Dear Parents,

Reminders

UN Day on Monday, October 21st. Student may wear clothing that represents a culture or country important to them. Students are dismissed at 1:00 PM following the lunch. If you wish to take your child earlier that 1:00 PM please inform Ms. Hang or myself directly before leaving. Thank you in advance for all of your support with the food and clean up. We can’t do this without all of you.

UOI

This week we highlighted the SDGs in grade two by creating five separate lessons where students had the opportunity to learn about the Global Goals in more detail. The lessons were each led by one of the grade two teachers and the students were combined into groups consisting of all four homerooms. Ask your child more about which SDGs they learned about this week. (They were: Health and Well-being, Quality Education, Reduced Inequalities, and Gender Equality)

Math

This week we discussed the relationship between addition and subtraction by creating fact families. Students created their own fact families and then used them to write word problems. We also used the 100 chart to play a game to give directions to a number by adding or subtracting 10 or 1. This helps students to use 10 as a benchmark number when adding or subtracting larger numbers.

Literacy

This week we learned more about the purpose of writing a response text by co-constructing a text about a Simon’s Cat video. We also tasted cookies to generate a very large and impressive list of adjectives to use in our writing.

Dear Parents,

Thank you to all of you for attending the Learning Conversations that took place on Monday. I truly valued the opportunity to sit with you and your child to discuss their strengths, challenges, and goals. I look forward to having more chances to connect over the course of the school year. Have a wonderful Fall Break!

Reminders

Fall Break October 7-11, No School. See you back here on Monday, October 14

October 21st, UN Day, Early dismissal. 1:00 PM, Students are invited to wear clothes which represent their home nation, or a nation which they have a strong connection to.

UOI

This week students began to evaluate the purpose and form of digital technology. The learned about Padlet by making their first post and inquiring into how Padlet is used. Many students quickly became experts by discovering new applications like changing the color of a post, or adding a photo. They then taught other students in the room. The second form of technology was Book Creator. Mr. C came to class and showed us all the incredible possibilities available. Such a fun week of being digital citizens!

Math

This week we began to use different tools in our classroom to show our mathematical thinking. We demonstrated how to use unifix cubes and little tens frames to solve a word problem. Students also wrote their own word problems.

Literacy

This week we dove head first into our word work and spelling by starting our Word Inquiry lessons. Students learned about word families, prefixes, suffixes, and how to make a word sum. We will continue with this work throughout the year and we are excited to see where it will take us.

Dear Parents,

Reminders

Learning Conversations are taking place on September 30th. Please remember to sign up for your slot on Veracross. There is no school that day, however students will attend the conversation with their parents. This is a meeting for teachers, parents, and students to share strengths and areas for growth, some goals for the year, and to ask questions. The day runs from 10:00 am to 18:00 pm. There will be no ASA or UMA sessions.

Fall Break October 7-11, No School. See you back here on Monday, October 14

October 21st, UN Day, Early dismissal. 1:00 PM

UOI

This week students began finding out more about who a digital citizen is and what a digital citizen does online. We talked about how to respectful, responsible, and safe on the playground, and then did the same for being a digital citizen. Students also played a Kahoot! vocabulary game with Mr. David to learn about the words in our unit. Ask us what it means to be a digital citizen and ways to stay respectful, responsible, and safe.

Math

This week we were problem solvers when we used what we know about addition and subtraction to find out who ate the cookies, in a 3 Act Math Task. Students first noticed and wondered about a short video they saw. Then used a set of photos to work out how best to find an answer to the question, “How many cookies did Cookie Monster eat?”

Literacy

In reading, we learned about how to read to a partner and also be a whole body listener. We also practiced asking questions about a book to a partner, for example, “Can you describe the setting of the story?” In writing, we are just finishing up our unit on writing a recount. Next week, we dip into some free writing and poetry before moving into our second writing unit, Response.

Buddies

We met our buddies this week! We practiced our buddy reading skills and the results were very appreciative K2 students!

Dear Parents,

September 21st is the UN International Day of Peace. This week, students in 2D have read peace themed story books, written peace poems, and made commitments to making peace on Saturday. Ask us how we will make peace everyday and be prepared for your child to ask you the same question!

Reminders

Learning Conversations are taking place on September 30th. Please remember to sign up for your slot. No school that day, however students will attend the conversation with their parents. This is a meeting for teacher, parent, and student to share strengths and areas for growth, some goals for the year, and ask questions. The day runs from 10:00 am to 18:00 pm. No ASA, UMA.

Community Connection Fair, Saturday in B8b from 9:00-12:00

UOI

This week we started our next unit of inquiry. Refer to last weeks post for information about the unit. Students began thinking about who a digital citizen is and answered questions about what they use the internet for and how it can be both good and bad. We also took a field trip to “find the internet” at UNIS by visiting the server room. Surprisingly complex!

Math

This week we were problem solvers by completing our first 3 Act Math task. Students were problems solvers and came up with multiple answers and learned to explain their thinking verbally to the class.

Literacy

We went through the writing process from planning, drafting, and editing a recount about the Moon Festival Assembly last week. Students also added up their reading minutes and entered them into the school library website for UNIS reads 1,000,000 minutes.

Dear Parents,

This week we had our first “dip” into our yearlong unit of inquiry, How We Express Ourselves-Cultures express their creativity in many ways. Ms. Hang started the week with a presentation about the Moon Festival in Vietnam. Why and how it is celebrated. On Thursday, we attended the Moon Festival Assembly and were treated to some fantastic, colorful, and funny performances. Go grade two risk takers who got up on stage to share their culture with us. After that, we learned to make tradition Vietnamese rice dough puppets. We also made a cultural iceberg that represents the values that underpin the Moon Festival and how we can see those values expressed in the different festivities. We look forward to more experiences like this as we continue this unit all year. Find some photos from the week below.

Reminders

Saturday, September 21st, International Day of Peace

Monday, September 30th, Parent Teacher Conferences, no school for students

UOI

Next week we begin our a new unit of inquiry, How We Organize Ourselves. The focus is on becoming a responsible, safe, and respectful digital citizen. Please find information and vocabulary for the unit below.

Moon Festival

Dear Parents,

Thank you to all the parents who came to Back to School Night on Thursday. It was wonderful to meet you in person and for all of us to make some connections with one another as a classroom community. Please find the full slideshow presentation in the blog post below. In it you will find useful and important information about the class and the year ahead. It is worth the time to have a look at some of the documents and information linked. If you have any questions or comments please let me know. I am happy to help in any way that I can.

Reminders

Wednesday September 11th, Snack Sale. Students can bring up to 20,000 VND to purchase two snacks as school.

Thursday September 12th, Moon Festival Assembly and Celebration, students are invited to wear a Vietnamese Ao Dai to school to mark this important Vietnamese holiday.

Friday September 13th, No School. Teacher Professional Development

Back to School Night Presentation

Dear Parents,

Please find some important reminders, updates on our learning, and fun photos from the week below.

Reminders

• Parent Back to School Night – 5th September 2019. 6:00pm to 7.30pm. A time to learn more about the Elementary School and 2D.
• Next week is week B
• Library Exchange day for 2D is every Thursday, week A and B
• Monday, September 2 No School, Vietnamese National Day
• ASAs begin on Tuesday, September 3

Math

This week we welcome Ms. Beth to the classroom to show us a fun math talk. We also worked on our growth mindsets and solving math problems in more than one way. Ask us what hand signals we use in math talks and what they mean. My favorite is for, “I don’t know.”

UOI

This week we continued to build our community by sharing our family values with the class. We put those values into a word cloud and were surprised to find that we share many of the same values: nature, family, education, friends, religion, food, safety, and more. Find our word cloud below. Ask us what actions we take because of our values. If we value nature then how do we show that?

Literacy

This week we learned how to find a Just Right Book. Ask us what that means and how to find a book that’s right for our reading level. We also started drafting our recounts from events that happened over the summer.

Buddies

We had our first playdate with our K2A buddies. It was fun!

Dear Parents,

Our first full week of school has been full of a great deal of excitement and building community. This week we had our first library time, first assembly in the upper elementary, first maker space experience with Mr. C, first grade two community play time, and at least one major thunder and lightening storm. Find some photos below.

Homework

We are sending home a small activity to complete over the weekend and return to school on Monday. Please find the activity sheet in your child’s take home folder or backpack. For our current unit of inquiry we ask students and parents to talk about their values as a family. You should write your values on the sheet, and maybe discuss why this is important to your family. For example: Nature-we value nature because…; or Learning-we value learning because…. Many thanks for your support, this activity really provides the backbone for much of the community building we do in grade two this year.

Reminders

• Parent Back to School Night – 5th September 2019. 6:00pm to 7.30pm. A time to learn more about the Elementary School and 2D.
• Class photos are Thursday, August 29th
• Next week is week A
• Library Exchange day for 2D is every Thursday, week A and B
• Seesaw instructions were emailed on Thursday. If you have any questions or did not receive one please let me know.
• Monday, September 2 No School, Vietnamese National Day

UOI, Math, Literacy Information

Photos from the Week

Dear Parents,

What a fabulous week. I have so much enjoyed getting to know your children. We have been exploring and inquiring into our learning space and becoming a connected community.

Important for Monday as this is helping us to start our first unit of inquiry.

Paper Bag Activity for this weekend. Check your child’s  bag after school on Friday. All instructions are included on the bag. Please place objects that your child wishes to share that tell us about themselves in the bag and return to school by Monday, 19th of August.

Some helpful information to get the year started.

• Lunchtime – remember to send ID card with money credited to your child’s account or send a home packed lunch.
• Buses. If you child is not going home on the bus you need to contact the transport coordinator and cc me into the email.
• Hats are required during recess breaks and PE.
• We have a snack time in the morning at around 10:00am inside the classroom. In the afternoon there is no snack time provided in class but children may eat during recess if needed.
• A class schedule was sent home Wednesday. On it you will find the days and times for specialist lessons. We do not have a library time assigned to us yet, I will let you know as soon as I find out.
• If you need to contact me specifically about your child, my email is kandersen@unishanoi.org. During the school day I do not regularly check email; for urgent matters please contact the E.S. office elementary@unishanoi.org.
• Parent Back to School Night – 5th September 2019. 6:00pm to 7.30pm. A time to learn more about the Elementary School and 2B.
• Class photos are Thursday, August 29th
• Next week is week B
• Please find a few photos from the learning that took place this week.

Musical Auditions