Blog

May 6

Happy May! We have a lot of activities going on as we wind down the year. We want you to be aware of all of the great things happening in the next few weeks.

First, we want to share that this will be the final full week for Mrs. Johnson. We will be sharing this with the students on Monday. Please feel free to share this with your child this weekend. We will be encouraging the children to create cards and notes to give to Mrs. Johnson on Thursday, May 11. We will miss having Mrs. Johnson in our community. Mrs. Johnson has been a great asset to our second grade teaching team. She will be graduating from the KCTR Residency program on May 13 and has accepted a teaching position at Crossroads Schools - Quality Hill for the next school year. We wish Mrs. Johnson great success in her future years as a classroom teacher. We will have an opportunity to see Mrs. Johnson for a few days after next week. She will come in a few extra mornings during our testing week to help out in our classroom.

On Tuesday, May 9, our students will be performing in the Spring musical at the Folly Theater. Students should arrive at the theater by 6:45 p.m. We invite all family members to come and see the performance. The students have spent several weeks practicing for this musical and they are really excited to share this with you.

On Wednesday, May 10, we will be going on a field trip to the Kansas City Zoo. We will leave school at 9:00 a.m. and return to school at 2:00 p.m. We still need several parent volunteers to help chaperone groups on this field trip. If you can help, please sign up at the CACS Volunteer Portal at this link.

We are currently working on our shared research projects for our Animals Around the World unit. The students are working with partners to research facts about animals. Each group will be creating one page for our animal website that we will share at our publishing celebration at the end of May.

Our final publishing celebration will be scheduled on Wednesday, May 31, 2017. The students will be sharing their poetry anthologies and their shared animal research projects at this final celebration. The students are really looking forward to sharing their final published pieces with their families.

Finally, we will be taking our last NWEA tests during the week of May 22-26. Please help us to encourage your child throughout the testing week. We will be encouraging the students to eat a healthy breakfast every morning and to get plenty of rest during this week.

Have a wonderful week!

January 23

We have been working hard in our new unit. We are learning about recounting and comparing fairy tales, folktales, and fables. We are also learning to write friendly letters and fictional narratives. This will be a very busy unit. We will be working on a lot of projects related to fairy tales, folk tales, and fables. Please ask your child to recount some of the folktales that they have read or heard in class.

In math, we are learning about regrouping in addition. We will be moving on to regrouping in subtraction in the next week. The students have been showing good progress in learning this skill.

We will have our friendship party on Tuesday, February 14. We will be exchanging valentines on that day. If your child brings valentines on that day, please have them bring one for each of the students in our class. We will pass out the valentines throughout the day, then we will have the friendship party from 2:30-3:30 p.m.

Here are some of the standards that we will be working on throughout the next few weeks:

Unit 4 ELA Standards

• RL.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
• RL.2.2 Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
• RL.2.9 Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.
• RF.2.3.C Decode regularly spelled two-syllable words with long vowels.
• RF.2.3.D Decode words with common prefixes and suffixes.
• RF.2.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
• W.2.3 Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.
• SL.2.2 Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
• SL.2.4 Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences.

Unit 4 Math Standards

• 2.NBT.A.1 Understand that the three digits of a three-digit number represent amounts of hundreds, tens, and ones; e.g., 706 equals 7 hundreds, 0 tens, and 6 ones.
• 2.NBT.A.2 Count within 1000; skip-count by 5s, 10s, and 100s.
• 2.NBT.A.3 Read and write numbers to 1000 using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form.
• 2.NBT.A.4 Compare two three-digit numbers based on meanings of the hundreds, tens, and ones digits, using >, =, and < symbols to record the results of comparisons.
• 2.NBT.B.5 Fluently add and subtract within 100 using strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.
• 2.NBT.B.7 Add and subtract within 1000, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method.
• 2.NBT.B.8 Mentally add 10 or 100 to a given number 100-900, and mentally subtract 10 or 100 from a given number 100-900.

October 31

Thank you to all the parents and families that attended the Parent-Teacher conferences last week. It was great getting to share your child's progress with you.

This week, we will be starting Unit 3 in ELA , math, and social studies. We will be focusing on using nonfiction texts to research facts about Native Americans. We will then be using these facts to help us write about Native Americans from different regions in the United States. In math, we will be focusing on measurement.

Here are some of the standards that we will be working on throughout the next few weeks:

Unit 3 ELA Standards

• RL.2.2 Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
• RL.2.9 Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.
• RI.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
• RI.2.2 Identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within the text.
• RI.2.3 Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text.
• RI.2.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 2 topic or subject area.
• RI.2.9 Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic.
• W.2.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.

Unit 3 Math Standards

• 2.MD.A.1 Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools such as rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes.
• 2.MD.A.2 Measure the length of an object twice, using length units of different lengths for the two measurements; describe how the two measurements relate to the size of the unit chosen.
• 2.MD.A.3 Estimate lengths using units of inches, feet, centimeters, and meters.
• 2.MD.A.4 Measure to determine how much longer one object is than another, expressing the length difference in terms of a standard length unit.
• 2.MD.C.8 Solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ and ¢ symbols appropriately. Example: If you have 2 dimes and 3 pennies, how many cents do you have?

August25

Thank you to all the families that have been sending the daily snacks. The students have really enjoyed the healthy snack options. Please remember to check the snack calendar each month to see if you are scheduled to provide the daily snacks.

Next Friday will be a dress down day for students who have earned it based on attendance. Students who have 95% attendance may earn a dress down day on the First Friday of the month.

This year, Crossroads Academy has implemented a new policy regarding classroom birthday celebrations. We will be celebrating all monthly birthdays on the first Friday of each month. If you would like to send treats for a monthly birthday celebration, please click on this link to sign up. Please send enough treats for 44 students.

Next week, we will be taking the NWEA assessments. We are scheduled to take the ELA assessment on Tuesday, August 30, from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. We will take the math assessment on Thursday, September 1, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Please make sure that your child gets plenty of rest and a good breakfast before coming to school on these days.