Dear Parents,

We had an amazing field trip to Walters Gardens in Zeeland last Monday. Thank you to Betsy Shafer, Cara Wickstra, Ann Hemmeke, and Dana Moeller for coming along with us and making this field trip possible. This is our first field trip (that I could think of) that has a Mandarin presenter. The students were able to understand most part of the Mandarin presentation and interact with the Mandarin presenter. It’s such a language, science and math rich field trip! Please see the bottom of the newsletter for pictures.

Parent/Guardian Teacher Conferences

School Picture

Pizza Hut Book-It Program

Semco Energy

On Monday, a sheet like this (img-927165247-0001) should come home. It explains a free energy kit your child will receive at the presentation on Friday. Sign and return the sheet only if you DO NOT want a kit. Kids will learn how to save energy at home. After trying your home kit later, I ask that you fill out (either online or a hard copy) of a different Semco paper (coming home on Friday) for giving feedback.  If students return the sheet, they each get a color-changing pencil, and our classroom receives $100 for supplies. Thanks for your support!

The Little Read Lakeshore

Hope College’s The Little Read Lakeshore, in partnership with Herrick District Library, invites you to join us this fall in reading our 2019 Little Read book: “The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet!” by Carmen Agra Deedy. We also invite children and families to participate in exciting Little Read events inspired by the book. All events are free unless otherwise indicated.

Dear parents,

We’ve had another great week. For 3rd graders, they’ve worked hard on their MAP assessments. Some of them have to complete the rest of our Reading MAP as we didn’t have time to complete it last week. We hope to get these done on Monday/Tuesday morning… but may need to get into Wednesday as well.

We are excited for our field trip to Walters Gardens on Monday. We are expected to be there from 1:00-2:30. We will be looking at many different plants and finding out about how professionals go about designing for landscaping and flower/vegetable gardens. This will help prepare us nicely for a 3rd grade Math PBL that we expect to begin the week of September 30. We’ll be working to design either for landscaping, a flower garden, or a vegetable garden.  We’ll be using online sources to help us plot out our designs.

Walter’s Garden Attending Parents: Betsy Shafer, Cara Wickstra, Ann Hemmeke, and Dana Moeller, please be in our classroom by 12:30 so that we can go over a few things before we leave around 12:50. If you have to submit a copy of your driver license/proof of insurance, please arrive early so that you can take care of that in the front office on your way in.

Our class is scheduled to have our class pictures taken on Monday, September 30, at 11:30AM. Your child came home with an order form for these in the week of Sep.16 . Please note that school pictures and school yearbook are to be ordered on this form. Please remind your child to take the form back to school on the 30th.

From the office: 

Student Pick-Up/Bus Info. If there is a change in any of the end-of-day normal pick-up/bus riding practices for your students, please communicate that with the front office. 

• Parents should call front office with the message, “Johnny doesn’t need to ride the bus this afternoon.” or “Please have Sara go to Extended Care instead of riding the bus this afternoon.”
• Parents may certainly send the teacher an email with the same information but a call to the office is also important.

Ottawa County Department of Public Health Miles of Smiles (MOS) mobile dental unit is scheduled to be in Holland throughout the 2019-2020 school year. Their mobile dental unit provides free, preventive and restorative dental services for financially-qualifying children.  Unfortunately, MOS will not be visiting ZCS, however, we want you to know that you can schedule your child to be seen on their mobile unit when they locate at a school in the Holland School District or West Ottawa School District.

Curriculum Corner

2nd Grade Math: Unit 1 Addition and Subtraction within 20

• 1. Problems with not enough, extra or hidden information
• 2.More complex compare problems
• 3.Two-step word problems
• 4.Mixed word problems

3rd Grade Math: Unit 1 Multiplication & Division with 0-5, 9 and 10

• Building fluency with 2s and 5s
• Multiply and Divide with 10
• Multiply and Divide with 9

Writing

Last week, we learned three different ways to start a writing. This week, we will experiment different ways to start a composition and choose our favorite one.

Mandarin High Frequency Words to Produce and to recognize:

Students are going to get their fourth set of new words. There will be a test on Thursday for words to produce and to recognize.

Grammar:

Bible:Becoming a Bible Explorer

• Lesson #2: Investigating Bible Content

Bible Memory

Due Friday Sept. 27. Please help your kids practice this memory verse at home as this one is very long. Thank you!

9 How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
    By living according to your word.
¹⁰ I seek you with all my heart;
    do not let me stray from your commands.
¹¹ I have hidden your word in my heart
    that I might not sin against you.
¹² Praise be to you, Lord;
    teach me your decrees.

Psalm 119:9-12

⁹ 少年人用什么洁净自己的行为呢？

就是要遵守你的话。

¹⁰ 我一心寻求你，

求你不要容我偏离你的诫命。

¹¹ 我把你的话藏在心里，

免得我得罪你。

¹² 耶和华啊！你是该受称颂的；

求你把你的律例教导我。

诗篇119:9-12

Reading:

Students are reading with a friend or by himself/herself daily. My aid and I meet with students to read with daily.

Science:

3rd graders are going to start to sort TerraCycle things this week.  Students may bring in accepted waste to be recycled from home. Here is a list of things we accept for TerraCycle at ZCS. TerraCycle Info

Thank God, we’ve got some rain today! We will compare the amount of rain water collected with other groups and talk about what needs improving.

Last week, we had some success and failure in making anemometers. This week, we are going to finish building anemometers and test out a wind’s speed.

We are also going to start learning to use thermometers and measure the temperature outside.

2nd Grade Social Studies:

This week we are going to learn Lesson #4: Comparing Different Kinds of Communities

Rain Gauge Pictures:

Dear parents,

Thank you for another good week. I really enjoy building and testing the rain gauges with your kids last week. They are very creative. I look forward to having another fun week with your kids.

Below are this week’s announcement and curriculum-wise news.

Announcement

3rd Grade MAP Growth Assessments

We’re looking forward to upcoming MAP Growth assessments! MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) assessments in Math, Reading, and Language will help teachers to understand how much students have grown in their learning this year and to know what they’ll be ready to learn in the upcoming school year. As the assessment is taken in English, scores will reflect students’ current English language development in each subject area. For Math, students will be able to listen to the instruction. 

We’ll be taking these assessments in the morning during class on the following dates:

•  Math, September 17, Tuesday
•  Reading, September 19, Thursday
•  Language Arts, September 20, Friday

It’s important that students do their best to show all that they’ve learned this year! We are helping your student by preparing them to know what to expect on the assessment, coaching them on assessment-taking strategies, reminding them that they are capable of doing well, and shaping a structured and supportive classroom environment on those mornings.

You can help your student by ensuring that they get proper sleep the evening before an assessment, feeding them a healthy breakfast on each assessment morning, and encouraging them to have a positive attitude and to do their best–this assessment is important, and they are capable!

Together, we can support students in doing their best to show how much they have learned this year! There is additional information available at https://www.nwea.org/parent-toolkit/. If you have further questions, please let me know!

From the office: 

Student Pick-Up/Bus Info. If there is a change in any of the end-of-day normal pick-up/bus riding practices for your students, please communicate that with the front office. 

• Parents should call front office with the message, “Johnny doesn’t need to ride the bus this afternoon.” or “Please have Sara go to Extended Care instead of riding the bus this afternoon.”
• Parents may certainly send the teacher an email with the same information but a call to the office is also important.

Ottawa County Department of Public Health Miles of Smiles (MOS) mobile dental unit is scheduled to be in Holland throughout the 2019-2020 school year. Their mobile dental unit provides free, preventive and restorative dental services for financially-qualifying children.  Unfortunately, MOS will not be visiting ZCS, however, we want you to know that you can schedule your child to be seen on their mobile unit when they locate at a school in the Holland School District or West Ottawa School District.

September 16- 20: MAP Growth Testing

September 23 Family Groups – 10:35-11:15 a.m

September 27 Staff Professional Development – No School

September 30-October 3 School Pictures – Prek-8  Our class pictures will be on September 30 @ 11:30 am

Curriculum Corner

If it doesn’t mention what grade it belongs to, it means that it applies to both 2nd and 3rd grade.

2nd Grade Math: Unit 1 Addition and Subtraction within 20

• 1. Word problems
• 2. Put together and take apart problems
• 3. Compare word problems
• 4. Mixed word problems

3rd Grade Math: Unit 1 Multiplication & Division with 0-5, 9 and 10

The three MAP tests this week are at our regular Math time. Because of that, we only have two days of learning Math. I’m planning to use Monday to help students become familiar with the MAP test and do a practice test. Afterwards, we are going to play some Math games. On Wednesday, we are going to learn to make story problems with multiplication and division.

Writing

I have seen lots of kids adding conversations into their stories and also adding the appropriate punctuations. This adds lots of colors into their writing.

This week, we are going to review where to add comma and period. We are also going to learn to develop an inviting lead.

Mandarin High Frequency Words to Produce and to recognize:

Students are going to get their third set of new words. There will be a test on Friday for words to produce and to recognize.

Optional Homework:

ZCS is a homework-free school, so this homework is optional.

This year, your kids have lots of High Frequency Words to Recognize. If you want to help your kids memorize those words at home, I will send home flash cards every Mondays. Your kids needs to pronounce the word and say its meaning for every word.

If you want this optional homework for your kid, please email me and I will send home flash cards every Mondays. I have also attached the flash cards below. Thank you!

G3 U1 W3 With english

Grammar:

Bible:

• Build on the Rock #4: Jesus Died to restore harmony within each of God’s Image-Bearers.
• New Unit: Becoming a Bible Explorer. Lesson #1: Understanding the importance of God’s Word

Bible Memory

Due Friday Sept. 27. Please help your kids practice this memory verse at home as this one is very long. Thank you!

9 How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
    By living according to your word.
¹⁰ I seek you with all my heart;
    do not let me stray from your commands.
¹¹ I have hidden your word in my heart
    that I might not sin against you.
¹² Praise be to you, Lord;
    teach me your decrees.

Psalm 119:9-12

⁹ 少年人用什么洁净自己的行为呢？

就是要遵守你的话。

¹⁰ 我一心寻求你，

求你不要容我偏离你的诫命。

¹¹ 我把你的话藏在心里，

免得我得罪你。

¹² 耶和华啊！你是该受称颂的；

求你把你的律例教导我。

诗篇119:9-12

We will also learn a very simple Chinese song called I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Its lyrics are just this Bible verse.  Here is a link to the song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ylb_a3bUGo

Reading:

We are going to continue to read to self and read with a friend this week.

Due to Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival last Friday, I changed the Read-aloud book to Mid-Autumn Festival for last week. So this week’s Read-aloud book will still be Unique Boy.

Science:

We will talk about TerraCycle this week. Students may start bringing in accepted waste to be recycled this week. Here is a list of things we accept for TerraCycle at ZCS. TerraCycle Info

Our rain collectors (rain gauges) are in the courtyard, so we’re hoping for some rain over the weekend. We will compare the amount of rain water collected with other groups and talk about what needs improving.

We are going to look at ways scientists measure the speed and direction of the wind. Students are going to design, build and test their own anemometers.

2nd Grade Social Studies:

This week we are going to learn Lesson #3: Why do People Live in Communities?

Dear families,

Thank you so much for coming to the parent meeting and for partnering with me this year! We’ve had a good week of learning. I’m also enjoying getting to know your children very much. I appreciate your continued prayers throughout the school year.

We had a great first week of school!  It’s been so fun to get to know the students.  I look forward to learning and growing with these students over the next 9 months.  I have already noticed their tender hearts and fun, inquisitive minds.  It’s going to be a great year!  Thanks for your continued prayers and support at home.  We couldn’t do this without you!