Dear Parents,

I would like to wish everyone a peaceful and relaxing winter break. The students have been working very hard at school since we began in August and they deserve the down time to play and rest. That being said, I would request that students continue with their reading while on holiday. Every student has a Reading A-Z log in located inside the front cover of the reading log. It is also a great time to pick up books in your mother tongue while you are visiting home, or find yourself in a location with nice book shops. Thank you all for your ongoing support. Happy Holidays!

Ways to Make Connections to School Over the Break

• Where We Are In Place and Time (Exploration)
  For several weeks, students in grade two have been inquiring into the central idea: We explore to discover and understand our world. “Exploration” can take place in another city, another country or even right here in Hanoi. Some areas to think about or talk about over the break are:
  – What did you need to pack?
  – Where did you go? What transportation did you take?
  – What interesting discoveries did you make? (landmarks, natural wonders, sights, food, culture)
  – How has travel and exploration affected your destination? Are there any positive or negative impacts?
• How We Express Ourselves
  In this year-long unit we are exploring how cultures express their creativity. Some things you can discuss with your child over the break are:  Are you celebrating anything over the break? What do you do that is special? What traditions do you have? What does your family or culture value?

UPCOMING EVENTS

• 14 January Grade 4 Market Day
• 20 January Grade 2 Field Trip to the Temple of Literature (part of our year-long unit)
• 22 January Student-Parent-Teacher Conferences
• 24 January – 2 February Tet (Lunar New Year) Break

The Design Process in 2D

After a week of learning about how cultures express their creativity through winter celebrations students designed and made an object or decoration that represents a festival. Check out the photos below of us making our ideas a reality.

Dear Parents,

This week brought us some crisp, cool air and a sense that our Winter Break is just around the corner. Our field trip to the Botanical Garden couldn’t have been better. Everyone explored the garden and made many interesting discoveries. It was also a lovely opportunity to enjoy one of the few large green spaces in central Hanoi. A big thank you to all of you for making sure your child was prepared for our trip, and a special thank you to Michaela for joining us as a chaperone. Please find some photos and important reminders below.

Information/Reminders

The week before winter break (Dec. 9-13) we will be reconnecting to our How We Express Ourselves unit by exploring festivals that are celebrated around the world at this time of year. To help your child explain any festivals that you celebrate, I will be sending home a homework sheet on Friday. Could you please fill out this sheet with your child and return the sheet by Monday December 9 so that we can use it in class. Thank you!

Winter Break December 16-January 3. No School. See you back at school on Monday, January 6.

Guest Speakers are still welcome this week if anyone would like to share a winter celebration, or any celebration, with the class. Please let me know if you would like to come share your culture with us.

UOI

This week we took our first field trip of the year to explore the Botanical Gardens. Students collected data about what they saw and made sketches of their discoveries. We then took that data and used it to make bar graphs in math. Students also finished their research for the individual explorations and began their google slides presentations to show what they have learned.

Math

Students focused more intensely on subtraction this week by practicing three different strategies: using a split strategy, an empty number line, and models. These are the same strategies we used for addition but they can be much trickier when applied to subtraction. We also solved some subtraction story problems and made bar graphs.

Literacy

Students began drafting their own information reports this week. They also read non-fiction books for enjoyment and to learn fun new facts. Because our work with unit of inquiry requires research skills and writing skills are unit of inquiry and literacy are very intertwined at the moment.

Dear Parents,

Field Trip for Grade Two!

Monday, December 2,  Field trip explore to the Hanoi botanical gardens.We will be leaving school at 8:30 and taking the bus back at 11:45 to be back in time for lunch. Please be sure to pack the following items: a water bottle, snack, hat, comfortable walking shoes, a jacket if it’s chilly, a backpack that holds those items and that your child can carry. We are explorers!

Request for Presenters! The week before Winter Break, Grade 2 is going into our How We Express Ourselves unit once again to inquire into winter festivals. We have previously inquired into Vietnamese festivals such as the Moon Festival. If you would like to come and present to the class about a winter festival significant in your culture please email me and let me know. This will be the week of December 9-13.

UOI

This week students chose their focused area for their individual exploration and used non-fiction texts and a collection of online resources to gather facts and information. Our inquiries are taking and shape. Be sure to ask us where we are exploring and find out what we know. Also, Mr. C came to class twice this week to show us how to use Google Earth. So cool! Many students looked up cities they lived or where they are from. Try Google Earth at home, it’s free!!

Math

This week we began our work with double digit subtraction. We started with modeling our thinking using unfix cubes and base ten blocks. We are learning to regroup by breaking a ten into ones. We will continue to transfer our skills from addition to subtraction. Next up, story problems and empty number lines.

Literacy

Students have begun planning and drafting their own information reports this week. They created their own lists of expert topics for their reports. Find out what topics we are experts on. You might be surprised!

Dear Parents,

This week we held our open classroom and I was so happy to see many of your coming to get a first hand experience of how our class learns and how your child operates in grade two. It’s actually a great thing when there are so many parents and students in the room that we have to squish up on the floor and all the nooks and crannies of the room. Thank you for your support.

Reminders

Field Trip for Grade Two!

Monday, December 2,  Field trip explore to the Hanoi botanical gardens.We will be leaving school at 8:30 and taking the bus back at 11:45 to be back in time for lunch.The permission slip for the field trip will be in your child’s Take-Home Folder today. Please return the permission slip by Wednesday, November 27.

UOI

This week we continued our exploration of the Maker Space by learning techniques to join cardboard building materials without the use of glue, or other plastic binding agents. We also did a deep dive into our online resources and non-fiction books to list places to explore, and learn facts about each of those place. Finally, each student made a decision to explore one place for their final assessment presentation. Ask us what we chose?

Literacy

Students learned about the features of non-fiction text books and also the parts of a information text. Next week we start to plan and draft our own information texts. Ask us what we are experts about!

Math

This week we practiced new math addition strategies. They include the jump strategy, using an empty number line, and modeling math with unifix cubes. We also learned to solve addition story problems.

Dear Parents,

Please find important information and updates below. Thank you for your careful attention.

Reminders

Open Classrooms, Tuesday, November 19. Please see schedule below. Hope to see you here.

Assembly

This week students in 2C and 2D successfully presented their learning from our Digital Citizenship unit as the weekly ES Upper Elementary School assembly. All of the students shared their learning from the unit, how they took action to be better digital citizens, and played a fun game with the audience. See some photos below. The feedback from other teachers was great!!

Library-Thursdays

Here are a few snap shots of our library time. 2D has been complimented by the librarians for the respectful and responsible behavior in the school library. The students are enjoying time to read after they made their latest book discoveries.

UOI-our new unit, Exploration, started this week. Students are really excited. Please contact me if you could come present about a place or a time you were an explorer!! We are open-minded.

Literacy-Just started our new unit on information report and non-fiction books. We are really in the early stages but ask us how we know the difference between fiction and non-fiction books.

Math-students had a number talk with Ms. Beth this week. We are learning to expand our bank of strategies to solve addition and subtraction equations.

Dear Parents,

Reminders

No School, Monday November 11. Staff Professional Development

Snack Sale on Wednesday, November 13. Students may bring up to 20,000 VND to buy a snack. Snacks cost 10,000 VND each.

ES Open Classrooms on Tuesday, November 19. More information coming next week.

UOI

This week students began their new UOI, Where We Are in Place and Time-Exploration. Students had three very different provocations to tune into their inquiry. First, we explored the Maker Space with Mr. Neal and made Lego We Do robots which we could code to change color and play music. Next, we were visited by four explorers, Jacques Cousteau, Jane Goodall, Jessica Meir, and Steven Irwin. Each of the explorers were interviewed and asked questions about their experiences. Last, we explored our UNIS campus and looked for new discoveries. Ask us what we think our new unit of inquiry is all about? Is anyone an explorer who would like to come to school and share their experiences with Grade 2? Please email and let me know!!

Math

This week students worked on their subtraction skills by subtracting single digit numbers from two digit numbers. Students started at 100 and used towers of ten cubes to help them subtract with place value.

Literacy

This week students wrapped up their response writing unit. They also practiced two new comprehension skills: clarifying new and interesting words; and summarizing a text or passage of a text. These skills: prediction, clarifying, questioning, connecting, and summarizing in our reading book clubs. Our next units of literacy are non-fiction books and information report writing.

Dear Parents,

This week we worked to finish up our current UOI, and get ready for next unit. Please find updates and more information below.

Thank you!

Thank you to the parents and students who organized a surprise birthday party for me at school on Thursday. I honestly had no idea. It’s the first time in my teaching career I’ve had a class celebrate my birthday. I appreciate it very much.

Reminders

Monday, November 11, No School, Staff Professional Development

New Unit

Please find the new vocabulary letter for our next unit of inquiry, Where We Are in Place and Time-Exploration below. It is so helpful to discuss the concepts, topics, and vocabulary at home and make connections to your language and cultural context.

UOI

We finished up our digital citizenship unit by writing an agreement as a class for how to be safe, responsible, and respectful when we use digital technology at school. Students then created an individual digital citizen user agreement to be safe, responsible, and respectful when using digital technology outside of school. These agreements were signed by the student, teacher, and have space to be signed by you. Please look for these agreements in your child’s take home folders this Friday. We have asked them to discuss this with you. One interesting finding in class is that some students might be accessing games or other online media that is not the right age for them. If you ever have any doubts about a digital resources you can search Common Sense Media to find out more information about the age level for video games, TV shows, and movies.

Math

This week students began working with groups of ten, and adding numbers up to 100 with materials. We used unifix cubes to add numbers and build towers of ten. This is an activity that we will continue next week. Students also learned about number riddles and began writing their own. For example: I am a two digit number. I am even. I am 10 less than 35. I am 10 more than 15. Who am I?

Literacy

Students will be finishing up their writing unit on Response texts next week. This week we continued our work with planning and drafting a text. Students are learning to use checklists to edit their writing. We also worked on putting descriptive language in our writing. The reading focus this week was on asking questions when we read. Students have practiced three reading skills so far in this unit: prediction, making connections, and asking questions. Questions you might ask at home are: Do you have a prediction for what could happen next? What connections did you make to the story? Do you have any questions about the story?

Dear Parents,

A big thank you to all of you for your support and contributions to the Grade Two lunch on Monday, October 14th. A special thank you to our class parent Michaela Hroma for organizing everything. It was a great lunch and judging by the happy faces and full plates, everyone enjoyed the variety of food and opportunity to connect with other parents and community members.

Reminders

Monday, November 11 Professional Development Day, No Class for students.

UOI

This week students refocused their learning on digital citizenship by continuing to evaluate forms of digital media. We also learned how to make safe, respectful, and responsible comments by using the TAG model. T-write something you liked; A-ask a question; G-give a suggestion. The aim is start using this more for student to student feedback on Seesaw.

Math

We continued our work with addition and subtraction strategies by playing a math structuring game created by our very own, Mr. Daniel. Students set up their counters in groups of five and rolled the dice to move their counters back and forth while using sentence stems to verbally explain the addition and subtraction.

Literacy

Students worked a great deal this week in several areas of literacy. They met with their reading groups, wrote responses to artworks, practiced using descriptive language, and listened to reading on Epic! This is in addition to writing a problem for a Traveling Tale. This is a story written by five schools around the world. We are partnered with schools in Africa, Europe, and North America. Our objective was to write the problem to the story and then pass it on to the next class for them to finish. We are looking forward to the final results.

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.