December is upon us

Snow is just my own wishful thinking. The fresh white powder gives everything a new look. We, however, have had more in the form of rain. We have been lucky to not be rained out of any recess so far this year, so kids are getting outside and getting some much needed exercise.

Student council has come up with some wonderful ideas to improve our recess time. We have started to include more organized games including everybody's it tag, scramble, four square, jump rope, and knock down soccer. We have seen an increase in activity and a decrease in unkind behaviors. Thanks, student council for helping us with some ideas.

Popcorn Fridays have been a HUGE success! It has been a way for us to reward students for outstanding behaviors and use it as a fundraiser as well. Money raised is helping fund climate related reward systems at the school to focus on positive behaviors here at Grout. Thanks so much for supporting this effort.

Looking forward to school activities and special festivities the next few weeks. Then on to a much deserved winter break!

Fall is upon us

I LOVE autumn. I think it's the colors and the sunny, but cooler weather that mesmerizes me. It could also be that I love the beginning of new things and autumn signals the beginning of a new school year and fresh starts.

This year is a fresh start for me in a new position. I have left the classroom after several decades and have stepped into a new position for our school as the School Climate Specialist. My role is creating a climate in our school that facilitates the success for all students and teachers. I also get to work with students and teachers to help make adjustments when what is in place just doesn't seem to work. This has given me many opportunities to create positive relationships all around the building.

This will be a growing and learning year for me as I settle into this position, but like I said, I love new and fresh starts.

If you want to stop by and see me, I am now located in room 204.

Enjoy this fall season,

Karey Kirk

Bring on the May flowers!

I have such mixed feelings when the calendar turns and I see it is May. It is exciting to know the weather is nicer more often than it is bad. I love pointing out all the different types of flowers and trees to the kids. Sunshine simply makes me happy.

It is also the time of year I match the calendar to the curriculum, making sure I am on pace to finish all there is to teach in second grade in the next several weeks. Sometimes, I panic. It is a similar feeling to studying for my finals. How will the kids do at the end of the year? Will they all make it to benchmark?

I will be starting a number of assessments over the next several weeks. This is an important time of year to have all the students here as much as possible. It is very difficult to give assessments to the class when some are missing and I need to find additional time to assess them separately. Of course, if your child is sick, please keep them home!

We are working on a couple really fun units in literacy. We are reading books in a series to get to know the characters over the course of several books. We are also writing opinion letters about those same books and learning to support our opinions with evidence from the actual books. The kids are doing a really good job working in book clubs and having meaningful conversations around the books they are reading.

In math, we are continuing to work with larger numbers. We have investigated a variety of ways to combine large numbers and subtract them as well. We are finally getting to the traditional way of adding and subtracting that I grew up with by carrying and borrowing, although I like to use the term trading to help them understand the concept of moving numbers to and from different place values. For some, this will come easy. For others, they will need a bit more practice at home,

Now I am going to go out and enjoy some of this sunshine!
Karey Kirk

Spring has sprung!

I love watching things around me change on a regular basis in the spring. Each day I find new flowers blooming or trees showing traces of new leaves opening. 

The kids in our class are also changing by the day. Their growth in so many areas seems to happen before my eyes. Our discussions are so much deeper and the level of their thinking astounds me. We have spent a lot of time in the past month or so working in discussion groups. We began by simply sharing a thought while the others listened. Now we can share a thought and others connect their thoughts and questions together to form discussions that deepen their understanding about a topic. The students have surpassed my expectations in every way.  I can teach students information, but that is not nearly as useful to them as being able to have a productive conversation with others where they can not only share what they know, but listen carefully to learn from another's perspective. 

Another sign of spring is how quickly the next weeks will pass and how the end of the school year is just around the corner. There always seems to be so much content to cover before the year ends. You can help at home by having your child well-rested and ready to learn when coming to class. Here are some topics we are covering right now:

Math- Double digit addition and subtraction
Reading - Longer and harder books and keeping track of the story
Writing/Science - Experimenting with force and motion and writing lab reports 
STEM - Habitats and Slide show presentations

Report cards are coming up and should be coming home on 4/20. If you have any questions about your child's report card or progress, please set a time up with me so we can go over things.

I hope you had a restful spring break and are ready for the next stretch!

Karey Kirk