Newsletter #1

The first two weeks of school are done, and boy, what a first few weeks, and my, have we been busy!  First of all, I'd like to apologize for the lack of photos this week.  We are so focused right now on routines and building a positive classroom community.  Photos will be a regular feature of our blog as soon as we are smooth sailing in second grade.

We can not let this week go by without paying our deepest respect and sympathies to Mrs El Hadeed and her family who have been part of the ACS community for 20 years.  It is with our broken hearts that we said farewell to her husband, Mr Hadeed who died suddenly earlier this week.  Our wonderful second graders wrote her notes, expressing their sympathy and love.  Today, we received an email from her thanking our lovely students in second grade:

My Dear Second Grade Students,

     I want to thank you for the beautiful letters that you wrote for me. They are truly the most beautiful letters that anyone could ever receive, and they will always be treasured by myself and my family. Your kind words, sympathy and beautiful pictures are giving me comfort and peace in my heart. I can feel your hugs through these wonderful messages. I look forward to being back at school with all of you and getting those hugs in person.

                                                     With Love, Mrs. Hadeed

                                                                       

 Despite our heart ache this week, second graders "kept on swimming" and engaged in some fabulous learning about communities.  We learned how we are part of different communities and the different roles that people have within their community.  

2F had a skype date with Ms Frazier and asked her lots of questions about her new baby boy, Wesley Nolan Berg, who was born on August 19th.  This tied in nicely with our study of unit because the students are learning to 'interview' members of our community to find out about their role and how they contribute to society.  Thank you for your support and willingness to be interviewed this week at home.  Soon, the students will be interviewing someone within our school community.

Today, second grade had a whole second grade meeting and it was lovely to hear our students talk about second grade being a community and a 'family' where we look after each other and are safe at all times.  We ended our meeting with a 'Jump Jam', an aerobic dance that we just love!

In Reader's Workshop, we have been learning how to retell a story.  They students have learned that a retell must have a beginning, middle and end.  They must identify the characters and their traits.  They must also identify the setting.  When they are retelling a story, the use of transition words are very important.  Words like, then, next, before, after that, in the end and finally are all very helpful when retelling a story in sequence.

In Math, we have been learning how to use the independent activities.  We have also started out first Math unit of study, "Number Sense".  We will be looking lots at place value and how place value strategies help us become more efficient mathematicians.

The second grade team would to thank you all so much for your support and kindness during these tough times. Things can only get better and we are going to have an amazing year filled with wonder, learning and fun.

Be sure to subscribe to Mr Gaylord's blog.  Here is the link:  http://acs-esprincipal.blogspot.com/ 

I will also add it to our favourites.  

We hope we see you Saturday at the PTG Welcome Back Picnic!