Happy New Year!
Again, thank you so much for the very generous class gift! I am humbled and grateful.
I would love to get a group of families from our classroom together to go see Tori in her performance of Seussical the Musical. Likely date would be Sunday, January 24th at 4:30 at the JCC in the UTC area. Please let me know by Wednesday, January 13th if you are interested and how many tickets you would require. I will try to get a group rate at that time.
Our classroom is buzzing with activity..
We just entered into a new author study of the wonderful artist and award-winning children’s book author Faith Ringgold. Last week we explored her most famous book, Tar Beach, as an exercise in asking important readers’ questions and looking for the motive of the author in writing stories. Through close reading of the text, in both conversation and in our reading logs, we were able to explore questions about the importance of setting in the story and the symbolism in the actions of the character as a response to her problems. The book, which is set in New York City, offered an opportunity to speak about the broad swath of the world that lives very differently to us here in Del Mar and to build an empathetic response without establishing a dualist mentality. This week students will synthesize their thoughts about the book as they create a piece of artwork that helps summarize the primary lessons of the book. We will also engage with other of Ringgold’s books, again closely reading the text for important readers’ questions.
In writing, we are pursuing expository work and opinion pieces as we refine structure for these different genres. At this point virtually all students can formulate and execute expository work of correct and repeatable structure that forms the essential blocks of writing to communicate information for all of the rest of their academic career. The structure is predicated upon the use of topic sentences, which reveal what is to be discussed, detail sentences, which teach new information, explanation sentences, which teach more about the preceding detail, and conclusion sentences, which reiterate the thrust of the piece. It is important to recognize that this structure is not rigid. Rather, once internalized, students are able to write coherently about any topic with confidence and flexibility. Ask your child to share about how an expository paragraph is crafted and try your hand at the craft.
We have begun our study of economics. Your child will be learning about wants versus needs, consumers, producers, and resources. Our class will become a tiny town with students earning incomes, starting their own businesses, and selling their merchandise to each other. It might be the perfect time to have a lemonade stand or start an allowance. Teach your child to understand the value and use of money now to help them in their future.
Del Mar Heights Award-Winning Understanding Differences program is ongoing throughout January. Second-grade students will build knowledge and understanding of issues surrounding hearing and hearing impairment through simulation, science labs, and interactions with speakers. This is a great time to speak to your child about the importance of acceptance, empathy, and flexibility since the world is full of individuals all of whom carry their own unique traits.
In February, our attention will focus on biographies. We will end our study with our all-second grade musical performance called Heroes All on Friday, March 4th from 1:00-2:30 in the MUR followed by cookies outside our second grade classrooms. In Art, the kids will be making their costumes: tie-dye shirts. Each child will need a plain white t-shirt by Friday, January 29th. Their names need to be written on the tag. The shirts can be used or new. New shirts need to be pre-washed to help the tie-dye set. Target sells packs of 3, if you would like to partner up with a friend. We need 3-4 parent volunteers for Feb. 3, Feb. 4, or Feb. 5. Volunteers can embrace their inner camp counselor skills and dye the prepped shirts. If you would like to help, but cannot dye shirts, you could donate the tie-dye or rubber bands for our class.
January Focus
Reading: Increase reading stamina and enjoyment, learn strategies for comprehension, accuracy, and fluency
Writing/Grammar: Opinion & narrative
Math: Place value, adding and subtracting larger numbers
Science: Sound Energy, Hearing Loss, Understanding Differences
Social Studies: Economics (STEAM project: Student-made businesses)
Spanish: Rosetta Stone
PE: Cooperative team building games
Music: Reading music, playing kazoos, singing, preparation for our Heroes All performance
Tinkering Lab: Cooperative problem solving, engineering, and old-fashioned tinkering
Understanding Differences: Hearing loss
er, Del Mar Heights School
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