The 2A Express
The Weekly Roundup
Week Nineteen....
Greetings, Parents and Caregivers,
I hope this newsletter finds you and your family well.
After a short week punctuated by the second period of MAP assessments there is quite a few things that have happened since the last weekly roundup.
The mathematicians of 2A continue to strengthen their understanding of addition and subtraction strategies as they move towards their understanding of the vertical method of two and three digit numbers.
In our reading and writing units, each student continues to write and refine their realistic fiction story, using examples from the works of James Howe, Marc Brown and a few other notable authors, to take their ideas and stretch them using believable characters, dialogue and narrative pieces that shows character traits, action, thoughts and feelings. It has been a very interesting unit
In Science, our budding meteorologists completed the weather unit and are looking to begin a new Social Studies unit that focusses on Qatar's past and future. This will be a wonderful unit to allow the students to take on the role of an historian and anthropologist as they come to know the historical journey of the nation that they currently reside in.
Please take the time to look through the newsletter as there is some important information regarding the next few weeks, click on the images of your child engaged in learning and feel free to contact me with any queries or issues that may arise.
The Nineteenth Week
The Subjects
Math
This week has seen the mathematicians of 2A move from looking at the composition of ones and tens in the process of addition and move towards the decomposition of tens and ones when subtracting two and three digit numbers.
These past few weeks have seen students first using tiles to build numbers when adding and subtracting, then moving to drawing a visual representation of the tens and ones in a place value chart, moving towards answering and ultimately understanding the concept of the vertical method.
This has been a fantastic unit that has allowed the students to look at the relationship between tens and ones, while utilizing their previous exposure to our base ten number system.
As the unit progresses, we will continue to practice drawing equations and utilizing the vertical method. In conjunction with this practice, there will be a focus upon addition and subtraction word problems.
This focus allows the students to read a variety of word problems, figuring out which strategy would be the best for the situation and then double check their work through the 'Fact Family' strategy. During this week we continue to encourage students to identify the question and to realize that the reason for having more than one strategy is that some strategies work well with certain numbers, and another strategy may be more efficient for a different set of numbers.
Also, our Math Coordinator, Mrs. Carol Little will be holding a Lower Elementary parent drop in / office hour every Wednesday from 2:00 – 3:00pm. Mrs. Little will be available at this time every week to assist parents who need further information about our Math program or who would like help and/or suggestions with how to support their children at home. It will be held in Ms. Mindy Martin’s office.
Also, below is the unit link by Eureka Math housed on YouTube embedded in the newsletter. This is a cluster of short videos that provides parents, students and teachers with an overview of the strategies that are being taught this unit lesson by lesson, and how to solve some of the questions that students are exposed to.
IXL Second Grade Resources
Building and Drawing Numbers Before Subtracting
Reader's Workshop
This week 2A continues their study of realistic fiction stories and ‘Following Our Character’s Footsteps’.
Readers have been noticing how big events within a story can cause characters to change. Students have also been focussing on how a main character changes throughout a story. When we notice characters feelings, thoughts, actions and reactions, it provides a new perspective about the character and helps us to further understand the characters and the story.
During our shared reading time, we have continued to read from James Howe's Pinky and Rex series , each time focusing on a different aspect of the writing. it is quite interesting how readers learn about writing while reading.
Writer's Workshop
In this new Realistic Fiction genre students continue to investigate the structure of stories and the conventions that an author incorporates into their stories to show the reader what the character is feeling, rather than telling the reader in a rather blunt fashion, continuing to utilize James Howe's Pinky and Rex series along with other mentor texts.
Partners have been helping each other by listening to each other’s stories, acting out certain parts of the story and sharing what they are picturing in their heads while listening. They are also able to offer compliments and suggestions. If a part of the story is confusing, they share ideas about how to ‘fix-up’ a part of the story.
We are now at a point in the student's stories to spend a few minutes of a lesson listening to one of our classmates share either a part of their story.
This week we will be looking at crafting strong endings to finish up our stories.
Acting Out Parts of Their Story to Test Its Believability
Science
This week was our last week of our Weather Unit.
Students visited the science lab to compete in a Meteorologist Marathon where they practiced reading thermometers and rain gauges. They also practiced identifying clouds, weather situations, and wind damage using the Beaufort scale.
The week ended with our weather assessment.
We look forward to our next social studies unit which will be Qatar: Then and Now.
2A's Meteorologist Marathon
Exploratory Time
Stay tuned!
In Other News.....
Visiting Artist Danny Gregory
This week we also had a visiting artist by the name of Danny Gregory present to the Lower Elementary School this week. He was inspiring for both students and adults alike and prompted all to take some time each day or whenever it suits to sketch the world around us, to look at how everything fits together and ultimately build those creative muscles in the same instance.
2A's Future Selves
2A had students dressed as nurses, computer engineers, secret agents, sports superstars, hair stylists, scientists, artists and even a teacher among others. This allowed us a chance to discuss what the future could hold for us and how our thoughts change as we get older and experience the world around us.
Things To Know:
Important Information from the LES Office
If you are sending a driver or nanny to pick up your child throughout the school day for an appointment or other reasons, you need to let the Elementary Office know by email.
Please email Deb Fenley dfenley@asd.edu.qa and Swati Korpal skorpal@asd.edu.qa the following information:
Who will be picking up your child, what time they will pick up and the reason for picking the child up and family ID Number which is located on your ID badge.
Gate 5 Entry Update
Parents picking up sick students can enter through Gate 5, the ES Nurses will leave the parents name with the Guard House for easy and quick access.
Friendship Festival T-Shirt Orders
T-Shirts will be sold at Gate 5 and Gate 8 the week of February 21st - 25th.
This year's Friendship Festival T-Shirt gives you free entrance to this year's Friendship Festival which will be on February 26th.
National Foreign Language Week, March 7 – 13, 2016
Below are some of the activities that our language students will be involved in;
Pass it Forward: World language students will teach the community a word they have learned from their classes
- Selected students will say hello in different languages each day over the intercom
Arab Mothers Association Fundraising Activities
February Dates At A Glance
- 2 February - ASD Sports Day
- 4 February - Elementary Swim Championships
- 4 February - Grade 2 Meteorologist Visit
- 9 February - No School
- 10 February - Photo Retakes
- 11 February - AMA Bake Sale
- 14 February - Class Valentine Party
Mr Craig Campbell
Email: ccampbell@asd.edu.qa
Location: American School of Doha, Al Bustan Street, Doha, Qatar
Mrs. Danijela Delic-Domazet
Email: ddelic@asd.edu.qa
Location: American School of Doha, Al Bustan Street, Doha, Qatar