Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a great weekend. It’s hard to believe that we have come to the final week of our first quarter. It has been such a great learning experience for me and the entire class. I want to say a special thank you to all our parent volunteers: Mrs. Zinke, Mrs. Gerson, Mrs. Lavell, Mrs. Antoniello, Mrs. Everhart, and Mrs. Sinykin. We appreciate your dedication to Reading and Math groups. Here is a quick look at our week:  

LANGUAGE ARTS  

SPALDING – We will continue with our spelling list this week. Please, review homework as they come home.

List 1: song, sing, sang, winter, stone, free, lake, lace, page, nice, end, fall, went, back

List 2: paper, put, each, soon, came, Sunday, show, Monday, moon, yet, find, give, new, letter

List 3: take, Mr., Mister, after, thing, what, than, its, his, her, it’s, very, or, thank, dear, west

List 4: sold, told, best, form, far, gave, alike, add, brave,  corn, dance, dinner, doll, egg, fruit

READING – READING STRATEGY: Our reading strategy this week is analyzing characters. Children will learn to analyze character by focusing on what they think, do, say, and feel. We will finish Charlotte’s Web. Please, have your child bring The Boxcar Children to school.

 POETRY : Title: “Caterpillars” is our poem for this month. They will bring a copy of the poem home tomorrow(Students will memorize poem and say it individually by memory at the end of the month.)

SAYING: “keep your fingers crossed,” is our saying.  We will appreciate it if you use it at home because children retain sayings when they engage in it through meaningful use.

           

GRAMMAR/VOCABULARY – This week, we will learn to use capital letters for proper names, initials, titles of respect, addresses, and poems.

WRITING – As we work with Writing With Ease , students will continue to develop narration, dictation and copy work skills.

LEVELED READERS

Please, encourage your scholars to take their readings seriously. I decided to wait till the second quarter before sending home the comprehension question log. I will explain the expectations to you all during our conference.

MATH

This week we will begin subtraction with renaming. In the past, I have observed that most children struggle with subtraction more than addition.  Please, do not hesitate to contact me if you think your child needs extra help.          

SCIENCE

We learned about the different states of water: liquid, solid and gas. We also started a conversation about evaporation. This week, we will talk about condensation and precipitation.

GEOGRAPHY OF THE AMERICAS

        We will do our History review on Monday, and students will come home with their History packets and study guide. Our test will be on Wednesday. I have carefully added notes to every lesson that children can review at home. Please, go over review questions with them.

VIRTUE

Responsibility

To hold yourself morally accountable for actions within your control.

OWN your actions

This week we will continue to emphasize the virtue of responsibility.

Quote

  Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.
                                    ― Noam Chomsky

Announcements

·      Guided reading will be  on Tuesdays and Wednesday. On Tuesday, it will be 12:30 – 1:30pm (60mins) On Wednesdays; it will be 11:50am -12:50pm (60 mins). We will also have Math groups on Wednesday mornings starting this week at 8:05-9:05 am.

·      Our field trip is on Friday. Please, make sure you send in your permission slips.

·      Our sign-up genius is up. Please, remember to choose a slot for our end of quarter conference. Here is the URL: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0c4da8a623a0f58-quarter

·      We have a parent coming in on Friday to present India to the class. We will gather in the MPR for a 30minute presentation.

·      We now have a wish list for our class. A special thank you to Mrs. Zinke and Mrs. Everhart for the Kleenex tissues.

·      Top on my wish list is a collection of chapter books for the classroom. By second semester, I would love to completely phase out most students into reading longer texts, hoping that they would have learned enough comprehension skills that will help them understand longer texts.

·      Have your child bring The Boxcar Children to school.

·      Tests: Math and Reading (Charlotte’s Web) will be on Thursday. History is on Wednesday.

Have a great fall break!

Sincerely,

Ms. Toyin & Ms. Peterson

Dear Parents,

How was your weekend?  I can’t believe that the seventh week of this quarter is here. Your scholars are learning so much. This is a brief look at our week:

LANGUAGE ARTS  

SPALDING – We will continue with our spelling list this week. Please, review homework as they come home.

List 1: I, as, send, alone, lone, one, has, some, if, how, her, them, other, baby, well

List 2: about, men, man, for, ran, run, was, that, his, led, lay, apple, ate,, author, bread

List 3: brown, dog, eats, fast, food, jump, sleep, wash, yellow, nine, face, miss, rides, ride, tree

List 4: sick, got, north, white, spent, foot, feet, flows, blow, block, spring, river, planted, plant, cut

READING – READING STRATEGY: We will continue to explore making connections and visualizing as a reading strategy in the new week. As children read, they will be encouraged to make mental pictures that can help them construct meaning as well as make connections. We finished chapter eighteen in Charlotte’s Web. We will move on to the the last chapters of the book .  

 POETRY : Title: “Where Go the Boats” is our poem for this week again. It can be found in Harp and Laurel Wreath pg. 29 (Students will memorize poem and say it together by memory at the end of the month.) unbelievably, more than half of the class have recited this poems by heart. I am so impressed with our scholars. I will encourage more students to recite individually this week.

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

SAYING: “keep your fingers crossed,” is  our saying.  We will appreciate it if you use it at home because children retain sayings when they engage in it through meaningful use.

           

GRAMMAR/VOCABULARY – This week, we will continue to learn about verbs: helping verbs. I will make effort to point out examples of these types of verb in their writing or reading so they can make connections. Last week, we introduced types of sentences. This week, we will learn the use of commas.

WRITING – As we work with Writing With Ease , students will continue to develop narration, dictation and copy work skills. They will come home this weekend with writing homework. We are asking that you follow the directions given by reading the story with your child, have them do a summary, and then dictate a short sentence to them.

LEVELED READERS

Please, encourage your scholars to take their readings seriously. Beginning this week, there is a comprehension question log for their readers. Have them fill it out. It’s not how much they write that matters, but how well it is written

MATH

Last week, we started addition with renaming. It’s amazing how some of the kids transformed from not getting the concept into understanding the concept pretty well. Please, encourage them to practice at home all the time. We will begin subtraction with renaming this week.

           

SCIENCE

We will begin water cycle in science. I encourage them to bring books that they have at home that they can share about any content area we are learning. We will explore liquid, solid and gas, and then we will talk about evaporation. We will also do some water experiment during this unit.

GEOGRAPHY OF THE AMERICAS

         Last week, we learned about The Indus civilization, Hinduism as a religion, and the celebration of the Festival of lights. This week we will learn about Buddhism and the emperor that helped spread Buddhism in India. We will read some Jakata tales, and we will end the unit on India. I have carefully added notes to every lesson that children can review at home. Their History packets will come home every weekend for review. Please, go over review questions with them.

VIRTUE

Responsibility

To hold yourself morally accountable for actions within your control.

OWN your actions

I am sure our parent volunteers agree with me that our first week of guided reading and Math groups went well. The kids acted responsibly, and they lived up to expectations. I am proud of them. For me personally, I encourage them to give their best at all times, and I hold them accountable for their actions.

Quote

  The noblest search is the search for excellence.

                                                      - Lyndon B. Johnson

Announcements

·      We will continue guided reading on Tuesday this week. I look forward to having parent volunteers in the classroom.

·      Guided reading will be  on Tuesdays and Wednesday. On Tuesday, it will be 12:30 – 1:30pm (60mins) On Wednesdays; it will be 11:50am -12:50pm (60 mins). We will also begin Math groups on Wednesday mornings starting this week  at 8:05-9:05 am.

·      We will begin our benchmark tests for Math and Reading. This test will be taken three times throughout the year. This is done to measure growth through out the year. Your students do not have to study for these two tests. It will be done on Monday.

·      Friday is half day.

·      During guided reading, children will be doing a Language Arts quiz that will be graded on a weekly basis. Encourage your scholar to complete their packets

·      We now have a wish list for our class. I will update it from time-to -time.

·      Top on my wish list is a collection of chapter books for the classroom. By second semester, I would love to completely phase most student into reading longer texts, hoping that they would have learned enough comprehension skills that will help them understand longer texts.

Thank you for all the encouraging words and support!

Sincerely,

Ms. Toyin & Ms. Peterson

Newsletter 

 

I hope you all had a restful weekend. I am glad many of you were able to attend the Singapore/Spalding night training. I have heard from some of you that it went well. Please, feel free to contact me if you have questions about the curriculum. Here is a bird’s eye view of our sixth week.

LANGUAGE ARTS  

SPALDING – We will continue with our spelling list this week. The only thing that has changed is that we have increased the number of words to fifteen per day, but we will continue to test only thirty words Friday. Please, review homework as they come home.

List 1: big, bag, beg, bog, bug, mother, three, land, cold, hot, hat, child, ice, play, sea, see

List 2: bird, cool, earth, feed, fur, green, oil, paint, pool, tooth, teeth, worm, day, eat, sits, sit

List 3: lot, box, school, belong, door, floor, yes, low, soft, stands, stand, yard, bring, tell, five

List 4: ball, law, ask, just, way, get, home, much, call, long, love, then, house, year, to

Please, continue to encourage proper manuscript handwriting.

Here is a website for one of our sister schools. You can watch videos on how to help your child at home with phonograms: http://archwayveritas.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=168&Itemid=212

READING – READING STRATEGY: We will explore visualization as a reading strategy in the new week. As children read, they will be encouraged to make mental pictures that can help them construct meaning. We finished chapter fifteen in Charlotte’s Web. We will move on to at least the next three chapters.  

 POETRY :  “Where Go the Boats” is our poem for this week again. It can be found in Harp and Laurel Wreath pg. 29 (Students will memorize poem and say it together by memory at the end of the month.)

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

SAYING: “Don’t cry over spilled milk,” is still our saying.  We will appreciate it if you use it at home because children retain sayings when they engage in it through meaningful use.

           

GRAMMAR/VOCABULARY – This week, we will continue to learn about verbs: linking verbs, helping verbs, and state of being verbs. I will make effort to point out examples of these types of verb in their writing or reading so they can make connections. We will also begin to look at the four types of sentences.        

WRITING – As we work with Writing With Ease , students will continue to develop narration, dictation and copy work skills. They will come home this weekend with their third writing homework. We are asking that you follow the directions given by reading the story with your child, have them do a summary, and then dictate a short sentence to them.

LEVELED READERS

By now, your scholar should have settled into the routine of  taking books home. The expectation is that they read  20 mins every night. They are to read the same book twice in two days. Each book has questions at the end. Please, ask your child some of the questions at the back to make sure comprehension has taken place. Your child has at least two days to finish reading the book before returning it. These books were carefully chosen to help your child build a wealth of background knowledge from different spheres of life. Guess what I observed? Children are already making connection to books they read when we encounter topics that are familiar to them. Reading and constructing meaning is the most powerful way to acquire knowledge. We hope that you engage them in questioning at the end of every book. Thank you for helping us achieve this very important milestone.

MATH

We will continue with addition and subtraction this week using standard algorithm. I know the kids have been longing for this time, so that they can add and subtract vertically.  Please, continue to work with your child on fact fluency at home! Have them continue to practice.                                    

SCIENCE

This week, we will review all we learned in Science about seasons. Students will come home with a study guide. They will do their test for Science on Thursday. 

HISTORY

         We completed our unit on Geographies of Americas. Even though it was a very large unit, I was amazed at the amount of learning that took place. I see our scholars just exhibiting an obsession for maps. This week, our study of Geography is taking us to India. I love history, and I am so excited to go on an imaginary journey with your children to India, in the continent of Asia. I am giving an open invitation to our parents of Indian descent to come in at some point to share their culture with the children. Please, let me know if you are interested in visiting the class, so that I can go over the procedures with you. Our focus this week is on: The Indus civilization, Hinduism as a religion, and the celebration of the Festival of lights.

VIRTUE

Responsibility

To hold yourself morally accountable for actions within your control.

OWN your actions

As we commence guided reading this week, we will have three blocs of 20mins. During one of the blocs, students are expected to sit at their desk for 20mins doing seatwork. For a second grader, this is a huge responsibility to live up to. I have watched student grow from lacking focus and being disruptive to being diligent and responsible with their time. I want to encourage you to speak to your child about the importance of living up to responsibility during this 20 minutes bloc. We will be looking out for the most responsible group at the end of every month and rewarding their effort.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

  

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

                          -Aristotle

Announcements

·      We will begin guided reading on Tuesday this week. I look forward to having parent volunteers in the classroom.

·      Guided reading will be  on Tuesdays and Wednesday. On Tuesday, it will be 12:30 – 1:30pm (60mins) On Wednesdays; it will be 11:50am -12:50pm (60 mins). We will also begin Math groups on Wednesday mornings starting this week  at 8:05-9:05 am.

·      There is a Science test on Friday

     .   There is a Math test on Friday

·      During guided reading, children will be doing a Language Arts quiz that will be graded on a weekly basis.

·      We now have a wish list for our class. I will update it from time-to -time.

·      Top on my wish list, is a collection of chapter books for the classroom. By the end of first semester second, I would love to completely phase most student into reading longer texts, hoping that they would have learned enough comprehension skills that will help them understand longer texts.

Thank you for all the encouraging words and support!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Toyin & Ms. Peterson

Dear Parents,

How are you all doing? I hope you had a great weekend. It’s hard to believe that week five is here already. Here is a summary of our fifth week.

Island Projects

Thank you for supporting your children through out the two weeks of preparing for their first second grade project. It was a huge success. I was amazed at how well they were done. Students took pride in their work, and they presented it confidently too. We will finish presentations this week.

LANGUAGE ARTS  

SPALDING – We will continue with our spelling list this week, they will be tested on Friday. Please, review homework as they come home.

List 1: time, may, into, him, today, look, did, like, six, boy

List 2: book, by, have, are, had, over, must, make, street, say

List 3: hand, ring, live, live, hill, late, let

These words may appear too easy for your child, but the ultimate goal is that they learn the logical progression of markings, basic spelling rules and how the knowledge of phonograms can help their reading and writing. Words will increase in complexity and amount in the coming weeks. Please, continue to encourage proper manuscript handwriting.

Alongside practicing new words, I will include phonogram review to homework this week. This is to ensure that students are practicing their phonograms at home. Some of them are still struggling, so please spend five minutes reviewing assigned phonograms sent home. To review phonogram show the card, and have your child repeat after you. Here is a website for one of our sister schools. You can watch videos on how to help your child at home: http://archwayveritas.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=168&Itemid=212

READING – READING STRATEGY: We will continue with our reading strategy  “making connections.”   As children learn to make connections, they will learn that there are three ways: text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to the world. We will have student make connections to Charlotte’s web this week again. I look forward to some of the great insights. We finished chapter twelve in Charlotte’s Web. We will move on to at least the next three chapters.  

 POETRY : Title: “Where Go the Boats” is our poem for this week again. It can be found in Harp and Laurel Wreath pg. 29 (Students will memorize poem and say it together by memory at the end of the month.)

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

SAYING: “Don’t cry over spilled milk,” is still our saying.  We will appreciate it if you use it at home because children retain sayings when they engage in it through meaningful use.

           

GRAMMAR/VOCABULARY –  This week, we will continue to learn about verbs: linking verbs, helping verbs, and state of being verbs.          

WRITING – As we work with Writing With Ease , students will continue to develop narration, dictation and copy work skills. They will come home this weekend with their second writing homework. We are asking that you follow the directions given by reading the story with your child, have them do a summary, and then dictate a short sentence to them.

LEVELED READERS

I am so excited about this new development. Students get to take books home to read three times a week M/W/F. The expectation is that they read it 20 mins every night. Each book has questions at the end. Please, ask your child some of the questions at the back to make sure comprehension has taken place. Your child has at least two days to finish reading the book before returning it. These books were carefully chosen to help your child build a wealth of background knowledge from different spheres of life. They will also help them develop their reading and comprehension skills over a period of time. We hope that you engage them in questioning at the end of every book. They will also keep track of the books they are reading in their reading log.

MATH

            Many students are catching on to the math decomposing of numbers when adding and subtracting.  Some will need more practice.  When overseeing your child’s homework, please encourage her/him to look for tens or multiples of tens when they decompose numbers for adding or subtracting.  Children should please focus on examples given in their homework for further help.

             Many students do not know their facts to make tens.  They should be working on math facts daily!  Your second grader needs to master the addition and subtraction facts to 20.  We cannot stress this enough!  Once students have mastered their facts, learning how to decompose numbers and do mental math will come more easily and help them to do more complicated problems (Remember:  students should be striving for automaticity with their basic facts) .Here is a recommended website: http://gregtangmath.com/

In Math this week, we will focus on addition and subtraction with renaming. Students will finally be allowed to add and subtract using the vertical algorithm.

SCIENCE

Last week in Science, we focused on what humans, animals and plants do in Winter . We talked about: hibernation, migration, and dormancy. We will finish the winter conversation and move on to Spring in this coming week. 

GEOGRAPHY OF THE AMERICAS

         This week, we will finish our unit on Geography of Americas. We will finish our conversation on South America, do a review, and test on Friday. Your students will come home with a study guide.

VIRTUE

Responsibility

To hold yourself morally accountable for actions within your control.

OWN your actions

Quote

  The price of greatness is responsibility."

— Winston Churchill

Announcements

·      We will begin guided reading on Wednesday this week. There will be a quick information session after school on Tuesday with parent volunteers. I look forward to having parent volunteers in the classroom.

·      Guided reading will be  on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. On Tuesday, it will be 12:30 – 1:30pm (60mins) On Wednesdays; it will be 11:50am -12:50pm (60 mins). We will need parent volunteers. Please, this is a yearlong commitment. We will also do Math groups on Wednesday mornings starting this week  at 8:05-9:05 am. Please, send me an email if you are interested in volunteering.

·      There is a History test on Friday.

·      There is a Math test on Wednesday

·      Sept 9^th is Singapore night for parents.

·      Sept 12^th is half day.

Thank you for all the encouraging words and support!

Sincerely,

Ms. Toyin & Ms. Peterson