Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

It was a pleasure seeing so many of you for our parent-teacher conferences this week.  For those of you with conferences next week, I am very excited to meet with you and share about your child’s learning.  Thank you again for supporting their learning outside of school.  

Despite the short week, we accomplished a lot this week and had many fun learning experiences together.  For example, the Williston Fire Department visited Harmony House and taught us about fire safety in a student-centered and engaging way.  I hope you saw your child’s goodie bag, filled with learning activities about fire safety.

Here is our short week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, we revisited what it looks like, and sounds like, to have a whole body listening at school.  We talked about the importance of having a calm body with eyes on the speaker and listening ears.  We practiced being “brain in”.

• We also practiced bus safety at ABS.  We boarded a bus along with Ms. Ashford’s class and learned about what it looks like and sounds like to be safe on the bus.  

• Ms. Nicole visited our classroom again for another restorative circle.  We had a conversation about school safety and how important it is for everyone to feel safe in our building.  The students shared about the mixed feelings they sometimes have when unexpected things happen and what they can do to ask adults for help and find calm spaces.  They did an amazing job sharing their thoughts.  They also did an amazing job showing compassion and empathy when sharing their wonderings and questions about the different feelings all people experience.  What an outstanding group of young learners we have!  I am so proud of them all.

Reading:

• This week, the students continued to participate in our guided reading groups,  which provide direct, differentiated reading instruction.  It is wonderful to have Mr.  Matt and Ms.  Bassett in our room too because they can help us with our groups.   The students love  reading with them!.

• We had reading buddies with Mr.  Deyo’s Kindergarten class.  It is great sharing our love of reading with our new friends.  I wish you could hear the “productive buzz” in the classroom as they all read aloud to each other!

Writing:

• This week, the students started revising their writing pieces about our Open House.  They started by re-reading their own work and correcting their own writing. Then, they met with their “editing partner”who also checked and corrected their writing piece.  In second grade, the students will learn to independently show lower case writing, finger spacing, correct letter formation/direction, along with ending punctuation and capital letters for the beginning of sentences and for names/places.

• The students also wrote a letter to a marine biologist in Australia.  She is a friend of Ms. Bassett’s and she has sent the class videos of underwater adventures and sharks.  We wanted to thank her for taking the time to share her passion for marine life with us.

Math:

• This week, second grade mathematicians continued building their understanding of place value and decuples by playing some new games.  

• We continued our work on creating number bonds in our daily number corner activities.   

This week, mathematicians focused on splitting the numbers into efficient parts using expanded forms as an example.

• We also reviewed telling time to the hour and the half hour  on a digital and an analog clock.  In second grade students are expected to learn how to tell time to the nearest five minutes and know the difference between a.m. and p.m.  times. We will  continue to build our understanding of telling time throughout the school year.

Technology:

• The students used the online program Dreambox this week to practice their math facts.  Please see your child’s Home Folder for at-home log-in information.  Thank you.

Have a great weekend,

Maria

Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• We continued to work on building our community of learners by focusing on belonging and friendship this week.  The students are doing a great job taking care of each other and our classroom.  They are helping out with their different jobs and reminding each other to do their part.  They are encouraged to use their polite assertive voices in case of a conflict and use self-regulation if needed.  They are very comfortable with using our “Calming Corner”, breathing techniques, or simply taking a quick desk rest.

• Ms Nicole joined our classroom again for another restorative circle.  We always start the circle by doing a quick self-check to see which zone we are in. ABS uses these zones to help children identify and validate feelings. This week, we discussed what makes us feel like we belong.  The students shared that being with kind people, people who listen and people who help make them feel like they belong.

• The students participated in different activities and games to practice collaborative skills.  This week, we also talked about the importance of being a good friend during clean-up time and the importance of taking personal responsibility during this time.

• The students filled the buzzy jar in our classroom again.  We had so much fun playing and learning with our stuffed animals!

Reading:

• The students continued rotating between our reading stations.  This week, they participated in guided reading groups, Lexia, and independent reading, which also included trick word practice.  They are doing a great job staying focused on reading for longer periods of time.

• We continued reading our new chapter book/series “Big Foot and Little Foot’. 

• The students finished our district-wide reading assessments on iReady this week too!  WOW, what an amazing job they did, reading online.  I am so proud of them all.

• We started reading buddies.  This year, we will meet with Mr. Deyo’s class every week and read books together.  Last week, we visited their classroom.  This week, they came to us.  It is wonderful to see our second grade readers as leaders, helping our young Kindergarteners read and enjoy books.  Here are some pictures:

Writing:

• This week, the students wrote stories about our “Open House”.  They were encouraged to add detailed information in their writing piece.  We used “the 5 Ws” as a visual model, which is a representation of a hand to help young writers stay on task.  Each finger has a different word written on it so the students will remember to add pertinent information to make their writing more interesting.  Here is a picture of it.  We used little plastic hand shakers, however.  Not only did they help our authors add more to their writing, they made fabulous sounds when moved around.  It was like we had an orchestra in our classroom!

Math:

• The students finished our district-wide iReady math assessments this week.  They did an outstanding job and persevered through all the tasks and challenges.  I am so proud of them all.

• During the month of October, we will focus on number bonds and the different parts and wholes of numbers in our Number Corner.  The students will review some of the number bond concepts from last year and expand their understanding to include larger numbers, integrate expanded forms and learn to represent “part, part, total diagrams”.

• We continued working on finding 5s and 10s and making efficient calculations.  The students used nickels and dimes to help add and subtract.

News and Reminders:

• Parent-teacher conferences are coming up.  I offer times/slots starting next week.  Here is the link again in case you need to sign up or change your time.  Let me know if these times do not work for you and your family.  We will find another date/time.  Thank you.  I am looking forward to seeing you all.

• We have no school on Monday, October 10th (Indigenous Peoples” Day)

• There is no school for students on Tuesday, October 11th (Parent-teacher conferences)

Have a great weekend,

Maria

Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

Here is our week in review:

What a week we had!

First, the students of ABS filled our school-wide BeeHive so we celebrated together with a dance party, using finger lights!  It was so much fun dancing and making a light show at the same time.  Second, our class filled the buzzy jar in our classroom again!  This time, we celebrated with extra choice time.  The students had the opportunity to play with our legos, marble runs, magnets and connecting discs together.

Third, we had our first ABS Open House!  It was a huge success and we are so pleased that so many families and students could come.  Thank you for finding the time to visit our classroom spaces, meet teachers and other staff members at our fabulous school.

Here is the rest of our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, we focused on the different, and sometimes conflicting, feeling we all experience throughout the day.  We reviewed our calming strategies and practiced how we can use our “Calming Corner”.  We added various pictures to our “Calming Corner” to help the students identify different feelings they might experience when needing to take a break. We added pictures representing angry, sad, worried, nervous, giddy/excited and tired. While it is important to identify the emotions and validate their impact, it is also important to proactively teach and practice self-regulatory techniques and strategies.  After all, we hope for the students to return to learning and a calm and content state of mind.  Puppy and Snail helped us identify these picture cards.  Ask your child to explain. 

• Ms. Nicole joined our class again for another Restorative Circle.  She reviewed the expectations with the students when we meet in circle, ie we take turns talking, we share from the heart and we make sure we actively listen to each other’s opinions, feelings and experiences.  Thank you Ms. Nicole for helping us create a community of learners who feel that they belong together and can trust each other. 

Reading:

• The students exchanged their library books again on Tuesday.  Thank you for helping your child pack the books so new books can promptly go home for daily reading.  I am so excited to see that more and more children look for the books we read in class and how excited they are to share that you read them together at home.  Thank you for supporting your child’s love of reading.

• This week, we started two new series for our daily read alouds.  We finished the first book in the “Ella and Owen” series, written by Jaden Kent.  This series is about a couple of silly dragons and their even siller adventures.We also started reading the first book in the series “Big Foot and Little Foot” by Ellen Potter.

Writing:

• The students finished various writing prompts and projects around our “We are all Super Heros” theme. The students are encouraged to think about what special super hero talents/skills and abilities they all have; skills and talents they use every day as super heros.  Some students see themselves as super heroes when they persevere and show a growth mindset, while others say they have super hero abilities when they show kindness and bravery.  This week, the students finished writing about themselves and their special “super hero” skills.  I hope you read some of these amazing pieces in their scrapbooks yesterday during our Open House.  If you missed them, do not worry.  We will have many other opportunities to share these throughout the school year, and just like last year, these scrapbooks will come home at the end of the year.

• Second graders also started practicing hand-writing and proper penmanship skills this week.  Let me know if you are interested in supporting this at home and I would be happy to share our hand-writing pages with you.  

Second Grade Math:

• This week in math, second graders started our district-wide online math assessment called iReady. We divided the assessment into several smaller sessions and divided our tasks throughout the week.

• Second grade mathematicians continued counting forwards and backwards, by 10s and ones, starting from familiar and unfamiliar numbers. Second grade students also started to divide numbers into chunks of fives, counting forwards and backwards.   If you wish to practice at home, counting off-decade is a very important skill in second grade, especially when crossing decades and starting from larger, more unfamiliar numbers.  Ask your child to count by 10s (forwards and backwards) between 67 and 187, or 91 and 301).  

• We continued working on partners to 20 as well.  This week, the students were encouraged to represent their understanding with number bonds and multiple equations.

• Second grade students learned about money/coins this week too.  A second grade math standard is to know the value of the coins and being able to identify each coin. We used nickels and dimes this week to group larger sums into friendlier fives and tens. 

Science:

• We had our first 4 Winds science class this week.  4 Winds is a science-based program that is run by parent volunteers.  Once a month, they provide hand-on/nature based science activities for our students.  This week, we enjoyed a puppet show together in our kiva space, followed by some outdoor scavenger hunts looking for insects and life cycle puzzles.

News and Reminders:

• ABS Picture Day is 10/7/22.  Your child’s photo order form is inside the Home Folder today.  Please fill it out and return to school as soon as possible if you are interested in having school pictures made.  Thank you.

Have a great weekend,

Maria