Fall is here!

Good Afternoon 2A!

I hope you're all enjoying this cooler weekend as much as I am! Molly and I have had a blast baking some fall treats and enjoying all the wonderful fall smells in the air. :)

Literature: Our reading of Charlotte's Web is coming to an end! We will read the last chapter on Monday and work on completing some work in our literature folders as a good review, including a Eulogy for Charlotte. Ask your child to retell you the end of the story...Chapter 21 was very sad for us all. We've grown to love the friendship between Charlotte and Wilbur. One of my favorite quotes from the story...

"Why did you do all this for me?" he asked. "I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you." "You have been my friend," replied Charlotte. "That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that." "Well," said Wilbur. "I'm no good at making speeches. I haven't got your gift for words. But you have saved me, Charlotte, and I would gladly give my life for you - I really would." 

Spalding: We will have 20 words next week since there is no school next Friday.
Monday: grant, soap, news, new, small, smaller, smallest, war, summer, above
Tuesday: express, turn, lesson, half, father, anything, table, high, June
Wednesday: Review grant-June
Please continue to reinforce handwriting and proper pencil grip at home. Please also review 15 phonograms a night. This link has all of the phonograms said and written.

Poetry: We will assess your child's recitation of Something Told the Wild Geese. See if they can recite it for you on the way to or from school to get some good practice in the car ride!

Grammar: Adjectives, Adverbs, and Article Adjectives will be reviewed next week. Ask your child if they know the jingles for these 3 parts of speech :-).
Adjective Jingle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFJHOrTvXjQ
Adverb Jingle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzv2BH-xdao
Article Adjective Jingle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJbqt-LImEE

Writing: Our story excerpt next week comes from the The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. We are really working on answering in complete sentences!

Science: Can you believe that so far we have been lepidopterists (through studying butterflies), herpetologists (through learning frogs), and even ornithologists (when we learned about the life cycle of a chicken). We are continuing with our study on life cycles and growing into our next topic: the life cycle of a plant! We will be doing an experiment with a lima bean. Time to add botanist to our list!

Math: We will continue subtracting within 1000 where renaming occurs in both the tens and hundreds. We are also getting into more challenging word problems that require renaming. Keep a sharp eye out for a study guide on Wednesday night to review with your child for a test over subtraction on Thursday!

Just a note about math today (FRIDAY 9/22): We started RENAMING in Subtraction! Something to keep in minds is that this is ALWAYS the topic in math that is the HARDEST concept for a 2nd grader to grasp! It helps that we have been using our number discs and physically building the problem - renaming 1 ten for 10 ones. If your child is having trouble with the homework this weekend please let me know. I'd love to do some review with them in a smaller group setting if they are struggling with this concept. It also helps to brush up on those math facts as it makes the actual subtraction go faster.
We learned these rhymes/phrases to help us:

More on the floor? Go Next Door, Get Ten More! Cross it out, count one down, bring the ten over, it's big enough now SUBTRACT!
More on the top? No need to stop!
Numbers the same? Zero is their name!

History: This week we will begin our studies of ancient cultures with Ancient India. Your child will be able to locate India on a map and explain why the Indus River was important for the civilization to form. We will also learn about Hinduism as a world religion by discussing the three most important Hindu gods and the caste system.

Have a great afternoon!

Warmest, 

Mr. High

Happy Sunday!

Good afternoon!

I hope you're all doing well and enjoying the start of this cooler weather as well! We had a very busy week this week but it was a whole lot of fun as well. :)

Math and Phonics Night Links: Thank you to all of the parents who were able to attend Math and Phonics on Wednesday! We hope you learned a lot of tips and tricks to take from the classroom to your kitchen table! Here are the links to the presentation, parent packet, and a few math games for home...I hope these are helpful resources for you...

• Presentation
• Spalding Parent Packet
• Math Games

Homework Survey: Please see this week’s family newsletter from Office Manager, Rachele Holcomb, for a link to the annual homework survey. If you are not receiving the weekly family newsletter, email Rachele Holcomb at rholcomb@archwayarete.org.

Moving on to what we are learning this week in 2A: 

Poetry: We will learn the last stanza of Something Told the Wild Geese. Thank you for practicing this poem at home with your child. This week we are also going to watch this video of a chorus SINGING the poem!

Literature: We will read chapters 18-21 in Charlotte's Web. Tears *might* be shed next week (from children and teachers alike) as we learn of Charlotte's fate. Ask your child to retell the story events they read in class. Ask them what is happening at the fair and how Templeton has played a role in saving Wilbur's life.

Writing and Grammar: We will continue to classify sentences and will add a new jingle to our repertoire: The Adjective Jingle! We will also learn about article adjectives. Ask your grammar professional to sing you their favorite song this week!

Spalding Words Next Week:
Monday: catch, catcher, kitchen, butcher, black, warm, unless, clothing, clothes, clothe *Review phonograms 16-30 for homework
Tuesday: began, begin, beginning, able, gone, go, done, do, suit, track *Review Phonograms 31-45 for homework
Wednesday: watch, dash, fell, fight, buy, by, stopping, stop, walk, talk, chalk *Review Phonograms 46-60 for homework
Thursday: Write each word 1x each and review phonograms 61-70

Math: This week we will continue adding and subtracting with renaming as well as learning how to add three numbers within 1000. (Example 231 + 144 + 19)

Science: We are fluttering into our next life cycle study ~ can you guess what it is? It's the life cycle of a butterfly! Ask your child if they can identify the stages of life in the animals we've learned about so far: a chicken, a frog, and now a butterfly.

History: We will be finishing up our unit on Japan this week. On Monday, we will be talking about the kimono as traditional clothing as well as discussing the importance of nature in Japanese traditional crafts by making origami! Watch for the study guide to come home on Wednesday to review for the Friday test.

Please don't ever hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns. We'll be here for you!

Warmest, 

Mr. High

Week 5!

Dear 2A, 

We had such a blast getting to spend some special time with grandparents on Friday and travelling to so many different islands! We have another exciting week ahead of us and here is a quick look into what we'll be learning: 

From The Classroom to The Kitchen Table...Math and Phonics night is taking place on Wednesday, September 13th in the evening from 6-7pm. Please plan on attending as we are ready to give you many tips and tricks on helping your child with our Singapore and Spalding curriculum! We look forward to seeing you here at school. No homework will be assigned that evening. Just a reminder (like Curriculum Night) this is a parent only event.

Picture Day is on Thursday, September 14th. Don't forget to comb that hair and brush those pearly whites :-). Clean looking uniform shirts too!

Spalding Words Next Week: 20 words only

Monday: cloud, draw, drink, garden, goose, hopping, hop, knife, mouth, oakTuesday: peach, pole, queen, rope, season, sign, space, wagon, wheat (eat), window Wednesday: None ~ Math and Phonics Night :-)

Literature: We will read Chapters 15-17 as we learn how Wilbur gets ready to go to the fair! What kinds of things are at the fair? Please have a discussion about the fair with your child. Especially if they've never been to a fair before! This will help us a great deal leading into an activity next week.

Poetry: Recitation Grades from Bed in Summer will be found in your child's homework folder on Monday. Next week we will learn and practice stanza 2 of Something Told the Wild Geese.

Writing: Your children will identify the central theme of a poem called My Shadow and we will continue to work on sentence dictation. 

Grammar: We will be introduced to prefixes, suffixes, and adverbs next week! We will review the topics learned in grammar so far, including classifying sentences, parts of a sentence, and capitalization rules.

Math: This week in Math we are going to begin our journey into addition with renaming/regrouping! (Ex. 28 + 7 = 35) Renaming can often be a good challenge for second graders so please keep in mind your child may need a nice cheer or encouraging word while completing the nightly homework. There will be no homework Wednesday - we hope to see you at Math and Phonics Night!

History: This week we are traveling across the Pacific Ocean to Japan! Students will be introduced to modern Japan and Tokyo, as well as be able to discuss the differences between school here and in Japan. We will also talk about the symbolism of the Japanese flag and why Japan is called the "Land of the Rising Sun" (because it is the first country in Asia that sees the sun rise).

Science: Next week we will HOP into our next animal life cycle: a frog! We will learn about how the frog experiences metamorphosis through these stages: egg, tadpole, froglet, and adult frog. Did you know that there are thousands of different kinds of frogs in the world and they don't all look alike? See if your 2nd grader can answer these to questions: Do you know what a group of frogs is called? Frogs live on every continent in the world except _____.

Warmest, 

Mr. High

September!

Dear 2A,

Can you believe September is already here? This past week has flown by and I'm so excited for this upcoming week because Grandparent's Day is next Friday, September 8th! We are looking forward to seeing many of our special grandparents at school. Please see the school newsletter regarding this event and see the link above for an invitation and link to RSVP. There will be separate assemblies and time in the classrooms for K-2 and 3-5. 

Here is what we will be learning next week...

Literature: In Charlotte's Web we will read Chapters 13 and 14 and learn about the 2nd miracle at the farm! Students will write a newspaper article about the exciting event! Our grandparents will help us read Chapter 14 on Friday and we are excited to talk with them about their special talents.

Spalding Words (20 next week): Due to the short week we will only have twenty spelling words this week. 10 will be given on Tuesday and 10 on Wednesday.
Tuesday: these, those, club, seen, see, felt, full, fail, setting, set
Wednesday: stamp, light, coming, come, night, pass, shut, easy, ease, bone

Writing and Grammar: We will review the meanings of nouns and verbs, go through our question and answer flow to pick out important parts of speech, work on punctuation rules, and classify sentences!

Poetry: We will be practicing stanza two from Something Told the Wild Geese. We finished our recitations of Bed in Summer and I will send home your child's score next week.

Math: This week our mathematicians will be solving word problems involving addition and subtraction within 1000 without renaming. We will be testing addition and subtraction without renaming, so keep a sharp eye out for a study guide that is titled Test B – Unit 2: Addition and Subtraction!

Science: Next week we will move from learning about the seasonal cycle to learning about life cycles. We will begin by studying life cycle of a chicken. What came first, the chicken or the egg?

History: This week we will travel to the Southern Cone of South America to take a look at Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Your child will also be able to identify important people of those countries. On Friday we will review everything we have learned about North, South, and Central America in preparation for our test next week. Island projects are due on Friday, September 8th! Here are a few example photos of previous projects: 

Warmest, 

Mr. High

What a Stellar Week!

Dear 2A,

Your kids are doing so well! This week was out of this world with MAP testing on Monday, as well as the eclipse. Thank you again for everyone who was able to come by Wednesday night! We hope you enjoyed learning a little more about second grade and Mrs. Gerhart and I truly appreciate all of your support! 

We definitely understand that it was a late night and that many families might not be able to drop in, so I thought I'd include the presentation from Curriculum Night for anyone who wasn't able to make it. 

Here is the presentation from Wednesday night:

file://ssbcusa.local/US1000/US1004-1/FR/US1004-1-PHigh/Documents/Curriculum%20Night!.pdf

Curriculum Next Week...

Language Arts...
Poetry: The students will recite Bed in Summer in front of the class this week! I can't wait to hear the recitations again this week! Please make sure to look at the recitation rubric on the back of their poem. On Monday, in your child's greenfolder, you will receive our next recitation: Something Told by the Wild Geese by Rachel Field. Please start to work on memorizing stanza 1 with your child this week!

Literature: We will continue to read Charlotte's Web chapters 10-12 this week. We will talk about what character traits make a good friend, and identify friendships in our lives that have virtuous character traits! We will create a "class web" by throwing a ball of yarn to a classmate while telling them why they are such a great friend!

Spalding: Please continue to practice phonograms and handwriting at home with your child (3-5 minutes of phonogram practice each evening is a great goal). Handwriting is looking great! Thank you for your diligent support with it!

Spelling words for next week...
Monday: better, water, round, cost, price, become, class, horse, care, try
Tuesday: move, delay, pound, behind, around, burn, camp, bear, bare, clear 
Wednesday: clean, spell, poor, finish, hurt, maybe, across, tonight, tenth, sir

Writing & Grammar: Next week we will work on central ideas of a narrative passage, commands, and questions. We will also review the rules of punctuation and capitalization. 
These are links to the Grammar Jingles we've been learning in class:

Sentence Jingle: https://youtu.be/RglRL1w_Umw
Noun Jingle: https://youtu.be/cSJizZdGG0k
Verb Jingle: https://youtu.be/bPGuiUmuY9g

Math: In math this week, we will start flexing our mental math muscles as well as digging deeper into addition and subtraction with renaming. (Example: 45 + 8 = 53, 42 – 4 = 38)

Science: Next week we will conclude our unit on the Seasons of the Year. Be sure to ask your child about "The Reasons for the Seasons" and see if they can tell you about the tilt of planet earth. We will explore more closely the affect each season has on the weather, humans, plants, and animals.

History: This week we will be traveling to the West Indies and South America! Students will be able to discuss how the West Indies was named, locate South America on a map, and talk about who Simon Bolivar was and why he was important to the people of South America. Scholars will also be able to describe the lifestyles of people of the central Andes.

Warmest,

Mr. High

We did it!

Dear 2A,

We made it through our second week of second grade and boy did it fly by! We learned about the tilt of the Earth and its revolutions which still might have a few of us spinning. Next week our planner finally starts with August 21st (hooray!) so your child should start bringing those home starting on Monday. We will practice this new responsibility and change from the paper copy to the actual agenda which should be filled out each day with the nightly homework. :) 

MAP Testing/Solar Eclipse/Monday Funday: Monday is going to be a little different. We have MAP Testing in the morning. Please remember to send your child in with earbuds if they don't have them already. This MAP test is intended to give the 2nd graders some good practice with test taking on a computer. The entire test is read aloud to them. Please make sure your child gets plenty of rest on Sunday evening and a good breakfast on Monday morning too so they can do their best on their test. We will have no morning or lunch recess outside due to the solar eclipse. We don't want any of our little ones looking directly at the sun for fear of eye damage. If you have a child in 3rd-5th grade please see a permission slip that will be sent home. If you would like to sign your 2nd grader out from class to go with you to observe the eclipse, please let me know. Hopefully it won't conflict with their testing time too much. Feel free to check out the school newsletter that was sent out on Thursday regarding the Solar Eclipse if you'd like to read more.

Curriculum Night: On Wednesday, August 23rd we will have Curriculum Night for K-2! Mrs. Gerhart and I are looking forward to seeing you all in the classroom! With that being said, there will be no homework assigned on Wednesday night and we hope you're able to attend. We will be sharing some information about our classroom procedures and curriculum topics for the year. Your child will be writing you a special note that and there will be an opportunity for you to write a note back to them. I'm sure they will be pumped to read it on Thursday morning. Here's is the evening's schedule:

Curriculum Night

6:00-6:15: Welcome and opening remarks by Mr. Gillingham, Ms. Pantalena, and Mrs. Mason

                     Last Names: A-L                          Last Names: M-Z
6:20-7:05:   Child's Classroom                         Specials in MPR 

7:10-7:55:   Specials in MPR                           Child's Classroom

Curriculum Next Week:

Literature: We will continue reading Charlotte's Web this week. In chapters 7-9 we will continue to watch Wilbur and Charlotte's friendship unfold. We will learn the phrase "back to the drawing board" as Wilbur tries and fails to spin a web.

Poetry: We will practice Bed in Summer stanzas 1-3 this week, and the students will be reciting the poem for the class the following week!

Spalding: We will continue with 10 words each day (except for Wednesday), and a 20 word spelling test on Friday. Please continue to closely monitor your child's handwriting and pencil grip!

Monday: first, sent, cent, mile, seem, even, without, afternoon, Friday, hour, our
Tuesday: wife, state, July, head, story, open, short, lady, reach
Wednesday: NONE ~ It's Curriculum Night! So no homework because we hope to see all of our parents/guardians there :)

Writing and Grammar: We will continue with our narration activities as well as sentence dictation for writing. In Grammar we will explore analogies, learn our verb jingle, and add some new vocabulary to our notebooks.

Science: Your young scientists will continue learning about the seasons of the year. Students will to be able identify characteristics of each season and explore how plants, animals, and humans are affected. We will review how the seasons change by the earth's tilt and its revolution around the sun (ask your child about the demonstration we did with a globe and a lamp). We will also take some time to learn about the solar eclipse happening on Monday.

History & Geography: We will take a trip around North and Central America this week! We will locate the United States and Canada and identify important places and landforms in those countries. We will then we journey south to Mexico and Central America. We will compare Mexico 500 years ago and today, as well as learn about countries in Central America. (Island Projects are due September 8th.)

Happy Friday!

Warmest, 

Mr. High

A Note from the Nurse and more!

Dearest 2A,

Hooray! We've made it through our first week of second grade and are off to a great start! Mrs. Gerhart and I are thrilled to have such a stellar group of kids in our class and are very excited to dive further into our curriculum this week. With that being said, here is a note from our wonderful school nurse and and some information about this week's curriculum: 

--

Our classroom is a nut free zone

Nuts are acceptable at lunch time (since we have the nut free tables), but not allowed during snack time in the classroom. Thank you for your help and understanding.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Note from the Nurse

Dear Parents,

Welcome back! Please know that the health and safety of your child is my utmost priority. I am still in the process of reviewing all of the Emergency Forms and becoming acquainted with the medical conditions that we have on our campus. Many of you have already been informed that your child’s classroom is “Nut Free”. Until I complete this process, I ask that all parents only send snacks that are “Nut Free” to protect those who may have severe allergies. Your student’s teacher will update you soon if nuts will be permitted in your child’s classroom.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thank you so much for your patience.

Kindest regards,

Kristine Hodgkins | School Nurse
Archway Classical Academy | Arete | 4525 E. Baseline Rd. | Gilbert, AZ 85234
P: (480) 222-4261 | F: (480) 222-4234 | E: khodgkins@archwayarete.org | W: www.archwayarete.org

--

_______________________________________________________________________________

Our Curriculum Next Week...

Spalding: We will dive into spelling words! Please continue to monitor handwriting and practice phonogram cards at home. We will also be continuing to practice at school.

Monday: became, brother, rain, keep, start, mail, male, female, eye, I
Tuesday: glass, party, upon, two, twin, twice, twelve, twenty between, they
Wednesday: would, could, should, any, many, city, only, where, week, weak

Literature: We will read chapters 4-6 in Charlotte's Web! The students (and teachers) are loving this book! We will have fun learning new vocab words and exploring how Wilbur is feeling lonely and what he can do about it. We will have a class discussion about friendship and compare and contrast qualities in both Charlotte and Wilbur. Students will distinguish main points and ideas in each chapter.

Grammar: Students will review the parts of a sentence and what nouns are.

Math: We’re continuing to learn about place value (hundreds, tens, and ones) through next week and we will have our first math test on Tuesday, August 15th. A practice test will be sent home Monday evening as the math homework for that day which will help your child prepare for the test. Towards the end of the week, we will be getting into money and number comparisons.

Science: Our scientists will review what they learned in 1st grade about the four seasons of the year. They will understand that the seasons are caused by the earth's tilt and its revolution around the sun. We will be using the globe and a lamp to model and investigate how this works. Students will understand that each season has special characteristics. We will also explore how each season affects plants, animals, and humans.

History: We will continue exploring maps and globes this week, comparing them as well as zooming in on land features that create Earth's beautiful landscape. Students will learn about volcanoes, mountains, valleys, prairies, coasts, deserts and oases. Please review these terms at home and see if you can spot any interesting landforms in the neighborhood! Students should be able to tell you the names of their continent, country, state, and city. They should also be able to tell you directions on a map and identify the continents, major oceans, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, as well as the poles. Students will also be assigned their island poster project (due September 9). These project guidelines and rubric will be coming home on Wednesday. Some examples photos are below.

As always, please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns. Have a great evening!

Warmest, 

Mr. High