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Thursday, July 10, 2014

Welcome to Second Grade!


Welcome to another fantastic year at Gordon L. Willson Elementary.  I am honored to be your child's teacher this year, and I cannot wait to get started. In second grade your child will experience reading, writing, and math through a workshop model. This design allows me to meet the needs of our diverse classroom through small group and individualize instruction. Second graders will also spend time conducting science experiments, exploring our community and learning about the world through music and art.  Be sure to ask your child what they have been studying. We welcome you to be a part of our virtual classroom via Instagram, Twitter and by subscribing to our blogposts.

Click here to view the Open House Newsletter.



Saturday, January 18, 2014

Lately...

This kids have been traveling the U.S. and learning about some of our national symbols and monuments. So far the class has traveled to Pennsylvania, New York, Washington D.C. and St. Louis, Missouri. While visiting St. Louis, the students went on a school-wide scavenger hunt in search of missing Louis and Clark travel logs.  They worked in small groups, took turns reading directions and used a compass on the iPad to help them find the way.









Yesterday, we traveled 972 miles to Keystone, South Dakota and talked about the ways transportation has changed over time.  We also learned why people chose to travel out west and discovered that the promise of gold motivated many pioneers to head to South Dakota.  So, we purchase a small mine and then tried panning for the precious metal.  Here is what we discovered!




















We will visit Mount Rushmore on Monday and Tuesday, and then make our way back to Wisconsin. Look for our souvenir suitcases to come home soon, and listen to us tell you all about the things we learned!



Saturday, September 21, 2013

Woot! Woot! 100 Coupons!

We will be having our first Wild Cat celebration!  The students have collectively earned 100 coupons and have chosen to bring in a favorite toy or stuffed animal for the day.  They have been practicing appropriate hallway, bathroom, cafeteria, and playground behaviors all week.  Congratulate them for a job well done!

Have a great weekend!


Saturday, September 14, 2013

We had a GREAT first week!

Whew!  We made it through our first full, crazy hot, week!  I cannot tell you in words how proud I am of your amazing children.  It was tough to stick it out when the afternoon temps began to climb, but they did it!  

The word of the week was "Practice"!  We worked on fine tuning our routines and we are on our way to becoming very independent workers.  We also worked on practicing our "Cool Tools".  The Cool Tools are what we use when we walk in the hallways, line up, visit the lunchroom and so on.  When your child is caught using the Cool Tools they earn a Wild Cat Coupon.  The class collects the coupons and once we reach 100 we will have a celebration.  As of Friday morning we had 74, so we are almost there!  

The students may have felt like the word of the week was "Testing".  There is so much data to collect at the beginning of the year, and the students were real troopers.  Please look for a yellow conference sheet that came home on Friday.  During this conference we will look at your child's data and create learning and behavior goals for the year.  

Be on the look out for an official parent volunteer letter.  Once we are through with our testing next week, I'll be looking for a few volunteers to help out in our classroom, especially during our literacy block and in the computer lab.  If you are available from 12:30-1:30, then please keep us in mind.  This will be our greatest are of need.  *Please be sure to have a Volunteer Background Check on file in the office.  If you need a form, send me an e-mail, or write a note in your child's HOME folder.  

For those of you who are following on Instagram, and eagerly awaiting pictures of our classroom happenings, I'll be uploading soon.  I am still waiting on a few forms to come back from parents saying it is okay for the pictures to be made available on the web. 

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Welcome!

Welcome to another fantastic year at Gordon L. Willson Elementary.  I am honored to be your child's teacher this year, and I cannot wait to get started. In second grade your child will experience reading, writing, and math through a workshop model. This design allows me to meet the needs of our diverse classroom through small group and individualize instruction. Second graders will also spend time conducting science experiments, exploring our community and learning about the world through music and art.  Be sure to ask your child what they have been studying. We welcome you to be a part of our virtual classroom via Instagram, Twitter and by subscribing to our blogposts.



Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Book Orders



You can order books throughout the year.  
Just click on the link below to view the Scholastic Book catalogs and place your order online.


                                                                                           


Our classroom's access code is MQJX4.


All orders will be shipped to the school.