Eight was great!

IMPORTANT DATES FOR FAMILIES TO REMEMBER:

Tuesday 10/24-Thursday 11/2: Fall Conferences - Thank you to those with whom I have met already. It has been wonderful to share your child's growth this year and discuss ways that you can share in this learning at home. If we have not already met, I look forward to seeing you next week. If you have not already done so, please email me your questions, concerns, or lack thereof. 

Thursday, 11/2: Early Release - 12:30 dismissal

Friday, 11/10: NO SCHOOL - Veteran's Day 

Monday 11/13-Friday 11/17: Book Fair @ M-S

• Monday, 11/13 - 10:40-11:00: Book Fair Preview We will be previewing the school book fair on 11/13. After our preview, your child should come home with a written or mental list of books that s/he would be interested in purchasing at our book fair. 

• Wednesday 11/15 from - 1:20-1:40: Book Fair Classroom Visit - This is our time to purchase books at the school book fair. If you and your child choose to purchase books at the book fair, please send in your child's money on this day in an envelope labeled with your child's name, my name (Ms. E-J) and book fair $. If you are able to join us during this time, please let me know. It would be much appreciated.

Wednesday 11/22: Early Release - NOON dismissal

Thursday 11/23-Friday 11/24: NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving 

Wednesday, 11/29 - 6:30-8:30: Responsive Home Workshop - Are you struggling with behaviors at home? The Social and Emotional Learning Department of the Newton Public Schools will be sponsoring Responsive Home Workshops for families to help you create a calm, supportive and encouraging environment at home. This workshop goes hand in hand with the Responsive Classroom work that we are doing in the classroom. My husband and I attended one of these workshops last year and it was definitely 2 hours well spent! We left with a concrete plan for how to tackle our most tricky times as home (such as setting up morning routines that work for everyone or how to agree on what "clean" means when we say, "Please go clean your room."). If you can't make it on 11/29, there are 3 other dates this year. Click HERE for more information. I would HIGHLY recommend that you try to attend one of these workshops. If you do attend and you would be willing recommend attendance to others, please email me your thoughts so that I can post in future newsletters. Thanks!

Friday, 12/1: Integrating the Arts Morning (8:30-9:15)- 

Here is info about the morning from our amazing art teacher, Ms. E:

• Come to Integrating the Arts Morning where you will be able to have a firsthand experience with your child's class as you learn through the arts! Memorial Spaulding is proud to be an arts integrated school where teachers strive to integrate the arts to engage students in writing, reading, science, social studies, math and more. 
• Join our art teacher, Alexandra Etscovitz in the auditorium at 8:30 as she will share how arts integration has blossomed at our school, and then from 8:45-9:15, you will be welcomed into your child's classroom to learn through the arts!

If you want to know even more about integrating the arts at M-S, please click HERE. Please block it off on your calendars and plan for someone from home to attend this event.

IMPORTANT NEW INFORMATION FOR FAMILIES:

Pumpkins and Gourds

Thank you so much to the families who sent in pumpkins and gourds! They have decorated our classroom this month and we have been able to observe their outsides. On Tuesday, with our 4th grade buddies, we will hopefully be working in small groups to explore the insides and develop strategies to count the seeds efficiently. However, in order to do this, we need your help:  WE NEED 8 MORE LARGE PUMPKINS! If you would be willing to donate one to the class, please reply all to share that you will bring one in on Monday. Thanks in advance!

REMINDERS FOR FAMILIES:

Facts to 20 practice at home: We are wrapping up our addition and subtraction math facts to 20 unit. While we will continue to work on fact fluency within 20 at school, I ask that you also extend this practice to home. Here are the fact practice resources that I shared last week: 

1. Fact triangle flash cards: Click HERE. 

2. Online games to practice facts to 10: Click HERE. 

3. An online game to practice facts to 20: Click HERE. 

4. If you find any other ways that you and your child are enjoying math fact practice, please share so that I can share with our classroom community. Thank you!

Wishlist: Thank you for your support with our wish list! I will continue to post items to our classroom wish list when there is a specific need or wish that would help enhance learning in our classroom. The items posted will likely change throughout the year, but for now they are mostly books that will enrich our classroom’s independent reading and read aloud libraries. If you are curious, you’ll always be able to find it through our classroom’s Sign Ups page. Click HERE to go there.

ASK ME ABOUTS:

Ask me about...

• whose birthday we celebrated on Friday
• my thoughts on leaving people out on purpose
• any meaningful text-to-self, text-to-text, or text-to-world connections or predictions I made while reading this week...discuss these while reading at home as well when reading to your child
• base words and suffixes...we have learned the suffixes s, es, ed, ing, er, est...How do these suffixes change the meaning of the base word?
• my small moment story or stories that I have written or am writing...how did I work on my word choice or adding details so that my reader could really visualize my story?
• number talks
• what I know about the American Flag 

LOOKING FORWARD:

Looking forward, we will:

• hopefully explore pumpkins with our 4th grade buddies (see the Pumpkins and Gourds section above for how you can help)
• discuss when it is important to seek adult help with social matters  
• continue our reading work of practicing making predictions, visualizing and discussing story elements
• continue learning about base words and suffixes (Click HERE for unit 4 family fundations letters.)
• continue strengthening our small moment stories through showing feelings and writing a strong conclusion
• begin a new unit on 
• continue to explore maps and globes and find where we are on the map, starting from our planet and working our way down to our classroom. 

Week 7

IMPORTANT DATES FOR FAMILIES TO REMEMBER:

Tuesday 10/24-Thursday 11/2: Fall Conferences - Click HERE if you have not already signed up for a fall conference. 

Thursday, 11/2: Early Release - 12:30 dismissal

Friday, 11/10: NO SCHOOL - Veteran's Day 

Monday 11/13-Friday 11/17: Book Fair @ M-S

Wednesday 11/22: Early Release - NOON dismissal

Thursday 11/23-Friday 11/24: NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving 

Friday, 12/1: Integrating the Arts Morning (8:30-9:15)- 

Here is info about the morning from our amazing art teacher, Ms. E:

• Come to Integrating the Arts Morning where you will be able to have a firsthand experience with your child's class as you learn through the arts! Memorial Spaulding is proud to be an arts integrated school where teachers strive to integrate the arts to engage students in writing, reading, science, social studies, math and more. 
• Join our art teacher, Alexandra Etscovitz in the auditorium at 8:30 as she will share how arts integration has blossomed at our school, and then from 8:45-9:15, you will be welcomed into your child's classroom to learn through the arts!

If you want to know even more about integrating the arts at M-S, please click HERE. Please block it off on your calendars and plan for someone from home to attend this event.

IMPORTANT NEW INFORMATION FOR FAMILIES:

Thank you!

Thank you so much to all of the families who have donated books from our wish list; we are overwhelmed by your generosity! Your donations make our classroom library stronger and directly benefit all of the students in our classroom community.  

Pumpkins and Gourds

Thank you so much to the families who sent in pumpkins and gourds! We have a traditional orange pumpkin, a pumpkin with green "warts", a white pumpkin, a green pumpkin and assorted mini gourds. We are looking for 4 more volunteers to bring in 1 large gourd each.  I noticed recently that they have them at Roche Brothers outside on the sidewalk. If you would be willing to donate one to the class, please reply all and describe what you are planning to bring in. We will be exploring these on Halloween with our 4th grade buddies. Will the insides of these diverse pumpkins and gourds be similar or different...wait and see! Thanks in advance!

REMINDERS FOR FAMILIES:

Check and update your child's student info on Skyward: In a few of my recent attempts to contact families via information in Skyward (the system that we use to store student contact information and how you view your child's report card), I have noticed some incomplete information, such as only one phone number for contact. We use this when trying to reach families and may need to reach you quickly in an emergency. Please log into Skyward to check and update your contact information. If you know how to log in and are familiar with the system, click HERE. If you would like to watch a short video tutorial about Skyward to further familiarize yourself with the system, click HERE. Thank you!

Wishlist: I’ll be posting items to our classroom wish list when there is a specific need or wish that would help enhance learning in our classroom. The items posted will likely change throughout the year, but for now they are mostly books that will enrich our classroom’s independent reading and read aloud libraries. If you are curious, you’ll always be able to find it through our classroom’s Sign Ups page. Click HERE to go there.

ASK ME ABOUTS:

Ask me about...

• the bubble assembly!
• mean teasing vs. playful teasing...When does playful teasing become mean teasing?What I would do if I witness mean teasing?
• any meaningful text-to-self or text-to-text connections I made while reading this week
• closed syllable exceptions and spelling the words done, goes and pretty
• my small moment story or stories that I have written or am writing...what feelings or dialogue did I add to my story?
• fact families
• what do I know or wonder about the United States

LOOKING FORWARD:

Looking forward, we will:

• discuss social inclusion and exclusion 
• continue our reading work of practicing making text to self, text to text and text to world connections and tell how the connections we make help us better understand what we read.
• learn about suffixes (Click HERE for unit 4 family fundations letters.)
• continue strengthening our small moment stories through adding dialogue and playing around with our word choice
• wrap our addition and subtraction to 20 unit (but that's not the end of it...PLEASE PRACTICE FACTS AT HOME UNTIL YOUR CHILD IS FLUENT. Click HERE for a printable set of fact triangle flash cards to use at home. For an online games to practice facts to ten, click HERE. For an online game to practice facts to 20, click HERE. If you find any other ways that you and your child are enjoying math fact practice, please share so that I can share with our classroom community).
• delve into what maps and globes are and what we can learn from them 

Have a wonderful weekend!

We were full of tricks in week 6!

IMPORTANT DATES FOR FAMILIES TO REMEMBER:

Friday, 10/20: Principal Coffee – Memorial-Spaulding Sped PAC (Parent Advisory Council) to meet on October 20th @ 8:30 am in the Cafe. All parents of current special education students are invited to attend.

Tuesday 10/24-Thursday 11/2: Fall Conferences - Click HERE if you have not already signed up for a fall conference. 

Thursday, 11/2: Early Release - 12:30 dismissal

IMPORTANT NEW INFORMATION FOR FAMILIES:

Fall gourds:

Thank you so much to the families who sent in pumpkins and gourds! We have a traditional orange pumpkin, a pumpkin with green "warts", a white pumpkin, and assorted mini gourds. We are looking for 2 more volunteers to bring in 1 large gourd each. I noticed recently that they have them at Roche Brothers outside on the sidewalk. If you would be willing to donate one to the class, please reply all and describe what you are planning to bring in. Thanks in advance!

Check and update your child's student info on Skyward:

In a few of my recent attempts to contact families via information in Skyward (the system that we use to store student contact information and how you view your child's report card), I have noticed some incomplete information, such as only one phone number for contact. We use this when trying to reach families and may need to reach you quickly in an emergency. Please log into Skyward to check and update your contact information. If you know how to log in and are familiar with the system, click HERE. If you would like to watch a short video tutorial about Skyward to further familiarize yourself with the system, click HERE. Thank you!

REMINDERS FOR FAMILIES:

Home Toys/Trading Cards: We have a no home toy/no trading card policy in second grade. Please reinforce this at home and do not allow your children to bring toys from home or trading cards, such as Pokemon cards to school. There have been issues with this at lunch recess and home toys/trading cards are becoming a distraction. Thank you! 

Absence from Extended Day: If your child attends extended day and will be absent from extended day for any reason (absent from school, playdate after school, etc), on a day that s/he usually attends, please call extended day at 617.630.5151.

Fall conferences: Please sign up for a fall conference at your earliest convenience. At this conference, we will discuss your child's transition to second grade, look at work together and plan for a successful second grade year. 

Wishlist: I’ll be posting items to our classroom wish list when there is a specific need or wish that would help enhance learning in our classroom. The items posted will likely change throughout the year, but for now they are mostly books that will enrich our classroom’s independent reading and read aloud libraries. If you are curious, you’ll always be able to find it through our classroom’s Sign Ups page. Click HERE to go there.

ASK ME ABOUTS:

Ask me about...

• my bat schema
• any meaningful connections I made when reading this week
• my 4th grade buddy
• my small moment story or stories that I have written or am writing...what are some ways I tried to hook my audience?
• what I now know about seeds and how they travel 
• how turn around facts give me fact super powers

LOOKING FORWARD:

Looking forward, we will:

• continue our reading work of practicing making text to self, text to text and text to world connections and tell how the connections I make help me better understand what I read.
• learn about closed syllable exceptions and vowel teams for reading (Click HERE for unit 3 family fundations letters.)
• continue strengthening our small moment stories through adding sensory details, feeling and word choice
• continue our math practice of addition and subtraction to 20
• begin our first social studies unit on world geography and landforms

Have a great weekend!

Our room was ALIVE in week five!

IMPORTANT DATES FOR FAMILIES TO REMEMBER:

Saturday 10/7: Triple Threat Obstacle Challenge Click HERE  for more information. I hope to see many of you there! I will be working at the registration table from 10-10:30 and my third grade son will be participating, too! There are many openings for volunteers to set up, take down and help during the obstacle course. Please consider donating some of your time if you can to this special community activity!  

Monday 10/9: NO SCHOOL - Columbus Day

Tuesday, 10/10:  Optional Seed Homework Due

Tuesday, 10/10: Picture Day. Coffee Pond will be at Memorial-Spaulding on 10/10 for picture day. Our class is signed up to have our individual and class pictures taken at 10:30. If you would like to pre-pay for an individual picture, please use either the order form sent home in your child's folder or you can order directly online. Click HERE to order directly online. All children receive a complimentary class picture.

Tuesday, 10/10: This year, the Newton Public Schools will provide interested elementary school families with opportunities, information and resources on talking to children about issues of race, culture, and identity. Click HERE for more information.


Friday, 10/20: Principal Coffee – Memorial-Spaulding Sped PAC (Parent Advisory Council) to meet on October 20th @ 8:30 am in the Cafe. All parents of current special education students are invited to attend.

Thursday, 11/2: Early Release - 12:30 dismissal

IMPORTANT NEW INFORMATION FOR FAMILIES:

Absence from Extended Day:

If your child attends extended day and will be absent from extended day for any reason (absent from school, playdate after school, etc), on a day that s/he usually attends, please call extended day at 617.630.5151.

Pumpkins and other fall gourds:

We are hoping to have 5 volunteers to send in a pumpkin or other large fall gourd for us to observe over the month and cut into at the end of the month to observe the inside. If you would be willing to donate one to the class, please reply all and describe what you are planning to bring in. We would like variety (in the classroom next door, they have what looks like an orange pumpkin with green "warts" on the outside and also a white pumpkin). Thanks in advance!

Home Toys/Trading Cards

We have a no home toy/no trading card policy in second grade. Please reinforce this at home and do not allow your children to bring toys from home or trading cards, such as Pokemon cards to school. There have been issues with this at lunch recess and home toys/trading cards are becoming a distraction. Thank you! 

REMINDERS FOR FAMILIES:

Fall conferences: Please sign up for a fall conference at your earliest convenience. At this conference, we will discuss your child's transition to second grade, look at work together and plan for a successful second grade year. Click HERE to to go to our fall conference sign up on the sign-ups page on my website.

Wishlist: I’ll be posting items to our classroom wish list when there is a specific need or wish that would help enhance learning in our classroom. The items posted will likely change throughout the year, but for now they are mostly books that will enrich our classroom’s independent reading and read aloud libraries. If you are curious, you’ll always be able to find it through our classroom’s Sign Ups page. Click HERE to go there.

ASK ME ABOUTS:

Ask me about...

• what I read this week during reader's workshop
• what I know about fiction, non-fiction and poetry
• how I show my thinking during Reader's Workshop and what were some interesting or new facts I encountered this week?
• how I visualized while reading this week
• the floss rule  
• what my working number is...we are expecting all 2nd grade students to be fluent in facts to 10 now and facts to 20 by the end of the year. For a game to practice facts to ten, click HERE. For a game to practice facts to 20, click HERE.
• how I feel about my doubles fact recall and how doubles facts can help me solve other problems 
• my small moment story or stories that I have written or am writing
• what happens when a seed germinates? Click HERE for a link to a video we watched if your child seems at all unsure.
• how I think the seeds that I collected traveled to the places I found them. Why?
• some things I learned about bike safety at the assembly this morning

LOOKING FORWARD:

Looking forward, we will:

• practice making text to self, text to text and text to world connections and tell how the connections I make help me better understand what I read.
• zoom in further and add more sensory details to our small moment stories.
• review glued sounds that we learned in first grade
• continue practicing number facts to 20 and solving number stories
• finish our how seeds travel unit by sorting seeds by how they travel and creating some "seeds" of our own.
• discuss "mean teasing" and why it's not OK (fyi...this is not anything that I have witnessed thus far, but it is a proactive part of our bully prevention program!)

Enjoy the long weekend!