Summer Fun Ideas!

Hello Families!

Thank you so much for your beautiful notes, cards and your generous gift!  I am so excited to be purchasing an Ipad.  Thank you for making this possible!  I can't wait to use this in my life, there are so many ways it can help at work, too.  I really appreciate all of you for what you've done to make this year special.  Please come back and visit me often!

I know many of the students had ideas of cool things to do over the vacation to keep learning and have fun.  Here are some ideas that the teachers came up with .  I hope you view this as an inspiration and add lots of your own family ideas to the list. If your child has more ideas, then please leave them in the comment section so the other families can be inspired by you.

Have a beautiful summer full of familiy togetherness!  Love, Jennifer

Ideas to extend and support learning at home:

Reading everyday: both to your child and by your child or a combo of these.

Comprehension and Discussion:

Stop during a story and make predictions, explain your reasoning.

Ask questions about the stories you read, example:

What types of decisions will the characters have to make?

Have your child retell or summarize the story

Tell possible alternate endings

Life problem solving: ask your child’s opinion and why they think this
Writing and Journaling possibilities:

Diary entry style

Make signs that would help your household or neighborhood run smoothly

Write a poem, song, skit or play

An “All about me” book

Write a story or a chapter book

Write a letter

Write about your passions or hobbies

Brainstorm or web

List of questions or hypotheses you have about a topic

Write a “How-To” book- include directions or a step-by-step description

Draw and label a diagram

Change the ending of a story

Write a new story using a character from a well known story

Use a sentence starter method: Ex: On my next vacation I plan to ________

Write a book review or report

Change the adjectives in the same sentence (Mad Libs style)

Create a character and flesh them out: describe their life, family, preferences

Practice writing dialogues- between characters, between family members...

Math concepts:

Consistently practice facts: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division

Find math problems at home: How many tables are there? How many legs? How do these numbers relate to each other?

Talk about word problems that come up

Sharing and divvying up food for family members- division

Money: find ways to include your child in simple money math decisions- make a trip to the grocery store become a money learning opportunity- What successful moments can you find for being in charge of money?

Graphing- take a poll or survey of your family members, neighbors then graph the results: styles: pie chart, T-chart, bar graph, line graph, picture graph

Measurement: keeping track of your own height, measure items in your house (then you can graph these and look at how their lengths, heights may relate)

Music and rhythm: listen to a song and note the patterns in beat and lines

Science:

Make regular observations of the natural life around you, birds, trees, etc.

Note pet needs, behavior, features, characteristics.

Use the scientific process to follow through with an investigation

Draw how something works in your house- investigate cause and effect

Geography: Create a detailed map of your house, neighborhood, routes to and from places of interest or family members homes

Social Studies:

Interview a family member from another generation

Create a list of questions for an interview

Research an event or character from history- how can you present this information to your family, to your class?

How do you do research? Identify ways you like to find information

Read a new entry from an encyclopedia- what new information does this lead you to want to look up?

Social Connection and Stewardship:

Ask your child to be responsible for an element in the running of your household that is not only about their own personal needs. Have them keep up a schedule or list of tasks for themselves.

Brainstorm ways everyone at home helps the household run and how this helps each of you. Think about doing things for the group, vs for an allowance.

Hold family councils to create, discuss and keep up family agreements.

Find something you can do for your sibling that would make their week better. What if you did this in secret? As a surprise? Anonymously?

Discuss etiquette for different social situations, create skits about these and act them out. Add humor: create a what NOT to do skit!

A Beautiful Way To End A Fabulous Year!

Hello New Second Grade Families!

This week has been really special.  I feel so lucky to have known your students, they are fun and interesting people.  I was feeling the love between them this week.  Their community connection is beautiful to watch.  I am excited for what they will become as each year unfolds.  Next year will be full of more amazing learning together!

This week we did lots of fun stuff that we love to finish the year off well.  We danced, did a new experiment, wrote lots of cards for people we love and reflected on how much we learned together.

This week the students created a few brainstorms.  The concept of reflecting on the year is important to us at IA.  These students thougtht about all the things they have learned and want to keep learning.  It makes us think as adults, too.

What did each of us learn this year?  What do we want to learn next?

This week we also investigated more about hummingbirds.  Since you helped to create such a special garden, the students have had so many hummingbird sightings!  They have been facinated and so amazed each time they see them.  It feels magical each time the students say, "Jennifer, I saw a hummingbird!!!"  This video is almost an hour long, we watched parts of the beginning.  The students were interested in many aspects, so I hope they shared a bit about this with you!

Here is the amazing hummingbird video!

Our sun prints were a facinating process.  Here are links to read together to understand more about them.  Interesting to think about the beginnings of the photographic process.  The sun and water effect the paper in lovely ways!

Also, we were lucky to have Milayna and her mum, Naomi, come to share how to use an abacus.  Milayna showed how she is learning in her classes and the types of skills practice she does to internalize the ma thematic information necessary to calculate sums quickly.  The students were quite interested.  The concepts of memorizing the numbers that work together to make five and ten is a great extension for summer homework and practice!  These skills come in handy so often in life, that we usually don't even realize we are doing it.  Thank you, Milayna, for sharing your budding skills and inspiring the class!

Wishing you all a summer full of fun, laughter and lots of learning!  Thank you for sharing this special year with me!  Love, Jennifer

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

I hope this weekend is a beautiful one to start off your summer together.  Your lovely friends had words to share about you fabulous fathers. 

 Enjoy, Jennifer

Christopher: What I am proud of my father is that yesterday he cleaned up the rest of my closet. He takes me to school and that's really helpful. He helps my mom cook me and my brother dinner. I kind of like to go to the store with him because we shop and we get stuff.

Rainli: Yesterday he tried to put on Scooby Doo for me. Another thing I like abour my dad is sometimes at night, he takes me, my mom and my dog on a night walk to a tree that had four little baby birds in it.

Silas: He helps me clean up my bedroom. When we go to bed we tell jokes together and it makes me laugh. We play foursquare in our back yard. Sometimes I help him cook dinner. I get to do the cool stuff like cut the carrots.

Hannah Eileen: I am proud of my dad because he plays games with me when I come from school. He takes me in the front yard and he plays with fake guns. I feel lucky because my dad always combs my hair softly.

Kaylie: What I love about my dad is that sometimes he brings me and my sister to the park and when we come home he lets me and my sister watch a movie. And what I love about him is that sometimes he tickles me.

Hannah Grace: What I love about my dad is that he takes me to SeaWorld and Knots Berry Farm. Also what I love about him is that sometimes he cuddles me up into bed. Also, what I like about my dad is soemtimes he turns on the TV for me and sometimes we play games and sometimes at night, he reads us scriptures.

Anais: My dad helps me learn how to play the ukelele. I like going to the park with him because he plays with me. I like when he plays music.

Peyton: What I do with my dad is we tell jokes on long car rides. And he takes us to special places. We get to watch movies together. He tucks me into bed, puts the cover over my face and he says, “Where are you?” and takes it back off.

Ryan: What I like about my dad is he takes me to the park almost every single evening. We play baseball there and we fly my glider. He plays with me at home, he like, sometimes helps me build a lego.

Milayna: What I love about my dad is that he sometimes takes my snacks and it makes me laugh. He takes my snacks and eats them, even though I don't know and then I laugh. He tells me jokes. I like biking together 'cuz he helps me go up big hills

Bridget: Something that I like that my dad does for me is he takes me and my brother out to donuts every Sunday, either to this really good donut place called Crispy Cream or this other really good place called Rose Donuts. What I also like about my dad is that he tells funny jokes to me and I always laugh because he's really funny. And, when I play checkers, he always beats me because I can't think of really any ideas. We play chess on the computer and I always hope that we can beat the computer.

Bryana: What my dad does is he sometimes, when we are all in the car, when we're coming from somewhere, he tells funny jokes. We all go around and tell jokes. Sometimes he takes me and my Nana and my brother to the zoo. He reads to me and he watches movies with me and my family.

Ben: What I like to do with my dad is sitting on the couch watching the TV. I also like going outside on my bike and he watches me and it's a lot of fun and he plays with me with my toys.

Henry: What I like about what my dad does is he takes me to a submarine place and I can learn stuff and sometimes he learns. I like to play chess with him because he helps me learn and him.

Nathaniel: Stuff that I like about my dad is that he bought me a pet. He signed me up for Kunfu. Sometimes when we go to places, like the store, we walk around and stuff. I like spending time with him because it makes me feel good. We lay on the couch and we usually watch TV a lot.

Ocean: What my dad does is he makes me breakfast, like waffles, and sometimes I make his. Sometimes, before bed, we play frisbee together. We like to play on the Wii. Sometimes when he comes home, he gets Panda Express or Rubios and I like what he gets. And sometimes I go with him. He sings me songs, and sometimes when we go to bed early, he reads me story. The stories that we usually read is the World of Pooh and Bayala.

Parker: What I like about my Dad is that sometimes we go on father-son day. What I really like is that we go at Nickle City. I feel happy when I'm around my dad a lot. Me and my dad also read scriptures and I like that a lot.

Joey: What I like doing with my dad is I like to go fishing with him. He tells me jokes in the morning a lot. I like it when he plays games with me because he beats me every time but I don't really care because it's kind of fun to get better.

Jayden: What I like to do with my dad is going outside and playing wrestling together softly and playing soccor together. We also play baseball together. He sometimes tucks me in at night and it feels good because I get a hug and a kiss.

Taylor: What I like about my dad is every Saturday we go out for breakfast. Whenever we go to breakfast, he tells jokes and it makes me and my friends laugh a lot. Sometimes he makes breakfast for me whenever I'm sick.

Addison: Whenever, in the morning before he leaves early to go to work, he always plays around with me. For dinner he says “din-din” and he messes around with me like if I'm trying to tell him about a band called “One Direction” he says, “What direction?” On Saturdays or Sunday mornings, when I don't go to school, he goes to the donut shop with Preston, my brother, and they get me glazed and chocoloate, because that's the ones we like. And he takes me to the pool and the throws us in the water.

Jenna: What my dad does for me and with me is he plays with me and the cats and he plays with me. He watches TV with me. We make instruments for the house and after we make the instruments we put them on the walls sometimes.

A Wild Adventurous Day!

Hello families!

The zoo trip was a beautiful success.  The tour that Carrie signed us up for was just perfect.  We began on the bus to drive around the zoo, getting a tour and information about the animals and the people who work with them.  We lucked out with the fact that a baby giraffe was born the day before.  We were able to see it before it was one day old!  The guide, Emily, shared many informative facts and also was impressed with the knowledge our group knew.  She fed a giraffe in front of us and the students were so close!  The tongue was quite facinating.

Next stop, we fed a camel.  Many of the students were brave to do this because there was quite a mass of slobber that went along with the task!  We enjoyed the close up visit with these animals, and the morning felt quite special.  We found a nice spot for lunch and then the different groups spread out to use the afternoon to check out particular animals that they were curious about.

My afternoon group had an extra special moment when we saw a mother duck and her many chicks.  What was especially interesting was that we were right in front of the jaguars.  The mother duck was trying to get her ducklings across in safety and all the while, the jaguars were very excited.  They were super alert and paced around, back and forth, wishing to be out of the cage.  It was so interesting to see this wild animals so close and so alert.  (The duck family got by to safety!)

Everything came together to make it a beautiful day.  Thank you to all the parents who came out to make the day fun and safe. Have a happy night!  Love, Jennifer