Since the beginning of the second phase of construction, students and teachers have been curious about why the construction workers left a pair of black rubber boots in a small sink sitting near the entrance to the new classrooms.  It began to make me wonder more and more as the construction was being finished and still the sink and the boots sat there.  Finally I had to ask the second graders why the boots were there.  You will note that they didn’t all agree about the origin of the boots, but I’m sure ONE of them has to be right!

The Boot Story

One day Mrs. Hernandez went to school.  She had black and red rubber boots.  She walked in mud on the sidewalk.  She took off her boots because she had mud on them.  She had to grade math.  The day after, she went to work.  She could not find the boots.  Did she leave them?  She went to school and they were in a sink outside the school!  It was a miracle!

The End.                                                                                  Carlie Kelley

Once upon a time a teacher named Mr. Arnold had a cat and he accidentally let him out when he was going to the school.  He had to chase his cat.  So, when he chased the cat he had rubber boots on and he went around that silver sink.  They slipped off, but he didn’t realize it.  When he had his cat in his house, then he went to school but he didn’t go the tunnel way and he had his leather boots on.  The workers were working on that part.  They found the boots.  Then they had a sink so they put the boots there.  When school was over he went through the tunnel way and found his boots in that silver sink.  When he found those boots, he cleaned them really shiny.  He loves his boots now.                                                Bryanna Beat

One day somebody left a pair of boots in a sink.  Who knows why they are there.  Somebody’s got to know why they are in there.  Puss in Boots knows why.  The boots are outside in the tunnel.  One day Puss in Boots came to Saint Pat’s.  He was on the wall.  He kicked off his boots and he couldn’t find them.  He looked everywhere until it rained.  His boots came to life.  They started hopping.  He was sitting on the wall.  The boots hopped on his feet.  Then he went back home.

The End                Tate Bough

The Cowgirl Boot

Once upon a time, there was a cowgirl named Amanda.  She is five and one-half years old.  She lives in Texas.  She came to visit her cousin.  Amanda was wearing her new cowgirl boots.  She brought her foal, Midnight.  Amanda was chasing her horse because she ran away.  Amanda ran after Midnight, but she tripped over a pole that was lying on the ground.  Her boots flew off of her feet and hit two workers on the forehead.  They passed out!  Another worker found the boots, put them in a sink outside the new building of St. Patrick’s Catholic School.  And Amanda’s mom saw them and took them home, but they fell out on the way there.  A man found them and put them in the sink.  And they’ve been there from that day on to now.

The End.                                                                 Aubrey Thimesch

Muddy Boots!

Hello, I’m Ms. Weber.  One day I was plumbing in our school when I needed to get something, so I got up and went to go get it.  When I got up my boots slipped off!  I didn’t know.  I was walking back and found my boots.  I looked at my feet and all that was there were my feet and socks!  Then I put on my boots.  The End.                                Kaitlyn Seiwert

The Old Mystery Boots

Once up a time there was a girl named Siareah.  She does construction.  Siareah went to work.  She went to the roof with her friends Gracey and Roxy.

Gracey said “Let’s take off our boots.”

“Ok,” said Siareah and Roxy at the same time.  Siareah forgot her boots.  So the next day she woke up to go to work and they were gone!  Siareah called Gracey.  Gracey answered “Hey partner, what’s up?”

“My boots are gone!”

“Oh, no!  We’ve got to find the boots.”

Gracey wanted to help.  So, Siareah said, “Let’s get looking.”  They looked all day. Then they found some boots but they thought it was another teacher’s boot.  But the next day Siareah saw her boots and the teacher said they were too big for her.  Siareah laughed and said, “Case closed.”

The End.                                                                             Abigail Peeler

The Boots in the Fountain

One day a man went to a water fountain and then the man went and put his boots on top of the water fountain and they were stuck.  Then later he got them back.

The End.                                                     Jaxson Reid

Who Left the Boots?

First the man named Lo Jones left boots in the sink in the passageway.  What happened?  Lo Jones left those boots there because a brick fell on his toe and gave him a broken toe so he couldn’t put pressure on it because Lo Jones wasn’t thinking and didn’t cement it down.  So he had to get new ones.                                                                Jake Rohlman

The Mystery of the Black Boots

Once there was a mermaid named Marie.  Marie was 21 years old.  She decided to get some boots, so she did.  She went to land.  She tried to put on the boots.  When she did . . .the boots went flying.  They landed in a sink.  Marie tried to find them.  She could not find them.  The sink was leaving!  (Somebody pushed it.)  Then she looked at the sink store.  She could not find them.  The she looked in the bathroom.  It wasn’t there either.  Then she looked at a school and found them.

The End. Audrey Birkenbaugh

Mom’s Black Boots

Mrs. Weninger was walking to school in the rain one day, with big black boots on.  While she was walking down the tunnel she thought she didn’t want to get the school floor dirty so by the sink there was a step.  She sat down on the step and changed her boots Friday morning.  She left the boots there. (If she carried them mud would fall off the boots and onto the floor.)  And guess what?  She almost forgot about them.  But she remembered.

The End.                                        Madelyn Weninger

Josh’s Boots

My friend Josh got off work and left his black boots in the sink out the door of the school.  I called Josh.  I said, “I will bring them tomorrow.”

I got his boots and went to his house to give him his boots and he got new boots to work in.

I said, “What are you wearing?”

He said, “New boots.  Do you like them?”

“Well then why did I drive down here if you’re going to throw them away?”

“I will play football with you.  Let’s go to the football field to play football.”

“Ok,” I said.

Gage Oller

Jace Sasina’s Boots

Once upon a time there was the shiniest good-looking boy in our solar system named Jace Sasina.  So he was walking around, or at least trying to.  And Jace remembered he had to get his boots out of the closet and when he found his boots, he said, “I hate these boots.  They’re so old, muddy, Oh, and they’re black.  I hate the color black.”

So Jace went to the store to buy a new pair of boots but all they had were pink and purple boots so Jace bought the pink boots and he loved them.

The End.                                                                            Peighton Sasina

One day a leprechaun accidentally put a spell on his boots.  They grew so then the leprechaun couldn’t wear them anymore.  So then the leprechaun had to share with a human with the name of Indiana.  Well the guy was a plumber and he had plumber boots and the leprechaun boots were not his plumber boots.  Oh and did I mention that the leprechaun told Indiana if they are in a sink a little, very strong troll would pull them down the drain and Indiana would get a curse?  So he forgot all of the stuff the leprechaun said and left them in the sink for plumbing so he didn’t have to hold them.  He had bad luck for the rest of his life.  The End.             Cooper Adams

The Black Rubber Boot Story

One day a dog named Lloyd was working on the school.  He had boots on.  His boots fell off his feet.  Lloyd couldn’t find them.  He couldn’t work in the mud anymore.  He had to find the boots or he would buy more boots which would cost a lot of money.  His boss, Jeff, would not buy them for Lloyd, or he would take off money from his payday.  One day Lloyd was going from work to get new boots.  Before he left his boss, Jeff, said, “They thought these were your boots.”  Lloyd turned around and said, “Those are my boots, I thought I would never find them.  Now I get to work without buying more boots.  I get to work in the mud again and I get to build more of the school.”                                                                         Justin Powell

If you were at the HSO meeting, you heard some of the teachers describing and demonstrating DI, short for Differentiated Instruction.  I was not able to go to Las Vegas, but I have had several classes that were all or partially about DI, in addition to many hours of inservice we have had on the subject since Mr. Lyall became our principal.  It is more a mindset than a specific way to teach.  It says that each student is an individual and deserves to be respected, a concept that Catholic Schools are way ahead on.  But the natural extension of that is that we cannot teach a whole class as if each student were a carbon copy of every other one.  It means we need to teach each student from where he/she is at, academically, developmentally, and in many more ways.  This is a great challenge for all teachers, so I would like to explain how I have attempted to do that up to this point, though I try to constantly increase the level of differentiation in my classroom. 

Centers have been used for many years in primary classrooms because we have long realized that children learn better by doing than just by hearing or reading.  Recent brain research has proven this to be true.  In addition, we have found out that children learn more when they are active, not just sitting it desks, when they have some choices, and when the activities are geared within a certain range of difficulty related to their level of knowledge or expertise.  Centers address all these issues.  In my class, children go to one center a day.  They work in some "hands-on" kind of way with the ideas they have already been presented in class.  In each center, there are various activities, giving students choices in what they participate in.  There are varying levels of difficulty, as well as an attempt to provide activities that different children will find interesting.To a visitor, these activities may seem like play.  That is very intentional, because kids have always learned by playing.  They learn more while having fun, so please don't let the cat out of the bag and tell them that this play is really WORK!

 Reading groups are also a way to differentiate.  Our groups are based on reading ability level, so that students will have as much time as possible practicing reading at the reading level where they learn the most.  While some students meet and read with me, others work on activities related to words: phonics, word meaning, and spelling; and others do "seatwork" in comprehension, spelling, and grammar. Again, learning is enhanced by working in different parts of the room, and being able to move from one to another from time to time, and each group can do work that fits them more exactly.  WARNING! This means that all students will not always have the same work.  Fair is not always equal. 

In all subjects, I try to assign different types of practice activities that appeal to different children.  Some learn better by reading, others drawing or looking at visual representations, others by logic or mathmatics, others by music and rhythm.  So, the more kinds of activites we do, the better chance of "hitting" it right with all children.  

Thank you for all who have taken the time to fill out the information sheet I sent home about how your child learns.  By working together, we can maximize the learning for every student!

Prayers

Prayers are in the agenda.  The new prayers to be learned this year are the Act of Contrition and the Morning Offering.  We will begin to practice the Act of Contrition soon, but it won’t be tested until we practice for First Reconciliation, around the first of March.  We will test Morning Offering after that.

Homework

While second grade will not have a lot of homework, I will have them take home assignments not finished in class on occasion.  If this is becoming an everyday occurrence, we need to visit.  Of course, math will come home almost every day.  In addition, students may need to study spelling words, or prayers, as needed.  Please have your students read at least for a few minutes every day.

Grading

As you know, we grade using a 3, 2, 1 scale.  Three means mastered, and is the highest grade.  A one definitely means the student needs to work on this skill or learn this information.  Please note that these grades are arrived at by a combination of tests, teacher observation of activities and work done at school, papers, and listening to prayers, reading, etc. I keep a record of the scores on all these things to use in preparing the report card.

 Papers will be sent home daily, but I only ask that the agenda be signed once a week, on Mon. night.  As always, please check agendas every day.  I usually ask students to make corrections if they miss more than 2 on any given paper.  If they are not already corrected when they go home, you may want to have them correct them for you.  In that case, they do not need to be brought back to school.

AR Reading

I expect students to keep reading regularly and continually for AR points.  They have all set goals which are written in the agenda book.  Students will receive a prize for reaching this monthly goal.

Show and Tell

No toys will be allowed for Show and Tell.  I would like this to be a chance for children to share educational items they may be interested in, such as science materials, things brought home from a vacation, things showing about other cultures, religious articles, etc.  Also, I will alternate between odds and evens so that only half the children bring something each week.  I ask the students to write down their week in the agenda.   Please take a little time to quiz the child on what he or she will say, since it is to be Show and Tell, and its purpose is language development.

Also, remember that it is necessary to obtain permission from Mr. Lyall prior to bringing any live animals into the school, and that many such animals are prohibited, for various safety reasons.

Summer Birthdays

If your child had a birthday during the summer, he or she is welcome to celebrate a half-birthday by bringing treats on the day six months after their birthday.  That will make it just as fun to turn 7 ½ as it was to turn 7! (At school anyway!)

Thanks for coming to our new website.  As your child's teacher, I want to remind you that I am here to help your child learn.  If you have a concern, please call, email, or stop by to see me.  I am normally at school until 4:15 or later, and will be happy to meet with you in the evening by appointment.

Phone: 620-532-2791 (school)                                         Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

           620-955-7053 (home)

Welcome to the Second Grade web page! We are very excited to have a new parish website and web pages for all the teachers.  I expect to add to this page frequently in order to keep parents updated on news, assignments, materials to be brought, and important dates. As time goes on, I also would like to devote some space to each subject I teach and how parents can help their kids get the most from it and be prepared for class.  These articles will be kept on the page so that you can refer back to them when you have a question.  They will be shown with the most recent first, and proceeding back in time as you go down the page.  As I find resources, I hope to have some fun stuff for kids, too.

On the sidebar you will see Documents. Links, and Picture Gallery.  The documents are PDF's you can print and return to school or email back. Look for some documents here in the next few days.  I would like some information from you about your children.  Links will be sites I have seen and used and know to be helpful to second graders or their parents.  I will get some pictures of your students into the Picture Gallery as soon as I can. There will also be a calendar under the section marked "Mrs. Hernandez's Assignments.  If you click here, you will see calendar items such as birthdays, deadlines, events and meetings.  

I hope you will visit this page often.  I have lots of information planned which I think you will be interested in.  This page will replace the monthly newsletter I used to send home.  Please, keep me informed if your contact information such as phone number, address, or email address changes.  Thank you, and I am looking forward to a wonderful year with your students! 

Mrs. Hernandez