2nd Full Week Updates

 Welcome to our second full week of school. Last week was full of learning more routines, with the addition of specials and more consistency to our schedule. This week we will become more consistent with math and ELA. Here is what we will be diving into in room 9 this week -

Math:  Last week we concentrated on Module 1 Topic A - making a ten and adding to a ten. This week we will stay there briefly to review number bonds. Then we will move into adding to a ten, review quick tens to add to a ten. We will also be practicing making the next ten and adding to a multiple of ten. In theory this is all done with mini games, but I am doing mini review lessons of these concepts from first grade before we get into the mini games, just to make sure we lay down the foundation properly before really diving into Module 1 Topic B towards the end of the week, which will be initiating fluency with addition and subtraction within 100. Go slow to go fast, at least here at the beginning of this year.

ELA:  As of now, I am planning to switch back and forth between two curriculums, our old Hartcourt curriculum and our new NatGeo curriculum. This is because I feel that we will cover more of our ELA standards if I utilize both curriculums. However, I will stay with the spelling from NatGeo on a weekly basis as of now for consistency. With that, I will be starting ELA this week with our story "The Mixed Up Chameleon" from our Hartcourt series. We will not be doing spelling until next week when we begin NatGeo. Last week we also began learning our Daily 5 routines, which we will continue this week as well. Daily 5/CAFE is a literacy framework that I use in conjunction with our  ELA curriculum to teach our children how to read. Daily 5 is a series of 5 choices your child will make everyday during part of our ELA time.  CAFE is the methods I will teach them to implement while they are reading during Daily 5.  Lat week we learned a part of how to read to self, which is broken into 3 parts - read the words, read the pictures, and retell the story.  This week we will practice building reading stamina during reading to self and read to someone. The students will also learn how to read to someone (which has very specific expectations and language), word work (to build on their spelling and writing skills), work on writing and listen to reading (which also has a writing component).

Homework:  Homework will not be starting this week. 

Water Bottles:  Please remember that our rooms get warm, and the students do as well. Especially as they come in from recess or when they are at PE. Please send them with a reusable water bottle for the week, labeled with their name on it. Thank you

Supplies:  Thank you for everyone who donated Kleenex! We are set. We also have headphones for every child, so if you have not sent in headphones for your child we have you covered! Yay :)

Going Home:  Thank you to everyone who is either emailing me or calling the office when there is a change in how your child is going home that deviated from the norm, or when your child has a schedule that changed often. This communication has been helpful and imperative in getting your child home safely the correct way. You all are rocking this communication and I appreciate it so much!

Save the Date:  Monday, September 6th School will be closed for Labor Day. 

I cannot begin to tell you all what a great bunch of kiddos we have in this class! I knew our old friends were the nicest bunch, but it has been so great to get to know all of our new friends who have been just as amazing. It really has set the tone for an amazing year, and I am so excited to rock second grade together! -Ms. Shaw

2021 Welcome

Welcome to the second grade, and to in-person learning for the 2021-2022 school year! I am super excited to be back in the building with our students this year. I am especially excited for the opportunity to be teaching second grade, an opportunity I have been looking forward to for some time now. I must admit, having to make the transition with this group of kids makes it even more exciting for me! I cannot wait for the new year to begin. We will spend the first few days learning school and classroom expectations, as well as spend some time getting to know each other, especially our new friends. I will start updating the blog with what we are learning as soon as we start diving into curriculum.  In the meantime, let's get into all the beginning of the year details you may be looking for.

Drop Off:  At this time adults are still not allowed in the building without prior arrangement with the office. This does include the first day of school. Luckily, most of our kiddos know where our room (Room 9) is at. On the first day of school students who are eating lunch may be dropped off at 8:20 so that they may go straight to the cafeteria for breakfast. 8:20 will always be the earliest students may arrive at school, those not eating breakfast will go straight outside every day. On the first day of school only students will not have morning recess. This is so that students may make their way to their classrooms where their teachers will be waiting for them when they arrive. 

Meet the Teacher/Drive Through Stations 2nd-5th Grades:  There are a few things the school needs to collect before school starts so we have decided to do so with some drive through stations on Tuesday, August 10th. There will be 3 drive through stations. Station 1 your will turn in Tech User Agreement and Proof of Residency if you have not sent it in electronically already. At station 2 you will be paying an iPad fee of $25 dollars (online, credit card, check, or cash), and station 3 will be a meet the teacher. 2nd grade will be outside from 10-10:30 am, and we would love if you could make it during that half hour so that the kiddos can see our faces before the first day of school. If you cannot make it during our grade level window the front office is available to help daily from 8am-4pm.  

Updated Marshall Mitigation Plan:  I highly encourage everyone to take time to read our updated Marshall Mitigation Plan by clicking on the link. It will provide many of your answers for pretty much everything you may be wondering about this year (more about pick up and drop off, masks, lunches (free again to all, same for breakfast), transportation, specials, transportation, and so much more). 

School Supplies:  Just about everything your child will personally need has been purchased by the school or myself. The only thing we we need from our families are Kleenex (always Kleenex, LOL), a personal reusable water bottle and headphones. Please make sure to label the headphones and the water bottle with your child's name. If we ever need anything for the classroom I will let you know here in the blog, but my guess is it will just be Kleenex most of the time, and that probably will not happen often depending on how many we end up with at the beginning of the year. 

Snail Mail:  I have sent out a letter via good old regular mail, so please be on the look out for that. In it you will find the back to school letter, some general information for our room, and the above information about school supplies. This is for those who check there mail more regularly than they do their email. I will be attaching those forms to this email as well, for those of you who are the opposite 🙋.  The one form I did not include is our Family Information Page. I have sent that out as a Google Form so that we do not need to send anything back in this year. For those of you who missed it, or who have not filled it out yet - here is the link to that again. - Family Information Form Link.  Please, please, please fill this out before the first day of school. It has the single most important piece of information I need - how your child gets home at the end of the day. This is most especially important for my bus riders! If you have already filled this out, thank you - there is no need for you to do so again.

Masks:  In our Marshall Mitigation Plan it states that "masks are highly recommended, encouraged, and supported" at this time but not required. If this changes I will let you all know.

If I have left out anything you might be wondering about I highly recommend reading the Marshall mitigation plan to see if your question is answered there. If it is not, or if it is but you still have questions and need clarification please feel free to reach out to me via email so that I can help answer any questions or concerns you may have. I am happy that this year is starting off with some normalcy of being back in building, but I also know that there are concerns and unknowns with Covid still being out there. I know we will get through this with two things - open and clear communication and parent and teacher collaboration every step of the way. I look forward to partnering with each and every one of you. I really look forward to seeing our kiddos on August 11th! 💙 -Ms. Shaw