What's the BUZZ in 2nd Grade??

Last Friday, as a culminating activity for Catholic Schools Week, students participated in a Spelling Bee (grades 4-8) and a Mini Bee (grades 1-3). The whole school was invited to watch as finalists from our classroom spelling bee competed against one another.
Our finalists were Hope, Jolie, Ryan Z and Sarah.

 Excited, nervous, and READY TO COMPETE!

 Spelling 3rd and 4th grade level words

 Sarah and Tess in the last round... competing for 1st place...

 Our first, second and third place finishers, along with Mrs. Harabedian!

Way to go 2nd graders! Sarah came in FIRST PLACE in the whole Mini Bee and Ryan tied for THIRD! Hope and Jolie did a fantastic job. I told the students how incredibly proud I was of them to even be able to stand up in front of the whole school to compete! I never could have done that at their age! (And I probably couldn't even do it now! I was nervous to just pronounce the words in the microphone!)

Catholic Schools Week

Here's the schedule of events for this week:

Monday: Muffins with Moms at 7:15 AM, Macaroni Box Collection (5 boxes per student) Spirit Dress if boxes are brought in
PARENT MEETING MONDAY NIGHT AT 6 PM TO DISCUSS CONCERNS/QUESTIONS WITH 200 DAY CALENDAR

Tuesday: Mass at 7:45 (led by 3rd and 6th grades)

Wednesday: Donuts with Dads at 7:15; DRESS AS YOUR FAVORITE SAINT DAY (prize for the best costume). SAINT COSTUMES OR UNIFORMS ONLY - NO FREE DRESS

Thursday: Schol Pride Day with Family Dinner in O'Malley Hal 5:30 - 8:0

Friday: Surprise Treat for the kids!

Spelling Bee Finalists!

Congratulations to the four finalists that will compete in the upcoming MiniBee next week:
~*Sarah Tupy*~
~*Ryan Zimmerman*~
~*Hope Beegle*~
~*Jolie Beegle*~

I must say we have a great group of spellers in our class! I had to break out the "dreaded" HARD CARDS with words like difference, scientist, and exciting! Great job spellers!

Geo-Fun!

Last week, students explored congruent shapes. We learned that congruent shapes have the same size and must be the same exact shape. The students worked with their desk buddies to make congruent shapes. I extended the lesson by teaching children about other polygons and what their prefixes mean - an OCTAGON has eight sides because OCTO means 8 (just like and OCTOPUS has eight legs). Students now call a "diamond" it's official name, a parallellogram, because it has a set of parallel lines. We had a great time! Here are some photos of the kids in action!

Nothing makes this teacher happier than seeing kids helping each other learn! :)

Think Like a Paleontologist!

On Tuesday, the students learned all about fossils and the importance of them to tell scientists about the past. We read from our book, discussed, and used a graphic organizer to help us remember all about fossils. On Wednesday, we put on our "Paleontologist Hats" and dug for "fossils"!

Here are our young paleontologists at work!!

 Our paleontologists used a pointed popsicle stick as their pic to help dig up as many chocolate chips or "fossils" without breaking them.

 All of the students worked so patiently and carefully to avoid damaging their precious fossils, just as a paleontologist would do if he or she were on a dig.

 Many students found over 40 chocolate chips fully entact!

Many cookies were left nearly entact as students dug out the chocolate chips.

We had so much fun during our dig! The kids learned so much and were so excited. I was so thrilled to hear them exclaim how much they wanted to do this again! Great job young paleontologists!

Great American Spell Check

Hi Parents!
It's been a while. The holidays were such an exciting time in our classroom...but now we're back to the daily grind.

The Great American Spell Check pledges are due on Wednesday. If every student submits at least one pledge, the students will be awarded no homework for an entire week! Wow! What an incentive! Please have your children find supporters other than their own parents. Thanks!

I will also pledge for each student in the class if he/she brings in a different pledge.

Our spelling test will be broken down into 2 tests of 25 words each. Students have had some of these words before. Once the test is completed in its entirety, students will take their tests home and collect the pledge money.

The student with the most pledges will earn a special reward!

Weekly Announcements

Happy Monday Parents~



Just a few announcements for the upcoming week:


there is NO mass tomorrow due to the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Holy Day of Obligation) on December 8th. Please have your children wear UNIFORM DRESS on WEDNESDAY, regular uniform tomorrow. Be sure to pack a PE uniform for students to change on Wednesday!


At the staff meeting on Thursday, we were asked to have the children write letters thanking our servicemen and women over seas. The children wrote sweet letters of thanks to our dedicated military. If you have the time or inclination, we are also having a small collection for care packages to be put together (I am not facilitating this, however I will be happy to pass on any donation). Some items of need/want are: gum, loofah (the "plastic" ones), candy (no chocolate) like licorice, slim jims, instant individual packs of coffee, and chapstick. Thank you in advance for any donations, and please don't feel obligated as this was last minute information.


Please remember to have your child do ONE spelling activity per night. A couple of kids are coming on Friday with no spelling homework completed and are receiving incompletes in my gradebook. The children are now free to choose any activity they'd like. They should not be doing the same activity every night or every week for that matter. Please make sure they mix it up.


Please check back for important emails from our room moms regarding upcoming Christmas activities in the classroom.


I will be sending home First Reconciliation packets with activities/booklets inside. Please complete these at your leisure over the next few weeks, but please be sure to do them. You are on the honor system! :) It's really important for the kids to see that their Sacramental year is important to you. Take a few minutes each night to complete the activities/discuss the major points. Thanks!


Finally, I apologize for the look of the report cards from the first trimester. The school had some issues with Cornerstone, the online gradebook company, and long story short they were not prepared for us to enter O, G, S, NI for the work study/behavior areas. I am going back this trimester to fill those in so that Trimester 2's report cards will look like last year's. They will show the missing grades in those areas. As for now, if there is an area of need, you will see a check (more like a "square root sign" as my husband pointed out) and if you see a + it means an area of strength. If you don't see anything, your child is doing fine in that area.






Have a great evening!


--