As a final hallmark of the start to a new school year, we hosted Back to School Night this week. Although the event happens after hours when the sun is setting, it is fun to experience the campus abuzz with parents, brothers, sisters, aunties, and grandparents coming to learn about the new curriculum for their student from each new teacher. Unique from other campuses, this school welcomes students to attend with their parents. This gave me lots to chances to ask students for the input as I explained our classroom, which was fun for all of us.
For the families that attended, I provided an array of resources including a list of “5 Way I Can Help My Child be Successful in 2nd Grade,” (or Spanish version here) a packet of school policies and cute stationary to write their student a note. Also pictured on the table is a list of “Top 10 Things to Know at Parents Night” that we worked on earlier in the week. Each student listed parts of the classroom with phrases such as, “Look at the warm fuzzy jar,” or “Did you see my back wall writing?”
Getting ready for Back to School Night was especially exciting because it provided many learning opportunities for the students. In addition to the “Top 10” list, our 2nd grade class got excited for this special time to invite families into our classroom. We practiced writing home in our weekly letters about the event, practiced how to verbally invite our parents and even created papel picado (“perforated paper”) to decorate the room. These students are fascinated with looking at maps and globes so the chance to create papel picado for Back to School Night was a great connection to make. The idea to create some decoration for the room coincided with Mexican Independence Day (September 16th). As a result, we learned a little bit of history about a country on our continent while being creative.
Miss Cooney's Classroom 