Ms. Earner's Blog

Happy Catholic School's Week! It was so nice seeing so many of you yesterday at church & in our room! We've been working really hard. I appreciate you stopping in. Because it is Catholic School's Week, we have so many fun & exciting activities planned. (Along with school work, of course!) The 15 spelling words are: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, about, different, father, important, & told. 4x each is homework. In phonics, we will discuss au & aw words today, and there will be a quiz tomorrow on vowel digraphs: aw, oo, ea, au. The 2 reading stories this week are "Birthday Joy" and "The Best Older Sister." The second story will be homework on Thursday night. Also, tomorrow is the last day of January. Almost all the kids are done with their accelerated reading, but I still have a couple that need to finish. Also, don't forget to turn in the reading sheets for Mrs. Funk's winter reading competition. Those should be turned in on Friday. We will have a social studies test on Thursday, February 2nd. The hard cover book along with a study guide will be going home tomorrow. The vocab. quiz will be on Friday. Some of the events for this week include:

Monday ~ crazy sock day & St. Rita band concert
Tuesday ~ backwards day (SJF uniforms) & partner reading in the afternoon
Wednesday ~ special lunch, jersey day (over SJF uniforms) & game day - students can bring in their favorite game to play
Thursday ~ crazy hat day & Jessie White tumblers
Friday ~ special performers coming in the afternoon for us

I think that is all!!! Stay tuned for updates, if need be. Sorry if I have forgotten anything. I can tell it's going to be a crazy week. Have a good one!

Mrs. Kellam

Good morning! We survived our first measurable snow fall this weekend. Hope your commute home wasn't too bad. This week in English we will be testing on verbs. The book & a study guide went home over the weekend. Many of the children said they had a chance to look it over before the test tomorrow. The book will be going home tonight as well. We'll also have a d.o.l. quiz on Friday. In phonics, we will test on r-controlled vowels, and begin learning about vowel digraphs ea, oo, au & aw. The 15 spelling words this week are fly, clean, sleep, free, grade, drive, train, please, slow, ago, better, head, idea & still. 4 x each is homework. The reading stories this week are: "Hear the Cheers" and "Great Ball Game." The "Great Ball Game" is the homework story on Wednesday night. The winter reading competition for Mrs. Funk has begun. Turn in those tally sheets each Friday. We are moving right along in math. Today we will add money. There will be a quiz tomorrow on adding 2 digit numbers & rounding to the nearest 10. There will also be a homework paper going home tomorrow as well. Wednesday we will add 3 numbers with or without regrouping, Thursday we will solve problems by guessing & checking, and Friday we will have a test! The test will cover: adding 2 digit numbers with & without regrouping, solve by guessing & checking, adding 3 numbers together, drawing coins to make a certain amount, round to the nearest 10 & solve, and use a chart to answer questions. Also, don't forget about the Mathletics! The kids are doing such a great job!!! In social studies, we will identify functions of government, talk about Thurgood Marshall, discuss how to vote for leaders, and obtain information from visual sources. Wednesday is the big day!!!! We are very excited for our Reconciliation! We'll be going over last minute details this week. Our time slot is 6:30. Please arrive a couple minutes early & wear your Sunday best! Finally, Sunday is Open House & 10am Mass. I hope to see you all there!!! Have a nice week!

Mrs. Kellam

"We Love Reading" Winter reading competition has begun! Parents should keep track of the pages your child has read or that someone reads to them. Each Friday I will tally the pages. Only those who bring their sheets back will count towards the total.

The teams are:
Preschool and 8th gr.
Kdg. and 7th gr.
1st and 4th gr.
2nd and 6th gr.
3rd and 5th gr.

The contest will end on Friday, February 24th.
Which Reading Team will win this year?
Thanks for your help with this :)

Mrs. Kellam

Happy Tuesday! I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend. We have a lot going on this week. In English, we are finishing the chapter on verbs. The test will be next Tuesday & Wednesday. More details will follow. The 15 spelling words are: boat, sheet, sack, spy, tea, ray, mask, lime, gold, jail, beautiful, become, even, great, & together. 4 x each is the homework tonight. We continue working with r-controlled vowels in phonics. (ir, er, ur) There will be a quiz Friday on high frequency words. For reading this week, we will have two stories & our unit skills test. The two stories are "A Good Laugh for Cookie" and "Moonbear's Pet." Moonbear's Pet will be the homework story tomorrow night. In math, we are continuing with 2 digit addition with & without regrouping. Please practice with your child at home. This can be very confusing for them. We'll have a quiz tomorrow on adding a multiple of 10 to a 2 digit number, read a table, addition / subtraction, even & odd numbers, and ordinal numbers. (1st, 2nd, 3rd ...) Don't forget about our Mathletics requirements. The quiz grade for the previous week will be written in your child's planner each Monday. Since we didn't have school yesterday, I wrote it today. So far, so good!!! We will discuss functions of a government this week in social studies. We are getting closer & closer to Reconciliation!!! We will finish Making Things Right before the big day. This week, we will also begin cursive writing! This is very exciting for the kids! Finally, we are still collecting Sunny D labels for books. If you have any, can you send them in with your child? Thanks so much! Have a great week.

Mrs. Kellam

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you all had a nice holiday, and are back in the swing of things. Here's what we are working on the first full week back...in english, we will finish our unit on verbs. The test will be on January 24th & 25th. More details to follow. We'll also have a d.o.l. quiz on Friday. The 15 spelling words are cook, sick, cave, kiss, rock, cake, kick, lock, look, luck, bring, brought, next, picture & read. 4 x each is the homework tonight. There will be a quiz on consonant digraphs, and silent letters in phonics, and we will begin discussing r-controlled vowels. Our 2 stories for reading this week are "Four Clues For Chee" and "Young Cam Jansen and the Dinosaur Game." The homework story Wednesday night is Young Cam Jansen. Remember, we have begun a new month, which means 4 stickers for accelerated reading. Please see Mrs. Funk before or after school if you are having trouble finding books. We will have our math test tomorrow on chapter 7. The test will include telling time, reading a calendar, use a graph to answer questions, and addition & subtraction problems. We will begin 2 digit addition on Wednesday. Don't forget about the Mathletics! The kids have been doing such a great job! Starting next week, a weekly quiz grade will be assigned based on how many points they've earned. In social studies, we begin chapter 4. We will discuss main idea, details, identify functions of government, describe how governments establish order, and read a table. We continue working in our Making Things Right book in Religion. Also, our time for Reconciliation is at 6:30p on January 25th. A note went home Friday with specifics. Also, it's posted on my blog.

** Special lunch is Wednesday
** NO SCHOOL Monday for MLK
** Because we are about ½ way through the year, many children are saying they are running low on supplies: pencils, erasers, journals, crayons...please check with your child to see if you need to "re-stock" their inventory!

Have a wonderful week!!!
Mrs. Kellam

Dear First Reconciliation Parent,
Your child's First Reconciliation has been scheduled for Wednesday, January 25, 2012. We will have two sessions, at 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., for the second graders in our school and the Children's Faith Formation program. The first session will include Mrs. Kellam's and Mrs. Paluch's homerooms The second session will have the students in Mrs. Nitsche's homeroom and Mrs. McGlinchey's C.F.F. class.
Parents and children should come to church a few minutes early and sit close to the front. We will begin with a short prayer service led by our parish priests. Next the children will have the opportunity to receive the sacrament individually. We will conclude the prayer service with a final prayer and blessing.
We strongly urge that you make this a special night for you and your child receiving the sacrament by leaving younger or older brothers and sisters at home. It is also a nice idea to celebrate afterwards by going out for ice cream, or planning a little dessert treat at home for a family celebration.
We hope this is a moment of special graces and blessings for your family as your child takes this next step in his or her faith development on Wednesday, January 25th.

Sincerely,

Sister Jean Ms. Chermak Mrs. Kellam Mrs. McGlinchey

Mrs. Nitsche Mrs. Paluch

Schedule, Wednesday, January 25, 2012:
6:30 p.m. - Children in Mrs. Kellam's and Mrs. Paluch's homerooms *
7:30 p.m. - Children in Mrs. Nitsche's homeroom and Mrs. McGlinchey's C.F.F. class*

If you have any questions, please call Ms. Chermak at (773)238-1851 or e-mail at echermak@sjfschool.net.
P.S. Please respect the solemnity of this event by not photographing your child as he or she is making his or her first confession.

* Parents with two or three second graders may choose the session to attend if their children are assigned to different homeroom times.

Wishing you & your family a VERY Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Hope to see you all on Christmas Eve :)

Love,
Mrs. Kellam

Happy Monday! Only 13 more days until Christmas :) Can you believe it? I hope you are finished with your shopping. Or, if you are like me, you still have a lot to do. Good luck!

I do apologize about the blog for last week. I did have it done, but just noticed today that I didn't post it. Sorry about that. As for this week, we will work in our grammar book in english class. We'll have our 6th d.o.l. quiz on Friday. The 15 spelling words are: my, try, mile, cry, fry, nice, by, sky, fine, dry, across, best, either, sometimes, and toward. 4 x each is the homework. In phonics, we will discuss words that end with le today. There will be a quiz tomorrow on compound words, and y as a vowel. Wednesday we will go over words with silent letters, and finish the week discussing initial and final digraphs. The two reading stories this week are "New Best Friend" and "Wanted: Best Friend." The homework story on Wednesday night will be "Wanted: Best Friend." Please sign the planner after your child has read it. Just a reminder that your child will need 4 Accelerated stickers for December. Many kids are already done with this, but let me know if you or your child isn't sure how many they have. In math, we finished our chapter on money, and started with time. If your child still isn't counting money that well, keep practicing at home with real coins. Also, there are some good websites on our home page under 2nd and 3rd grade that they might enjoy. Telling time can be tricky as well. This week, we'll go over elapsed time, tell time to 5 minutes, and half hour. There will be a homework paper going home tomorrow night. Also, we will have a quiz on Wednesday. It will be on telling time, elapsed time, count by 5's & 10's, addition/subtraction problems, and counting money. Keep up the good work with Mathletics! The kids are doing such a wonderful job!!! In social studies, we will finish chapter 3 this week. There will be a test before Christmas. Date is TBD. I'll keep you posted. The kids will be taking home their book to study, and they'll have a study guide and practice test. In religion, we continue talking about Advent and also moving on in Making Things Right. I think that is all for now...

Have a great week!
Mrs. Kellam

Wishing you and your family a wonderful & relaxing Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for. For me, teaching and having an opportunity to help your children grow and learn is one thing I am very thankful for!

I decided to get a head start on the blog for next week. But, please stay tuned for updates, in case I have forgotten something...

The 15 spelling words are safe, day, rain, say, play, ate, stay, save, may, wait, been, friends, show, since, & those. 4 x each will be the home on Monday. In phonics, we will review l, r, s and final blends. There will be a quiz Tuesday on high frequency words, and we'll test Wednesday on initial and final blends. We will begin syllables on Thursday and Friday. We continue working on verbs in English. So far, so good! There will be another d.o.l. quiz on Thursday, December 1st. (We do NOT have school on Friday the 2nd because of a faculty in-service.) The 2 reading stories are "How I Beat the Giants" & "Play Ball." "Play Ball" is the homework story next Wednesday night. Please sign the planner after your child has read the story aloud. Also, just a reminder that next week is the end of November. If you are unsure or would like to know how many stickers your child has, just let me know. In math, we will have a quiz Monday on counting money, find all the ways to make a given amount, count by 5's & 10's, and use the graph to answer questions. We will continue to work on money by identifying the fewest amount of coins, using different coin combinations equal to $1, and showing different amounts of money. There will be a test on this chapter the week of December 5th. Thanks for all your extra practice at home with the kids counting change! This is a huge help!!! Also, the kids seem to LOVE our new mathletics program. Keep up the good work! One of our students has over 8,000 points already. Great job! For social studies, I will explain income, and how we buy goods and services, and we'll discuss how people make choices, identify people who provide services to our community. Finally, we continue to work in our Making Things Right book. Reconciliation will be here before you know it! As always, let me know if you have any questions, or concerns.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!!!

Love,
Mrs. Kellam

Happy first day of the 2nd trimester! Just a reminder that report cards will be going home this Friday. I have talked with the kids about how today is a fresh start. I'm very happy with their efforts so far. Keep up the good work! This week, we'll be working on verbs in English. The 10 spelling words are cove, dead, sung, hate, salt, grip, tank, hall, flap, & ink. 4 x each is homework. We will review blends in phonics and quiz Thursday on initial and final blends. In math, we finished chapter 4. The test is tomorrow on rounding to the nearest 10, least to greatest, adding and subtracting, writing number sentences, which number is greater / less, even & odd numbers, tens and ones, and using a graph to answer questions. Chapter 6 is on money, which we'll begin Wednesday. Please practice counting coins at home to help the children along. In social studies, we will start chapter 3 "Working Together." We'll begin discussing the sacrament of Reconciliation and use our "Making Things Right" book to help us understand this sacrament. (Reconciliation is scheduled for Wednesday, January 25th. Time is TBD.) On Thursday, there will be STOP, DROP and READ. Please make sure that your child has at least one book with them to read during this time. Finally, there will not be any pizzas available during lunch until further notice. I'm looking forward to meeting with you all on Monday. Conference slips are going home today with the youngest child. If you have any questions, or need to reschedule, please let me know. Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Kellam