Paxson Elementary School

On Monday, February 8th, the Blue Class and the Green Class celebrated the 100th Day of School.  In our Spanish classroom, the kids chose from a menu of different 100th Day-themed activities, including: creating structures and designs from 100 blocks and/or pattern blocks, playing Race to 100, completing a 100's chart puzzle, and completing a variety of sentences in Spanish about 100.  In the afternoon, both classes got together to hear some 100th Day stories and to eat our class snack mix made from various bags of 100 edibles the kiddos brought in.  Many thanks to all who contributed or who offered to do so!!! It takes a village to celebrate the 100th day!

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We're wrapping up our geometry and measuring unit, and the kiddos are becoming experts in estimating and measuring in inches, feet, and yards, and in centimeters and meters.

Also the kids are enjoying and greatly benefitting from a daily oral language activity (thanks for the idea, Maestro Muhs!) that involves them writing a question in Spanish on one side of an index and an answer prompt on the other.  They've written a handful of cards, and they are doing an amazing job asking and answering these questions with their classmates.  Their Spanish skills are incredible, and getting more so every day!!!

Gracias a todos! Have a great week!

It's been an eventful week in the second grade Spanish classroom.  We miss Maestra Corona a lot, but the kids know so much Spanish they can  run our morning calendar meeting!  Each day we take turns having a student leader take us through our morning calendar routines! 

 We did lots of practice this week using our two-digit addition skills to play grocery store.  The kiddos did great speaking Spanish as they worked in pairs with play money to buy and sell frutas y verduras.

The kids also did a fantastic job preparing for and participating in the holiday concert.  Many many congratulations to them and to Mrs. Callan for an amazing show.

It's been a busy, fun, crazy week!  Best wishes to all for a restful, happy vacation and a terrific 2016! See you in the new year!

This week the Blue and Green Classes earned their latest marble jar party.  We celebrated in seasonal style by watching the British animated classic "The Snowman" and by making marshmallow snowmen.  See the pictures below.

We are very, very sad to say goodbye to our amazing teacher candidate, Nicte-ha Corona Aguirre, who has been a tremendous resource for all of us in 2nd Grade Spanish Immersion.  She has completed her semester and is one step closer to becoming an official teacher.  We look forward to having her come back to visit, and also to substitute teach for Maestra D. and other teachers at Paxson.  We wish her all the best and will miss her terribly!!!!!

As you know, storyteller extraordinaire Bill Harley came to perform for us at Paxson this Wednesday, thanks to our remarkable librarian Nancy Peterson and to all of you who contributed generously to his visit! The kids loved the show, and the grown ups did too!

The kids earned their second class marble jar party, and we celebrated in pajamas today (Friday) with muffins and milk and a Peanuts Thanksgiving movie, followed by a little Wallace and Gromit.  Kudos to both kiddos for the great teamwork and behavior that earned them all those marbles! 

Last week the Green Class had gym in Halloween costumes, and this weekend they had gym in their pjs!

The Paxson local products fundraiser is in full swing.  Please support all the wonderful arts programs and other fantastic activities it helps fund by encouraging your friends and family to choose from some of the amazing products that your kiddo is hoping to sell!

Finally, don't forget that next week are our parent-teacher conferences on Wednesday and Thursday.  If you haven't already, please go to

this page to sign up for your conference!

Have a terrific weekend!

Last week was a fun, jam-packed week.  Enjoy the images below that capture some of the adventures we had!

Here the kiddos in the Blue Class are crunching down on apples at 2pm (Crunch Time!) on National Food Day.

Every Monday the kids in both dance classes spend an hour learning dance terms, practicing different movements, and choreographing and presenting their own group dances. This week they did dances representing how water molecules behave in frozen, liquid, and gas form.

This month in art with Mrs. Swanson, the kids are making gorgeous rooster pictures with oil pastels.

In Room 170 during our second grade Halloween rotations, the kids made Day of the Dead models and masks.  Note special guest Frida Kahlo (aka Maestra Corona, our U of M teacher candidate!)

The Green Class did their Day of the Dead art projects in full costume!!!

We had a wonderful afternoon with Jennifer Coombe and the Arts Education students at the University, and the kids made some amazing Day of the Dead projects.  Many thanks to the parents who came along as chaperones and to those who offered to join us.  The kids had a blast!

We started reading groups in Spanish this week, and the kids did a beautiful job! If you speak Spanish and would like to volunteer to work with the kids during reading groups, we'd love your help, so please reach out to me.

Hi all!  We thought you might appreciate these pictures from Tuesday's Jump Rope for Heart activities in the school yard.  The kids had a blast jumping ropes, hula hooping, and turning the jump rope for their friends.  Mr. Moffatt reported that Paxson kids earned over $5000!  Amazing!

We had a visit today (Wednesday) from Marshall the Miracle Dog.  We got to hear the story of his difficult start and to learn about how he's inspiring people all over the world.  And every Paxson kid (and teacher!) who wanted to had a chance to pet him on the way out of the assembly.  

On Monday, October 5th, thanks to Mason in 2L we got to meet Meghan, an amazing Olympic athlete who showed us how she bikes, walks, and runs with a prosthetic limb.  She was fantastic and the kids were thrilled to meet her and see the gold and silver medals she won at the London 2012 games!

On Wednesday, October 7th,  International Walk to School Day we had two different volunteers come and read aloud from Clifford the Big Red Dog about road safety.  The kids really enjoyed it and were great listeners and very respectful audience members!!!