This week in…
Reading This week in Reading we started our new reading unit. In this unit we will be diving deeper into reading strategies that help us read bigger and bigger books. We worked on making our reading more fluent by reading our words in big scoops, and reading books with expression using dialogue tags to help! Writing This week in Writing we started our opinion writing unit. We have so many different opinions on books in our classroom, we are starting our unit by writing about some of our favorite books and sharing why they're our favorite books. If your student has a favorite book at home they'd like to bring in to write with, they're more than welcome to bring it in! Math This week in Math we continued strengthening our understanding of arrays, rows, and columns. We practiced partitioning the arrays into rows or columns. You can be working on strengthening these skills by pointing out rows and columns in their everyday life (i.e. movie theater seats, columns holding up a building, etc.). Family Engineering Night We will be having our Maple Hills Family Engineering Night on Friday, March 6th starting at 6:30. This is such an exciting night with plenty of activities for the whole family. Kindness Week Our school will be celebrating kindness with a full week of kindness inspired activities March 9th-13th. The students in student council came up with the ideas for each day of the week. We hope it will be a fun and valuable experience in promoting kindness in the school. More information to come! Sharing Packet and Optional Homework Check your student's purple folder tonight for the March/April Sharing Packet. Next week's sharing is a creative draw. The March Optional Homework packet will go home next Monday, March 2nd. IOWA Testing We have our 2nd (and final) round of HICAP testing March 10th-13th. We will once again be testing in the morning, so there will be no AM volunteers during that time. Please make sure your student arrives on time, well fed, well rested, and ready to test their best! Have a wonderful weekend! -Miss Sonneland Dates to Know: March 4th-6th: PTA Science Fair March 6th: Family Engineering Night, 6:30 PM March 9th-13th: Maple Hills Kindness Week March 10th-13th: IOWA Testing March 12th: Eagle Reader March 13th: Popcorn Friday and Club Picture Day March 20th: Maple Hills PTA Auction Night
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This week in…
Reading This week in Reading we wrapped up our non-fiction reading unit. We thought about how all the information we've learned this unit is connected. Students practiced retelling not just subjects but whole topics, too. Encourage your student to continue reading non-fiction books at home and growing their schema! Writing This week in Writing we wrapped up our non-fiction informational writing! I was so impressed by the students' writing during this unit, they are quite the experts on informational writing. We had our Information Expo today, check your student's purple folder to see the tri-fold they made to show off their work! Math This week in Math students continued making arrays and distinguishing between columns and rows. We've also been working on writing repeated addition sentences that match our arrays. Check out SeeSaw to see your student explaining their hard work! Friendship Party Thank you so much to everyone who sent in materials, and our wonderful volunteers who came in to help out! It was a very fun party, and was made even better with all of your help and support! Maple Hills PTA Presents 80s Prom Night Our fabulous PTA is putting on the Maple Hills auction on March 20th at Pickering Barn. The doors will open at 5:30pm. Tickets are available at maplehillspta.ejoinme.org/tubular. Class Auction Basket As you know, our PTA is putting on a fundraising auction on March 20th. Our classrooms are collecting items for gift baskets to be offered for bidding at the auction. Our classroom theme is Creative Writing. We are asking parents to please participate by donating some items for the gift basket (examples: journals, stationary, tea & mug, Barnes and Noble or Amazon gift card, etc.). Our deadline to collect these items is February 28! Any questions about the auction? Contact Katherine Swanberg [email protected] Have a great break! -Miss Sonneland Dates to Know: February 17th-21st: Mid-Winter Break - No School February 26th: February Birthday Lunch February 27th: Class Picture Day February 28th: Popcorn Friday & Last Day to Turn in Feb. Optional Homework This week in…
Reading This week in Reading we continued practicing predicting what expert words we might come across in our books, how to figure out expert lingo we might not know, and using our schema (background knowledge) to help us understand what we're reading. Hopefully your student has shared with you some of the incredible things we've learned from our non-fiction books! Writing This week in Writing students continued working on their non-fiction writing. We discussed how good readers always are thinking about their audience when they're writing, and thinking about what questions their reader might have. The students practiced thinking up these questions and answering them in their writing. Math This week in Math we began Module 6 which sets the foundation for multiplication and division. To begin the unit, students have been organizing objects into equal groups. We learned lots of new math vocabulary this week: array, column, row, and partition. Social Studies This week in Social Studies we learned that our business community is facing a problem: not enough customers are shopping at our businesses. In order to solve this problem, we held a town meeting and brainstormed some ideas like an ad campaign, special sales, or offering new products and services. Next week we will work together on our solution. Maple Hills PTA Presents 80s Prom Night Our fabulous PTA is putting on the Maple Hills auction on March 20th at Pickering Barn. The doors will open at 5:30pm. Tickets are available at maplehillspta.ejoinme.org/tubular. Class Auction Basket As you know, our PTA is putting on a fundraising auction on March 20th. Our classrooms are collecting items for gift baskets to be offered for bidding at the auction. Our classroom theme is Creative Writing. We are asking parents to please participate by donating some items for the gift basket (examples: journals, writing pens, books with writing prompts/guided journals, etc). Our deadline to collect these items is February 28! Any questions about the auction? Contact Katherine Swanberg [email protected] Friendship Party On February 14 at 12:20 we will be having our Friendship Party. If your child would like to pass out notes, cards, letters (Valentines) please have them address each child and sign his or her name. A class list has been sent home. Thank you to all of you who have volunteered to send in supplies or help at the party. If you would like to donate anything please visit our sign up genius: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/508044AAEA92DABF85-friendship1 Warm Fuzzies Warm Fuzzies are back at Maple Hills! They will be sold for 5/$1.00 bill. The District is no longer allowing transactions in change, so only bills will be accepted. Warm Fuzzies will be sold at all recesses on Wednesday, February 12th and Thursday, February 13th. The recipient does not need to be in your child’s classroom, but they will need to know the teacher’s name of the classroom they are going to. Warm Fuzzies can go to friends in your child’s own classroom, friends in other classrooms, teachers, specialists, office staff, siblings, parents, etc. Please be sure to send in only bills in up to $5.00 denominations. Parent Pick-Up Just as a reminder, please make sure to email me about ANY changes in pick-up for your student. Since we are very busy during the day, please make sure to always CC the office so they can make sure to relay the message to our classroom if need be. This is especially important for anytime we have a substitute in the classroom. Tech Day We have filled our class pom-pom jar and the students voted to have a Tech Day celebration next Monday, February 10th. For Tech Day, your student may bring one tablet, DS, or other small technological device to school with them. Our classroom ipads and computers will be open if your student doesn't have a device or you're concerned a device would not make it to and from school safely with your student. Students will need to keep their devices in their backpacks until we have our technology time. Have a wonderful weekend! -Miss Sonneland Dates to Know: February 10th: Tech Day February 14th: Friendship Party at 12:20 February 17th-21st: Mid-Winter Break - No School February 26th: February Birthday Lunch February 27th: Class Picture Day February 28th: Popcorn Friday This week in…
Reading This week in reading we learned how good readers expect and look out for keywords they might come across in the books they’re reading. We also discussed strategies for figuring out those keywords like using the whole page to search for clues and using non-fiction text features like glossaries, pictures with labels, and text boxes that give definitions to help us figure those words out. Writing This week in writing students continued writing their All About books. We continued talking about how good writers are always keeping their audience in mind as they write and thinking about what they will want to learn. Students also started adding introductions and conclusions to their writing. Students spent time coming up with leads for their introductions that would hook their reader’s attention. Math This week in math we reviewed all the strategies for addition and subtraction we’ve learned so far. We officially wrapped up Module 4 today with our end of unit test, expect those to be coming home sometime next week! Our next module will be Module 6 which teaches students the foundational understandings for multiplication and division. Social Studies This week in Social Studies students decided on the goods and services their business would offer. Students made tiny tokens for their goods/services, thought carefully about their prices, and created a menu and sign for their business. Our Marketplace officially opened today and students had a great time buying and selling- check out SeeSaw to see all the action! Maple Hills PTA Presents 80s Prom Night Our fabulous PTA is putting on the Maple Hills auction on March 20th at Pickering Barn. The doors will open at 5:30pm. Tickets are available at maplehillspta.ejoinme.org/tubular. Class Auction Basket As you know, our PTA is putting on a fundraising auction on March 20th. Our classrooms are collecting items for gift baskets to be offered for bidding at the auction. Our classroom theme is Creative Writing. We are asking the parents to please participate by donating some items for the gift basket (examples: journals, writing pens, books with writing prompts/guided journals, etc). Each classroom will have a bin placed outside throughout the month of February to collect donations! Items can be dropped off by parents or sent to school with your student. Our deadline to collect these items is February 28! Any questions about the auction? Contact Katherine Swanberg [email protected] Friendship Party On February 14 at 12:20 we will be having our Friendship Party. If your child would like to pass out notes, cards, letters (Valentines) please have them address each child and sign his or her name. A class list has been sent home. Thank you to all of you who have volunteered to send in supplies or help at the party. If you would like to donate anything please visit our sign up genius: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/508044AAEA92DABF85-friendship1 Spring Sports/Activities With Spring Sports starting up, I wanted to send another reminder that I LOVE to come to student’s games, tournaments, recitals, etc. If your child would like me to attend, please send me the date, time, and location and I will try my best to make it. I try to make it to at least one game/activity per season for every student that invites me! Dates to Know: February 4th: Kindergarten New Family Orientation 7:00pm in the library February 5th: PTA Board Meeting at 9:30am February 6th: Eagle Reader Clubhouse February 14th: Friendship Party at 12:20 February 17th-21st: Mid-Winter Break - No School This week in…
HiCAP Testing The students did a great job this week (and last week) with our HiCAP testing. We had perfect attendance each day of testing, thank you all SO much! The students worked so hard every morning on their tests, I was so proud of them for persevering and doing their best work. They all have a lot to be proud of J We will be completing the next portion of HiCAP testing March 10th-13th. Reading This week in reading we continued reading our non-fiction books. We practiced giving our non-fiction books a sneak peek before reading to see if we had any schema on the topic before we started reading. We also noticed how even if we know the topic the book is on, there are always still plenty of surprises we can find in the book with new information. Writing This week in writing students continued writing books about things they are an expert on. We talked about how non-fiction writers need to think about the audience they are writing to, and how their writing might change depending on their audience. Students then practiced planning their books based on their audience, and thinking up introductions that would hook their reader. Math This week in math we continued using the vertical form algorithm and chip model for subtraction. Students practiced decomposing tens and hundreds, and have been busy subtracting bigger and bigger numbers. They were extra challenged this week when they were subtracting from numbers with zeros in the ten’s and one’s place (like 100 and 200), and had to decompose a hundred and then a ten to start their subtraction. Many students this week have recorded videos of themselves explaining their work on SeeSaw, be sure to check it out! Social Studies This week in Social Studies we finished planning our business community. The students were very thoughtful about which businesses should go where in the community (businesses that sell food next to businesses that don’t, the toy store next to the movie theater in case people see a scary movie and need to go buy a stuffie afterwards, etc). If you’re volunteering in the school be sure to check out our business community on the bulletin board outside of our classroom. This week we also learned about goods and services, and students thought about what goods/services their business might offer. We also discussed supply and demand, and what happens to businesses that don’t sell enough goods and/or services to make a profit. Maple Hills PTA Presents 80s Prom Night Our fabulous PTA is putting on the Maple Hills auction on March 20th at Pickering Barn. The doors will open at 5:30pm. Tickets are available at maplehillspta.ejoinme.org/tubular. Spring Sports/Activities With Spring Sports starting up, I wanted to send another reminder that I LOVE to come to student’s games, tournaments, recitals, etc. If your child would like me to attend, please send me the date, time, and location and I will try my best to make it. I try to make it to at least one game/activity per season for every student that invites me! Dates to Know: January 27th: No School for Students (Teacher Work Day) January 29th: Variety Show Dress Rehearsals, January Birthday Lunch January 31st: Variety Show 2:15PM and 7PM February 4th: Kindergarten New Family Orientation 7:00pm in the library February 5th: PTA Board Meeting at 9:30am February 6th: Eagle Reader Clubhouse February 14th: Friendship Party at 12:20 (more info to come J) February 17th-21st: Mid Winter Break - No School This week in…
Reading This week in reading we started our Non-Fiction Information Unit. We learned that in order to read non-fiction readers need to pay close attention to details, put all the information they’ve learned together in their heads, and ask questions like “What is this page/book trying to teach me?” The students have been doing a great job launching into this unit, and have been reading non-fiction books with enthusiasm! Writing This week in writing we also began our Non-Fiction Information Unit. To begin our unit, students shared things that they are experts on. In this unit, students will be writing books that teach all about a subject. We learned how non-fiction writers read books by other writers and think, “I could try that, too!” We also learned how writers reread their writing, trying to add more. Math This week in math we learned how to use the Vertical Algorithm with Subtraction. Students will continue to use the chip model to help them solve. The key understanding for students here is being able to recognize when they need to decompose or break apart a ten in order to subtract from their ones column. The students have been working so hard on learning this new strategy for subtraction, and I’ve been blown away by how well they’ve been able to explain their work. One of their May Do’s during our Math Workshop this week was to record a video of themselves explaining their work, head on over to SeeSaw and you might see a video of your student doing just that! Social Studies This week we started our second Social Studies Unit of the year. In this unit students will create and run a business community. They have already decided on and made their businesses for our community, and next week they will get to decide what goods/services their business will offer. We also discussed city planning and came up with different ideas for possible layouts for our community before deciding on the one we felt like would be the best fit for our community. HICAP Testing Next week we will begin our testing for the Issaquah School District's Merlin and SAGE programs. All 2nd graders in the district are assessed, unless an opt-out form is submitted. We will be taking the Cognitive Abilities Test (CoGAT) and Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) Tuesday, January 14th- Friday, January 17th from 9:30-11. The tests will be given in the morning and are timed. If your student is going to be assessed, please make sure they come to school each day on time, well rested, and ready to test their best! We will not have any AM volunteers that week. Winter Weather From ISD: Please make sure your family and child care givers are signed up for snow day closure and delay texts or emails from our Transportation Department through FlashAlert. (Only families with verified mobile numbers in Family Access will receive texts from the District.) The District and school websites will post information by 6:30 a.m. For more information, including how programs such as field trips and athletics are affected during school closures, please click here. Variety Show From the Maple Hills PTA: It’s that time again for our students to show off their talents! On Friday, January 31st Maple Hills Elementary will present the PTA sponsored 33rd Annual Variety Show. There will be two performances, one during a school assembly for the students and the other at 6:30 for family and friends. The Variety Show will consist of student-initiated acts of almost any nature (e.g. singing, playing an instrument, dance, gymnastics, drama, comedy, etc). If you haven’t seen the sign up form in your Child's purple folder yet you can still sign up for the event online! Link for Online Signup January Optional Homework Packet We will not be having a January Optional Homework Packet this month. Since we’re already well into January, and since student will be testing all next week this month will be break from Optional Homework. Optional Homework will resume in February. Dates to Know: January 14th-January 17th: CoGAT/TTCT Testing 9:30-11:00 AM January 15th: Variety Show Forms Due, School Spirit Day: Twin Day January 20th: MLK Day (No School) January 22nd: Variety Show Auditions January 24th: Popcorn Friday January 27th: No School for Students (Teacher Work Day) January 29th: Variety Show Dress Rehearsals, January Birthday Lunch January 31st: Variety Show |
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June 2020
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