Week ending 1/13/17

The weather this week has been up and down but it was so nice to get out today for both snack and lunch recess!

Important information you should know:

• Monday, January 16, there is no school.  
• Continue to send in snow pants, boots, mittens, etc and help your child practice putting them on quickly at home.  

3, 2, 1 things you should know about our week in room 250...

3 lessons we worked on during social studies were learning about Diego Rivera and how he painted to share the stories of the Mexican people, watched a Pebble Go video on Mexico's holiday Day of the Dead where they remember and celebrate people that have passed on and decorated our own skulls which are typically worn on this day, and we learned about the different items sold at the Mexican market place in our book.   

*Ask you child 2 items sold that the market place that we discussed.

2 skills in writing we continue to work on are asking the reader a question in our introduction and how to use twin sentences to make our writing more varied, interesting, and longer.  

* Ask you child to tell you a twin sentence that goes with "The beach is my favorite place to go!"

1 day we  celebrated was Beach Day!  Students really enjoyed beach day today!  They wore sunglasses, used their beach towels to read on, played beach ball math, greeted each other by tossing a beach ball, listened to "The Sand Castle Contest" and wrote about our favorite times at the beach, and watched a Magic School Bus video regarding the beach.

Update on homework:

Dear Second Grade Families,

As you know, we've asked for your feedback regarding homework and have been working to reiterate expectations in the classroom.  To this end, we've been working to redefine expectations as necessary.  Our work with your children over the past two weeks has focused on clarifying what needs to be done to achieve individual hopes and dreams; and, as importantly, how this will be done.

Our team has decided that homework tasks will change but will remain within the district's guidelines for total time spent on homework based on the following conclusions:

• Homework routines are important

• Most families value homework

• Teachers and families value reading tasks above other homework tasks

Moving forward:

• Total time spent on homework will remain 30 minutes.

• Nightly reading of at least 20 minutes will continue.
• BEGINNING JANUARY 23^rd - Nightly reading response

• Nightly math and spelling review worksheets will not continue. 

• Additional resources will be available to families on our websites, and may be given as “homework” at the discretion of individual families.

Our team will spend next week teaching and practicing homework routines with students in the classroom.