Week ending 1/6/17

Happy New Year!  Welcome back families!  We are back up and running this week and we've spent a lot of time refocusing on routines, expectations, revisiting our goals/hopes for the new year, and sharing about our break.  

3, 2, 1, things you should know...

3 math skills we've focused on this week were addition and subtraction skills in math games, understanding how to use a "Parts-Parts-Total" diagram to help add money, and how to tell the temperature and why it's important to know that.  

**Ask your child why we play the game "Wipe-Out".

2 books we've read this week as we jump started our James Marshall author study were Portly McSwine and Eat Your Vegetables.  Our author study is focused using the texts to compare characters, identify cause and effect of a character's actions, identify story elements, and read with expression.  

**Ask your child what happened when the brontosaurus ate the leaves at the owl's tree.

1 activity we did to learn more about a child's responsibilities in Mexico was breaking into groups of three, choosing a child to read about together, and comparing the child's life in Mexico to their own lives.  It can really be an eye opener!

**Ask your child one responsibility that is the same as the other child's and one that is different.

Important information regarding homework:

Thank you for your feedback regarding homework this past week.  We've heard a variety of opinions and have looked closely at the data we've collected via the survey.  Our second grade teaching team has spent a significant amount of time considering your feedback, studied research on the matter by thought leaders in the field, and discussed our past and current research practices at length.  

At this time, we would like to extend the conversation of another week so that we may make what we feel would be the best-informed, most reasonable decision regarding future homework practices at the grade level.  

Please take a moment to share your voice via the brief homework survey if you haven't already done so.  The homework expectation for next week will be the same as for last week: Read for 30 minutes each night.  Homework Survey

Thank you in advance for your feedback and flexibility as we "reset" expectations for the remainder of the year.  

--Second Grade Team