A Great Start!

We have had a great start to our year! Students are remembering to fill each other's buckets and are working hard every day to move their clip up. This week students learned about the weather in science, counting up and back to solve addition and subtraction problems in math, and enjoyed reading our weekly story. Next week in math, students will learn how to work through word problems. We will be reading one of my favorite stories, Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea, and in science, we will be looking at how weather affects people and animals. We will continue to practice our classroom and school rules and we will continue to go over expectations. I was so proud of my students today during a spelling game. When classmates got out, many students said, "Nice try!" and "It's okay!" I'm so happy to have a class full of encouraging, kind students! Students have also been great about turning in homework. Here's our homework schedule: Mon- Math, Spelling, Tues- Math, Spelling, Wed- Read 10 minutes, Spelling, Thurs- Math, Spelling. Math is due the next day and the entire spelling packet is due on Friday. Students will also have a spelling test and comprehension test on Fridays.

We are working as a grade level team to determine the needs of our students. As we work with them and pre-assess them, we will group students accordingly to meet individual needs in the classroom. I know all students learn in different ways and on different levels. I will work hard this year to help every student move forward!

A student in the education program at NKU will be joining us starting next week a couple days a week! I'm excited to have extra hands in the classroom, and I know students will love to have another friendly face around.

Thank you so much to parents willing to volunteer! It's amazing to me the difference a little extra help can make! I appreciate it so much!!

Please work with your child on continuing to follow classroom expectations and rules, specifically not talking while I am talking. I know it will be a process, and we will continue to practice following expectations daily.

Thanks for working with me this year! I know it's going to be a great one!

Mrs. Zink

Welcome to the 2012-2013 school year!!

It was so wonderful getting to meet such amazing students and parents last night at Ready-Fest!! I am looking foward to a great year, and I'm excited for all of the wonderful things that will happen in second grade! There are some changes taking place that will help to make our year even better!

This year, we will be talking about bucket-fillers. Bucket fillers are those who say and do things to build others up. When you do those things, it also fills your own bucket. Bucket dippers are those who say and do unkind things to others. Those people have empty buckets. Each student has a bucket that they will be able to fill when they do something kind for someone else. They can also fill someone's bucket by writing them a kind note. So here is to having all of our buckets full! We will be having an assembly on the first day of school to introduce these ideas to students.

Also new this year is our behavior clip chart. Every morning, students start on the green, ready to learn. Throughout the day, they have the change to move up towards super students, or down to teacher's choice or parent contact. This system allows for students to redeem themselves through the day if they have to clip down in the beginning of the day for some reason. Class rewards will be given to those who repeatedly have great days! Both the fill the bucket and clip chart are school-wide, which will make it nice if students switch to a different class for reading or math time during the day. Consistency is a great thing!

I am going to try my best to keep this blog current this year with the latest news and updates from our classroom, as well as what we are learning. Here's to a wonderful year!! Let's make the most of it!! Can't wait to see all of my students on Wednesday!! Enjoy these last few days of summer break, but look foward to an awesome year!