April 10, 2012
Hello Parents,
I hope you all had a restful spring break! I was home for
almost all of it and lucked out with great weather, enjoyed lots of family time,
watched NCAA basketball! From the kids excitement and stories today, I can tell
that everyone had some fun whether it was here in DC or elsewhere.
As I told all the kids today, they are now almost
3rd graders, so we have a lot going on and a lot to do before the end
of the year creeps up on us. Academically, we are beginning new units in both
reading and math. In math, our upcoming unit focuses on money and place
value. Students should practice adding coin combinations,
making change and writing dollar amounts in the correct notation. Today student
learned a coin counting strategy in which they created coin critters which I am
sure they would love to share with you. Also please take opportunities in real
life to apply the concepts we are learning in class by having your child add
coin amounts at the store or figure out the change you should receive.
To help the students practice using money, we will create
hands on experiences in class through a school store. Students will have a bank
and begin to earn money throughout the week then can shop on Friday afternoons
in the “Koruda Store”. They will price the items and decide how they can earn
money through kindness, respect and rule following in class plus will decide if
there are actions that can cost them a fee. If you have anything that you would
like to donate to the class store, feel free to send it in to be priced. Kids
love to buy anything from old toys, to books, to random household items.
The last updated about math is about Learnzillion. The week
before break, I set up a Learnzillion.com account for our class for the students
to watch videos and practice math concepts taught in class. I plan to walk
parents and kids through the sit on Friday at our open house so we can begin
using it as a class.
In reading, we will be reading nonfiction. We are beginning
to examine the structures of a paragraph and how they link together to form one
main idea. Students will practice finding the main idea and details in a
paragraph then connect multiple paragraphs together and find an over arching
idea or point the author is trying to make. Kidspost and Time for Kids are great
resources for students to read short fiction passages at home as well.
As everyone should be aware now, 2nd graders are
taking the DC CAS next week in both reading and math. They will take the test
across 3 days (April 18th, 19th, and 20th) with one math
and reading session each day. Today is the first day that we talked about it as
a class and there were tons of questions. The questions ranged from: will we
still get recess?, to do we get gum?, to what happens if we don’t know an
answer? The conversation we had (and will continue to have) is that this is just
a way (one way) for them to show what they know and how smart they are at the
end of second grade. I also tell them that it is just as important for me to
know what they do not know so I can be a better teacher and make sure they learn
those things—after all it is only April. I told them that I have all the
confidence in the world in them and that they have nothing to worry about
because their only job is to the best that they can. We will
look at questions and passages this week and on Tuesday so the students are
familiar with the format of the test but the content of what we are learning
will not be altered. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions
or concerns as they may arise.
Upcoming Dates
and Announcements:
·
Monday, April 16: Emancipation Day--No School J
·
Wednesday April 18-Friday April 20th:
2nd Grade DC CAS Testing
·
May 15th: Field Trip to Brookside
Gardens
·
May 21st: Parent Teacher Conferences
Have a great week!
Elizabeth Koruda
mskorudasclass@gmail.com