Week 29

Welcome to the Grade 2 Newsletter

Important Dates

• March 18 - Session 3 ASA starts 
• March 18, 19 and 20 - Talent show auditions during lunch time 
• March 20 - Founder’s day, CAC 72nd birthday (Assembly at 2:30 in ES lawn) 
• March 27 - Cairo Challenge Series - Long Jump
• March 28 - Principal’s coffee (2 - 3pm) 
• March 29 - February/March Birthday Lunch 
• March 30 - April 9 - Spring break
• April 10 - School resumes
• April 10 - Annual ES Book Parade Assembly. 

Celebrate our 72 Founder’s Day by saying “thank you” to CAC

Dear parents we would like to invite you to write a thank you card to CAC. We will display them outside our ES cafeteria. We would also like to invite you to our Founder’s Day Assembly on March 20th at 2:30 in the ES lawn. You can find all the information about the Founder’s Day in this link.

From the library

Mark your calendars! The annual ES Book Parade Assembly is on April 10, the day we get back from the April break. This year, the ES Library Council has declared the theme to be GRAPHIC NOVELS! Stay tuned for more details.

Cairo Challenge Series - Long Jump

Next Tuesday March 27 Grade 2 students will have the Long Jump for CCS during lunch time. Don't forget to remind your child.

Core Value Books
The core value for March is PERSEVERANCE. We will be sending home the core value book about perseverance: Emmanuel’s Dream. Please read it with your child, then return it to school for the next student to take home.

What is the definition of perseverance? The core value definition of perseverance is “never give up and work toward a goal.” What would your students add to this? What does this mean to them?

Discuss with your kids how perseverance...

• Is used by adults in the workplace, 
• Is used by students outside of school, 
• Applies to school situations, 
• Benefits when mastered, 
• consequences of not possessing it. 

ES Talent Show - CAC Theater (May 3rd, 2018)

It is time to prepare for our annual ES Talent show! If your child is interested in participating in this amazing performance of talent, please join me for a mandatory Parent Meeting, Wednesday, March 7th from 10:40 - 11 in the ES Drama Room. If you are unable to make this meeting, you are welcome to drop in during Parent-Teacher Conferences, March 13th and 14th. (Please find the Purpose of our ES Talent Show here.)

Here is the timeline for this year’s Talent Show:

• March 18, 19, 20 : Auditions during Lunch. 
• Call-backs (only if necessary) during Lunch/Recess March 25 & 26. 
• Acts posted March 29th on the Drama News Board. 
• Sign-up to rehearse in the Drama Room during Lunch/Recess with Ms. Dolly last 2 weeks of April. 
• All Acts Rehearsal in the Theater; Wednesday, May 2nd from 3:15-5. 

ES Talent Show program, May 3rd, 2018

• 5:30pm - 6:15pm - Grades PreK - 2 Talent Show 
• 6:15pm-6:45pm - Intermission 
• 6:45pm-7:30pm - Grades 3-5 Talent Show 
• 8pm: Show ends 

After School Activities

This week ASA activities are back!!! Schedules of confirmed activities were sent on Wednesday March 14. ASA Website.

The 2nd annual Egyptian schools Championship - March 22/23 (Montaza Gardens - Alexandria)

Calling all students, parents, teachers & staff.
Please register in this link.
Questions to Ms. Ereeny (egergess@cacegypt.org)

What’s Going on This Week in Grade 2

Readers’ Workshop

Grade 2 continues to work in our 5th unit Reading About Science Topics to Become Experts. In the first bend, we will focus on reading as scientists to build up a base of knowledge on a topic by reading deeply about the topic. Readers will choose what they want to learn about, read about it, and integrate ideas from the science unit forces and motion. Students will learn to analyze text in parts in relation to the whole by using non-fiction features. Readers of nonfiction texts will learn to use all the sentences on the page to think about what’s most important—the big, main idea of that section. We often say our main idea not just as a word but instead as a phrase and back up this idea with details.

The students will focus on the following essential questions:

• How do readers read non-fiction differently from fiction? 
• How can I read non-fiction books to become an expert on a topic? 

Some suggested discussions to do at home:
Discuss non-fiction features and how these features help us as readers understand even more about a topic. Also, determine the main idea and supporting details of any think non-fiction such as articles, pamphlets, and books.

Writers’ Workshop

This week students continue to learn about how to write lab reports. We will explore how to write conclusions using student mentor texts. Students will learn that a conclusion states whether their hypothesis is right or wrong and will have possible explanations using ideas from other experiments or resources, Students will be encouraged to use phrases such as, maybe because to help them expand on why their hypothesis was right or wrong. Finally students might come up with new investigations based on new questions they might have from their results. Check out the example below.

The students will focus on the following essential questions:

• How do I find out information about a topic?
• Why do I need to revise my writing?
• How do I present my findings to the world?

Some suggested activities to do at home:
Explore other forms of procedural writing such as recipes. Point out how the list of ingredients are written in bullet form to make it easier for the reader to notice. Look at the steps and talk about what would happen if you did step 4 before step 3. Talk about the details needed to make each step clear for the reader. Maybe students can write their own recipes.

Math

Module 7 presents an opportunity for students to practice addition and subtraction strategies within 100 and problem-solving skills as they learn to work with various types of units within the contexts of length, money, and data. Students represent categorical and measurement data using picture graphs, bar graphs, and line plots. They revisit measuring and estimating length from Module 2, though now using both metric and customary units. Students build upon this understanding by drawing both picture and bar graphs. First, they record category counts in a table, solving problems based on the information in the table. Next, they draw picture graphs in which each picture represents one object. Finally, they represent the same data set in the form of a bar graph where one axis names the categories and the other shows a single-unit count scale.

Some of the objectives are:

• Choose the best unit (e.g., inch, foot, yard) to measure a given object.
• Estimate the length of a given item by using a mental benchmark; then measure the item by using inches, feet, or yards.
• Measure a line by using both centimeters and inches. Compare the measurements and relate the difference to the sizes of the length units.
• Measure and compare two lengths and use addition or subtraction to determine the difference.

Key understandings of Module 7:

• I can use place value understanding and properties of operations to add and subtract.
• I can measure and estimate lengths in standard units.
• I can relate addition and subtraction to length.
• I can represent and interpret data.

*Don’t forget to check out Eureka Math.

*Tips for parents: Module 7, Topic D, Topic E and Topic F.

Science

This week we will explore Wheel and Axles. How does a wheel help us to do a work easier? Check out this BrainPOP movie (username: cacegypt, password: cacegypt) to learn more about wheels and axles.

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:

Students exploring simple machines

• 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 perseverance especially when working with others, in the classroom, at school, at home, and in the community.