Meet the Teacher

Hi my name is Kristen Saunders, and I am so very excited 

to be your child's 2nd grade teacher.  This will be my 11th year 

teaching, and my 1st year in 2nd grade.  I am excited about this new
teaching adventure!  Also, this is my 4th year 

on the Learn Lane team.  I am looking

forward to a great year!

I grew up in Windham, Maine where I attended
Windham Christian Academy from K through
12th grade. My grandparents owned
a cottage on Sebago, and I have always loved
the lakes region area!

                                         

In December of 2003 I graduated with a
Early Childhood/Elementary Education
degree from Evangel University in
Springfield, Missouri.  

After a couple years of teaching, I
decided to go back to school and pursue
my masters degree.  I graduated in 2009
with my masters in General Education.

My Favorites

Food:  Italian and Chocolate

Movie: Anne of Green Gables

Book:  Little Women

Color: Pink

Drink: Coffee

Season: Summer

Sport:  Skiing

Fast Food:  Chinese

Hobby:  Knitting

Subject:  Reading

Dessert:  Anything chocolate

Flower: Dahlia

Pet: Dogs

To be the best teacher I can be, I couldn't
do it without my love and #1 support, my husband
Josh.  Josh and I have been married for
5 years.  

Next to my supportive and wonderful husband,
Josh, our puppy boy, Watson, is love of my
life.  He brings us great joy and fun.  

Ocean Field Trip

Dear Families,

We will be taking a field trip to Crescent Beach State Park on Monday, June 13th.  The rain date is scheduled for Wednesday, June 15th.  We will be leaving the school at 8:45 with an estimated return time of 2:30.  We will be exploring the tide pools and the animals that live there.

All chaperones will need to provide their own transportation, however, your entry fee will be covered by the district.  If you are planning on following the bus you should arrive at school by 8:15 to go over rules for the field trip.  Students are not allowed to ride with their parents in cars.  Students must ride to and from the field trip on the bus.  Siblings are not allowed if you are chaperoning for this field trip as you will be responsible for a group of students.  

Students will need to wear appropriate shoes to climb on the rocks.  Shoes should have rubber soles and have straps and/or laces to keep them on your child’s feel.  (NO FLIP FLOPS!)  In the interest of preserving the ecological balance of the beach, we are not allowed to take rocks, shells and/or anything else we might find home with us.  The children will be able to spend some time exploring the tide pools and identifying some of the shells and other sea life that they find on the beach.  If you are a chaperone, please make sure that all “living” finds are returned to their original home.

The children will not be allowed in the water!!!  Please do not send your child wearing a bathing suit.  Your child will need a towel to sit on at the beach, at hat, sunscreen, a water bottle and a bag lunch with some snacks and a couple of drinks (NO GLASS BOTTLES PLEASE).  We will also be having snack when we arrive at the beach.  Please apply sunscreen on your child before sending them to school.

Exciting end of the year!

This week has been filled with so much excitement.  Here are a few highlights of what has been happening this week!!

Tuesday we had Field Day, and despite the rain, we had a blast, plus the day ended with beautiful sunshine.  Here are a few pictures to share what we did!

Swimming!!!

Canoeing 

Water games

Face paint 

Relay races 

Then today we had the Lake Region graduates walk through the school. Everyone was so proud of all their hard work!  

Today we also brought our 2016 Reading Challenge to a close. There were 2 teams today, Team Peavey and Team Cline. The teams were comprised from the 12 classrooms that read the most in our challenge. Each team competed in a "Mousetrap" race and in the end Mrs. Peavey's team was victorious, so Mrs. Cline went into the dunk tank!

May/June Dates

I can't even believe there are only 6 more weeks of school left!  There will be a lot going on as the end of the school year approaches.  Here are some important dates to keep in mind this month and into the beginning of next month.

May 
  27th - R.O.C.K Reward! 
  30th - Memorial Day - No school
June 
   7th - Field Day - Please have your permission slips returned by June 3rd
   13th - Field Trip to Crescent Beach
   15th - Rain Date for Crescent Beach
   16th - Last Day of School!!

April Important Dates

April 

11-14th - Random Acts of Kindness week (See prior blog for more details)

12th - Pride in Our School Day- Dress up in your favorite Alice in Wonderland costume, and also come have lunch with your child

12th - Crooked River Vote - Please make sure you take time to go out and vote for this very important decision!

12th & 14th - Parent/Teacher conferences - I look forward to talking with everyone about their child's progress

15- 24th - April Break!!

29th - Mid Trimester Closes

Reading Challenge Ends

This week was our last week for our reading challenge.  I want to thank everyone for helping their child read each night, recording their times, and turning them in at the end the week.  If you still have your last reading log, please send it in on Monday.  The classroom teachers will be compiling their reading minutes to see which classes will participate in our reading celebration relay.  Just like last year the classes with the highest minute will have their teacher participating in a relay race in May.  At the end of the relay race the teams principal that loses will be ending up in a dunk tank.  It should be an exciting event to celebrate all of our hard work as readers!

Also, throughout this last month we have been reading as a school the book, Nicholas a Maine Tale by Peter Arenstam.  Everyone has been so very excited about this book!  It has given students a chance to make connections to their own life as the main character Nicholas travels around the state of Maine.  In celebration of finishing the book this week we were surprised with a special visitor,  Peter Arenstam!  It as so awesome to have him at our school to share about being an author, his books, and of course how he wrote our all time favorite Nicholas series.  We love the character so very much, that we as a class, along with several other classes are going to read the next book in the series, Nicholas a New Hampshire Tale.

Random Acts of Kindness Week

Student Council is sponsoring a Random Acts of Kindness to build awareness of the power of just being kind.  Please help us celebrate the week by participating in the dress up days to show your pride in being a student at Songo Locks school.    Please dress in the following:

Monday, April 11- PJ Day

Show your soft side - wear soft pajamas

Tuesday, April 12- Pride in our school day

Dress as your favorite character from Alice in Wonderland

Wednesday, April 13- Wacky Wednesday

Dress in a silly manner

Thursday, April 14- One color for Kindness

Show how nothing is black or white - Wear anything gray

Additionally, as a Random Act of Kindness from the Songo Locks Elementary School, we are holding a fundraiser to raise money/supplies for Harvest Hills to help care for homeless dogs and cats.

Some items they could use include:

• Canned Dog and Cat Food
• Kitten food
• Dry cat food
• Dry dog food- NO BENEFUL OR OLD ROY please
• Grain-free dog food
• Hardwood pellets (We use it for cat litter)
• Bleach
• Laundry detergent
• Trash Bags
• Postage Stamps
• Photocopy paper
• Dish soap
• Cleaning Supplies: Nylon-bristle brooms, Scrub Pads and Brushes, Sponges, Paper Towels
• Gift cards to Wal-mart, Paris Farmers’ Union and Hannaford

Parent Teacher conference night would be a great time to drop off donations!

Upcoming Learning

Reading:  

• Continuing to work on story elements - character, setting, problem, solution, and plot
• This week we will continue with spelling patterns that go along with the final e rule, next week we will have a tricky phonics pattern.  The pattern in called the c train and the g train (also known as soft c and g).  The rule is that when c or g is followed by an e or i it changes its sound to hard c and g to soft c and g.  

Writing:

• We have been doing an author's study on Mo Willems.  We have been reading through a number of his books; now, this week we will each decide which is the best, in our opinion.  After everyone picks their book they will be working on an opinion piece about the book and why they think it is the best Mo Willems book!
• We are continuing to work on trying to add adjectives into our sentences, end sentences with correct punctuation, and capitalize the beginning letters in our sentences.

Math:

• This week we are working on adding 2 digit numbers.  This is also helping us to practice our understanding of place value.
• We are continuing to work on addition and subtraction fluency.

Social Studies

• This week we are starting a new unit, mapping.  We will be learning about different types of maps, how to label maps, directionality, and map keys.

******************Reminders**************

Spring Pictures - Tuesday, March 22nd

Report Cards Come Home/Open for Viewing - Friday, March 25th

Reading Challenge!

Songo Locks School Reading Challenge

February 26 – April 8

Research shows that students that read 20 minutes a day at home are better readers. We want to improve the reading skills of students at Songo Locks School, so we are challenging them to read 3540 hours as a group.

Why so many hours? Maine has just over 35, 000 square miles. Each hour we read will cover 10 square miles. Each classroom teacher has received a copy of the book Nicholas: A Maine Tale, written by Peter Arenstam. We will be reading the book aloud during the month of March.

What do students have to do?

*Read outside of school

*20 minutes or more 5 days a week

*Fill in the reading log

*Return reading log to school on Friday

(return Thursday, March 3, Teacher Workshop Day on Friday,

March 4)

What do parents/guardians have to do?

* Help children time their reading.

* Sign the reading log

* Participate in Family Reading Week, March 4 – 11-  keep a log for the whole family

Reading includes:

*Read to self

*Read with a buddy

*Listen to a read aloud


Special Events:

*March 15 Maine Day, earn 196 reading points - wear something that promotes a Maine location

*March 31 Special Visitors, watch for more information

*April 8 A very, very special guest speaker

*April 14 Book Character Day, dress as your favorite book character


We have until April 8 to complete our hours. All students and staff will help to complete the

challenge. At the successful completion of our challenge we will celebrate with a Book

Character Day! Students and staff can dress as their favorite book character. Last year, we held our own mushers race with the teachers pulling the sleds.  We have a new challenge planned, Mrs. Cline and Mrs. Peavey will need a beach towel this year!  Do you want your teacher to be on the team this year? Read more minutes than the other classes in your grade to put your teacher on the team!

Read! Read! Read!

Important March Dates

4th - No school - Teacher Workshop

13th - Daylight Savings - Spring Ahead!

25th - 2nd Trimester Report Cards Go Home

31st - Science Night

Valentine's Day Fun

Friday was a very fun filled day.   It started off with everyone mailing their cards to their friends.  Then, in math we did a mystery Valentine picture on a number grid.  Everyone suspected that it was a heart, and they were right!  In the afternoon we had our cookie walk.  Thank you to all the parents that helped make this fun activity possible.  I'm sure you are all reaping the benefits with a yummy array of cookies this week!  Finally, it was time to sort through our Valentine's bags.  To end the day we were able to watch Snow Buddies in our PJ's.  It was the perfect way to celebrate Valentine's Day and kick off winter break.

I hope everyone has a fabulous break, and that it gives everyone a chance to rest up and get healthy.  Please don't forget to read over break, practice your addition facts, and practice learning to tie your shoes!  Happy BREAK!!

Let the cookie walk begin!

Hmm, it smells so good in here!

Everyone is scoping out their delicious treats.

Celebrating 100 Days of Great Learning and Fun!

On Tuesday we had our 100th day of school!  It seems to be going so very fast, and there has been so much growth, learning, and fun that has happened in those 100 days.  In celebration of 100's day we invited students to dress up as 100 year old people.  There were quite a few students that took us up on dressing up to celebrate the day, and the teacher's of Learning Lane were not about to miss out on the fun!  Along with our fun dressing up we had a full day of 100's day activities planned.  However, the weather didn't participate with our plans, and we had a 2 hour delay.  This however did not stop us from celebrating!  We however made up the activities we missed Tuesday on Wednesday.  Here are a few pictures highlighting our fun celebration day!  Thank you for helping your kids dress up for the occasion.

Oh no my students turned 100 over night

Happy 100th Day!!

Doing some 100 day writing

Learning Lane multi age groups!

Writing about 100 things!

What happened to the teachers of Learning Lane?

Granny's with attitude

I Make 100 Look Good!

It's time to make some memories!  Please help your child dress up like they are 100 years old for our 100th day of school on Tuesday, February 9th.  If it happens to be a snow day it will move to Wednesday, February 10th.

Think glasses, baby powder in the hair, canes, suspenders, pearl necklaces... Be creative!

Have fun!  We can't wait to meet our "new" 100 year old students!

Cookie Walk

Valentine’s Day Cookie Walk

For our Valentine's Day celebration next Friday we will be having a cookie walk.  Children will bring a plate of cookies to share with their classmates.  Please send 17 cookies (one for each student).  We will put the cookies out on a table and the children will go through the line and take one of each cookie.  They will pick one to eat at our party, and bring the rest of the cookies assortments home in a zip lock bag for February break.

Thank you for your help with our Valentine's Day celebration!  

End of January/February Important Info

Here are some upcoming important dates for the end of January into February!

January

22nd - Mid Trimester Ends

25th - Early Release Day

29th - Mid Trimester Reports Go Home

February

1st - Early Release Day

8th - Early Release Day

12th - Valentine's Day Celebration (More info to come)

13th-21st - Winter Break - No school

22nd - Early Release Day

29th - Early Release Day

Arctic Animals

Starting this Monday during early release days we will be starting to study nonfiction and fiction texts around Arctic animals.  This will be done as a Learning Lane, multi age grouping activity.  Each grade level in Learning Lane will be studying a different animal.  In the kindergarten classroom's they will be learning about seals.  In the 1st grade classroom they will be learning about polar bears, and in the 2nd grade rooms they will be learning about penguins.  In the classrooms working on nonfiction text students will learn about the different parts of a nonfiction book, and then they will reach passages to learn about that Arctic animal.  In the other classrooms they will be learning about the different parts of fiction text, such as the characters, setting, problem, and solution.  They will also be doing a special activity to go along with that Arctic animal.  Everyone is very excited about learning about this amazing Arctic animals!

BRRR It's Winter

As the temperatures drop and winter really settles in please make sure to send your child to school with their winter gear.  Most days we will be going outside, as long as the temperature permits.  In order for us to allow students to play in the snow we need them to have the proper clothing.  Students are expected to wear boots, snow pants, a winter coat, mittens, and a hat/head warmer.  Also, sometimes their clothes get wet while having all that fun in the snow.  Please send your child in with an extra pair of socks and an extra sweatshirt.  Thank you for helping us have winter fun!!

Christmas Celebrations!!

The last week of school was extremely busy.  The excitement of the week was kicked off with our very special and fun Christmas concert.  Everyone was so very excited to dress up and perform for their families!  Thank you to everyone who was able to join us for that very special moment!

Everyone is so excited

Do you hear those Jingle Bells?

Snow is falling

To close out our week together we finished it with a PJ day, gingerbread decorating, and a movie and popcorn.  Our week was a lot of fun, thank you to everyone who donated yummy treats to help make our celebration possible.

Decorating our cookies according to
our Glyph questions

Looking Good!

Looking ready to eat

Can't wait to each that yummy gingerbread

PJ's and gingerbread, what a fun day!