Welcome to First Grade!

Tonight is School Supply Drop-off and Meet the Teacher here at Galloway Elementary. I am so excited to meet my new students.  It's been six years since I have taught the First Grade.  I have also taught Kindergarten and most recently, Second Grade.

As I wait in my classroom for my new students and their families to arrive, I'd like to introduce myself.  I am originally from Sunnyvale, Texas.  I graduated from North Mesquite High School.  I went to Brigham Young University and graduated with a degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education.  I earned my Masters degree from Texas A and M Commerce in Education.

I have three daughters who all attended Mesquite schools.  My oldest is a hair stylist.  My second daughter is a senior at Baylor in Waco, and my youngest daughter is a sophomore at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.  My husband is an engineer and works in DeSoto, Texas.  We are learning to live as empty-nesters this year.

I am looking forward to a wonderful year teaching your children.  I will update on Monday after our first day of school!  Enjoy your weekend!

The Twelve Days of Christmas and party Dec. 20, 2013

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Christmas Bingo

We had a blast in the library on Thursday.  Our wonderful and creative librarian let us come in and play Christmas bingo.  It was a fun break from all our classroom work.

I'm not sure what the grumpy faces are all about!  They really were having fun!  We'll get to do something fun in the library every day (the rest of the month.)  Monday will be hot cocoa!

Be watching for Rodney the Reindeer to come to your home.  A book and a spiral notebook journal will come with him.  This is for fun and also for a language arts grade.  We will do this instead of regular comprehension homework.  Please be sure your child brings him back to school the very next day so every student will have a turn.  

Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl!

Love,
Mrs. Cooper

Galloway Family Night

Family Night will be next Wednesday November 20th from 4:30 - 6:00.  This night will only be for K- 2nd grade. 

You are invited to come to our classroom to play (classroom) games, see the kinds of activities that we do, visit and enjoy refreshments.  It will be a great time to see what we are working on and how we practice what we are learning.




Parents must be with their child for Family Night.  If a child does not have a parent present, they must go home.  This event is for that student only...no siblings. Upper grades will have their Family Night scheduled for a different date later on in the year.

Come enjoy the fun!

NO TUTORING ON TUESDAY (11-12-13)

I would love to come see my students play their sports and do their out of school activities.  If you would like for me to come, please send a copy of the schedule.  I can't promise that I will be there on a particular day but I will do my very best to come at some time.

Here are a few more pumpkin pictures.  

Hedgie in Hedgie Blasts Off

Mouse from Halloween Mice

Mouse, in If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

we save  up our recess for the week and take it all at one time,  We go out in the morning when there isn't anyone else out on the playground.  Sometmes we have free time in the classroom if the weather is too cold.  Fortunately we had at least one last beautiful day to go outside and play!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Love, 
Deedee Cooper

Class Memories so far

Happy Halloween!  I hope you enjoy the slideshow!  The boys and girls took such nice pictures with their character pumpkins that I was inspired to put this together for them. The projects were wonderful!  Everyone got to present theirs to the class.  I am expecting a few more tomorrow so we have more fun to look forward to.  Thank you for supporting your child with decorating the pumpkin and writing the report.  I do know that can be a lot of work. We are studying characters and their motivations and feelings at school so this project fits right in with our curriculum.   Have fun tonight! Deedee Cooper

Week 8 and 9

Galloway's Second Grade Teachers

Here we are waiting for the Hispanic Heritage Parade!

Galloway's dress in traditional hispanic clothes was a huge success...our classroom, well not as much but it was fun watching the parade.   The dresses were beautiful.  Here are a few pictures of some of our boys that I took.

This coming week is Red Ribbon Week (say no to drugs.)  There is a theme to what we can wear every day.

Monday: Wear as much red as possible.
Tuesday:  Hawaiian clothes
Wednesday: Neon or bling
Thursday: Mismatched or crazy socks
Friday:  "Say no to drugs" type shirts or a team shirt

Conferences are next week. I am looking forward to meeting with you to discuss your child's progress, needs and goals.  If you haven't signed up for a conference be watching for a note in your child's folder.

Our students who need reading acceleration do a computer program called i-station every day at school.  They take an assessment every month that I can use to plan other intervention as necessary.  Although only acceleration students do i-station at school, Mrs. Mingle has made it available to every second grader for home use!  You will get instructions on how to access the program online at our conference. Your child works at his own level and it's lots of fun!

Homework:  

Spelling:  Same as always.  Your child does get a grade for this and doing it also brings your child's test grade up to passing if he does not pass. DUE ON FRIDAYS!

Book: Most days, your child should bring a book home to either practice (read three times) or to read for twenty minutes.  The book should be returned to school in your child's folder every day!  We can not practice reading if the book is left at home.

Comprehension:  Your child will be taking home grade level reading on Mondays.  Your child should read the passage every night and do the comprehension activity assigned for that night.  Your child may need help reading and completing the homework but it is very important for reading and comprehension progress.  This homework is also DUE ON FRIDAYS.  The weekly assessment will be questions over that weekly reading.

Have a great weekend!  See you at conferences next week!