Week 35

Welcome to the Grade 2 Newsletter

Important Dates

• May 9 - April/May Birthday Lunch (12:10-12-50)
• May 21 - Student-Led Conferences

Student-Led Conferences

May 21 is not a regular school day, as students will come in for their conference only. We hope all parents can attend and we look forward to a positive day celebrating growth. Don't forget to sign up in skyward.

The purpose of student-led conferences is to open the eyes of students to their own learning and to help them take personal responsibility for their progress. In the traditional parent-teacher conference, students are “third parties” to assessment, hearing about their progress through the teachers and parents. Teachers and parents do play a vital role in assessment but students must also take an active role in this area to maximize their potential for success.

In preparing for a student-led conference, students see how their strengths, weaknesses and behavior can affect them as learners, thus allowing them to take more responsibility for, and control over, their achievement in school. Student-led conferences are an experience that can improve the communication patterns of both students and parents. In a student-led conference, students learn how to reflect on their learning, evaluate their progress and communicate this information to their parents.  Parents learn how to listen to their students, how to encourage growth and how to best help their student with specific challenges.

TIPS FOR PARENTS

• Be on time. 
• Express positive interest and anticipation about the upcoming conference.
• Listen and respond to the student (not the teacher).
• Express pride in growth and progress.
• Ask questions (see below for samples).
• Be positive, offering to help in areas where improvement is needed.
• Recognise that students need to develop independence in communicating progress – the teacher will be there to facilitate and answer specific questions but will not take charge of the conference. 

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS TO ASK DURING THE CONFERENCE

• Can you explain this to me?
• How did you come up with this idea?
• How have you grown in this area?
• How can you improve in this area?
• How can we help you at home?
• What was important to you about this?
• If you could do this work over again, how would you change it?
• What future goals do you have as a student?

Swimming

Remember that this week our students have started swimming during the one hour class. As a reminder each classes swimming days are:

• Sunday - 2R
• Wednesday - 2K
• Thursday - 2S

Students will need to wear their full PE uniform in all 30 minute classes for the remainder of the year, including shorts, t-shirt, and sneakers.

From the library - Important dates

• May 8-10 Used book sale, starting at 2 pm on May 8
• May 15 Last day for check out
• May 22 Last day for classes; All books are due
• May 29 Summer check out starts

What’s Going on This Week in Grade 2

Readers’ Workshop

Our readers are enjoying reading poetry. Students will learn that many poems contain images- words that give us pictures in our minds. The more practice reading poems will help our little readers become aware of these internal mind pictures. Students will choose poems that they like and illustrate the image they see, or if they see several images they will divide the poem up and create a picture book. Our readers will work independently and with a partner to create their own picture book.

Writers’ Workshop

Students will be writing poetry along with reading a lot of it. We will be concentrating on how students can give their poems music by paying attention to where poets put words and where poets don't put words. Poets try a few different ways of breaking up their lines, reading the poem aloud after each try, until the poem is written in a way that sounds just right. Students will also be thinking about a big idea, a big feeling, and then find the small moment, image, or object that holds that big feeling, that big idea.

Math

This week we will continue our Module 8: Time, Shapes, and Fractions as Equal Parts of Shapes. During this unit we will focus on Topic A: Attributes of Geometric Shapes and on Topic D: Applications of Fractions to Tell Time. These next 5 days we will learn how to describe, build, and identify two-dimensional shapes based on their attributes (number of sides and angles). We will also use these attributes to draw different polygons including triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, and hexagons. Students will also learn to draw and identify different quadrilaterals including rectangles, rhombuses, parallelograms, and trapezoids.

Students can use a lot of extra practice drawing square angles using the corner of an index card or other object that already has a square corner. Students should also be able to utilize different strategies for drawing parallel lines.

Please refer to the Unit 8 Parent Newsletter for more details about this unit.

Mathletics Focus Lessons: Count Sides and Corners (corners here mean angles)

Social Studies

This week we will continue our new Social Studies Unit titled: We Live In Urban and Rural Communities. We will be learning about what is a community and how our wants and needs affect the facilities available in a community. Students will explore the difference between goods and services to help them understand the different kinds of facilities are available in a community.

Essential Questions:

• What is a community?
• How do communities meet our needs?
• Why do people choose to live where they do?

Circles

Focus: review all the core values and display them especially when working with others, in the classroom, at school, at home, and in the community.