Usually I update this blog on Friday or Saturday, but I struggled all weekend with what I should even write about. It seemed like there was so much to be said and yet at the same time, I wasn't sure what to say. After spending the past 2 days in our classroom with your children, I saw so many things that made me realize that there really is so much good in the world and I thought that would be appropriate to share with you this week.

1. Your children come to school each day with huge smiles, ready and excited to learn. They are SO excited to be in school.

2. They express concern about a friend who isn't feeling well and make a card or offer a pat on the back.

3. They radiate SO MUCH excitement about tomorrow's Winter Celebration and the upcoming holidays.

4. They help each other when someone falls or drops something. Immediately. Without having to be asked to do this. They just LOVE to help.

5. The simple fact that they can read excites them SO much and they love to share their reading with others.

6. They see the good in everyone.

7.  They are thinkers and problem solvers. They get so excited when they have the opportunity to share their knowledge with someone else.

8. They take such pride in a job well done.

9. They are creative. They write stories, poems, and plays. They draw. They invent their own recess games. Their minds are always working.

10. They feel content and safe, both at home and in school, and it shows in the way they approach every day.

Enjoy the upcoming week off with your children!

Wishing you a happy and merry everything!
Heidi Richard

On Being Present...

     The stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas (Or if we're being really honest with ourselves, the stretch between Halloween and Christmas) is a tough time in the life of a second grader when it comes to fully paying attention. There are so many outside influences trying to temp their attention away. Candy! Parties! Gifts! Visits from friends and family! More gifts! More candy! All of these things make it really easy for young minds to wander during class. This week we read the book What Does it Mean to be Present? by Rana DiOrio and shared our text to self connections. We talked about listening with our whole bodies and really making sure that our brains were focused on what we were learning about at that moment. This is a great book because it talks about how just being in the classroom isn't enough, but that you actually have to be thinking about your learning and be engaged with the task at hand. This is something that we will be focusing on in the coming weeks as the noise of those holiday distractions becomes louder and louder in our minds.

    There were lots of awesome examples of students being fully present in their learning and friendships this week. I saw the whole class work together to write an incredible story about a snowman adventure (Be sure to check it out on the bulletin board across from our classroom if you're in the school this month!). I saw creativity shine as students created snowmen out of glue and shaving cream to go along with that story. There were students who put their heads together to solve a challenging math problem and others who noticed an error in that same problem and sat down with a friend to figure out where their computation went wrong. (Their excitement when they found and fixed their error was incredible!) There were kind friends who noticed a classmate having a bad day and took the time to write them an encouraging letter or to give them a pat on the back and invite them to play at recess. Everywhere you look in our school there are great examples of students being fully present and engaged in their learning. There are examples of students who are incredible friends and cheerleaders for their classmates. On any given day in our classroom and in our school there are lots of students who are fully present in the learning that they are doing, both academically and socially, and that, is simply amazing.

Introducing New Web Tools!

Today's kids are computer savvy from an early age.

Kids today are very comfortable with technology. They interact with it from a very early age and don't have the same degree of uncertainty when it comes to technology as many adults do. For kids, technology has always been a part of their lives. They don't know a life without it! This semester I am taking a graduate course on how to use new technologies in the classroom and I wanted to share a few of them with you.

Kid Blog:  Kid Blog is a great way for students to interact with one another around a given question or idea. When students log on to Kid Blog they are able to respond to a question posted by their teacher. This page is only viewable to those with passwords and all comments have to be approved by the teacher before they go live. These features help with the online safety of the site. We are using Kid Blog this year to have book discussions related to the comprehension strategies we are learning about in class. Since we are studying weather, we are also going to keep in touch with our classmate Saket, who is in India until January. He is going to keep us posted on the weather in India and we will tell him about the weather here in Massachusetts!

Ten Marks: In the coming weeks we will begin looking at an online program called Ten Marks. Ten Marks is a way to check in with students on skills we are learning in math class. Sometimes we will use Ten Marks in the classroom and sometimes I will send the link home as a homework assignment. This program will provide students with a series of 10-20 math questions and will be used to check in with students to see if they are able to independently apply the skills we are working on in class.

XtraMath and Fact Dash:  Both of these sites are great ways to practice your math facts. Math fact automaticity is incredibly important as we move towards solving larger addition and subtraction problems, and later as students move on to large multiplication and division problems. Students who have mastered their math facts have a much easier time with these skills. Some students dislike XtraMath because of the timer feature. If this describes your child, check out Fact Dash. In Fact Dash you have the option to turn the timer on or off, which makes it more comfortable for many students.

All of these sites are linked on the side of this blog. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you are having trouble logging into or using any of these sites and I'll be happy to help you out with it. Be on the lookout for login information for Ten Marks, which will be coming home with your student in about a week! Enjoy!