I hope you had a wonderful Fall Break! The week did fly by, didn't it? I truly enjoyed spending time with my family, hosting my children's friends, and making our new house a home. We inaugurated our dining room with a great Thanksgiving meal! Hope you enjoyed some good food and friends over the week as well!
Thanks again for your attendance at our Parent-Teacher conference! I enjoy connecting face to face. Meeting with you helps me in understanding your children more and meeting their needs.
In Blue Folders:
- Read to Succeed Reading Logs--record 6 hours of reading and turn in by 2/23/18 for a free Six Flags/Discovery Kingdom ticket (usually distributed in the late Spring).
- Class Dojo registration form for Mrs. Connelly (PE)--please email her if you have any questions: [email protected]
- Field Trip Permission Slip Form for our 12/6/17 trip to the California Museum. This is a sack lunch field trip. Please email me if you would like me to order a sack lunch to be prepared by the cafeteria. If you are interested in chaperoning, please email me ASAP. You must be fingerprinted through WCS and there will be a $3.50 entrance fee.
- Difference Makers Form--this is a planning tool to help your 2nd grader decide which fascinating and important person they would like to research, write about, and recreate in living museum fashion! If your child needs more time beyond the 12/1 deadline to decide, that is totally fine! I will be guiding them along the way, too, and our 12/6 field trip will also inspire some ideas.
Curriculum Highlights:
One of the things we talked about as a class is focusing on kind words and actions towards each other. We also rehearsed our "I statements" which are intended to empower the 2nd graders with the skill of being assertive: "__________, I don't appreciate it when you ______________. It makes me feel ____________. Please stop."
We practiced our gentle reminders and identified moments when to use them without sounding bossy. We also practiced how to use collaborative statements when we discuss academic work in partners, trios, or small groups.
For example, we collaboratively discussed about things and people we are thankful for, then individually wrote and published a poster present for our families.
We read "Molly's Pilgrim" which tells about a young school-girl who immigrates from Russia to America. She overcomes playground prejudice and teasing but perseveres to open her classmates' eyes to the fact that we have modern pilgrims that come to America in search of the freedom who live among us.
We introduced subtraction strategies alongside the review of addition strategies. We finished detailing the journey of a strawberry from farm to fork! We are looking forward to introducing biographies and charting our own road of life when we return from break!
School-wide News:
Olympic Triathlon Event Day: On Thursday, November 30th our students will participate in a special day of learning on the Olympic Triathlon Event Day. We need your help to make this day fun and successful for our school and students. Please click HERE to sign up to volunteer on November 30th. Just a reminder, the fundraising deadline is November 30, 2017.
2018-19 Lottery: Starting on December 1st, lottery applications will be available at the front office or by going to www.joinwestlake.com. Our enrollment period for the 2018-19 Lottery is December 1, 2017 to January 31, 2018. Please share this information with friends and family who are interested in attending Westlake Charter School.
That's all for now! Have a great week!
Mrs. A