New Horizon School - Los Angeles

Assalamu alaykum Everyone! I hope that you all had a joyous Eid celebration with the ones you love and all those dear to you and insha'allah you will have many more to come! Well, I am pleased to say that the Second Grade Social Studies classroom group is on track. In November, the class completed building their Model Communities, Rural, Suburb and Urban, using their team-building skills.They were given the opportunity to assess their own self-effort,as well as assess the presentation of their peers' projects. This was something new to them and many of them felt strange about it, but they were able to reach this higher order thinking skill. Please stop by upstairs to view their work (near the fifth grade classroom) as they are on display with pride!

We continued with Theme 2 Our Place On Earth where they discovered that Earth provides different places for people to live. We covered various landforms, bodies of water, continents, countries, and states. Students learned to read from a landform map, from a globe, and from a map grid. They also learned to interpret information from diagrams, such as the various parts of an envelope, a perfect opener to being introduced to the opportunity to write to their new Pen Pal. Through the traditional way of writing letters they will be able to personally connect to another Muslim 2nd Grader living in Wisconsin also attending an Islamic school. They are very excited about formulating friendships with children from the Midwest region of the United States and await anxiously for a reply to their letters! They discovered that the United States has four regions and each region has its own special features, so they have lots of questions about snow and how to play in it!

In December, we will wrap up Theme 2 by covering the many cultures, languages and beliefs of our North American neighbors Canada and Mexico. We will cover some of the ways people use natural resources, such as water, to grow and make things for their communities. We will review how to use a Dictionary better and a World Map.

And finally, please support your child in preparation for their first trimester final exam on Thursday, December 10th. We will also be working diligently to recall the concepts learned in class, insha'allah.

Tasneem Keval

Assalamu Alaikum, My name is Mrs. Keval and I am your Second Grader's social studies teacher this year! The children are starting off the year with Theme 1 about People and Communities. So far they have been learning about the importance of groups in our communities such as families, friends, our classroom and our school and the way people in these groups live, work and interact within their communities. They have been reading from their textbooks and working out of their workbooks.

However, they already seem to know a lot about this subject as they have demonstrated their knowledge with the use of their K-W-L charts! They have been defining key vocabulary words by completing Vocabulary Word Webs and other types of Word Webs. They will be comparing and contrasting various related subjects with the aide of Venn diagrams.

In October we will continue our theme and explore living in cities, in suburbs and in rural communities. And then they shall be able to apply all of their knowledge gained and classroom skills set combined with their own imagination and creativity in building their own model community! This community will be well thought out and planned with their assigned team members with the use of all sorts of creative mediums, ie. clay, construction paper, popsicle sticks, paint, etc. Inshallah, you will have a chance to see their model communities!  Tasneem Keval