Ms. Mendonca's Valentine's Celebration

January 31, 2019

Dear Parents,

Our Valentine’s party will be, February 14!

For those of you wishing for your child to participate I am enclosing a list of children in our class. Have your child make or buy cards for their friends. They can be very simple. To ensure that this will be a learning experience for the children, please make sure that your child takes time to organize the cards. A helpful hint would be to do a few each night. Do not wait until the last minute! Please, make sure your child signs every card. Have all cards sent to school on Thursday, February 14th.

We will have a special Valentine’s snack. If you wish to send Valentine’s goodies, just let me know in advance.

Thank you for your kind support!

Sandra Mendonça

Class List:

Benja José

Brandon Josefina

Caio Julia

Elliott Lucas

Elodie Luiza

Fernando Melissa

Gabriella Nathan

Isabella Nina

Jenifer Olivia

João Pedro Pedro

Raphael

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work in 2B!

Ms. Bobbie, the lower school counselor, visits 2B every E day to work with students on different social/emotional skills.  Today she helped us to use more teamwork and communicate positively to accomplish a goal - in this case, moving from one side of a hot chocolate lava river to the other using a "marshmallow" bridge!  The students met in groups to plan out different strategies to achieve this goal together.  Teamwork is an essential part of learning at Graded, and these skills will be particularly useful as the students enter their science unit and work together to complete experiments. 

If you have not requested to follow our new private 2B Instagram page, do it soon!  2bgraded2029
I will still be making monthly blog posts, but Instagram will be for more regular daily happenings.  Follow our learning :)

2A Practices Teamwork and Positive Communication.

Each Day D Ms. Bobbie, the lower school counselor, visits the second graders to work with them on different social/emotional skills.  Today Ms. Bobbie worked with 2A students on using teamwork and positive communication skills to accomplish a goal - in this case, moving from one side to the other of a "marshmallow" bridge!  The students practiced different ideas to achieve this goal together.  Teamwork is an essential part of learning at Graded, and these skills will be particularly useful as the students enter their science unit and work together to complete experiments.

   

  
   

    


  

Lower School Update - January 28, 2019

The Eagle’s Nest
Two classes were awarded the Golden G award today for demonstrating the Eagle Way the past week. Congratulations to Ms. Keane’s first grade class and Ms. Kitto’s fifth grade class!

Eagle Way Tip of the Week

Our core value for the months of January and February is Intellectual Curiosity, simply defined as “wanting to know more”.  According to The Character Lab, curiosity is important because,

“When you’re curious about something, you process it deeply, rather than superficially. You also voluntarily spend more time learning about things that spark your curiosity. As a result, you more readily remember what you learn. In general, people who are more curious are happier and better liked.”

Here are  few articles from the Parent Toolkit website about encouraging curiosity at home:

Encouraging Curiosity in Early Childhood

Encouraging Curosity in Kids Ages 8-11

Visiting Authors
Graded Libraries, with the generous support of the Graded Annual Fund, are thrilled to welcome award-winning authors and illustrator, Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann, February 11-15. Livro Facil has a limited number of their books for sale. Books purchased will be autographed by Candace & Eric during their visit. If you already own copies of their books, you can bring them to school to be signed.

Don't miss their special session for parents, Thursday, February 14, 8:15-9:00 am!

Upcoming Important Dates

Jan. 31	After school activities sign up opens
Feb. 6/7/8	4th grade field trip - Sitio do Carroção
Feb. 8	Activity confirmations sent to parents via email
Feb. 11	After school activities begin
Feb.11-15	Author/Illustrator visit
Feb. 11/12/13	5th grade field trip - Rep Lago
Feb. 13/14/15	3rd grade field trip - Rep Lago
Feb. 26	2nd grade field trip - Toca da Raposa

Around the Lower School

Curriculum Update: January 28th, 2019

Curriculum Update

Math: We are coming to the end of our geometry unit, and will be assessing our students this week.  The next unit, unit 6, is a numbers unit that covers multi-digit addition, story problems, including subtraction story problems, and an introduction to multiplication and division through arrays.

Reading: Students are continuing to explore figurative language, such as idioms and homophones, as we conclude our second fiction reading unit.

Writing: Students are finishing up their opinion writing unit. To end the unit, students will nominate favorite books for awards and share their favorites with classmates.

Social Studies: We are wrapping up our unit on community, maps, and landforms, and will be assessing this unit at the end of the week.

Português: No 2nd grade os alunos fazem um "mergulho" no universo de Monteiro Lobato ao estudar o que define a jornada de um herói. A partir da próxima semana iniciaremos este "mergulho" a partir das aventuras de Pedrinho no episódio "O Saci" e continuaremos este questionamento ampliando-o para outras jornadas de heróis e para momentos em que os próprios alunos sentiram-se heróis (momentos de superação em seu cotidiano). Finalizaremos este estudo com escritas dos alunos e também com uma vivência deste universo de Monteiro Lobato, do Sítio do Picapau Amarelo,  seus personagens e histórias em uma visita à Toca da Raposa, sobre a qual os senhores receberão maiores detalhes em breve.

New Beginnings

Our 4 week break has hopefully given everyone a renewed boost of energy and that we will all return with a new sense of purpose. It will be great to see everyone safe and rested back at school. 

We all love new beginnings.  New beginnings awaken a feeling that we can approach the future with renewed energy, unburdened by the past.  The New Year always fills us with a sense of adventure and hope.  A chance to begin again is very powerful. 

Upon everyone's return to school, two new second graders will be joining us. Please welcome Columba from Mr. Maykut's class and Patrick from Ms. Jessie's class.  

Just a reminder that tomorrow is Day A and all classroom schedules have not changed.  Students will also continue to follow the Eagle Way everyday! 

Sincerely,

The Second Grade Team