Month: November 2016

Dear Parents,

We are happy to see more and more students returning to school with improved health! We will support students who missed out on work, both in class and as homework. With three weeks left of school before the Christmas holiday, there will be two weeks of Literacy and Spelling while the last week will be spent in holiday themed writing and activities. Here is the PDF of the Week’s Spelling, Verse, and Reminders!Nov 28-Dec 2 PDF

Please read the following updates on the big Science and Social Studies projects the students are researching. You can help your student prepare for their Oral Presentation by having them practice at home. Teachers will be grading off of the following rubric, looking for things like eye contact, a good volume/tone of voice, having an organized presentation with a beginning, middle, and end. 

PDF of Weekly Verse, Spelling, Reminders

This week’s highlights:

• Science Animal Research Project is under way!
• Social Studies Ocean/Continent Project is just starting up.
• International Night Preparation is keeping us busy. Students are doing their best coloring and designing to get our India booth ready to display the best and most interesting facts they’ve been learning. ***Please remember to bring in $10 donation for 2nd grade. The money will be spent on the food that we are handing out. To be clear, the donation is different than the tickets. Please also make sure to buy tickets for yourself and your family members so you can join in on the fun at 5:30 on Friday!

PDF of Week’s Spelling, Verse, Reminders

Highlights for 2nd grade in the upcoming week:

• $10 donations for each student will help us to prepare an amazing Indian experience for the International Night on November 18th (get tickets through the PTF now!) A giant thank you for all of the support from so many parents who are helping to organize, design, research, and assist in so many ways for our country presentation. It’s going to be a beautiful, intriguing, and delicious display!
• Permission slips for the Rotary Club Writing Competition need to come back to school in order for students’ writing to be submitted. If you have not signed, please print off a copy and sign it ASAP 🙂 The submission deadline is Friday the 11th!
  • butterfly-storybook-competition-flyer-2016-2017
  • Permission Slip to sign and print
• Students will begin researching for their Science Report on an animal of their choice as well as for their Social Studies Report on a continent/ocean of their choice. We will be guiding students through the research and report writing process. Please feel free to ask your child what they have picked and what facts they are learning as they go! We will do oral presentations at the end in order to have students share their new knowledge with peers and to practice good public speaking.
• Laptops have been made available for 2nd grade students. They will be set up in Ms. Mittelman’s classroom to use before and after school so that students have more time to take AR book tests. Please feel free to come in with your student and help them select quizzes for recently read books so they can test their comprehension skills and earn themselves points.

Thank you kindly to all who made time to attend PTCs or to make separate appointments. We are so pleased to have supportive, active parents on board. It is an amazing blessing for each student to be raised in such an intentional household. Here’s to continued learning for all of us,

Ms. Maurice and Ms. Mittelman

Dear Parents,

In light of great PTCs, here are some websites that contain audio-books and other reading resources like apps and activity sites. Please browse through the sites before letting students use them independently as some have advertisements that may change. Please let me know if you have a great reading resource that hasn’t been listed or if you find one of these links to be a big hit with your student!

• http://www.storylineonline.net/      Storyline Online is a collection of videos of famous actors and actresses reading aloud storybooks with the visuals being the actual illustrations from the book. This is great for students who like to listen to stories (unfortunately, there are no words shown.)

• https://www.youtube.com/user/MrsPStorytime/playlists      This Youtube Channel has multiple types of videos, but the read-aloud stories with words at the bottom are the best for on-level 2nd graders! Head’s up: Mrs. P focuses on older classic stories and reads with a thick English accent. Preview it with your student to see if it falls within the interest/skill level of your child.

• http://www.storynory.com/     StoryNory is a collection of audio books, separated by genre, and including a vast international repertoire!

• http://en.childrenslibrary.org/         International Children’s Digital Library is exactly what it sounds like: a free collection of international literature (at different levels and in different languages.) A free membership allows you to save favorites. The website is not very easy to navigate for children, so help your student find what they’re looking for on ICDL! *Search by location to support our 2nd grade learning about India*

• Scholastic Article on One More Story     One More Story requires a subscription which comes in different discounts for longer memberships. There are 79 books currently on their site, and multiple modes for children to explore. This article explains the highlights of this online library (if you’re willing to pay for the 3, 6, or 12 month plans.)

• http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/developing-reading-skills/6-great-reading-apps-kids     6 Reading Apps for Kids, approved by Scholastic and outlined by skill and price.

• http://www.readingrockets.org/literacyapps     Reading Rockets has loads of great resources for young readers. This link is a website of links for apps to support different aspects of reading. The apps range from free to paid, supportive to supplemental. Check out some for the specific needs of your child!