September 3, 2020

Dear Families,

Hello and welcome to second grade!  My name is Shayna Gruenewald and I will be your child’s teacher this year. 

While this year is going to be a bit different than prior years, there are many things that have not changed.  My love of teaching 2^nd graders certainly has not changed!  I have always believed in the importance of working as a team with parents and students.  My classroom continues to be set up to promote academic growth, safety, comfort, and positive outcomes.  It just looks a bit different this year.  I have always felt that every child is a learner and grows at his or her individual pace.  Our classroom is a place that shows respect for all learners and where your child will be safe and loved. 

My background hasn’t changed.  I have been teaching since 1999.  My Elementary Education teaching certificate and Masters of Early Childhood Education are from Eastern Michigan University.  I have endorsements in Early Childhood Education, Mathematics, and Language Arts.  Prior to my career in teaching, I spent 10 years as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and tax software developer.  I received my bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Michigan State University. 

Please feel free to contact me via email with any questions, concerns or comments.  I generally reply to email within a day.  Every now and again emails play “hide and seek” with me, so please resend your email if you haven’t heard back from me after 24 hours.

My Google Classroom code is n72za7m.  Please help your child join my class using their LPS student email account.  Students should access Google Meet live sessions through Google Classroom. For meetings, students should go to Google Classroom, click on “Stream,” and then click on the “meet link” or video camera icon in the banner (top picture area).

Please go to Parent Connect to find your child’s LPS email address and password.  This has just been added to Parent Connect.  Scroll down to the bottom and click “Network Login.”

2^nd grade live sessions will be at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., and 2 p.m. during remote learning.  However, the first day of school is a half-day.  Therefore, there will be two sessions on Tuesday, September 8^th: 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.

I am looking forward to meeting you, and working with you and your child this year.

Sincerely, 

Shayna Gruenewald

Email:  sgruenew@livoniapublicschools.org

Website:  https://www.livoniapublicschools.org/domain/1929

Buchanan Telephone: (734) 744-2690

Mrs. Gruenewald's Class Information 2020-2021 

Nut-free Classroom

Our classroom is a nut-free classroom.   Therefore, all food eaten in the classroom MUST be nut-free.  Thank you for helping us keep our classroom safe for all students.

Daily Folders 

Each day your child will bring home a folder. This is an important means of communication between the school and home. Please check it every day for important notes and homework. Please send items such as notes, prepaid lunch envelopes and completed homework to school in this folder. 

Weekly Folders 

At the end of each week (usually Friday), your child will bring home a weekly folder. It will include a checklist overview of your child's week and student work. Please review the folder with your child and return it to school on Monday mornings. Be sure to review the weekly overview, write any comments or questions that you have, and sign it. 

Healthy Snacks (Brain Food) 

We will have a snack time in the morning. This is optional for your child. If your child would like to bring a snack, it must be a healthy, snack. Appropriate snacks include fruit (fresh washed vegetables and bananas are great options), Goldfish crackers or pretzels, and cheese sticks or cubes. Snacks need to be easy to eat without a fork or a spoon. 

Star of the Week 

During the school year, each child will have the opportunity to be our Star of the Week. Star of the Week provides your child the opportunity to be in the spotlight. Your child will have special privileges such as: 

♪ Completing and sharing a Star Student poster (sent home approximately one week before your child’s assigned week) 

♪ Being our line leader for the week 

♪ Getting a special certificate and pencil

Birthdays 

Birthdays are a wonderful and exciting time for children. Our class will wish your child a happy birthday (through song if this is permitted under our Covid guidelines).   We also ask 3 special questions.  Your child will also receive a special bookmark, pin, and pencil. If you do not wish for us to celebrate your child's birthday for any reason, please send a note or email me directly. 

Optional! If your child would like to bring a special book for our class library, he/she is welcome to do that.  We will not be passing out "goodie bags" this year due to a concern for transmitting the Covid virus.

Supplies 

Students will need to have their own school supplies this year.  Students will not be allowed to share supplies.  We will get creative iin how we handle things if a student doesn't a certain item.  

I think we can share boxes of facial tissues, bottles of hand sanitizer and hand soap.  If not, oh boy!  We'll really have a situation on our hands.

 

Classroom Behavior 

Since my goal is to create a safe, academic, positive learning environment, it is crucial that we all understand behavior guidelines. Each student must: 

• Be responsible for his/her choices 
• Be respectful of people and property 
• Be honest and trustworthy 
• Be safe 
• Be a good listener 
• Follow directions 
• Always do his/her personal best ... the best job he/she possibly can 

These guidelines are to help your child make good choices about his/her behavior so he/she is successful in his/her learning. 

Volunteers 

I absolutely LOVE having volunteers in the classroom.  There are so many things that my students have benefitted from over the years that I just cannot do without volunteers. 

Sadly, I do not think we will be able to have in-school volunteers in our classrooms this year.  This is a big disappointment to me and I'm sure to many others. 

 

Mrs. Gruenewald Second Grade Curriculum Information  2020 – 2021

 

Literacy

• Reading and writing are taught through the workshop approach. Science and social studies concepts will be integrated into the Reading & Writing workshop.  Strategies are taught through mini lessons.  Students practice using strategies during guided reading, guided writing, and independent practice. 

 

• Reading strategies taught include:
  • Decoding (saying the word) strategies:
    • Check the picture
    • Check the beginning and end of the word
    • Stretch the word slowly from beginning to end
    • Ask, “Does it make sense?”
    • Ask, “Does it sound right?”
    • Ask, “Does it look right?”
    • Ask, “Can I use the words around here to help me?”
    • Flag or jot and ask.

 

• Reading Comprehension (understanding what was read) strategies:
  • Activating, creating and revising schema – what you know about a topic

Making connections - making connections to personal experiences (text-to-self), other texts (text-to-text), or things that have happened in the world (text-to-world)

• Visualization/sensory images - using text clues and schema to create sensory (seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling) images in your mind
• Questioning - wondering or asking questions about the text
• Inferring - putting text clues together with schema and making an inference (something that the text doesn’t come right out and tell you)
• Determining importance - recognizing that you cannot remember every little detail, and choosing what to focus on/remember
• Synthesizing – combining new ideas with your schema
• Monitoring comprehension/fix-up strategies - strategies for when comprehension breaks down
• Retelling – using story elements and beginning, middle, end structure to retell the text

 

• Speaking and listening skills are taught through all subjects

 

• Handwriting (Forming Letters and Numbers)

The focus in second grade is on manuscript (printing).  Students are encouraged to focus on proper letter formation prior to learning cursive (in 3^rd grade).

Four standards are used to judge legibility: size, shape, spacing, and slant. 

• Size refers to the height of letters.
• Shape has to do with the strokes in the letters.  Letters are correctly formed in manuscript (printing) from the top down.  There are three guidelines:  the headline, the midline, and the baseline. 

• Spacing between letters, words, and sentences is important.
• Slant in manuscript writing (printing) refers to the verticality.  In other words, the letters should be straight up and down.  The letters in cursive writing slant to the right. 

 

Word Study

We use a combination of Making Words and Word Sorting (Words Their Way).  Lessons include whole group, small group, and individual activities.  We teach strategies and guide students through exploration with letters and words.  Students are engaged in daily word study to learn strategies to help them organize what they know about words and form generalizations that they can then apply to new words they encounter in their reading and writing.

 

Working with Your Child at Home

Literacy Ideas (Reading, Writing, and Word Study Activities)

• Visit the public library
• Participate in children’s programs at the library

• Read and talk about:

• Library books
• Story books
• Informational texts
• Children’s magazines
• Online reading materials

• Help make shopping lists
• Help find items in stores
• When your child writes, ask him/her to read to you what he/she wrote.
• Make words with magnet letters (both upper and lower case) or letter cards
• Play word games: Scrabble, Boggle, Bananagrams, etc.

  

Reading with Your Child

Before reading

• Take a picture walk through the book
• Talk about the pictures
• Talk about schema (prior knowledge of the topic)
• Make predictions about the story

During reading

• Talk about the pictures
• Talk about schema (prior knowledge of the topic)
• When your child uses a substitute word, give clues

(Ex., rug: mat, carpet; home: house, apartment, condo)

After reading

• Talk about what you read

• Narrative stories (fiction)
  • Ask and answer who, what, when, where, why, and how questions about the story.
  • Retell the story being sure to include the important parts (characters, setting, problem, events, solution).
  • Who were the characters? How were they feeling? What kind of person do you think they are (character Traits)?
  • Talk about how the characters responded to different things in the story.
  • Setting (where did the story take place)?
  • Events (what happened)?
  • Sequencing (how do all the pieces of the story fit together)?
  • What was the problem in the story?
  • How was the problem solved (solution)?
  • What was the central message / lesson / moral of the story?

 

• Informational text (nonfiction)
  • Ask and answer who, what, when, where, why, and how questions about the text.
  • Main idea (what was the text about)?
  • What were 3 supporting details that tell more about the main idea?
  • What was the focus of specific paragraphs in the text?
  • How were the ideas connected?
  • What new information did you learn?

  

Phrases to support developing readers

• One-to-one matching (emergent readers)

Beginning readers need to establish the association between the spoken word and the printed word.  They need to be able to point to each word as they say it.  Try using these phrases when reading with your child, to help him/her develop one-to-one matching skills:

• Read it with your finger.
• Did it match?
• Were there enough words?
• Did you run out of words?

More fluent readers should track words with their eyes and not use their fingers.

• Reading for meaning

Students need to develop an understanding that we read for meaning.  Try using these prompts when reading with your child, to help him/her make sense of what he/she read.

• Did what you read make sense?
• Look at the picture.
• Start that sentence again.

• Self-monitoring

Readers need to be aware of their own errors.  Try using these prompts to help your child develop his/her strategy of self-monitoring.

• Was that okay?
• Why did you stop?
• What did you notice?
• Was that correct?
• Check it! Does it look and sound correct to you?

Mathematics

We use the Everyday Mathematics program.  Lessons include whole group, small group, cooperative learning, and individual activities.  Children use a variety of manipulatives in developing math skills.  Skills are followed up and further developed with math activities, practice pages, computer activities (during computer lab) and homework.  Math facts are practiced through games.

Content emphasized in 2^nd grade:

• Number & Operations in Base Ten
• Operations & Algebraic Thinking
• Measurement & Data
• Geometry
• Mathematical Practice (problem solving)

Website resources (Ex., home links) are available for this math program.

Students now login to the math program resources through Clever. 

https://clever.com/in/livonia

At school students use badges to sign in to Clever (all of our computer lab computers and Chromebooks have built-in webcams).  At home, students will need to login using their school login information.  

Science

The second grade science program includes:

• Inquiry, discovery-based approach to scientific exploration
• Activities to extend and reinforce key concepts
• Development of basic thinking strategies of observation and recall
• Noting similarities and differences
• Grouping and classifying
• Using the scientific process
• Small and whole group experimentation

Focus areas/science units include:

• Measuring Matters (Physical Science)
• Earth’s Land and Water (Earth Science)
• A Plant’s Life (Life Science)

 

Social Studies

The second grade curriculum includes learning about communities, historical figures, and developing the skills and knowledge needed to participate as responsible citizens.

 

Homework

Homework provides children with structured opportunities to practice things they are learning in school.  There are three different sources of homework:  the teacher, parents, and the student.  Monthly homework calendars (including past months’ calendars) can be great resources when parents are looking for homework ideas. 

There are different kinds of teacher-initiated homework assignments.  Some assignments are regular and predicable.  Others focus on specific skills that we are working on at the time. 

 

Regular and predictable homework assignments include:

• Read 20-30 minutes each night
• Monthly homework calendar activities (with supervision or support from an adult)
• Math Home Links
  • Home Links, practice pages done at home, are in important part of the Everyday Mathematics Home Links give students a chance to apply new learning/concepts while they are fresh in their minds.  Home Links should be completed at home and checked with a parent. 
    • Note: Home Link Answers are printed in each unit’s Family Letter. You will receive the family letter at the beginning of each unit.  You may want to keep it in a special and safe place.
    • Note: Answer keys are intended to help parents as they work with their children.  Students should not be referring to answers prior to solving problems.     
  • It is important for students to complete Home Links on the day that they are assigned if at all possible, and to “check” their answers at home with a parent. This will prepare them for the next math lesson.   

Class Websites

General information is available on my class website.  You will also find links to kid-friendly learning websites, and enrichment activities.   Access my website by visiting the school district site:  http://www.livoniapublicschools.org, choose “Schools,” “K-4 Elementary,” “Buchanan Elementary,” “Staff.” Then choose “Gruenewald, Shayna.”

 

Questions and Concerns

If after reading this packet you have questions or concerns, please email me: sgruenew@livoniapublicschools.org

I will reply, include relevant website links (when available), or set up an appointment to meet with you personally (if that makes more sense).  Thank you!

 

Classroom Communications

In an effort to conserve paper, I send email updates to parents regarding classroom information.  Please be sure I have your email address.  If you are in doubt, please send an email to me asking to be added to the parent contact list.  A Subject of “Please Add Me to Your Email Group” would help me to spot these type of emails quickly.  Thank you!

2^nd Grade Reading

Here are priority standards that we will focus on this year:

Reading Foundations

• Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
• Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

Reading Literature

• Ask and answer Who, What, Where, When, Why and How questions.
• Retell stories (including fables and folktales).
• Determine the central message, lesson, or moral of stories, fables, and folktales.
• Describe characters (character traits).
• Describe how characters respond to events and challenges.

Reading Information

• Ask and answer Who, What, Where, When, Why and How questions. 
• Identify the main idea of a multi-paragraph text.
• Identify the focus of paragraphs in a text.
• Tell how ideas are connected.

Reading includes three parts: decoding (saying the words), fluency (smooth, expressive reading), and comprehension.

Decoding strategies include:

• Getting your mouth ready
• Looking for chunks you know (ex. "at")
• Looking for picture clues
• Think about the story.  What word would be make sense?
• Does it look right?
• Does it sound right?
• Does it make sense?

Comprehension strategies include:

• Schema and making connections
• Visualizing/sensory images
• Questioning/wondering
• Inferring
• Determining importance
• Synthesizing

2^nd Grade Writing

Here are priority standards that we will focus on this year:

* Write opinion pieces that include:  stating an opinion, giving reasons and examples to support your opinion, including linking words (such as and, also, because, ...).

 * Write informational pieces that include: introducing the topic, telling facts and definitions, words that tell order (first, next, then, after that, finally, ...) and a wrap-up (ending).

 * Write narrative pieces that recount an event (or series of events) and include: details that describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, words to signal order (first, next, then, after than, later, finally, ...), and a wrap-up sentence that provides a sense of closure.

 

2^nd Grade Speaking & Listening

Here are priority standards that we will focus on this year:

* Participate in collaborative conversations in small and large groups.

 * Follow agreed upon rules for discussion.  For example, listen when other are speaking, look at the speaker, agree or disagree respectfully, etc.

* Build on others' talk.  For example, add an additional detail or example to something another person said.

* Ask for clarification and further explanation.  For example, "Can you tell me how you got this answer?"

 

 

2^nd Grade Math

Here are priority standards that we will focus on this year:

Numbers & Operations in Base Ten 

* Read and write numbers to 1000 using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form.

* Compare two three-digit numbers based on meanings of the hundreds, tens, and ones digits, using >, =, and < symbols to record the results of the comparisons.

* Fluently add and subtract within 100 using strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.

* 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.  Understand that in adding or subtracting three-digit numbers, one adds or subtracts hundreds and hundreds, tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose or decompose tens or hundreds.

* Explain why addition and subtraction strategies work, using place value and the properties of operations.

Operations & Algebraic Thinking

* Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve one- and two-step word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.

* Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies.  By the end of Grade 2, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.

Measurement & Data

* Measure the length of an object twice, using different units for the two measurements; describe how the two measurements relate to the size of the unit chosen.

* Estimate lengths using units of inches, feet, centimeters, and meters.

* Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve word problems involving lengths that are given in the same units.  For example, by using drawings (such as drawings of rulers) and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.

* Tell and write time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest five minutes, using a.m. and p.m.

* Solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ and ¢ symbols appropriately. 

* Draw a picture graph and a bar graph (with single-unit scale) to represent a data set with up to four categories.  Solve simple put-together, take-apart, and compare problems using information represented in a bar graph.

Geometry

* Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a given number of angles or a given number of equal faces.  Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes.

* Partition circles and rectangles into two, three, or four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, thirds, half of, a third of, etc. and describe the whole as two halves, three thirds, four fourths.  Recognize that equal shares of identical wholes need not have the same shape.

 

 

Mathematical Practices

We focus heavily on practice 1.

Practice 1: Make sense of problems, and persevere in solving them.

Practice 2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

Practice 3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

Practice 4: Model with mathematics.

Practice 5: Use appropriate tools strategically.

Practice 6: Attend to precision.

Practice 7: Look for and make use of structure.

Practice 8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

Ideas for Practicing Math Facts at Home

• Roll dice. Add or subtract the dots.    6 and 5 are rolled.  6 + 5 = 11 , 6 – 5 = 1

 

• Use flash cards. Simply read the facts (with answers) aloud.

 

• Use flash cards. Try to figure out the answer.  Then check the answer on the flash card.

 

• Orally quiz your child with facts (up to 10 + 10). This is a great game to play in the car while commuting!

 

• Use online resources such as org (Note:  the parent can type in the child’s answer to help with keyboarding challenges.)

 

• Play card games such as Top It.

• Addition Top It
• Turn over 2 cards and add the numbers together (J, Q, and K = 10; A = 1).  The person with the highest sum keeps all 4 cards.
• Turn over 2 more card for a tie-breaker round, if necessary.
• Subtraction Top It
• Turn over 2 cards and add the numbers together (J, Q, and K = 10; A = 1).  The person with the highest difference keeps all 4 cards.
• Turn over 2 more card for a tie-breaker round, if necessary.

Information will be added later.

Information will be added later.

To be added later.