Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• We enjoyed going outside with our reading buddies in Mr. Deyo’s class.  The students brought books to a special place called “Tree Island” next to our school where they read books and played together.  Here are some pictures:

• The students continued to practice mindfulness with positive self-talk this week.  Your child has another HomeLink from Second Step inside the Home Folder this week.  While we encourage families to complete this assignment at home, it is completely voluntary.  Thank you.

Reading:

• We finished reading the first book in the series called Mouse Scouts.  As you may recall, the students had requested that we create our own woodland habitats to reflect the setting in the book.  Thank you for donating the materials we needed for this project!  We had more than enough.  In fact, we received so many pine cones, sticks, rocks and pieces of bark that we decided to save them for another project.  Thank you.  Here are some pictures from our classroom when the students created their habitats.  I hope they shared them with you at home.

            

Writing:

• The students continued to add more pages to their personal narratives this week.  They created interesting starting sentences to set the stage and added details about who was there, what they did and where the story took place.  They also worked in small groups with me and Ms. Bassett to add adjectives to make their writing more detailed.  They did a great job!  Ask your child to explain how we used our senses to help us frame this type of writing.

• This week, the students also shared their writing with their peers in class.  They learned different techniques from each other and were encouraged to try new approaches.  For example, they learned that writers sometimes embed questions into their writing to engage the reader.  What a great idea!

• Lastly, the students created detailed pictures to match their words.  They also added labels as a way to add even more clarity.

Math:

• Second grade mathematicians continued to build a deeper understanding of number paths and number lines this week.  They were encouraged to show their thinking in different ways.  They were also encouraged to anchor their calculations to friendlier numbers to simplify their solutions.  They were solving equations that involved adding two 2-digit numbers together, such as 34+29.  Some students feel most comfortable adding the tens together first and then the ones.  They add the two groups together at the end.  We call this strategy partial sums.  There are many other strategies to use as well, but counting all, or counting on will not provide efficient and accurate strategies in second grade math.  We have practiced looking at the addends and thinking about what we already know about these numbers.  Hence, 29 will help us because it is just one away from 30.  Adding 30 to 34 is efficient and fast.  Mathematicians choosing this strategy will simply subtract one at the very end.  Ask your child how they would solve the following equations: 57+19, 38+65 and 29+47.

• Second grade mathematicians also continued to build a deeper understanding of telling time to the nearest five minutes.  Since second graders are expected to understand digital and analog clocks, we strongly encourage parents to engage in this conversation at home.  It can be difficult for young learners to see the difference between the long hand and the short hand, thus leading to misconceptions about what time it is.

• Second grade mathematicians also used Dreambox, our online math platform.  Thank you for supporting this at home too.

Science:

This week, Harmony House started our new science unit.  We launched into earth landform changes by having a pretend flight over the Grand Canyon. Next week, we will start our science workshop rotations.

News and Reminders:

• There is no school 11/21-11/25 (Thanksgiving Break)

Have a great weekend,

Maria

Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, the students continued to learn and practice positive self-talk as a calming strategy.  They learned how to use short, targeted statements along with different yoga moves.  For example, the statement “I am kind” was matched up with a yoga pose of a tree, stretching the arms up high to “spread” kindness around our classroom and the world.  The statement “I am strong” was matched up with a yoga pose called the warrior pose.  We practiced whispering positive self-talk and breathing techniques as a class and with partners.  You can find some flower breathing techniques in your child’s backpack today if you want to learn more or try this at home too.

• We had another restorative circle with Ms. Nicole. This week we explored the different strong emotions we all experience.  The students shared what makes them  feel happy and what makes them feel angry.  Thank you Ms. Nicole for joining our class again.

• The students at ABS filled the Hive again for being safe, kind and responsible.  This time, we celebrated with a stuffed animal day.  The students had so much fun learning with their stuffed animals.  Some students even chose their stuffed animals as their partners in math and reading!

Reading:

• This week, we continued to read independently, with partners and in small groups.  The students are gaining more independence navigating our different stations every day.  I am so proud of them all.  They work hard!  This week, we added two new stations to our trick word practice.  The first station includes Fundations magnetic letter tiles and the other station is a writing station with special markers used on large easel paper.

• We are in the midst of reading the series “Mouse Scouts” by Sarah Dillard.  This series is about some adorable mice who have different adventures together while also giving the reader lots of follow-up activities and ideas for how we can all help keep our communities and the environment clean.  The students made a strong connection to the extension activities in these books and asked if we could build our own representation of the setting, or our own little woodland habitats for fanciful characters.  As a result, we need your help!  If you choose to, please gather a small amount of the following items that we would need by Tuesday the latest next week: pinecones, acorns, pine needles/branches, small sticks, small rocks, bark and any other woodland materials that are small enough to fit inside a small grocery bag (for carrying purposes).  Please have your child bring these materials into our classroom by Monday or Tuesday next week.  Thank you.

• 

Writing:

• The students on Harmony continued Fundations classes this week, learning about decoding/sounding out and how tapping can be used to help them spell words.  They are encouraged to transfer this knowledge to their writing classes in order to represent blends, vowels and digraphs in their own best spelling.

• We started our small moment writing unit as well.  Small moment writing is a personal narrative and it is a sequential story; a story with a clear beginning, middle and end.  It is a story about something that has already happened. Since this type of story is about the writer, the writer will use the following words a lot: me, I, mine, my, etc (throughout this unit, the students will be encouraged to learn how to spell these high frequency words as well).  This week, the students planned their stories using a graphic organizer, which will provide an overarching structure and guide their writing in the weeks to come.  Stay tuned for more as this writing unit progresses in the weeks to come.

Math:

• November’s calendar in math reflects clocks and telling time.  Throughout this month, the students will review telling time to the hour and half-hour.  They will also learn how to tell time to the nearest five minutes with an understanding of the different hands and the difference between am and pm time.

• The month of November will also introduce the students to number lines and how number lines can be used to add and subtract.  This is a new skill and expectation, specific to second grade.  This week, we learned from Ms. Schaw.  She joined our class to teach us about number paths, a tool that helps young mathematicians visualize the number sequence before using a number line.  The students did an outstanding job decomposing their numbers as the equations got more challenging.

Technology:

• The students continued to learn more about our google classroom and how to be a digital citizen online while creating a digital project on Book Creator.

News and Reminders:

• There is no school 11/21-11/25 (Thanksgiving Break)

• A note from our school counselor, Ms. Heather:

Lake Champlain Waldorf School presents Mindful Parenting at the Holidays. Friday, November 4, 6:30-8:00. This is a free event and registration is required. Here is a small blurb about it:

Re-imagine the holidays as an experiment in mindful parenting with this Friday evening presentation followed by a Workshop on Saturday. Take away simple tools to make small, doable changes to your family life and practical ideas to make the upcoming holidays more peaceful and joyful.

Pre-Register at: Mindful Parenting

Have a great weekend,

Maria

Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, the students learned more about active listening skills and how to focus their attention more efficiently.  We played a game called “Sentence Switcheroo” and read a Scholastic magazine about different communities to practice these skills.  Ask your child to explain.

• The students also earned a huge classroom celebration for filling the classroom buzzy jar multiple times (with me and a Guest Teacher).  This time, we invited  Mr. Deyo’s Kindergarten class to a Reading Restaurant.  The students decorated the classroom to look like a real restaurant, complete with menus, pretend food, a play sink and cash register.  They “seated” their reading buddies at our decorated tables and served them books.  Pictures will be shared shortly.

• We had another Restorative Circle with Ms. Nicole this week too.  This time, we talked about the importance of including everyone at school and shared our feelings and thoughts around being excluded.  

Reading:

• This week, we continued reading different books in series.  Early in the week, we took a short break from longer chapter books to learn more about traditional picture books that also offer multiple books about the same characters.  We read about Angelina (by Katharine Holabird) and Library Mouse (by Daniel Kirk).  

We ended the week by starting our new chapter book “Greetings from Somewhere: The     Mystery of the Gold Coin” by Harper Paris.

Writing:

• This week, the students continued revising their writing pieces both independently and with their editing partners.  They completed a piece about their favorite chapter books from our read alouds.  They were encouraged to give three reasons why they chose this particular book.  They did an outstanding job justifying their pick!

• The students also continued practicing their spelling of trick words.  Trick words are more challenging words since they do not follow the more common “sounding out” rules of most words used in second grade writing.  If you want to support this learning at home, here is a link to the second grade list.based upon the Fundations program and here is a link to the second 100 high frequency words based upon the Frye list that our school uses. The students are encouraged to write these words in many different ways so they can memorize them.  We use various tools in the classroom and sometimes they spell these words in bubble letters, sideways, in cursive etc. Here  is a choice board with options for home.  Please note this additional reading/writing is not homework nor is it required.  I simply included it as options for home learning.  All materials are inside your child’s Home Folder today. Thank you.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Math:

• We continued to learn more about part-part-total diagrams as we decomposed numbers this week.  The numbers we’re tackling are getting increasingly more complex, but the students are doing a terrific job using their strategies to justify their thinking.  This week, we learned about “shifting”, a strategy that will help all mathematicians solve math problems of different kinds.  Shifting is when larger groups, such as groups of tens, are moved around to find the most efficient solutions, or strategy when solving complex problems.  For example, when decomposing 48, we can easily see 40+8, but knowing that groups of tens can be moved around easily is a powerful strategy, so shifting allows me to also quickly find 30+18, 20+28, etc

• We continued to practice telling time to the hour and half hour using am and pm

• We worked in small groups to count beans into groups of ten, which we also added together as a class.

• Ms. Bassett led the students in a “Number Talk” activity, a time when the students share their mathematical thinking about a math problem using mental math.  They did an excellent job!

Technology:

• This week, the students got on Typing Club.  We have new accounts this year.  When the students receive home access, I will share this information with you.  For now, they only have access at school. Thank you.

News and Reminders:

• Please see the enclosed informational letter about the upcoming Book Fair at ABS inside your child’s Home Folder.

• If you encounter technical problems trying to set up Dreambox, Lexia or Typing Club at home, please use the IT Help Desk link on the school portal for assistance.  Thank you. I also linked it here for your convenience.

Have a great weekend,

Maria

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