November 19, 2016

Dear Families,

Important dates:

Nov. 21: Multi-cultural Feast at lunchtime (Please look over the note sent home earlier)

Nov. 23: ½ day, dismissal at 12:30

Nov. 24-25: Thanksgiving Break

 

​It was great seeing you at conferences.  I'm looking forward to a wonderful year with your kids.

​*Please note that next week we will not have a newsletter due to the Holiday and the short week.​

​​

Language Arts:

​In reading 

we

​continued reading our Book Club book, "The Name Jar," reading in small groups and discussing the book. Our focus has been on retelling, but the discussions have been rich with empathy and lots of questions. Please ask your child what this book is about. It's such a great book to go along with our PBL unit which focuses on diversity and new students and accepting similarities and differences.     

Word Work: We are focusing on the "oo" sounds and we'll continue next week sorting and working with words with the oo pattern.                   

 

                                       

In writing t

his week​ we introduced blogging!  Students learned about what a blog is and began creating

​

paper blogs.  Next week we'll learn about how to comment appropriately on

​other students' blogs

.  Soon, we will start to practice logging on and writing a blog online.  Blogging is a great way for students to practice writing because they love to write to a bigger audience. Eventually, students will be able to blog from home and share their blog posts with our entire class! Please do not log in to KidBlog yet at home, as we want to teach digital safety first.

 

Math: 

​Students are continuing to work 

on subtraction strategies

​ completing lessons 3.5-3.6.  We learned when to count up or count back for a subtraction problem, and the -0 and -1 strategy. Some children still need to practice the counting up strategy, drawing an open number line and showing the hops for counting up and finding the difference. They also need to be able to explain why they choose to count up or count back when solving a subtraction problem. Next week we'll begin to learn about "What's my Rule?" tables.  

Remember to practice math skills using the Home Links, Everyday Math online and IXL.

​  ​

Practice at home: 

​Ask your child when to count up and count back.  Give them a math problem and have them explain it through writing. Please be sure to practice basic math skills, such as counting change, counting above 100, telling time and explaining the strategies they use to solve math problems. I sent the Home Links as well as the review for the test home previously. Yesterday I sent home the answer pages to the Home Links because I noticed it wasn't on the Home Links pages.

 

PBL:  This week students brainstormed interview questions to ask students who are new to Deerfield or did not speak English when they came here.  Students are trying to stand in their shoes and figure out a way to make new students feel comfortable in the classroom.  They began interviewing students using the questions that they wrote, based on our Driving Question: How can we make our new students feel welcome in our school and community? We can't wait to see what they come up with!

 

 

Character Trait of the Month: RESPECT. Remember to work on your calendar!

Coats:  The weather will be colder next week! Remind your children to wear their coats! Also, please be sure to mark everything with your child's name.  This makes it easier to get a lost item back to its owner. 

 

Have a great weekend

​ and a great Thanksgiving,​

The Second Grade Teachers​

November 11, 2016

Dear Families,

Important dates:

Nov. 14-18: Book Fair

Nov. 15: ½ day Parent/Teacher conferences in the afternoon and evening.

Nov. 16: Picture Retake Day

Nov. 21: Multi-cultural Feast at lunchtime (Please look over the note sent home earlier)

Nov. 23: ½ day, dismissal at 12:30

Nov. 24-25: Thanksgiving Break

We had a fun week working on special projects for our entry way into the first and second grade wing! Thanks to the parent volunteers who put up our new paper. We’re looking forward to you seeing them at conferences!

Language Arts:

This week, we worked on retelling. Retelling is an important comprehension strategy. We focused on character, setting, problem, events, and solution in order to make sure we get the gist of the story. We're reading a book in group and discussing and retelling as we read. We are also writing responses to comprehension questions that we are thinking about as we read. Practice  retelling at home! After reading, talk about these story elements. We’re also working on building our stamina! Students are expected to read each day for at least twenty minutes. This is the best way to improve reading.

Word Work: 

We are focusing on long vowel patterns. We’re trying to use them in our writing and noticing them in our reading. We’re sorting words in order to find the patterns. Students are practicing while searching for words with the ai, ay, ea, ee and oa patterns. Practice at home: Search for words with these word patterns in newspapers or magazines. Copy them down on a piece of paper and highlight the pattern.

Writing: 

This week,  we’re working on writing a Thanksgiving essay. We are using the writing process to brainstorm, organize and create rough drafts about what we are thankful for.  Next week, we’ll revise and edit these and hopefully publish them!  We also want to mention that we work on writing throughout all subject areas. We are writing in reading workshop, writing in Social Studies, and even writing in math. We encourage you to start a journal at home and even have one in the car  to use for writing about anything!

Math: 

We started Unit three. We’re working on subtraction strategies. We’ve worked on Lessons 3.1- 3.4. Remember to practice math skills using the Home Links, Everyday Math online and IXL. Practice at home:  Give your child a math problem or story problem and have him/her explain how they solved it! Remind them to show other examples and even use a diagram to explain. Remember that basic math skills are always beneficial to practice at home. Simple addition and subtraction fact practice, counting change and telling time are things we encourage your children to practice at home!

Social Studies: This week we worked on distinguishing open and closed questions. Ask your child about these. We sorted questions that the children wrote in response to a statement, "Leaders create change."  At first, we sorted these questions according to whether or not they had anything to do with that statement. Some did not. Then we took those same questions and sorted them according to whether or not they were open or closed. This activity helped us when we began to create our own need to know questions on Thursday,  in response to our Driving Question, " How can we, a caring community of learners, welcome new families into our community?  Students will use those questions to create interview questions for new students. 

Character Trait of the Month: RESPECT. We take great pride in adding these character traits to your child's curriculum.  We feel it greatly helps your child to grow into a well-rounded, kind and caring human being.  Please continue to talk about these traits at home and we will do the same here at school! 

Coats:  We are still having issues with students not wanting to wear their coats! As a reminder, students need to remember to bring appropriate recess gear DAILY.  The school rule is that "If it is 60 or below, STUDENTS MUST WEAR THE COAT THEIR PARENTS SENT WITH THEM TO SCHOOL".  Often times, we will have the students say, "My Mom/Dad said I didn't have to wear a coat today".  Believe it or not, we have even had a few students who have been hiding their coats in backpacks, when they are asked to put their coats on.  Please talk to your child about this important school rule.  We appreciate your support and truly want the children to stay warm/healthy during this Fall/Winter season. Also, please be sure to mark everything with your child's name.  This makes it easier to get a lost item back to its owner. 

Have a great weekend!

The Second Grade Teachers

November 4, 2016

Dear Families,

We've had a fun and busy week! Here is an update on what is going on in the Second Grade Team.

Important dates:

*November 4^th:  End of first marking period

*November 8th:  Election Day- no school

*November 10^th /11^th: Special Person Breakfast

*November 11^th: Report Cards sent home and book orders due!

*November 15th:  Half day of school/ Parent-Teacher Conferences in the afternoon and evening

Language Arts:

Reading: This past week we continued with the Comprehension Beanie Baby Strategy, “Iggy Iguana” to practice making inferences.  Next week we will begin to focus on retelling using the Beanie Baby strategy, “Jabber the Reteller”. When you are reading with your child at home, remember to ask them questions about the text. Who is the main character? What is the setting? Can you tell me what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story? What was the problem in the story and how was it solved? These types of questions will help them improve their comprehension.

Writing:  This week we finished publishing one of the Personal Narrative pieces that they have been working on throughout the card marking. We learned how to use a checklist to check over our writing. Next week, we will continue to work on using craft in our writing by reading mentor texts and then practicing the skills we learned in our own writing pieces. 

Math: In math, we finished up Unit 2 with a review and unit test. The scores from these tests should be coming home in your child’s folder this weekend or early next week. We also took a first quarter math assessment to see what information they have retained during this first card marking, and what areas they still need to practice. We will begin unit 3 next week. This unit will be focusing on more addition and subtraction strategies to use.

Social Studies: This week we launched our PBL unit with an amazing entry event. For those of you who don’t already know this, we invited four Japanese Teachers from our Japanese School to come into our classrooms and teach our students, speaking only Japanese! Students became aware of how hard it is to learn in a classroom when you don't know the language. They were able to experience what an English Language Learner experiences when they first move to our country while putting themselves "in their shoes." We wrote about our feelings as well as the experience using a thinking routine called Step Inside. This routine helps students to develop empathy by "stepping inside" a character in order to feel what that character feels. In this case, they stepped inside themselves and told their feelings. We're hoping that students will develop empathy for our new families, while discovering the answers to questions that they have about our community and ultimately answer our Driving Question, "How can we, a caring community of learners, welcome new families into our school and into our city?" This was an incredible experience for both teachers and students. Q Focus Routine. They were given the prompt ‘Leaders Create Change’ and were given the opportunity to formulate questions on this topic. This not only gets them thinking about leadership, but it also shows them how to ask a question. This skill will help them next week when they have to start writing their Need to Know questions. 

Character Trait of the Month: RESPECT. We take great pride in adding these character traits to your child's curriculum.  We feel it greatly helps your child to grow into a well-rounded, kind and caring human being.  Please continue to talk about these traits at home and we will do the same here at school! 

Coats:  The cold weather has arrived!!! As a reminder, students need to remember to bring appropriate recess gear DAILY.  The school rule is that "If it is 60 or below, STUDENTS MUST WEAR THE COAT THEIR PARENTS SENT WITH THEM TO SCHOOL".  Often times, we will have the students say, "My Mom/Dad said I didn't have to wear a coat today".  Believe it or not, we have even had a few students who have been hiding their coats in backpacks, when they are asked to put their coats on.  Please talk to your child about this important school rule.   We appreciate your support and truly want the children to stay warm/healthy during this Fall/Winter season. Also, please be sure to mark everything with your child's name.  This makes it easier to get a lost item back to its owner. 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

The Second Grade Teachers

Our Special Guest Teacher

 

Our Project Based Learning Entry Event

 

Today we had four very special Guest Teachers from the Japanese School of Detroit, Ringo Kai. They each went into a second grade classroom to teach a lesson. Our teacher taught our class while speaking only Japanese. Students learned how it felt to try to learn at school, not knowing the language, as many of our students do.  Afterward, many children expressed nervousness, frustration and confusion while they were trying to focus on the lesson. These emotions represented the feelings of our new students that are learning English everyday!  The children were very excited to learn Japanese writing, a song, and numbers, but the biggest lesson was learning compassion, patience and  cultural understanding. We are very grateful for the time our Japanese Teacher friends gave to us today to learn about their language and culture. Thank you also to our Japanese classmates who helped us through some very difficult lessons! Stay tuned for more about our PBL unit!

 

 

 

Our very kind and patient teacher!

 

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween