Christmas is Coming!

Christmas is coming - and we're all getting in the spirit. With Thanksgiving break behind us and only 2 more weeks until Christmas break, the students in our second grade class have been in holiday preparation mode. We have decorated our class Christmas tree and have been preparing some Christmas crafts to brighten up our room.

We celebrated our December birthdays with a great class party served by Main Street Restaurant in White Hall. We had pizza and ice cream. We started our "Letters to Santa" and hope to finish them early next week - just in time to get them to Santa.

We read a great selection called "Head, Body, Legs". It is a Liberian folk tale that teaches teamwork. Our reading series included many "connecting" texts that kept us in the teamwork mode. We finished our unit 4 Math this week and started a fun new unit that brings us deeper into geometry. We have been studying shapes and creating a few of our own.

White Hal Elementary has been collecting canned goods for our annual food drive. Our goal is 2,000. My class won last year and we are pushing for another record setting year. This annual tradition raises awareness of our local food pantry and gets all of us in the spirit of giving. We have already collected 50+ products in just the first week. We hope to reach 200 cans in our class before Christmas break.

We look forward to the third grade Christmas program next week and start a new reading week with a story called "Officer Buckle and Gloria."

Thanksgiving at WHE

We have been working on many activities to celebrate Thanksgiving at WHE. We have learned about a day in the life of Native American boys and girls and have seen life through the eyes of both Mayflower travelers and Pilgrim explorers. We tried a Mayflower meal of dried meat and dried fruit. Most second graders agreed that they like "their own" food better.

Unit Two of our reading series concluded this week. It was a review and testing week as we looked at our recent writitng strategies and covered all of our spelling words. We look forward to our next unit and discovering new reading treasures.


We are really moving forward in our math skills. We have been looking at units of measurement. We've measured everything in our room and estimated everything from weather measurement to weight measurement. Math seems to be an area the class really excels in. Our series is very hands on and the class has the opportunity to relate to concepts up close.

Parent/Teacher conferences are next Monday and Tuesday. We look forward to showing off our work and meeting with everyone.

Veteran's Day Celebrated at WHE

White Hall Elementary celebrated Veteran's Day this week. Mrs. Little had a great idea for a school Veterans tribute. The second grade sponsored a wall in the "short" hallway which featured our stars. All of the grades participated in placing their veteran stars on our wall. The wall was completely covered with over 100 veteran's stars. What a great idea and a great way to pay tribute to our veterans.

The second grade was also honored by a visit from a real veteran, Mr. Jim Rogers of White Hall. He spent a morning with all of the second grade and did a great job explaining what it is like to be a soldier. Thanks Mr. Rogers.

School dismissed early this Friday for a school improvement day. All of the teachers gathered at the High School and discovered some great new teaching tips. Our Superintendent, Mr. Les Stevens, closed our meeting with some great ideas to keep all of you informed about your students and our school. We look forward to open communication lines with all of you and this blog may help in that.

I hope all of you enjoy our blog as we discuss our class and events at WHE. Speaking of that, we had a fun week in our second grade class. We read about joining a team and discussed a lot of new vocabulary words like coach, tryouts, practice, exercise, and uniform. We have been working on the long O sound and our spelling tests went really well. We look forward to next week as we start a unit on Pilgrims and Native Americans.

On a sadder note, our class pet, Buddy, didn't make it through the weekend. We did receive an anonymous donation of a tree frog which now inhabits a small aquarium in our room. Our ants are multiplying and their home is a site of constant interest. We are going to have a "Mayflower Breakfast" next week and look forward to our new discoveries.

First Quarter Completed

Our reading series took us on a non-fiction journey this week. We read "A Visit to the Emergency Room" as the class discussed hospital workers and wrote about a personal experience with a hospital. We shared a lot of stories and we had some great writing.

The class is really moving forward as we grow in our writing. We have been studying different kinds of nouns throughout the first quarter. It has been challenging as we discussed possessive nouns, plural nouns, pronouns and proper nouns. We have decided that there are just too many "P"'s when it comes to nouns. We finished our weekly assesment on Friday and our writing is really looking good.

Friday was also our Halloween party. We had a lot of great "Mom" help as we enjoyed a lot of treats and few tricks. We have a life size teaching skeleton in our room and he helped us celebrate. We had a Fall Fest and Halloween parade on Monday. Check out some pictures on the WHE page. I picked up the dreaded stomach flu on Monday but the other awesome second grade teachers led the crew as the "Pirates of the Reading Treasure."

The first quarter is over and report cards went home. The class did very well and many awards also went home. We had several on the effort honor roll, the star wall, and perfect attendance. We look forward to the next quarter and making many more second grade memories.

Our class pets are doing well. We have enjoyed our new ant farm. We have watched these busy workers as they move sand and dig tunnels. Buddy the frog is growing and as one student commented - "isn't near as much fun to watch as those ants". We plan to write a compare/contrast story about the working ants and the "lazy" frog.

Another Great Week at WHE !!!

We have had another great week at White Hall Elementary. Our Second Grade class put in a full week with our new reading series. The students are really moving forward in their grammar, vocabulary and reading skills.

Mrs. Winters has been teaching the class some new art skills as we learn about some famous artists who have influenced much of our culture. We have been talking about rescuing animals and read a story called "Harbor Seal Pup Grows Up." Our vocabulary unit has included words like rescue, mammal, veterinarian and others. We wrote a two paragraph story about taking care of a pet and many of the students wrote and drew some GREAT publications.

Our ants came this week and we have been excited to see their progress as they build tunnels and small colonies in our ant hill. Buddy the frog gets bigger everyday and he has been a source of attraction (or distraction) for many in the school.

We are going to talk about emergency workers in our next reading unit and celebrate Halloween at our party on Friday. A parade is scheduled for 10/27. We've been talking about some great costumes and look forward to seeing everyone Monday at the parade and fall fest.

Leaves and more!!!

We have had a couple of short weeks at WHE. With a teacher's institute, Columbus Day and an SIP day, students at White Hall have enjoyed the fall weather with a few days off. Our reading series has taken us on a journey of plant exploration. We have had the good fortune of celebrating fall with a fun leaf collection and seed sprouting. We have seen both sides of the life cycle of a plant.



Our class pet, Buddy the frog, has fully evolved and we watch him grow every day. We have several visitors from other classes who are "studying" Buddy also. The PTO has concluded the fall fundraiser of pizza sales and it looks like another great event. We are raising money for some new playground equipment.



Our first round of reading assessments started this week. Morning "Guided Reading" time has been a little different as we prepare for the second quarter of reading groups. The students are showing a lot of growth in their word decoding and vocabulary skills. Our reading series "Treasures" has centered on some new skills that will guide us through the rest of our learning years.



We look forward to Halloween parties next week along with our fall celebration and costume parade.

Autumn starts at WHE

We have had another great fall weather week at White Hall Elementary. Our language arts unit has focused on immigrants and their contribution to our country. We used many vocabulary words like language and culture. Our main reading selection was about girl named Yoon who moves to America from Korea.

Our tadpole "Buddy" has transformed into a small frog and we will chart his growth over the next few weeks. The class has had a lot of fun watching the transformation. This week also saw the 8th annual Jump Rope For Heart activity. You can view all the pictures on the WHE website.

We also kicked off the PTO fall fundraiser. We had an assembly showcasing the prize package and the pizza sales brochure. We look forward to "Fire Safety" week next week. We also had a substitute this Friday as I attended a conference in the Quad Cities. The best part of the conference for me was the drive home. I drove through the wind turbine fields of central illinois and saw over 100 giant wind turbines. I took a lot of photos and hope to use them in a science unit very soon. One picture is posted here. It was really interesting to think about this alternate energy source.

Steam Show Field Trip

Today was our first field trip of the year. We had a great time at the Prairieland Heritage Steam Show in Jacksonville. We rode a train, learned to drive a tractor, bounced around on a tractor driven ride, met young Abraham Lincoln, ate some great home-made ice cream, and shopped the endless flea market. WHAT A DAY!!!!

We made it back to school in time to see the North Greene Homecoming Parade. It was a great parade with fire trucks, the NGHS Band, class and organization floats, and our spectacular Spartan football team.



The class chose a name for our new tadpole. "Buddy" has grown a lot this week. He now has both sets of legs. Our next language arts unit features immigrants and their contribution to our culture. We are learning many new words in our vocabulary units and have really concentrated on new math skills. Next week is our book fair. Check the bubbleopes for more information.


Don't forget to attend the North Greene Homecoming football game at 7:00 tonight!!!

Hello Second Grade Family and Friends,

We have had a fun week at WHE. Our second grade classes have been working on a unit dealing with firefighters and their equipment. We even had our first fire drill this week. We are also anxiously awaiting our first field trip next Friday. We're going to the Prairie Land Heritage Steam Show in Jacksonville. We hope to have some links to pictures up soon!!!

We have a new visitor in our classroom. He is a "see through" tadpole. The class has had fun watching as his front legs grow in. We are having a contest to name him in our class.

Don't forget about North Greene High School Homecoming activities. The big game is next Friday, September 26th. GO SPARTANS!

Welcome to my second grade blog !!! We are having a great year at WHE. We have had a great start to our new year. We have 13 students in our class and I look forward to watching each grow throughout the year. Starting an all new reading series is exciting. We all look forward to discovering our "Treasure" as we navigate through the McMillan McGraw-Hill series.

I have had the wonderful opportunity to "loop" with this grade through the Class Size Reduction Pilot Program. I have seen them grow as their Kindergarten teacher, their first grade teacher and now their teacher in second grade. I stay with the same "class" but not the same students within that class. It is awesome to watch as these kids have grown from K-2.

I look forward to their progression and charting their growth.

Mr. Hoesman