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

    Noticias 2D
Queridos Padres,

Thank you so much to all parents for coming to our info meetings last week Thursday. It was a pleasure to meet you! I’d also like to thank Erin Bremer our fearless room-mom leader, for heading up this year’s parent volunteers. Thanks to all of you who have already volunteered to help out this year. I am blown away!

Finally, I am looking forward to this first full week of school. We have practiced most routines and classroom expectations and will begin to pick up the pace a bit more as we dive deeper into academic content. Parents, I’ve tried to take a lot of pictures and put them on Facebook with the hope that you will get a glimpse of how hard your child has been working.

Thanks for your continued prayers for unity throughout this year! 

Blessings,

Hilda Durán

This Week:
Bible Memory Verse: James 1: 19-20 Due Date: September 14
Bible: We will continue learning from the book of James and its lessons
to Christians. This week our key lessons will be controlling our tongues (a tough one!) and the power of prayer. During this time I teach them about how much God loves it when we talk to him because he wants to be our father, savior, and best friend. Finally, keep working on our Bible memory work as I will give a fill-in-the-blank quiz. Thanks for sending words of encouragement to their practices on seesaw, that means a lot to them :)
Literature Selection: La Señorita Nelson ha desaparecido (Miss Nelson is Missing)

Phonics: syllable classification: los diphthongs
Word Wall Words: fui, afuera, luego, puedo, tiene.
Poem: Lo que no muere
Reading: We will work on going back to reread when we don’t
understand something. We will also begin reading with a friend as part of our Daily 3 reading this week and will spend much time practicing how to do this well! Finally, we will learn about “good fit books” as books that fit our purpose (to learn, be entertained), interests (animals, adventures, humor), level of comprehension (do I understand what I read?), and knowledge of the words (can I read most of them well?). 
Writing: Our writer’s workshop is busy with story writing! This week we’ll learn more about discovering small moments, partnerships in writing, and stretching out small moment stories with many details. 
Math: We are working finding teen Math Mountains and relate to addition problems with two unknown addends; practice addition and subtraction with totals less than or equal to 20.
Social Studies: This week we will continue describing different communities, comparing different kinds of communities and knowing our Local Community, Zeeland.

“Housekeeping” Items:
Library books: Our first library day will be Monday, Sept. 9. Your child
will be allowed to take 2 books home, both of which should be returned next week Monday so that he/she can check out 2 new books!
Children are invited to bring something special to share with their friends. For years I have been doing it not only to promote the production of the second language but also to help them socialize. Thank you for all your support. :)
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. Thanks in advance for all your help with it! 
September 27: No School
September 30-October3: School Pictures

    Noticias 2D
Queridos Padres,

I hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend! Welcome back to the school routine. We’re easing back into things here in second grade. Last week was just absolutely awesome! Students, I know many of you were tired by the end of the day, but I was so impressed by the hard work and enthusiasm you showed.
Did you check out the pictures of day 1 that I put on our class Facebook page? So cute! 
Our class newsletter will be emailed out on the first school day of every week. I will always write a quick note, remind you of upcoming events, and supply you with our curricular “agenda” of the week.
Our Class Blog is a great resource!
http://laclasedelamaestraduran.blogspot.com/
At this Blog, you’ll find under My Favorite Websites so many links such as audio versions of our Bible memory work, Seesaw, RazKids, Xtramath, schedules, and others.

Send me! is our school theme for this year. We will learn about and reflect on this verse much throughout the year, and I encourage you to further foster these discussions at home! ¡ Muchas Gracias!

Thanks for your prayers! 

Blessings,

Hilda Durán

This Week:
Bible Memory Verse: James 1: 19-20 Due Date: September 14
Bible: After reviewing The four Biblical Truths, we are beginning our year out by looking at the book of James and its life lessons for Christians. We will learn about being slow to speak and quick to listen. We’ll also learn about the importance of listening to God and responding faithfully to Him.                
Literature Selection: La Señorita Nelson ha desaparecido (Miss Nelson is Missing)

Phonics: consonant groups (bl, cr, etc.)
Word Wall Words: y, yo, ya, brincar, otras,
Poem: Las estaciones
Reading: We’re excited to use The Daily Five for our literacy block! Last week we talked about 3 ways to read a book: read the pictures, read the words, retell the story in your own words. This week we’ll keep building up our independent reading stamina and practice picking books that “fit” our level just right. I will also be benchmarking students to find their perfect instructional reading level in Spanish.
Writing: This week we’ll continue our writer’s workshop by working on writing independently and writing small moment stories.
Math: We’ll look at addition and subtraction fact to 10.
Social Studies: We are going to start studying What is a community? Why do families live in communities?
Science: We will be alternating Social Studies and Science units this year, which we are very excited about. For this reason, we will begin Science later this semester.

“Housekeeping” Items:
September 5: Parent Information Meetings you can attend at 6:00 or 6:45pm
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. Feel free to email me if you considerer be a chaperone for this field trip. Thanks in advance for all your help with it! :)
September 27: No School 

From the Immersion Director

Are you looking for an opportunity for you child to use his or her Spanish in an authentic setting? Mecdonia Baptist Church is going to put on a Christmas musical in Spanish and are inviting any intersted students to join them. This is for and children from 1st-8th grade who are enjoy being on stage, and for those who would rather work behind the scenes helping with props, etc. Practices will be about twice a week starting in the middle of September. There will be an informational meeting Saturday Sept 7 - 10 am at Macedonia Baptist Church 

(101 W. 17th St., Holland MI)
Contacts: Sandy Burgos 616-795-8270 Elda Haak 616-414-2341