Welcome to Remote 2nd Grade!

Hello and welcome to a unique school!  I’m excited to get started and make this school year the best we can.  Google Classroom will be the home for all our assignments and communication.

Google Classroom

God bless you and your family!

Mrs. Oines

Poems, Towers and Shapes, Oh My!

Sam’s Bridge holds two people!
Strong tower!
Distance Learning Limerick by Mrs. Oines
We are teachers named Oines and Morris.
We’re sad out student couldn’t join us.
The kids all stayed home,
but they’re not alone,
the parents now teach 2nd grade for us!
Otter Limerick By Gabriella
There once was an otter.
He does not like to be bothered.
One day he went on a walk
and bummed into a monkey that talked, talked, talked.
The otter went out of the world bonkers.

Silly Animals

Squirrels doing the dab
A Gorilla wearing a yellow wig
A bunny relaxing on a floaty down a lazy river A rhino dancing the orange justice
A shark watching tv in the ocean
A dolphin doing the Macarena

By Aidan, Malia, Katherine, Lola and Julian

Duck Limerick

By Vincent Strong

Once there were three ducks

They had some toy trucks!

So they drove to faraway lands

And got some headbands!

When they got back they still had some bucks!

This is Liam’s  STEM bridge.
The challenge: construct a bridge that can span two dishes of water, that can support at least ten books.
The rules: no parts of the structure can actually be placed in the water.
The bridge: a two-span causeway of books supported on Jenga blocks, with each span holding the weight of ten full novels separately.

Anika’s tide pool collection from Canada.
Samuel build a chair!
Wynn’s toilet roll bridge:
Sam’s origami cube:
Katherine’s Triangle tower:
Archie’s bridge and towers
Elsa’s dominoes:

Good Friday Reflection

Dear Families,

I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to you!  Even though this virus has turned our lives upside down and ended our in-person school year, we are still going on and not giving up.  This transition has been stressful, challenging and frustrating for us, but I see your kids smiling, working hard and adjusting well to the change.  You are working, caring for family and now being teachers to your children.  You are awesome!  I’m cheering your on!  So, thank you for all your encouragement and helpful feedback.  I’m here to support you along the way.   Your kids will be fine!  I miss being with them so much, so please hug them for me.  You are in my prayers everyday!

Mrs. Jessup is in inspiration to me.  Her faith is so strong and often leads the staff in growing in our faith.  I think her following message will encourage you on this Good Friday.  I think she made a wonderful and meaningful connection between what is going on right now in our world to our Catholic faith, Holy Week, and the disciple John, who later became our school’s patron saint, St. John the Evangelist.

Mrs. Jessup wrote, “… I turned to God. I was upset that He has allowed this virus to take over our lives. Then I stepped back and tried to see everything through His eyes. We are in Holy Week.

It reminds me of the beginning of the school year. Palm Sunday was a parade welcoming Jesus like we welcomed our students to a new year. Then the year began with hope!

As we go through Holy week we see that Jesus dealt with the darkness of this world.  He suffered and died on a cross for us. We are suffering too, but lest we forget that 3 days later He rose from the dead! We will rise and see the light at the end!

I think about the disciples, especially John. Did you know he was the youngest, a teenager, when he became a disciple of Jesus? If you ever read Bible stories where Jesus only takes one or two with him, it is usually Peter and John. John had a beautiful faith in Jesus.

When Jesus was arrested, all the disciples ran in fear. John ran to Mary, the mother of Jesus. He stood by her side and together they walked with Jesus on his way carrying the cross. When Jesus was dying he told John to take care of his mother. What a gift!

That Sunday morning Mary Magdalene ran to tell the disciples that Jesus’s body was gone. Peter and John ran to see what happened. In the Bible, it says that John went into the tomb and believed. Yes, he believed that Jesus rose from the dead. He became St. John the Evangelist!

He spent his life showing others the way to God through his writings (gospel, book of Revelation). Then he was exiled to an island at the end of his life. Sound familiar? I think it’s no coincidence that you chose St. John Catholic School for your children. I feel the same way.

We have this incredible saint who was Jesus’s best friend and caretaker of Mary, the mother of God! When we feel lost, angry, discouraged, or hopeless, be like St. John. See that God never abandoned us. He is here with us and will be with you every step of the way.”

Amen!

God bless you,

Mrs. Oines

 

Friday Check-in Survey

Friday Check-In Survey

Welcome to Distance Learning

Dear 2nd Graders and families, 

       Here we are in a situation out of our control, but distance learning is another great tool for education.  The first 2 weeks of the closure, Mrs. Hendrickson and I were able to make packets for you.  After that we are going to do distance learning using your computer and other resources.  The first 2 weeks is review and practicing what we have learned so far.  After that students will be learning new things.  I will be available every day 9-12 for any questions and support.  You can contact me by phone, email or video conference using zoom.us.  If those times don’t work, I will be watching on and off all day for emails from you.  

The specialist teachers and I will be giving student their assignments one week at a time. This will be a learning process for all of us, but that is what education is all about – being flexible and learning new ways of doing our best!   

     Students, I will be missing every one of you during this time, so I would love an email from you- what you are doing, how you are feeling about all of this, any school assignment questions, drawing me a picture and having your parents take a picture and send it to me – anything.  The parents were given times that I would be available for sure, but you can anytime, any day!  Even though I am not at school, I am doing school things at home, just like you.

Getting Started:

  1. Set a time for school. Your work should take you about 2 hours each day.  You can do an hour, then take a break, then complete the 2nd
  2. Get supplies ready: pencils, sharpener, paper, work folder.
  3. Follow the day’s plan and decide the order you will do it.
  4. Listen to the grownups helping you with your school work.
  5. Try your best. Use your great handwriting even at home!
  6. Every Friday, your parents will report to me how the week went and if you completed your work for the week.

Have a great day tomorrow, starting your distance learning!

Please complete this questionnaire.  Thank you!

God bless you,

Mrs. Oines

Home Learning Questionnaire

How is home learning going?

 

 

March 6th Newsletter

Hello parents!

We watched the play, Beauty and Beast, on Thursday and I highly recommend it!  The kids were mesmerized by the acting, dancing and singing.

Math – New unit – counting coins using skip counting.  We learned the names, values and some facts about quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.  Each student made a coin identification card with real money and they have their own bag of fake coins to practice counting.  Get out those coins and let your child practice skip counting to add.

Religion – Our virtue of the month is faithfulness.  Faithfulness is being able to trust in God with our lives.  Our God is faithful!  He loves us forever and forgives our sins.  He is faithful!  Here is the song we listened to, Great is your Faithfulness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywIt1ZTM2tk

We continue to participate in Lenten prayer each morning, adoration and Stations of the Cross.

Unbound Service Project, $1 per month – Idea to support your child in this service.  Pay your child for doing a job, then your child can donate the money they earned to Ashley, our Unbound friend.  Thank you!!

Science and Reading– We explored what happens to solids and liquids when they heated or cooled using our science workbooks lessons and hands-on activities.  We froze a marshmallow, gummy-bear, leaf and wet paper towel for 2 days, then observed if this change was reversible or irreversible.  Then we heated these items in a microwave to observe the change.  Here’s the videos we watched of the microwaved marshmallow and gummy-bear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOYOd0LQtcs

Engineering in the Maker’s Space: On Friday, we visited the Maker’s Space to use a variety of materials to solve this problem.  Can you make a boat that floats and is moved by wind?  What can you do to improve your design?  The kids had a blast creating and tweaking their designs.  See photos below.

Writing: Paragraph writing – In reading groups we’ve been reading different nonfiction topics, like monarch butterflies, how coins are made, matter and energy.  We’ve used these texts to write a paragraph about what they learned with my help.  We also learned how to write a sequence sentence with commas.  Example:  I love blueberries, cherries, and strawberries.

We continue to do grammar practice several times a week.

Cursive: We’re still working our way through the uppercase cursive strokes.  They are getting quite good at cursive!

Next week:

First Communion Class, Tuesday, March 10, 7-8pm

Jumprope for Heart Assembly, Tuesday

No School next Friday, March 13, Professional Development Day for teachers

March 1st Newsletter

Hello everyone!

We’re learning, praying and having a good time.  Here is what we’re working on and some picture of the kids’ art.

Hand-washing – We are reteaching proper hand-washing and use of hand-sanitizer.  Please review these hygiene skills at home.  This includes: keeping hands away from your face, coughing into your elbow, avoiding hand contact with others, and washing often.

Science: States of Matter – We’re learning about the 3 states of matter: solid, liquid and gas and will discover what happens when items are heated or cooled.  We will explore that changes to matter can be reversed and some cannot.

Cursive formation– we have learned 8 capital letters this week.  Each student is working on writing their own name in cursive.

Math: Telling time – What time is it?  We have spent the past two weeks learning how to tell time.  We’re starting our money unit this week.  We will identify coins, count coins and use adding and subtracting to solve money problems.

Religion: During Lent, the 2nd grade classes meet to pray together every Monday through Wednesday mornings, Adoration prayer on Thursday and Stations of the Cross with the school on Fridays.  We made beautiful Lent painting to highlight our Lenten promises to GIVE, PRAY and FAST.  We are reading about Jesus’ life in our religion books.

Phonics: plural nouns and spelling patterns to make singular nouns into plural nouns.

Flat Stanley:  We have heard from the majority of Flat Stanley travels around the world.   We will celebrate all the projects at a 2nd Grade Open House at the end of the school year.

Supporting Ashley through Unbound: Thank you for your steady support of Ashley!  The kids’ $1 monthly donations are collected at the end of each month.  Thank you so much!

Beauty and the Beast Play – We get to view the dress rehearsal of the play on Thursday afternoon!

Tuesday, March 10 – First Communion class, 7pm in the 5th grade classroom.

Tuesday, March 17 – Greenwood library field trip.

God bless you!

Mrs. Oines