Author: ladmin

Anglophone East School District

Northrop Frye School
Grade 2
Curriculum Newsletter

Aiming for Better Than Fine...

September 2015

‘How was your day?’
‘Fine’ or ‘Good’ is the typical answer but it can be hard to get any more information from your child at the end of the school but you know that there has to be more…
Of course there is more!
Your child may be willing to share but the question itself can be limiting. Instead of asking such an easily answered question, please consider asking something slightly more complex. A question that requires more than a one word answer will get the conversation moving. You may want to try the following ones...
What was the funniest thing that happened today?
What was really tough for you today?
What new fact did you learn today?
Who made you smile today?
Did anyone push your buttons today?
What is your teacher’s most important rule?
Who do you want to make friends with but haven’t yet? Why?
When did you feel most proud of yourself today?
What rule was the hardest to follow today?
What is one thing you did today that was helpful?
More questions can be found in the article “30 Questions to Ask your Kid Instead of ‘How Was Your Day?’” written by Sara Goldstein and found on the website Parent Co

Volume 1, Issue 1

Important Dates
Sept. & Oct.
Sept. 24—Meet the Teacher. NFS @ 6:30.
Sept. 29—Picture Day
Sept. 30—Terry Fox Walk.
Oct.2—NFH&S Pizza & Movie Night. NFS @ 5:30
Oct.8&9—No school. Curriculum Days.
Oct.12—No school. Thanksgiving.
Oct.30—NFH&S Halloween Event.

Inside this issue:

Welcome to the Grade 2 Team!

Our ’In-House’ Team is comprised of 5 teachers—Ms. Allen, Ms. Johnson, Mrs. Langille, Ms. O’Blenis, and Ms. Stultz—who work together to support all of the students in Grade 2.
Our other team members are...you, the parents and guardians.
We do our very best to meet your child’s needs daily but sometimes things happen that we don’t know about. We need your support in providing us with the information to best support your child academically and socially here at school. f there are ever any questions, comments or concerns we encourage you to contact us immediately.
Welcome to the Team!
In order to keep you informed of the goings on in our classrooms
Website
Newsletter
School webpage

Literacy / Curriculum	2
Literacy @ Home	2
Math / Curriculum	3
Math @ / Home	3
You and Your World	3
The Stats on Daily Reading	4
How to Stay Up to Date	4

Page #

Northrop Frye School
Grade 2
Curriculum Newsletter

Literacy Curriculum Outcomes

Choosing a “Good Fit” book.
Your child is learning to choose books that they can read and understand fairly independently. You can support this at home by having them read any page in a book that they have chosen, making sure there are no more than 3 words they don’t know and that they understand what they have read.
Building stamina to read independently.
It is important that your child be able to read independently for a sustained period of time. This skill can be fostered by encouraging and modelling independent reading time. (This would not be counted as their homework reading)
Writing a retell with a beginning, a middle and an end.
It is hard to write a story with a beginning, middle and end if you cannot tell a story that has a beginning, and end. Share stories, make-up stories, and retell favourite stories with one another. This will help your child to have stories to share in our writing workshop.
Using capitals at the beginning of a sentences and periods at the end.
Notice capitals and periods, or any end punctuation, while you are reading together.
Using social conventions when communicating.
Social conventions are crucial to your child developing relationships. Encourage your child to respond when spoken to and to take their turn in a conversation. It is important to understand that listening is every bit as important in a conversation as speaking, and sometimes more. A good listener listens actively and can ask extending questions.

Literacy @ Home

Oral language learning is a key component to building reading and writing skills. Which means that speaking to and engaging in meaningful conversations with your child is one of the key ways that you can support their learning at home.
Making regular inquiries about their day using open questions (such as the ones suggested on the front page) is a great way to get the conversation started.
Another idea is to create a book together of family stories. These should be cherished family stories that have been practiced, rehearsed and are enjoyed over and over again at family gatherings. Take turns sharing these stories or sometimes retell them together.
Enjoy this time with your child as they develop these skills.

“Kids not only need to read a lot but they also need lots of books right at their fingertips. They need access to books that entice them and attract them to reading. Schools can foster wider reading by creating school and classroom collections that provide a rich and wide array of appropriate books and magazines and by providing time every day for children to actually sit and read.: - Dr. Richard Allington 2012

Books, Books and More Books!

It is estimated that ideally the average classroom library should be stocked with 1000 to 2000 books. While we try to reach that goal we sometimes fall short as books can be lost or fall into disrepair with such frequent use. So here is our request….
As you and your family clean out the old books in your homes, we would ask that you consider donating any gently used books to the Grade 2 Team.
We look for a wide-range of books , both fiction and non-fiction at an elementary level. It may be a book that your child has outgrown but it is a completely new adventure for another student!
We can always find a classroom library looking for new books.

Volume 1, Issue 1

Page #

Math Curriculum Outcomes

Counting forward and backward by 1 (from different starting points)
The first step to this outcome is that your child can count forward and backward. The next piece is that they can start from any given number. This ensures that your child understand the order of our base ten number system. Being able to do this with the numbers from 1-10 and then extending it to the teens will help in recognizing patterns inherent in our number system.
Use any opportunity to practice, ex. “I have counted 6 so far. Will you help me with the rest?” OR counting backwards from 13.
Knowing partners to 5 and 10.
Again, this outcome is about establishing strong patterns to apply to higher numbers.
To practice this at home, acquire ten or five items (macaroni, paperclips, or fingers are convenient) depending on which partner set you are working on. Hide a certain number of the item under a cup or behind your back, with the remaining items showing ask your child how many are hidden. OR Use a deck of playing cards and, having removed the face cards from the deck, arrange a game of go fish but instead of matching the cards you look for number pairs that will make ten.
Understanding how a calendar works.
We are working on knowing the months of the year and the days of the week. It would be helpful to have a calendar in your home that your child could mark special dates and outings on. The next step would be to ask questions, for example—”How many days away is that birthday?”, “What month is that happening in? How many months away is that?”, “This month ends on Tuesday. What day will the next month start on?”

Math @Home

Our math learning is focused in four separate areas, or strands. Number, Patterns &Relations, Shape &Space, and Statistics & Probability. Of a strong understanding of the Number strand is key to being able to work and develop in all of the areas. The District, recognizing this, has designated the Number strand as an essential learning.
It is helpful to your child’s learning if the math games and talking at home are focused on building a deep understanding of numbers and how they work.
Challenges that focus on numbers such as guessing how many steps it will take to get to the next sidewalk and then counting as you cross the street to see how close your estimate was OR even how many bites of cereals it is going to take to empty your bowl are good ways to build this innate sense of numbers.
Check the Grade 2 blog for updates on helpful websites.

Number sense, which can be thought of as intuition about numbers, is the most important foundation of numeracy (The Primary Program, B.C., 2000, p. 146).

You and Your World Curriculum

You and Your World is designed to expose students to think about how they are affected by the world around them. This Curriculum covers a broad range of topics that includes personal growth, science and the their community.
At this time we are working on How People Change. This is focused mainly on having the students assess how they have grown and changed in their 7 years.
We very much appreciate your support so far in providing pictures and details about their names.
This curriculum can be supported at home by inspiring a sense of curiosity and wonder about the world around them...asking questions about all things!

ASD-E

Northrop Frye School

1392 Ryan Street
Moncton NB
E1G 2V3

Phone: 506-856-3062
Fax: 506-869-6596

This would be a good place to insert a short paragraph about your organization. It might include the purpose of the organization, its mission, founding date, and a brief history. You could also include a brief list of the types of products, services, or programs your organization offers, the geographic area covered (for example, western U.S. or European markets), and a profile of the types of customers or members served.
It would also be useful to include a contact name for readers who want more information about the organization.

OUR MISSION

A respectful community of life long learners.

Stay In Touch

It is important that you have the information that you need to support your child’s learning at home. There are many ways to track down the information that you may be looking for. Please bookmark the links below so that you can access them at any time this year.
The District website can be found at...
http://web1.nbed.nb.ca/sites/ASD-E/Pages/default.aspx
Here you can find such information as school calendars, bussing information, school closures, etc.
The school website is a good place to find information more unique to our building, like—meeting times, cafeteria ordering, links to the school newsletter, bell schedules and school policies.
http://web1.nbed.nb.ca/sites/ASD-E/schools/northropfrye/Pages/default.aspx
If you are looking for information more specific to grade 2 at NFS please check out our Team blog at https://grade2nfs.weebly.com/. Here you will be able to find a link to our newsletter, suggested websites and updates on what’s happening in class!