The Week of April 16th

NEWS

This past week was a busy one in Grade 2!  The students took their Math and Reading MAP tests, we celebrated Earth Week learning different ways that we can help take care of the Earth, and ended our week with an Earth Day assembly. 

Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to lead our Mini Academies on Friday.  The children had so much fun and came back to the classroom excited to show their friends what they made or what they did.  It’s hard to believe that this was our last Mini Academies for the year.  The Mini Academies have been a huge success because of your commitment and dedication.  Thank you for your creativity, your time, and your willingness to volunteer for our Mini Academies throughout the year.  This is an event that the kids love and and we couldn’t do it without your help.  Thank you!

As readers the children are really enjoying reading and discussing their books in their Book Clubs.  As a class, we’ve been reading some of Kevin Henkes’ books and learning about Lilly, one of the main characters who appears in several of his books.  This week we’ll focus on looking at the language the author uses to make his or her stories so powerful.  The week will start with children looking for examples of how the author uses precise words and descriptive language to help readers visualize the event and characters from the book.  We’ll end the week looking at different types of literary language, such as similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, and alliteration and how authors can use these to make simple things seem extraordinary. 

As writers our focus has been sharing our opinions about the characters and books we’ve been reading in our Book Clubs.  This week we’ll focus on how to make our book reviews even better by retelling the important parts of their books.  We’ll practice retelling with partners and then the students will write a brief summary of their book to help strengthen their book review.  Throughout the week as students are writing, we will also emphasize the importance of keeping the audience in mind.  Picturing their audience will help students write stronger book reviews. 

Students are excited to start our new science unit on life cycles this week!  This past week we set up observation stations in our common area where students could begin to observe the life cycle of beetles and butterflies.   We’ll start the week tuning in to life cycles by looking at some of the vocabulary words for this unit and getting an idea of what students already know about life cycles.  Throughout the week we will talk about how scientists make and record their observations. We’ll practice drawing scientific diagrams, with details and labels, of the animals in our common area.

Our unit on Developing Multiplication is coming to a close and this week will be spent reviewing the skills and concepts that were covered in this unit.  Students will complete different projects to help strengthen their understanding of rectangular arrays. We will also continue to practice making and interpreting bar and picture graphs.

UPCOMING

On May 11th the Grade 2 classes will take a field trip to visit the Butterfly and Bird Parks as part of our science unit on life cycles.  A permission slip was sent home this Friday.  Please return the permission slip by Friday, April 27 to help us with planning.  We are looking for parent volunteers to chaperone, so if you are interested, please indicate on the permission slip.

DINNER QUESTIONS

What are some ways that you can help take care of the Earth?

What are some of the words the author used in your book to help you create a movie or picture in your mind?

Tell me about the book you’re reading. What is your opinion? What are the important parts?

What are you excited about learning during your life cycles unit?

The Week of April 9th

NEWS
2AL is back in full swing after a restful spring break and we are all full of energy and vigor as we enter this final home stretch of the year.

As readers we have launched our book clubs in earnest focusing specifically on how becoming experts on the characters in our series books.  We have been collecting information in our reading journals on our characters, noticing how our characters respond to problems they are facing, and how what we know about our characters can help us to predict what they might do next.  We completed a checklist in Seesaw where you can see some more specifics on the teaching points.  This work will continue in the coming weeks so that we can identify similarities and differences across our series.

As writers we have been crafting our opinion pieces through the lens of writing letters in response to our book club conversations.  Some of us are also choosing to write letters to favorite authors, football players, etc.  While the content of the letters may differ what is common is the 5 parts of a letter format (heading, greeting, body, closing, signature) and how to structure our writing.  The expectation is that we state an opinion, then support our opinion with multiple reasons and multiple specific examples for each reason.  One of our letters to Josh Funk (author of class favorite It's Not Jack and the Beanstalk) has actually proven to be surprisingly convincing and we are hoping to arrange a Skype call with him in the coming days.

As mathematicians we are still practicing adding and subtracting multiple three digit numbers with regrouping while also starting to work on arrays as the foundation for multiplication.

In social studies we have started a mini-unit on celebrations identifying similarities and differences, with a special focus on the elements of celebration such as food, colors, music, dress, rituals, etc).  The ultimate goal is for the students next week to prepare an oral presentation about a favorite celebration from their home country (or a country they strongly associate with).  The purpose is to teach each other about what the elements of our chosen celebration are (how), the purpose behind the celebration (why), the date of it, and any associated props from their chosen celebration to share with the class (this could be an artifact or food).  If you could take some time to speak to your child about a celebration they would like to choose and help them talk through the different aspects of it that would be fabulous.

UPCOMING
Earth Week is coming up next week (April 16-20).  2AL has been challenged by a group of 2AL students to take part in the Trash Hero challenge as part of their Genius Hour project.  See attached book here.  The idea is to "get caught" in the act of helping the environment by refusing plastic straws, re-using plastic bags, cleaning up some trash, etc.  Basically taking positive actions to make a difference.  When you catch your children being "Trash Heroes" please can you take a picture and email it to me.  I have started a folder where I will be collating these pictures.  On Friday ES Melawati will be having an Earth Day assembly where I would like to highlight some of the great work we are doing.  Thank you!

Our last Mini-Academy is scheduled for Friday, April 20th at 1:45pm.  Thank you to all who volunteered to lead an activity.  This is something our students always look forward to.  Last mini academies

MAP testing will be next week.  Our math time is slotted for April 18th (Wednesday) and our reading time is slotted for April 20th (Friday).  Both tests will be administered on iPads in our classroom in the morning.  There is no special preparation necessary.  The only thing we ask is that on the day prior to testing they get a good nights rest and eat a healthy breakfast.


IMPORTANT
Grade 2 will be going on a field trip on May 11th for our upcoming life cycle unit.  Paper permission slips will be going home next week, however a soft copy is linked here if you would like to read it ahead of time and/or print and send to school with your child.

PE kit. Please can we remember to include the blue ISKL polo shirt to change into our after our PE days because students are often hot and sweaty and when they go back into the air conditioning from their PE classes it is healthier for them to change into their fresh polo shirts. 


DINNER QUESTIONS
* What is the difference between a fact and an opinion?
* Tell me about the series you are reading?
* What celebration do you want to share with your classmates?