The End Is Here :(

I literally CANNOT believe that this is the last week of school!!  It is bittersweet in so many ways... I am going to miss these sweet babies SO much, and the thought of not being their teacher anymore seriously brings tears to my eyes.  The only sweet part about it for me is that I get rejuvenate.  You see, the thing about teachers (and if you are one then you already know) is that we MUST have a break in order to continue thriving as educators.  Next year will be my third year as a classroom teacher (fourth year teaching total) and I am so thankful for all I have learned from this year with your children - I feel comfort in knowing that I will be a better teacher next year (and years to come!) because of them :)  And lastly, I want to thank you - for being such wonderful parents to your children and supporters of me as their teacher.  I consider myself extremely lucky to have not only had your child as my student, but YOU as a partner :)

Enough with the sappiness!!  Here is our final (I know I said enough!) newsletter for the year :(  But on a happier note, here are some pics of the memory tents they created :)

We will continue with our camping theme until Tuesday.  And on Tuesday, we will be creating solar ovens to make s'mores in!  I don't know who is more excited about this - me or the kiddos!! :)

Enjoy your week!!

-Ms. Cothran

Better Late Than Never!

Sorry for the late post - a very close friend's dad passed away and I found out Sunday evening that the funeral would be yesterday, which caused me to be absent yesterday and just off in general.  But, here is this week's newsletter!

Last week was a very exciting (and exhausting!) week!  We had Field Day, the Boosterthon Fun Run, AND Statham Stampede - but I know for a fact the kids really enjoyed it :)  Here are a few pictures from our crazy, fun week:

Enjoying some water games on this hot Field Day in their bright orange :)

Mr. Hammarlund getting pied in the face (I couldn't resist posting!)

Another hot, hot day at the Boosterthon Fun Run - sorry for the disoriented photo (camera phone problems!)

I hope you all have a great week!!

Busy, Busy Bees

I will start with providing you with this week's newsletter.  We have a very busy, but exciting week ahead of us!  Monday (tomorrow) is our field day - as mentioned in the ClassDojo message, students will need to dress appropriately for this - gym/play shorts, tennis shoes, etc.  Please DO NOT send your child in jeans and/or flip flops - we will be outside in the heat all day and running around so they would be miserable :(  Students will be allowed to change into their field day shirts when they arrive and then return them to me at the end of the day so I can take them home to wash and bring back for the fun run on Thursday.  This is to ensure all students have their shirts for both events and then they will be able to take them home :)  For field day, I will provide sunscreen and a snack, but if you could send a towel and a water bottle with your child, that would be great!  Also a change of clothes wouldn't be a bad idea either ;)

Tuesday and Wednesday should run as normal.  Thursday will be the Boosterthon Fun Run.  2nd and 3rd grade will run from 1:15-2:45.  Friday will be the Statham Stampede which will begin at 9:15 - students MUST have a permission slip in order to participate.

On another note, last week students took their math and music SLO assessments as well as their end of the year DIBELS assessment and I am very proud of their hard work and their improvements because of it! :)

I feel like I am forgetting something so I may post again tomorrow... bear with me!!

Spring Break & Newsletter

First, I will start by posting this week's newsletter.  Sorry it is late - I blame it on Spring Break ;-)

Next, I want to tell you a bit about my Spring Break - I'm sure you are thinking, "Really, Cothran?!?  Like we want to hear about your week off???" but if it makes you feel any better, I didn't go to the beach or on any fancy excursions (remember, I have a teacher's salary!) - in fact, nor did I in high school or college!  It's sad how things still don't change when you have a 'real' job :( BUT, I am grateful for the break and the time spent with family, friends, and of course, catching up on household chores!

Although I missed nothing about my 5:30 alarm, I DID miss my 20, sweet, happy, energetic, caring, loud, thoughtful, smart, messy, beautiful, (and so on!) babies!!  This time off was a true reminder of not only how lucky I am to have the coolest job around, but also of how lucky I am to get this time off with family and friends.  Though I have not (yet) started a family of my own, I can only imagine how awesome it will be to be able to spend such time with them J  Meanwhile, I was fortunate enough to spend time with my precious niece and NEW nephew!!  As you may have heard, I was out the Thursday before SB - this was due to the fact my sister had to be medically induced.  She was scheduled for induction during our Spring Break (1 week before her actual due date), but due to some complications and the fact big boy was simply ready to come out, he was born Thursday morning (April 9th) weighing 8 lbs. 5 oz. and was 21 1/2 in. long (and 2 weeks early!)!  I am happy to say that both mama and baby are home and doing great!  With that being said, I want to show off how I spent the latter part of my SB :-)

How could you not want to eat them up?!?

Pure. Sweetness.

I won't share any pictures of my 'spring cleaning' but I will share this one of my sweet friend and dear colleague Mandi Jones and I at Uptown Art over the break.  I absolutely LOVE doing these paint classes, and highly recommend the idea for a night out.  They are becoming pretty popular so you don't have to drive far for the fun :-)

Hope you all have a marvelous week!!

Hip, Hip, Arrays!

For the past couple of weeks, we have been working on introducing the base of multiplication through repeated addition and arrays.  The students have really enjoyed arrays and truly seem to grasp the concept - especially when food & chalk are involved ;)  We went outside last week when it was so nice and created arrays using sidewalk chalk.  The week before we used Fruit Loops to create arrays.  I forgot to snap some pictures of the Fruit Loop activity, but I did get some of them outside, so here you go!

Click here for this week's newsletter! And remember (not that you could forget!), only 5 more days till Spring Break!!!

Newsletter

Here you are, my friends! CLiCK ME!

Luck Be The Students

Because Tuesday was St. Patty's Day, I tried to incorporate as much "green" into our day as I could.  As you noticed by the work sent home in Friday folders, we had themed work stations, writing, a fact book, etc. which in my option makes learning fun ;)  We also took time to enjoy the beautiful weather that day by going out and searching for 4-leaf clovers.  I told the kiddos that I would bring in a prize for the one(s) that found one... little did I know that SIX kids would find 4-leaf clovers in less than 20 minutes!!  Needless to say, I have some lucky kiddos :)  Here are some pictures of their search...

And last, but not least, here is this week's newsletter!

Enjoy your week!!

Green Thumbs & Newsletter

Just a tidbit about my upbringing... I grew up on a farm and to this day still make a trip home to help my parents with it - cows, chicken houses, an orchard, a greenhouse, and so on.  So, I am embarrassed to say that I have a brown thumb :( I truly want to be able to maintain houseplants and do classroom activities shown on Pinterest involving chia seeds, buuutttt it just hasn't been in the cards for me.  I don't know why - maybe it's a talent that skips generations (like cooking)?!?  Anywho, despite the color of my thumb, I am attempting to teach your kids how to make their thumb's green :)  Our school has 4 flower beds/garden areas for classroom use - Ms. Paige in the office sent out an email at 10:10 Thursday morning saying they were first come first serve, and at 10:11 I replied!!  I thought it would be really neat for the students reap what they sow, so I have purchased some carrot seeds (and I may buy some others) because they should be ready before school is out.  Rest assure, I have other second grade teachers helping with this project so there's hope of success!  Here are a few pictures of the students getting our garden ready!  By the way, they LOVED it - even the worms!!

And I'll end this post with our newsletter!  Don't forget that tomorrow is a teacher work day so no school for the kiddos! 

Have a marvelous week!!

Newsletter :)

Click HERE for this week's newsletter!  Also, you can click on the lunch icon to the right of this page to view the lunch menu for each month :)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

Dr. Seuss & Newsletter

If you have stepped foot in my classroom, you know that I am a Dr. Seuss fanatic!!  His birthday week brings just as much excitement to me as Christmas!  Of course I plan a week with nothing but Dr. Seuss activities (tied into our standards, of course ;), and luckily, my wonderful grade level jumps on board, too, by creating rotations amongst each class that consist of different Dr. Seuss books and activities.  The kids love it and so do we!  I plan to post pictures of this awesomeness this weekend :) Also, to go along with our celebration, second grade will have Dr. Seuss "themed days" each day this week as follows:

Monday - "Fox in Socks" wear crazy socks!

Tuesday - "Cat in the Hat" wear your favorite hat!

Wednesday - "Wacky Wednesday" wear something wacky or make your hair wacky!

Thursday - "The Sleep Book" wear your pajamas!

Friday - "Oh the Places You Will Go!" dress as your favorite Dr. Seuss character or dress as what you would like to be when you grow up!

Lastly, click HERE for this week's newsletter!

Enjoy this lovely week!!

Newsletter

NEWSLETTER for this week :)

Newsletter

Click HERE for this week's newsletter.  Sorry for the lateness - I completely forgot with the unexpected schedule change!

Newsletter & Reminders

Hope you all have had a wonderful & restful weekend!  I wanted to remind you that we have spring pictures Tuesday (Feb. 10th) - pictures are prepay only.  We will also be taking our class picture on this day - FYI.  Also, there will be no school this Friday & next Monday!!  Lastly, you can click HERE for this week's newsletter :)

Have a great week!!

Newsletter

Click HERE for this week's newsletter.  I hope you all have a fantabulous week!!

100th Day of School

We recently celebrated the 100th day of school by spending a portion of the day creating items using 100 objects.  Here are some of their creations :)

100 cups structure

100 pattern block creation

100 marshmallows & toothpicks - Jonny made a really cool kite that moved up & down! 

They are so cute & creative :)

Newsletter & Economics Project

I hope you all can read this - it is the letter that the 2nd grade team sent home regarding our economics project.  Please let me know if you have any questions!

Also, click HERE to view the newsletter!

Have a lovely weekend!!

Wonderful Wednesday & Tug-of-War

Sorry for the late post - I have been packing, moving, and unpacking since last Friday.  Needless to say, I have been busy and exhausted!!  Last week, we had a couple of exciting events to take place - Wonderful Wednesday awards and our annual Tug-of-War competition.  Here are a couple of picture of the fun :)

Congratulations to Mason & Ella for receiving the 'Best Effort' award and Collin & Harley for receiving the 'Citizenship' award for the 2nd Quarter!

Here are our tuggers in action & their crazy coach ;-)

Let's try this again...

First, let me start by saying that I hope each and every one of you had a wonderful, restful break with family and friends!  I really enjoy this time of year not only because of the holidays, but also because of the huge growth I see in my students.  I'm not sure what Santa sprinkles on the gifts, but my kiddos always seem to be more focused and mature when they return from the break!

Furthermore, I would like to say that I initially had high hopes for this blog; nonetheless, I honestly had NO idea the amount of time and energy coaching, grad school, and a full-time job would require of me :( With that being said, time to blog was nonexistent.  Currently, however, things are much more settle and I feel confident that I will be able to blog weekly to update you all on what's going on in our classroom :)

Through this blog, I will post important dates, events, and information via our newsletter.  Normally, I print off copies and place in them agendas, but this seems more convenient for everyone and saves on printing costs - it's a win-win!  I will also post pictures and information regarding current projects, activities, events, etc. so that you may have a glimpse of what is going on in our classroom.

You can click HERE to view this week's newsletter.  

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Cothran