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Thank you for helping us create a loving and compassionate community :)

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Hi Jasper,

We hear you like crystals! Guess what? We like crystals too. Ty and I both used to be geologists. One of my favorite minerals is lepidolite. It’s purple! Which ones do you like?

It’s super neat that you are interested in crystals. Isn’t it amazing that they are made by the Earth? As a geologist, I used to study glaciers. Have you ever seen a photo of a tunnel under a glacier? The ice crystals are compacted and really blue. In my opinion, glacial tunnels are one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Ty used to study hot springs and the crazy colorful minerals that they produce.

We hope second grade is full of all kinds of exploration for you, Jasper, whether it’s related to rocks or something else. Keep pursuing your interests. They are awesome!

-Carissa and Ty (Desi’s mom and dad)

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Ela!!

I hope this note finds you in good spirits! Even though the air outside is smoky right now, our hearts can still be filled with light and rainbows: as the song says, “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…”

I still remember my second grade classroom, many years ago in Houston, Texas, where I grew up. I had a favorite folder to hold my class work. It had a Star Wars X-Wing fighter on it; I imagine you could probably find a similar folder today, which is kind of amazing. My classroom was nearest to the door to the outside, so we were able to run out quickly for PE and recess.

My favorite memory of second grade is learning to spell the word “Granddaddy,” which is what I called one of my grandfathers (my dad’s dad). One week, I requested it as a special vocabulary word, just for me, because I wanted to know how to write it (and keep track of all those D's). Nowadays, Eloise calls one of her grandfathers (my dad) “Granddaddy,” too, and whenever I hear it, it makes me feel connected to mine.

We hope you’re enjoying the start of school! I wonder what you’ll remember about second grade when you’re my age?

Let your light shine,

Matt (Eloise’s dad)

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How's second grade going? What are some of the best parts?

When I was in second grade, I loved riding my bike around the neighborhood. I had a red banana bike with tall handlebars and a big basket with flowers on it. It was called a banana bike because the seat was long like a banana and the tall handlebars made it easy to do wheelies. Check it out...now that's kind of wacky, isn't it? I remember is being so, so fun.

I also had a bunny named Star and my brother had one named Pepper. Mine was white with a black spot over his nose that looked like a star. My brother's was dark grey and black and guess what he looked like...yup, pepper! We loved those bunnies. Do you have any pets?

Zoe, I hope you have a wonderfully fun and memorable year with those you love. And don't forget to take lots of photos!

Kay (Milo's mom)

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Hi Jack!

We hope that you are enjoying 2nd grade so far!   What are you most looking forward to this year?  Has anything been different than you expected?

When I was in second grade, I loved reading, science, recess, soccer and art.  I also enjoyed learning with my classmates.  And... I had a really cool metal lunchbox with Strawberry Shortcake on it, similar to the one in the picture below - I loved it!

We've seen you be very active and full of adventure.  This year is a bit different with online learning.  We hope that you are finding fun ways to continue exploring and being active.  What types of activities do you enjoy most right now?

We wish you a wonderful year, full of discovery, friendships and fun.

Christine & Pat (Zoe's mom and dad)

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Hi Carey,

We hope you are enjoying second grade. You are probably spending a lot of time on the computer connecting with your teachers and friends nowadays. Do you like it? What's your favorite thing to do on the computer?

This is what my computer looked like when I was in second grade. I loved playing frogger on it. I didn't do anything else on it. I only played frogger. Once, I pulled the film out of the cassette tape. I might have ruined the tape. My parents really did not like that!

How are you spending time after school and in-between classes? I sure hope the fires are contained soon so we can go outside to play again!

Charity (Alexis' mom)

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Hi Liya!

I hope you are enjoying second grade. These unprecedented times and distance learning with Ipad make the your whole experience different and fun.

Even if I did not have these many changes, my second grade was definitely unforggettable in certain ways.

One of my most vivid memories about elementary school happened when I had just started 2nd grade. When my family moved to a new city (Ankara, Turkey) when I turned 7, I started a new school and on the very first class I attended, my teacher asked if any student wanted to skip count by 2s. I raised my hand and got in front of all class to count and I was so proud after whole classroom screamed in unison "Good Joooob!". I sill cherish such fun little memories in my 2nd grade, my teacher's sharing her own stories, my friends and games we played the school playground. I hope you will also have many fun memories at Keys with your other 2nd grade friends. Have a wonderful school year!

Hasan (Ada's dad)

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Hi Darron!

How’s second grade going?  Are you happy to see your friends after a long summer break?  I hope you are really enjoying the second grade so far!

Have you collected any new Pokemon cards?  Last time I heard that you got such a great collection.  It’s so much fun hearing you talk about your Pokemons, and you know so much about them.  How about your piano practices?  Guess what?  Annie started learning piano this summer as well. I know some other friends play instruments too.  Maybe someday you and your friends can show us.  That’ll be totally awesome!

Darron, I love that every time when I see you that you always have a bright smile on your face.  You are such a fun and helpful friend.  I’ve seen you having so much fun playing with your friends.  This year is so special with online learning.  I hope you enjoy spending time with your family, and find fun ways to connect with your friend, be active, and be adventurous.

I wish you a wonderful year, full of fun, and filled with exciting discoveries!  Always keep up your sparkle Darron!

Yinghua (Annie’s mom)

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Hi Mihika,

I hope 2nd grade has started well! While it's a different way to start the year, it already seems like classes have been fun and interesting!

My favorite memories of 2nd grade were writing lots of creative stories (just like Ellie's stories, many were about my cat. Her name was Kitty), visiting the fire station, reading Dr. Seuss stories out loud at story time, and making oobleck for the 1st time. But like true scientists, we needed to create a hypothesis and test our oobleck recipes to see what worked best!

What classes are you enjoying most? What are you most looking forward to?

When I was in 2nd grade, I also did ballet dance (I was a clown in the performance!), played softball and was in Brownies. Are you doing any special activities this year?

Wishing you a year of fun, friendship and lots of learning!

Katie and Jason (Ellie's parents)

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I hope you are enjoying 2nd grade so far.  This is a very unusual and special year for all of us.

Aaryan, you are a bright and smart child.  You are always on top of your school work, you behave very well in class, always thoughtful in your sharings, are kind and friendly.  I believe you will do very well in school and in life as you grow up, have lots of friends, be a responsible grown-up, and be able to achieve any goal you want
for yourself.  Your Mom and Dad must be very proud of you.  You are going to be a wonderful person like them.

Thank you for extending your warm welcome to Cheston, and be willing to be his buddy.  He is not scared to come to a new school because of your friendship.

Have a wonderful and memorable 2nd grade!

Wendy (Cheston's mom)

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Hi Andreas,

We hope that you are enjoying your second grade so far. Attending virtual school in such a challenging time is a very special experience to you.

I heard that you attend Mandarin class every week and not sure if you will learn about the upcoming Moon festival in the class. This year's Moon festival will be Thursday, October 1. I mentioned it since it was one of my great memories during my 2nd grade. My school in China organized a Rabbit lantern exhibition and invited every family to participate. I worked with my parents and my grandmother together to make a rabbit lantern with four wheels so that I could pull it all around the exhibition place. I saw many different designs of rabbit lanterns made by my classmates and was impressed how the crafts were made with imagination. Definitely, we also celebrated the festival with eating many flavors of mooncakes. Hope you could also enjoy some mooncakes this year!

Andreas, with more time at home during this school year, we hope you can do more explorations, experiment various ideas, make crafts with your unlimited imagination and etc. Wish you a wonderful school year!

Jiemin (Liya Z's mom)

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Hi Annie,

We hope you enjoy your very special 2nd grade life. Virtual school is such a unique experience for everyone in the school. How do you like it so far? It could be challenging but it is different and fun sometimes right? I heard you have two bunnies adopted in the summer. How coincidently we have two bunnies too and their birthdays are both May 28 2020!

When I was in my 2nd grade, I loved reading, especially non-fiction books. Since I could not do research from the internet or learn on a computer 30 years ago in China, all I had were books. To me, books  open up a totally new world of learning and they teach me some interesting things I didn’t know about the world. Sometimes, I participated in science quizzes in the newspaper. Then, I cut the answer out and mailed it to whoever made the science quizzes.

Then, I was suddenly interested in writing! I record everything that ever happened to me. I wrote about my life. But then, after several months, I ran out of ideas :( One day I found out that one of my classmates was writing a fictional book with chapters. He already wrote more than ten chapters for his story about an adventure from his secret closet.

That was what it was like for me! What you have experienced could be different from what I have experienced and I hope you like my second grade life as much as I liked yours!
Wish you a great virtual school year.

Erdan and Jingbin (Carey's parents)

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I heard you just turned 8. Congratulations! Did you have a fun birthday? How do you like second grade so far?

2020 is a very special year. As a parent, I feel grateful that we’re having more family time at home.Meanwhile, it’s quite challenging since I have to cook a lot. ;-) I hope the air quality improves so that we can go hiking, and spend more time outdoors. What is your favorite activity at home?

I hope you have a great year! Stay healthy, feel connected and have fun!!

Cheers,
Zhengli (Celine’s mom)

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We heard that you like bunnies and rainbows!

Jasper likes to draw rainbows and maybe you like drawing those too.

Do you know what is a rabbit's favorite dance style?

It's Hip-Hop!

What do you get if you cross a rabbit and an insect?

A Bugs Bunny!

We wish you have a fun year in second grade where all the wishes you wrote in your hot air balloon art become true!

Andreas and Sonia (Jasper's parents)

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Dear Liya,

We hope that and your brother are having a great start to the Keys school year, albeit through distance learning!  We definitely miss seeing you!   Second grade is such a fun time.  I (Elaine) remember my second grade teacher loved giving our class riddles and challenges.  I learned a lot of new things this way.  My favorite and most memorable challenge was this:  "I am a tree.  I have FOUR different types of leaves.  I also have FOUR S's in my name. Native Americans brewed a drink with my root for medicinal purposes.  What is my name?"

I thought about this riddle a lot and looked at books but couldn't figure it out!  When I finally learned what the tree was, it inspired me to learn more about it - turned out I had several of these trees in my own backyard!   That fall, I made rubbings of the four leaf types and the bark, used branches to make structures and sculptures, and tried to dig up a part of a root to brew my own tea (it didn't taste very good😝😂)  In the spring, I watched the leaf buds pop again and fill the canopy with four types of glossy new leaves.

We hope that during second grade, you will learn many new and interesting things and that some of them will inspire you to explore more deeply, to draw or write about it, or create something new from what you learn!   It will definitely be a different year, but hope you stay curious, full of wonder, and use your time and talents to try new things to share with your school community!  Happy learning and hope to see you again in person soon.

Cheers,
Elaine and Mike (Cassia's parents)

P.S. The name of the tree is "Sassafras" 😀

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Hi Jack!

Wow what school year this has been! I know it looks different but this is one we will remember forever. We miss seeing your smiling face in the classroom but are so proud of how you have handled the virtual classroom! You are always so thoughtful, engaged and kind to your classmates. One of my favorite memories of second grade was really just the friendships I made, some of whom I'm still friends with today! It's such an exciting time to build upon those connections and really create a strong bond with someone. I know Teddy really misses seeing you, maybe we can plan a bike ride playdate soon? That would be fun!
We wish you all the best always and may your second grade year be filled with learning new things, awesome adventures and lots of laughter. 
Oh and just in case you need a new joke for Funny Friday during morning circle... 
Why didn't the orange win the race? 
It ran out of juice! HAHA! :)

Nicole + Raffi (Teddy's parents)

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Hi Milo,

We hope you are having a good start to second grade virtual school! What is your favorite subject so far? Are you enjoying being home with your parents and brother? Does your brother get to listen in to some of the second grade classes?  We’ve noticed the teachers have some really fun classes this year, from making boats to banging on a bucket drum! We wish we were in second grade at Keys School!

We also heard you like to swim and play soccer. We hope you are able to do that right now and if not, you’ll have lots of fun when these activities are finally open for you again!

When I (Matt) was in second grade my parents took me up skiing most weekends to Kirkwood, just like I take Jack P today. My dad also taught me how to build houses, chop firewood, hunt and fish on our land. The house is still standing today!

Have a great second grade year and we look forward to seeing you in person sometime soon!

Lauren and Matt Pataky (Jack P’s parents)

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Dear Sophia,

Congratulations for being  a fabulous second grader! I love seeing you during Zoom and hearing what you share. One exciting thing about second grade is how many new books you can now read! Are there any that you particularly like? I know that for me books are keeping me exploring the world and even travelling to new places in my mind during this strange year.

One thing I remember about second grade is starting to learn piano. Do you play an instrument or enjoy music? I know you are learning drums with Ms. Hodgett which seems very fun! It is also very loud :) I hope that you find some ways to be outside and enjoy the music of nature!

Have a fabulous year of learning and fun!

All our best,
Rebecca and Christian (Eli’s parents)

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Dear Alexis!

Congratulations to the 2nd grade! You made it!!!  How do you like the 2nd grade and the distance learning so far?  It is very different, I know, but I hope you are enjoying the class. I bet that you must be the Zoom expert and know how to do all of these… co-host, mute/unmute, shared screen, raise your hand, whiteboard, spotlight, chat box, etc.  Amazing!

I heard that you like to read books. That is so wonderful. I like to read books, too, and can read for 5-6 hours a day. What is your favorite books? Are you reading the story treehouse? I heard many of your classmates are reading this book. Those are very fun books, aren’t they? Keith is reading the 78-story treehouse right now. A friend of mine told me about a book that Keith may like to read and I just bought it for him. I’d like to introduce that to you if you like fiction books – it is The Last Kids on Earth. It’s fun, fancy, and adventurous. Do you want to give it a try?  I’d love to know if you liked it.

I hope you have a great year in second grade with lots of dreams, happiness, and friendship. Keep your learning eyes wide open and keep reading!

Pornprang + James (Keith’s parents)

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Hi Cheston,

Welcome to the Keys community! How's your first year at Keys so far? I hope you're finding ways to get to know your classmates & make little connections, even if it's just on Zoom.

Speaking of making connections - since you're new to Keys I looked you up on the Keys website and I discovered an interesting fact - we're neighbors! We can almost see your house from ours (we're right behind the McKelvey baseball field). This is exciting and we should definitely find a way to have a local playdate! Liya (our daughter) was excited to hear about this!

Looking forward to get to know you better, and best wishes for the rest of 2nd grade!

Atanas + Yang (Liya's parents)

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Hi Keith,

Isn't it amazing that we're already several weeks into Second Grade? To us parents, it doesn't feel that long ago that you and Sophia were starting Kindergarten together in KA! I bet your mom and dad feel the same.

Second grade is one of the most special years of school. One reason it's so cool is that your reading skills are now at a point where you can learn about anything you want, and explore the stories and fictional worlds of so many new authors. Who knew there could be a 13 story treehouse?... or is it taller than that by now? Us grown ups can hardly keep up with you Second Graders!

When I was in Second Grade, iPads weren't invented yet, and neither was Epic, so we had to go to the library to find new books. I definitely didn't know how to log into Zoom, unmute myself and raise my hand until I was much much older! I loved riding my bike around the neighborhood and learning to play all sorts of sports like soccer, rugby and tennis though. What outdoor activities do you enjoy? Hopefully, the air quality improves so we can be out and about a little more soon!

Have a wonderful second grade, and we hope we'll get to see you in person really soon.

Tim & Sheryl (Sophia's parents)

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Hi Celine,

We heard that you were a Seesaw expert! Year 2020 really turned Keys’s second graders to computer geniuses. That’s so amazing, comparing to what I was able to do at your age. I am sure that you and your classmates will very soon (if not already) be every bit as competent in technology as the grown-ups around you. Talking about being tech savvy, I hope that you use your talents and skills to help your family and friends.

Darron was quite impressed that you could play guitar in additional to piano. The more music instrument you can play, the more ways you can express and enjoy yourself. We hope that you and your classmates can someday organize a music performance for parents after the COVID-19 inconvenience is over.

We know that distant learning is not ideal. We also know that Keys, your teachers and your parents are doing the best they can to make your learning as enjoyable as possible. We hope that you stay healthy and active, and soon all of you will return to school in person.

Darron wants me to tell you that he hopes weather in your neighborhood is good, and sky is blue.

Sabrina and Tao Long (Darron’s parents)

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Hi Teddy!

Congratulations, and welcome to 2nd grade.  I remember how big the 2nd graders looked when you and the rest of the class were just starting at Keys, and now you're a second grader.  Did you know that you'll be half-way through lower school this year?

I know this year must feel pretty different than last year.  Seeing everyone on Zoom talking makes me think about how far computers have come since I was in second grade.  We had one computer in my second grade class for everyone to share.  It could only show things in green, and the only "app" was a turtle that could follow directions like "FORWARD 10" or "RIGHT 90" to move and turn.

I hope you're staying cool on these hot days (maybe with ice-cream).  Here's a joke for you:

Why does ice-cream always carry an umbrella?
In case of sprinkles.

--Eric and Renata (Sadie's parents)

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Hi Isaac,

Congratulations on being a second grader! I hope second year is off to a great start. And what a special year - I bet we will remember this year forever! And while we don't yet get to go to school in person, having family at home all the time must be wonderful.

What's your favorite class so far? How do you like distance learning? You always have amazing facts to tell about science or nature; I look forward to hearing them again!

I was a second grader in Turkey years ago. We used to play hopscotch all the time. My teacher once asked me to tell the time on an analog clock - I was so proud I could do it!

Did you know that all students wear blue uniforms in Turkey? Check out this picture of second graders from a small Turkish village.

Isaac, wishing you a wonderful second grade, full of fun, great friendships and learning! We look forward to seeing you soon!

Baris & Eda (Ela's parents)

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I loved all your creative ideas! I wish you lots of confidence and curiosity😊
Love, Ela