Comprehension: questioning the text before, during and after
Writing:  Writing about what you're passionate about
Math:  Subtraction 
Science:  Weather
Social Studies:  Maps

Important Information for you to know:

*Six week "check points" (reading and math tests) are Tuesday and Wednesday.

*Parent Conferences:  October 21, 22 and 23

*Popsicle Party!  The second grade won the contest by bringing in the most volunteers!  They will celebrate with a popsicle on Thursday.

*Parent Connect:  This is a great way to keep track of your child's grades.  Email me with questions!

I took this video today in Music.  I love to see them playing instruments!

Week 5 1/2

Field Trip:  We are planning a field trip in March to the Children's Theater but the deposit to hold our seats is due on September 26.  The cost is $9.

Teacher Conferences:  October 21, 22 and 23.  I will hold conferences on these days between 3:15 and 6:00. There is no schedule yet but if there is a certain time that you need let me know now.  

Book it!  This is a reading incentive program sponsored by Pizza Hut.  If your child meets the monthly reading goal he/she will be rewarded with a coupon for a FREE one topping personal pan pizza!  The goal for October is to read 320 minutes.  That's only 20 minutes four times a week for four weeks! I will be making a big deal out of this at school!

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUBS: I will be sending home book order forms once a month.  You are in no way obligated to order books but this is an inexpensive way to add to your child's book collection.  We also get points to spend for new books for our classroom when you do order.

Learning in the classroom (or on the playground!)

Here are a few pictures and a video of the students launching their parachutes.  Learning about air and how air is everywhere has been fun!  

Week 5

This week we are learning:

Reading:  Questioning while reading
Math:  Patterns and Relationships in numbers; additive and growing patterns, addition and subtraction
Phonics/Spelling:  soft and hard sounds of Gg and Cc
Science:  Air
Social Studies:  Types of communities (rural, suburban, cities)

SECRET WORD:  Autumn


Exploration with air under water

College shirts!

College Week

What we're learning this week:

Reading and Writing:  Non-fiction text features
Math:  Patterns
Spelling:  Review-CVCe words with blends and digraphs
cupcake, bedtime, statewide, baseline, spike, shone, shake, smile, grape, shade, close, chose
Science:  Air
Tuesday-Thursday:  COGAT testing

This week is college week and everyday is a special day.  Today was wear  your college shirt.  Those who wore a college shirt got to be in a picture that will be on the school blog and also displayed in the school.  I will post it here once I get it downloaded. Tomorrow is wear a college hat.  

I am making a big deal to the kids to MONITOR their reading.  As they read they should be thinking and asking themselves Does this make sense?  

Here are a few pictures that I took last week during and after a word sort.  You can't tell by looking but they are sorting the words in many different ways...by first letter, by vowel sound, by digraph or blend, number of letters...whatever they come up with.  Monday's spelling homework was sorting their words.  They all know what to do with that.  They are supposed to return their words to school tomorrow but there will be nothing to turn in for Monday's homework on Friday.  

You can see that they are having fun practicing their spelling patterns.  Hope you enjoy these!

Deedee Cooper

Sept. 9-13, 2013

Third Week's Learning

Reading:  Monitoring Comprehension; also word reading test and ISIP (reading testing in the computer lab), Reading Checkpoint

Math:  Addition; Math Checkpoint

Grammar:  Editing punctuation (period, question mark and exclamation point),  plural and singular nouns

Science: Air

Social Studies:  Places where we live and learn

SPECIAL NOTE:
*Galloway is looking for parent volunteers.  If you have even just a little time to spare, we'd love your help!  I sent home the forms last week but if you need another, let me know!
*Our field trip is tentatively planned for March (musical or a puppet show.)  Would you be interested in going?
*Picture Day will be this Thursday!

Fun Stuff below!!!

Station Time is one of favorite parts of the day!

We play Follow the Path word game!

We write!

We sit on our new bean bag chairs and read!

We practice fluency by reading big books!

We listen to stories on CD!




Have a great week!
dcooper@mesquiteisd.org

WEEK 2

September 3, 2013


Dear Families,

We had a great week at school last week.  I hope you all enjoyed the three day weekend.  I know I did!

We are implementing a new behavior system school-wide.   We are teaching and expecting excellent behavior in the hallways and restrooms.  You  may have noticed the STAR posters that are hanging throughout our building.  Show Respect; Treat Others With Kindness, Attitudes for Success and Responsible for Actions!  If we can do this we will all be STARS!  I do have to say that my second graders have really taken to this new set of expectations and have received lots of compliments from other staff members.  :)

This week we are learning:

Phonics and Spelling:  short vowels, digraphs (two letters that make one sound such as sh, ch, th and wh.

Reading Comprehension:  Using your background knowledge to help with understanding

Grammar:  Using periods and question marks correctly

Math:  Ordering numbers to 99 and Addition (zero facts and double facts)

Social Studies:  How to be a good citizen

Science:  Air

Have a great week!
Deedee Cooper

Welcome to 2013-2014 Second Grade!

Welcome to my blog!  I like to give updates on the fun things that we do in class.  If you browse through from last year you'll see that I take a lot of pictures.  I will not put pictures of your child on here if you don't give me the "OK."  I will never put your child's name (first or last) online anywhere at anytime so you don't have to worry about that.

You may also notice that my blog wasn't a huge success last year. I am determined to change that.   My plans are to update at least once a week. Sometimes I will tell you a secret word  and if your child comes to school and tells me the secret word, he or she will get a fuzzy.  (If you haven't heard about fuzzies, ask your child!  So much fun!)

I would also like to tell you a little bit about myself.  My name is Deidre Cooper but I go by Deedee.  My dad started calling me Deedee when I was a baby and it made my mom really mad.  Now she loves it.  HA!  I am very close to both my mom and dad.  They are divorced; however, they both live in the area.  I graduated in 1986 from BYU with a double major in Elementary Education and Early Childhood Education.  That makes me qualified to teach pre-school - 8th grade.  I think I've found my niche in the second grade though. I have taught pre-school, kindergarten and first grade in the past.  This is my fifth year in the second grade and my 12th at Galloway.  I graduated from Texas A and M Commerce in 2006 with my masters in Education.  

My husband Matt and I have been married for 27 years.  We lived in Utah then California until 1992.  Our first two children were born in California and our youngest in Dallas.  Our three daughters are 23, 21 and 19 years old.  They all went to Mesquite schools and graduated from Poteet High School. My oldest, Brienna, is now a hair stylist at North Park.   Traci is a senior and a speech pathology major at Baylor in Waco.  Keri is taking online classes from MCC (Waco) this semester and also works at Road House and American Eagle.   

My main "hobby" outside of school is animals. I have quite a few pets at home, too many if you ask even me.  We have rescued dogs, cats and guinea pigs and often are looking for a home for someone we just found.  Other than family and animals, school is my number one priority even in free time. I relax by looking on pinterest and other websites for ideas for my class.

This has gotten to be way too long so thank you if you have made it so far!  The secret word is "SCHOOL."  Your child will only know to tell me if you read this blog!

Thanks for sharing your child with me.  It's going to be a GREAT year!

Mrs. Cooper