Last Newsletter for 2016-2017

Dear Room 4 Families,

Thank you for your generous gifts and donations towards our last day of school party. Your child had a fun time wrapping up our school year and getting ready for 3rd grade.

Your child brought home all of their work and belongings today. Please take a look at the Lost & Found in the front of the school for any lunch boxes, clothing, and water bottles that may have been left behind during the school year.

Report cards and YCT (Youth Chinese Test) scores were passed out today along with a few gifts from me. Today your child received a book from me called “The Chocolate Touch” which is a guided reading level N, which is about where your child should be reading and comprehending going into 3rd grade. If you’d like to help your child practice the type of work and comprehension questions, you can look at a guided reading group breakdown HERE. For summer reading suggestions that are appropriate for the end of 2nd grade/beginning of 3rd grade, you can refer to this list HERE. The types of comprehension questions that you can ask your child about their reading can be found HERE.

This article provides good information about what will be expected of your child academically in 3rd grade: http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/what-to-expect-grade/preparing-3rd-grade

For the families that would like more resources to help your child prepare for third grade, Costco is selling workbooks from the Summer Bridge series for both English and Math. All of our 2nd grade online accounts will remain active until the week before the beginning of the school year. That means you can still use iChineseReader, Kids A-Z, SpellingCity, Quizlet, and Front Row. If you’d like to sign up for a paid service to work on academic skills, I recommend IXL.com as a good resource that is common core aligned and is well organized by grade level and topic. You can also view the newsletter from

• Summer Bridge Activities Grade 2-3
• Summer Express Between 2nd and 3rd Grade
• Summer Fit Second to Third Grade: Math, Reading, Writing, Language Arts + Fitness, Nutrition and Values
• Summer Bridge Math Grades 2-3
• Summer Bridge Reading Grades 2-3

Here are some other websites that offer skill practice. Some are free, some have subscription fees, and some are paid sites with free areas to explore.  Please remember to monitor your child’s usage. Some of the websites will require adult assistance in navigating and finding age appropriate games.

• BrainPop
• Fact Monster
• Play Kids Games
• FunBrain
• ABCya! 
• Gamequariam
• Cool Math Games
• Math Games
• Moneyville
• Softschools
• Arcademic Skill Builders (This is the company that makes Multiplication Grand Prix on the ipad that the kids love to play against other students. They have other online versus games you can play on the website that I think the kids will love!)
• Mathplay 
• Internet4Classrooms
• Sheppard Software Language Arts Games
• Vocabulary.co.il
• Tumble Books
• Spin and Spell
• Magic School Bus
• Readquarium
• Storyline Online (Stories read aloud by famous people!)
• Interactive Poetry – Instant Poetry Forms
• PBS Kids – Between the Lions
• I Spy
• Word Girl

The following is a list of Chinese games that you can play online. Please remember to practice over the summer and review words that they have already learned so your child is ready to start 3rd grade Mandarin!

• Digital Dialects
• Learn Chinese Kids
• Kids Learn Chinese
• Chinese iLab
• English 4 Kids (Yes, it is a Chinese website!)
• Hello World
• Learn Chinese with Kai-lan
• Games at University of Maine
• Chinese for Kids
• Zon Labs
• Fun With Chinese Learning (Traditional Chinese, website is in Chinese and will be advanced for your child.)
• Yes Chinese (Webpage is in Chinese, but easy to figure out how to navigate)
• Games at Better Chinese
• Chinese Idiom Zoo (Webpage is in Chinese, for advanced students)
• DuoLingo
• KidsGo Flash
• Idiom Stories – Link to YouTube Channel

ClassDojo will also be active until the beginning of the next school year and you are more than welcome to contact me through ClassDojo or e-mail with any questions that you may have. I will try to reply to your message in a timely manner, however I will be out of the country for a month to teach English in Japan so you may not hear back from me during this time.

Thank you for such a wonderful and fun year! Have a great summer and I’ll see you and your child in 3rd grade!

-Ms. You