Hello Parents,
It is the last week of the First Quarter of 2nd grade, can you believe it? This week is full of assessments for you child ranging from Math Quarterly Assessment (Wednesday/Thursday) to the Writing Assessment (Thursday/Friday) and some students will be having another Running Record performed. The main thing to keep in mind is that all of the assessments are looking for mastery of a concept not whether or not a student can regurgitate information. The new Core Standards that are coming down the pipeline are all about critical thinking (and non-fiction text). An important thing that you can do is simply have your student get a full nights rest each night this week and that they have a hearty (and low sugar) breakfast so that they are "in it to win it!"
Due to the assessments for this week, homework will be a little sparser than usual. One thing I mention is that if you feel your student needs to have more homework then encourage them to practice their math facts nightly. Math facts such as 2+2=4, 4+4=8 are vital to their math success. When students are unable to quickly add in their head then their speed on assessments is hindered as well as their accuracy as a student may be more prone to making careless mistakes. You can always practice math facts and if you child loses the ones provided by the Expressions book then I've always found sets (and better ones I may add) in the dollar bin at Target or the Dollar Store.
We are shifting gears away from Science this week and onward to Social Studies. We will be spending Monday through Wednesday reviewing insects and life-cycles before heading on to the topic of Elections. Now we all know that elections can be a sensitive subject. Everyone has their own opinions and with good reason. Rest assured that I will simply be reviewing the whole process and encouraging students to look more at how the nomination/election process works than what the platforms are. Due to our coverage of elections at the beginning of the year (when we had our our election) we will be going at a brisk pace to cover this topic so that we can move into the Thanksgiving Tradion. There is one assignment that I would like to mention, your student will be bringing home a sheet today about clouds. Everyday for 1 month, please have your student go outside and look at the clouds. Then mark down what type of clouds there were that day. It should take all of 2 minutes. This will enable your child to have their schema (brain backpack) loaded with some information about clouds for when we start our weather unit. Even if your child does not come to school one day please have them complete the graph so that we can compare our class data accurately.
In Reading/Writing we are spending some time on the topic of "Small Moments." The story for today was A Chair for My Mother. In writing we began brainstorming ideas for our very own small moment stories and I was very excited by what I saw. Stories ranging from loosing a tooth to soccer games. In the hallway we also have some of our pirate stories and our "Book Reviews" of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Please be sure to check them out after your conference.
On a final note, as birthday season is upon us I would like to remind all parents that if you are going to provide a snack for your child to celebrate their birthday at school then please send in enough for all the students (we have 21). Last week a child came into school with only enough cupcakes for five of her friends to have. Some of the other students had hurt feeling and it turned a joyful experience into an ackward one. Also, if you would like to send in a healthy snack such as fruit, low fat chips, pretzels then please do so.
**Quick Reminders**
*There is no school on Monday (October 31st) but there are conferences. Please look for the reminder sheet going home today and fill out any questions you may have. It also has important directions about coming in the bus loop door of the school.
*Literacy Night is November 3rd (next Thursday) beginning at
5:30pm
*Fall Picture Day is November 4th (next Friday)
*No school on November 11th as it's a holiday.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
October 17th--21st
Hello Students & Parents,
There are not enough words to describe how awesome our "ITLaPD" was this past Friday. With the help of our wonderful parent volunteers we had followed clue to discover buried treasure in the Office, listened to Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies, created our very own feathered friends (parrots), and had a Pirate Feast of beef jerky, hard tack, and oranges (to prevent scurvy). I'm sure your student told you all about it, but if they didn't then please be sure to ask!
In Reading this week, we are going to continue working on retelling stories that we read (fiction) through generating Venn Diagrams. These Venn Diagrams will enable your child to compare various stories and characters they have learned about and use higher order processing to contrast them. It is a lot of fun as well as useful for me to see what kind of information your child has retained.
In Writing, we have published our Pirate Stories from last week and will continue completing smaller works that we have begun in class. We will also have the writing prompt "It Happened on a Fall Day" for your child to work on. In that piece I will be looking for complete sentences (with proper punctuation) as well as descriptive details.
In Science, our BUTTERFLIES have emerged from their Chrysalises! Can you believe it? Today we had four little beauties waiting for us. I'm sure by the time this goes to print there will be many more so please be sure to ask your child about them today. This week we will continue caring for our butterflies and looking at their proboscis as they eat. We will also be working on our own life-cycle projects so if you still haven't sent in baby pictures please do.
Mathematically speaking, today your child took an assessment to see if they would qualify for Mrs. Evan's math extension class next quarter. As we stated at the beginning of the year, Mrs. Evan's math groups will be reassessed quarterly to see where the students should be placed. This will ensure that all students are in the ability group that best meets their individual needs. This week your student will continue to work on number sense (adding/subtracting numbers through 250) as well as solving story problems (word problems) using previously discussed strategies. While the concepts for this week should not be hard the word choices within the story problems will be more challenging. Remember to help guide your student through the comprehension part and to really think about what the questions are asking.
Before I close, I would like to thank all of the students and parents for your kindness on Friday. Despite having a family tragedy it was helpful to come back to work on Friday to ITLaPD and to all the nice cards. Losing someone is never easy but the warm wishes are appreachiated.
Sincerely,
Gerald Harvey
Don't Forget...
*Spelling Bee entry forms are due by Wednesday! I've only gotten a handful of forms so please be sure to send them in if you are interested.
*If you are going to be checking out your student to attend the NC State Fair please be sure to send in a quick note so that I can have them packed up and ready for you. Hopefully that will help you beat the traffic a little. Also, check out the "Village of Yesteryear" near the Graham building to help your student see how different things were back in the day.
*First Quarter ends on October 28th which is why we have a workday on October 31st. Please be sure not to send your student to school that day.
*On the 28th will be the K-2 Hunter Olympics from 2:30pm-3:30pm
*Conference verification forms are being sent out TODAY. I had to try and squeeze a few of you in around times that you asked for and not the time you signed up for. Please double check these and let me know if they work. The final schedule will be sent home next week.
There are not enough words to describe how awesome our "ITLaPD" was this past Friday. With the help of our wonderful parent volunteers we had followed clue to discover buried treasure in the Office, listened to Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies, created our very own feathered friends (parrots), and had a Pirate Feast of beef jerky, hard tack, and oranges (to prevent scurvy). I'm sure your student told you all about it, but if they didn't then please be sure to ask!
In Reading this week, we are going to continue working on retelling stories that we read (fiction) through generating Venn Diagrams. These Venn Diagrams will enable your child to compare various stories and characters they have learned about and use higher order processing to contrast them. It is a lot of fun as well as useful for me to see what kind of information your child has retained.
In Writing, we have published our Pirate Stories from last week and will continue completing smaller works that we have begun in class. We will also have the writing prompt "It Happened on a Fall Day" for your child to work on. In that piece I will be looking for complete sentences (with proper punctuation) as well as descriptive details.
In Science, our BUTTERFLIES have emerged from their Chrysalises! Can you believe it? Today we had four little beauties waiting for us. I'm sure by the time this goes to print there will be many more so please be sure to ask your child about them today. This week we will continue caring for our butterflies and looking at their proboscis as they eat. We will also be working on our own life-cycle projects so if you still haven't sent in baby pictures please do.
Mathematically speaking, today your child took an assessment to see if they would qualify for Mrs. Evan's math extension class next quarter. As we stated at the beginning of the year, Mrs. Evan's math groups will be reassessed quarterly to see where the students should be placed. This will ensure that all students are in the ability group that best meets their individual needs. This week your student will continue to work on number sense (adding/subtracting numbers through 250) as well as solving story problems (word problems) using previously discussed strategies. While the concepts for this week should not be hard the word choices within the story problems will be more challenging. Remember to help guide your student through the comprehension part and to really think about what the questions are asking.
Before I close, I would like to thank all of the students and parents for your kindness on Friday. Despite having a family tragedy it was helpful to come back to work on Friday to ITLaPD and to all the nice cards. Losing someone is never easy but the warm wishes are appreachiated.
Sincerely,
Gerald Harvey
Don't Forget...
*Spelling Bee entry forms are due by Wednesday! I've only gotten a handful of forms so please be sure to send them in if you are interested.
*If you are going to be checking out your student to attend the NC State Fair please be sure to send in a quick note so that I can have them packed up and ready for you. Hopefully that will help you beat the traffic a little. Also, check out the "Village of Yesteryear" near the Graham building to help your student see how different things were back in the day.
*First Quarter ends on October 28th which is why we have a workday on October 31st. Please be sure not to send your student to school that day.
*On the 28th will be the K-2 Hunter Olympics from 2:30pm-3:30pm
*Conference verification forms are being sent out TODAY. I had to try and squeeze a few of you in around times that you asked for and not the time you signed up for. Please double check these and let me know if they work. The final schedule will be sent home next week.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
October 10th-14th
Ahoy Parents,
Can you believe that it's already Pirate Week for the Heroes? This week most of our assignments will revolve around Christopher Columbus (since it's Columbus Day Monday) and then Pirates. Your student will learn some kid friendly facts about pirates (including that there were female pirates!) and complete a Venn Diagram comparing Christopher Columbus and Pirates. Be careful, there might be a homework assignment this week where they have to complete a Venn Diagram comparing you to a pirate (yikes!). Your student will also be writing their own pirate stories. It could be about their experiences as a pirate (fiction?) or it could be a story describing a true pirate event based on what we read in class. The genre does not matter as much as the details and punctuation.
In Math, we will be wrapping up our initial unit on geometry. This past week we learned about parallelograms and angles. Hopefully your student has told you all about right angles (or corner angles), acute angles, and obtuse angles. We will be having an quick assessment on Thursday about measuring in cm, squares, and rectangles.
Big news for Science...our baby caterpillars have entered their chrysalis's. It seems like only yesterday they were babies and pretty soon they will be butterflies (probably in 7 days). I'm sure your student will be telling you all about it this week. While the caterpillar's are in their chrysalis we will be looking at the life cycle of the spider and frog as mentioned last week. We will also be working on our own little Life-Cycle projects (coming home today in our Monday Folder). Basically, all your student has to do is either put a baby picture and current picture of them (they can draw it if they like) for the first two parts and then draw what they think they will look like when they are adults and senior citizens for the last two parts. There is also a writing component but it only involves three or four sentences about each phase. We will work on this in class so all you have to do is send in the pictures.
That concludes this weeks newsletter. I know it was short but please be sure to read the important dates at the bottom. This week is going to be very busy for your student and I want to make sure that we are all on the same page. If you have any questions just email me at gharvey@wcpss.net
Arg,
Captain Harvey
*Our Field Trip is THIS WEDNESDAY (October 12th) to the NC Museum of Life and Science IN Durham. All Chaperones should be contacted via email on Monday. If you don't here from me then please contact me.
*October 13th is the One Hunter Family Fall Picnic at 5:30pm. It will be unforgettable (and there are some delicious samples of healthy snacks to eat)so please mark it down on your calendar!
*ITLaPD (International Talk Like a Pirate Day) will be celebrated on Friday, October 14th. *Don't forget that all Parent Volunteer's should have renewed their volunteer registration by October 31st or you can't chaperon any field-trips. Please go ahead an renew now!
*The Fall Conference sheet is going home today in your child's Monday Folder. Please be sure to either sign up for a time or verify that your scheduled time works.
Can you believe that it's already Pirate Week for the Heroes? This week most of our assignments will revolve around Christopher Columbus (since it's Columbus Day Monday) and then Pirates. Your student will learn some kid friendly facts about pirates (including that there were female pirates!) and complete a Venn Diagram comparing Christopher Columbus and Pirates. Be careful, there might be a homework assignment this week where they have to complete a Venn Diagram comparing you to a pirate (yikes!). Your student will also be writing their own pirate stories. It could be about their experiences as a pirate (fiction?) or it could be a story describing a true pirate event based on what we read in class. The genre does not matter as much as the details and punctuation.
In Math, we will be wrapping up our initial unit on geometry. This past week we learned about parallelograms and angles. Hopefully your student has told you all about right angles (or corner angles), acute angles, and obtuse angles. We will be having an quick assessment on Thursday about measuring in cm, squares, and rectangles.
Big news for Science...our baby caterpillars have entered their chrysalis's. It seems like only yesterday they were babies and pretty soon they will be butterflies (probably in 7 days). I'm sure your student will be telling you all about it this week. While the caterpillar's are in their chrysalis we will be looking at the life cycle of the spider and frog as mentioned last week. We will also be working on our own little Life-Cycle projects (coming home today in our Monday Folder). Basically, all your student has to do is either put a baby picture and current picture of them (they can draw it if they like) for the first two parts and then draw what they think they will look like when they are adults and senior citizens for the last two parts. There is also a writing component but it only involves three or four sentences about each phase. We will work on this in class so all you have to do is send in the pictures.
That concludes this weeks newsletter. I know it was short but please be sure to read the important dates at the bottom. This week is going to be very busy for your student and I want to make sure that we are all on the same page. If you have any questions just email me at gharvey@wcpss.net
Arg,
Captain Harvey
*Our Field Trip is THIS WEDNESDAY (October 12th) to the NC Museum of Life and Science IN Durham. All Chaperones should be contacted via email on Monday. If you don't here from me then please contact me.
*October 13th is the One Hunter Family Fall Picnic at 5:30pm. It will be unforgettable (and there are some delicious samples of healthy snacks to eat)so please mark it down on your calendar!
*ITLaPD (International Talk Like a Pirate Day) will be celebrated on Friday, October 14th. *Don't forget that all Parent Volunteer's should have renewed their volunteer registration by October 31st or you can't chaperon any field-trips. Please go ahead an renew now!
*The Fall Conference sheet is going home today in your child's Monday Folder. Please be sure to either sign up for a time or verify that your scheduled time works.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
October 3rd Newsletter
Hello Parents and Students,
October is upon us and there a several things in store for your student. To start with, your son or daughter has their Immigration Project due THIS FRIDAY (October 7th). Any student that does not turn in a project will be encouraged to complete a project during Recess for reduced credit. Please make sure that your student is well prepared for their presentation as that is what determines if they earn a 3* or a 4. I know that all students are capable of earning a 3* in Social Studies this quarter. Other big events for the week may include your student receiving an Progress Report/Interim this week. Normally this would have gone home today however due to my absence it will be going home on Tuesday. It's easier for all parties involved if I can verify that the Interims/Progress Reports have gone home and not simply been left in the hands of a very capable substitute teacher.
In the classroom this past week our Butterfly larva arrived. Thus far, your student has discussed what a butterfly larva eats (mallow leaves in the wild-just mushed up mallow in class) as well as their basic body structure. The hardest thing for many students to understand is how during metamorphosis the larva loses several of its legs and ends up with only 3 pairs (which are the true legs). This is perhaps one of the most exciting science labs of the year for your student so please be sure to ask them each night that they have done. We will continue to study the life cycle of the butterfly for the next few weeks as well as analyze the life cycle of the silk worm, frogs, and spiders. Please encourage your child to learn the life cycle of other insects and animals that spark their interest.
In Reading, we continued to work on making connects between texts as well as the world and ourselves. We also began researching animals from our small reading groups. Researching hens/chickens, pigs, and alligators can be tough using the internet and even harder using encyclopedias but rest assured that we will continue doing research from time to time this year in order to build your students stamina for research. Being able to locate information about a topic is integral toward making your student a life-long learner. This week in reading, we will continue to work on understanding setting through a variety of books as well as continue making connects. We are also going to begin analyzing how authors use specific word choices to help the reader understand how the story is flowing. In particular, we will begin listing various transition words that we find in stories so that we can begin to use them in our writings.
Which brings us to writing for this week...your Hero is going to be wrapping up their "Heart Story" and should be able to bring it home in their Monday folder next week. When you read it please look for examples of what we have been studying in class such as your students use of transition words, descriptive details, and capitalization. The work may have some misspelled words that slipped through our editing process. At this point in the year, the main idea is to build your students confidence in their writing ability and to look for the above mentioned items. As the year progresses your student should begin to improve the finer mechanics of their writing.
As far as math is concerned, your son or daughter has taken several math quizzes which will be used my me to generate their math grade for the quarter. My main goal in giving these assessments is to monitor their understanding of the concepts I have taught as well as to reteach your child any concepts that they missed. This week we are working with measurement. Yesterday we began a mini-unit on centimeters (cm) and using rulers. We will be discussing standard and nonstandard forms of measurement as well as how to switch cm to inches. Next week we will move on to a different concept but we will continue to come back and explore measurement. Please encourage your child to measure items at home in standard measurement (inches/centimeters) as well as nonstandard units (paperclips, handspans, etc). The more work your child does with this concept the better they will be able to grasp what they are doing.
There are only a few more weeks in the quarter (it ends on October 29th) so please be sure to encourage your son or daughter to bring their best behavior to school each day. It's hard to believe that we only have about another 150 days of school and there is still a lot of ground to cover. As always, if you have any questions please feel free to email me at gharvey@wcpss.net. Be sure to look over some very important dates at the bottom of the newsletter. Have a terrific week!
Sincerely,
Mr. H
*Our Field Trip is coming up (October 12th) to the NC Museum of Life and Science!
*October 13th is the One Hunter Family Fall Picnic at 5:30pm. It will be unforgettable so please mark it down on your calendar!
*Don't forget that all Parent Volunteer's should have renewed their volunteer registration by October 31st or you can't chaperon any field-trips. Please go ahead an renew now!
*ITLaPD (International Talk Like a Pirate Day) Literacy Unit and Celebration is coming up the week of October 10th thru the 14th. Please be checking your email in-boxes for volunteer information/supplies from our amazing room moms Mrs. O'Brian & Mrs. Jones. It should be a legendary time!
October is upon us and there a several things in store for your student. To start with, your son or daughter has their Immigration Project due THIS FRIDAY (October 7th). Any student that does not turn in a project will be encouraged to complete a project during Recess for reduced credit. Please make sure that your student is well prepared for their presentation as that is what determines if they earn a 3* or a 4. I know that all students are capable of earning a 3* in Social Studies this quarter. Other big events for the week may include your student receiving an Progress Report/Interim this week. Normally this would have gone home today however due to my absence it will be going home on Tuesday. It's easier for all parties involved if I can verify that the Interims/Progress Reports have gone home and not simply been left in the hands of a very capable substitute teacher.
In the classroom this past week our Butterfly larva arrived. Thus far, your student has discussed what a butterfly larva eats (mallow leaves in the wild-just mushed up mallow in class) as well as their basic body structure. The hardest thing for many students to understand is how during metamorphosis the larva loses several of its legs and ends up with only 3 pairs (which are the true legs). This is perhaps one of the most exciting science labs of the year for your student so please be sure to ask them each night that they have done. We will continue to study the life cycle of the butterfly for the next few weeks as well as analyze the life cycle of the silk worm, frogs, and spiders. Please encourage your child to learn the life cycle of other insects and animals that spark their interest.
In Reading, we continued to work on making connects between texts as well as the world and ourselves. We also began researching animals from our small reading groups. Researching hens/chickens, pigs, and alligators can be tough using the internet and even harder using encyclopedias but rest assured that we will continue doing research from time to time this year in order to build your students stamina for research. Being able to locate information about a topic is integral toward making your student a life-long learner. This week in reading, we will continue to work on understanding setting through a variety of books as well as continue making connects. We are also going to begin analyzing how authors use specific word choices to help the reader understand how the story is flowing. In particular, we will begin listing various transition words that we find in stories so that we can begin to use them in our writings.
Which brings us to writing for this week...your Hero is going to be wrapping up their "Heart Story" and should be able to bring it home in their Monday folder next week. When you read it please look for examples of what we have been studying in class such as your students use of transition words, descriptive details, and capitalization. The work may have some misspelled words that slipped through our editing process. At this point in the year, the main idea is to build your students confidence in their writing ability and to look for the above mentioned items. As the year progresses your student should begin to improve the finer mechanics of their writing.
As far as math is concerned, your son or daughter has taken several math quizzes which will be used my me to generate their math grade for the quarter. My main goal in giving these assessments is to monitor their understanding of the concepts I have taught as well as to reteach your child any concepts that they missed. This week we are working with measurement. Yesterday we began a mini-unit on centimeters (cm) and using rulers. We will be discussing standard and nonstandard forms of measurement as well as how to switch cm to inches. Next week we will move on to a different concept but we will continue to come back and explore measurement. Please encourage your child to measure items at home in standard measurement (inches/centimeters) as well as nonstandard units (paperclips, handspans, etc). The more work your child does with this concept the better they will be able to grasp what they are doing.
There are only a few more weeks in the quarter (it ends on October 29th) so please be sure to encourage your son or daughter to bring their best behavior to school each day. It's hard to believe that we only have about another 150 days of school and there is still a lot of ground to cover. As always, if you have any questions please feel free to email me at gharvey@wcpss.net. Be sure to look over some very important dates at the bottom of the newsletter. Have a terrific week!
Sincerely,
Mr. H
*Our Field Trip is coming up (October 12th) to the NC Museum of Life and Science!
*October 13th is the One Hunter Family Fall Picnic at 5:30pm. It will be unforgettable so please mark it down on your calendar!
*Don't forget that all Parent Volunteer's should have renewed their volunteer registration by October 31st or you can't chaperon any field-trips. Please go ahead an renew now!
*ITLaPD (International Talk Like a Pirate Day) Literacy Unit and Celebration is coming up the week of October 10th thru the 14th. Please be checking your email in-boxes for volunteer information/supplies from our amazing room moms Mrs. O'Brian & Mrs. Jones. It should be a legendary time!
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