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This Weeks Themes:

Spelling: H-Brothers (Th, Sh, Ch, Wh,)
Literacy: Identifying setting, plot, and characters
within short stories
Social Studies: New Unit (see below)
Math: Adding by factors of 10

Miss VanBuskirks

Classroom
Updates

Whats been happening in our

second grade classroom?

Week of:

October 20th
October 24th

New Unit

We are starting a new Social Studies unit this week that will deal
with the concept of Maps and how maps are used to learn about
our community. In order to introduce this unit the students will be
doing a project where they are asked draw a map of their home.
Parental help is encouraged for this project!

Field Trip Reminder!

Dont forget that we have our first field trip of the year on
Thursday! All second grade students will be spending the
day at the zoo and will be asked to pick an animal that
they can later write a short report on.

Childhood Sleep Patterns

Week 1 Regular Sleep Patterns

Children and Sleep

Common Sleep Patterns

in School Aged Children

Girls are found to spend

more time sleeping than
boys
Older children have delayed
sleep onset times and often
report more daytime
sleepiness
Eighteen percent of
children have been
reported to have
fragmented sleeping
patterns

A good nights sleep is a vital need of all children.

Sleep is essential to a childs health and growth and
promotes alertness, memory and performance. Each
child is different and has different sleep needs but
there are some basic guidelines that parents can
follow in order to ensure that their children are
developing good sleeping habits.
Whats Recommended?
How much sleep should your child be getting?
Children aged 3-5 years old should be getting 11-13 hours of
sleep per day.
Children aged 5-12 years old should be getting 10-11 hours of
sleep per day
(sleepforkids.org)
Touchette E; Petit D; Tremblay RE; Boivin M; Falissard B; Genolini C; Montplaisir
JY. Associations between sleep duration patterns and overweight/obesity at age 6.
SLEEP 2008;31(11):15071514.

7th Oct. 31st

Issue #2: Oct. 2

Miss VanBuskirks Classroom Updates

This Weeks Themes:

Spelling: Irregular plurals
Literacy: Making predictions and
asking/answering What if questions.
Science: Introduction to water cycle
Math: Counting by 5s
Birthday Shoutout!
Sarah H. is celebrating her 7th
birthday on Tuesday October 28th
Thanks to all of our parent volunteers who
helped make last weeks field trip a success!
The students had a wonderful time exploring
the zoo with all of our helpers!

Parent Volunteers Needed

Halloween is on Friday! Our
class will be putting on its
annual Halloween party and we
need a few parent volunteers to
come and help out with room
preparation and passing out
snacks and goodies during the
party. The students will be
dressing up for the school-wide
parade at 1:00pm and students
will need help getting into their
costumes! If you are available to
come and help please send me
an email and I will get back to
you with more details.

Childhood Sleep Patterns

Week 2 Developing Good Sleeping Habits
Developing a Routine
The number one tip for developing good
sleeping habits in your child is to follow
a nightly routine. Bedtime rituals make it
easier for children to relax and fall asleep
and tend to help children sleep more
soundly through the night.

A Typical Bedtime Routine

1. Have a light snack
2. Take a bath
3. Put on pajamas
4. Brush teeth
5. Read a story
6. Make sure the room is quiet
and at a comfortable
temperature
7. Put your child to bed
8. Say goodnight and leave

More Helpful Tips:
Make bedtime the same time every night
Restrict use of television or videos during nighttime
routine TV viewing prior to bed can lead to
difficulty falling and staying asleep
Keep the sleeping environment (e.g. light, temperature) the
same all night long
Encourage children to fall asleep on their own this
encourages the child to return to sleep during normal nighttime
awakenings
Discourage nighttime awakenings by requiring your child to fall
back asleep on their own.
(sleepforkids.org)

Miss VanBuskirks Classroom Updates

Issue #3: Nov. 3rd Nov. 7th

This Weeks Themes:

Spelling: the -ing ending
Literacy: Using the prefix to decode the
word practicing with prefixes and suffixes
Social Studies: Continuing with map
concepts learning about relative location
Math: Fact families

Upcoming Events:
On Tuesday we will be getting our first
letters from our pen pals in Ohio. The
students learned the names of their
pen pals today and are very excited to
read their letters tomorrow.

On Wednesday our class will have a
guest speaker coming to give a
presentation to our class I have told
them our speaker is a surprise so be
sure to ask them all about it on
Wednesday afternoon!

Childhood Sleep Patterns

Week 3 Sleep Patterns and Childhood Obesity

Additional Information
Obesity vs. Overweight

Obesity is defined as having an

excess amount of body fat
Overweight is defined as having
excess body weight for your
particular height
Overweight and obesity are both
the result of caloric imbalance
(too few calories expended for the
amount of calories consumed) and
can be affected by various genetic,
behavioral, and environmental
factors.

How are sleep patterns connected to

childhood obesity?

How can you help?

Parental behaviors at bedtime and

in response to late night
awakenings are highly associated
with the childs sleep association
Not feeding children who awaken
at night and letting older children
fall asleep without mom or dad in
the bedroom can both help
improve poor sleep habits

Research has shown that disruption of circadian

rhythmssleep cyclesin the form of short sleep
duration leads to an increased risk of childhood
and adolescent obesity
Leptin (the hormone that signals satiety) is
reduced in those with short sleep duration, and
ghrelin (the hormone that signals appetite) is
increased
o Studies demonstrated direct evidence of
increased appetite in those sleeping shorter
hours
Persistently short sleep duration (less than 10
hours) during early childhood significantly
increases the risk of excess weight or obesity in
childhood
Correcting sleep problems early can prevent
childhood obesity as well as other health related
consequences.

International Journal of Obesity (2008)

32, 10421049;
doi:10.1038/ijo.2008.37; published
online 18 March 2008

Miss VanBuskirks Classroom Updates

This Weeks Themes:

Spelling: Using the -ed ending
Literacy: Summarizing short stories
Science: Continuing with water cycle
discussing uses of water
Math: Addition of two digit numbers

Issue #4: Nov. 1 0th Nov. 14th

Project Reminder
This is a reminder that the students will be starting
their animal projects this week. The majority of the
work for these projects will be completed during class
time but there will be a small amount of homework to
finish up the project. There will be a project outline
coming home with your student so please keep your
eyes open for that!

Childhood Sleep Patterns

Week 4 Insomnia in Children

What is Insomnia?
Insomnia is simply the disruption of the sleep
cycle. These disruptions can include difficulties
with getting to sleep, difficulty staying asleep, or
early morning awakenings.

Children and Insomnia

Insomnia in children can last for a few nights or

could become a long term problem, lasting a
number of weeks. Common causes for insomnia
in children include anxiety, daily or chronic
stress, pain, or mental health issues.
(webmd.com/children/sleep-disorders)

Thiedke, C. C. (2001-01-15). Sleep disorders and sleep problems in

childhood. American family physician, 63(2), 277-284.

How Can You Help?

If your child is
experiencing insomnia
here are some things you
can do
Identify any stressors in
your childs life
Establish a regular
bedtime routine that
allows relaxation time
before lights out
If insomnia continues
talk to your childs
doctor about ways to
resolve the problem

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Issue
#5: Nov. 17 Nov. 21

Miss VanBuskirks Classroom Updates

This Weeks Themes:

Spelling: Using the -ed ending
Literacy: Reviewing plot, characters, and
setting and how to incorporate these aspects
into our summaries
Social Studies: Me on the Map Discovering
how large our world really is
Math: Continuing with addition of two digit
numbers
Birthday Shoutout!
Micah S. is celebrating his birthday
on Thursday November 20th

Parent Teacher Conferences

Conferences will be taking place
Monday Thursday this week. A
note has been sent home with
each student that has the date
and time your conference has
been scheduled for. If your
student misplaced this letter
please send me an email and I
will get back to you with the
necessary information. I am
excited to meet with all of you
and discuss all of my wonderful
students!

Childhood Sleep Patterns

Week 5 Sleep and Academics

What have the studies shown?

Recently, a study was conducted on

children aged 6 to 10 years of age
attending different schools. The study
looked at the amount of sleep that the
children were getting on a nightly basis
and compared those numbers with the
childrens academic performance. The
study revealed that the young students
that slept just eight or nine hours each
night performed more poorly in school
than those who slept nine to eleven
hours a night.

When young children go to bed late and
sleep less than nine hours their
academic skills suffer along with their
memory and their motivation

(consumer.healthday.com)

What are the effects?

Missing sleep or bad bedtime habits
can have significant negative effects
on skills that are linked to academic
performance.
Lack of sleep can have negative
effects on:
Cognition
Memory
Learning
Motivation

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