Week of September 4th - 8th

Hi Families,
It’s been a hot week in 2nd grade on the 2nd floor of the un-air conditioned building, but we survived! We actually had a very nice week of community-building and introducing subjects. 

Important Dates
Thursday, September 14th: Elementary Open House in evening, 5:30-6:45 pm.*
Friday, September 15th:  PTO Back to School Picnic (postponed from the 8th), 5:00-6:30pm
Friday, October 20th: PTO Monster Mash (rain date: 10/27).

*For the Open House, here is the full schedule:
5:30-6:15  Grades K-2  (come to our classroom, room 2016!)
6:00-6:45  Grades 3-5
5:30-6:15  Specialists 

Important Notes

• Arrival: Students are marked Tardy if they are not in the classroom by 8:25am. There is a short academic task that I ask them to complete before we start Morning Meeting at 8:30am, so those students arriving right at 8:25am often do not have time to do it and therefore miss out on the practice. I also miss out on the opportunity to check in with them. Please try to get your child to school by 8:20am so they have enough time to get in the building and put their stuff away.
• Dismissal: When picking up your child at dismissal, please be standing outside by 2:45pm. If you arrive after 2:50pm, please go to the office to pick up your child. You can email me changes in dismissal, but it’s best to CC Donna Walsh if it’s during the school day, as I might not have time to check my email. If there is a change to your extended day arrangement, please CC Jacqueline (Jackie) Fox. Thank you!
• Supplies: We are getting a little low on tissue boxes. Any donations are appreciated!​

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Here are some highlights from this week:

Community Building

• Playful Morning Meeting greetings: “Sing-Song,” “Dance,” and “Foot Tap;”
• Activities: “Coseeki,” “Grandma’s Trunk,” and “Make Me Laugh;”
• Making group decisions: group name, caddy color, and team cheer;
• How to be a “respectful audience” and show “whole body listening” by thinking and caring about what the speaker is saying.

Literacy

• Read aloud and discussed, “All Are Welcome,” focusing on vocabulary words “community,” “diversity,” and “adversity;”
• Read aloud from the chapter book, “There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom,” by Louis Sachar and discussed inferring, predicting, and visualizing and we analyzed the main character, Bradley Chalkers;
• Administered an oral reading fluency assessment to get a sense of students’ reading skills, then administered a phonics screener on students with fluency struggles to dig deeper into any skill gaps.

Writing and Phonics

• Worked on “2nd Grade Goals” writing;
• Practiced rhyming, segmenting, blending, and isolating sounds in words;
• Practiced lowercase letter formation.

Math

• Played a 1st grade favorite math game, "Capture Squares" to practice adding and subtracting within 10;
• Gave students a short “end of 1st grade assessment” to check for math skill levels;
• Distributed Student Workbooks and practiced reading and answering word problems using picture graphs and tables;
• Practiced number formation.

Other

• Got used to the routines for arrival, dismissal, snack, hallway walking, distributing materials, turning in work, and cleaning up.

Pictures below: groups presenting their "team cheer;" students working on their name tags, playing a math game, and diligently taking a short math assessment.

​​Thank you for taking the time to read the update! Please reach out with any questions.