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.
Tuesday Lunch Helper: Cara Wickstra
Thank you for helping out in the classroom!
Featured Friend:
If your kid is the featured friend for that week, please have him/her bring in pictures on Mondays. They may bring in up to 6 pictures, but please bring in one picture of him/her in the past, one recent picture and one picture of his/her family.
Week of September 16: Greta Geurink
Week of September 23: Olivia Haveman
Field Trip Driver Sign-up
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0f45acaf2aa1fd0-2nd3rd
Calendar:
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!
Grammar:
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When using two of the same verbs in a row, “duplicate” verbs to sound more polite. In Mandarin this is called “verb reduplication.”
- We use 一 between one syllable verbs as a way to indicate that an action is brief.
-
The conjunction 和 is used to connect two nouns, but 和 cannot connect two clauses.
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?