Dear Grade 2/3 Families,
Homework will look a bit different this week. We are asking the children to spend time this week preparing for our Friendship Week, which will be the week of the 13th. We are asking the children to spend time making a valentines box, writing valentines, and writing compliments for the other children in the class. This is a good exercise for the children to get them thinking about what makes each of their classmates special. We have a great group of kids, and we are looking forward to giving them this opportunity to encourage one another.
In Grade 2
Math Workshop: This week, students began to learn about adding and subtracting money, as well as rounding and estimating. Rounding and estimating are tough concepts, so we will be working more with that in the coming week. Students participated in multiple small group activities and worked on how to give and receive proper change. This was done in real life scenarios and we feel that working with money is an extremely important skill for our children! We will continue working with money, rounding and estimating, and adding and subtracting two digit numbers in the coming weeks.
Readers’ and Writers’ Workshop: In reading workshop this week, we finished our unit on comprehension strategies and have moved on to our next unit, which looks at character traits and actions. This unit has a great set of mentor texts that have strong characters in them, and so far the students seem to love these texts! In writing workshop, we spent the week publishing work from the Tomie dePaola author study unit. Students started with revision, moved onto editing, and finally published their work. We saw some beautiful writing from the 2nd graders, and they were very proud of their finished product. On Monday, we will begin our nonfiction writing unit, which should be a great time for students to show off their knowledge about things they are passionate about! Writing nonfiction is difficult, but we have a ton of confidence in this great group of 2nd graders.
In Grade 3
Math Workshop: Our fraction work continues! We made fraction kits and played Fraction Cover Up and Fraction Uncover. Fraction kit preparation and play helps us to concretely understand fraction equality.
In Readers’ Workshop, we’ve been talking about what it means to infer, and make inferences when we read. We’ve discussed how authors leave clues in the text for us to read beneath and understand what’s happening without the author telling us so. We are practicing using this reading strategy during Readers Workshop as well as read aloud.
In Writers’ Workshop, writers are revisiting and continue to practice getting ideas from their gathering journals and applying all the techniques writers use to make their writing interesting for the reader: showing not telling by developing their characters with interesting dialogue and examining how it should conventionally look on paper.
In our 2/3 learning community
IB Unit Inquiry: We are well under way in our current unit about sharing the planet. We are studying access to water around the world. We are fortunate to be able to have the children participate in a Level Up Village course. We have been teamed up with another class in Nicaragua who is studying the same topic. The children have received videos from their Nicaraguan partners, and our children have made videos in response. This week, we will focus on the different problems our two countries have with water. We will also start using Tinkercad to do some 3D printing. By the end of the unit, the children will design something that can be printed on our 3D printer to help out with the worldwide water crisis. We are excited to see what great ideas the children may come up with.
Important Dates and Reminders:
February 6, Monday - ASG - PJS Spirit Day
February 10, Friday - Bring in valentines boxes and cards for Anna
February 11, Saturday - PJS Pancake Breakfast 9:00-11:00am & Annie Set Making Day
February 14, Tuesday - Valentine’s Party (don’t forget to bring your valentines)
February 14, Tuesday - PJSPA Meeting 7:00-8:00pm
February 15, Wednesday - Saltworks Play @ 9:00am
February 16, Pizza Thursday
February 17, NO SCHOOL - Staff Development - No Vacation Program
February 20, Monday - NO SCHOOL - Presidents' Day - No Vacation Program
February 23, Thursday - 12:00 Dismissal - Parent/Teacher Conferences - 1:00 to 6:00pm
No After School - Childcare of Conference Time Only
February 24, Friday - 12:00 Dismissal - Parent/Teacher Conferences - 1:00 to 6:00pm
No After School - Childcare of Conference Time Only
February 27, Monday - ISA Testing (Grades 3, 4 & 5)
February 28, Tuesday - ISA Testing (Grades 3, 4 & 5)
March 1, Wednesday - ISA Testing (Grades 3, 4 & 5)
March 10 & 11, Friday & Saturday - Annie Jr. Play - Please save the date!
Homework will look a bit different this week. We are asking the children to spend time this week preparing for our Friendship Week, which will be the week of the 13th. We are asking the children to spend time making a valentines box, writing valentines, and writing compliments for the other children in the class. This is a good exercise for the children to get them thinking about what makes each of their classmates special. We have a great group of kids, and we are looking forward to giving them this opportunity to encourage one another.
In Grade 2
Math Workshop: This week, students began to learn about adding and subtracting money, as well as rounding and estimating. Rounding and estimating are tough concepts, so we will be working more with that in the coming week. Students participated in multiple small group activities and worked on how to give and receive proper change. This was done in real life scenarios and we feel that working with money is an extremely important skill for our children! We will continue working with money, rounding and estimating, and adding and subtracting two digit numbers in the coming weeks.
Readers’ and Writers’ Workshop: In reading workshop this week, we finished our unit on comprehension strategies and have moved on to our next unit, which looks at character traits and actions. This unit has a great set of mentor texts that have strong characters in them, and so far the students seem to love these texts! In writing workshop, we spent the week publishing work from the Tomie dePaola author study unit. Students started with revision, moved onto editing, and finally published their work. We saw some beautiful writing from the 2nd graders, and they were very proud of their finished product. On Monday, we will begin our nonfiction writing unit, which should be a great time for students to show off their knowledge about things they are passionate about! Writing nonfiction is difficult, but we have a ton of confidence in this great group of 2nd graders.
In Grade 3
Math Workshop: Our fraction work continues! We made fraction kits and played Fraction Cover Up and Fraction Uncover. Fraction kit preparation and play helps us to concretely understand fraction equality.
In Readers’ Workshop, we’ve been talking about what it means to infer, and make inferences when we read. We’ve discussed how authors leave clues in the text for us to read beneath and understand what’s happening without the author telling us so. We are practicing using this reading strategy during Readers Workshop as well as read aloud.
In Writers’ Workshop, writers are revisiting and continue to practice getting ideas from their gathering journals and applying all the techniques writers use to make their writing interesting for the reader: showing not telling by developing their characters with interesting dialogue and examining how it should conventionally look on paper.
In our 2/3 learning community
IB Unit Inquiry: We are well under way in our current unit about sharing the planet. We are studying access to water around the world. We are fortunate to be able to have the children participate in a Level Up Village course. We have been teamed up with another class in Nicaragua who is studying the same topic. The children have received videos from their Nicaraguan partners, and our children have made videos in response. This week, we will focus on the different problems our two countries have with water. We will also start using Tinkercad to do some 3D printing. By the end of the unit, the children will design something that can be printed on our 3D printer to help out with the worldwide water crisis. We are excited to see what great ideas the children may come up with.
Important Dates and Reminders:
February 6, Monday - ASG - PJS Spirit Day
February 10, Friday - Bring in valentines boxes and cards for Anna
February 11, Saturday - PJS Pancake Breakfast 9:00-11:00am & Annie Set Making Day
February 14, Tuesday - Valentine’s Party (don’t forget to bring your valentines)
February 14, Tuesday - PJSPA Meeting 7:00-8:00pm
February 15, Wednesday - Saltworks Play @ 9:00am
February 16, Pizza Thursday
February 17, NO SCHOOL - Staff Development - No Vacation Program
February 20, Monday - NO SCHOOL - Presidents' Day - No Vacation Program
February 23, Thursday - 12:00 Dismissal - Parent/Teacher Conferences - 1:00 to 6:00pm
No After School - Childcare of Conference Time Only
February 24, Friday - 12:00 Dismissal - Parent/Teacher Conferences - 1:00 to 6:00pm
No After School - Childcare of Conference Time Only
February 27, Monday - ISA Testing (Grades 3, 4 & 5)
February 28, Tuesday - ISA Testing (Grades 3, 4 & 5)
March 1, Wednesday - ISA Testing (Grades 3, 4 & 5)
March 10 & 11, Friday & Saturday - Annie Jr. Play - Please save the date!