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Sidra Khatoon » Weekly Update SY 24- 25

Weekly Update SY 24- 25

Dear Second Grade Families,

It has been a wonderful first week of school! It was very nice meeting so many of you during pickups!

 

The second graders have been doing an amazing job in building a strong school and classroom community. 104 have been part of SEL check ins, hands-on and fun worksheets to learn about each other and their families. 

 

The class was introduced to the classroom rules and expected classroom and hallway behaviors throughout the day. We explored Math manipulative and read the books "I promise" by Hebron James, "All are Welcome" by Alexandra Penfold, "Just Ask!" by Sonia Sotomayor, and "How to Get Your Teacher Ready" by Jean Regan, followed by activities. Second graders loved the classroom library and enjoyed quiet reading time. They are doing a good job in creating a classroom that feels, looks, and sounds great.

 

I am excited to see them grow and continue to support them this year!

Please read through the following reminders as we move forward into the school year:

Things to Note:

Students received a “Take Home” folder where assignments, work, or other important information will be sent home. Please send this folder back with your child each day to establish the routine.

Teacher Websites:

The best way to keep up to date with the latest things happening in your child’s classes is to sign up to receive website updates from your child’s teachers.  Check your child’s homeroom teacher for  important announcements & reminders as well as content area pages for updates on activities and learning in the classroom along with pictures and videos!

Ms. Khatoon | Link to Website Here

Friendly Reminders!

Snack:

Students can bring a healthy snack from home to eat during a designated time in the morning.  This healthy snack should be something that they can eat while doing work to help keep energy up during learning.  Please do not send students with candy or food that requires utensils.  

**Due to allergies in the classroom and school, snacks MUST be nut-free

Attendance: 

If your child is absent, please email me, your homeroom teacher and our clerk Ms. Beard and 

complete the absence form on the website found HERE. 

 

Change of Clothes:

Your child is bringing a ziploc bag home in their backpack today. Please send a change of clothes (underwear, pants, shirt, socks, etc.) in the bag. We will be keeping these in the classroom in case of any spills/accidents. 

 

Entry & Dismissal Procedures:  

Please complete this DISMISSAL FORM for your child’s regular dismissal schedule.

Morning Entry: 

  • School entry will begin at 7:30 a.m. 

  • All Students Door 4 | The Link Entrance

 

Afternoon Dismissal

  • Dismissal is at 2:45 p.m

  • K-2nd Grade | Door 4 (Link Entrance)

  • K - 2nd Grade Siblings  | Door 1 (Main Entrance)

  • Please park legally in the neighborhood for pick-up, parking lot is for staff only. 

 

Breakfast and Lunch

  • Students should bring a water bottle to refill throughout the day. Please make sure it is LABELED with your child’s FIRST and LAST name. 

  • Breakfast is free and will be served until 7:55 a.m. daily in the classroom

  • Lunch will be served in the cafeteria

  • Students can have free school lunch and/or bring lunch from home

  • If your child is eating lunch provided by the school, it will be helpful to review the lunch menu with them. They get to choose a main dish, a vegetable and a fruit when they enter the lunch line. The school also has sunbutter and jelly sandwiches if they do not like the main options for the day. 

Remember to mark your calendars for these Important Dates!

September 2nd - No School - Labor Day

September 7th - Family Back to School Picnic 10am - 12pm

September 11th - LSC Meeting

September 12th - Curriculum Night 5-7pm

September 24th - Fall Picture Day

I hope you all enjoy the longer weekend and look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Tuesday September 3rd! 

Have a great long weekend!

Hello 104 Families,

We had an amazing second week of School! The Second Graders are  doing a great job in learning as well as following the expectations of the school and classroom community. 

SEL

  • Students have got various opportunities to learn and know more about their classmates and Ms. Khatoon. The class has been working together to create a classroom community that looks, feels, and sounds Great! 
  • In SEL this week, this week’s focus was on creating boundaries. We talked about creating boundaries or explaining to others what we do and do not like.

  • We also enjoyed being part of the talking circle and the focused question this week was “What is one thing you can say to a friend or classmate that does something you don’t like?

Math:

  • During math the class started getting into our math routine. Students enjoyed working with a partner to solve Math puzzles. Students explored centers and different addition/ subtraction coloring sheets.

Foundations:

  • This week, the class has been part of word study where we are learning about the patterns of the words. Students have been doing great with sorting, cutting, and gluing the words based on their sounds in their composition books. The focused sound this week was short vowel ‘i’ & ‘e’

Reading/ Writing:

  • Second graders enjoyed the read-alouds throughout the week. The class has been learning about ways to choose a book and picking books that are “just right” for them. A “just right book” is a book that is not too easy or too difficult to read. We have also worked on sorting different genres, and how to track their thoughts while reading. In writing, second graders worked on writing about their second grade week.

Science/ Social Studies:

  • In Science, the class learned about Legos and how were LEGO bricks invented. Students learned about different sea animals 
  • In Social Studies, the class has been talking about how families are different but have the same family values. These values consist of love, caring, and respect for each other.  Students also got a chance to learn about their classmates' family.

Week 3

 

Hello 104 Families,

The Second Graders had another great week of school. It was amazing to see families at the curriculum night yesterday! Here are the slides from curriculum night.

 

Dates to remember: 

  • September 19 Coffee with Principal Negrón | All Parents are invited
  • September 24 | Fall Picture Day | Sibling Pictures 


SEL

  • This week the students worked with their new partners. They got to discuss in groups and then share with the whole class about classroom norms and rules. The focused questions for this week's talking circle were “why is it important to follow the rules?” and “What are some of the classroom norms/rules you followed this week?”

Math:

  • In Math, we started Unit 1- Introducing Multiplications. Students are learning to recognize, represent, and describe situations involving equal groups.
  • Students did a great job using working with partners and using Math manipulative.

 

Foundations:

  • Our goal for Foundations was to recognize short vowel sounds in a CVC word.
  • The class practiced their foundation skills by cut & glue activities and small group activities.

 

Reading |Writing:

  • In reading, we learned to understand what makes a book a fantasy or a realistic fiction. The class enjoyed reading “Stellaluna” and “The Can Man”. After reading both books, we reviewed why “Stellaluna” is a Fantasy and “The Can Man” is  a realistic fiction book. The students also explored fiction books and wrote their thoughts about the books. 
  • In writing, the focus was to understand Sentences and Fragments. The class enjoyed the Scoot cards game by answering the questions on the cards that were placed around the classroom and by changing given fragments into sentences. 

Social Studies |Science:

  •  In social studies, we started Unit 1- Today and Long Ago. We are learning about life long ago. The essential question this week was “How do we learn about the past?”. Students explored facts that can be used to answer the essential question. 
  • In Science, we started Unit 1- Plant and Animal Relationships. In lesson 1- Plant and Animal relationship, We are being plant scientists and learning about different Habitats and ways to study Habitats. 

SEL:

  • This week in SEL we focused on Alike & Different. The class talked about the similarities and differences. The focused questions were- How are you & the classmate Similar or Different from each other? What is one thing you learned about how you are different from your classmates?

Math:

  • This week in Math we finished lesson 7- Building Flexibility, Efficiency, and Accuracy with Multiplication Facts. The focus this week was using strategies to solve multiplication problems and finding the missing factors in multiplication problems. 
  • This week students enjoyed playing Bingo and Roll, Spin, Multiply games with their partners. The class also took a sub unit Assessment. 

Foundations:

  • This week students learned about CVC & CVCe words.
  • This week students were part of word sorts based on the focused short vowel and silent ‘e’ sounds. 

Reading/ Writing:

  • This week students showed their understanding of the characteristics of Janell Cannon’s books. We explored the books Stellaluna, Pinduli, Crickwing, and Verdi. 
  • This week students identified the problem and solution to the problem the characters faced in the Jannel Cannon’s books. Students also took an Assessment to show their understanding of the lessons.   
  • This week in writing, students learned the difference between an idea and specific/ strong idea for writing. 

Science/ Social Studies:

  • This week in science, we investigated the question: Why aren’t new Chalta Trees growing in the Bengal Tiger Reserve? Students made observations on the maps, plants, and seeds to investigate the problem in West Bengal Tiger Reserve. 
  • This week for social studies, students compared daily life long ago and life today. Students took a closer look at schools, homes, technology, and communities long ago and how they are the same or different now.

Hello Families, 


Though it was shorter, this week was so much fun! The class earned all ten stars! We enjoyed the show & tell and we pulled out one stick from the marble jar!


SEL:

  • This week in SEL we had a Talking circle with the recess monitors. The focused questions were: How can you get to know the new recess monitors? How can we show them respect and make them feel welcome at our school?
  • The focus this week was on understanding and appreciating diversity and differences of others. The focused questions were, What if everyone in the world was exactly the same? Do you think you would want to learn or live in a diverse environment? Why or Why not? 

Math:

  • This week in Math students were introduced to Arrays. The goal this week was on Searching for Arrays, Exploring the Commutative Property of Multiplication, Solving Word Problems With Arrays, and Different Representations of Multiplication. 
  • The class has been doing great with warm up activities, working with partners, and individual work time. 

Foundations:

  • This week students worked with their table friends to add, substitute, or delete consonants and vowels to come up with a new word.
  • This week the focus was also to understand that  long ‘a’ can be spelled with the ‘a-e’ as in ‘bake’ and also with ‘ai’ as in wait. 
  • The students took a spelling test in foundations this week.

Reading/ Writing:

  • This week students began plotting points in read alouds and independent reading books. 
  • This week students identified the beginning, events, the high point and ending of the fiction book “Enemy Pie”
  • This week the class started working on narrative writing skills. Students identified a problem at school. 
  • Next week, the class will continue working on narrative writing. Students will write about the solution, and attempts they might have made to solve the problem.

Science/ Social Studies:

  • This week in Science, students investigated, observed, and learned about different seeds to better understand the investigation question on ‘why Chalta Trees are not Growing in Bengal Tiger Reserve?”
  • The class planted Radish Seeds to investigate whether the plant actually need sunlight and water to sprout and grow. 
  • This week the focused questions for social studies was ‘Why did people move to new places?’
  • The class Explored immigrants’ journeys to the United States long ago and understood why families moved to Chicago from other parts of the country. 

This week students had their first visit to the library! Student’s checked out books and will be able to do this again on Thursday. Please make sure students turn in the library book by Thursday so that they can check out another book. Have a great weekend!

SEL:

  • This week in SEL the class focused on the importance of understanding others feelings. The essential questions this week were “Why is it helpful to know how other people are feeling?” “Do you often talk about your feelings with your friends or family? Who do you talk to the most?”. Students drew feelings pictures based on the focused questions this week.

Math:

  • This week the class took a Sub Unit Quiz-2.
  • The class started a new sub unit on Graphs. Students have been reading, interpreting, creating, and representing data on scaled bar graphs. 
  • The class ended the week with a fun Friday multiplication board game. 

Foundations:

  • This week students were introduced to one and two syllable words.
  • The class worked with their table friends to sort the long ‘a’ sound words with CVVC and CVCe words. 
  • The class also learned about the homophones, words that sound alike, but are spelled differently and mean something different. For example, words like Plain (CVVC) and Plane (CVCe)

Reading/ Writing:

  • This week students focused on understanding the characters feelings and traits. 
  • The students showed their understanding of the lessons by reading the book ‘The Spelling Bee’ and identified the characters' feelings and traits with evidence from their reading. 
  • This week the class continued working on narrative writing. Students identified the problem, setting, and motivation they might have used to solve the problem.

Science/ Social Studies:

  • This week in science, the class continued our investigation of the question: Why aren’t new Chalta trees growing in the Bengal Tiger Reserve? 
  • The radish seeds that we planted last week have sprouted. Students were excited to see the plants grow. The class also measured the plants and noted their observations. 
  • This week in social studies, the class recognized and  learned about the famous Latinos who have helped shape our nation and inspired others to achieve success.

SEL:

  • In SEL this week, we learned the importance of being fair and avoiding cheating when we are playing a game or doing an activity. 
  • The students worked with their partners and also participated in whole group discussions. 
  • The focused questions were: Why is it important to play fair? If you realize you’ve cheated, even accidentally, what might you do to make things fair?  

Math:

  • This week in Math the class finished Unit 1- Introducing Multiplications. 
  • The class did a great job reviewing and practicing Math Unit 1 questions before taking the assessment. 
  • Students took the assessment on Friday.
 

Foundations:

  • This week students searched and recorded short and long ‘a’ sounds from their independent reading books.
  • This week students took a spell check in foundations based on short and long ‘a’ vowel spelling patterns.
 

Reading/ Writing:

  • This week in reading, we focused on finding Text Evidence.
  • This week’s reading text was ‘True Colors’. The class was part of various activities and showed their understanding of the characters, their traits, and finding text evidence for those traits. 
  • In writing, students learned about dialogues and added dialogues to their writing graphic organizer as sensory details. 
  • Students also added the solution to their writing Graphic Organizer.
 

Science/ Social Studies:

  • This week in science, we continued our investigation of the question: Why aren’t new Chalta trees growing in the Bengal Tiger Reserve? 
  • The class made observations on the Radish Plants we planted in the classroom. Students have been learning about parts of the plants and the function of each plant part. 
  • In Social Studies, The essential question was How do families and their past shape our community?
  • Students learned about “how families share cultures, traditions, music, food, and attire”. The class loved talking and sharing examples about their favorite family traditions. 
Second Graders enjoyed the read aloud by the librarian, Ms. Rosado. The class is working hard to stay at level '0' while checking out books. It will be great if you can please review with your student about the importance of staying at voice level '0' at the library.

 

SEL:

  • This week in SEL our focus was on “Unkind Speech”, Students were part of the sentence sorting activity. They reviewed sentences with their SEL partners and then sorted it based on kind and unkind sentences. 
  • The SEL talking circle focused on the importance of kind speech and avoiding unkind words. The class also shared their thoughts on the quote, “Words can inspire and words can destroy. Choose yours well.” -Robin Sharma

Math:

  • This week in Math the class started Unit 2: Area and Multiplications.
  • Students did a good job building shapes with foam blocks then described and compared the areas of their shapes with their classmates.
  • The class is also learning to estimate the area of space using square centimeters, square inches, square feet, or square meters.

ELA:

  • This week in Foundations the students completed Unit 1. The class took a spelling check on CVCe, CVC, and CVVC words with short and long vowel sounds
  • This week in Reading students analyzed fiction books by using text evidence to find: Title, Author, Characters, Setting, and the Plot. The class enjoyed the books “Those Darn Squirrels” by Adam Rubin and “Sky Sisters” by Jan Bourdeau Waboose
  • This week in writing students finished and the writing organizer and started on their narrative rough draft.

Science/Social Studies:

  • This week in Social Studies, students focused on the EQ: ”Why is it Important to Learn about the Past?” Our focus was to understand how people in the past affect our lives today. We learned about the “Brave Bessie”. The class also identified how people’s values in the past helped shape the present. 
  • This week in Science, Students gathered more information about how a plant is a system with different parts that help it grow. Students were introduced to the book, A Plant Is a System, to gather more information and to increase their knowledge on plant structures and their functions.