It's been an incredibly busy time since my last newsletter! Hoping this one will keep you in the loop of our goings-on! This past week, we participated in "The Great Kindness Challenge" whereby we talked about and made mindful choices to show kindness in various ways in our day. Please continue to encourage this character trait in your 2nd grade global citizen; it is what our world so needs, especially now!
A big thank you to all our wonderful chaperones who made Thursday's field trip to the California Museum and the State Capitol grounds enlightening, safe, and successful! So fortunate to have a group of parents who are at the ready in such a short amount of time! And an ongoing thank you to all of you in supporting your child's progress in 2nd grade--I've received all but one signed progress report and can tell my feedback comments have been put into action by your support at home already!...
...which brings me to this past Monday when I had a substitute teacher. It was not our finest day. All but a handful of students made poor choices that day and made teaching and learning difficult. I spoke at length to the class at Tuesday's Morning Meeting about our class' and school's expectations--whether I am present or absent. We also talked about kindness and what it means to "take advantage" of someone who is vulnerable. I think I drove the point home, but many of you might want to follow up on this conversation topic with your child.
Curriculum Highlights:
* Technology--we had 3 lessons on what it means to be a responsible Digital Citizen. This is very timely, since we are beginning our research on our "People Who Make A Difference" biographies. This project will require both online (biography websites) and offline (i.e. biography books) research.
*People Who Make A Difference Thematic Unit (Reading/Language Arts)--
Students have been browsing biographies to narrow down interesting people who have made a difference in our world. They also rotated in each of the 2nd grade classrooms to experience Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell (yours truly), Madame Curie (Mrs. Wilson), Malala (Ms. Furden), Frida Kahlo (Ms. Prokop), and Jane Goodall (Mrs. Martin's understudy, Mrs. Maloney). Also, our field trip showcased California's Hall of Fame and California's Remarkable Women. With all these experiences so far to inspire them, I would like your help in helping your child narrow down and finally choose someone they would like to research. This should be someone they have a high interest in because we will be dedicating lots of our class time reading, researching, and creating a first person script to memorize and perform in costume in March during our "People Who Make A Difference" Museum Showcase. Next week we will begin the reading and research process...so exciting and fun! My favorite unit of the year! Let me know if you have any questions or if I can support you in any way!
*Math--we continue with our double digit addition/subtraction unit and fact fluency practice. We learned a new partnership game I am calling the "Card Comparison Game" (i.e., addition or subtraction war). Feel free to play at home for fluency practice! Mrs. Battin visited us during Math and had a glimpse of our hard-working mathematicians answering Math Thoughts of the Day, Common Core Check-ins, Partner Math, and Math Reflections and Creations.
GATE Testing:
Our annual administration of the NNAT3 Gate Test will be given the week of March 13th. If you would like to have your child sit for the Gate test, please complete this Parent Referral form and submit it to me via your child's blue folder; I will complete the teacher referral form to accompany it and submit both together.
Please note: the deadline has been moved to Tuesday, January 31st.
If you have any questions regarding the GATE process, please email Mrs. Eick ([email protected]) or me. Thank you!
That's all for now! Have a great day!
Mrs. A
Second Grade Slideshow Glimpse of the Week: