Dear Families,
It was wonderful to see all the students again after our summer vacation. They had fun stories to share with me and each other about their activities over the last few weeks. All the students are settling in nicely to our classroom routines and expectations. Since many of these routines and expectations are the same as last year, the students are adjusting beautifully.
Thank you so much for your generous donations to the classroom and Harmony Team. We truly appreciate your gifts.
If you did not get a chance to send in your child’s student form/questionnaire, please do so. It is linked here for your convenience. Thank you.
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
This week, we reviewed familiar expectations and our school motto “be safe, be kind and be responsible”. We discussed what it means to be a second grader and the oldest students at our school. While it comes with a sense of familiarity and a sense of belonging, it also comes with some responsibilities. Younger students will look to our second graders as role models and they will look to them to set a good example. Our second graders are ready for this challenge!
We played many partner/team games this week to reconnect with our classmates from last school year. The students settled into our classroom routines nicely, often choosing games, greetings and songs that we used last year. Here are some pictures:
The students also participated in a science/engineering challenge this week. They were partnered up and used different materials to build the tallest tower they could. Here are some pictures:
Literacy:
We read many books this week together. We read about being back at school, summer vacation and how it can be stressful to leave mom and dad for the first day of school. We created a list of goodbye greetings for the end of the day so we can create a sense of community and belonging even as we’re saying goodbye. The students came up with elbow bumps, high 5s, waves, hugs, smiles and friendly goodbye greetings to name a few. We hope our list will grow as the weeks go by(e). We might even come up with some special class handshakes for us all!
A new favorite book we read this week is “Chicken in School” by Adam Lehrhaupt. This book taught us the importance of creating a classroom community based upon trust, belonging and friendship. It also showed us how we can use our imagination together to create more profound learning outcomes. A favorite quote from the book is “Books are for building imagination. Crayons are for creating adventures.” We hope to do both this year!
Second Grade Math:
We will start math instruction next week. I will teach our class of second graders this year in math (just like I taught them the first grade math curriculum last year). The entire class will remain with me, in our own classroom. We do not need to transition to another space or learn a new system for all the materials needed. We are so lucky! I am very excited to have the opportunity to follow these mathematicians for yet another year.
We will not send home any math homework. Periodically, you will see games/worksheets that your child might take home for extra practice or just for fun. Many students want to take these home to play with family members. Periodically, you will also see incomplete/unfinished pages/parts of pages in your child’s Home Folder. Feel free to finish this work at home. It is not required at all and there is no need to send it back to me, unless your child wants to show me the completed pages and work! Thank you.
News and Reminders:
Please remember to send your child to school every day with weather appropriate clothing, snack (and lunch if your child does not get school lunch) and a water bottle. Thank you.
If you did not send in your child’s labeled headphones, please send them in as well. Your child will need these for online learning at school. Thank you.
There is no school on Monday, September 5th (Labor Day)
We have our first library exchange on Tuesday, September 6th. I encourage you to read these books together with your child and talk about the stories. I also encourage you to talk to your child about why he/she chose these particular books. Having an open dialogue about books early on fosters more intentional and purposeful learning. Thank you.
Have a great weekend,
Maria
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