Veteran's Day

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At Wayne School we celebrate Veteran's Day in a special way. Veterans are invited to our school for a performance. Each grade level sings a song they have practiced for weeks in music class. The gym is decorated and scouts present the flag. After, the veterans visit our classrooms and tell us about their experiences in the military.

STARS lunch

Our first STARS lunch of the year. The students were rewarded for going above and beyond. They used their time wisely by doing lots of extra research. We ate a lot of pizza!

Pictograph Stories

The students are learning about the Native American culture. Through a variety of fiction books the students have learned how much they value nature. The students created pictograph stories that contain words and pictures. Many of their stories were similar in themes to the stories we read.

Outdoors!

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Thank you for collecting so many BoxTops! Our class turned in the most and won a recess outdoors. It was great taking a break from the classroom and playing!

Mental Math Practice

The students practiced adding double digits mentally while shopping! It's interesting to hear the students share their strategies for adding numbers quickly without a calculator or paper and pencil.

Happy Halloween

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Thank you parents for a fabulous event!

Mystery Reader

We were so lucky to have another mystery reader! Cheyenne's mom shared with us two wonderful stories! The first one taught us a lesson on being polite. The second one was a version of Cinderella that taught us about the Native American culture. It was a fascinating story. We made connections to how it is like the fairy tale we know so well and yet different in many ways. Thank you for sharing amazing stories with us!

Senior Year

My son Greg was named captain of the Bradley Braves 2014 baseball team. It is hard to believe he is a senior. It feels like just yesterday he was in second grade! I'm counting down to the opening of spring season!

Book Fair

Thank you PTW for putting together a fabulous book fair! Our class loved seeing all the books on display and the Eqyptian theme. We were so excited to be gifted with so many new books for our classroom too!

Nature Dan

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Thank you parents for supporting a visit from Nature Dan from the Bartlett Park District. He spent almost two hours with us teaching us many new facts about insects and sharing some of his favorite creatures with us!

I Mustache You A Question!

Collecting data was so fun as we asked..."I mustache you a question." The students created their own survey, collected data, and represented it in a bar graph. The information learned was very interesting and the pictures were hysterical!

Buddy Writing

Sometimes we buddy write in our class. Students were recently challenged to write a story about a nonliving thing and tell a story from its point of view. We chuckled when we heard the story about the stapler who had a bad back from being pressed down on so much and no one ever said thank you for all the hard work it did!

Stars of the Stage

Who is hiding behind these costumes? ...some of our favorite actors from room 3! How fun it is to bring a story to life with costumes, actions, and great voices! Every week our class enjoys a performance from a new group of students.

Pounds VS Ounces

We experimented with a spring scale to understand the difference between a pound and an ounce. Most of our predictions about what weighed a pound were wrong! Once we learned what a pound felt like, we were very good at predicting how many ounces items weighed that were less than a pound. We thought of many uses for using a spring scale.

Mystery Reader

Rachel's mom was a mystery reader! She read The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg. It was a very clever story about a pencil who draws a boy, a cat, a dog, and world for them to play in. It also draws a paint brush which brings everything to life until the eraser causes trouble! We all loved the story!

Wayne Rockathon!

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Thank you parents for your tremendous support! The Rockathon was a blast and a great way to celebrate our community of learners, parents, and teachers at Wayne School!

Butterflies

We have butterflies!  We were shocked at how fast our larvae got fat and turned into a chrysalis.  One of our observant students noticed a butterfly emerging.  It was amazing!  It was many hours until its wings were dry and it was able to flutter in the cage.  A painted lady only has a life span of 2-4 weeks.  We will be keeping our butterflies well taken care of and enjoy observing their colors and behaviors.

Mystery Reader

Our first mystery reader came to second grade.  Thank you Mrs. Krueger for sharing such a fun book with us!  The students enjoyed learning what you loved to read in second grade.  Thanks for visiting our class!

Reading With Expression!

We practice reading with expression using our poetry binders.  We learn how to read with rhythm and express the punctuation in our voice. 

 We also love Piggie and Elephant books.  We choose a character to be and use our voice to show the emotions and personality of the character.   

   

Learning About Frogs

We have a frog expert in our classroom!  The students had so much fun learning about frogs.  They  researched all about frogs and wrote our first informational report.  During our studies we enjoyed Frog and Toad books and learned about character traits.  It was fun observing real frogs, reading nonfiction and fiction books about them, and singing frog songs!

Our Math Scroll Winners!

The students were challenged to work on a number scroll whenever they had a free moment from their daily work.  Our winners got into the 1.000s.  Congrats to our hard workers!

Check out a day in our second grade classroom...

Today was the first day of the new year!  It is so exciting to have a new group of students!  I have so many new ideas I can't wait to share with my new favorite second graders.  Check in often to see some of our learning adventures!

Summer Reading

Did you join your library's summer reading program?  I did!  I'm looking forward to lots of new adventures from books!

Good Bye...

It is hard to believe the year is at an end.  I was blessed with an amazing group this year.  I am so proud of their accomplishments.  They made me smile each and every day!

Olympic Math Day!

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Check out our math olympic day!

Field Day!

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We had a great day at field day!  The students loved all the challenging events.  Some of our favorites were the parachute, rope pull, and bucket fill.  We were so lucky the weather held out and we got to have a fun day outdoors.

Reading Celebration

Our class participated in the Accelerated Reader program.  There was an incentive to read 20 or more books and successfully pass the quizzes to be invited to a reading celebration.  Our class had the most particpants.  We had 21 students attend the party and the top 3 readers were from our class!  I am so proud of my favorite second graders!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms from room 3!  I had a special day at Bradley University where moms threw out the first pitch to their sons. 

Creating Treasure Maps

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Check out our pirate day in second grade!  The students had to use their knowledge of map keys, symbols, and directions to create a map.  They hid treasure (bubble gum) and traded maps with other pirates.  The students enjoyed dressing the part as they went on their quest for finding buried treasure!

Junior Achievement

Thank you Mrs. Busto for teaching the Junior Achievement program.  The students loved voting on a new business for our community.  They did a wonderful job learning how unit and assembly production work.  I enjoyed seeing them earn money but have to pay taxes too!  It was a great experience for our young citizens.

Click Clack Moo comes to Broadway!

Mrs. Berndt was our professional play director this year.  She has a special talent for teaching students to be performing stars.  Each week we were entertained with fabulous stories!

Thank You Parents!



I am so blessed to be with such incredible families at Wayne Elementary!  During Teacher Appreciation week, I was so overwhelmed with their kindness!  I was gifted with beautiful flowers, special treats, and notes that I will cherish forever!   

Get Ready For Summer Reading!

The Bartlett Library visited us to tell us about their summer reading program.  They shared lots of great new books with us.  Did you know you earn prizes too?  I am so excited to read this summer!  Be sure to check in at the library to sign up for the summer reading program!

Amelia Bedelia Fashion Show

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Amelia Bedelia is always getting so confused by what people say. You have to be careful how you speak or she may not understand you. When she hears it is raining cats and dogs she really thinks those animals are coming from the sky. Our annual fashion show featured many silly fashion ideas that would confuse Amelia Bedelia. A turtleneck would have real turtles and tennis shoes would have those bouncing balls on them. Check out the creativity from our class in the video!

Air

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Did you know air is fun to play with? The students have learned so much about air by just "experimenting" with it. They observed it is invisible, a force that can move things, and it can compress and create pressure. The students are understanding how air is an important part of our weather.

Writers Fair

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Every year Wayne has a writers fair where our students show off some of the work they have done in class. During this time the students get to view work done by other classes. They also visit the Scholastic Book Sale in our library.

Readers Theater

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My favorite story tellers learned to turn a favorite story into a readers theater play. They worked hard to create props and learn their parts using expressive voices. The class was very entertained by the wonderful story telling and creative ideas!

History Makers

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The students have been reading a variety of biographies. They had to choose one history maker that they wanted to complete a research project on. They created a timeline of the persons life, a written report, and a portrait. They also had to bring in an artifact that reminded them of their history maker. Can you guess why the props in the pictures go with each famous person?

Valentine's Day

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It was a very special Valentine's Day in room 3. Thank you parents for creating such a wonderful celebration!

Creating Rolling Systems

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Balance and Motion

Balancing is tricky! We learned you need counterweight and weights pulling down with gravity. We created stablilty with a variety of objects.

New Year School Resolutions

What is your new year resolution? We made lots of great resolutions for second grade. Some pledge to read more, pass more math fact tests, keep their desk more organized, or do more STARS for extra research. 2013 will be a great year!