Dear Families,
Welcome back from April vacation! I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable break from school. It was great to see the students again and hear about their experiences and activities during vacation. We’re in the home stretch now. I cannot believe that the school year is over and that our students are moving to third grade next year. Our time together certainly went by fast….but it is not over yet! We still have lots of learning to do together.
Here is our week in review:
Social-Emotional Learning:
This week, the students filled the classroom buzzy jar again for being safe, kind and responsible. This time, Mr. Matt visited our classroom as a “Mystery Reader”. It was wonderful to see him again even if it was for a short time.
This week, we read the book “A little spot of feelings” by Diane Alber and learned how we can all be “emotion detectives”. Being an emotion detective helps us understand our own feelings, but also those of others. This is especially important because other people might react differently to the same situation. The students practiced being emotion detectives by reading each other’s facial expressions.
We had another restorative circle with Ms. Nicole. This time, we talked about the importance of always asking an adult for help when unexpected situations arise. The students did an outstanding job sharing their reactions when these things happen. They showed great compassion and understanding for everyone.
Reading:
This week, the students read in many different settings. They read independently, in groups, with partners and on Lexia. The students had opportunities to review reading expectations in class too. We met with our Reading Buddy’s from Ms. Emily’s class too. We hope these get-togethers will not only enhance their love of reading, but also deepen their friendships to support them in their transition to WCS.
We started a new chapter book. We started reading the first book in the series about “The Miniature World of Marvin and James” by Elise Broach. This is a sweet book about friendship and kindness.
Writing:
This week, our second grade authors met with their editing partners to make their already great writing even better. All the authors got a new “Word Wall Folder” and the first task was to be able to identify trick words/high frequency words and correct the spelling if necessary. Developing self-monitoring skills in writing is important for many different reasons. Not only do these skills enhance the writing, they also promote the development of resilience, self-efficacy and confidence as the students learn to take charge of their own learning needs.
Math:
We started a new unit on geometry this week. The students will still explore number sense in various work stations as review. Our new learning will center around second grade geometry standards and math vocabulary learning. This week the students learned to identify polygons and non-polygons. Ask your child to describe what these words mean. They also learned about quadrilaterals and learned three new games using tangrams.
The students also participated in Math Talks to deepen their understanding of place value and subtraction. This week, they learned that asking yourself “what the difference is” between two numbers sometimes helps solve complicated subtraction problems. Ask your child to explain.
News and Reminders:
Harmony House started a second round of WIN sessions. WIN stands for “What I Need” and these workshops provide opportunities for our students to participate in learning activities to deepen their skills in particular areas and interests, while also engaging in learning with peers from the entire house.
Harmony House will visit Shelburne Museum on May 25th. Buses will leave ABS around 8:30 am and we will be back in time for regular dismissal at 2:30pm. We are very excited to finally be able to go on a field trip again (since we have not done that since before Covid!).
Harmony House will host an end-of-the-year Celebration of Learning on June 8th between 7:30-8:30 am. Family members are welcome to visit our classrooms to see a collection of student work from this school year. More information will follow as we approach this date but we wanted to give everybody a heads up so you can pencil this in because we recognize that it can be tricky to fit everything in.
Have a great weekend,
Maria
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