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