Week of January 29

Dear Parents –

I hope you’re enjoying your weekend.  Next week promises to be exciting with our Mini Academies and 100^th Day of School celebration. 

Here’s a look at our week ahead:

Monday (Day 2) Music and World Language

Tuesday (Day 3) World Language

Wednesday (No School)

Thursday (Day 4) Art and PE

Friday (Day 5) Library and World Language

Mini Academies

Our Mini Academies are scheduled for Monday, January 29.  Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to lead an activity.  These are always special events and the children love learning from our very talented parent community. 

100^th Day of School

Our 100^th Day of School is Friday, February 2^nd.  We have some exciting events planned to help us celebrate the day.  I’m looking forward to seeing the creative hats that the children make!  We’ll have our Hat Parade in the morning before recess.  Please remind your child to bring his or her hat to school on Thursday, February 1^st. 

PE Swim Dates

Please see the message from Mr. Fischer about our swim dates for Semester 2. 

Semester 2 Swim Dates

Reader’s Workshop

We’ve been busy reading informational books and learning how to use different text features to locate information.  We’ll begin our week reviewing how to unlock new vocabulary by using context clues.  In addition, we’ll begin working on how to summarize our reading.  We’ll practice identifying the main idea of a chapter. Throughout the week, students will be reading informational books to learn more about the topic they are writing about in our Writer’s Workshop.

Writer’s Workshop

We just finished our first informational books and students are in the process of completing a self-assessment of their writing.  With the completion of this book, we now turn our focus to our next book.  Students have identified a topic of interest and selected some books from our library and from online sources to help them learn more about their topic.  We’ll start by reading for information and identifying the important vocabulary words and information from our reading.  From there students will begin planning their new book.  They’ll start by breaking their topic into subtopics, mapping out what they already know about their topic, and then drafting their book section by section. 

Math Workshop

Our work with plane and solid figures continues this week.  We continue practicing how to use attributes to describe plane and solid figures.  Last week we introduced the vocabulary words, square corners and parallel lines.   These terms are essential in identifying and describing the plane figures we work with in class. 

Science

This week we’ll finish our work on personal hygiene by looking more closely at how to take care of our teeth.  Our week will start with a science experiment to help illustrate the effects of acid on our teeth. 

Dinner Questions

What are some nonfiction topics that interest you?  What do you know about them?

What is the topic of the book you’re writing?  What text features will you add?

What shapes do you see around our home? 

Week of January 22

Dear Parents –

We’re nearing the end of January and have some important dates coming up this month. 

January 29 – Grade 2 Mini Academies.  Please sign up if you are interested in leading an activity.

January 31 – No School. 

Here’s a look at our week ahead:

Monday (Day 3) World Language

Tuesday (Day 4) Art and PE

Wednesday (Day 5) Library and World Language

Thursday (Day 6) Music and PE

Friday (Day 1) Art and World Language

Reader’s Workshop

We continue reading nonfiction books and learning to pay attention to the details to help us become experts about the topic.  This week we will focus on developing our expert vocabulary by identifying important words for each subtopic.  We’ll look at strategies to unlock the meaning of those words by using pictures, context clues, and the glossary. 

Writer’s Workshop

Last week students started writing their first informational book.  This week we will continue working on that book and adding different text features to help our readers learn about our topics.  We will also focus on how to elaborate our writing in order to help our readers picture the information presented in our books. 

Science

Our science lessons have been focused on personal hygiene.  Last week we learned about different types of germs and how they can make us sick.  We learned about how germs can spread and how to protect ourselves by washing our hands.  This week our focus will be on dental hygiene.  We’ll discuss the parts of a tooth and learn how to take care of our teeth. 

Math

We continue our work with geometry this week.  Last week we focused on the names and attributes of different polygons.  We’ll begin our lessons this week by learning about the differences between regular and irregular polygons and the attributes of polygons. 

Dinner Questions

What is a polygon?  What polygons can you find around our house? 

How can we keep our teeth healthy and clean?

Tell me about the informational book you’re writing.  

Week of January 15

Dear Parents –

I hope you had a great weekend.  Last week we had a busy week at school as we settled back into our routines, started new units in all subject areas, and welcomed two wonderful students to our classroom community.

Here’s a look at our week ahead:

Monday (Day 4) Art and P.E.

Tuesday (Day 5) Library and World Language

Wednesday (Day 6) Music and P.E.

Thursday (Day 1) Art and World Language

Friday (Day 2) Music and P.E.

Home Learning

Our new Home Learning menu for January is linked to our blog. This semester we do expect students to complete ONE Home Learning activity each week in addition to their nightly reading. Each Friday students will have an opportunity to share their Home Learning with the class.  

Reader’s Workshop

Last week we began our unit on reading information books. We started by looking at the differences between fiction and nonfiction texts and were introduced to some of the different text features found in nonfiction books.  This week we will focus on strategies we can use as readers to help us preview nonfiction books, make predictions about what we will learn, and ask questions to help us deepen our understanding of the topic.

Writer’s Workshop

We started our unit on how to write nonfiction books. This week our writer’s will begin the process of writing their first informational book by selecting a topic and they are experts in and then learning how to organize their knowledge into subtopics.  We’ll look at mentor texts to model how authors organize their information. 

Science

Our new science unit on Healthy Choices got off to a great start last week.  We started by talking about what we already know about making healthy choices.  In this unit, we’ll focus on nutrition, personal hygiene, exercise, and mental health.  We began by sorting images of people making healthy and unhealthy choices. 

Math

Last week we started our new unit – Understanding Plane and Solid Figures.  We began by looking at the names and properties of different polygons.  This week we will continue to focus on how to identify and draw shapes based on a set of attributes. 

Dinner Questions

What is something new you hope to learn this year?

What are some healthy choices that we can make as a family at home this year?

What are some ways you can show kindness at home and at school this year?

Week of January 8

Dear Parents –

Welcome back and Happy New Year!  I hope you enjoyed your holiday.  I’m looking forward to hearing the children’s stories about their travels and experiences over the break.  I’m sure they’re excited to return to school to see their friends. 

I want to welcome two new students to our class, Rosie Chung and Rei Takahashi.  Both students will start on Tuesday, January 9.  We want to welcome their families to our community. 

Here’s a look at our week ahead:

Monday (Day 5) Library and World Language

Tuesday (Day 6) Music and P.E.

Wednesday (Day 1) Art and World Language

Thursday (Day 2) Music and PE

Friday (Day 3) World Language

Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop

This week we’ll get back into our school routines and spend time revisiting the expectations for our class.  We’ll launch our Reader’s and Writer’s Workshops by reviewing some of the skills we learned in the first semester.  In our Reader’s Workshop, emphasis will be placed on the importance of selecting Just Right Books as well as using our toolkit to help strengthen our reading comprehension.  In our Writer’s Workshop we will spend time sharing stories of our holidays.  Students will review how to take a piece of writing through the writing process. 

Math Workshop

Our Math Workshop begins with students reviewing what it means to be a mathematician.  We’ll revisit the Mathematical Practices and discuss how we use them when solving problems.  This week we will also start our next unit on Geometry.  We’ll begin by looking at some of the important vocabulary words related to this unit.