Mrs. Etchberger’s 2nd Grade Class

This week will be pretty hectic at Dabbs. On Monday I will not be in the classroom due to Jury Duty. On Tuesday, 3rd and 5th grade are taking the Math TAKS test. We will be going to Space Center Houston and Bay Area Park on Wednesday, and Thursday will also be 5th grade TAKS testing. Progress reports are scheduled to go home on Friday.

Info about Space Center Field Trip:

We will be leaving Dabbs approximately at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning. Please make sure that your child brings a lunch if you selected that on his or her permission slip and we will bring a sack lunch from the cafeteria for those that chose to purchase one.

We will be going to Bay Area Park first because Space Center does not open until 10:00 a.m. We will have a light snack there and head toward Space Center shortly before it opens. We plan on arriving back at Dabbs around 1:30.

Parents are more than welcome to join us. You may follow the buses to the park and to Space Center Houston. The cost of an adult ticket at the door is $18.95 I believe. You can check out the Space Center Houston website for further information and directions.

http://www.spacecenter.org/

I will be back on Tuesday, if you have any questions about the field trip, please call, email, or send a note. Have a wonderful week!

:o)

This week we are back in full gear and on our way to the 4th Nine-weeks.  Report cards will be going home this Friday.  In Science and Language Arts this week we are studying oviparous and viviparous animals.  Ask you child to list some of these animals for you.  In math we are discussing fractions.  It is important that your child can properly identify and label parts of a set and parts of a whole.  During the upcoming weeks we will be administering practice benchmarks in class.  The tests will be reviewed in class, but I encourage you to sit with your child and review ALL the questions (not just the ones he/she missed) and have your child explain why and how they chose his/her answer.  We will also continue working on reading passages, which will also increase in difficulty.  Review these passages with your child.  Answers to reading passages should be underlined, clearly bubbled, and have the paragraph number written next to the question.

If you have any questions about the work sent home, please feel free to call or send me an email.  You can reach me at aetchberger@dpisd.org or 832-668-8100 ext. 81225.

Hello Parents!!

We have a very busy week ahead of us.

On Tuesday there will be a TAKS Pep Rally held at Dabbs to pump up the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students. Tuesday will also be a crazy sock day, so please encourage your child to wear crazy or silly socks to school.

Wednesday, March 5 is 3rd and 5th grade Reading TAKS and 4th grade Writing TAKS. It is very important that the building be as quiet as possible to ensure the students have a calm and peaceful testing environment.

Thursday, March 6, from 8:30 - 11:00 we are going to the Outdoor Learning Center. A blue note was sent home on Friday with information regarding this field trip. Please sign and return the permission form by Tuesday, March 4. Your child will be eating a sack lunch on Thursday, it is an option to bring one from home, or I can make arrangements for a sack lunch to be provided by the school cafeteria and your child’s account will be charged. If you have any questions about the field trip, please feel free to email, call, or send a note with your child to school.

During the week we will be discussing famous inventors and their inventions in ELA and Social Studies. We will continue to review 2-digit subtraction with regrouping in Math, and in science, we will explore magnets and their properties.

I hope you have a great week!!    :o)

Wow, since we had Thanksgiving and our Winter vacation it’s time to slow down.  I did not keep the website up to date during that time since we were all so busy, but now we’re back to our normal daily schedules.  This week we took our first reading benchmark.  The students are aware of the grade they made.  On Wednesday, January 23, we will take our second math benchmark.  Your child should improve on their grade from the test in October.  Please continue to read with your child nightly, work on math facts, counting money, telling time, and discussing with them what they are doing at school.  The reading passages for the reading benchmarks are long, so it is important for your child to be accustomed to reading for a long period of time and answering questions about it.  After your child reads his/her story, ask them questions about it.  For example, why did the author write the story, what is the main idea, is there a cause and effect to the story, what is the difference between a fact and opinion, fiction/nonfiction.  Talking with your child will better prepare them to perform their best on the test in May. 

 There will not be any Word Study next week either due to the benchmark and the short week. 

 No school on Monday, January 21, 2008

There will be a game day on Friday, January 24, 2008.  Please send board games ONLY.  No electronic games will be allowed and will be taken up and returned at the end of the day. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Parents,

The bookfair will be at Dabbs this week.  Please do not send money with your child on Monday.  We will take a trip to preview the items they have for sale and they will be allowed to purchase items during the remainder of the week.

In the weeks to come, we will be taking a trip “around the world” to learn about the holidays and how they are celebrated in different countries.  We will also be reviewing coins, introducing how to count change up to a dollar, and trading in coins.  Extend these activities at home to strengthen your child’s knowledge of coin appearance and their values.  When learning to add the value of coins, we put “hairs”  on the coins.  Each hair is worth five cents.  So, a quarter would have 5 hairs and a dime would have two.  When you draw the hairs on the top of the coins, it makes it easier to count up the entire value once you have determined each coin and its worth.  Pennies stay bald because they are worth one cent.   Use this vocabulary at home with your child and have them explain it to you.  See how they do.

Parents,

I would like to wish you all a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving break.  Please continue to read with your child during this week.  The year is moving by quickly and the end of the 2nd nine-weeks is in January.  If you have any questions or concerns about something, please feel free to call or send an email.  Have a safe and relaxing and fun and wonderful break!  :o)

Parents,

I would like to apologize for neglecting my web page these past few weeks.   I am going to update my page this week with lots of reminders for the holiday break.  Please keep checking the page for updated information.  Have a great weekend!

Dear Parents,

I hope that you all are enjoying the blog site. You may have noticed that there is a hit-counter located at the bottom of the blog page. I enjoy seeing you all visit the site regularly. With that, I’m unsure how many parents are actually utilizing this website, so I am requesting that you post a comment or send me an email to let me know. I am requesting this action because it is convenient for me (and you) to communicate through this forum and we can save a few trees at the same time. I will still be sending Homework Logs home, as well as all Dabbs issued notes. I would like to post new information, as I did with the new Word Study format, on the blog site instead of sending a note home in your child’s Dragon folder. If you prefer a hard copy, please let me know when you send me a comment or email. I am taking a poll, so to speak, on your preferences as a parent. Would you rather have a hard copy sent home, view the new information on the blog site, or perhaps both? Thank you so much for your cooperation and have a wonderful Friday! :o)

Parents, the Scholastic book order that was sent home on Wednesday, October 3, will be due on Tuesday, October 9.  Please note that they do not accept cash and personal checks ARE accepted.