Newsletter: January 14th, 2021

Dear Families,

We have a wonderful addition to our classroom community: our student intern, Ms. Schoenherr.  She will be with us for much of the second semester and we’re all incredibly thankful for the opportunity to have her join us.  Here’s a brief introduction…

 

Hello! My name is Ms. Schoenherr and I will be student teaching alongside Mr. Hass for the second half of this year! Last semester I was right across the hall at CFI working with Mr. Foote in the 5^th grade classroom. I am so excited to begin working with the 2^nd grade students and continuing on my path to become a teacher.

A few things about me… I am currently a senior at the University of South Carolina working towards my Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education. I’m from New Rochelle, New York which is roughly a 20-minute drive to New York City. I love cooking, going on hikes and spending time with friends and family. Aside from teaching, I have a passion for the ocean, whether it be recreational activities or just learning more about the cool animals that live in it! During my time at USC, I served as philanthropy chairwoman for my sorority, Gamma Phi Beta, where I had the opportunity to organize fundraising events for Girls on the Run of Columbia. Lastly, I love to explore Columbia and Charleston, and I am even hoping to find a job in South Carolina after graduation!

I love working with students and watching that light bulb appear when they finally understand something. I have been involved with children all my life through day camps, nurseries, babysitting and much more. One of my favorite lessons I ever taught was one about science experiments, where we used live crickets to test a theory found in their chapter book saying cricket chirps could determine the temperature! Altogether, I look forward to what this year will bring and I can’t wait to get to know all the students!

Sincerely,

Ms. Katie Schoenherr

What have we been up to academically? Well, a lot!

Social Studies:

We recently launched an inquiry into government and participatory citizenship. I’m defining “participatory” as being well-informed, voting, and working in deliberate ways to make your community a better place for all. We started by learning how our federal and state governments have an executive branch, legislative branch and judicial branch. When looking at who is currently in the SC Senate and SC House we couldn’t help but notice the incredible racial and gender disparity . For instance, in the SC Senate there are 41 males but only 5 females.  In the SC House, there are 94 white members but only 30 People of Color. Soon after this discussion one of our school board members, Amelia McKie, came in to read a book to us about Congresswoman Barbara Jordan who helped break a number of color barriers and worked tirelessly to represent the people of her district.  In the coming weeks we’ll be meeting with Representative Wendy Brawley to learn more about a bill she has pre-filed in the House to secure equal pay for all people. The kids will have an opportunity to learn about that issue – listening to the arguments made in favor of the bill as well as those in opposition.  The culmination of this inquiry will be find the kids sharing their own individual thoughts and concerns with their elected officials. I hope to have you all join them in doing this as well so they can see we each have a right to study an issue and contact our elected officials to let them know how we feel and what we expect.

 

Reading/Writing

We just finished reading our very first class novel – Stone Fox. It was an incredibly powerful story about a young boy who is trying to save his Grandfather and his farm. The ending was so exciting but also bittersweet. Be sure to ask your child about it! The focus during this novel study was to put into practice the strategies we’ve been learning about that help us better understand a text – asking questions, making predictions, drawing inferences, summarizing, etc. The kids did a wonderful job. In writing we are sharing out the fiction stories we started writing before the break.

 

Math

We have transitioned from a focused study on addition with regrouping to subtraction. This week we worked to name different strategies we can use when subtracting – count up, count down, draw a picture, think about the correlating addition problem. Next week we will begin working to solve more complex problems that require regrouping. Subtraction with regrouping is by far the most challenging aspect of our second grade math curriculum for most children. We’ll work hard and be patient!