2nd Grade
Good morning, families.
I hope you're doing well, enjoying the beautiful weather, and that maybe the Superbowl went your way! Aside from that I pray your families are healthy!
This will be a fun week full of learning, kindness and love.
Regarding the Valentine Party on Thursday, please do have your child bring a valentine to pass out for their classmates. We have 24 students. Your child can simply sign his or her name, and doesn't need to write the names of the classmates on the cards. Items are rolling in already and I so appreciate all of your gifts for the children! I do need to adjust the time of the party, just a bit. It will start at 2:40 instead of 2:30.
This Wednesday students from our class will be reading the Responsorial Psalm and the prayer petitions for school Mass. Those students are: Nolan Henningsen, Paige Prieto, Myer Le, Lucy Moore, Anna Nguyen, Wyatt Vickroy, and Francesca Ralls. Please pray for them, as stepping up in front of the whole school for the first time can be a bit nerve wracking. For those of you who can make it, school Mass begins at 8:00 a.m. We'd love to see you there. Parents typically sit in the back in the first 2 sections to the right of the Baptismal font.
We will also be taking class pictures this Wednesday. Students should be in school uniforms for this photo. If you want to get free shipping on the photo, please pre-order by returning the form, or ordering online. See the Mustang Weekly for online ordering information.
What we're learning this week:
Religion: Beatitudes
Math: Subtraction to 100 with and without regrouping; 2 step problem solving
Reading: Realistic Fiction; making and revising predictions
Social studies: Citizenship
Writing: Narrative Writing
The School-wide Spelling Bee this morning was great fun to watch!
I hope many of you can pop in for the party on Thursday!
Have a blessed week.
In Christ,
Hope Phan
Good evening parents!
I pray this email finds you well, and that you had a beautiful weekend with your kids. This is such a special and beautiful time of the year. Be sure to make time for yourself to find some silence in the midst of this busy season!
It's sweater weather! And....along with sweaters, please send leggings or tights, coats, gloves, etc. I thought it would be good to share the following information with you. We follow the Kansas Childcare guidelines for outdoor play, so we go outside for 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes at lunch unless the "feels like" temperature is below 15 degrees. Of course we take other things, like wind speed, into consideration, but it's important for us to be outside as much as possible in these months. Our kids need to run and wiggle and play! Thanks for helping us keep your kids as warm as possible on these cold days! If your child doesn't like the idea of bundling up, feel free to make me the bad guy! Tell them Mrs. Phan wants it!
Wow! The kids are definitely practicing the power of "wonder"! It's such a joy to hear them ask questions and ponder things! Their interests are so varied that it keeps me on my toes!
AR store is next Monday! I'll be sending home the students' points to spend tomorrow. I'd like to ask for a quick turnaround and have them back on Thursday. If that's not possible, I need them by Friday morning at the latest.
We have lots going on in the classroom this week, including some fun holiday activities. We'll keep moving along in Religion, phonics and math, but we'll be interspersing some fun into some other subjects.
Spelling Test tomorrow!
Math test either Thursday or Friday....it depends!
Speaking of math, please see the attached photo to help your child utilize one of the two strategies modeled for their homework tonight. Thank you!
In Christ,
Hope Phan
Good evening, parents.
We had a fantastic first day back! We're easing back into work mode well.
I have so much to tell you!
- Last week during the inservice days I attended a session that Sister Cora Marie led. She's such a wonder! She mentioned to us that in her students' agendas, she gives them a Discipleship Mission daily. I loved that idea, of course, and I have to implement that right away! Look for that in their agendas starting today! There will be no accountability or "grading" for this. It's just a quick opportunity to support our religion education, which focuses on head, heart and hands. Head (learn and know), heart (love God and neighbor), hands (put your faith in action).
- We're also participating in the Hallow Challenge called "Finding Fiat". Feel free to enjoy this with your child at home as well, if you're using Hallow! Finding Fiat gave us our Mission for the day, which is "Do something good in the world". The 2nd grader's world consists of their family, school and their neighbors.
- Advent Challenge cards came home today. You'll notice that there's a new spin to the challenge this year. Outside the office, there is an empty advent wreath. Each week of Advent the students will choose a challenge listed on the card. On Fridays please return these cards to school. The children who have completed (or started if you're doing the Novena) a task will be given a purple glass stone to put in the empty vases on the advent wreath. This will be such a nice way to tie in home Advent preparations with school life. I can't wait to get started! It will make a visible representation of how our children are preparing! A student asked, "Are we getting something for doing this?" I said, "Absolutely! You're getting closer to God!"
- I recognize this sounds like a lot, and possibly a little overwhelming for very busy families at this time of year. But please know that all of the above are interrelated and they can all be accomplished by one activity if time is short.
What we're learning:
Religion: Advent is a time of waiting
Math: Subtraction - 2 digit subtraction using strategies (not using regrouping yet)
Reading: Non-Fiction; cause and effect; main idea and details
Phonics: ai, ay, soft c (ice, icy, icicle), sight words
Science: Landforms and water on the earth
Writing: We're very behind on handwriting, so I'm going to focus on that this week. We've got to prepare for cursive in the spring!
Spelling lists will come home tomorrow and I'm looking to have the text next Wednesday, Dec. 10th since we're out of school on the 8th.
I hope you had a wonderful fall break with your families!
God bless us all!
In Christ,
Hope Phan
Dear families,
It's been a busy couple of weeks at Magdalen Catholic School, filled with many activities that make Magdalen a unique, special and valued place. We have a full week ahead of direct instruction, so I'm hoping to get lots accomplished!
Also, we've scheduled our first field trip of the year. We'll be going to Exploration Place in December. Please look for a separate email coming today with detailed information. Look in your child's agenda for the permission slip tonight!
Test: Spelling test on Wednesday
What we're studying:
Religion: Baptism
Phonics: Sight words, silent letter (kn, gn, wr), ou (mouse, soup), ea (read, bread, steak) assessment on Wednesday
Reading: Informational Text
Science: Land and water forms
Writing: Final copy of opinion paper and various grammar lessons
Math: 2 digit addition strategies
As part of our week's study about Baptism, the students will be making a booklet about their Baptism. Please provide the date, place and names of Godparents. A note in their binders will do! We will need this information by Wednesday, please.
May the good Lord bless you this week!
In Christ,
Hope Phan
Good evening, parents.
I pray this email finds you well!
I would like to start by reassuring you that with very few exceptions your children did beautifully on their spelling test today. A Monday spelling test is a rare occurrence. I don't think I've ever given one in my career. I meant to send you this email yesterday so I could remind you to practice but the day got away from me.
This week looks to be an exceptionally fun one!
We have Mustangs Matter on Wednesday, so that calls for jeans and spirit wear if your child would like!
On Thursday we start the day with Mass, thank goodness, followed by a Pep Assembly in the morning, the Great Pumpkin assembly in the afternoon and parties to follow. On that day, your child can wear jeans and a school appropriate Halloween shirt. They can also wear a black/orange or MCS spirit wear shirt. Jeans day guidelines apply. Those guidelines can be found in the parent handbook.
We'll be keeping our noses to the grindstone in 2A, while having fun! I'll stray away from some of our typical work and incorporate some Halloween themed lessons as I can throughout the week.
In Religion, we'll be discussing Original Sin and we'll begin to explore what sin is.
Phonics: final v spelling rules, y as a vowel in a 1 syllable word (cry, spy...)
Math: Place Value and varied ways to represent numbers.
Writing: Finishing up Opinion Papers
Reading: We'll be working on various comprehension skills this week outside of our regular reading routine.
I hope to see many of you popping into the classroom on Thursday for our party! Many thanks to those of you who have started sending in things from my sign up genius!
In Christ,
Hope Phan
Good afternoon, parents!
May I just say your children worked so hard today! We were very busy all day in 2A!
I do want to provide you some homework help for tonight's math homework. We're learning a variety of fact strategies to help us become more flexible and fluent in addition. I've extended the number of days on Topic 2 in order to give our students more opportunity to practice these strategies. When learning something new, like the strategies we're employing, it will seem more difficult and may even be more time consuming to complete homework than simply counting on fingers. But, I promise if your child works through the challenge of learning something new, these strategies will benefit them in the long run! All that being said, we're working on the "Make a 10" strategy to add. I've attached a photo of one of their homework problems, and I'll walk you through it here. It's multiple steps, so don't give up!
- Determine which addend is closest to 10.
- Decompose the other addend in order to make a 10.
- Circle the parts that make a 10.
- Add the remaining part of the addend that was decomposed.
You'll see a packet of math practice that we completed today that might help you guide your child.
If your child is struggling with doing all of this in order, I would highly recommend that you draw a 10-frame on a piece of paper, and use dry beans as manipulatives. A 10-frame looks like this:
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Continuing the theme of homework, tomorrow will be our next Phonics and Spelling test. Since they won't have any phonics homework, I'll be sending home a planning worksheet for a fun science and engineering activity planned for Friday. They learned a lot about birds today and how different birds like different kinds of bird feeders. They're supposed to make some plans for making a bird feeder. I'll be providing simple supplies such as pencils to use as perches, yarn, cups and paper plates. While eating snack today we watched a live feed from a Cornell research lab in Ithaca, NY. Here's a photo of some feeders the kids observed. If you happen to have a bird feeder, and would be willing to send a gallon ziplock bag of birdseed by Friday, that would be amazing. Please don't go out and buy some for this!
That's about it for homework help and requests!
What else are we doing this week?
Tests: Math on Wednesday
Phonics and spelling on Tuesday
Mustangs Matter on Wednesday, which means a spirit wear day!
Free dress on Friday! Thanks, parents to reaching the school goal of helping in the lunchroom! We'll enjoy our free dress day!
We're learning:
Religion: The Blessed Trinity, and the hierarchy of creation
Phonics: r controlled vowels; /ar/, /or/ and the variations of their sounds; /ar/ like in star in an accented syllable, /ar/ like in dollar in an unaccented syllable, /ar/ like in warm in words where it follows a w; /or/ in an accented syllable like in horse, an unaccented syllable like in doctor, and following a w.
Reading: Still working on our first unit focused on Teamwork. This week we're reading an informational piece that describes the symbiotic relationship between ants and aphids!
Math: We'll be wrapping up the addition fact strategies and transition to subtraction strategies.
Writing: We're continuing to learn about opinion writing!
I pray you'll have a blessed week!
In Christ,
Hope Phan
Good morning, parents!
I pray you had a wonderful weekend with your kiddos!
This week will be a "Phantastic" week in 2nd grade, as we've finished all of our screeners and we'll be working full strength on our regular schedule of academics.
Focusing on our PWRS this week, we'll be developing a better understanding of what it means to persevere, and we'll work on incorporating some positive self-talk when the going gets tough.
Learning Intentions for this week include:
Religion: The Purpose and Meaning of Life; to know love and serve God in this life so we can be happy forever in heaven. Also, a more refined look at the attributes of God.
Phonics: er, ur, test, qu, and ar
Reading: Comprehension skills will include cause and effect, making and refining predictions, and story elements of characters and setting.
Math: Continuing fact strategies instruction to include near doubles, adding in any order, adding three addends, and making 10.
Writing: We're going to learn about Opinion pieces, including that the reasons behind an opinion must be based in fact (that's the hard part for them to understand). We'll study some sample opinion pieces, and then write one together as a class.
Grammar: Common and proper nouns
Social Studies: The Constitution
Science: Animal Biodiversity
Spelling Test Wednesday
Thanks so much for all of the items you've purchased for our classroom! Everything is very appreciated!
May God bless us all.
In Christ,
Hope Phan
Good afternoon, families!
I pray you've enjoyed this long weekend with your children. Although this is going to be a short school week, it's going to chock full of activity!
Starting strong tomorrow, we'll have our first monthly Jeans day! Please refer to the handbook or the Mustang Weekly for jeans day expectations.
Also, tomorrow will be our first PTO meeting at 6:30 pm in the library.
Thursday and Friday will feature time with our grandparents! What special blessings these days are for our community!
If you haven't had a chance to read the Mustang Weekly, I urge you to take a few minutes now to do so. Father Marstall has included an important letter for you there, and there is a plethora of information about other activities that might interest your child.
Friendzy, which is our Christian based social/emotional curriculum begins this week! Our first unit focuses on the catch phrase "We are one!", which ties in beautifully with our religion book's first unit "Our Church Welcomes Us".
Finally, we will begin our reading screeners this week, and next week, we'll complete math screeners.
Here's what we're doing in the classroom:
Religion: Friendzy and The Attributes of God
Reading: Screeners and Story Elements
Phonics: ck, th, sh
Math: Addition Strategies Doubles and Near Doubles
Writing: We'll start writing an opinion piece
I'll send home spelling list number 2 tomorrow, and we'll plan for that test to be next Tuesday. However, if I have lots of kiddos out of the room with their grandparents during our decoding time, I'll push that back. I'll let you know!
May God bless us all!
In Christ,
Hope Phan
Good morning, families!
I pray you have a wonderful weekend with your families. Your children are doing well adapting to a new grade level!
The Scouts visited us on Friday. They're inviting all students to join them this school year. They'll have a sign up meeting tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. where the kids will be able to build a dum-dum rocket! The Scout leaders wanted to make sure we let you know that there is financial aid available for any families that need it!
Tomorrow is also picture day! 2nd grade is scheduled for photos directly after Mass, so we'll still be nice and fresh for this year's photo! Please refer to your handbook for guidelines regarding attire.
We are learning and praying the Angelus during this quarter. If you're unfamiliar with that prayer, I'll include a link below. Catholics use the Angelus prayer in daily life by reciting it three times a day, at 6 am, noon and 6 pm to commemorate the Annunciation and the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. It serves as a moment to pause, reflect, and anchor the day in prayer, fostering gratitude and humility. We arrive back from lunch at 11:50, so we're praying daily as our noon time prayer. We're just sneaking it in a little early. I encourage you to try to add it to your family prayer routine at the 6:00 pm hour (or thereabouts). It follows a pattern of call and response, followed by the Hail Mary. The link below will familiarize you with it!
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/angelus-383
A note about Math Topic 1. Several of the children are having trouble with responding to their math work, especially in subtraction. They understand subtraction, but often the question is a "start unknown" question type. For example: Sally had some gumdrops. She gave her sister 7 gumdrops. Now she has 4 gumdrops. How many gumdrops did she have before? The children are using logic and part-part-whole diagrams to solve correctly. They then write the subtraction problem that matches the story: 11-7=4. But, then they write 4 as the answer.....the question asks for the start number. If you could check their homework and have conversations about and misunderstandings they're having, that would be a great help to them and me! Thank you!
Alright! Let's get to academics of this week!
Tests: Topic 1 Math Test: Thursday
Spelling and Phonics tests on Friday
Religion: The Attributes of God, and the purpose and meaning of life
Phonics: Open syllable words (syllables that end in a vowel, such as be or ma/ple), words with consonant blends, spelling with c or k, how to divide syllables in vccv words; such as nap/kin
Reading: Continued work learning about genre. We've discussed Folktale and Fantasy and this week we'll add Informative. Comprehension skill: Ask and Answer questions
Writing: We'll be writing a descriptive paragraph this week to describe our favorite animal.
Math: Continued work in understanding the process and logic of addition and subtraction; including subtraction as separating or as comparing.
I pray you all have a beautiful and blessed week!
In Christ,
Hope Phan
Good evening, parents!
We had a great first full day back to school! I have to admit I'm a little tuckered out and I expect to sleep well tonight!
Here's some information about what we're doing this week:
Religion: This week we're starting Unit 1 in our workbooks. Our focus is how "We Gather as Believers."
Decoding: We're mostly reviewing skills mastered in 1st grade: focussing on vowels, consonants, cvc words, and sight words. Spelling lists will come home next week.
Reading: We're working on a set of lessons bridging 1st to second grade. During this time we're working on comprehension skills such as summarizing and cause and effect.
Writing: We'll be using our summarization skills to complete a summary of Beginning, Middle and End of the story "The Cowardly Lion". We'll also work a little on handwriting.
Math: Topic 1 is all about understanding addition and subtraction. We focus a lot on vocabulary: sum, difference, part, whole, total, etc. this week. and we really focus on using the part-part-whole graphic organizer.
Science: We are delving into what scientists do. Mostly, they're curious and observant and they pursue finding answers to the questions they think up.
Social Studies: This small block of time is when we are continuing our "getting to know you" activities.
I sent home the brown paper bag project tonight. I know some parents have already helped their child collect items since I had it on the Parent to-do list. We'll start sharing those bags tomorrow. I'm hoping five people per day will be able to share, but we'll just have to see how the time goes.
I also sent home the first phonics homework, which consists of reading the writing sight words.
From this point onward, homework on most nights will include:
- A decodable reader (new this year)
- 2 pages of decoding homework (front is done in class, back is homework)
- 1 page (front and back) of math homework.
Mark your calendars for:
- School Picture Day on August 26!
- Grandparents Day on Sept. 4 and 5! Sign up via the link found in the Mustang Weekly.
- September lunch volunteers! I'm sure you've heard about the grade level "contest" we're having this year! If you haven't, please reach out and I'll do my best to explain it to you. Briefly, we've assigned each grade level a month to cover the lunchroom. 2nd grade will have the month of September. A sign up for that can also be found in the Mustang Weekly.
I promised you a list of Kindergarten and 1st grade prayers to review with your children. Those prayers are:
- The Sign of the Cross (I noticed several of the children were doing it backwards today. I think it's because it is backwards to them if I'm facing them. A few of them also skipped the "Son" and went straight to the Holy Spirit)
- The Guardian Angel Prayer
- Glory Be
- Hail Mary
- Our Father
- Grace Before Meals
Please remember to pray for us! We'll pray for you!
May God bless us all.
In Christ,
Hope Phan
