January 18, 2019

Hi Families,

Bring on the snow! This week in 2nd grade we continued to revisit The Seven Habits (Synergize, Sharpen the Saw and Find Your Voice) and our classroom routines.

**2nd grade needs your help**

We are looking for donations of white tissue paper (like the kind you use to wrap presents) for an upcoming craft. If you have any that you would like to donate, we will gladly take it off of your hands! Thank you!

Upcoming Dates

• Monday, January 21 ..............MLK Day/No School
• Thursday, January 31.............Multicultural Night
• Friday, February 1………………………..Kids Heart Challenge

Fun Opportunity at the Henry Ford this weekend

On January 21st, come celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and the many people who had the extraordinary courage and commitment to ask for more from their nation on civil rights. Enjoy Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation for FREE! This includes admission, parking, plus activities and dramatic presentations. Please see attached flyer.

2019 Kids Heart Challenge (note from Mr. Taylor)

How can my student(s) collect donations?

Students can collect donations online, or in the envelope they have received previously. In order to collect donations online, have your student create an online profile. Go to www.heart.org/kidsheartchallenge, search for Deerfield Elementary and follow the prompts from there. You can also download the Kids Heart Challenge mobile app and register on it directly. Explore all of the resources and information available to you on the website and app (if you registered online, I still highly recommend you also download the app). Typically, the bulk of the funds our community raises are online. If you have more than one student at Deerfield, please make them their own online profile! You can also collect tangible donations in the envelope itself. PLEASE NOTE: MR. TAYLOR WILL NOT ACCEPT MONETARY DONATIONS AT SCHOOL! Regardless of the amount your student(s) has collected, the funds are due on, or after our event, which will take place February 1st at Deerfield Elementary.

Instant gifts and thank you gifts:

Depending on the amount your student(s) raises, the AHA provides an instant gift. These come in the form of adorable character keychains, each of whom represents one aspect of living heart healthy. If your student earns one or more of these key chains, I highly recommend putting their initials on the bottom of each one in permanent marker. After our celebration, the AHA also has larger thank you gifts that your student can receive depending on their total amount raised. Please see the KHC envelope for details.

Kids Heart Challenge Celebration:

We will be fundraising throughout the month of January. Our efforts will culminate in a celebration at Deerfield on Friday, February 1st from 6-8 pm. It will be a great time, and a chance to celebrate our fundraising efforts for such a worthy cause.

Language Arts:

This past week in reading, we reviewed some comprehension strategies while reading various January articles.  We practiced finding evidence in the text and proving our answers. In Writing, we reviewed what we previously started before break: the basics of Opinion writing.  The students practiced writing an various opinion pieces. Ask your child about the structure of an opinion piece. They should be able to tell you the introduction, body, and closing of an informational piece.

Math:

This week we worked a great deal on mentally adding 10 or 100 by picturing a number grid in our heads. We also took some time to review open number grids. Please review the video below to see how we use open number lines in our classrooms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8xTMrDgifQ

The goals for unit 5 include:

1)Solving addition word problems

2)Adding/Subtracting using mental strategies ( 12=  9 ___3) plus or minus sign

3)Skip counting within 1,000 by 5, 10's, and 100's

4)Change to more and part/part/total diagrams with story problems

5) finding an amount with the least amount of coins AND making change up to $1

We highly recommend you practice counting money with your child as he/she now will need to be able to make change.  Recognizing coins and adding them will greatly benefit your child. Have your child dump out your change from your wallet and practice sorting the coins first, then counting up the money.  We teach making change to the dollar by using a number grid, taking the smaller number, and counting up on the number grid such as this one:

IXL Skills that may be useful:

• A1 through A-8 skills
• E 14, 15, 16, 17
• All the P skills for money

IXL will not go over everything that is covered on the test (particularly the story problems), so please use the review as an example if you feel you need to create more problems for your child to practice at home!

**Please see attached At Home Review for Unit 5

Science (Solids and Liquids):

We had a lot of fun beginning to learn and explore properties of solids.  Ask your child about some of the focus questions we have for this unit.

Have a nice weekend,

The 2nd grade teachers