playing cards that you deal out for a fun game.

Spelling
This week’s words will focus on the short e spelling pattern. Your child's list will come home on Monday, and they will have a spelling test on Friday. Ask your child to sort the words and think of other words with this spelling pattern to put the focus equally on learning a pattern that can be used again and memorizing the words that are just for this week.

Science
We are done with social studies for a few weeks, and we will be starting a unit on science. This first week we will focus on being a scientist and thinking through the process that a scientist goes through as they tackle questions. We will first look at safety and discuss safety rules for any science experiment. Then we will do our first science experiment of the year, and we will focus on the steps of the process of an experiment.

Box Tops For Education!
Thank you to everyone who has sent in box tops for the school drive. Cutting these out and sending them in is a great fundraiser for our school. There are many box tops on items already in your house (the kids pointed out to me the other day that our tissue boxes have box tops on them, too). The class in second grade that gets the most box tops gets extra recess, and the school wide winners get a trophy and extra PE time with choice of activity! We will be collecting box tops through October 14th, so keep those coming in!

Reminders and Dates: Caraway Cares Drive ends September 23rd!
Box Tops for Education ends- October 14th
Library Day- Friday

Foux's Footprints

2011-09-09T12:10:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!

Newsletter for the Week of September 12-16, 2011

This is going to be another exciting week in second grade with a lot going on! We will be celebrating Freedom Week with a look at why we are grateful for our freedoms. We will celebrate Constitution Day on September 16th. At this time we will discuss the constitution and why it is important.

This week we will also have an early release day on Wednesday. School will be dismissed at 12:45. Please let me know with a note in the folder or an email if your child's way of going home will change for early release.

Reading
For reading we will continue our Daily 5 program. Last week we continued to work on Read to Self and introduced Work on Writing. This week we will continue to practice those two skills, and we will add Read to Someone. Read to Someone is a buddy reading system that the kids love. It gives them time to get with a partner and read in a structured way that is still exciting.
We will also continue to practice reading strategies this week for reading comprehension.

Writing
Last week we focused on types of sentences and incomplete and complete sentences. This week we will introduce the Lucy Calkins writing program with a focus on drawing or sketching out a story in order to get the idea for the story before writing. We will also have grammar lessons over common nouns and a/an usage in sentences.

Math
In math we will continue to work with place value in numbers up to 999. We will compare and order these numbers using words like before, after and between. We will also introduce and use the greater than, less than and equal to symbols to show value. At home you can continue to work with your child on reading clocks to the 5 minute mark, and also on comparing large numbers. An easy way to do this is to give them a couple of three digit numbers and asking them to name the larger or smaller number.

Spelling
This week we will start our new spelling program. I will give a pre-test on Monday and then send home the words with your child that day. Each day at school, we will practice the spelling pattern and you can practice with the words at home. We will test over these words on Friday. The test will also include 10 "surprise words" that they have not studied but that match the spelling pattern.

This is not a program that focuses on memorization. The goal is to learn a spelling pattern that you can apply to other words in hopes of improving each child's spelling in their writing. Many spelling programs have students memorize a list of words just for the test on Friday. They might get all the words right, but then they may forget them or never transfer them to their writing. Other students might do poorly on Friday spelling tests because they have difficulty with memorization, but in their writing they might be stronger at sounding out words than their peers.

Obviously the important thing is to become a better speller, and not to just be able to memorize a list of words for a week. It may take your child a while to get use to this program, and I'll give the class some feedback after the first test. I know this is the first time that they will have taken a test like this, and will view their grades accordingly. Just remember that the goal is overall spelling ability and not memorization or test grades.

Social Studies
This week we will continue to study geography. We will look at different types of maps, globes and atlases. We will talk about the purpose for each of these, and how to use each. Then we will move into discussing landforms.

Caraway Cares
Our school will be working with the Caraway PTA, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to collect items to help with disaster relief in our area. Each grade will collect a different item. Second grade will be collecting new socks and underwear in all sizes (still in the package). All grade levels will be accepting gift cards to area stores (HEB, Randall's, gas stations), for as low as $5 a piece. These cards can be dropped off in the front office in the labeled box on the circle table. This drive will replace the annual Caraway Can Food Drive this year, and it will end on Friday, September 23rd.

Thank you!
Thank you so much to all the parents who have sent in things from my wish list! Our class appreciates your support.

Reminders and Dates:
September 14th Early Release Day- School ends at 12:45

Our First Shared Writing Story

2011-09-02T08:47:00.001-07:00

This story was written during our shared writing time. I modeled how to begin writing a story by just telling it to someone out loud and organizing your ideas. We then began writing and because they knew the story about my family vacation to Disneyworld, we all contributed to the writing process. This took about 5 lessons, about 30 minutes a piece to write. During the editing process, we shared ideas of how to find more exciting words to use in our story. Believe it or not, they wrote this entirely with me! Enjoy!

Flames Over Disneyworld

During the summer of my seventeenth year, my family and I finally got to take our dream vacation to Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida. My tummy was full of excitement when we left our house at 4am to make the long journey to Florida. When we finally arrived, I couldn't believe my eyes. Our hotel was called the Polynesian Resort and it looked like a tropical island. My fantasy trip was coming true.

My brother, sister and I decided to go to Epcot Center first and ride Space Mountain. What a ride! It left us feeling dizzy and speechless. We continued onto the different foreign countries and had a blast! My parents wanted to save money and so we had to go back to our hotel for dinner. As a treat, they decided to make hamburgers on their indoor electric grill in our room. It started out fine; the burgers were sizzling and smelled delicious. I couldn't wait to bite into my juicy burger! Suddenly, the flames started to get higher and smoke began billowing throughout the room. Next, the smoke alarm was screaming and could be heard down the hall. My mom started panicking and yelled at us to hurry and help! Quickly, we all grabbed towels and were fanning them trying to clear the smoky air. My dad was sure that hotel security would come and kick us out of the hotel. We finally got the alarm to stop and then we waited for our eviction. To our surprise, no one came!

We held our breath, for what seemed like ten minutes, waiting for the worst. Still, no one came and we began thinking we were home free. The best part was that our burgers, while a little overdone, were edible and we chowed down. We stuck to cold sandwiches for the rest of the trip, just to be on the safe side.

The next day we went to Magic Kingdom and had the most fun day! We watched the fantastic parade and even got to eat with Snow White and her Seven Dwarfs. All in all, it was our best family vacation. We still laugh together about that day and the craziness of that hilarious memory.

Foux's Footprints

2011-09-02T08:37:00.001-07:00

Howdy! NEWS NEWS!

Newlstter for the Week of September 6-9

What another great week! We are getting off to a great start this year.
This next week will be very exciting. It is only a four day week due to Labor Day on Monday. Then on Tuesday night we will have Back to School Night. This is an opportunity for you to come up to the classroom and meet me, see your child's class, and hear from me about what we will be doing this year in second grade. We will meet for only 30 minutes from 6:30-7:00. During that time I will give out a lot of information about second grade, but if you cannot make the meeting let me know and I will email you an overview. Since the time is so short and our space is limited in the classroom, please try to make arrangements for your child during this time.
Below is the schedule for the whole evening in case you need to attend more than one orientation.

Parent Orientation Sessions:
6:00-6:30 PM TAG (for current TAG students' parents)
6:30-7:00 PM K-2nd Grade Parents meet in student's classroom
7:00-7:30 PM PTA General Mtg.& Mrs. Hohmann introduces staff
7:30-8:00 PM 3rd-5th Grade Parents meet in student's classroom

Procedures and Expectations

We have for the last two weeks overviewed the procedures and expectations for everything that we do at school. We now know school expectations for walking in the hallway, using the bathroom, playing on the playground, and interacting with other students. All classroom expectations have also been laid out. I want every student to be successful this year, and I think that letting every child know what they need to do to be successful is the first step. I will continue to reinforce our procedures and expectations throughout the year so that we can all have a wonderful year.

Reading

For reading we will continue our Daily 5 program. Last week we worked on reading independently in the classroom. This week we will review those Read to Self skills, and begin to practice Work on Writing. During this time students will work on writing stories and becoming better writers.
We will also continue working on a few whole group reading lessons that focus on reading comprehension strategies as well as review the strategies that we learned last week.

Writing

Last week we wrote our first stories with a beginning, middle and end. These stories will be great to compare our end of the year stories to and gauge writing growth. Now that we have a start of the year writing sample, we will go into all the basics of writing. We will begin with a review of complete sentences and types of sentences. We will be really focusing on recognizing an incomplete sentence from a complete sentence.

Math

In math we will be looking at place value to the hundred's place. We will be working with manipulatives like blocks to "build numbers." We will compare numbers in the hundreds to each other, and we will look for patterns with these numbers. We have many interactive games that we plan to play in math next week, and your child should really enjoy this reintroduction to place value.

Spelling

This week is only four days long, and rather than start our spelling unit with the class on a short week, we will introduce spelling the next week. We will go over the new spelling unit during Back to School Night.

Social Studies

Last week we focused on being a good citizen. We tied that into being a good classmate and discussed a lot of ways to be a good citizen/classmate throughout the week. This week we are moving on to geography. We will discuss some local geography; go over map parts and how to read a map. Then we will create a class map of our community.

Homeroom Parent Volunteers

We have openings for Homeroom Parents and other volunteer opportunities. If you would still like to volunteer, just send me an email or sign up at Open House. Homeroom parents help with the parties throughout the year. We have Winter, Valentines, and Last Day parties.

Reminders and Dates:
September 5th- No school for Labor Day weekend
September 6th- Back to School Night- In classroom 6:30-7:00, PTA meeting 7:00
September 14th Early Release Day- School ends at 12:45

Foux's Footprints

2011-08-26T13:38:00.001-07:00

Newsletter for the Week of August 29- September 2, 2011

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!

What a Great First Week!
We had such a wonderful first week, and it was great to learn all about every student in class through their first week homework bags, their What Lights Me Up pictures, and through the million words that so many of you have already sent in. I look forward to reading all of the Million Words you have to say about your children. They really help me get to know your child quickly, and to meet their needs in the classroom more completely.

Procedures and Expectations
In this second week of school we will continue to talk about how we do things in class and at school. We got together with all the second grade classrooms every day last week to talk about cafeteria, hallway, recess, before school and after school procedures and expectations. We want to make sure that every child knows the school rules and knows what is expected at school. This week we will continue to review in our classrooms, so that we can all have a successful year.

Academics Begin!
We are jumping back into our academic subjects this week. I will be guiding the class through how we do everything in each subject, and also starting to do some beginning of the year testing to see what each child's academic needs are at this time.

Reading
For reading we will begin our Daily 5 program. This program is a class model that allows me to meet with small groups and to work with students on their individual reading level. When students are not meeting with me they will be doing one of five other activities. This week we will practice one activity, which is Read to Self. I will explain the program and then we will practice the correct way to independently read to yourself for a few minutes at a time until we build up stamina.
We will also be working on a few whole group reading lessons that focus on reading comprehension strategies.

Writing
This week the students will write their first story for me. I will model how to write a story with a beginning, middle and an ending. After I model how to do each of these things I will ask the class to write their own stories for me.

Math
In math this week we will review time and clocks from last year. At the end of the week the students will have a small assessment over clocks, time and schedule reading to gauge where they are right now with this skill. We will continue to touch on time throughout the rest of the year, but I want a good idea of each child's ability level on this skill so that I can match the lessons I will teach the class to their needs. Time is also a great skill to practice at home with your child. Having your child read digital and analog clocks is great practice for the classroom, and for life!
We will also do some math testing this week to see where each child's ability level is currently. These tests do not count as a grade, but it is a type of pretesting to see what lessons each child needs.

Spelling
We will not be starting our spelling program just yet, but we will be doing a spelling assessment to see what each child's spelling abilities are at this time. This is not a test to study for or to prepare for ahead of time. It is a check of each child's ability so that they can be placed in a spelling group that will have similar words that they need to practice.

Social Studies
We will switch throughout the year between science units and social studies units. We will begin with social studies with a focus on communities, good citizenship, and symbols. We will spend most of the week with a focus on how to be a good citizen to start the year on the right foot.

Reminders and Dates:
September 5th- No school for Labor Day weekend
September 6th- Back to School Night- In classroom 6:30-7:00, PTA meeting 7:00
September 14th Early Release Day- school ends at 12:45

Foux's Footprints

2011-08-22T13:17:00.000-07:00

Welcome Back to School!
I'm so excited to meet everyone and to start another great year in second grade here at Caraway Elementary. This will be an exciting first week! We will be getting to know each other, learning about second grade expectations and learning to work as a team.
Our first day will be full of getting to know each other games and learning about our classmates, teacher and classroom.
Our second day will be a celebration of everything 2! We will honor the second day in second grade with all things that come in pairs, are doubled and 2s of all kinds.
On our third day we will continue with classroom and school expectations, as well as discussions of how to be bucket filler (someone who goes out of their way to help others and say things that are nice to others).
The final day of our fist week we will continue to learn about each other by sharing our "Me" Bag Homework with the class. These bags are full of items that we feel show our personalities. Then in the afternoon we will celebrate our first week of school with a Second Grade Olympics contest. Our class will work as a team to compete against other classes, and will put to use all the teamwork skills we learned earlier in the week.
This first week will be an exciting week for your child to learn about their classmates, classroom and teacher as well as have many fun and exciting activities.

Here is some helpful first week information you might like to know!
Morning
I'm so excited to meet every one of you and so happy to have you in my classroom. The bell rings to come down to the classroom at 7:35every morning. If you arrive before the bell then you can go to the cafeteria to wait and come down with your class, and with me. I'll be in the cafeteria every morning for the first two weeks, and if you get to the classroom before me the door will still be locked. If you'd like to join us, I'll be down with the rest of the class in the cafeteria. The tardy bell rings at 7:45am and we get started right away, so please make every effort to be on time.

Breakfast
Breakfast is offered at the school and starts at 7:15. Breakfast is $1.35 paid and $0.03 for reduced lunch. The cafeteria stops serving lunch at 7:35.

Snack
We will have snack every day at 9:00. Students are responsible for bring their own healthy snacks. Snacks cannot be shared due to allergy concerns. please send an easy to eat snack, preferably one that doesn't require utensils. Water bottles are welcome in the classroom, but must have a pull top or straw so that they remain closed in case of spills. Please have your child put their name on their bottles so that bottles are not accidentally shared.

Lunch
We will have lunch every day at 11:20. Your child can bring a lunch or eat from the cafeteria. The cost of lunch is $2.10 paid and $0.40 for reduced lunch. Adult lunches cost $3.00 if you plan to join your child for lunch. Adult lunches cannot be put onto student accounts, and need to be ordered in the morning since our lunch is delivered to the school.

Specials
Please encourage your child to wear tennis shoes or bring them with them since they cannot participate in PE if they are not wearing safe footwear.

Recess
Recess is at the end of the day at 2:00 when it is very hot. If the heat index is over 100 degrees we will have indoor recess (per district policy). Please encourage your child to bring a water bottle every day in case we are able to go outside.

Dismissal
School ends each day at 2:45. Bus riders only are allowed to leave at 2:40 so that they can load the buses and leave before the car rider line begins. We will walk down to the office in a line at the end of the day and it can get very congested in the hallways. It may be easiest for you to tell your child to meet you at the flagpole or picnic tables at the end of the day. If you would like to meet them at the door at the end of the day, then be sure to sign-in at the office (per district policy).

Please email me with any questions or concerns you have about the first week of school. I hope that everyone has a great first week!

It's going to be a great year!
Mrs. Foux

Meet Mrs. Foux

2011-08-17T13:17:00.001-07:00

Howdy! My name is Christina Foux (rhymes with jokes) and this is my eighth year of teaching at Kathy Caraway Elementary and my eleventh year teaching second grade. For my first three years of teaching, I taught second grade in San Antonio, TX with Northside ISD. I started teaching there right out of college and it was an exciting learning experience. Eleven years is a long time to be in the same grade and I have been fortunate to do so. I feel that second grade has been a calling for me and a perfect fit throughout the years. The exciting part of being an educator is learning new strategies for helping children succeed, so I never get tired of this age and grade because I'm always trying out new ideas.

I grew up in Houston, TX and my parents now reside in Katy, TX. I have two younger siblings, Scott, 32, and Amy, 29, whom I'm very close to and we see each other as often as possible. I grew up with parents in the service industry and it was always evident I would chose a similar career path. My father retired from the Houston Police Department as a detective after 28 years of service. My mother has been a teacher for 32 years and currently teaches English as a Second Language in Katy ISD. Family is very important to me. I have a wonderful husband named Michael and he is always helping out with my classroom by either cutting laminated things late in the night, putting together folders or hanging up my new gorgeous bookshelves. His favorite thing to volunteer for is teaching lessons to the second grade classes about reptiles. We love reptiles and have several exciting breeds of snakes at home (no poisonous!), along with a sulcata tortoise named Titus and several leopard geckos. Mr. Foux and I also have 2 cats, Schmoopy and Gabby. Our life is full of adventure with our cute country dog Ci Ci, who loves running around our 4 acre property causing mischief and bringing home interesting items and bones she digs up (all animal, don't worry)!

I attended Texas A&M University my freshman and sophomore years of college and then transferred to Southwest Texas State University (Texas State now) where I graduated with a Bachelors in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in Reading. My certifications are in Elementary Education, gr. 1-8, English as a Second Language, gr. 1-8 and TAG gr. 1-5.

Teaching is the most rewarding career and I love being part of the Caraway community. I've always enjoyed learning new things, having creative ideas, exploring, and researching. Being a teacher ensures that I will always be able to do this and keep having new experiences. My students are a part of me and every year I get to add a little more to my own life. I want your child to gain the tools in my class to go on in their lives with confidence, compassion, and the wisdom to trust their hearts and minds.

Foux's Footprints

2011-05-19T12:22:00.001-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of May 23-27, 2011

Our last week of school! Always exciting and little sad because I will miss all of my kiddos! In order to keep some normality, we will still be doing class work throughout the week, but we will make it fun and engaging.

A special treat this week will be watching the fourth grade Texas Play. The fourth graders have been hard at work and the kids love it! We are also getting a visit from the 4-H Mobile Dairy in school field trip. We will learn all about dairy farming and even see a real cow!

CLEANING
It's an overwhelming task cleaning out a classroom and getting it packed up for the summer. In the process, I will be getting rid of leftover worksheets. If you're child comes home with a workbook or extra pages, please use them this summer to keep their skills sharp. Many of these worksheets were with our math curriculum but we didn't use them because in second grade we do so much with hands on manipulatives and kinesthetic learning.

We will be cleaning our desks a little at a time. Each day you're child will bring home something in their backpack, so it's not too heavy on the last day. Please help me by emptying the backpacks each night and sending back only the Tuesday folder. Thank you in advance for your help with this cleaning.

SPELLING
We will have spelling words this week. However, there will be no spelling test this week. We will just practice the words during the Daily 5 Word Work time.

Summer Words:
shorts, pool, sunglasses, shell, tan, ice cream, ocean, sunny, flip flops, sand, picnic, baseball, barbeque, August, July, June, vacation, beach, hot, camping

READING
Students will be working in Daily 5 stations this week. We will also focus on reading strategies that we have learned this year.

MATH
This week we will be working on multiplication and division. We will continue to review strategies and practice math facts. There will be no math homework this week. Please practice math facts over the summer. It is crucial to their success in math and will help them in the upper grades. Students can continue to use First in Math through July 31st.

SCIENCE
How do you keep a second grader's attention the last week of school? You do experiments! In science this week, we will be doing fun experiments in the classroom! If you would like to donate an item for an experiment, this is what we need on Monday:

mentos rolls

2-liter of diet soda

1 quart of milk

Dirty Pennies

2 cans of tomato paste

Taco Bell hot sauce

END OF YEAR PARTY-THURSDAY
Our end of the year party will be Thursday, May 26th from 7:50-10:20. Our Breakfast Bonanza is going to be so much fun! Please refer to the email sent through signupgenius.com to see what items are still needed. We also need parents to volunteer to help in our room. We'd like to get enough volunteers so that parents work a certain shift and then can rotate a couple of times with their child as well. There are volunteer times ranging from 7:30-10:45. Thanks in advance for all your support with this event.

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL-FRIDAY
The last day of school we will have our compliment pajama party. Students can come to school in their pajamas and bring blankets and stuffed animals. We will enjoy popcorn and our last day together!

REMINDERS:
REPORT CARDS
Report cards will go home on the last day of school. Please check your child's backpack to get out their report card.

A note from the library:
Library books have to be returned to the library! If your child still has a library book checked out, please return it or contact the library to make payment. Thank you!

YEARBOOKS!
Yearbooks are still for sale! You can get memories of the past year and support the school through the funds we get for each book purchased. The yearbooks are $25.00. Second grade will have a Yearbook signing day- Thursday, May 26th at 1:00 with everyone in second grade. If your child does not have a yearbook to get signed, I will provide paper to get signatures and notes from friends.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST.......
Before the week gets crazier, I just want to say that I have so enjoyed having all of my students and their families in my class this year. Caraway is part of my family and I love it here! The reason for that is all of you.

HAVE A WONDERFUL SUMMER!
This is Mrs. Foux signing off............

Foux's Footprints

2011-05-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

Howdy! NEWS! NEWS!

Newsletter for the Week of May 16-20, 2011

WRITING
We had a lot of fun writing our Veggie Tales last week! Feel free to stop by and look at our creations in the hall! This week we will focus on drama. We will study the parts of a play compared to regular fiction stories. The students will write their own play and perform it for the class this Friday! This is going to be a fun group project that will be done totally in the classroom.

READING
We had so much fun with poetry last week, and we will continue to work with poetry this week. We will be comparing different rhythms in poetry and visualizing poems that we read. This week we will begin to review skills from the year and practice reading strategies that we will use in third grade next year!

SPELLING
Pattern: y to i Rule: Words ending in y after a consonant, change the y to i and add es or ed

puppy, puppies, army, armies, supply, supplies, sky, skies, party, parties, library, libraries, rely, relies, marry, marries, theory, theories, study, studies,

Challenge: apply, applying

MATH
Multiplication and division had been a blast over the last few weeks. The students are really excited to feel like real "third graders"! We will continue to work on multiplication and division this week with a focus on problem solving. The magic word is division. We will assess over your child's progress this Friday. In second grade students do not have to know math facts for multiplication or division, but it is important to understand the general concept of counting up in equal groups or dividing into equal groups.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We will continue to focus on technology and transportation in social studies this week. We will learn some fun plays about transportation, and have the opportunity to design a backdrop for these plays that reflects the transportation being described. Your child will get to see how transportation has changed and evolved over time.

End of Year Party

The second grade team has come up with a fun and different end of year party this year. We are doing a Breakfast Bonanza!

Each class will host one diner in the Breakfast Bonanza and will decorate according to their diner theme, have food and a game. Our diner name is "GRANOLA GALORE" and the food theme is yogurt with toppings of granola, strawberries, and bananas. Our game will be Breakfast Bingo. The parents in that class will provide enough food/supplies for each second grader. Students and homeroom teacher will rotate through each classroom on a 25 minute rotation schedule, and the Host Parents will stay behind to host the other classes at the diner with food and games/activities.

If we have enough parent volunteers, they can take turns with other parent volunteers to host the classroom diner and go with their child in some of party fun. Please let me know if you are available to volunteer with this party on May 26th from 7:30-10:45. A list of items needed will be sent next week. Thanks in advance for your support with this event.

UPCOMING EVENTS
May 17 Volunteer Tea
May 20 Career Day
May 26 End of Year Party
May 27 Last Day-report cards go home

Foux's Footprints

2011-05-06T11:02:00.001-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!

Newsletter for the Week of May 9-13, 2011

A Special Thank You

I would just like to say thank you to all of my students and parents for making Teacher Appreciation Week so special for me. Each day was a new surprise and I loved it all! There's no better way to begin a Monday than with creative cards and Starbucks. From the yummy snacks and wonderful gift cards to the stunning flowers and delicious lunch from Panera Bread, you truly made my week super! Thank you all for your thoughtfulness and generosity. I have enjoyed all of my gifts so much. You are all so giving and I'm lucky to have all of you in my life. Our year is coming to a close, but I hold wonderful memories from this class and I am so grateful.

Thank you,

Mrs. Foux

WRITING

In Writing, we will be using our creativity with a Veggie Tale story! Students will create a character, decide on a community problem (like litter, pollution, pet overpopulation, etc), and create a scenario in which their character attempts to and eventually solves the problem. This assignment will need a few vegetables from home. Your child will come home with a personalized shopping list on Monday after they have created their character. The supplies will be due on Friday, so they can create their Veggie character. This is a really fun activity for the kids and we'll send pictures when there done!

READING
Our research projects are almost complete and will be displayed in the hallway this week. Please stop by to see our learning! This week, we will be reading poetry by one author. As we study this author, we will look at how his poetry using rhyming words, vivid words, and a certain rhythm to create word pictures for the reader. This will serve as an introduction to next weeks writing assignment.

SPELLING
Pattern: number words
eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred, one thousand, one million

Challenge Words: trillion, forty-four

MATH
This week, we will continue our learning of multiplication and will then begin our unit on division. In second grade, students are expected to understand the concept of division being that things are split into equal groups. It is not important that they learn "division facts" at this time, but that the foundation is set for their future learning. If you could donate a box of goldfish and/or Cookie Crisp cereal, please let me know. Both of these items will be used for hands-on activities in math.

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week, our return to the Social Studies curriculum will look at changes in transportation, communication, and recreation. Students will look at how things "used to be" and compare them to life today. We will create a time-line that visual displays our learning. The magic word is history. At the end of the week, we will compare how basic needs were met in the past and how they are met today.

UPCOMING EVENTS
May 9-13 Caraway Book Fair
May 12 Skate Night
May 17 Volunteer Tea

Animal Adventure Day with Mr. Mike

2011-05-05T18:20:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful Animal Adventure Day visiting rooms with mammals, birds, fish, insects and, of course, reptiles with Austin Reptile Shows. Each of the children got to touch several reptiles and Mr. Mike recruited Frankie to help out because of his experience with snakes. We even got Ms. Chima to touch one of the snakes with one finger for almost a whole second—so fast we weren't able to capture it with the camera!

Foux's Footprints

2011-04-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of May 2-6, 2011

WRITING
Writing will coincide with reading this week as we prepare our research paper about animals. The class will take all of their notes and compose a research report including each category they have studied on their animal (habitat, life cycle, body features, food, special features, prey/predator and fun facts). This is a big step for our class because this is the first research report they have done independently. I'm so excited to see how much they have learned about the reasearch process!

READING
We are knee-deep in our research! We have the questions to be answered and the notes from our research. Now it's time to put it all together to make a product. With everything we have learned about our animal, we will make a product to display our knowledge (model of an animal, diagram, mobile, book, etc). This will go hand in hand with our writing project and we will present our finished product and paper on Friday. Your child may come home with a list of a few items they want to bring to make their research product, but nothing that should have to be bought.

SPELLING
Pattern: Prefixes and Suffixes
Wishing, unlock, disappear, review, impossible, bicycle, teacher, fixable, dangerous, happiness, wonderful, gently, freedom, redo, helping, puzzled, disconnect, co-pilot, helpful, seriously
Challenge Words: friendship, honesty

MATH
We will briefly review our addition and subtraction math facts at the beginning of the week. These will be the foundation for our introduction to multiplication. We will be using chopsticks, dice, circles, stars, cereals and more to give us a visual of grouping and adding our basic math facts quickly.

Parents, please remember we have a First in Math program that can be utilized from home. The link is on the Caraway home page under "students" and scroll down to the math section. It has math facts games and keeps a running total score for your child to track their success. At this time when your child does play, please make sure they focus on the addition and subtraction math facts sections. This is where second graders need the most emphasis. As we have been reviewing math facts this week, it is evident that many students need continued at-home practice with math facts to 18, especially subtraction. These basic skills will be beneficial in the upper grades when the computations get more challenging. Thank you for your support with these academic skills. Your child has their log in and password in the daily take home folder from the beginning of the year.

http://www.firstinmath.com/

SCIENCE
It's time to get to the meat of the food chain. We're going wild with animals! We will focus our studies on the characteristics of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and birds. The magic word is multiplication. As we investigate the features of each group, we will record our findings in a booklet. At the end of the week, we will have an animal adventure day to celebrate our knowledge of animals!

Animal Adventure Day will be a blast as we rotate to rooms with five different classifications: mammals, fish, birds, insects, and the grand finale, reptiles with Austin Reptile Shows starring Mr. Foux. We will bring several species of reptiles for the students to explore and see up close and personal. The kids have been asking me all year when Mr. Mike would bring his scaly friends!

UPCOMING EVENTS
May 4 Early Release Day
May 6 Field Day
May 9-13 Caraway Book Fair
May 12 Skate Night
May 17 Volunteer Tea

Foux's Footprints

2011-04-21T11:18:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of April 25-29, 2011

TAKS testing will be this week for grades 3-5 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The school is not allowed visitors during this time. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.

Writing
Writing will be a blast this week as students get to choose their writing topic for the week based on their interests. Before we begin, students will review the variety of writing we've done throughout the year. For example- letters, journals, narrative stories, making a booklet, non-fiction, fairy tales, legends and myths. Students will decide on a topic, brainstorm and organize their story before they begin their own writing piece which will be edited and published at the end of the week. I can't wait to see the kids' creative ideas and writing come alive!

Reading
Second grade is going wild over research as we move into our IIM research of animals. Students will create a list of animals that could be researched in class over the next two weeks. Students will then select an animal they would like to research on their own. Using the IIM method, we will begin moving through the steps each day and individually digging into some exciting facts about their animals.

Spelling
Review of words tested throughout the year.
Start, far, barn, hard, party, store, corn, morning, short, story, flower, water, better, sister, after, running, clapped, getting, shopping, stepped
Challenge Words: telling, afford

Math
We're going back to the basics this week. Addition and subtraction facts, woo hoo! We will play several fun math games to help reinforce our math fluency. The magic word is octagon. Math facts are the foundation of all of our students' math skills so we will focus on strengthening their grasp of the material. Please make sure your child is practicing their math facts at home regularly with flashcards, playing cards, dice or dominoes. There are lots of creative ways to enrich your child's love for math.

Science
We're continuing our unit on animals this week with a detailed look at insects. Students will learn about their basic needs, external characteristics and adaptations. The life cycle of an insect will be interesting as we look at the stages of development.

Upcoming Events
April 26 TAKS Math (3rd & 4th)
April 27 TAKS Reading (3rd & 4th)
April 28 TAKS Science (5th)
May 6 Field Day
May 9-13 Caraway Book Fair
May 12 Skate Night
May 17 Volunteer Tea

Foux's Footprints

2011-04-15T14:03:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!

Newsletter for the Week of April 18-21, 2011

This is a short week! We have so much to learn and only four days to do it before the holiday of Good Friday!

GREEN WEEK

Green Week is here!

Monday, April 18th: Wear sunglasses or crazy glasses: “Be on the lookout for ways to go green!”

Tuesday, Apr. 19th: Wear crazy socks and/or shoes: “Kick out waste!”

Wednesday, Apr. 20th: Wear a hat made out of recycled materials, and then we will have a “Parade of Hats” on that day: “Hats off to recycling!” This hat needs to be made at home, and we hope that all students will participate.

Thursday, Apr. 21st: Wear your Go Green t-shirts or any green t-shirt: “Go Green!” This is also our bike/walk to school day.

READING

Our class had so much fun last week learning about Egypt and sharing what they learned with the other second grade classes. I was so impressed with their dedication to their research and their products were outstanding! On Friday they had the opportunity to walk through all of the other class' "museums" and learn about Greece, China, Africa, and the Native American cultures as well. This week we will have a reading benchmark. The benchmark is a district assessment to see were the children are performing at this time. It is an end of the year check of their reading skills. The reading benchmark will be on Wednesday, and we will practice reading strategies to help us be successful on the benchmark on Monday and Tuesday. On Thursday we will pick an animal to research and begin a new independent research project.

WRITING

The students enjoyed writing about Egypt and sharing what they learned this last week. This week we will be preparing for a writing benchmark on Thursday. Like the reading benchmark this is a check of the students’ skills at this time of the year. We will practice writing to a prompt during writing on the days leading up to the benchmark. We'll discuss strategies we've used this year to make our writing great. We'll go back and re-read some of our shared writing so the students can see what they have accomplished this year and what awesome writers they've become.

SPELLING

Due to all the benchmarks this week there will be no spelling words. For nightly homework please practice math facts addition and subtraction with your child and continue to read for 20 minutes each night. Reading calendars should be updated daily and turned in at the end of the month. This is how I track a connection with their progress in fluency and comprehension.

MATH

Like reading and writing the main focus this week in math will be the math benchmark on Wednesday and Thursday. This is an important assessment of your child's math skills at this time of the year. We will practice math problem solving on Monday and Tuesday leading up to the benchmark.

SCIENCE

Science is going to be very busy this week! We will be discussing Earth Day and doing a class project and poster! We will begin our study of animals this week. This unit will go on for 3 weeks, and we will each become an expert during this time on animals. To start we will have a guest speaker who will come to talk to us about the neighborhood deer population. This will allow our class to learn about animals that affect us in our suburban environment. Homework this week: Create a hat out of recycled materials for the school parade on Wednesday. Be creative with your materials and have fun! Please only send the hats on Wednesday.

Library news: As we approach the end of the year it is very important to take care of overdue and lost books. Students will not be allowed to get their report card at the end of the year, or attend the book fair in May if they have lost or overdue books.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• April 18-21- Green Ribbon Week (in celebration of Earth Day)

• April 19- Watchdog Dads- Ice Cream Party and Game Night

• April 21- Bike/Walk to school day

• April 22- School Holiday

• April 26-29 TAKS testing- volunteers are asked not to come up to the school.

Austin Nature Center Field Trip

2011-04-12T13:05:00.000-07:00

Foux's Footprints

2011-04-09T15:08:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!

Newsletter for the Week of April 11-15, 2011

READING
Our knowledge of the Egyptian culture is growing by leaps and bounds! It has been so fun to see the excitement on each child's face as they uncover more information about this culture and people.

This week, we will work in groups to present our new knowledge in a creative way. Each group will decide on a method to share their subtopic's information with other second grade students in a "museum" format. Students may choose to make a poster, a brochure, a model, a shoebox display, or even a dinner table replica. Your child may ask for supplies from home to assist in their final product. The magic word is pyramid. All projects will be completed in class by Thursday. The "museum" will be on Friday. I appreciate your support from home.

WRITING
In addition to the group museum display project, students will also be writing an individual paper about their subtopic of our Cultural Research. This paper will be written using note-facts from the previous week, books, and internet resources. A graphic organizer will help the students to plan their paper, and a final copy will be due on Friday.

SPELLING
Pattern: more words with "ed" and "ing" endings

liked, baked,chased,closed,named,decided, surprised,pasted, pleased, voted, hoping, using, making, hiding, riding, raising,erasing, teasing, hopping, leaping
Challenge Words: tallied, revising

MATH
This week, our study of measurement will come to an end. On Monday, we will learn more about weight by introducing the terms "gram" and "kilogram". On Tuesday and Wednesday, students will learn about capacity through several hands-on activities and games. We will review the unit on Thursday and will assess on Friday. The completed review sheets will be sent home on Thursday. Please go over the assignment with your child and return with a signature on Friday. This signature method is used to ensure that parents were aware of classroom assessments and that opportunities to study at home were given.

SCIENCE
We will end our study of plants this week. We will learn about how plants depend on each other and their environment, plants and their part in the food chain, and food chain habitats. We will also get to observe a variety of real plants in the classroom. I hope we've learned all that a plant needs to survive!

FIELD TRIP

Our field trip to the Austin Nature Center was a success! Thank you to all the parents who chaperoned. I really appreciate the help. Learning outside of the classroom is fun, but additional hands are needed. Thank you for giving of your time to be with us!

GREEN WEEK
In celebration of Earth Day, Green Week is coming soon!

Monday, April 18th: Wear sunglasses or crazy glasses: “Be on the lookout for ways to go green!”
Tuesday, Apr. 19th: Wear crazy socks and/or shoes: “Kick out waste!”
Wednesday, Apr. 20th: Wear a hat made out of recycled materials, and then we will have a “Parade of Hats” on that day: “Hats off to recycling!” This hat needs to be made at home, and we hope that all students will participate.
Thursday, Apr. 21st: Wear your Go Green t-shirts or any green t-shirt: “Go Green!” This is also our bike/walk to school day.

UPCOMING EVENTS
• April 13- Family Night at California Pizza Kitchen
• April 14- Caraway Choir Performance

• April 18-21- Green Ribbon Week (in celebration of Earth Day)

• April 20- Recycled Hat Parade

• April 19- Watchdog Dads- Ice Cream Party and Game Night

• April 21- Bike/Walk to school day
• April 22- School Holiday

Foux's Footprints

2011-04-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!

Newsletter for the Week of April 4-8, 2011

TAKS
Please remember that Monday and Tuesday the upper grades will be taking the TAKS test. Parent volunteers and visitors are not permitted on campus during the school day. Thank you for your understanding!

READING
We finished our research projects on Piranhas and presented on Friday. Using the information and knowledge we've collected, the class checked their original goals, thought of additional questions, corrected any misconceptions and presented what they learned.

Next week, we will integrate social studies into our reading and start a new research project! Each class has selected a specific culture to study. Our class will learn about Egyptian culture. We will immerse ourselves in how they lived, responsibilities of children, entertainment, food, medicine and health, belief system, clothing, education, housing and hunting. Egypt is known for their unique art and we will research their different mediums and discuss what was considered beautiful in the past and compare it to present day. We will go through steps 1-3 by finding out our background knowledge, general and specific questions we want answers to and diving into our resources and note taking about each topic.

WRITING
Our Giraffe Award nominations are in! Our class nominated top notch people in their lives. It was very touching to read the stories about the family members, friends and volunteers that our class thought of through our discussions of who sticks their necks out in our community.

This week, we will have pizza! We will learn a strategy we refer to as pizza planning. The students will be given a very general prompt (i.e. a time when you were happy, my favorite school day, the first time I ___, etc.) We will fill out an organizer that is in the shape of a pizza - each slice has a different moment relating to the general topic. The students will select one slice they will enjoy writing about the most. The magic word is volunteer. From there they will select their toppings (specific events/moments) and putting them in order on the pizza slice. Through this process, we will take a very general topic and narrow it down to one moment. We should have a completed story on Friday to present to the class.

SPELLING
Pattern: endings with -ed or -ing

Words:
batted, clapped, stopped, stepped, pinned, missed, running, getting, shopping, hugging, sitting, telling, jogging, flipped, wrapping, strapped, hummed, snapped, skipping, chopping

Challenge Words:
receiving, spied

MATH
This week, we will focus on the area of shapes/objects and introduce weight. We will have memorable, hands on activities to calculate and estimate the area of shapes. Some of the questions we will use: how many students will fit into rectangles on the floor? How many index cards will cover a textbook or what can fit in our dream home if we have the blueprint and area of the house?
We will introduce the terms ounce and pound as we discuss how we measure weight and use a balance. For an at home example an ounce is close to a slice of bread or an M&M and a pound is close to a loaf of bread or a textbook.

SCIENCE
We will continue our study of plants. Last week, we planted grass seeds. We will record our daily observations of the changes our seeds undergo as they transform into a living system. Our discussions will dig deep in the ground as we discuss dormancy, environmental factors, habitat, hibernation and adaptation. We will end our week with learning how seeds travel.

FIELD TRIP
Our field trip to the Austin Nature Center is this Friday, April 8th! Permission slips were sent home in Tuesday folders and were due on April 1st. Thank you to all the parent volunteers who will be our chaperons and to the generous support of the PTA.

UPCOMING EVENTS
• April 5- PTA Meeting and Third Grade Performance
• April 8- Second Grade Field Trip to the Austin Nature Center
• April 13- Family Night at California Pizza Kitchen
• April 14- Caraway Choir Performance
• April 19- Watchdog Dads- Ice Cream Party and Game Night
• April 22- School Holiday

Foux's Footprints

2011-04-02T12:05:00.000-07:00

Howdy! NEWS! NEWS!

Newsletter for the Week of March 28-April 1, 2011

Reading

We’re continuing our research unit using the Independent Investigation Method for Primary Students. Last week, we went through Steps 1, 2 and 3. We started with the broad topic of Animals of the Jungle and from there we narrowed down our interest to Piranhas. We set our goals and developed some great questions for us to research. Our focus in researching piranhas will be; animal interactions, animal babies, fun animal facts, and animal habitats.We are going to continue with step 3, research, and use several resources to gather information. We’ll then move on to step 4, organizing, in which we’ll summarize and organize information from multiple sources. Learning the importance of organizing information in systematic ways by listing them in categories will be a skill we will learn. Step 5, goal evaluation, is where we will check to see if the goals we made in step 2 were met. Using the information and knowledge we've compiled, the class will check on original goals, raise additional questions, and tell about experiences. Our final steps in our research process will be step 6, product, and step 7, presentation. Students will share their new knowledge by developing a product to visually complement their information and enhance their learning. Students will present their product to the each other in class and discuss all of the new information they’ve learned throughout the IIM research process. During these last nine weeks, students will have the opportunity to go through the IIM research process individually.

Writing

We're beginning an exciting writing assignment this week. We're introducing the Giraffe Hero Project. The theme is sticking your neck out for the good of the community. We'll discuss heroes in the community (teachers, principals, parents, family, friends, etc.). Who would you nominate for the Giraffe Award and why? Some of the wonderful books we will read during this week's writing lessons are Dex: The Heart of a Hero, Miss Birdie Chose a Shovel, and When Pigs Fly.

Spelling: Science and Math Vocabulary

Science, system, plants, leaves, roots, stems, flowers, seeds, explore, observe, math, length, width, height, inch, foot, yard, add, subtract, equal

Challenge Words: estimate, conclusion

Math

We will revisit the study of measurement, focusing on nonstandard and standard measurements. The magic word is measurement. We’ll be learning about length this week and we have some exciting lessons. We’ll discuss what tools we could use to measure things if we didn’t have a ruler. Could you use our hand or foot? We will measure a things in classroom using our feet and discuss the difference between using our foot or a ruler. Students will explore length by measuring their height and heads and compare among their classmates. We'll read a fun story calledThe Kings Foot. Making inchworm rulers will be fun as we measure and estimate objects around the room and problem solve. At the end of the week, we will have measurement stations and rotate to learn a variety of problem solving with measuring length.

Science

This week we are starting our new unit on plants. We will discuss how plants are part of a natural system, how they grow, and the functions of a plant. If you would like to bring seeds to share during our seed exploration lesson, please bring them by Tuesday. We can't wait to use magnifying glasses to observe the differences in the various seeds that our class brings in! For our hands on experiment, we will plant our own grass seeds and watch them grow. We'll also read some non-fiction books about plants and learn some fun songs to help students remember the parts and functions of a plant.

Field Trip

Our field trip to the Austin Nature Center is going to be Friday, April 8^th. A permission slip will be going home in the Tuesday folder. Please look for it, sign it and return by Friday, April 1^st. Thanks to the generous support of the PTA, this field trip will be paid for through curriculum enrichment funds.

Upcoming Events

• March 31- Family Science Night
• April 5- PTA Meeting and Third Grade Performance
• April 8- Second Grade Field Trip to the Austin Nature Center
• April 13- Family Night at Catfish Parlour
• April 14- Caraway Choir Performance
• April 19- Watchdog Dads- Ice Cream Party andGame Night
• April 22- Good Friday- No School

Foux's Footprints

2011-03-11T08:59:00.000-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of March 21-25, 2011

Thank you from Mrs. Conti
Hi Caraway Families, We have a new art show in our Caraway Gallery. Come by, admire the work, and visit! Many thanks to ALL the Art Angel's who reframed!!!!

Reading
Research is an important skill students will use throughout school. This week, we will begin learning a research method called “IIM”, which is the independent investigation method for primary students. It breaks down the research process into steps that are easy for students to understand. We will begin with Steps 1-3 this week, which include picking a topic, goal setting, and research. Step 1: Topic, will show students how to begin with a broad subject and teach how to narrow it down into a manageable one. Step 2: Goal Setting, will help students find specific questions that they can research. We will develop questions about the topic to direct the research and formulate different types of questions. Finally, Step 3: Research, will expose students to the variety of resources that can be used to gather information. We will begin with the broad topic of animals, narrow it down and research whole class for the next two weeks.

Writing
This week students will be writing and making a commercial for a product. We’ll discuss the purpose of commercials and advertisements. We'll learn how they make people want to go to their business and buy their products. When planning our commercials, we’ll discuss advertising strategies such as songs, mottos, opinion statements and factual statements. Students will video their commercials and present them to the class at the end of the week.

Spelling: Words that End with “er”
flower, water, under, over, better, sister, brother, mother, father, feather, wonder, danger, antler, chapter, fever, gather, zipper, center, another, boxer
Challenge Words: babysitter, computer

Math
We will continue our study of geometry by learning about three dimensional shapes. Students will become "shape detectives" who learn about the faces and edges of 3D shapes. We will review on Thursday and will assess on Friday.
Here are some fun geometry games that can be played at home:
http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-2-identify-planar-and-solid-shapes
Compare sides, vertices and edges:
http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-2-compare-sides-vertices-edges-faces
How many sides, vertices and edges:
http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-2-count-sides-vertices-edges-faces
3d vs. 2d
http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-2-identify-planar-and-solid-shapes

Social Studies
This week, we will continue our unit on economics. We have been learning a lot about goods and services; supply and demand; jobs and income; needs and wants. This week, we will learn about making a product to sell and will have a class store. Students will brainstorm a list of goods and services that the students could provide. We’ll discuss the importance of a store name and how advertising can help your business. The magic word is budget. Students will be asked to come up with an idea for a good or a service that they could market to a class of second graders. Students will make an advertisement, design a store front, and make their product in class. Nothing should need to be made at home; students will just need to bring the materials they will need. This will be discussed in class and students will make a list. Stay tuned for more details! An informational letter/permission slip will be sent home on Monday, March 21st.

Upcoming Events
March 14-18 Spring Break
March 28 Report cards go home
April 22 Spring holiday
May 6 Field Day

Shared Writing

2011-03-09T07:54:00.000-08:00

Shared Writing for the Myths and Legends story lesson. This story was modeled every day for about 15 minutes and we added a part each lesson. Altogether, this story took the class about four lessons to complete. They also spent time on their own legends and myths after the model lessons. They will be complete and displayed in the hallway by the end of the week. Students can also choose to act out their story on Friday.

The Legend of the Flip Flop by Mrs. Foux's Class

Long ago, in a factory far, far away from this galaxy……. in a land of closed toed shoes, there lived a little girl by the name of Sally Jo. She loved to stroll through town and the surrounding forest trails barefooted because she felt at home in the wild. The townspeople of Floppytown worked hard to make creative shoes for the hard working consumers. Their shoes were mainly track and tennis shoes and completely closed around the toes. Their rival village 20 miles down south called Flippytown also made shoes, but they specialized in mountain and work boots. The people of Flippytown and Floppytown both thought their shoes were the best quality.

One sunny and gorgeous morning, Sally Jo was meandering through her favorite trail when she suddenly stepped on a thorn from a nearby rosebush.

“OUCH! YELP!” screamed Sally Jo. “Maybe I do need to wear shoes when walking through the woods. It would be safer, but I love the feel of my feet being free and open. I wish there was a shoe that was made for me to feel like I was barefoot, but still protect my feet.”

She decides to go see the owner of the Floppytown Shoe Factory and asks her to make a shoe that feels open and safe. The shoemakers went straight to work trying to create the perfect fit for Sally Jo. When finished, she tried the shoe on. It felt nice and open, but the sole of the shoe was very uncomfortable. What to do!!!

Sally Jo goes to visit the owner of the Flippytown Shoe Factory and tells her dilemma. He sets his little elves to work and they make a shoe that feels really comfortable in the sole, but it’s not as free and open as the other shoe.

The next thing that happened was remembered in shoe history for all time. Sally Jo asked both owners of the shoe factories to have a meeting with her. She presented them with a plan. If they combined their shoes together, it would be the perfect shoe. The comfort and open feeling could be worn by customers, especially young people everywhere! They agreed to work together to build this inventive shoe.

Finally, it was done and the hard working shoemakers were sure they had the perfect creation. Now for the name……it was a battle! Neither shoe maker wanted the name to be the other’s town. They kept arguing about it being called a Flippy or a Floppy. Suddenly, Sally Jo had the answer to their problem.

“What if we call it a Flip Flop?” she asked.

At once, both owners loved it! They were satisfied with sharing the name and thought it would be good for advertising. The invention of the flip flop made such a big hit that the factories came together to begin designing more flip flops. The towns merged together and renamed it Flippity Floppity Town. To this day, unique and cool flip flops are worn all over the universe. That is the legend of the “Flip Flop”.

Foux's Footprints

2011-03-04T09:42:00.000-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of March 7-11, 2011

Reading
This week we will continue our unit on media literacy. We'll be looking at persuasive media in commercials and how commercials often give opinions in order to persuade people to buy their product. We'll discuss fact and opinion and be exposed to examples of each through media. Through group discussion we'll learn how commercials are written to convince the audience of something by giving their opinions to persuade people. The book Arthur’s TV Trouble will give us ideas of how a commercial can affect someone. We'll talk about the purpose of the commercial and how it works. By watching commercials of kid friendly companies, we will see how certain ideas are written with facts and opinions to persuade the consumer to endorse their product. Media literacy includes emails and we will read a humorous children’s book titled Emails from the Teacher. We’ll discuss how emails allow you to share information. I’ll talk about how I use email at work to communicate with parents and other teachers or principal. We will even get to email a company as a class about their product and ask questions.

Writing
We will continue writing our own myths or legends this week. Last week, we brainstormed a list of myth/legend topics and began a plan for the story. We completed our graphic organizer with ideas of characters, setting, problem, events, solution and conclusion. This week, we will begin with a rough draft and take the stories through the entire writing process with revising/editing and publishing. Students will illustrate their story with a fun myth website or may choose to illustrate on paper. It’s been wonderful to see the students use a vivid imagination with their story ideas and I can’t wait to see the final product. At the end of the week, we will have an author share time and celebrate their creative writing. Students will have a chance to act out their stories with expression and costumes. This can be done in class with my materials or at home. This is not mandatory; however students who do want to act out their myth or legend need to be prepared to share on Friday, March 11.

Spelling: Vowel Sound + r
fort, anymore, before, born, horn, forty, store, morning, more, story, corn, organ, yourself, sore, report, quarter, corner, horse, order, shorter
Challenge Words: afford, information

Math
We start our geometry unit this week. We will learn about plane shapes (2D) including circle, square, triangle, rectangle, and various polygons. There are some fun activities that go along with this unit such as making new shapes using pattern blocks and working with play-doh to build three-dimensional figures. We will introduce new vocabulary such as parallelogram, polygon, trapezoid, rhombus, pentagon, hexagon, and octagon. The magic word is square. We will draw shapes and label the sides, vertices/edges, faces, and base. We’ll read a book titled Grandfather Tang and using tangrams, students will make a picture. Three dimensional shapes will begin this week and continue into next. This is a game students can play at home for Geometry:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/numeracy/shapes/fs.shtml

Social Studies
We start our Social Studies unit on economics this week. We will discuss topics such as: wants/needs, consumers/producers, factories, assembly lines, flowcharts, money, jobs and income. We’ll discuss goods and services and make a list of goods and services in our community. Learning about goods from near and far will be interesting as we see where different products come from and how they are delivered. Students will have a Tuesday (3/8) homework assignment to bring an item from home that was made in another country. A note will go home today in the Tuesday folders. We will continue this unit for a few weeks.

A Note from Mrs. Conti
Art Framers NEEDED!! Please join us at KCE's Science lab on Tuesday, March 8th starting 10 am to install the new year's ART SHOW. For information contact Elizabeth Conti at elizabeth_conti@roundrockisd.org or Ange Eaton at eaton.ange@att.net
Thanks for your support!

Upcoming Events
March 5 Family Dinner Night: There are some great raffle and auction items, including a movie with the second grade teachers to see Rango, win a chance to cut Mrs. Foux's hair, and win a reptile birthday party with Mr. Foux's Reptile Show!
March 8 Auction Movie with Second Grade teachers
March 10 Skate Night
March 14-18 Spring Break

Foux's Footprints

2011-02-25T12:29:00.000-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of February 28-March 4, 2011

Reading
We begin a new unit this week with media literacy. The focus is on what the media’s purpose is and how the image or message is affected by sound and graphics. Students will discuss what they know about media literacy. We will learn that media is the way that news, information, and advertising is shared quickly with large groups of people. Students will be introduced to the types of media such as commercials, TV news, websites, email, text messages, video games, movies and TV shows. We’ll discuss that the purpose is to inform, entertain, and persuade to buy or act a certain way. Throughout the week we will look at examples of media literacy and decide what the purpose is for and how the sound and graphics affects the message. In honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday this week, we will see how his work is expressed through media literacy. Students will compare the media literacy we look at to the regular literature with Dr. Seuss books. If your child has a favorite Dr. Seuss book they would like to bring to share this week that would be great! We will be reading them all week. Please make sure your child’s name is in the book.

Writing
Our week in writing is going to begin with a fun time with our reading buddies. We will get together with our 4th grade reading buddies so they can share their awesome writing they have done during their writing camp last week. The magic word is probability. It will give the second graders a chance to see how their writing improves with each grade. Second graders will write encouragement cards/letters to share with their buddies because the fourth grade TAKS WRITING test will be Tuesday.

The rest of the week we will be writing our own myths or legends. We will brainstorm a list of myth/legend topics and begin a plan for the story. Using the elements of good story writing we will decide who will be the main characters, the setting, problem and solution. Students will illustrate their story with a fun myth website or may choose to illustrate on paper. This will be a super way for the students to really use their imagination.

Spelling: The Vowel +r Sound
carport, started, army, farther, part, barnyard, harder, party, farmer, large, carpet, darkness, parking, march, smart, target, gardener, apartment, charcoal, cartwheel
Challenge Words: boulevard, preferred

Math
What are the chances of students learning probability this week? Answer: pretty good! We will begin learning about probability and do several engaging activities that challenge our problem solving skills. The vocabulary terms we will learn are predict, more likely, less likely and equally likely. We will use spinners, coins, colored cubes in bags and other fun games to predict outcomes and learn the concepts of probability.
Donation- We would like to do a probability game using M&Ms too. If you would like to donate a bag of M&Ms to the class, please let me know. We would use the on Friday and it would be greatly appreciated.

Social Studies
In Social Studies this week, we will continue to learn about historical figures and what makes them memorable citizens. The people we will learn about are Florence Nightingale, Sojourner Truth, Thurgood Marshall, and Henrietta King. We will discuss what a contributor is and compare some of the people we have studied. Students will choose one of the good citizens we have learned about and research them in the computer lab. We will discuss how to take notes when researching a topic. In class, we will make a paper doll adding cloth, hair, clothes, beads, etc. that resemble the citizen they chose.
If any parents can donate some materials for this project such as cloth scraps, googly eyes, yarn, etc. it would be appreciated. Just send them with your child by Wednesday, 3/2. Students will present their research to the class along with their doll.

Upcoming Events
March 1: 4th grade TAKS writing test. Due to TEA restrictions, no visitors or volunteers are allowed. This also pertains to parents wanting to eat lunch with their children.

Mar. 2: Picture day and Six Flags minutes are due.

March 3: Update on State's Budget Meeting at 7p.m. at CVMS

Mar. 5: Family Dinner Night. Come win a raffle prize with the Second Grade teachers! You can also look for the raffle prize for a chance to cut Mrs. Foux's hair for a good cause!

Mar. 8: Auction movie with the second grade kids who win the raffle prize. Look for that raffle prize at Family Dinner Night.

Foux's Footprints

2011-02-18T12:13:00.000-08:00

Howdy! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of February 21-25

Valentines Thank You!
The Valentine's Party was a huge success! The kids had a great time and they were so polite to everyone. This really is a super group of kids! Thank you to Cindy Hatton and Dhanashri Kondra who helped organize the fun. I also enjoyed reading all my valentines so thanks to my kiddos for the sweets and cards!

Reading
In reading this week we are continuing our study of genres. We will be focusing on myths, legends and folktales. Students will discuss with peers the meaning, problem, solution, setting and main story points. The books we will be reading this week are The Boy Who Lived with Bears, Spider Spins a Story, Coyote Makes Man, Ananse and the Lizard, and Raven the Trickster. At the end of our week, students will get to choose to make up a folktale to “pass on” to future generations or write their own myths. Students can also pick two stories from the week and compare them in their journals. A creative website that we will be using in class for writing a myth would be a fun resource at home as well. Check it out:
http://myths.e2bn.org/index.php

Writing
Writing this week is going to be so much fun as we continue with persuasive reviews. Last week, students began learning how to write a persuasive review and what makes them interesting. We read and watched several examples in class. This week, students will choose a topic to write a persuasive review on a book, restaurant or movie. They will complete a graphic organizer with their reasons and opinions for their review. Using the writing process, students will work on writing their own persuasive reviews. Students will get to record their review for all of the class to enjoy. This will be a great way to incorporate fluency and expression through their own personal pieces. We will share the final reviews with parents when they are done. I can’t wait to see their writing in action!

Spelling
Compound Words
bathtub, bedtime, myself, someone, maybe, playground, nobody, anyone, without, cannot, outdoors, pancake, classroom, ladybug, doorbell, sweatshirt, homework, airplane, handstand, shoelace
Challenge Words: nightmare, briefcase

Math
This week, we will continue to learn about two-digit subtraction with regrouping. PLEASE continue to practice at home with your child. Problem solving will be the focus this week with challenging word problems and two-step problems. We will review on Thursday and will assess on Friday. The test will cover two digit subtraction (with regrouping) and two digit addition (with regrouping). The main struggle I am seeing is kids not showing the re-grouping process with new numbers above the old ones (tens and ones), then subtracting incorrectly. You can make up problems and have them work them out and show their work. Here are some websites that you can use at home. One is a video with the process if you would like to watch with your child to see how we teach this concept.

How do you regroup video.
http://www.mathplayground.com/howto_regroupI.html

Single digit sub.
http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/SumSense/sumsub.html

Subtract with regroup
http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-2-subtract-two-two-digit-numbers-with-regrouping

http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-2-subtraction-two-digits-input-output-tables

http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-2-subtraction-two-digits-write-sentences

Social Studies
We are beginning our unit on good citizenship in our communities and historical figures who were good citizens. The magic word is citizen. We’ll begin our week discussing school rules, rights and responsibilities. Students will discuss how this is important in our community. The historical figures we will be learning about this week are Henrietta King, Thurgood Marshall, Amelia Earhart, Robert Fulton, Florence Nightingale, Paul Revere, and Sojourner Truth. As we read about these people, we’ll discuss how they were contributors or inventors, how they were good citizens and what character traits they have to make them special. As a class, we will think of ways we show good citizenship in other places besides school such as at home, in the environment, and with people. Students will write what they can do to be a good citizen in each area.

Upcoming Events
February 21- School Day (bad weather make-up day)
March 3- Update on State's Budget 7p.m. at CVMS

Foux's Footprints

2011-02-11T09:48:00.000-08:00

Howdy! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of February 14-18, 2011

Reading
In reading, we will continue our study of genres. Our focus is on Tall Tales and their characteristics. Students will read Tall Tale books and pick out what the problem and solution is and point out exaggerations. Some of the Tall Tales we’ll be reading are Paul Bunyan, Mike Fink, Pecos Bill, and Johnny Appleseed.

Writing
This week in writing we are beginning our unit on persuasive writing. To begin our week, we will engage in a persuasive conversation in which the students can formulate an opinion, ex: food in the cafeteria, television shows, recess time, no homework. Students will be asked “Why?” when they state an opinion and will express their reasons. Students will be exposed to a variety of “real” reviews of movies, books, and restaurants. We’ll discuss qualities of writing that make a review interesting. By the end of the week, students will begin writing a review of a restaurant, movie or book. As a class, we will discuss how to write a review. What questions do we need to ask ourselves when thinking about our audience? Who would read your review? How will you persuade them to believe you? How will you convince them? Each student will brainstorm and organize their ideas and begin their writing the following week.

Spelling: “ou/ow” sound
down, gown, now, crowded, brown, couch, cloud, found, mouse, could, should, townhouse, sour, tower, flower, power, around, meow, towel, snowplow
Challenge Words: drought, account

Math
We begin 2-digit subtraction with regrouping this week. We did really well with the 2-digit addition last week. We will play games and work on word problems that involve regrouping. We will regroup with ones and tens and use models to help understand the skill. The magic word is valentine. Any additional help at home would be great.
These are some websites students can use to practice math this week:
Single digit sub.
http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/SumSense/sumsub.html

Subtract with regroup
http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-2-subtract-two-two-digit-numbers-with-regrouping

http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-2-subtraction-two-digits-input-output-tables

http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-2-subtraction-two-digits-write-sentences

Science
We are beginning our unit on “Objects in the Sky”. We’ll discuss what makes day and night. An fun experiment will be when we use a flashlight to see how shadows are made. We’ll learn how the sun is a star and how it gives energy to Earth. Students will list the other properties of the sun in their science notebooks. We will also read about the “Phases of the Moon” and discuss how to tell them apart. Discussing stars, constellations, and the night sky will be out of this world as we create an original constellation then draw in lines to connect the stars. At the end of the week, an assessment will be given.

VALENTINE'S STATION VOLUNTEERS
Thank you to those that have volunteered to help or donate items for our Valentine's Stations on Monday, Feb. 14th from 8-8:45. We are going to have so much fun problem solving!

Upcoming Events
February 18 Jump rope for heart day
February 18 International Family Festival 5:30-8
March 5 Family Dinner Night

Foux's Footprints

2011-02-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

Howdy! NEWS! NEWS!

Newsletter for the Week of February 7-11, 2011

Reading

In reading over the next few weeks, we will be learning about several genres in literature. Students will be looking for text features that help identify the genre of certain books in literature. Students will look through our class library to see what variety of genres we have in our classroom. We'll begin this week with discussing the differences between non-fiction and fiction. We'll then move into learning about different genres and decide where they belong, fiction or non-fiction, based on their characteristics. The genres we will be studying are mystery, science fiction, poetry, biography, informational, fantasy, historical fiction and fables. Making connections across some of the books we read will be a reading strategy we focus on throughout this unit.

Writing

In writing, we are going to participate in the Caraway Cares campaign. Students will write letters to soldiers or letters to children at Dell Children’s Hospital to encourage them and show compassion for others.

Students will also write about an important personal experience that includes a beginning, middle, and end. By reading wonderfully written children books, we will use them as inspiration for writing a story about a time they were caring. The books we will be reading are titled

Edwardo : the Horriblest Boy in the Whole Wide World, The Dog Who Had Kittens, Igor : the bird who couldn't sing, Amos & Boris and A Chair for My Mother.

Spelling

Homophones

plane, plain, tail, tale, rode, road, hole, whole, deer, dear, by, buy, hour, our, week, weak, pale, pail, blue, blew

CHALLENGE: there, their, they’re

Math

Put on your thinking caps because we are beginning 2-digit addition again, but this time, it’s regrouping! We’ll begin by adding two digits with one digit number problems and review with ones and tens blocks. Then we’ll learn some easy to remember strategies for adding 2-digit plus 2-digit problems. Playing games will help us learn and have fun as we problem solve throughout the week.

Science

Science will be a splash as we continue learning about “The Water Cycle”. We’ll sing the songs to remember the order of the cycle and the meanings of the vocabulary words. The magic word is evaporation. We’ll read several non-fiction stories about water and the way it moves throughout the week. We’ll discuss water vapor and the process of how it happens. At the end of the week, we will review the sequence of the water cycle and assess on Friday.

VALENTINE'S STATION VOLUNTEERS
Please let me know if you would like to volunteer to help or donate items for our Valentine's Stations on Monday, Feb. 14th from 8-8:45. We are going to have so much fun problem solving!

VALENTINE'S DAY BOXES
Boxes are due on Wednesday, 2/09. Be creative . . .use your imagination!
VALENTINE'S DAY CARDS
Be sure to make a card for each child in the class. The class list is on last week's blog entry.
VALENTINE'S DAY PARTY
Our party will be on Friday, Feb. 11th, from 1:45-2:45. Due to limited space and supplies, please make arrangements for younger siblings. We want this to be a special time for your second grader.

Shared Writing for our Outlaw Story

2011-02-03T09:13:00.000-08:00

Wanted: Firebrand Foux

Wanted, Firebrand Foux is wanted for committing disrespectful crimes all over Central Texas! She has been skipping school, talking during class and chewing gum in her teachers faces. What a gross sight!

Since these terrible crimes have been committed, Sheriff Dave is on the lookout for this “rebel rose.” Sherriff Dave doesn’t want to have to punish Foux, but she has to be made an example of. He will let the punishment fit the crime and force her to go to nice school and get a firm talking to with a daily visit to the principal’s office. It’s possible if she continues these outrageous crimes, expulsion and Saloon Jail will be her next stop. Since Firebrand Foux is being chased, a reward of ONE GRAND will be offered to the brave citizen who can find her first.

Firebrand Foux was last seen singing off key and mighty loud in a one room schoolhouse on Nameless Road. Her horse, Bullseye, was tied to a wooden post next to the Nameless Schoolhouse. When told she needed to sign up for singing lessons, she ran out the door and hasn’t been seen since.

Calling all townspeople! Be on the lookout for a girl with a long brown mane of hair, wearing a hot pink cowgirl hat and a shiny, silver, fur boa. She carries a snake as her sidekick who answers to the name of Bowie. We need to catch this rebellious youngster and put a stop to this madness! Good luck finding Firebrand Foux.

Foux's Footprints

2011-01-28T12:16:00.000-08:00

Howdy! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of January 31-February 4

Reading
Reading is going to be wonderful this week as we celebrate one of my favorite poets Shel Silverstein. Students will read several of his famous poems and discuss how a poet’s choice of words can affect the meaning of the poems. As we read poems throughout the week, students will be asked to listen to the poems more than once in search of sensory language. Students will discuss all the sensory language and how it makes pictures in their minds. Comparing poems, we’ll discuss similarities and differences between them and what makes each poem special.

Writing
Our Outlaw Stories are almost complete and we will share and celebrate each other as authors at the beginning of the week.
Poetry is still our focus as we write short poems that convey sensory details and language. We are going to use our taste and smell senses to write a super descriptive poem about an apple, so get ready to bite into poetry! Using our hearing, smelling and tasting senses, we’ll pop into some popcorn poetry with adjectives and write Popcorn Sensory poems. Lastly, we’ll discuss emotions. Brainstorming a list of emotions, we’ll discuss what those emotions look, sound and feel like. Sensory Emotion poems will be our final writing pieces of the week and we will share all of our poems and celebrate each other as poets.

Spelling: Synonyms
sack, bag, tally, count, number, digit, small, little, angry, mad, sleep, snooze, happy, glad, messy, dirty, sleepy, tired, neat, tidy
Challenge Words: festival, celebration

Math
Our unit on Fractions will continue this week. We’ll play games and discuss problem solving with fractions. Making a fruit salad recipe in class will be an activity that can be used in real life. Anytime fractions can be used in cooking with your child will be helpful with this skill. A review will be done in class on Thursday and an assessment will be given on Friday.

Science
This week, we will begin our study of water. We’ll identify and compare the properties of the natural sources of freshwater and saltwater. We’ll discuss what could live in each type of water. The water cycle will be exciting to learn as we sing our way into the new vocabulary to help us remember. We’ll learn the meanings for the words evaporation, condensation, and precipitation to the tune of “She’ll Be Coming around the Mountain.” An experiment called the “rain maker” will help our observation skills later in the week. The magic word is numerator. We will make predictions, observations and conclusions in our science notebooks. We’ll discuss how scientists make drawings and descriptions in their journals to document and capture what is happening.

Upcoming Events
Tuesday, 2/1 PTA Meeting/First Grade Program
Wednesday, 2/9 Early Release Day
Thursday, 2/10 Skate Night
Friday, 2/11 Valentine’s Parties
Monday, 2/14 Valentine’s Day Team Building Stations (more info to come)

Valentines Party
Our party will be Friday, Feb. 11 from 1:45-2:45. Cindy Hatton (Ryan’s mom) and Dhanasrhi Kondra (Riddhi’s mom) will be sending out a letter with the requested items needed. If you would like to help please let them know.

VALENTINE'S CARDS/BOXES
You will find a list of students posted on the blog. When preparing Valentine's cards, please make a card for EACH student in the class. Please do not leave anyone off the list.

Valentine's Day Mailbox:

Due February 9th

Our Valentine mailboxes will be an at-home project and can be made from any container that will stand upright and hold about 20 - 30 valentine cards. It shouldn't be any larger than a shoe box or about a 12 inch cube. They can be made from shoe boxes covered with bulletin board paper/comics, decorated white lunch bags, or even covered cereal boxes or spray painted coffee cans. You shouldn't need to purchase any supplies for this project. Just remind your children to put their name on it clearly so we can see it! We will have a mailbox contest and every child will get an award for things such as: most colorful, most creative, most unusual shape, most original, etc. We will give out the awards at the party!Here are some examples: http://www.pekin.net/pekin108/jeff/archive/2004/valentines/index.htm

Class List for Valentine's Party

2011-01-26T16:07:00.001-08:00

Nikitha Addanki
Vania Aguilar
Ellie Brandes
Margaret Bridges
Ben Coates
Lauren Hammer
Aryn Harper
Marcellus Harper
Ryan Hatton
Ashley Howell
Riddhi Jakkal
Brodie Maltrud
Jae Yeon Park
Cooper Price
Sara Sagues
Preston Shropshire
Shi Bo Wang
Frankie Zeller

Foux's Footprints

2011-01-21T12:57:00.000-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the week of January 24-28

Reading
This week, students will become more confident in their own preferences of various authors and their use of sensory language in poetry. An introduction to various authors creates a love of reading and we want students to be exposed to many great writers. We’ll have conversations with one another in which we will read several poems and visualize them in our mind. Inferences and drawing conclusions will also be a focus this week. By reading poems, we’ll see what we can conclude about who wrote the poem, how the author was feeling and what you think the author was trying to say. Using adjectives, we’ll learn about synonyms and antonyms, describe objects and use them in writing our own poems.

Writing
Writing is going to be a blast as we will work on an "Outlaw" writing assignment. Students will become "outlaws" who are "wanted" for a specific crime. We will brainstorm “silly” crimes such as not making the bed, spilling milk on the breakfast table, hiding stuffed animals from siblings, not having sharpened pencils, or forgetting homework. We’ll make up our own “outlaw” names like “Mischievous Ms. Chima” and “Firebrand Foux”. Students will use the writing process to formulate a “Wanted” story and poster about themselves.

Spelling
Synonyms and Antonyms
freezing, burning, remember, forgot, friend, enemy, easy, difficult, fast, slow, huge, tiny, noisy, quiet, sink, float, bottom, top, soft, hard
Challenge Words: delicious, disgusting

Math
This week, we will begin our unit on Fractions. In this unit, students will be expected to identify fractions up to 1/12. We will do several fun activities this week, including an M&M fractions lesson and a Fraction Bingo game. Problem solving with word problems will be a daily focus so kids will need to put on their thinking caps! Vocabulary words that will be introduced are numerator and denominator. We'll definitely be having fun while learning about fractions!

Science
This is the perfect time of the year to begin our unit on Weather and Seasons. We will learn about seasons, reading a weather map, and keeping a temperature log. The magic word is thermometer. We’ll read weather books and discuss types of weather including rain, sun, cloudy and windy. A fun in class project will be making weather mobiles. With our "crazy" Austin weather, we'll have plenty to learn about! Students will have a Weather and Seasons Assessment at the end of the week.

READING CALENDARS
All children should be reading a minimum of 400 minutes each month. These minutes at home are directly connected to their improvement in reading---in accuracy, comprehension, and fluency. Students can be responsible for their own calendars and write their minutes down with parents’ permission. Please make every effort to read with your child at home. It not only improves their reading level, it can create lasting memories and a love of reading for your child.

Upcoming Events
1/25 Science Fair

Small Moments Shared Writing

2011-01-21T12:10:00.000-08:00

Nature's Alarm Clock
By Mrs. Foux's Class

The gusty wind sent a chill through our little two man tent as we awoke that frigid December morning. Our alarm clock was the tap, tap, tapping of a creature outside our cozy bed. Curiosity got the better of Mr. Mike's warmness and he unzipped the screen door and peeked to see what had woken us up and behold, a tiny woodpecker had taken residence in the tree near our tent. Instead of getting out we flipped on our bellies and propped ourselves up to watch our own real life nature channel. The show went on for about an hour as our little friend flew from branch to branch pecking the bark and feasting on juicy bugs. Glistening across the lake, the rising sun let us know it was time to start our beautiful day.

Our "Worst Day" Story Shared Writing

2011-01-21T06:25:00.000-08:00

The Day That Would Never End!
By Mrs. Foux’s Class

I woke up with butterflies in my stomach with the excitement of the day ahead. We were going to Inks Lake for an exciting overnight trip with my friend Stephanie. We were supposed to meet her at 10am at the campgrounds. To my surprise, I turned over in my bed to look at the clock and it was 9:30am! AAHH! There’s no way we will make it there on time. It is an hour away and we haven’t even packed up the car. I hope this is not a prediction of the day’s events to unfold.

Quickly, we packed the car and stepped on the gas. Flying down the highway, we called Stephanie to let her know we were running late.

“We’ll be there as soon as we can!” I said.

“No problem, just drive safely,” said Steph.

After about an hour, we arrived at the state park, unpacked the car and set up our tent. The lake was so beautiful and we had a front row seat. The day was getting brighter. But then, we got in the car, ready to move onto our next destination, food! Our favorite barbeque restaurant, Coopers, awaited us. Mike turned the key and nothing, the car wouldn’t budge. What happened?
“I think the battery is dead” said Mike.

“This stinks!” I replied. “What do we do now?”

Luckily a fellow camper was nearby and gave our car a jump, and voila! The engine was purring again, ready to move on. We went to eat and had a fabulous meal and amusing conversation.

Our next activity was a holiday tour at Longhorn Cavern with awesome caroling songs. We arrived at dusk, and were so thrilled about going in the cave at night. Our tour guide led us down into the cave singing “Jingle Bells”. Oh what fun! The choir sang a lovely concert with all of my favorite Christmas tunes. Afterwards, we ascended back to the surface for hot cocoa and cookies. Even Santa made an appearance! We walked back to our car, ready to go to the campsite and snuggle by a roaring fire, when, uh-oh! The car windows had somehow rolled down and we didn’t know it had happened.

“What in the world happened?” I asked. “Did you know the windows rolled down?”

Mike said in shock, “I had no idea! It must’ve been when I was getting our jackets and turned the car back on.”

“They won’t go back up because they are frozen!” said Stephanie. “We’re going to have to drive with them down until the car warms up.”

Soaring down the road, our frozen pupils could barely stay open as the freezing cold wind blew through the open window. Little icicles hung from our eye lashes. Safely back at the camp, we hovered over the blazing fire and laughed about the whole day.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, the next morning, a dark cloud still loomed over me. As the sun rose over the shining lake, a family of ducks came to visit our campsite. The excitement from their arrival got the better of me. I went to give them some of my powdered donuts and instead I tripped on the picnic table and fell face first into the concrete slab. BAM! OUCH! Tears fell like a raging river and I could barely keep control. Mike and Stephanie raced to my rescue with ice and tissues.

“Should we go to the hospital? Do you think you broke something?” asked Mike.

Through the tears, I cried, “No, I can still move my arm, it just truly hurts.”

“I think it’s time to call this weekend, DONE!” exclaimed Stephanie.

“I agree! Let’s get out of here!” I shouted out.

Packing up the car, I thought this would make a hilarious movie. I don’t know if I’d want to play the main character again! As we rumbled down the road, I kept thinking of my comfy couch and warm bed. Roughing it is fun for a while, but then, it’s time to get back to the comforts of home.

Foux's Footprints

2011-01-14T11:53:00.000-08:00

Howdy! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of January 18-21, 2011

WRITING
The big question to be answered this week is “how to end a story?” Students will read endings of stories and see how every great beginning also needs a superior ending. As a class, we will focus on how to write an ending paragraph with details and clarity. Working in partners, students will have a writing partner to go over ideas and then write their own ending paragraphs to their “Worst Day” story. We will revise, add dialogue, fancy-up and publish our final stories.

READING
In reading, we are going to review sensory language and poetry. We’ll discuss words an author uses to help the reader experience the sense elements of the story. Sensory words are descriptions of the five senses: sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. Authors write poems and stories to create images in our mind, so we will focus on rereading to help create a mental picture.

SPELLING
Vowel Sounds in moon and book:
spoon, booth, scoop, moose, broom, school, who, crooked, hoof, shook, flood, balloon, cartoon, choose, footprint, bookshelf, cookbook, rookie, rooster, good
CHALLENGE WORDS: mongoose, cockatoo

MATH
This week in math we will begin telling time. We’ll review the hour and half hour, then move onto quarter and 5 minute increments. We’ll have problem solving with time and focus on strategies to help students read analog clocks with ease. Please practice reading clocks at home and make sure your child is not solely using a digital clock to tell time. Pick random times of the day to ask them the time. On Friday, we will assess on both money and time.

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week in Social Studies, we are going to research the life and make a timeline of Martin Luther King, Jr. We’ll discuss the importance of each of our lives and how the things we do now can affect our future. The magic word is clock. We’ll also study the timeline of the inventions of clocks and how they have changed. On Friday, we will have an assessment on “thinking like a historian: timelines and chronological order “.

REMINDERS
Library is on Friday
Monday, 1/17 is a holiday. No school!
Science Fair 1/25
PTA meeting 2/1 at 7:00pm

Foux's Footprints

2011-01-07T13:24:00.000-08:00

Howdy! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the week of January 10-14, 2011

WRITING
This week in writing we’ll be learning about “Snapshot Leads”. This is a lead that throws you right into the story. We’ll use our independent reading books to get ideas of how a great story begins. We will read the story Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and use the book to create our own funny worst day story. Students will make a list of events that could have or did happen on their worst day. The story will include details and sensory language.

In grammar, we’ll be learning about prefixes and root words. We’ll discuss that a root word is a word you can change into a new word by adding a beginning. Students will make a prefix tree for several prefixes to help them understand what certain prefixes mean and how they can be used in our writing.

READING
This week, we’ll continue learning the elements of drama. We’ll read the famous Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and act out the book using expression and creativity. We will have several groups practicing the play and present in front of the class. Students will discuss and compare how some groups may have performed it differently. Students will become script writers as well and pick short nursery rhyme to turn into a play. They will make up dialogue and work in groups to perform their own version of their plays.

SPELLING
Pattern: long o sound
tomato, piano, rowboat, though, dough, broke, choke, toad, wrote, stone, yellow, coach, soap, goat, throw, below, know, glow, coast, slow
Challenge Words: kangaroo, envelope

MATH
We’re continuing our unit on money this week. Students will work on finding the total value of coins up to $1.00. We’ll review strategies on how to count coins by starting with the largest amount and counting up. The magic word is nickel. Games with combination of coins will be fun and help strengthen this skill. Counting money is a skill that can be practiced at home too. Please give your child change to count and practice with to help reinforce their skills. Other skills to practice at home that are being introduced are: different ways to make the same amount, making change and real life problem solving with money.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We’re going to have the time of our lives in Social Studies as we learn about timelines and measuring time. Learning and discussing many different timelines will be the focus as we concentrate on the order of events that have happened. We’ll see how historians use research tools like the internet to gather data to make timelines. Timelines that will be discussing this week are: holidays of the year, coolest inventions of 2010, and our own personal timelines including dates, information and pictures. There will be a homework assignment going home in the Tuesday folder that will be due on Thursday. Students will complete in class and share.

REMINDERS
Skate Night is Thursday, 1/13.
Library day is on Friday.

"Monday Folders" will start going home on Tuesdays for the rest of the year. This is a school-wide decision.

Monday, 1/17 is a holiday. No school!

Foux's Footprints

2011-01-03T16:57:00.000-08:00

Howdy! NEWS! NEWS!

Newsletter for the Week of January 4-7

READING
Calling all actors! We will be identifying the elements of drama this week. We will be working on a few reader's theater plays during guided reading and will also be viewing plays to learn what elements are needed to make a play. The magic word is drama. We will continue with Daily 5 working on "voracious reading" and other reading strategies to update our class Daily 5 strategies board.

I will be testing all students this week on the Texas Primary Reading Inventory. This is the assessment we did at the beginning of the year. It will be assessing the comprehension, fluency and accuracy. Results will be given at the end of January.

WRITING
We are going to work on writing a "small moment" that happened over the holidays. We will write a beginning, middle, and end. We'll also review the revising and editing skills we have learned so far this year.

SPELLING
Pattern: long i

Words: spying, July, tryout, dryer, find, kindness, night, higher, lightning, flight, eyeball, buy, wild, mind, tiny, behind, nightmare, siren, tightrope, firefly
Challenge Words:, icicle, island

MATH
We will continue working with money this week. We will review and practice skills counting up to $1.00. We will also work on making the same amount with different combinations of coins (penny, nickel, dime, quarter, and half-dollar). This is a skill that can be easily practiced at home or while out shopping. Math homework will be due on Wednesday. The beginning of the week we are going to review 2nd grade math skills learned up to this point and have an assessment also.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We will discuss ways to conserve our natural resources and the importance of doing so. The concept of man-made and natural resources will also be introduced and discussed.

REMINDERS
School Resumes- January 4th

Library on Friday
"Monday Folders" will start going home on Tuesdays for the rest of the year. This is a school-wide decision.

Thank You Very Much!

2010-12-17T12:53:00.001-08:00

A Special Thank You

I would just like to say thank you to all of my students and parents for the wonderful gift cards to all my favorite places! It was truly a surprise and I was overwhelmed by your thoughtfulness and generosity. Mr. Foux and I are going to enjoy them together over the holidays. I have enjoyed all of my lovely gifts of my favorite beverages and snacks so much. We will be stocked for movie nights for a long time! You are all so giving and I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season filled with love and blessings. From my family to yours, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Seasons Greetings,
Mrs. Foux

Foux's Footprints

2010-12-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of December 13-17

WRITING
We will continue with our poetry unit this week. We will fancy and fix up our final copies and present them in a poetry celebration! Also, we will practice poetry theater using the skills we've learned about how a poem should be read (with feeling, with breaks and music in your heart).

READING
This week we are focusing on reading more stories that have sensory language and words. We will work on a booklet to track them as we read. We are also on the lookout for adjectives while we read. Daily 5 will continue as well as guided reading groups.

SPELLING
No spelling this week. We will review previous patterns during our Daily 5 Word Work time in class.

SOCIAL STUDIES
And the winner for our class is...Alvin Armadillo! Alvin went into the primary election for second grade and was defeated by Miss Henegar's Mac the Monkey. Mac the Monkey will be the second grade mascot for this year.
This week, we will focus on why people live/settle where they do. We will revisit recycling and natural resources and how to take care of Mother Earth.

MATH
We will introduce money using pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollars. Students will be able to manipulate and learn the value of money and be able to identify the coins by how they look and how much they are worth. We will stress the misconception of the amount of coins you have - just because you have more coins than someone, does not mean you have more money.

Notes from Mrs. Conti, our wonderful art teacher-
Please come to our annual Family Art Night. You'll have the materials to make great paper toys and cards. The toys and cards will make terrific presents and we'll also provide a mailing envelope! Put this on your calendar, we hope to see you there!!

Tuesday evening December 14, from 6:30 to 7:30: Everyone is welcome! Contact Elizabeth Conti with questions.

We've been painting and NEED smock washing help, please. They fit in one load. If you can wash the smocks Thursday, December 9th, e-mail elizabeth_conti@rrisd.org. Smocks will need another washing at the end of January, February, March and April, too.

HOLIDAY PARTY-
Please join us for our Winter Party on Dec. 16th from 1:45-2:40. Please send your $2 donation to cover the cost of the frame and cookies. Due to limited space and supplies, please make arrangements for younger siblings. Thank you!

School Wide PJ Day-
As a school, we met our goal for our Caraway Can Food Drive. For that, Mrs. Hohmann has given the whole school a pajama day! You may wear your pajamas and slippers to school on Friday, December 17th (bring tennis shoes for PE and recess). You may also bring a blanket, one stuffed animal or a pillow. Remember, this is a reward, so I still expect good behavior that day. So come prepared to still do your schoolwork. If you’d like to bring popcorn to share, that would be great! All of our Caraway students should be very proud of themselves.

Foux's Footprints

2010-12-03T13:57:00.000-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of December 6-10

Reading:
This week we are focusing on reading more stories that have sensory language and words. We will work on a booklet to track them as we read. We are also on the look out for adjectives while we read. Daily 5 will continue as well as guided reading groups.

Writing:
We will continue with our poetry unit this week. We will read and write more poems using sensory language and words. "Show, don't tell" is a topic we will focus on in order to help the reading understand our feelings in our poetry. We will also continue working on adjectives this week.

Spelling:
Pattern- long e, spelled with "ee" and "ea":
between, scream, least, beach, treat, mean, clean, beaver, beehive, team, feast, dream, three, street, stream, please, need, reason, sneeze, green
Challenge words: spaghetti and machine

Math:
This week we are working on 2-digit subtraction and addition. We will use strategies such as 100 chart, number line, tens frame, and tens/ones blocks to solve problems. We will also work on using doubles and mental math to subtract and add. There will be a review on Thursday and an assessment on Friday over 2-digit adding and subtracting without regrouping (borrowing/carrying). Math homework is due on Tuesday.

Social Studies:
Our class mascot candidates were introduced today. They are Daisy Dog, Pancho Pig and Alvin Armadillo. Students picked their favorite candidate and we brainstormed ideas for writing our speeches at home and school. The magic word is election. They will need to be completed and practiced at home. The speeches are due on Tuesday, December 7th so we can present them. We will then have a "mock" election to determine who will be the class mascot. The kids are having fun with this project!

Reminders:
Book Fair- Dec. 6-10, they can bring money and a note from you of what they are going to purchase. It's open during the day and after school with a parent present.

Early Release Day- Dec. 8 at 12:45.

Sock and Underwear Drive- Last day is Wed., Dec. 8th

Class Holiday Party- Dec. 16th from 1:45-2:30, more info. to come.

School Wide PJ Day- Dec. 17th

2010-11-29T12:21:00.000-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of November 29-December 3

WRITING
This week we will introduce adjectives in our writing. We will reinforce the difference between ordinary words (good, bad, OK, pretty) and juicy words. We will use our knowledge of adjectives and put on 'Poet Eyes' to see objects, situations and people in a new way. As we read the poems throughout the week, we will observe the tone of which we read (monotone or with emotion) and the breaks we should have in between lines.We learned from our Author's Visit how a sock is a pocket for your foot. She urged the students to look at things in a different light and find another pocket of ideas to write about. We will be digging into those ideas to find inspiration for our poetry.

READING
This week, we will continue the Daily 5. Reading groups will focus on sensory text. Our whole group instruction will focus on visual imagery and mental imagery from the text being read.

SPELLING
Pattern: Long A
brain, steak, daisy, highway, raisin, playpen, railroad, subway, waiter, weigh, taste, play, way, train, nail, afraid, break, eight, away, always
Challenge Words:Wednesday, straight

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week, we will introduce our social studies unit on government. We will learn how to make laws and why we have laws. The magic word is government. Students will brainstorm about the scenario of being principal and what rules they would enforce. We will focus on the duties of our elected officials (city, state, national) and walk through the election process. To end our week we will write a letter to the President and an election speech.

MATH
We will start our two digit subtraction unit (without regrouping). Students will learn that, similar to one digit subtraction problems, addition facts can help you solve two digit subtraction facts. Students will get the opportunity to play games reinforcing their skills learned in subtraction and addition!

LIBRARY
Library checkout is on Friday! Please remind your child to bring their books to school.

CARAWAY CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
Our can drive is over and here are the results:
Total Cans: 7441 Cans

Total lbs. of Food: 6124 pounds

Total Meals: 4899 meals

Total Effort by all of Caraway: 100 %

Seeing the faces of the students during the "Move the Cans" Today: Priceless

Thank you ALL for the Best Ever Caraway Canned Food Drive!!!

Foux's Footprints

2010-11-22T05:17:00.000-08:00

Howdy! NEWS! NEWS!

Newsletter for the week of November 22-23

WRITING
Last week, we introduced time transition words. This week we will review our nouns, pronouns, verbs and transition words.

This week, we will present our "All About ____" books. The students will get to share a chapter from their book and then add it to our classroom library. If you would like to see your child's work, please stop by and have them show it to you.

READING
This week, we will rotate the Daily 5 stations. We will evaluate our knowledge of fiction vs. nonfiction and discuss all of the characteristics each have. Students will be given elements of both types of books and choose if it is fiction or not.

SPELLING
No spelling this week

SCIENCE
Last week, we focused on rocks and soil. We also did some fun experiments with dirt. Now we will be observing to see how the dirt can settle in layers (after being shaken in water) after a few days and see if vegetation can survive without soil. We will leave the sweet potato in water for the whole Thanksgiving week and observe our results when we return.

MATH
We started two digit addition (without regrouping) by adding on the 100s chart, word problems and using our quick facts to help us solve our problems. This week, we will work on our word problem strategies with two digit addition and put our knowledge to the test with some musical chair games and dice games.

LIBRARY
We won't have an official library checkout this week, but students can return books and checkout for the holiday break. Please remind your child to bring their books to school.

OLSAT
You will receive a copy of your child's OLSAT scores in their Monday Folders. Nominations for TAG are due by Dec. 3rd.

THANK YOU!
Thank you for all your can donations. We canned out at 116 cans!!! We will be a shoes off day for our hard work.

ABSENCE

I will not be here this week on Monday or Tuesday. The students were told last week. Mrs. Lieurance will be my sub and she is a master teacher who taught second grade for over 20 years at Caraway. Any emails sent this week will be returned on Monday, November 29th.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Teacher's Note

I just have so much to be thankful for this year, so I wanted to share some thoughts. I am so thankful for this class and group of parents. Your children have inspired me to create new lessons to enrich their learning because of their wonderful attitude and cheerful spirits. All of the parents in this class have been so gracious and supportive. Whether it was bringing requested items for a lab, tracing and cutting for a lesson, or volunteering in every way that you do. It takes a village and I'm very fortunate to have you all! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

I leave you all with my favorite Thanksgiving poem by the amazing poet Jack Prelutsky:

The Turkey Shot out of the Oven by Jack Prelutsky

The turkey shot out of the oven and rocketed into the air, it knocked every plate off the table and partly demolished a chair.

It ricocheted into a corner and burst with deafening boom, then splattered all over the kitchen, completely obscuring the room.

It stuck to the walls and the windows, it totally coated the floor, there was turkey attached to the ceiling, where there'd never been turkey before.

It blanketed every appliance, it smeared every saucer and bowl, there wasn't a way I could stop it, that turkey was out of control.

I scraped and I scrubbed with displeasure, and thought with chagrin as I mopped, that I'd never again stuff a turkey with popcorn that hadn't been popped.

Foux's Footprints

2010-11-12T14:02:00.000-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of November 15-19

WRITING
Last week, our grammar lessons were focused on contractions. This week our focus will be transition words in our writing. We will learn what type of words to use when referring to a location, time-order, cause-effect and comparing. This week, we will continue our "All About ____" books. The students will ask themselves the questions "What can I teach my reader? Is my information organized? Can I fancy up my words?"

READING
This week, we got to try out our new laptop computers and they are great! We have 4 new laptops that will be in our room each day for our listen to reading time during Daily 5 and other fun projects and learning websites. Reading groups will continue to focus on nonfiction books and informational texts, focusing on research of a text. Our whole group instruction will focus on note taking in research. Our class started taking notes late last week, while listening to me read a non fiction text and they are doing a great job!

SPELLING
Pattern: vowel sound in "ball"
smog, claw, jaws, crawl, stall, lawn, cost, tall, hog, yawn, seesaw, strawberry, cloth, waterfall, wallpaper, small, fall, fought, cough, chalk
Challenge Words:beanstalk, distraught

SCIENCE
Last week, we ended our unit of energy, force and motion. This week, we will focus on rocks and soil. This will be our last week on science for the 9 weeks. We will sort rocks by features, record, describe and draw in our rock journal. We will touch on different types of soil and be able to feel the differences between them.
**If your child has a special rock they would like to show to the class, have them bring it on Monday!! We will need several for sorting so the more, the better. Be sure to put your child's name on the rock with tape if you want it returned.

MATH
We reviewed our Bridge to 10 strategies last week and started two digit addition (without regrouping) by adding in the tens place (40+30, 50+10, 20+70, etc). This week, we will go further with our strategies of solving these problems and adding in the ones column as well (43+51, 88+11, 51+38).

LIBRARY
Library checkout is on Friday! Please remind your child to bring their books to school.

CAPITOL AREA FOOD BANK
We will have a presentation on Tuesday with a representative from the food bank so the students will understand on another level why their donations are so important. The magic word is giving. Thank you for all your can donations. I would like to set a class goal of 100 cans for us to collect.

AUTHOR VISIT
Our author visit will be held on Friday at 12:15 and signing will be at 1:15.

Foux's Footprints

2010-11-08T13:23:00.000-08:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!

Newsletter for the Week of November 8-12

WRITING

Last week, our grammar lessons were focused on adverbs. This week our focus will be contractions and apostrophes. We will learn what size of apostrophe to put 'in the gap' depending on how many letters are being taken out of our contraction.

This week, we will start our "All About ____" books. The students will try out different topics they are interested in and select the one that fits them the best. They will create a book about their topic, including table of contents, headings and chapters covering the subtopics.

READING
Last week, we continued our groups in the Daily 5. This week, we will continue all five rotations, building our independence. Reading groups will continue to focus on nonfiction books and informational texts, focusing on research of a text.

Our whole group instruction will focus on introduction to research. Our class will be researching penguins. With a collection of penguin books, students will distinguish whether a book is fiction or not and what information they can pull from it to better help them learn about the many varieties of penguins.

SPELLING
Pattern: contractions
Spelling Words:
you're, I'll, I've, can't, won't, doesn't, there's, haven't, I'm, it's, they're, aren't, wasn't, weren't, wouldn't, hasn't, we're, let's, isn't, didn't

Challenge Words:
shouldn't, might've

Game for Home Practice:
http://www.mrnussbaum.com/contraction.htm

SCIENCE
Last week, we started our force and motion unit. This week, we will review the concept of roll, slide or spin and discuss the topic of ramps. The magic word is opinion. We will also create a flip book of something going down a ramp to show the progression of movement and speed.

We will review over energy, magnets, force and motion on Thursday and assess of Friday.

MATH
We ended our pattern unit last week. This week, we will revisit our bridge to 10/making 10 strategies and move into our two digit addition (two digit + two digit) without regrouping (carrying the one).

LIBRARY
Library checkout is on Friday! Please remind your child to bring their books to school.

THANK YOU!
Thank you for all your help with the field trip and lunch. We had a great time!

Foux's Footprints

2010-10-28T14:05:00.000-07:00

Howdy! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of November 1-5

WRITING
Last week, our grammar lessons were focused on capitalization in letters. This week our focus will be adverbs.We wrote how-to letters to our buddies and also shared some of our favorite writing for them to edit. This week, we will continue our procedural writing and add in parenthesis and colons. We will discuss the proper use of these punctuation marks and also discuss different forms of how to writing (directions for a game, fire drill, cooking, etc.).

READING
Last week, we successfully rotated all five groups in the Daily 5! This week, we will continue all five rotations, building our independence. Reading groups will continue to focus on nonfiction books and informational texts, learning and using comprehension strategies to better understand the text. Our main focus will be fact vs. opinion.

SPELLING
Pattern: double consonants
Spelling Words:brass, skill, grass, dress, egg, pulled, matter, spelling, different, hugged, jelly, lesson, setting, supper, bottles, common, correct, collect, silly, off
Challenge Words:message, Halloween

SCIENCE
Last week, we finished our unit on sound and heat discussions. Science will be exciting this week as we will review our magnet experiments and discuss further the importance of their part in everyday life. Magnetic mazes will be the challenge and we will create them out of card stock and shoe boxes, and then use magnetic balls to guide them through. We will also start our science unit on force and motion, push and pull.

MATH
We learned all about patterns last week. We made our own patterns, solved number patterns and created Halloween shape patterns.This week, we will learn about patterns, focusing on the number form in word problems. The magic word is fact. We will also give an assessment on Wednesday/Thursday for all the topics we've introduced during the first nine weeks.

FIELD TRIP:
Our field trip is this Friday, Nov. 5th. We will be going to see Cinderella in Georgetown. If you would like to chaperon or meet us for lunch, please do! We would love to have you there! Let me know in advance if you want to chaperon and remember to purchase your own ticket to the play.

Next week our library checkout is on Thursday, 11/04 due to the field trip. Please remind your child to bring their books to school.
Report Cards will be going home on Monday, November 1, 2010.

Foux's Footprints

2010-10-22T09:04:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of October 25-29

WRITING
Last week, our grammar lessons were focused on subject/verb agreement. This week our focus will be capitalization in our letter writing. We will be writing letters to our buddy about Halloween to end our week.This week we will work on the How-To process and incorporate it into our letter writing. We will be writing letters of many kinds explaining given topics in class.

READING
Last week, we successfully rotated four groups in the Daily 5. This week, we will incorporate all five rotations through the Daily 5, continuing to build our independence. The magic word is theater. Reading groups will continue to focus on nonfiction books and informational texts, learning and using comprehension strategies to better understand the text.

SPELLING
Pattern: k or ck
Spelling Words: pocket, rock, ask, kick, clock, black, truck, snake, stick, chicken, dock, quick, sock, kite, brick, woodpecker, wreck, bucket, outback, ticket
Challenge Words: Kentucky, squeak

SCIENCE
Last week, we introduced energy and focused on light, heat and sound. This week, we will continue to study sound and heat. We will conduct experiments of how sound travels through air and through objects. Our discussions about heat will be geared toward how it affects matter in different ways (butter melts; kernels turn into popcorn, etc). Our week will end with a Shrinky Dink Experiment! The students will see firsthand how heat can shrink objects!

MATH
We learned all about graphing last week. We made pictographs, bar graphs and real object graphs with our shoes. We even created our own survey, collected our data and made a bar graph to show our findings.This week, we will learn about patterns. We will create number patterns and learn how to continue a pattern that is given to us. For example, if one tricycle has three wheels and two tricycles have six wheels, how many wheels will four tricycles have? We will also create shape, color, pizza, jack-o-lantern and spooky hotel patterns for our class to solve.

LIBRARY: Library checkout is on Friday! Please remind your child to bring their books to school.

Readers’ Theater
Our very first readers theater will be Thursday, 10/28 at 8:15. It should last about 30 minutes. We will be performing “Spiderella” and “The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything”. Everyone is invited and it will be in the cafeteria annex.

Red Ribbon Week Events

2010-10-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

This is for the Week of October 25th-29th- "Say No to Drugs!"

Monday: "Sock it to Drugs" day- wear carzy socks or mismatched socks

Tuesday: "Drugs and I DO NOT Mix" day- wear mismatched clothes

Wednesday: "Say No to Drugs" day- wear a red shirt or clothing

Thursday: "Boot out Drugs" day- wear boots or western wear

Friday: "Say BOO to Drugs" day- wear Halloween colors or t-shirt

Shared Writing

2010-10-18T07:02:00.000-07:00

The Deer Stand Off
Written by Mrs. Foux's Class

On a hot and humid Tuesday evening, I was walking out of the school, when I saw the most shocking sight. A herd of deer was grazing on the lawn. There were so many it looked like an over-sized brown blanket. I froze and the biggest buck and I had a staring contest. The buck definitely won! They pranced and frolicked across the parking lot and I could safety walked to my car. As I drove out of sight, the sun glowed behind the trees with a light flash. In total, I counted 17 deer, including one fawn. It was a beautiful way to start a relaxing evening.

Shared Writing

2010-10-18T07:01:00.000-07:00

The Holiday Feast
Written by Mrs. Foux's Class

On a crisp and chilly Christmas morning, I looked out my kitchen window and saw a hilarious sight. My curious canine came scampering through the snowy woods with a steaming hot tray of lasagna. We all wondered where in the world she got her holiday feast! As she devoured the delicious pasta, the tomato sauce dripped from her whiskers. It looked like a super tasty mess. After she finished, she pranced and frolicked into the wintry forest to explore and find another gourmet dish. Maybe this time she might find a yummy dessert.

Shared Writing

2010-10-18T06:54:00.000-07:00

The Amazing Downhill Race

Written by Mrs. Foux's Second Grade Class

On a beautiful summer day in June, my family and I were on vacation in Palo Dura Canyon. My mother, my brother and I were going on a bike ride. We were excited to go exploring through the canyon hills. We started riding our bikes through the lush green hills. My brother Scott and I were going as quickly as our little feet would pedal. My mom briskly strolled along side of us. We were all enjoying the gorgeous views on the sunny and breezy day.

We came upon a gigantic hill and my mother warned us to get off and walk our bikes down. Ignoring my mother’s request, my little brother started pedaling down the big and steep hill. Suddenly, Scott shot out like a bullet racing down the mountain with his feet sticking out while the uncontrollable pedals kept barreling. Chasing the runaway bike, my mom yelled, “I’ll catch you Scotty!” I stood at the top trying to control my laughter.

Finally, they reached the bottom and caught their breath. I walked my bike quickly and joined them safely. While roasting marshmallows that night by the roaring campfire, we shared the story with our family and were full of laughter. We still laugh about it to this day.

Foux's Footprints

2010-10-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of October 18-22

WRITING
Last week we discussed verbs and verb tenses. This week we will focus on subject-verb agreement.Our focus last week in writing was planning details as we write. We talked about using our fingers to help us map out a five finger story. This week we will concentrate on "zooming" into our writing by transferring an unfocused story in our head to a more focused story on paper. We will be unfolding the feelings, thoughts, and reactions in the stories that we write. At the end of the week, we will discuss how to finish our writing with better endings. Then we will discuss the importance of editing writing and practice peer editing with a partner.

READING
We will continue to practice the Daily 5 and work on complete independence so that Mrs. Foux can pull reading groups to work with during this time. Reading groups this week will focus on non-fiction features and monitoring while you read to check for comprehension. When reading non-fiction, we'll also discuss fact vs. opinion. We will learn “opinion” words to help us decide if a statement is a fact or opinion. We’ll continue concentrating on making connections in expository writing. We’ll read many non-fiction texts and focus on making different connections to these stories. By reading different expository texts, we’ll discuss how the information is organized in similar ways.

SPELLING
Consonant Blend
strip, chalk, stone, brave, glad, club, branch, storm, brag, crib, click, change, clown, brother, bloom, blush, cross, dream, cheek, breeze
Challenge Words: precious, scrunch
The spelling test will be on Friday. Please study these words throughout the week.

SCIENCE
Last week we discussed using our five senses and did a fun activity in class. We also learned about how we use magnets in our everyday lives and what items they attract, repel, or have no effect on. This week we are talking about energy and how everything we do is connected to energy in one form or another. We will also be discussing the different forms of energy such as heat, light, and sound. We will be doing fun experiments with heat, light, and sound energy.

MATH
We have finished with addition and subtraction strategies for now and the assessment will go home in the Monday folder. Our focus this week is on graphing. We will discuss that all graphs must have collected data, a way of showing the data, and a title. The magic word is graph. We will be doing some fun activities with graphing and making our own graphs using real objects, bars, and pictures from data we've collected.

NOTES AND REMINDERS
Save the Date! Our first Readers’ Theater will be on Thursday, October 28th at 8:15am. Cast and Crew to be announced.

Headphones
If you would like your child to have their own headset during Listen to Reading, then feel free to send one in for their use. Otherwise the headsets that are available in the classroom will be used.
Library checkout is on Friday! Remind your child to bring their books to school.

P.E. We have PE on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please remind your child to wear appropriate clothing and shoes. Thank you.

Foux's Footprints

2010-10-08T09:07:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of October 12-15

WRITING
Last week we focused on pronouns. This week we will focus on verbs and verb tenses. We will practice using the correct verb tense in sentences. Last week in writing we discussed small moments and stretching out our words as we read. We also discussed sketching pictures to lead our writing. This week we will work on planning details as we write stories. We will talk about using our fingers to help us map out a story, and storytelling with a partner.

READING
We will continue to practice the daily 5 and work on complete independence during this time so that Mrs. Foux can pull reading groups to work with during this time. Reading groups this week will focus on nonfiction elements. The magic word is liquid. We will continue focus on the skill of Making Connections. This week we will make connections is expository writing. We will read many real life and true stories and focus on making connections to these stories.

SPELLING
Magic silent e:
tribe, late, nine, same, some, give, have, hide, outside, pride, whole, relate, page, name, date, mistake, write, revise, bike, shine
Challenge Words: escape, exercise
The spelling test will be on Friday. Please practice the words throughout the week.

SCIENCE
We will be completing our science unit this week and assessing over science concepts this Friday. Thursday will be a review day to help student prepare at school. Tuesday and Wednesday we will discuss the five senses and magnets. We will have some fun activities with magnets on Wednesday, and I invite the kids to bring any magnets that they have from home to share on Wednesday.

MATH
We will continue this week with addition and subtraction. We will focus on strategies to use for both to help us work faster. We will also play a fun review game on Thursday at school. Friday we will assess on the concepts that we have covered over the past few weeks. You may want to practice addition and subtraction strategies at home to help your child prepare for Friday.

THANK YOU!
To everyone who brought up supplies and volunteered time to help with our science experiments! Your time, energy and donations went into making your child's education more hands-on and exciting!

NOTES AND REMINDERS
There is no school on Monday! There are parent conferences and planning on this day.

If you would like your child to have their own headset during Listen to Reading, then feel free to send one in for their use. Otherwise the headsets that are available in the classroom will be used. If you would like to send a clipboard for your child to use during work on writing, they can keep it here in their desk.

Library checkout is on Friday! Remind your child to bring their books to school.

We have PE on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please remind your child to wear appropriate clothing.

The Caraway Carnival is October 16th! We need volunteers! You can sign-up outside of our classroom, or on the PTA website.

T-Shirt Orders
Last chance this year for a Caraway T-Shirt! Turn in your order by Friday if you want one. The shirt is $10.00 and the form is coming home in your yellow folder on Tuesday (no school Monday).

Caraway Skate NightSkate night is Thursday, October 14th from 6:00-8:30 at Playland Skate Center.

Foux's Footprints

2010-10-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

Howdy! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the week of October 4-8

WRITING
We spent some time reviewing sentences and grammar conventions last week. This week we will focus on pronouns. We will talk about when to use pronouns and how to keep the meaning of a paragraph when we use pronouns in place of proper nouns. Last week we discussed how to edit our stories and how to "fancy" them up for our audience. We also focused on writing small moments. We will continue this week to work with making small moments into stories with detail. We will work on stretching out our words as we read and on sketching pictures to lead our writing. We will also focus on the skill of Making Connections. Students will practice reading skills all week by making connections to other stories they have read, making connections to themselves, and making connections to the world.

READING
We have introduced all 5 of the elements of the Daily 5. We have practiced Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Writing and Word Work. We will now practice working on different parts of the daily 5 with our classmates and meeting with Mrs. Foux for reading groups.

SPELLING
Short u: fun, mud, hug, sum, bug, nutty, bun, thunder, puddle, truck, spun, bus, pluck, sunny, jump, stump, puff, plumber, bathtub, flush
Challenge Words: umbrella, subtract
The spelling test will be on Friday. Words should be practiced throughout the week at home.

SCIENCE
We will continue to investigate science through experiment next week. We will watch changes in matter as we create Rock Candy. We will create Wirly Gigs and paper snowflakes. We will deconstruct items to see how they go together, and discuss physical and chemical changes in matter. This will be an exciting week with lots of hands on activities.

MATH
We have spent several weeks on addition math facts, and now we will be moving on to subtraction facts. The magic word is subtract. We will learn many games to help us practice our math facts. We will practice subtraction word problems and then focus on when to add or subtract in a word problem.

NOTES AND REMINDERS
Conferences begin this week. I look forward to meeting with all my parents to discuss your child's progress. If you have not returned the parent input form, please do so before your scheduled conference. Thank you in advance!

Headphones
If you would like your child to have their own headset during Listen to Reading, then feel free to send one in for their use. Otherwise the headsets that are available in the classroom will be used.

Library checkout is on Friday! Remind your child to bring their books to school.

We have PE on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please remind your child to wear appropriate clothing.

Carnival is October 16th! We need volunteers for our class booth! You can sign-up outside of our classroom, or on the PTA website.

Foux's Footprints

2010-09-23T14:19:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the week of September 27-October 1

WRITING
Last week, we focused on proper nouns. We practiced telling the difference between proper and common nouns. We also practiced using capital letters with proper nouns. This week we will review using complete sentences, proper punctuation, and capitalization. We will also focus on adding a comma between the day and the year when writing the date. In writing, we will still continue to set-up our writing workshop following the Lucy Calkins model. We will discuss how to edit our stories and fancying them up for our audience. We will share in a reading circle and celebrate our writing. We will focus on writing about a small moment with detail. Finally, we will pick writing partners to share our writing with.

READING
We will continue to introduce new elements of the Daily 5. We will practice read to Self, Work on Writing, Read to Someone and Word Work each day to increase our stamina.This week, we will introduce Listen to reading. Students will practice listening to reading. We will listen to reading as a whole class, and then we will begin to practice listen to reading using laptops and headsets in our classroom. The magic word is setting. If you would like your child to have their own headset to use for these activates, then feel free to send one in for their use. Otherwise the headsets that are available in the classroom will be used. Students have enjoyed using my clipboards during our writing time so they can get comfortable on the floor. I don't have a class set though, so we've been rotating. If your child would like to bring a clipboard from home to keep in class, that is fine.

SPELLING
Short o: mop, spot, hop, nod, fox, block, hospital, dot, clock, bottom, stop, olive, octagon, moth, doll, sock, frog, omelet, odd, otter
Challenge Words: octopus, omnivore
The spelling test will be on Friday. Please study words throughout the week at home.

SCIENCE
After an exciting start to our science unit, we will continue to experiment and have many fun activities in science. We will begin to focus on matter in the classroom. Ask your child to share with you the many experiments that we will be doing this week.

MATH
Last week we learned a lot of math games for doubles and near doubles. We will continue to work on addition strategies this week and we will be focusing on sums up to 18. Ask your child to share a game that we have done in class with you, and put in some fun practice time for addition facts! First in Math is a great way to work on math fluency. Logins were sent home in the daily folder.

NOTES AND REMINDERS
Library checkout is on Friday! Remind your child to bring their books to school.
Picture Day is September 29th!
Fall Carnival is October 16th!

Fall Conference Schedule 2010

2010-09-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

Conferences will be 20 minutes and I will try to stay to the minute, so please be on time. If for some reason, you can't make your scheduled time, let me know as soon as possible.

Monday 10/4

10:45-11:05 Nikitha A.

3:00-3:20 Ryan H.

3:20-3:40 Marcellus H.

Tuesday 10/5

3:20-3:40 Ben C.

3:40-4:00 Frankie Z.

Wednesday 10/6

2:50-3:10 Preston S.

3:10-3:30 Margaret B.

Thursday 10/7

10:25-10:45 Riddhi J.

10:45-11:05 Ellie B.

Friday 10/8

7:20-7:35 Brodie M.

2:45-3:05 Cooper P.

Monday 10/11

8:00-8:20 Aryn H.

8:20-8:40 Sara S.

8:40-9:00 Jae Yeon P.

Tuesday 10/12

3:00-3:20 Lauren

Foux's Footprints

2010-09-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! News! News!

Newsletter for the Week of September 20-24

WRITING

Last week, we introduced the articles a and an. We discussed that we use A before a consonant sound and AN before a vowel sound. We also introduced common nouns and created lists of people, places and things. This week we will focus on proper nouns. We will practice telling the difference between proper and common nouns. We will also practice using capital letters with proper nouns. In writing, we will continue to set-up our writing workshop following the Lucy Calkins model. We will discuss not only where to store our writing and how to create writing; we will also discuss different types of writing. We will talk about letters, list, and other opportunities that arise that call for us to write with purpose in our lives. Finally, we will discuss how to fix up our writing. We will discuss how to revise a story with sticky notes.

READING

We will continue to introduce new elements of the Daily 5. We will practice Read to Self, Work on Writing and Read to Someone each day to increase our stamina. This week, we will introduce Word Work. Students will practice working with words to practice spelling skills. They will use many fun manipulatives to do this such as: Play-Doh, magnetic letters, letter necklaces, white boards, dry erase markers and stamps. Your child will use their spelling list each week to work with during this time, and you can ask them to share with you some of the fun ways that they have practiced their spelling words during the school day.

SPELLING

Short i: pig, win, is, six, his, dig, hit, igloo, shin, quilt, picnic, animal, biggest, skip, think, ticket, give, mix, click, submit

Challenge Words:dictionary picture

The spelling test will be on Friday.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We have finished working on social studies at this time. Your children will have many fun map experiences to share with you!

SCIENCE

We are starting science for the first time this year! We will be talking about being scientists and exploring the world. We will discuss other great scientists and safety rules to be a great scientist. The magic word is experiment. We will get our safety contracts signed so that we can go into the science lab. We will also have some fun and exciting experiments to do this week. It will be an exciting week.

MATH

Now that we have discussed place value and ordering numbers in math, we will begin working on addition facts. This week we will learn a lot of math games for doubles and near doubles. We will focus on addition facts up to sums of 18. Ask your child to share some of the games that they learn in class with you can you can practice at home, too.

NOTES AND REMINDERS

Library checkout is on Friday! Remind your child to bring their books to school.

Fundraiser: The "No Fuss Fundraiser" will be on Thursday. It is outside of the kindergarten wing from 6:00 to 7:30. Bring a picnic dinner and win prizes if you donate to the school!

Foux's Footprints

2010-09-10T14:23:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of September 13-17

WRITING
Last week, we introduced subject and predicate. We learned the subject is like an owl. It's always asking "Who, who, who are we talking about?" and the predicate is like a pretty cat (The cat-subject-is pretty-predicate). We will focus this week on when to use articles A and AN and discuss common nouns.We will continue to establish our writing routine and focus on the writing process. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then that's the right place to start with our story! We will start 'writing' a personal experience piece by starting with an illustration created by each student. We will move towards describing the details of the picture (sounds, taste, smell time of day/year, place we are, feelings) and then write the story to make a beginning, middle and end. They will practice editing and conferencing with the teacher and a partner.

READING
We will continue to introduce new elements of the Daily 5. We will practice choosing a Good Fit Book, Read to Self and Work on Writing.This week, we will introduce Read to Someone. As we continue to work on each part, we are building our confidence and stamina as a reader and writer. Reading groups will not start until assessments are complete.

SPELLING
Short E:
pet, went, help, ten, yes, wet, lemon, fence, sled, elbow, elephant, elk, empty, vest, exit, elevator, set, leg, penguin, red
Challenge Words:emerald, emperor

SOCIAL STUDIES
We finished our week by constructing our very own community map. Each student picked a building to design and we then came up with our community.
This week, we will focus on thinking like a geographer. We will talk about how and why different maps are used for different purposes. One of the tools we will use to explore is Google Earth so the students can get a clear picture of different landforms, continents and bodies of water. We will create our own landform at the end of the week and label it with a legend and compass rose.

MATH
Last week, we focused on place value and creating riddles using clues of place value in the hundreds, tens and ones. This week, we are continuing our place value with ordering and comparing numbers using a number line. We will revisit our vocabulary terms and symbols of greater than, less than and equaled to. We will focus on increments of 1, 2, 5 and 10 and create human number lines showing these increments. We will end our week with a short assessment on place value and comparing numbers.

Notes and Reminders
Thank you for your respect in saying your good-byes at the door after this week.
Wednesday, Sept. 15 is an Early Release Day at 12:45pm.
We will start our Star Student/Principal’s Pride the first week in October.

Foux's Footprints

2010-09-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

Newsletter for the Week of September 7-10
Howdy you awesome second graders! Well, we’ve made it to our third week of school. WOW! It’s been so wonderful getting to know all of you and your families. I know we’re going to have a great year together.

Writing
In Writers’ Workshop, we are going to continue focusing on writing a story using the writing process. All of our stories should have a beginning, middle and end. We are using the funny story called Aunt Isabel Tells a Good One to give us ideas for writing a story with fun characters, setting, problem and a solution. Last week, we brainstormed vacations you could write about. I will model writing a funny family vacation story about my own childhood memory. I will show you how I write each step along the way. We will also focus on writing complete sentences, including a subject and predicate.

Reading
Continuing to learn the Daily 5 reading program, we will be practicing choosing a “Good Fit Book” and “Read to Self”. This week, the second component of the Daily 5, “Work on Writing”, will be introduced. We will be sure to get them down so our guided reading time will be productive. Reading groups won’t start until assessments are complete. We’ll also read a new story titled Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry. This book is an excellent example of how a second grader can be an awesome storyteller.

Spelling
jam, cab, lap, anteater, gas, rabbit, plant, swam, patch, panda, fabric, mask, animals, alligator, angry, actor, actress, Africa, apple, can
Challenge Words: athlete, ambulance

Social Studies
We’ll begin this week with map skills and mapmaking. We will make a community map as a class and talk about important places in our neighborhood and community. We’ll discuss parts of a map and learn why a map key and compass rose are so important.

Math
This week, we begin a new unit on place value to 999 and number sense. We will use words such as less than, greater than, equal to, digits, number words, and before/after. Comparing numbers will be exciting as we use dice and playing cards in math games to learn standard and expanded form. It is a second grade skill to learn how to spell numbers, so we’ll write numbers on pretend checks for fun.

Other
Be sure to keep reading every night, practicing your math facts, and studying your spelling words. Continue writing down minutes in your reading calendars for each day in September. Remember if you read 20 minutes five days a week you can reach your goal of 400 MINUTES! Always remember to come to school ready to work and have fun! We’re going to have a great week!

Parents
We hope you all can make it to our Open House on Tuesday, September 7th from 6:30-7:00. At Open House, we will go over some of the expectations and goals for second graders in more detail. Due to space and the nature of discussion, please make arrangements for your child if possible. I will also show a few games for working with your child on math facts. Ideally, the recall time for each math fact is six seconds. We really need students to practice their math facts as often as possible so they can soar on their problem solving by not making simple errors. The reason we only have written homework once a week is to give the students time to work on reading and math fluency.

Thank you for having your students on time every morning. It really helps in starting the day off right.

We have openings for Homeroom Parents and other volunteer opportunities. If you would still like to volunteer, just send me an email or sign up at Open House. Homeroom parents help with the parties throughout the year. We have Winter, Valentines, and Last Day parties.

Quick reminders, if you have a message to give to your child, please call the main office during school hours. I don’t always get a chance to check my voice mail or email until the end of the day.

Foux's Footprints

2010-08-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

Howdy! NEWS! NEWS!

Newsletter for the week of August 31-September 3

WHAT A SUPER FIRST WEEK!

Wow! We had a fantastic first week of school! I have such a wonderful group children this year and I can't wait to get to know them all better. All of my students have positive attitudes and creative ideas. This is going to be an amazing year, I can tell right away! Everyone had great "Me" bags and we had 100% bring them on Friday. Way to go!

WRITING

In writing, we will begin using our Writers' Workshop journals, brainstorm writing ideas, and write our first story! We will read a favorite story of mine titled The Best Story to help us generate ideas of our own. We will discuss the parts of a story and learn that they need a beginning, middle and end. Most importantly, it needs to make sense to your reader.

READING

This week, we will learn about the structure of our Daily 5 Reading Program. Students will learn how to choose "good fit" books and will practice the element of "Read to Self". We will work all week to build our stamina and to build a strong foundation for the year's Read to Self program.

SPELLING
There will be no spelling test this week.

MATH
Throughout the week, students will take the Beginning of the Year District Math Diagnostic Test. This test will help guide our math instruction throughout the year. We will also work on skip counting and telling time to 5 minute increments.

SOCIAL STUDIES
Students will participate in several activities to discuss good citizenship. They will also learn about important holidays and buildings in our country.

OTHER

Parent Homework, "Million Words or Less" is due September 7th
If you haven't sent in a "What Lights You Up" picture, please do so on Tuesday.
If possible, please have your child wait in the cafeteria in the mornings. It gets a little crowded by the door and is easier for all of us to get in the room if we are in a line together. In order for your child to start their day off independently and confidently, please say your good-byes at the door after this week. Thank you.
Please mark your calendars for September 7th, Open House, 6:30-7:00; PTA meeting to follow 7-7:30.

Meet Caraway's Special's Teachers

2010-08-28T07:51:00.000-07:00

A note from the Special's Teachers

The Specials Team would like to welcome you back and introduce ourselves to you. We are very excited about the year and experiences your child will have in Specials at Kathy Caraway Elementary.

In Art, P.E./Wellness, and Music, we strive to differentiate our curriculums to meet your student’s needs and interests.

In Art with Mrs. Conti, your student will have the opportunity to explore, use many mediums and materials all to increase their creativity. Each student will experience their abilities and discover their talents, and better understand how to create art and view art’s connection to culture. Students will also be thinking about and learning about famous artists.

In P.E./Wellness with Ms. Wagner and Ms. Cavazos, your student will participate in the CATCH program. The CATCH program’s primary goal is to provide quality physical education in which students engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity. Tennis shoes that enclose the entire foot are needed on P.E./Wellness days. This is a safety issue, and your child’s safety is very important to us. Your child will come to P.E./Wellness either on Monday/Wednesday/Friday. If your child cannot participate, please provide us with a note.

In Music with Mrs. Padilla, your student will explore the following musical concepts and skills in all grade levels using the Kodály method: reading, writing, listening, creating, composing, improvising and performing in various musical styles. These will be achieved through singing, playing instruments, and many other innovative and exciting games and activities.

Thank you for entrusting your child to us. Remember to check the website for updates and announcements. Please feel free to contact us anytime you have questions or concerns. Let’s make it a great year!

Meet Mrs. Foux

2010-08-23T19:47:00.000-07:00

Howdy! My name is Christina Foux (rhymes with jokes) and this is my seventh year of teaching at Kathy Caraway Elementary and my tenth year teaching second grade. For my first three years of teaching, I taught second grade in San Antonio, TX with Northside ISD. I started teaching there right out of college and it was an exciting learning experience. Ten years is a long time to be in the same grade and I have been fortunate to do so. I feel that second grade has been a calling for me and a perfect fit throughout the years. The exciting part of being an educator is learning new strategies for helping children succeed, so I never get tired of this age and grade because I'm always trying out new ideas.

I grew up in Houston, TX and my parents now reside in Katy, TX. I have two younger siblings, Scott, 31, and Amy, 29, whom I'm very close to and we see each other as often as possible. I grew up with parents in the service industry and it was always evident I would chose a similar career path. My father retired from the Houston Police Department as a detective after 28 years of service. My mother has been a teacher for 31 years and currently teaches English as a Second Language in Katy ISD.

Family is very important to me. I have a wonderful husband named Michael and he is always helping out with my classroom by either cutting laminated things late in the night, putting together folders or hanging up white boards. His favorite thing to volunteer for is teaching lessons to the second grade classes about reptiles. We love snakes and have several exciting breeds at home (no poisonous!), along with a sulcata tortoise named Titus. Mr. Foux and I also have 4 cats, Meezer, Schmoopy, Gabby, and Moo Moo. Our life is full of adventure with our cute country dog Ci Ci, who loves running around our 4 acre property causing mischief and bringing home interesting items and bones she digs up (all animal, don't worry)!

I attended Texas A&M University my freshman and sophomore years of college and then transferred to Southwest Texas State University (Texas State now) where I graduated with a Bachelors in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in Reading. My certifications are in Elementary Education, gr. 1-8, English as a Second Language, gr. 1-8 and TAG gr. 1-5.

Teaching is the most rewarding career and I love being part of the Caraway community. I've always enjoyed learning new things, having creative ideas, exploring, and researching. Being a teacher ensures that I will always be able to do this and keep having new experiences. My students are a part of me and every year I get to add a little more to my own life. I want your child to gain the tools in my class to go on in their lives with confidence, compassion, and the wisdom to trust their hearts and minds.

Foux's Footprints

2010-05-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

Oh Deer!

Last week a baby deer got under Ms. GW's car in the school parking lot. Luckily, Mr. Foux was able to get the fawn out and release it into the woods close to the school. Thanks Mr. Foux! Please remind your friends and family not to approach any deer, as they can be aggressive and cause injury while protecting their young. We must share the park with the wildlife we so enjoy here in our neighborhood.

NEW! NEWS! Howdy!
Newsletter for the Week of May 24-28

Monday and Tuesday are normal school days. There will be no schedule changes on these days, and we will still be doing class work on these days.

READERS THEATER
Everyone did a wonderful job in the readers' theaters last Friday! I am so proud of the progress all my students have made with fluency and expression.

CLEANING
It's an overwhelming task cleaning out a classroom and getting it packed up for the summer. In the process, I will be getting rid of workbooks and such that I just don't use anymore. If you're child comes home with a workbook or extra pages, please use them this summer to keep their skills sharp. Many of these workbooks still have good material in them, I've just updated them and can't bear to throw them out.

We will be cleaning our desks a little at a time. Each day you're child will bring home something in their backpack, so it's not too heavy on the last day. Please help me by emptying the backpacks each night and sending back only the Monday folder. Thank you in advance for your help with this cleaning.

SPELLING
We will have spelling words this week. However, there will be no spelling test this week. We will just practice the words during the Daily 5 Word Work time. On Friday, the students will have a spelling bee and compete for prizes. The words will be from the past spelling lists. The spelling bee will be optional.

Prefixes and Suffixes:
wishing, unlock, disappear, review, impossible, bicycle, teacher, fixable, dangerous, happiness, wonderful, gently, freedom, redo, helping, puzzled, disconnect, copilot, helpful, seriously

Challenge Words: friendship, honestly

READING
Students will be working in Daily 5 stations this week. Our focus will be on practicing reading skills that we have learned this year.

MATH
This week we will be reviewing skills learned this year through games. We will play games that we have learned throughout the year. There will be no math homework this week.

SCIENCE
In science this week, we will be doing fun experiments in the classroom! We will also complete our science booklets on living systems this week.

FIELD DAY-WEDNESDAY
Field Day is this Wednesday. We will be outside in the morning from 8:15 to 11:45 playing games. Students will need to wear clothes that they are comfortable in to play games. There will be water stations, so you may want to pack extra clothes, such as dry socks and shoes. Water bottles will be important to stay hydrated while playing games. Hats and sunscreen need to be worn.We will have a picnic lunch that day around 12:00. Your child must bring a sack lunch to school this day unless they ordered lunch in advance from the cafeteria.

END OF YEAR PARTY-THURSDAY
Our end of the year party will be this Thursday. We will have a normal morning in the classroom, and go to specials that day. Then we will walk to the Farquharson's house to play games and have lunch. Permission slips must be turned in, or your child will have to stay at the school. Please send your child with a sack lunch on Thursday. We are not having an assigned list, but if you'd like to send an item to share with the class, we'd be glad to take it to the the party. The magic word is vacation. We will have water games at the party, so you may want to send an extra change of clothes with your child, or a bathing suit to change into.

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL-FRIDAY
The last day of school we will have our compliment pajama party. Students can come to school in their pajamas and bring blankets and stuffed animals. We will enjoy popcorn and enjoy our last day together!

REMINDERS:
REPORT CARDS
Report cards will go home on the last day of school. Please check your child's backpack to get out their report card.

LIBRARY
All of our books have been returned to the library! Thank you everyone for your help in getting this done!

YEARBOOKS!
Yearbooks are still for sale! You can get memories of the past year and support the school through the funds we get for each book purchased. The yearbooks are $28.00, and can be purchased at the end of the day by the front office. Second grade will have a Yearbook signing day- Wednesday, May 26th at 1:30 with everyone in second grade. If your child does not have a yearbook to get signed, I will provide paper to get signatures and notes from friends.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST.......
Before the week gets crazier, I just want to say that I have so enjoyed having all of my students and their families in my class this year. Caraway is part of my family and I love it here! The reason for that is all of you.

HAVE A WONDERFUL SUMMER!
This is Mrs. Foux signing off............

Foux's Footprints

2010-05-14T08:47:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of May 17-21

READING and WRITING
We’ll continue our IIM research on our animals and will finish up the written report. We’ll also create our very own products at school such as mobiles, clay models, etc. to present during “museum day” on Wednesday. We will self-evaluate our research and our product presentations.

READERS' THEATER
We will have a reader’s theater this week on Friday, May 21 at 8:15am . Everyone has a part, yeah! We will be performing three plays so that we may include the entire class. Please join us in the annex, we hope to see you there.

SPELLING WORDS:
hotter, colder, happy, sad, running, walking, quiet, loud, start, stop, black, white, inside, outside, sit, stand, up, down, short, tall
Challenge Words: winter and summer

SCIENCE:
This is the last week of our animal unit. We plan to complete our “living systems” books. We will finish up with birds, plants, and then explain how each of these systems work.

MATH:
We will review multiplication and division this week. Story problems on multiplication/division will be part of the review. We will challenge our problem solving strategies by making up our own word problems and seeing if our friends can solve them. The magic word is amphibian. The assessment will be on Thursday. Homework is due on Tuesday.

OTHER

End of Year party- Note with information is in the Monday folder. It will be Thursday, May 27th; please sign and return permission slips.
All library books are due.
Family Night at Catfish Parlour, Thursday, May 20th
Field Day is May 26th

Foux's Footprints

2010-05-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of May 10-14

A Special Thank You

I would just like to say thank you to all of my students and parents for making Teacher Appreciation Week so special for me. Each day was a new surprise and I loved it all! From the wonderful cards to the beautiful flowers and tasty treats, you truly made my week super! Thank you all for your thoughtfulness and generosity. I have enjoyed all of my gifts so much. You are all so giving and I’m lucky to have all of you in my life. Our year is coming to a close, but I hold wonderful memories from this class and I am so grateful.

Thank you,

Mrs. Foux

READING and WRITING
Last week, because of all the exciting things we did, we barely got started on our animal research projects. This week, we are hitting the ground running and our learning will continue! Students will choose one animal and will conduct their own IIM research at school. Final products will be made at school and will be presented at the end of next week.

SPELLING
Pattern: Synonyms, Units 36Words: sack, bag, tally, count, number, digit, small, little, angry, mad, sleep, snooze, happy, glad, messy, dirty, sleepy, tired, neat, tidy
Challenge Words: festival, celebration

MATH
This week, we will continue our study of division. Students will be introduced to the concept of equal groups and division problem solving. Please try to incorporate these concepts in everyday situations at home if possible.

SCIENCE
This week, we will continue our study of Animals. To conclude our study of Living Systems, students will be creating a Living Systems book. The magic word is division. This book will reflect the knowledge they have learned about both plants and animals.

LIBRARY
We will have library this Wednesday.

IMPORTANT LUNCH ANNOUNCEMENT STUDENTS MUST HAVE FUNDS IN THEIR ACCOUNT OR BRING CASH TO PURCHASE LUNCH STARTING MAY 1ST.
If there are no funds than students will be served a cheese sandwich and milk. You may want to check online to check their balance.

SCHOOL SUPPLIES
School Supply Order Forms were sent home last Monday. If you're going to order, please turn in your order form as soon as possible.

END OF YEAR LETTERS
Information regarding your child's Second Grade progress will be included in the May 10th Monday folder. Please sign and return one copy by May 14th. We hope that this will inform you of their progress but also give you ideas for summer learning.

Ms. Conine's Thank You

2010-05-05T08:59:00.001-07:00

Dear Awesome Caraway Parents,

THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for the kind and generous donations you made for my future classroom! I was so surprised to get my very own microwave, the framed class picture, and not to mention, the Wal-Mart giftcard! I will be using the microwave daily to warm up my coffee and lunch, yum yum-the giftcard will go to great use this summer, as I prepare to decorate and organize my very own classroom-and of course the framed picture of the class will be proudly set up in my room next year. Also, the pictures, flowers, jewelry, chocolates, and thank you cards meant so much to me. I am so appreciative and thankful for it all. Most of all, the warm hugs and smiles your children gave me this semester has meant the most. Thank you for letting me be a part of your child's life. I hope to see you all in the near future. :)

Thanks again,
Lauren Conine

THANK YOU!

2010-05-04T07:36:00.001-07:00

WOW! We couldn't have been more surprised this morning by the beautiful variety of flowers! They are absolutely gorgeous and we will enjoy them for days to come. Thank you all so much for your overwhelming generosity. Your children and they're smiling faces when they gave us the flowers made our hearts happy. We are so lucky!

Foux's Footprints

2010-05-03T14:20:00.000-07:00

HOWDY! NEWS! NEWS!
Newsletter for the Week of May 3-7

READING and WRITING
This week, we will begin our Animal Research projects! I will model the steps of the IIM research program, which stands for Independent Investigation Method. We will learn the steps and then begin to research our class topic this week, which is fish. Next week, students will choose one animal and conduct their own IIM research at school. Final products will be made at school and will be presented in class.

SPELLING
Pattern: Review of Units 31- 35Words: start, far, barn, hard, party, store, corn, morning, short, story, flower, water, better, sister, after, running, clapped, getting, shopping, stepped

Challenge Words: telling, afford

MATH
Your child may of told you about the District Math Diagnostic Test that was given last week. The results of this test will be shared with you in an End of Year Report that will be sent home on May 10th. Stay tuned!
This week, we will begin our study of multiplication. We will begin by skip counting and relate how we already use multiplication in many things we do. We will make arrays out of cereal and have fun solving word problems!

SCIENCE
This week, we will continue our study of Animals. The magic word is adaptation. Specifically, we will be studying animal classification and animal interdependence.

NO LIBRARY
Due to the Book Fair, we will NOT have Library checkout this week. We will go as a class to the book fair on Wednesday though, so if you would like to send money for your child to buy a book, that would be the best day. I will let them go during the day as needed also.

IMPORTANT LUNCH ANNOUNCEMENT
STUDENTS MUST HAVE FUNDS IN THEIR ACCOUNT OR BRING CASH TO PURCHASE LUNCH STARTING MAY 1ST. If there are no funds than students will be served a cheese sandwich and milk. You may want to check online to check their balance.

PARENT RESOURCE ROOM
All materials borrowed from the Parent Resource Room are due by May 7th.

SCHOOL SUPPLIES
School Supply Order Forms will be sent home on Monday.

BOOK FAIR
In third grade, your child will be reading the Texas Bluebonnet Award books. Many of these will be available at the Book Fair! Get a head start this summer!
Book Fair Hours:
Monday-Friday 7:35am - 3:30pm with extended hours
Late Tuesday: Open late at the Diner until 7:30pm!
Early Friday: Diner Breakfast Snacks at 7:00 am!