SECOND THOUGHTS

BismillahhirRahmanirRaheem

MDQ Academy
Brentwood, New York
Sept.30-Oct. 3
abaig@mdqacademy.org teachtworeach.weebly.com

Sister Amnas Classroom Newsletter

READING/LANGUAGE ARTS
Students read Henry and Mudge. They learned about consonant blends in phonics Those are words that have two or three consonants together, such as STReam. For the comprehension skill, they worked on character and setting. They focused on different character traits that can be exhibited in story characters. To practice the comprehension skills, they did a few interactive flip charts in their notebooks and described various characters/settings in different stories. For really fun practice, they had to describe their own character traits. They got a long piece of construction paper with a hole cut in the middle. Around the hole, they had to use adjectives to describe themselves. Some were really honest and said things like, messy. Afterwards, they showed their own face through the hole to show that this represented them as a character, and I took pictures. Check the class website by the end of the weekend for some shots! For grammar, they practiced subjects and predicates. I gave everyone a sentence on a strip. They had to cut the sentence between the subject and predicate to show if they understand each part. Afterwards, we switched predicates, and students had to write and illustrate the new silly sentence that they created with other peoples endings such as, The cow taught the class math. In writing, they started their expository nonfiction paragraph assignment. They had to choose which rule is most important to them in the classroom and write a topic sentence, three reasons why it is important, and a closing sentence. We are in the editing phase and will finish up final copies next week.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Students reviewed the characteristics of a suburb, rural, and urban communities by placing a cut out picture under the correct category and then writing down what each place looks like. We integrated Islam into Social Studies by talking about how we are responsible Muslim citizens and what we can do in our communities, home, and school to show we are responsible. They did a project to highlight these areas, as well as started writing a paragraph about all the ways they can be responsible.

Chapter 2 covers the same type of material as chapter 1, but with three digit numbers. They practiced drawing three digit numbers in base ten blocks, writing them in expanded form, and translating word form back to standard form. They created a Place Value Super Hero craft. The superhero was holding a page that showed a number in base ten blocks, expanded, and standard. He/she had a mask, cape, and everything! Pictures will be on website later this weekend. They students also played a place value matching game with their classmates for review of the weeks concepts.

MATH

Chapter 2 is about animals. They have been learning about 5 different animal groups mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. They compared/contrasted the characteristics of each animal group to help distinguish one from the other.

SCIENCE

``

2nd GRADE NEWSLETTER Page 2

I found a great website to help practice math facts fluency. It is called XTRAMATH.ORG. You can sign up for free. Children can practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts for increased speed and accuracy. When parents sign their child up, they can receive regular updates regarding the childs progress in fact fluency. This is a great free tool for home! When you go to the main page, you need to sign up as a parent. Watch the quick video on the page to understand how the website works.

XTRAMATH.ORG

Next Weeks Highlights

Reading: A Walk in the Desert. Main idea and details. Consonant diagraphs. Grammar: types of sentences Social Studies: Unit 1 test Thursday Science: animal groups and life cycles Math: comparing numbers

Reminders to Students/Parents
1) Many science and math tests did not get returned. Chapter tests always need to be signed and returned. Please make sure this happens so I can continue sending those students tests home! 2) Remember, the student, not the parent, should write reading log reflections. Encourage your child to write thoughtful responses. 3) The I Am Responsible at Home, sheet is due on Monday. 4) The progress report for September will come home early next week Inshallah. Please look over it and sign/return it the following day. Contents that are in the Friday folder and Class Dojo should give you a good idea about how your child is doing on a regular basis. 5) Today I am sending home two class test graphs that I meant to attach to last weeks tests. Usually these will come with the test and your childs individual score will be highlighted. Only you will know what your own childs score is, but it will also give you an idea how they are doing overall for the tests alongside the class average. If they fall below the average on a regular basis, more attention needs paid to factors that can remedy the situation.

Upcoming Events/Requests/Comments
1) Field trip to White Post Farms next Wednesday. Permission slip and $20 dollars is due by Monday. If you would like to be a chaperone, please check the box on the bottom. I will contact you to confirm. Chaperones have to pay $10. LUNCH SHOULD BE IN A PAPER BAG- with the name written, and all contents that the food is in should be disposable. Pack the snack separately in the morning because we eat that before we leave for the trip. 2) Eid Break is from Oct. 14-17th.
3) Some of the students may have hugged you this week and told you something they were thankful for. Were you surprised? It was their secret homework for the week. I loved reading some of the responses and things they said they told their parents! Something small like that from our children can make our day!!