Grade 1-2

September 8, 2017

Dear Families,

The school year for first and second grade is off to a great start!  On Wednesday we read one of my favorite books, Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. In this story, when Miss Rumphius is a young child her grandfather tells her there are three things she must do in her life, the third being that she must do something to make the world a more beautiful place.

The children were then asked to draw and write about what they will do to make our year in the classroom great. Their responses were thoughtful and poignant. Here is what they had to say:

*I will make the year great by helping people remember to talk with kind words when they are angry.”

*I will help others do what I can do and they cannot do, so they will help me with something that I am struggling with. For an example, I read a book to one of my classmates.”

*I will be kind to other people and I’m going to make this a good year. I will make the school a better place by sharing things with other people, and I will remember to smile.”

*I will make the year great by sharing with the first graders.”

*I will listen to the ideas of friends and others, and I will help others with work that is hard for them.”

*I will always remember to smile because it makes people feel good.”

*I will do everything the teacher says every day, even when I am bored.”

*I will take care of the classroom.”

*To make BCD a great place, I will help with the 2-year-olds.”

Thank you for sharing your children with us. They are delightful!

Kay

Dear Families and Friends,

Springtime is here!

In Science we have finished up our Penguin study and have begun our study of bees.

We have shared projects with many other classes. 3rd grade came for final Penguin presentations of dioramas or posters that each child researched on different penguins. We also visited Kindergarten and 4th grade for their Ocean Animal and See the USA presentations respectively. 2nd graders visited 3rd grade and shared their Academic Choice projects on coins and money.

Rehearsals for our musical, The Wind in the Willows, have begun in earnest. Thank you for playing the link with the songs at home, that practice has really helped and their voices are beautiful and clear.

A big thank you to all who helped make the Fiesta celebration so much fun. The tissue paper flowers are going home today and the work folders will make it home next week once we finish up some last details.

Finally, one more thank you to all the families that so made Teacher Appreciation week so special for us; the cards and flowers and the wonderful meal were a real treat.

The slideshow below has some photos from the events mentioned above along with some of our delicious last lunch bunch (thank you, Ana and Sarah), learning Mayan Math, receiving our scripts and making pages for our Mexico book and penguin projects.

Life gets very busy around here now, with trips or events almost every week until the end of the year!

Thursday, May 4 – Trip to Omi Art Center with Ms. Sicarella
Wed. / Thurs May 10/11- Author’s Teas
Thursday, May 18- Mountain Day
Wednesday, May 31- Fun and Field Day

Enjoy your weekend!

Best, Katharine and Kay

Dear Families,

The slide show below captures just some of the many activities the 1st and 2nd graders have been engaged in these past weeks – including, Alaska Day, penguin projects in Science, Mardi Gras celebration in French, Dr. Seuss birthday celebration, creating symmetrical shapes with mirrors in Math, a delicious lunch bunch and our visit to the 5th grade for their play.

It was great to see you all at conferences, thank you for making that time and for all that you do to keep our classroom, and the students in it, such a delight to be in and with each day.

Wishing you all a relaxing Spring Break!

Best, Katharine and Kay

Dear Families,
February is almost behind us and your children have been working very hard across the curriculum this month. We hope you enjoy the long weekend. It is a well-deserved break for your children!

The attached slideshow will give you a glimpse into the classroom and beyond. Here are some brief narratives highlighting what you will see in the photos.

Valentine’s Day! Thank you all for supporting your children in making Valentine cards for their classmates. The class had a great time looking at the many varied cards and thoroughly enjoyed the many sweets and drinks at the party.

Mr. Lindenmaier led us on a tour of the Learning Commons and Music Center. We cannot wait to get into these new spaces. If you haven’t had an opportunity to see the spaces yet, ask your child about what he/she noticed and/or is most excited about!

Two of our ninth grade buddies, Emily and Lanna, read children’s stories that they wrote in French and illustrated to our class one morning. Their stories were delightful and the kids thoroughly enjoyed them. It gave them great motivation to get right to work on their own stories during Writer’s Workshop that morning.

Both classes have been learning about geometry and working with shapes and you will see some photos of the kids working with geoboards during math time. Ask your child to show you a polygon or a quadrilateral!

Each student is studying a different type of penguin in science class. They are conducting research online and/or from books to gather five facts specific to their penguin. They are making great progress on their various projects from posters to fact books to dioramas. We will be sharing our projects with the Kindergarten class who has also been studying penguins.

Mexico is the next unit of focus in Social Studies. There will be lots to come about that, but we hope you enjoy the photo of your children lined up to present parts of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech to the Lower School at our Courage Assembly earlier this month.

Again, we cannot tell you enough how proud we are of how hard your children have been working this winter.

Enjoy your time with your children. We look forward to seeing them back in school on Wednesday.

Katharine and Kay