Thursday, May 26, 2016

Last Day of School

Last blog post of the year.  :(

I can't believe the end of school is here.  I'm sitting in a quiet classroom with no student work or supplies.  It's kind of eerie.  I have had a fabulous year with your students.  It has been amazing to see them grow both academically and socially.  I know each and everyone of them will be success in 3rd grade whether at RBE or at a different school.  I greatly appreciate all the wonderful support from home also.  They are lucky students to have such supportive parents!

Today, we had 2 celebrations.  One was from yesterday and one for today.  Yesterday's celebration that we did this morning was arts and crafts and laptops.  The students are very creative and made some awesome projects.  Ms. Mottaz and I even got some of their artwork.  Our second celebration which we had this afternoon was a cupcake decorating party, which ultimately ended in us eating cupcakes.  :)  That was one tasty celebration!  There are pictures from both celebrations here.

Also, be sure to watch KRCG tonight.  They were recording our final send off to the buses and parent pick up students.  It's fun to see all the teachers waving and kids waving back as they leave the school.  There were definitely some tears shed as I waved good bye today.

I hope everyone has a wonderful summer!  The kids told me about all their wonderful plans yesterday.  It sounds like there will definitely be some busy families this year.  Good luck to all my fabulous now 3rd graders next year.  I know there will be a lot of change with new schools, but they will all do wonderful.

Mrs. Ross

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW!!!!!!!!!!  What an awesome turn out today for our Lunch Bunch.  Thank you to everyone that came in today to have lunch with us.  The kids absolutely loved it and it just warms my heart to have such involved parents!  I have posted pictures here.

Yearbooks
If your student would like to bring in their yearbook to have it signed by classmates tomorrow, please send it with them tomorrow.  If they do not have one, we have been making memory books and they can have classmates sign those.

Last Day of School
I can't believe we only have 1 1/2 days of school left.  That's crazy!  If your student isn't going to be here on Thursday, please make sure to let me know.  We will be cleaning out pockets/book bags tomorrow, so please make sure your student has their backpack with them.

Grade Cards
Grade cards will be sent home on Thursday.

Again, thank you so much to everyone that joined us today!  It was so much fun!

Mrs. Ross

Monday, May 23, 2016

Last Happy Monday

Happy Monday!

I hope you're having a wonderful day!  We have had a great day so far.

We went on our hike to Rock Bridge State Park today.  The kids had a lot of fun.  I think it wore them out a little, so they should sleep well tonight!  :)  There are pictures here.

Lunch Bunch is Tomorrow (Tuesday)
Tomorrow is our lunch bunch!  I'm really excited for you all to enjoy lunch with your student.  I'm crossing my fingers than the rain holds off.  The last I checked, it was supposed to rain in the morning, but be finished by mid morning.  Let's hope this forecast is correct or even better, no rain tomorrow.  :)  Please meet us on the playground at 11:15 a.m. and we will walk to the pavilion together.  Please remember to check in at the office before coming to the playground or pavilion.  If it is raining too hard at lunch, we will have lunch in the room.  We can move tables around and eat picnic style in the room.  :)

Books
BJC Health donated books to all 2nd grade students in the CPS district.  Your student picked out a book today and will be bringing it home.  This would be a great book for them to read over the summer.  :)

Yearbooks on Wednesday
If your student wants to bring their yearbook to be signed, please remember to send it with them on Wednesday.  If they don't have a yearbook, that is completely fine, we are making Memory Books that they can have friends sign. I believe there are still a few yearbooks available for purchase if your student would be interested in purchasing one.  They are $7 if they are still available.

Backpacks
We will be packing things up to bring home throughout the week.  Please make sure your student has their backpack with them each day.  Also, please make sure it is cleaned out each night in case they bring home additional items.

Last Day
Our last day is Thursday.  It is an early dismiss at 12:10 p.m.  Please make sure I know if your student is getting home a different way than normal.  Also, please let me know if your student will not be here on Thursday.

Have a wonderful rest of your day!

Mrs. Ross



Friday, May 20, 2016

Happy Friday!

Field Day was a SUCCESS!

It was cloudy, but no rain and the kids had a blast!  I have uploaded a lot of pictures from today.  You can find them here.

Hike to Rock Bridge State Park on Monday
On Monday, we will be walking to Rock Bridge State Park.  Please make sure your student is wearing tennis shoes.  The path we take is a dirt path.  If you would like to put bug spray on your student before they come to school, you may do so.  We cannot apply bug spray at school.  We will be leave at 8:00, so please make sure your student arrives at school on time.  We will play at the park at the state park and enjoy some popsicles then walk back.  I'm hoping for beautiful weather!

Lunch Bunch on Tuesday
We have our lunch bunch on Tuesday.  Please be on the playground by 11:15 (we go to recess at 11:00, feel free to join us for recess also) so we can walk to the pavilion together.  Please make sure you check in at the office before coming to the playground.  If you want to bring a blanket for you and student to sit on you may.  There are tables under the pavilion, but I know we will have a big group for lunch (which is awesome!).  After we eat lunch, your student can show you around the outdoor classroom.

Yearbooks/Memory Books on Wednesday
We will be creating memory books next week.  On Wednesday, we will be signing memory books/yearbooks.  If you purchased a yearbook, your student can bring them on Wednesday for people to sign.

Last Day of School on Thursday
Our last day of school is Thursday.  We will dismiss at 12:10.  If your student is going home a different way than normal, please make sure to let myself and the office know.  It is difficult to make last minute transportation changes.  Also, if your student will not be here on Thursday, please make sure to let me know as well.

Library Books
If your student still has library books checked out, please help your student locate them this weekend and send them back next week.  If you can't locate the book, there is a sheet in your student's Friday folder with the fine associated with the book.  We have a wonderful library and we don't want to lose any books out of it.

Have a wonderful weekend!  I can't believe this is the last "Happy Friday" post I will make of the year.

Mrs. Ross

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Field Day Tomorrow!

Happy Thursday!

I wanted to send out a reminder about Field Day tomorrow.

Extra Change of Clothes Tomorrow 
Please send an entire change of clothes (including underwear, shoes and socks) with your student tomorrow.  The plan is to be outside for Field Day and there are water activities.  The office doesn't have clothes for students to change into if they get wet and it will not be a fun ride home if they are wet.  I recommend putting their clothes in a plastic grocery bag so they can put their wet clothes in that bag to bring home.

Celebration from Yesterday
Yesterday's celebration was to walk the track.  Nicholas's mom brought in their dog, Sweet Pea, as well as a dog they are fostering named Duke to walk the track with us.  The kids really enjoyed the 4 legged walking buddies.  :)

Friday Folders
Tomorrow will be last Friday of the year (CRAZY!), so Friday folders do not need to be returned next week.  They may stay at home.

Lunch Bunch
We have had an overwhelming (in a wonderful way) response to our Lunch Bunch next week!  :)  We might be short on table space with all our wonderful families.  If you want to throw a blanket in the car, we could have some picnic style eating also.  I will bring some also.  It should be a wonderful lunch!  I'm really looking forward to it!

Library Books
If your student still has library books checked out, please send them in tomorrow.  My goal is to have all library books turned in by tomorrow.  If you have lost a book, please let me know and I will let you know the amount to replace the book.

Rock Bridge State Park Walk
We will be walking to the State Park on Monday.  Please make sure your student is wearing tennis and comfortable walking clothes.  We have a parent donating water bottles and meeting us at the park with them.  If you would like to donate popsicles, please let me know.  :)

Yearbooks
If your student purchased a yearbook, please have them bring it next Wednesday.  We will be signing yearbooks during the day.  If they didn't purchase a yearbook, we will be making memory books and they can have their classmates sign the memory books.

Report Cards
Report cards will come home on Thursday.

Have a wonderful evening!

Mrs. Ross

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Happy Tuesday!

Happy Tuesday!

First, I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone that was able to join us this morning.  The kids had a blast sharing their work.  I know the mornings can be crazy and I really appreciate you taking the time to come in and see their work and of course, enjoy an Oreo at 8:00 a.m.   :)  I took quite a few pictures and you can find them here.

End of Year Celebration Pictures
Be sure to check out the pictures of the end of the year celebrations.  Today, we had board games and building activities.

Field Day
Field Day is this Friday.  I am crossing my fingers that we have some warmer weather.  I think they have taken the rain out of the forecast for now.  Please send a full change of clothes with your student on Friday.  If they get wet, we will have them change.  A bus ride home in wet clothes would be miserable.

Hike to Rock Bridge State Park
We will be walking to Rock Bridge State Park on Monday.  I have a parent who has donated water bottles for us to have at the park.  If someone is able to donate and bring popsicles to Rock Bridge State Park around 8:30 on Monday morning, please let me know.  We will walk to park, play for about 30 minutes and then walk back.

Lunch Bunch
Our lunch bunch is next Tuesday.  We have a lot of parents who are going to be joining us, I'm very excited about it!  We will go to recess at 11:00 and then walk to the pavilion at 11:15.  Please plan to meet us on the playground at 11:15 (you can come for recess if you would like) so we can walk to the pavilion together.  If you or your student are purchasing a school lunch, we will have a group go down to the cafeteria to get lunch.

Make the Change
We had an assembly to celebrate the end of our Make the Change fundraiser for St. Jude's this morning.  Our school raised $5406.14 which is absolutely amazing!  There are pictures here of the assembly.

Library Books
Please send in your student's library books tomorrow.  We had our last check out last week and Mrs. McKinzie is trying to get all the books back soon.  This allows her to identify which books are still missing or need to be replaced.

Last Day of School
The last day of school is Thursday, May 26.  It will be an early release at 12:10.  If your student will be going home a different way or won't be here at all that day, please let me and the office know.

Have a wonderful evening!

Mrs. Ross

Monday, May 16, 2016

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday!

I hope you had a wonderful start to your week!  We were very productive in room 27 today.  We wrote poetry, finished up opinion posters, used perseverance in math today (they did awesome) and had a dance party!

End of Year Celebrations
I have started a page to post pictures of our end of the year celebrations.  Today we had a dance party.  Check out the pictures here.

Tomorrow, our celebration is board games and building activities.  If your student would like to be a board game to play tomorrow afternoon, they may do so.  There are games and Legos in the classroom if they do not want to bring a game.

Oreos and Opinions
Oreos and Opinions is tomorrow morning from 7:45-8:15.  I hope you will be able to attend.  We will not start sharing our work until 7:45 because all the students need to get their laptops logged in and their presentations open.  The students have worked very hard on their writing and are excited to share it with you.  Plus, we have Oreos.  :)

End of Year Lunch Bunch
If you haven't RSVP'd and plan to come to the End of the Year Lunch Bunch next Tuesday, please send back in the RSVP form.  We need to let the kitchen know how many adult lunches and student lunches to expect that day.

Have a wonderful evening!

Mrs. Ross

Friday, May 13, 2016

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

We had a fun day in Room 27!  We started the day off with the Variety Show.  We have some VERY talented students at RBE.  We even had a few "celebrities" make an appearance.  (Picture below)  We played with Snap Circuits (pictures here) today and did some opinion writing.  :)


Reading/Writing
In reading and writing next week, we will be working on poetry.  We will be reading and analyzing poetry during reading and then we will be writing different types of poems during writing.

The students finished up (a few are still putting finishing touches on posters) their opinion pieces today.  They will be sharing these pieces at Oreos and Opinions on Tuesday from 7:45-8:15.  I hope you can join us.  I will be purchasing Oreos this weekend, they wrote opinion/persuasive pieces today about Regular Oreos or Flavored Oreos.  We will see who has the best arguments.  :)

Math
We will continue to work on problem solving and early algebra next week.  This unit teaches the students a lot about perserverance.  They have to look at a problem and figure out different ways to solve the problem.  The problem this week involved counting coins, determining how many go in a roll, then splitting the money up equally.

Field Day
Field Day is next Friday.  We will be participating from 11:30-2:15.  Please send a full change of clothes with your student in case they get wet.  It will not be a fun ride home on the bus if they are all wet.  It is also Summer Dress Up Day so they can wear their summer arrite, but no swimsuits and it needs to be school appropriate.  :)

End of Year Countdown
We started our End of the Year Countdown today.  We have 10 (well 9 now) ballons and will pop one balloon each day and it has a small celebration for the day.  Today's was Tootsie Roll Pops.


Homework Lunch Bunch
We had a group eat lunch in the classroom for doing their homework at least 3 times this week.  We have one more week of this incentive.  If students do homework at least 3 times next week, they will be able to eat in the room the following Monday (we don't do it next Friday since we are already eating in the room).



Important Upcoming Events
Tuesday, May 17: Oreos and Opinions from 7:45-8:15 (please RSVP if you haven't already done so)
Wednesday, May 18: Please return ALL library books
Friday, May 20: Field Day and Summer Dress up Day
Monday, May 23: Walk to Rock Bridge State Park (shhh!!!  don't tell the kids, we will pop this balloon next Friday)
Tuesday, May 24: End of Year Lunch Bunch Celebration (please RSVP if you plan to attend and haven't already done so)
Thursday, May 26: Last Day, early dismiss at 12:10 (they will officially be 3rd graders when they walk out the doors) :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Ross

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Field Trip was a SUCCESS!

Happy Wednesday!

We had a WONDERFUL field trip today!  The weather was gorgeous (no rain!) and the students had a great time!  They were also very well behaved.  They did a fabulous job representing RBE.

Thank you to all the parents who chaperoned our field trip.  I know the students enjoyed having more "independence" if you will by being in a smaller group than having to stay in a group of 25.  I know this can be a crazy time of year and I really people taking off work to come on our field trip.  I know the kids enjoy getting to spend their field trip with you.  This was my first time taking this field trip, if there is anything that you think could be improved for next year's field trip, please let me know.  :)

Here are some pictures from today.  Chaperones if you have pictures, please send them and I will upload them as well.  :)

PLEASE check your students for ticks tonight.  I have already found 2 on me.  We had a great field trip, but there are some downsides to a field trip in the wilderness, ticks is definitely one of those.

We still have a lot of fun things planned over the next few weeks.  We will start  countdown on Friday for the last 10 days of school which is absolutely crazy to me.  You will have a third grader in just a few short weeks.  :)

If you haven't RSVP'd for the Oreos and Opinions or the End of the Year Lunch Bunch and plan to join us, please send in your form.  If you need an additional form, please let me know.

Have a wonderful evening!

Mrs. Ross

Monday, May 9, 2016

Field Trip Information

Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and were able to get outside and enjoy the weather before all the rain this week.  :(  I'm hoping the forecast isn't completely accurate and it won't rain all week.  Below is some important information regarding our field trip.  Your student also has some information coming in their backpack also.

Rain or Shine
  • We will be going on our field trip rain or shine.  I'm hoping for more shine, than rain.  :)  If it is pouring on Wednesday morning, we may leave a little bit later since the first part of the field trip is walking around on the trail.  It will be a decision we make Wednesday morning.  We will still go whether it is raining or shining because some of the activities we have planned are indoors.  
Dress Appropriately
  • Please make sure your student wears tennis shoes on Wednesday.  I recommend an older pair of tennis shoes due to the potential for some wet paths as we walk.  Also, please make sure your student is dressed appropriately for the weather.  If they would like a light jacket or raincoat, that is fine, but they will be responsible for the coat on the trip.
Sunscreen/Bug Spray
  • I recommend applying sunscreen and bug spray before sending your students to school on Wednesday.  We will be outside most of the day.  We can't apply sunscreen or bug spray at school due to medication rules, but I would recommend applying it before sending your student to school.
Lunch
  • Students need to bring their lunch on Wednesday (unless you indicated on the permission slip that they would be buying lunch).  Their lunch needs to be in a gallon size Ziploc bag with their name clearly marked.  All containers need to be disposable because we will not be bringing anything back with us to school.  Students may bring a soda to drink if they would like, but all drinks need to be in plastic or cans, NO GLASS.  If you do not have a gallon size bag, I will have some at school.  We have chaperones who will be transporting our lunches in coolers.  Chaperones, please don't forget to pack yourself a lunch also.  :)
Snack
  • I have purchased fruit snacks for the students and chaperones to have while we are at Runge.  It will be up to the chaperones when to have their group stop to have the snack.  If your student would like to bring a snack to have when we get back to school, they may do so.  Please make sure that their afternoon snack is NOT packed in their Ziploc bag because we will not be transporting food back to RBE from Runge.
General Guidelines
  • We are representing RBE and it is very important to represent out school in a good way.
  • Students are REQUIRED to stay with their chaperone at all times.  
  • They need to be walking on the paths only.  Please no walking in the mulch, flower beds, benches, etc.
  • Please make sure your student arrives at school on time.  I would hate for anyone to miss the field trip because they are late to school.
  • If your student has an RBE shirt or a green or blue shirt, have them wear them on Wednesday.  It makes it easier to spot the kids, plus it is fun for us all to match.  :)
Even with the forecast, I'm really looking forward to this field trip.  It should be a lot of fun and educational also.  If you have any questions regarding the field trip, please let me know!


Have a wonderful evening!

Mrs. Ross

Friday, May 6, 2016

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend!  I'm crossing my fingers the rain in the forecast for the weekend, holds off a little bit.  :)

I have uploaded the newsletter to the blog, please take the time to read over it.  There is a lot of important information about upcoming events and what we will be working on next week.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who donated items or money to Ms. Rottjakob's tote, as well as for the pizza party.  I put a picture below of the filled tote.  She was very surprised and happy.  We were very lucky to have her with us this semester!  We even made her tear up when we gave her the tote today.  I count that as a success!  She will be joining us next Wednesday on our field trip and possibly for the Variety Show also.


Thank you to everyone who has RSVP'd for our Oreos and Opinions, as well as our Lunch Bunch.  If you haven't RSVP'd and are planning to come, please do so.  This allows me to get an accurate head count for the cafeteria as well as to buy Oreos.  :)

Field Trip Next Wednesday!

  • Please make sure your student has a lunch with them on Wednesday.  If your student is purchasing a lunch from the cafeteria, they will go down that morning to get their lunch.  Please pack their lunch in a gallon size Ziploc bag with all disposable containers.  We want to be to throw everything away at Runge when we eat lunch.  Please do not send in any glass containers.  All drinks need to be in cans or plastic bottles (all that can be thrown away).
  • We will be outside all day.  Please apply sunscreen and bug spray to your student before they leave the house.  We cannot apply sunscreen or bug spray at school.
  • Please make sure your student wears tennis shoes for our field trip.  There will be a lot of walking and sandals will not be comfortable for the day.
  • Currently, the forecast is for upper 50's-lower 70's throughout the day.  Please make sure your student is dressed appropriately for the weather.  If they want to bring a light jacket, they may do so, but they are responsible for the jacket throughout the day.
  • Please make sure your student is on time on Wednesday.  I would hate for anyone to miss our field trip because they arrived late to school.
  • Please remind your student that we will have a lot of fun at our field trip, but our expectations are the same.  They need to be safe, respectful, learners on our field trip.  
I can't believe we only have a few more weeks of school.  Please remind your student that even though the year is coming to a close, we still have to do our job at school.  I know when it is gorgeous outside, we all want to be outside, but it's important to remember to stay focused at school.  :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Ross