Noticias 2D
Queridos Padres,

Grandparents’ Day was a major success! It was so fun meeting all the amazing grandparents and grand friends that I’ve heard and read stories about. What a beautiful thing to see faith shared from one generation to the next. Pictures are posted on Facebook.

Thanks for your continued prayers for unity throughout this year! 

Blessings,
Hilda Durán 

This Week:
Bible Memory Verse: The Lord’s Prayer Due Date: November 13
Bible: We spent more time on Jesus’ teachings than expected, so now we’ll start The Sermon on the Mount. It seems filled with stringent laws. The Sermon offers Jesus’ sayings as verbal icons through which we may see into God’s will and be empowered for the moral life.
Literature Selection: Alexander y el día terrible, horrible, espantoso, horroroso. (Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day)
Phonics: Grammatical morphemes: los pronombres enclíticos (con un pronombre: te, se, me, le, les, lo, los, la, las, nos) Ex. Voy a comprar una manzana. = Voy a comprarla.
Poem: Los amigos
Reading: This week we’ll learn about story sequencing and story mapping with our shared reading text. We will also revisit previous strategies such as making connections, predictions, and mental images.
Writing: After our Publishing Party on Wednesday, we will move to Realistic Fiction Unit. Good writers get ready to write by thinking about problems from their own lives and listing them.
Math: We are applying concepts and strategies to real-world situations, and solving 2 digit addition problems.

Science: During this week students will discuss how we could engineer ways to slow/prevent the changes we have been noticing on the Earth’s surface?

“Housekeeping” Items:

T-shirt Project for Ralph: After working hard as a class we have our

design. Yay!!

Stay tuned for order details! These would make perfect Christmas gifts!

November 4: Sporty Day! They won a letter! Time to celebrate their hard work.

November 6: Publishing Party #2

November 6: Water Plant Field Trip.

November 7: No PM Busing.

November 7: School Picture Retakes

November 8: No AM or PM Busing

November 14: ZCS Legacy Event at Holland Civic Center 6:oopm

November 26: All School Chapel - 9:00 a.m

November 27-29: Thanksgiving Vacation

Immersion 101 Parent Meeting

Join us to learn more about the ZCS approach to immersion education! We will meet in the media center on Tuesday, November 5 at 7:00pm. The focus of the meeting will appeal most to lower elementary parents but all are welcome. We encourage each Kindergarten family to have at least one adult attend this meeting.

       Noticias 2D

Queridos Padres,

I want to say a huge ‘thank you!’ to all of you for coming out to conferences last week. It was such a blessing to meet with you. Thank you for your support, encouragement, and prayers; it means so much to me. What an absolute gift and privilege it is to partner with you in the lives of your children. Thank you for sharing them with me; they are a JOY and I love each one of them!

I hope you all enjoyed extra time with your kids last weekend. My time in CEA was meaningful and full of a lot of nice memories.

This is an exciting week ahead with family groups and Grandparents' day. 

Thanks for your continued prayers for unity throughout this year!

Blessings,

Hilda Duran

This Week:
Bible Memory Verse: Lord’s Prayer Due Date: November 13
Bible: We will continue learning from Jesus how to pray to our Great Father God.

Literature Selection: Alexander y el día terrible, horrible, espantoso, horroroso. (Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day)
Phonics: Grammatical morphemes: los morfemas flexivos (letters that generally correspond to the masculine and feminine words)
Wall Words: ellos, yarda, zapato, nuestro, nadie
Poem: El río
Reading: This week we’ll learn about story sequencing and story mapping with our shared reading text. We will also revisit previous strategies such as making connections, predictions, and mental images.
Writing: We are finishing up this writing unit by working on revising and editing with partners. Our goal is to publish books that are easy for readers to understand.
Math: Students understand that the three digits of a three-digit number represent amounts of hundreds, tens, and ones. Also, we are using some great Apps for more practice.
Science: Students will present their research about different habitats. Then we will move to the last cycle of this science unit. Our focus question will be How do wind and water change the shape of the earth?

“Housekeeping” Items:
Note from the office: 
“There are approximately 23,660 food-insecure families in Ottawa County. Ottawa Food is an organization that has created a Find Food database that helps users search by zip code or date to find food resources available within the county. You can find more information on food pantries and other food resources HERE.”
T-shirt Project for Ralph: After working hard as a class we have our
design. Yay!! Stay tuned on order details! These would make perfect Christmas gifts!
November 1: Grandparents’ Day. Please tell grandparents (or grand- friends, great-aunts, etc. if your child doesn’t have any grandparents that can make it) because they won’t want to miss it!
November 6: Publishing Party #2
November 6: Water Plant Field Trip.
November 7: No PM Busing.
November 7: School Picture Retakes
November 8: No AM or PM Busing
November 14: ZCS Legacy Event at Holland Civic Center @ 6:oopm 
November 26: All School Chapel - 9:00 a.m
November 27-29: Thanksgiving Vacation

     Noticias 2D

Queridos Padres, 

Zeeland Christian has a sister school in the Philippines, Grace Community  Christian School. Every grade has an opportunity to sponsor a child from GCCS to cover his/her tuition costs. Our friend this year is Ralph. With the help of Good Ink in Holland, we will work to create a custom t-shirt to sell. Throughout the next few weeks we will work on brainstorming ideas, acting as scientists as we make observations about what makes a good t-shirt, narrow down ideas, pitch our idea to the class with a friend, and eventually choose one. We will practice working together, communicating well, sharing our ideas, and using empathy. The kids are SO pumped about this new opportunity and it is amazing to see their enthusiasm!

Our Driving Question: Can we design a t-shirt to sell to adults and kids that shares what we believe about God in order to raise money for our friend Ralph?

Thanks to Tonya Westerbeke for sending delicious treats to the classroom! 

This newsletter will cover information for this week AND the next short week!

Thanks for your continued prayers for safety, and unity throughout this year!

Blessings, 

Hilda Durán

This Week:
Bible Memory Verse: Malachi 3:1 Due Date: October 18 
Bible: The Lord’s Prayer. We will study every part of the Lord’s prayer and each child will write it in his/her own words. Look for these in the hallway soon! 
Literature Selection: Un caso grave de rayas (A bad case of stripes) 
Phonics: Morfemas flexivos según el números. Students will determine when add, "s", "es", and "ces" to singular nouns to make them plural.
Wall Words: todos, juegos, algunos, veces, ustedes.
Poem: El Señor Metetes
Reading: This week we will continue working on making predictions from the text. We will also learn to go back in the text and use specific parts of it check our predictions. In our shared reading we are going to work on questioning, specifically on asking deeper questions about the heart of the story.
Writing: This unit is powerful because the students begin to evaluate their own stories and recognize that it is important to focus on details such as spelling, finger spaces between words, etc. We are also going to learn to write for an audience.
Math: Students successfully took their first mat test. We have already started our second unit of place value.
Science: Students are becoming more aware of how Michigan looks in maps. This week we will make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats. Focus question: Why do we see only certain plants and animals at only certain times/places? and Investigation question: What can we find on a walk?

“Housekeeping” Items

October 14: Parent-Teacher Conference Reservation System
http://www.zcs.org/parents/
October 14: Conference Feedback Sheet: If you would take a minute to fill it out and send it tomorrow. I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!
October 18: Día de las Rayas, next week Friday come to school covered in stripes! We will have fun celebrating our shared literature book. You can be covered head to toe or just wear a striped shirt or pants.
October 21 & 22: Parent Teacher Conferences-Evening-School in session 
October 23-25: No School-PD & CEA Convention for teachers
November 1: Grandparent’s Day will be on Friday, November 1. Your child will bring home invitations for his/her grandparents on Friday. 
November 6: Water Treatment Plant Field Trip
November 7: No PM Busing, Picture Retakes
November 8: No AM or PM Busing
November 14: ZCS Legacy Event at Holland Civic Center @ 6:00pm

Noticias 2D

Queridos Padres, 

I am grateful for our never-changing Jesus as we learn about his kingdom message in Bible class! We admire who he was as we study his life and are encouraged to know he is still as faithful, firm, and compassionate today.

A huge GRACIAS goes out to Brittany VanHuis  & Jill Hamm for providing us with amazing treats and juice boxes for our publishing party with Maestra Schrotenboer 3er grade classroom. We appreciate it so much!

Also, thanks for sending your child with their Pjs & stuffed animals last week! We had a blast celebrating our first won letter! 

Thanks for your continued prayers for safety, and unity throughout this year! 

Blessings, 

Hilda Durán 

This Week:

Bible Memory Verse: Psalm 105:4-6 Due Date: October 17

Bible: This week we will focus on the time between the Old Testament times and the New Testament times as people waited for the Messiah. We will learn about the promised Savior and the beginning of Greek rule, the Greek and Roman impact, as well as the Pharisees and Sadducees.  

Literature Selection: Un caso grave de las rayas

Phonics: los consonantes c suave, x, s, z 

Wall Words: fácil, excelente, dicen, gracias, vez

Poem: Zipi-Zape

Reading: This week we will continue working on making predictions from the text. We will also learn to go back to the text and use specific parts of it check our predictions. In our shared reading, we are going to work on questioning, specifically on asking deeper questions about the heart of the story.

Writing: We have begun a new unit called “Writing for Readers”. This unit is powerful because the students begin to evaluate their own stories and recognize that it is important to focus on details such as spelling, finger spaces between words, etc. We are also going to learn to write for an audience this week.

Math: Students are working hard solving word problems using different strategies. This is a complex compare problems. Although the problem uses the word menos, children need to add to solve the problem. The greater number is the unknown. 

We took the Spring Delta Math Screener last week. If you would like to see your child's results, please send an email to Maria Klompmaker (mklompmaker@zcs.org). 

Science: Our science classroom will be different this year. You’ll see engaging classroom experiences with your children asking more questions, exploring and discussing possible solutions, investigating science concepts, using argumentation, and being fully active in the learning process. 

This approach mirrors real-world science practices and deeply engages students in the learning process. There are no right or wrong answers, just some things that didn’t work. There is no textbook. Students will be expected to maintain a science notebook almost daily to use for reference. Students will write, draw, and orally report their findings for each lesson. Students will work cooperatively to find solutions to real-world problems.  This style of inquiry-based teaching makes learning meaningful and memorable for children. Please ask your child to share with you his or her projects and discoveries, frequently. All assessments will be project-based and will be scored using a rubric. Student report cards will reflect class participation, assignments, and performance assessment tasks. 
During this week students will respond to the focus question: What is the purpose of maps? & investigation question: Why do Michiganders use their hands to show where they live?

“Housekeeping” Items:

October 9: Teacher Conference Reservation System http://www.zcs.org/parents/ 

October 10: Conference Feedback Sheet: In your child’s mail today you will find a questionnaire that will help me as I prepare for conferences. If you would take a minute to fill it out and send it in by Friday, Oct.10, I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

October 11: All school chapel at 9:00 am

October 11: NO PM Busing 

October 21 & 22: Parent Teacher Conferences-Evening-School in session

October 23-25: No School-PD & CEA Convention for teachers 

    Noticias 2D
Queridos Padres,

I was overwhelmed by receiving so much attention for my birthday and would like to thank every one of you so much for your kind greetings, blessings, and presents.☺ I'm sure that with all these wishes, it will be a great year. Thanks, Erin Bremer for making my birthday such a wonderful and memorable day. I do feel humbled!

Also a huge THANK YOU to Lindsey Iverson, Lindsey Kerber, Haley Slagh, Mark Westerbeke and Eme Helms who accompanied us on our first field trip to Cranes. The students and I appreciate it.

Thanks for your continued prayers for safety, and unity throughout this year!

Blessings,

Hilda Durán

This Week:
Bible Memory Verse: Psalm 105:4-6  Due Date: October 1
Bible: We didn’t get to cover the kings last week, so we’re going to visit that this week along with the wait for a Messiah,
Literature Selection: Frederick
Phonics: consonants: (q con c vocals a,o,u )
Wall Words: pequeño, cuando, que, aquí, quiero, cuidar
Poem: Dulcelandia
Reading: It’s great to have our reading groups up and running! I’ve been stressing the importance of reading the words accurately and rereading if something doesn’t make sense.
Writing: We are getting ready to fine-tune our stories so that we can celebrate with a publishing party. After that, we will start a new unit Writing for Readers.

Math: Students are working hard solving word problems using different strategies. Later this week they are going to solve two steps word problems.
Social Studies: We are ready to wrap up our Social Studies unit. The students will take their test, after that we will move to our first Science unit, from our new curriculum, Shifting Sands.

“Housekeeping” Items:
September 30: School Pictures @ 11:00 Please send completed envelopes to school. Thanks!
October 2: Publishing Party!
October 11: All school chapel at 9:00 am
October 11: NO PM Busing
October 21 & 22: Parent-Teacher Conferences-Evening
October 23-25: No School-PD & CEA Convention for teachers
Reading Book Bags: went home on Friday. Thanks for making sure that your child rereads all of his/her books on the weekend. Sitting with and listening to your child read tends to help him/her pay more attention to decoding!
Pizza Hut coupon: If your child completed the required reading, have them bring the sheet back for a free personal pan pizza coupon! Extra incentive for good readers! :)

    Noticias 2D
Queridos Padres,

This group of students has been such a gift to me already this fall! Overall they have had such an easy time adjusting to second grade and are working so well with one another. It has been really fun to see. This past week I checked out The Message’s version of our Bible memory verse which says, “Keep your eyes open for God, watch for his works; be alert for signs of his presence” (Psalm 105:5). I love the emphasis it puts on the fact that we have to actively watch for what God is doing, because He is obviously doing incredible things around us. We are going to talk about this together as a class this week Tuesday and will brainstorm ways we see God working around us throughout the week. I encourage you to do this at home as well!

Thanks for all of your encouragement and prayers. It has been so much fun working with your kids! Don’t forget to check out the videos and pictures on Facebook or on our website to see what happens at school!

Thanks for your continued prayers for unity throughout this year! 

Blessings,

Hilda Durán

This Week:
Bible Memory Verse: Psalm 105:4-6 Due Date: September 30
Bible: This week we will review Moses, the judges, and the kings (Saul, David, and Solomon) We are doing small performances to make the story more real. They love to do it!
Literature Selection: Frederick
Phonics: consonantes que coinciden (Gg con Jj)

Word Wall Words: gente, joven, abajo, juntos, jugar
Poem: El pez
Reading: This week we are learning more reading strategies such as, using the pictures to deepen comprehension.
Writing: This week we will look at making more specific word choices in our writing. Also, they will star editing their small moments with their writing partner.
Math: This week we will work to solve word problems called Add to and Take From problems. These problems begin with a quantity that is the modified by change-something is added or subtracted-which results in a new quantity.
Social Studies: We are having so much fun with this unit, we have taken a short walk around our school to get more ideas and draw up the map of our school community. This week we continue with transportation and how we move from one place to another.

“Housekeeping” Items:
September 26: Field trip to Crane’s Apple Orchard! Kids will need a
sack lunch, drink, good walking shoes, and dressed for the weather. We will leave right away in the morning (8:50) and return after lunch.
September 27: No School 
September 30: School Pictures
Shoe-boxes: Do you have any extra shoe-boxes sitting around that we could use for dioramas this week? If so, I’d appreciate it if you’d send them in by Wed. :)

    Noticias 2D
Queridos Padres,

Devotions are always some of my favorite times with my students, and I wanted to share with you how they are enjoying and reflecting on our almighty God. I am humbled, amazed and SO grateful that we get to serve a God who loves us unconditionally.

I also want to thank the parents who will be helping us monitoring the classroom while I have lunch with one or two students on Friday. During this time the children and I can share more. 

Thanks for your continued prayers for unity throughout this year! 

Blessings,

Hilda Durán

This Week:
Bible Memory Verse: Most of them did awesomely! Thanks for all your help at home. Our Next Bible Verse is Psalm 105:4-6
Due Date: September 30
Bible: We have wrapped up our first Bible unit about “The Christian Life” and James. Now we are going back to Old Testament times. Late last week we talked about the creation story and celebrated how creative and powerful our God is by focusing on these words... Y DIOS DIJO. AND GOD SAID. With only words he made everything... it doesn’t get more powerful than that! This week will review a ton from the Old Testament that was covered in first grade; we’ll cover Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the judges, and the kings (Saul, David, and Solomon)! Did I mention that it’s going to be a brief review? :) 
Literature Selection: Quique duerme fuera de casa (Ira Sleeps Over Phonics: consonantes que coinciden (b con v)

Word Wall Words: veo, bueno, bien, viene, olvidar.
Poem: La gata Maroma
Reading: This week we will begin to build stamina as we read with a friend.
This will be a crucial part of our reading program and we’ll learn how to make good use of this time. We will learn how and when to help our partner during reading by encouraging the use of our reading strategies. We’ll also focus on dividing words into syllables and looking for parts in words that we already know (such as gozo in gozoso). 
Writing: This week we will continue zooming in on the heart of our stories. We’ll learn how to reveal the most important part and include details about emotions. We will also focus on integrating capital letters and periods to make sure we are writing complete sentences.
Math: We are working identifying numbers as odd or even. Later this week we will work in equations chains and word problems. They are doing amazing job during Math time.
Social Studies: This week We are moving into our second social studies unit which focuses on where our community is geographically. We will learn about maps (map keys, titles, and symbols) as well as making a map of our local community. I know many of you are from Holland, Hudsonville, etc., but to keep us all on the same page we are going to focus on Zeeland because it is our local school community.

“Housekeeping” Items:
September 20: NO PM busing
September 26: Field trip to Crane’s Apple Orchard! Kids will need a sack lunch, drink, good walking shoes, and dressed for the weather. We will leave right away in the morning (8:50) and return after lunch.
September 27: No School 
September 30: School Pictures