9/27 - 10/1

Upcoming Dates: 

• 9/29: Homecoming Parade
• 9/27-10/1: Spread the Love Food Drive (see below)
• 10/4: NDLC store closes: https://newdirections21.itemorder.com/sale
• 10/6: Picture Retake: Please email me if you would like pictures to be retaken
• 10/12: NEW DATE: Family Night (Stay tuned for details.)

Homecoming Week Dress Up Days:

Monday 9/27 - PJ Day

Tuesday 9/28 - Silly Socks

Wednesday 9/29 - School Color Day  Wear Purple! There is a parade in the PM but elementary

schools will not be walking in it

Thursday 9/30 - Disney and/or Superhero Day

Friday 10/1 - Kaukauna Spirit Day!

Spelling Words this Week:

• for
• come
• play
• they
• had

Spread the Love PB&J Project: 

The winning class, with the most PB&J will win this.  All these coupons for each student!!

Math

In math we are working on odd and even numbers, determining if an equation is equal or not equal, and solving word problems that have an unknown.  The unknown can be at the start, the change, or the end. This week we will have A No Solve Math Days...this is when we work to identify what the story problem is asking us, set it up, but not solve it. It is helpful to get them to focus on what is being asked in the problem and not racing to answer it. 

Content

We started our Science Unit during Researchers Workshop and will be immersing ourselves into the world of animals. We started by grouping animals that have similar characteristics. We will be digging deeper into those groups and noticing that even if they are the same species, animals can be quite different and have ways that they adapt to their surroundings. 

Writing

In writing we are still in our Narrative Unit.  We are talking about how to use mentor authors, studying how they write to capture the reader.  Our goal for this part of the unit is that students look at how other authors make parts of their stories powerful by adding: character talking, movement, setting descriptions, etc and then trying it in their writing.  Another big goal of this unit is revision.  We want students to see that they can always go back and add/change their piece.  

Reading

In reading we started the part of our unit that focuses on word solving.  Students learned many strategies in 1st grade to solve words.  We revisited these strategies and are working to be flexible in trying one or more strategies to solve a tricky word.  If your child is stuck on a word, don’t jump in to give it to them, ask them what they could try?  Then ask them:  “Does it look right? Does it make sense?”

9/20-9/24

 Hello,

Upcoming Events:

• 9/20: Packer Gear
• 9/24: No School
• 9/29: Homecoming Parade
• 9/27-10/1: Spread the Love Food Drive
• 10/4: NDLC store closes: https://newdirections21.itemorder.com/sale
• 10/6: Picture Retake: Please email me if you would like pictures to be retaken

Homecoming Week Dress Up Days:

Monday 9/27 - PJ Day

Tuesday 9/28 - Silly Socks

Wednesday 9/29 - School Color Day  Wear Purple! There is a parade in the PM but elementary

schools will not be walking in it

Thursday 9/30 - Disney and/or Superhero Day

Friday 10/1 - Kaukauna Spirit Day!

Spelling Words this Week:

• was
• went
• are
• look
• this

All About Me Bags:

You should have received a show and tell bag this week with a date on it that your child can bring in 4 items to tell us about. We’ve been doing a lot of work about our identities and wanted to have another way for students to get to know one another. A bonus is it also has them practice storytelling which can help with their writing!

Growth Mindset

As part of our Leader In Me Curriculum this week we talked about mindset...growth mindset vs. fixed mindset.  We read a book called The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes.  In the book Beatrice lived a perfect life where she never made mistakes.  She was afraid to try new things or take risks because she didn’t want to make a mistake.  When she finally did make a mistake, she found she could live more freely and have more fun! 

We then talked about fixed mindset words, thoughts, and actions.  For example: I can’t, I am not smart enough, I give up. We turned these thoughts, words and actions into a state of growth mindset: I can’t YET! I am going to keep trying!  I can ask for help and learn this too!

Accountability Partners

This week students received an accountability partner. That is someone that can check on them throughout the year by encouraging them to reach their goals, be someone they can talk to, and to give them tips on ways to use the 7 habits.

Math- 

We started our first Math Unit this week.  We started the unit off with a Task and Share.  A Task and Share is a way for us to see what students can do before we start the unit.  They try the task and then share with the class the different strategies they tried to solve the problem.

As we went on in the week we talked about strategies to be more efficient when solving problems/facts. We talked about making a ten from a fact, to solve it more efficiently.  For example: 6+7=, We can take 4 from the 7 to make 10, then add the 3 left over on. All are okay!

9/13-9/17

Upcoming Events:

• 9/13-917: Safety Week
• 9/20: Packer Gear
• 9/24: No School
• 9/29: Homecoming Parade
• 9/27-10/1: Spread the Love Food Drive (see below)

Spelling Words this Week:

• You
• Like
• My
• Can
• see

Spread the Love Food Drive

September 27-October 1st

The first service project for the 2021-2022 school year will be the Spread the Love Food Drive for St. Joseph Food Pantry in Menasha. 

St. Joseph’s Pantry is in high need of  peanut butter and jelly.  We will be collecting plastic jars of peanut butter and jelly the week of September 27-October 1st.   Students can bring items to their classroom for donation.  The class that brings in the most items will win a prize for the class!

 

We continued learning more about Leader in Me with the last 4 Habits of Highly Effective People.  

Sharpen The Saw--You may have heard you students talk about sharpening the saw and thought, “What?” 

Sharpening The Saw means taking care of you.  Taking care of your mind, body, heart, and spirit. We talked about ways that 2nd graders sharpen their saw:

• --Eating Healthy
• --Exercise over Screen Time
• --Gratitude 
• --Time with family and friends
• --Finding an activity they love!

Think Win/Win--Think win/win is thinking about how everyone in the situation wins.  We talked about this in relation to a math or recess game.  If a friend wants to play one game, and you want to play another, what can we do so that everyone wins.  We also spent time talking about how we encourage each other to have the best outcome, we never want to wish for someone to do poorly or lose.  

We talked about how when we play a competitive sport, like soccer, there will be a winner and a loser but we can still wish the other team the best of luck and congratulate them at the end. 

Seek First To Understand, Then Be Understood--This is a hard habit, especially for adults.  We learned that it is important to listen first.  We want to hear what the other person has to say before we talk.  

We practiced I statements. I feel____ when you ____ because____ I want you to ____.  This habit is really important and a great way for us as the teacher/parent to encourage your child to work through their conflicts, in replace of “tattling.” 

Synergize: Synergize means to work together as a team toward a common goal. We learned this week that although we are different, we can come together as a class family to reach our goals! We created a classroom “quilt” where each student designed their own piece to add to our collective project, to represent synergy! 

Homework: This week we will be starting to send homework. Homework includes a book bag Monday-Thursday, with the expectation of 20 minutes of reading each night. We will start to send a math sheet or game on Tuesday or Wednesday, students do not have to return this to school but can if they have questions or would like to show us! Also, we are going to send home a list of spelling words each week in this blog. At home, students can practice reading and writing them! They will start off as a review of first grade words and will gradually get harder throughout the year. Please reach out if you have any questions about this!

9/7 - 9/10

Reminders:

Please return decorated writing folders this week. We will be starting our units soon and students will use their folders as inspiration!

Upcoming Events:

9/13-917: Safety Week

iReady Assessment:

This week we will be taking our baseline assessment, in iReady.  Students will take a math and reading portion.  This is a tool to help us, the teachers, see where students are at.  It will help us form our lessons, small groups instruction, and individual support. 

What is i-Ready?

i-Ready is an online program that will help us determine your child’s strengths and areas for growth, personalize their learning, and monitor their progress throughout the school year.  i-Ready allows us to meet your child where they are and provides us with data to inform instruction.

The i-Ready diagnostic is an adaptive assessment that adjusts its questions to suit your child’s needs.  Each item a student receives is based on their answer to the previous question. The purpose of this is not to give your child a score or grade but to determine how to best support their learning. 

What can you do to help?

• To help prepare your child for the i-Ready Diagnostic, encourage them to:
• Try their best on each question and try not to rush.
• Try not to worry about questions they do not know--remind them that it is expected they will only get about half of the questions correct.
• Be respectful of other students who take longer to finish.
• BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES!!!

I look forward to sharing i-Ready information with you throughout the year. 

Leader In Me

We are spending our first 8 days with extra time devoted to lessons around Leader In Me.  We want to build a classroom community with a clear vision and expectations to help us throughout the year. 

The idea of Leader in Me is that we are all leaders, celebrating our uniqueness.  But all leaders have 7 effective habits.  Last week we focused on the first three habits: Be Proactive, Begin with the End in Mind, and Put First things First. 

Be Proactive:

Students learn that they are in control of their own actions and words!  We talked about hitting the “pause button,” and stopping to think before reacting.  We also talked about how we can respond like a shaken soda bottle (reactive) or a shaken water bottle (proactive). 

Begin with the End in Mind:

We talked about setting goals and knowing what we want the end to look like, so we can plan our steps accordingly.

Put First things First:

We watched a video and did an activity with “BIG Rocks.” We talked about what are the BIG Rocks in our lives (the most important things)?! We decided that we need to put the BIG Rocks into our day first and then fill the rest of the day with the less important things, the little rocks.  This habit is great at home when trying to help your student build habits around chores, homework, etc before video games and screen time!

Photos From Week 1: