Short Week in November

Hope everyone had a fun Trick-or Treat weekend! I’ve been out of the classroom now for two days due to a PYP training at Einstein High School. It was a great training and I learned the “ins-and-outs” of the PYP curriculum, plus I got to network with the other international teachers here in Quito.

This week will be a short week, just two days. In Language Arts, we’ll continue our study of cause and effect.

In math, we’re working on honing our addition strategies in order to add quickly basic facts 0-18.

In writing, we’ll continue to work on the trait of “Word Choice”, incorporating what we’ve learned into a writing piece on how it feels to be a migrant.

It’s a short week! We’ll enjoy being in school for two days and then I’d love to hear from your children about their travels over the November holiday.

Enjoy J

Ms. Rachel

Greetings from Room B-6!

Halloween:

Halloween parties will be Friday October 27 from 2-3pm. Your child will bring their costume in a bag and change into it in the classroom. (I unfortunately will be absent on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at a PYP International Baccalaureate Training at Einstein High School, but I’m sure the substitute will be wonderful! And Mrs. Valeria and other moms have been planning some fun and engaging Halloween activities for the children). After the party the high school kids have been planning a haunted house with all proceeds going towards Habitat for Humanity. I believe their festivities begin at 5:00PM. Also, on Friday there are NO extra curricular activities.

Inquiry:

The students have made a list of questions they want to ask other classes here at AC about migration. They are surveying the other classes in small groups and then we will compile all the answers onto an appropriate data display (bar graph or pie chart). Interviewing skills are being practiced a lot by your children and they’re doing a great job.

Math:

We’re moving into Addition and subtraction facts 0-18 and using strategies to solve the math problems that make sense. We’ve also working on simple addition with regrouping problems. Many of the children are struggling with this in school. It’s a difficult concept. Please be patient with your children at home. I explain that the double digit number has 2 places (TENS and ONES). The ones must always go into the ones house and the tens up above in the tens house. We’ll get it with lots of practice in the classroom.

Writer’s Workshop:

We’re working on increasing our vocabulary in WORD CHOICE. We’re making a list of smile words that kids can use as a resource for writing. We’re also writing our country reports having to do with Migration.

Guided Reading:

As our focus is migration, kids are reading books that have to do with people migrating, what they leave behind and what they maintain. Kids are also learning a lot about history as many of the books are in the genre of Historical Fiction.

Language Arts:

Our focus this week is on Cause/Effect. We’re reading the “If you Give a Mouse a Cookie” series of books and then the kids are generating their own examples of cause and effect.

Happy Halloween!

Ms. Rachel

Migration Newsletter

News from Ms. Rachel’s Grade 2 Class:

MIGRATION Unit of Inquiry

We are now at the start of our second Unit of Inquiry…Where we are in Place and Time (Migration)! 

Read on to find out all that’s going on:

I.        Unit of Inquiry

The main focus of this, our second Unit of Inquiry out of six, is as follows:

·    Central idea: When People Migrate they Adapt to a Changing World

·    Transdisciplinary theme: Where we are in Place and Time

·    PYP Attributes (from the PYP Profile): Balanced and Open-Minded

·    PYP Attitudes: Tolerance and Empathy

·    PYP Skills: Social skills (i.e. respect, cooperation, resolving conflict, etc)

·    An inquiry into: How to maintain one’s original culture while adapting to a new one, our roles and responsibilities as hosts and migrants, why people immigrate, and the effects of immigration.

·    Some of the student’s inquiry questions: Why do people migrate? What kinds of transportation do people use to migrate?

Throughout this unit we will utilize various read-aloud books, graphic organizers, software (such as the 3-D World Atlas), cooperative group projects (involving SMART Board presentations to peers), library research, interviews, acts of kindness, classroom role-plays and more in order to get an in-depth understanding of the topic of migration.  In the end, it is our hope that each of the students will have a first-hand appreciation of what it feels like to be an immigrant, how they each can help those around them to transition well to a new home, as well as have an appreciation for what new cultures have to offer all of us!  

II.      Language Arts

In order to practice the writing process and 6+1 Writing Traits, students are learning each of the writing traits by experiencing them with a Read-Aloud. We read Leo Leoni’s A Busy Year to get familiar with and practice the trait of Organization. Now we are moving on to Word Choice, another important writing trait. We’ll be reading some books that show great words and kids will be making lots of resource lists of smile words, angry words, funny words that they can draw on as they write their own pieces. We share our stories each Friday in an Author’s Chair. I will invite parents to come to one of these informal events so that you all can see the excellent work your children are doing in the classroom!

In grammar, students learn and practice punctuation, capitalization, contractions, and comma use daily in Daily Oral Language (DOL). We’re working on consistently applying these grammar rules in our writing. In Spelling, we do Words Their Way each week for students to explore vowel patterns, endings of words, etc. It’s a researched based program proven to help students internalize the rules of English spelling which can by quite tricky.

Regarding reading, one of our reading group books for this unit is titled, When Africa was Home, by Karen Williams.  It is a beautiful book that addresses many migration issues that our students are familiar with and, in addition, uses very colorful language to describe and elicit questions related to empathy. 

As part of our inquiry into this unit, the students will form cooperative groups that will research countries that are among those that the students have identified as places where others from our school have migrated from.  Through the use of interviews, the internet and library resources, the students will learn specific information regarding their particular country of study. More importantly, they will also be able to identify three important inquiry topics for this unit: Reasons for migrating, adaptations that migrants make to better assimilate to a new environment, and what aspects migrants have chosen to maintain from their native countries.  In the end, the students will present their findings informally to one of the other second grade classes, and visa versa.

III.   Math

     We are transitioning to our next math unit, Unit 3 which is addition and subtraction computation. The students will be generating strategies to solve facts 0-18. I will need your support from home to practice math facts flash cards which I’ll send home. Thanks for your support! We’ll also learn: properties of operations, probability and graphing.  

Also, in terms of telling time, you might consider buying your child an analog watch. Telling time is a concept that most 2^nd graders are very interested in…imagine having a clock on your very own wrist to practice time with! (It makes the practicing the skill of telling time immediate and rewarding)

IV.   Miscellaneous –

·    Halloween – This class party will take place on Friday, October 28^th from 2:00 to 3:00, and is an informal celebration that will be happening in each of the classrooms. Students should come to school in their usual clothes, and bring their costumes in a bag. Please be sure that the students don’t bring anything that would be considered violent (toy weapons) or gory (bloody, etc).

As you can see, there’s lot of learning going on in Grade 2! Thanks again, for all your home support. It truly makes a difference.

Your partner in learning,

 Ms. Rachel