Mrs. Hatcher's 2nd Grade News
Friday, September 1, 2023
Parent/Teacher Conferences - October 3 & 5
🤓 This Week's Learning
Here is what we learned in each subject area this week:
📚 Reading: We learned the difference between fiction and nonfiction. We also practiced finding "good fit" books for our book boxes.
✏️ Writing: We learned about generating new ideas for writing.
🔢 Math: We learned about the 8 mathematical practices and our Math Workshop structure.
🌏 Social Studies: We began learning about citizenship, including rights and responsibilities.
💜 Social Skills: We learned how to work hard to get better at a skill.
💜💙💚Second Step - Social Skills
We want your child to be successful in school and that means supporting and encouraging their whole development. While excelling in academic classes is important, children also need skills to take on learning challenges, make good decisions, manage strong emotions, and get along with others.
This week, we’ll begin Second Step Elementary, a research-based social-emotional learning program designed to improve children’s social-emotional skills. Second Step skills and concepts are designed to help children both in and out of school. Four units will cover the following:
Growth Mindset & Goal-Setting: Children learn how to pay attention and manage distractions, develop a growth mindset, and apply goal-setting strategies to their social and academic lives.
Emotion Management: Children learn how to identify and label emotions and use emotion- management strategies—including stress management for older students—to calm strong feelings.
Empathy & Kindness: Children learn how to recognize kindness and act kindly, have empathy for others and take others’ perspectives, and recognize kind acts and empathy as important elements of building and maintaining relationships.
Problem-Solving: Children learn how to identify and state a problem, recognize if a problem is an accident, and use the STEP problem-solving process:
S: Say the problem
T: Think of solutions
E: Explore the outcomes
P: Pick a solution
You’ll receive weekly communications in this newsletter to help you reinforce Second Step language, skills, and goals at home. Thank you for your support as we work to build a safe and supportive school community.
Second Step Lesson - Try At Home!
In this week’s lesson, your child learned that their best skills have developed as a result of practicing, trying hard, and asking for help.
Try This at Home:
Ask your child to share with you what they’re good at and how they became good at it. Share with them something you’re good at and what you did to practice and try hard, and who you asked for help.
Here is more information about Unit 1 of Second Step!
📚 Books We Read This Week
- Ralph Writes a Story by Abby Hanlon
- Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
- There Might Be Lobsters by Carolyn Crimi
- Willow by Denise Brennan-Nelson and Rosmarie Brennan
- Disgusting Critters: The Slug by Elise Gravel
Ask your child about these stories and the important lessons we learned from each one!
Chapter Book Read Aloud
If you're looking for a good series of books to read to your children, these are so much fun to read as a family! My family is on a Boxcar Children reading adventure right now, trying to read all 161 Boxcar Children books!!
📱iPads
Students need to know their lunch number (begins with a 7) and their birthdate in mmddyyyy format to login to their iPads. I have a cheat sheet for them, but it's so helpful if they know these numbers so they are more efficient. Students who know their lunch number and birthday passwords by memory will receive a prize!!
👟 Shoes!!
Please be sure your child wears sneakers to school on Tuesdays and Fridays for PE. In addition, please help your child choose safe shoes for recess time! The best shoes for recess are closed toed and strapped to the child's foot! This helps avoid injuries at recess as much as possible!
If your child is wearing shoes that tie to school, please help them practice tying them at home! Part of our work toward independence in 2nd grade is having students zip and button their own coats, clean up their own messes, and tie their own shoes! Several students are still struggling with this skill and it's a great thing to practice at home! Below are a couple of fun shoe-tying videos if you want something for your child to watch to help them learn!
💻 VIRTUAL CURRICULUM NIGHT
🎉 CHAPEL HILL CELEBRATIONS
📆 IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES
🚫 No School - Labor Day: Monday, September 4th
🎟️ Fall Carnival: Friday, September 15th @ 5:00pm-7:00pm
🍪 PTA Fall Cookie Dough Fundraiser: Wednesday, September 20th to Wednesday, October 4th
🚫 No School - Professional Development Day: Friday, September 22nd
Links to Past Newsletters
Mrs. Lindsay Hatcher
📬 Preferred Communication: Seesaw
💻 Email: lindsay.hatcher@nkcschools.org
📞 Classroom Phone: 816-321-4772
📞 Office Phone: 816-321-5040