Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, the students continued to learn about empathy and recognizing other peoples’ emotions.  We played a game called “the choral clapping game” to explore feelings of frustration and empathy.  Your child has an optional homelink from Second Step inside their Home Folder this week so you can play this at home too.  

• The students filled our classroom jar again this week for being safe, kind and responsible.  This time they voted for extra arts and crafts.  They had so much fun creating different things out of pipe cleaners, yarn and popsicle sticks.  I hope they shared their creations with you at home.

Reading:

• This week, the students participated in our district-wide reading assessments using iReady, a computer-based program.  They did an outstanding job showing perseverance and stamina, while working through this assessment independently.

• We started a new read aloud this week.  This time, we are reading the first book in the series called “Ranger in Time” by the Vermont author Kate Messner.  This series is about a time-traveling golden retriever who encounters adventures and saves the day (in the end!).

Writing:

• This week, we continued writing our opinion pieces.  The students are writing book recommendations based upon books they really like.  They will justify their opinions by writing 2-3 reasons why somebody else should read the book as well.  This writing unit will also have a computer component.  Ms. Scott is helping us create google slides to reflect this writing so we can share our final product with you at home and with other classrooms and students.  Stay tuned!

• The students also continued working on hand-writing, adhering to finger-spacing, proper grammar and punctuation.  They are doing great!

Math:

• This week, second grade mathematicians participated in the district-wide iReady math assessment.

• The students also continued to learn more about inches and feet, measuring various objects in our classroom while showing no gaps or overlaps.  

• Our number talks this week addressed two-digit subtraction equations.  The students are encouraged to start by making sense and thinking of what they already know about the numbers before procedurally choosing a strategy to solve.  We systematically practiced subtracting 10, 11 and 9 first, anchoring to 10.  The students are also encouraged to think about addition, decomposing the numbers to anchor to friendlier decuples.

News and Reminders:

• It is getting cold outside.  Please make sure your child comes to school with weather-appropriate clothing for outdoor recess.  Hats, boots and snow pants are needed every day!  Thank you.

• Please make sure your child has a water bottle every day as well.  Some children keep their water bottles at school for the entire week and take them home on Fridays for cleaning.  Thank you.

• There is no school on Monday, 1/16/23 due to MLK Jr. Day.

Have a great weekend,

Maria

Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

Here is our week in review:

Welcome back to school and Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a wonderful and restful holiday break.  I filled the week off with family fun as well as skiing and skating (before the thaw).  I hope you had a great week too!

We have a new intern in our classroom this semester.  His name is Mr. Matt and he is currently a student at St. Michael’s College.  He joined our classroom weekly last semester as well, although now he’s with us full-time.  We are so lucky to have him with us!  Thank you, Mr. Matt!

Social-Emotional Learning:

• Coming back to school after an extended vacation or break can sometimes be challenging for young learners, so this week, we revisited familiar routines and expectations.  We practiced and discussed what it means to be a member of a classroom and a participant in our various classes and learning activities.  We also practiced what whole body listening looks like and sounds like, with calm bodies, listening ears, eyes watching and quiet voices.

• The students filled our classroom buzzy jar for being safe, kind and responsible this week too!  This time, they celebrated with extra explore/choice time.

Reading:

• This week, the students practiced being actively engaged readers, who show stamina and focus for longer periods of time every day. The students read books from their book bins, our classroom/school library and from Lexia.

• We started reading our new chapter book “Fergus and Zeke” by Kate Messner.  This series is about a classroom mouse who befriends another mouse and go on adventures together.

Writing:

• This week, our second grade authors participated in a district-wide writing assessment pertaining to opinion writing.  The students were encouraged to write about a topic they know a lot about and feel strongly about, while elaborating and adding 2-3 reasons to justify their position.  For the next few weeks, the students will learn to add their own creative writer’s voice to their writing pieces, while creating logical and relevant supporting paragraphs with a conclusion.  Stay tuned for more in the next few weeks!

Math:

• Second grade mathematicians continued to practice number sense and mental math strategies in our daily “Number Talk” sessions in math class.  This week, they shared different ways to solve complicated multi-digit equations while learning to understand the strategies of others.  They are amazing mathematicians and we are so proud of them all.

• In our daily calendar, the students are also practicing basic number sense, looking at the weeks and the days to figure out problems involving questions like, “In how many more days…? How many days/weeks ago….? And “How many more days until….?”  We strongly encourage families to integrate this type of conversation at home.  Perhaps you already do so using the school calendar that was sent home at the beginning of the school year for your child to use?

• Second grade mathematicians also started a new unit on measurement.  In second grade our common core standards address several new concepts, not covered in first grade.  For example, second grade mathematicians will learn how to use standard measuring tools, such as rulers, yard sticks and measuring tapes.  Second graders will also learn to understand inches, feet and yards.  In the next few weeks, the students will learn to use these tools while measuring objects accurately with no overlaps and gaps between the measuring tools used.

WIN Times:

• Next week our team will be starting our WIN block, which is part of a school wide initiative to meet the needs of more students. WIN stands for What I Need. Our team of teachers, along with some other teachers in the building, have taken the time to look at the needs of our Harmony students, and planned various groups around those needs. The groups will meet 3-4 days a week for about 40 minutes. We will be starting next week and go until February break.

Have a great weekend,

Maria

Happy Holidays

 Dear Families,

We had a terrific  week of school.  The students filled our ABS BeeHive so we celebrated by creating a mural with all the other classrooms at our school.  Ms. Nicole will hang paper representations of all the students in our lobby to greet us when we return from our holiday break.  The mural will represent all the similarities and differences we all have here at ABS, illustrating how we still belong to one learning community–together!

This week, we also had the pleasure to welcome some former students to ABS.  A group of 7th and 8th graders joined our classroom for reading time.  The students helped our second graders read books, practice their spelling and do different trick word stations.  Thank you Harbor House for visiting us!  We hope we will have many more opportunities like this in the near future.

Your child’s Home Folder is quite full today as the students cleaned out various learning spaces and folders.  Your child also packed a special Holiday Reading Log, which can be returned to school when school resumes again after the holidays.  We hope families will continue with daily reading practice at home even when school is not in session.  Your child also packed at-home access to computer coding.  Please keep this information accessible because it contains usernames and passwords.  If you run into technical problems or need these usernames/passwords again, please open an IT HelpDesk ticket (the link can be found on our school website portal).

I hope everyone will have a safe and relaxing holiday break.  See you in January!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Warm Regards,

Maria

Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, the students learned more about empathy.  They listened to the song “Empathy” by the Second Step curriculum and sang along beautifully.  We did a little game to go along with the song too.  Ask your child to explain.  The game helped them recognize other people’s feelings.

• We had another restorative circle with Ms. Nicole.  This week, the students learned about perspective taking.  They practiced listening attentively to others, while paying close attention to their emotional cues, while sharing “just enough” about a particular topic.  They did great. 

• We had a classroom celebration with Mr. Deyo’s Kindergarten friends too.  They visited our classroom for some explore time and friendship building.  Enjoy these pictures:

Reading:

• This week, our second grader readers continued to navigate different literacy stations during our independent reading blocks.  They worked on sight words, read “just right” books and showed their understanding through various visualization activities.

• We started a new graphic novel as our classroom read aloud this week.  We are reading the first book in the series about  “Pea, Bee and Jay”, written by Brian “Smitty” Smith.

Writing:

• The students are finishing up their personal narratives.  This week, they added sound words to their stories.  They also learned that authors often add “juicy words” to their stories to add more interest, detail and “sparkle”.  When we read together as a class, we often add “juicy words” to our classroom chart.  We have collected many interesting words, such as satchel, dwelling, dune and mound, to name just a few.  Ask your child to tell you more.  Ask your child to be a word detective at home too.  Encourage your child to hunt for “juicy words” during quiet reading time at home!  Perhaps your child wants to start a collection chart at home too?

Math:

• Second grade mathematicians continued to learn more efficient and simple strategies to solve 2-, or 3-digit numbers problems in our “Number Talks”.  Ms. Schaw visited our class several times this week to facilitate this work.  At this point in the school year, the students are encouraged to think about what they already know about the numbers before simply using a strategy-that might or might not work.  They are amazing math thinkers and they are always willing to share their solutions.  This week they practiced equations like 40+40+90 or 32+57+90 to give some examples.  They were also encouraged to think about problems such as this: “If you can solve 57+3, how can that help you solve 257+3, or 687+30?

• Second grade mathematicians also participated in a December math check-in about partners to 20, addressing both addition and subtraction strategies.

Technology:

• Ms. Scott visited our classroom to teach the students more about coding.  This week, the students accessed codable.  You will receive a separate email shortly about accessing this from home, if you choose to.

News and Reminders:

• On the last day of school before the holiday break (Thursday, 12/22), Harmony House will celebrate together with a pajama day.  Your child is welcome to wear pajamas to school that day.  No slippers or stuffed animals please.  We will have regular recess that day, so please make sure your child’s pajamas fit nicely inside winter boots and snow pants.  Harmony House will also offer two movies and one workshop.  The students will sign up at school with their teachers.  They will only attend one activity. Ms. Fisher will show the movie “Happy Feet” and Ms. Crowley will show the movie “Frozen”.  I will offer crafts, using sticks, pine cones, and other materials. Please let me know if you do not want your child to watch any of these movies.

• Please check your email for the class contact list, which was shared with you on Thursday.  We hope this list will encourage you and your family to find the time to play/meet with other students from class outside of school.  

Have a great weekend,

Maria

Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

Today was Ms. Bassett’s last day with us.  We are sad to see her leave our classroom but we are very excited that she now has an opportunity to continue her teacher training elsewhere.  Ms. Bassett will be missed!  The students wrote postcards to her, which we bound together with matching photographs of the students.  

Thank you for joining our classroom this semester, Ms. Bassett!  Thank you for helping the students learn more deeply and for being patient, flexible and all-around awesome!  

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, the students learned more about how to identify their own feelings and those of others.  They learned that if we can identify feelings effectively, we can more easily navigate different situations with other people.  The students worked on their feelings cubes and started to play a game with their partners, identifying the feelings represented on their cubes.

• We had another restorative circle with Ms. Nicole.  This week, we focused on perspective taking and how we can understand how other people are thinking and feeling.  

• Ms. Nicole also visited our classroom with her dog Ziggy, who is now a Therapy Dog.  Ziggy will be at ABS a few days a week, helping students learn and regulate emotions.  We all got to meet Ziggy this week.  Thank you, Ms. Nicole for visiting our classroom!

Reading:

• We started a new mini-unit on visualization in reading.  In this unit, the students will learn how to effectively visualize different aspects of the books they read to reach a deeper understanding of the story. We added two more stations to our reading classes to reflect this focus.  The students are doing a great job showing active engagement during our independent reading times.

• We continued to read graphic novels in our read aloud times.  This week, we read the first book about Shelby and Watts by Ashlyn Anstee, a series that revolves around the characters Shelby and Watt, who together solve mysteries, while sharing scientific facts and tangible ways we can help keep our earth safe and clean.

Writing:

• The students continued adding more words to their personal narratives this week.  They stretched out their stories over many pages by adding transition words to show the passage of time and adding describing words.

• The students started a new hand-writing booklet this week too.  While focusing on penmanship and letter formation, they are also challenged to correct errors in these booklets to reflect proper capitalization, punctuation and finger-spacing.  They are amazing word detectives!

Math:

• In math, we focused on story problems, showing our understanding in numbers and drawings using models and diagrams.  This week, the students solved problems involving two two-digit numbers.  

• This week, the students participated in many Number Talks, a time when they share their mental math strategies with each other.  They are encouraged to make sense of the problems by always asking themselves “What do I already know about….”.  For example, adding 62+27 is easier when you anchor 62 to 60 (as it is closer to 60). Second grade mathematicians are encouraged to find larger friendlier groups of numbers and disciples.

• This week, the students played a number of games practicing these skills and basic number sense.  Ms. Schaw, our fabulous ABS Math Interventionist also joined our class to teach us about number paths and number lines.  Thank you, Ms. Schaw.

Technology:

• Our class participated in the world-wide “Hour of Code” lessons encouraging young students to get interested in computer programming and coding.  This week, Ms. Scott joined our classroom and taught the students about how they could program our BeeBots.  We learned so much and had so much fun.  We will continue next week.  Here are some pictures.  Ask your child to explain what we did.

News and Reminders:

• Please see this letter excerpt from our school:

How does ABS celebrate and acknowledge student birthdays?

At a recent faculty meeting we discussed all the ways we celebrate student birthdays and discovered that this varies from class to class, and student to student.  As we all know, not everyone celebrates the same and may not even choose to celebrate at all…and that is ok.  

We decided as a faculty/staff that it would be important to keep the acknowledgement and celebration just at school.  This means we are asking that families NOT send in any treats, gifts, invitations/thank you notes to give out to the children. Each child (who chooses to be acknowledged) hears their birthday on the announcements and gets to come and get a birthday pencil/bookmark from the Principal.  We appreciate your support and understanding moving forward. 

Have a great weekend,

Maria

Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving break with your loved ones.  It was great to see the students again and listen to their stories about their adventures over break.

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, we reviewed some of the strategies we have learned at school to stay engaged as a learner.  We also started our unit on empathy.  In this unit, the students will participate in many different activities to explore how we can show empathy to people around us.  This week, we started making a “feelings cube” which we will use to play some various games with.  Ask your child to explain more.

• We had a restorative circle with Ms. Nicole.  This week, we reviewed some of the expectations when we meet in circle.  The students also had the opportunity to share something new and exciting about themselves.  They did a great job.

• Your child has a new Second Step Home Link assignment inside the Home Folders this week.  As always these assignments are optional but we hope parents and their children engage in these conversations at home.  Thank you.

Reading:

• The students listened to the book “Chicken in Space'' by Adam Lehrhaupt and learned about perseverance and how having a growth mindset can help us tackle problems.  They also learned that good readers think deeply about the books they read.  They also make personal connections and write about the books they read.

• We started a new read aloud again too.  In the next few weeks we will explore graphic novels .  We read the first couple of books in the series Noodleheads together and the students were immersed in several graphic novels to read during independent reading time.  They also received graphic novel paper/booklet pages to create their own!  Please look for those coming home!

Writing:

• We will continue our writing unit on personal narratives/small moments until our upcoming holiday break in late December.  The students started a new piece for possible publication this week.  Our amazing authors started new writing pieces this week by reflecting the 5 Ws, setting the stage for the reader by including who was there, where the story took place, when it happened, while addressing why this particular event occurred and describing what happened.  Personal narratives are true stories that already took place and the writers write stories about themselves.  Many students chose to write about a special event that took place over Thanksgiving break.  In the weeks to come, the students will add new text features to this type of writing.  For example, they will learn how to add sound words and effective transition words, indicating time change.  Stay tuned.

Math:

• Second grade mathematicians reviewed and caught up on our telling time calendar pieces from our number corner math calendar.  As discussed in previous newsletters, second grade mathematicians are expected to learn how to tell time to the nearest five minutes, using both an analog and a digital clock.

• Second grade mathematicians also reviewed place value concepts and relative magnitude, using our number paths.  Through number talks, they were encouraged to think about what they already know about numbers before procedurally solving equations.  For example, 48+24 can be solved by anchoring 48 to 50.  48 is only 2 away from 50 and that strategy might help us as mathematicians.  Mathematicians might also want to anchor to larger groups of tens, starting with 40 and twenty.  Mathematicians rely on flexible strategies for different situations.

Science:

• Harmony House had another 4 Winds class this week.  We were treated to another puppet show in our kiva, followed by hands-on activities, learning about birds and migration.

• The students on Harmony House also participated in our first science rotation on earth structures, landforms and changes.  For the next few weeks, the students will rotate between our classrooms to learn more about slow and fast landform changes during these science classes.

News and Reminders:

• It is getting cold outside.  Please make sure your child comes fully dressed for outdoor play every day.  Hats, mittens/gloves, boots and snow pants are best for outdoor recess.

• Please remember that we have snack every day as well.  Please talk to your child about packing healthy snacks that your child will eat to help with sustained active learning engagement throughout the day.  Water bottles are needed as well.  Thank you.

• ABS school gear forms are due Monday. We are unable to take any late orders as we need to have time for the order to be processed and completed before December break. Here is the order form should you need another copy. Here is the link for what the shirts look like this year!

Have a great weekend,

Maria

 

Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, the students continued to practice and model positive self-talk as a powerful strategy to stay calm and focused on school work.  The students created smaller speech bubbles and thinking bubbles which will be taped to their desks.  The speech bubbles reflected a positive statement that resonated with the particular student, such as “I can try again”, or “I am strong”.  The thinking bubbles reflected similar statements, but the students had the choice to draw a picture of something that calm them and make them happy.  Some of these thinking bubbles contained pictures of outdoor spaces and puppies.  They did an outstanding job reflecting individual needs and goals.

• The students in our class not only filled our classroom buzzy jar again for being safe, kind and responsible, they also helped fill the school-wide Hive!  For our classroom celebration, we celebrated with “Choose your own adventure”.  The students had multiple choices to choose from, such as accessing platforms online, playing games, or drawing.  For our school-wide celebration, the students were encouraged to wear their favorite colors to school.  We certainly had a range of colors represented!  What fun!

Reading:

• This week, the students continued to work hard in our guided reading groups, applying various reading strategies to build a stronger repertoire for improved reading accuracy and fluency.  They are hard-working and absorb instruction.  I hope you are noticing their enthusiasm for literature at home too.  If you want to continue this work over vacation, please consider giving your child access to Lexia and read the many library books your child took home this week!

• We finished our chapter book too.  This week, we read the first book in the series about the Kingdom of Wrenly, written by Jordan Quinn.  This series is about a prince and his friend, who live in a magical kingdom and go on adventures.  The books are filled with maps and sketches, which support the story.  They are also filled with new interesting words.  We started charting these words to make sure the students fully understand their meaning.  We call them “juicy words”.  Ask your child to explain. More on this in the weeks to come.

Writing:

• The students finished their personal narratives this week.  Their writing pieces reflect a story that is true, is about them and have a clear beginning, middle and end.  The students also learned to make their writing more interesting by adding words to describe people, places and events.  They learned to anchor this writing around our senses.  Lastly, in this writing unit, the students learned to add dialogue and lots of detail to their accompanying pictures.  They met with their editing partners to check on all of these components as well as their grammar, making revisions and editing when necessary.  When we come back from our Thanksgiving break, the students will have the opportunity to write another personal narrative and choose one story to publish.

Math:

• Second grade mathematicians continued to build a deeper and more flexible understanding of number paths/number lines and how to add two 2-digit numbers together.  

• Second grade mathematicians also practiced telling time to the nearest five minutes, using our Number Corner Calendar as a guide and playing various games to support this understanding.

• The students also participated in a November Math Assessment, which reflected our current learning standards and progress.

Technology:

• The students continued to work on our digital google classroom, reflecting their understanding of what it means to be a digital citizen, showing kindness and respect while making safe choices.

• Your child brought home usernames and passwords for accessing Typing Club at home today.  Thank you for your patience as the school navigated technical difficulties.  Have fun typing at home!

News and Reminders:

• ABS Bee Shirt  order forms are inside your child’s Home Folder this week.  Please consider supporting our school and order some school shirts!

I hope you will enjoy a restful and joyous holiday break with your family and friends next week.  I am going to see my sister who lives in London, England, and I am very excited to see her again.  Talk to you soon.

Warm Regards,

Maria