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- August
- Aug. 26
- Sept. 16
- Oct.
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August
I am writing to ask you to help me become a partner with you in your child’s
education. I will only
have your child for a short time in this trip through life – just one
fleeting school year – and I want to
make a contribution that lasts a lifetime.
I know my teaching must begin by making your child feel at home in my
classroom, and with helping
all the children come together into a learning community made up of
particular, unique individuals,
each with his or her own learning style and interests and history and hopes.
Would you help me teach well by taking a quiet moment to write me about your
child? What is your
youngster like? What are the things you, as a parent know that would be
important for me to know?
What are your child’s interests? I want to know how your child thinks and
plays and how you see your
child as a learner and a person. How does your child view themselves as a
learner and a person?
What activities occur at home to support what is going on at school? What
are your expectations for
this school year?
You may send these letters to school with your child. I thank you in advance
for the reflective time
you will take to complete this assignment and for sharing your child with me
this school year.
Sincerely,
Karen Melnick
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Aug. 26
Our school year is off to a great start. I am enjoying the chance to learn
about your children and I thank you for sharing them with me this school
year. Many of you have
already completed your reflective assignment and written beautiful letters
about your children.
These are invaluable as I get to know each person as an individual.
We have spent the past few weeks getting used to the routines of our
classroom. The class is
becoming acquainted with each other as we work to build our community of
learners. New
friendships are forming! We will continue the process of learning routines
for the next few weeks
before we are ready to buckle down to curriculum. Our students will review
behavior expectations
and the school wide rules. I hope they will soon become familiar with all
the nooks and crannies of
our room. I have learned that when we go slowly and focus on routines,
procedures and
expectations early in the year, we are able to create great things as our
school year progresses. I
hope you have noticed the Weekly Report attached to the inside Pocket of
your child’s picture folder.
This folder should come back to school each day. This report will tell you
about homework
assignnments and behavior. The sheet provides you with your child's insight
as they reflect on their
experiences each day. There is also a place for you to check off the
required 20 minutes of nightly
reading. Please keep this sheet in the folder, sign it Thursday evening and
add any comments you
wish. Do not add notes about transportation on this form. It is important
that you write a separate
note for that!! I will explain the Weekly Report further when we meet
together on August 28 at 6:30
p.m. in our classroom for Parent Orientation.
Thank you in advance for your support and link between home and school.
Where We've Been:
What is each person's role in our classroom community?
How does our classroom work?
Readers have reading identities and share them to build community.
Readers take care of books and the classroom library.
Readers understand Reader's and Writer's Workshop procedures so everyone
can do their best work.
Math vocabulary: hundreds, tens, ones, place value, digit
Where We're Going:
Readers stay focused on books.
Readers think and talk about books.
Math vocabulary: greater than, less than, equal
MATH TEST ON WEDNESDAY
What is a neighborhood? A community? How can we be a good citizen in our
community?
Where can we get ideas to start our writing?
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Sept. 16
Come Celebrate This Friday!
September 21 - 1:45 - Our Classroom
We will salute our flag and share our expertise as fluent readers.
Where we’ve been:
We can show mathematical data in many different ways: tally tables, bar and
picture graphs.
Readers use different strategies to help them when meaning is lost while
reading.
Writers go through a process to write their ideas.
Writers get their ideas from many places.
A sentence needs a subject, verb, capital letter, end mark, and must make
sense!
Where we’re going:
We can use different strategies to help us add: count on, make a ten,
doubles & doubles +1.
Readers use many strategies to help them read fluently for an audience.
What is a noun? What is a proper noun?
How should we care for our country’s flag? What is the symbolism associated
with the flag?
How can we write and share our life stories? What is a personal narrative?
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Oct.
Can you believe that we have finished our first nine weeks together? I am
so proud of all the hard
workers. Our Reader's and Writer's Workshops are running smoothly. The
children have a good
understanding of how to be responsible and respectful as we learn together.
Here's what to expect during our next nine weeks together.
Our Reader’s Workshop lessons will focus on the strategies of making
connections to our reading.
Readers will practice making text to self, text to text and text to world
connections to help them
better understand what they are reading. We will also work on creating
mental images as we read to
put a movie picture of the story into our heads. Students will become
familiar with the elements of
nonfiction books. We’ll learn about headings, captions, charts & tables
found in these books.
Writing Workshop lessons will focus on writing informational text. Students
will learn to add
important details with supporting evidence. We’ll continue our work with
ideas, organization, word
choice, voice and the conventions of writing. Everyone should be writing in
complete sentences
using proper punctuation and verb tense. We will also be writing poetry to
create mental images in
our reader’s minds.
Second grade will be math compacting this nine weeks. In those classes, we
will be working on
double digit subtraction, making change with money, telling time and
exploring plane & solid
figures. You should be working on basic addition and subtraction facts at
home. The class will
begin our school-wide Otter Creek math program very soon. We are waiting
for our wonderful PTA
volunteers to assemble the papers for us.
Social Studies lessons will be aplenty this grading period. The class will
learn about the culture and
lifestyle of the Eastern Woodland and Plains people. We’ll work on some map
skills during this unit.
Laptop computers will come into the classroom as we use Kidspiration to plan
scenery for a show to
display our learning. In December, we will study the early settlers.
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