Grade 2 Newsletter
Important Dates
- Feb. 18 - ASA Session 2 Ends
- Feb. 22 - Lego Creativity Celebration
- Feb. 22 - ES Trimester 2 Ends
- Feb. 22 - ES After School Activities Session 2 Ends
- Feb. 25 - ES Trimester 3 Begins
- Mar. 4 - ASA Session 3 Sign up begins
- March 6 - ES Assembly - 2S (7:55 am - 8:25 am, ES Hall)
- March 7 - Early Release Day (All Students Dismissed at 11:30 am)
- March 7 - ES Trimester 2 Report Cards Issued
- March 8 - CAC Holiday
- Mar. 18 - May 17 - ASA Session 3
Math Challenge
Every week we will have a rich math task that challenges students’ thinking and help them transfer their learning of concepts to different real-life situations. We encourage students to have a growth mindset and give it a try. Students are expected to work independently throughout the week. If they have any questions, they should consult with their teacher before Thursday. Teachers will review the problem with the students on Thursday. To find the rich task, click on the Home Learning tab on the top left-hand, click on the math challenge of the week.
Shelter Drill
We will be having a drill on March 12 to practice shelter procedures. Teachers will discuss this as “shelter practice” with students in age-appropriate ways, but you may also want to also talk to your child about the subject. Last year, we shared this article with helpful suggestions for talking to children about safety procedures and practices. One of the things addressed is the impact of the terminology we use. Staff members will be going over this in advance, as we work together to ensure that students feel safe, protected,
and aware of what to do in different situations.
- The drill will be held at 12:00 pm, so if you are on campus, we ask that you follow instructions when asked to go to a safe place.
- Everyone who is outside will be moved to the ES Hall.
Core Value Books
The core value for February is CREATIVITY. We will be sending home the core value book with the theme of creativity: The Almost Terrible Playdate. Please read it with your child, then return it to school for the next student to take home.
Exercises for Boosting Creativity: When facing a problem, define the issue clearly and then practice divergent thinking (ex: developing multiple solutions/outcomes rather than just one solution). Set time aside each day for creative thinking or creative activities (such as: writing poems or using an everyday household object in a new way).
From the Counseling Corner
Dear CAC Parents,
In guidance we are working on emotional management and discussing strong emotions, how they make our bodies feel and calming down strategies. It is important for kids to understand that everyone gets upset but that we are all still responsible for our behaviors.
We discussed the concept of “flipping our lids” and how to calm down when our emotions take over our thinking. We are sharing calming down strategies and practicing different ways to calm ourselves down when upset. Please share with your children strategies that you use when you have a strong emotion.
This month’s Core Value is Creativity. The elementary school defines creativity as ‘being inspired to imagine and explore’. A lot of the time when we think of creativity we think of the arts. However, creativity is more complex and fascinating. In elementary, will be spending the month exploring the idea of creativity and have shared this article with the teachers. You can help support our efforts at home by investigating the concept with your child.
How do you define creativity? Is there anything that might block creativity?
Attached is a thought-provoking article in the New York Times about developing creativity.
Mathletics
Students have customized lessons on Mathletics, please encourage your children to go on Mathletics to complete activities. Do not hesitate to send an email to your kid’s teacher if they have any problem working in the website.
What’s Going on This Week in Grade 2
Readers’ Workshop
In the Series Book Club unit, students compare and contrast characters across texts. We will end the unit this week. Students will discuss character inferences. They will closely study the patterns around our characters’ interactions and then make theories about these patterns. They will try to figure out why they’re acting or reacting in certain ways. Are they trying to impress or embarrass or annoy the other character they’re with? Why?”
Essential Question:
- How do the patterns I notice help me understand the series?
- How can I work together in helpful and meaningful ways with my reading partner?
Some suggested discussions to do at home:
- Read texts closely to determine what it says explicitly and make logical inferences from it.
- Cite specific textual evidence to support conclusions drawn from the text.
- Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters.
- Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
- Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.
Writers’ Workshop
In the Reading About Writing unit, writers write opinion pieces about the books they read in which they introduce the book, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement. This week the unit will come to an end. Students will select one of their letters to revise it.
Essential Question:
- What makes opinion writing more persuasive?
Some suggested activities you can do at home:
- Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
- Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences.
Math- Module 5: Addition and Subtraction Within 1,000 with Word Problems up to 100 In Module 5, students build upon their mastery of renaming place value units and extend their work with conceptual understanding of the addition and subtraction algorithms to numbers within 1,000, always with the option of modeling with materials or drawings. Throughout the module, students continue to focus on strengthening and deepening conceptual understanding and fluency. This week we will do the Mid-module assessment and go over it to complete our two stars and a wish.
Some of the objectives are:
- Use math drawings to represent additions with up to two compositions and relate drawings to the addition algorithm.
- Choose and explain solution strategies and record with a written addition method.
Essential Questions
- How can strategies help me to quickly add and subtract?
- How do I explain my mathematical thinking and why is that important?
Key understandings of Module 5:
- I can add and subtract numbers from 0 to 1000 using different strategies based on place value and regrouping.
- I can mentally add or subtract 10 and 100 from any number from 100 to 900
- I can explain why various addition or subtraction strategies work using numbers, drawings, or objects.
*Don’t forget to check out Eureka Math at https://greatminds.org/
*Module 5: Topic A, Lesson 13-18 Parent Tips Letter
Science
Students will explore our the materials we are to use for Forces, Motion, and Simple Machines. They will think of the end of unit project they would like to create.
Essential Questions:
- How do objects move?
- How does force and motion help me understand the world around me?
Some suggested discussions you can have at home:
- Discuss how simple machines help us in everyday living using unit vocabulary:
direction, slide, back/forth, pulley, movement, push/pull force, gravity
simple machine - any of the basic mechanical devices for applying a force, such as an inclined plane, wedge, or lever, wheel and axle, pulley
Force - energy that moves something
Effort x distance = work
- Discuss motion and forces.
Circles
Focus: Displaying creativity especially when working with others, in the classroom, at school, at home, and in the community.
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