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

April 3, 2012

Wow, I've been horrible about updating this blog.  If you check the blog, send me an email at dcooper@mesquiteisd.org.   I would love to know if anyone reads this!

Today in Science we experimented with balance.  Check out the video!  (will be added later) The students have popsicle sticks taped to their desks and are using wire and clothespins (counter-weights) to try and balance their pencil.  It's harder than it looks but in the end most of the students were able to do it.  One thing is for sure...this class LOVES Science. I'm sure the entire school could hear us.  HA! I apologize to Myrra and Bridgett for not coming 'round to their table with my camera.

In Social Studies we are still learning about producers and consumers.  This week we will start New Technology.  Our reading strategy for the week is inferring.  We've gotten to read a lot of fiction stories lately and next week we will be back to non-fiction/expository.  We will be doing research online as well as using books.  I haven't decided what exactly we will research yet but I have some ideas floating around in my head!  We have worked on graphing, both getting and organizing information and making graphs as well as reading a graph.

The past two days have been STAAR testing for 4th and 5th grades.  We've done our part to keep the building quiet so the testers can do their very best work. I  know we will all welcome recess and PE tomorrow!

PTA PROGRAM!  Second Graders perform on Tuesday, April 9 at 7 p.m.  I hope you can be here!  The songs are adorable and I know these kiddos will make a wonderful program!  Please send in the green permission forms ASAP.  They won't be allowed on-stage without it!

The field trip to Majestic Theater and KidsQuest was fun.  I appreciate the parents who came to help.  Weren't we fortunate for such a beautiful day?!

January 28, 2013

Here we are in the 20th week of school.  We have been studying different types of folktales such as fables and folktales.  This week we learn about myths.  We are learning about 2 and 3 dimensional geometric figures in Math.  Today we  made 3-d figures out of toothpicks and DOTS.  The students said, "THIS is WORK?!"  I hope the activity helped to cement the idea of faces, edges and vertices into their minds.

Our spelling patterns for the week are spelling long o spelled with oa or ow.  Words:  boat, loaf, road, coach, toast, soap, snow, own, know, grow, flown and rainbow.  Spelling homework is the same as the past few weeks and is due on Friday.  If you have any questions let me know.  One clarification I need to make is for Thursday's homework.  If you don't have any magazines, newspapers or even junk mail (ads) for your child to use the letters from, he/she may write the words that were missed on Wednesday's practice test/homework.  If no words were missed on the practice test your child does not have Thursday spelling homework.  BUT I do want Wednesday's practice test along with the rest.  Again, let me know if you have any questions!

If you have not already done so, please send your child's field trip paperwork and money (in cash) this week.  We have to pay for the tickets in advance and our deadline is approaching quickly.

There have been a few changes to our Galloway Elementary website.

www.mesquiteisd.org/galloway/

Mrs. Cooper

December 21, 2012

We have a lot of fun at our party today!
We ate pizza, chips, fruit in cups and string cheese!

There was so much food but we stuffed ourselves!  When we were done we started over but this time with goodies!

Then it was time for the book exchange!  

It was fun having so many family members at our party!  
I appreciate all of the parents, brothers and daughters (MINE!) who came and helped out at our party.  It was wild and crazy but seriously one of the calmest I've ever had. I know that was due to the fact that I had so much help!  Thank you!

I also so appreciate all of the goodie bags, chips and other food items that were sent.  We had plenty of food and more than enough to share.  I'm glad I ordered an extra pizza because one of them was burnt! Oh well, ask your child...we had so much fun we didn't even miss it!

Thanks for all of the Christmas gifts.  I wasn't able to open most of them at school but your thoughtfulness touches my heart.  There were several gifts that didn't show who they were from.  Let me know if your child doesn't get a thank you note in the mail and I will send one.  I am truly thankful for everything.

My daughter was too shy to take many pictures at the party so if you have any that you wouldn't mind me sharing on the blog, please email them to me!  Thank you!

Love, Mrs. Cooper

dcooper@mesquiteisd.org

Candy Bar Reindeer by Mrs. Cooper's class

Just because we are learning doesn't mean we can't have a little fun every once in a while!

This free slideshow design generated with Smilebox

Insect Fun!

MealwormCare.org

December is here and we are busy in the second grade.  This week and last week we have been learning about living things.  In our classroom we have mealworms and are observing them as they go through their life cycle.  As your child about the stages and what kind will it finally become!  Today we found out some interesting yet gross things about mealworms.  Ha!  I think they loved it (most of them!) 

In Reading we have been learning about types of media; media that we listen to, view and/or read.  We are learning about adverbs in English and addition/subtraction with and without regrouping (carrying and borrowing) in Math.

We are having a blast in the library with the Twelve Days of Christmas activities that Mrs. Sadler has prepared for the whole school.  Yesterday the students made an advent calendar, and today they made a nutcracker ornament.  As I said in the note sent home yesterday, your child will need to bring any kind of chocolate bar and a mug by Monday.  I can't wait to see what the best librarian in the world has in store for us!

Our Christmas party will be December 21 at 10:15.  Parents are welcome to attend but keep in mind there will not be goodies for siblings or parents.  Please send $3 to cover the cost of two slices of pizza, soda, cups and plates.  If you would like your child to participate in the chapter book gift exchange, send a wrapped book that says "from _________" but does not say who it's for.  We will do some kind of a fun activity to pass out the presents.  

We need other goodies and items for our Christmas party.  A list of choices was sent home yesterday.  So far we have ice, juice boxes and fruit cups.  I will send home an updated list of needed items next week to those who have not yet made a choice.  Please send everything in the morning of the party (or earlier that week if it's non-perishable) and not when you get here.  Thanks!  Hope to see you here!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Second graders began learning to add and subtract two digit numbers today!

Happy Days to us all!  It's a short week!  I hope everyone has a fun break from school.  We still have lots of learning to pack into two days though.

First of all:  NO TUTORING ON NOVEMBER 20 (tomorrow.)

This is what we are learning this week and next week.

Reading: Expository Text Structure/ Procedural Text structure
Math: 2 digit addition
Science:  Earth's Resources/Living and Non-living
Spelling:  No spelling words until next week;  r controlled vowels:  -ar, -or, -oar, -ore
Social Studies:  Pilgrims/ Thanksgiving this week and Columbus next week

Please notice the hard workers in the today's picture.  The students were focused, listened and started to pick up the concept of re-grouping.  We have LOTS more hands on work before we start re-grouping abstractly (on paper.)  It was so much fun and very rewarding for me!

Enjoy the extra time!

Deedee Cooper