Second Grade Update

Dear Second Grade Families,

Happy Sunday! Below is our weekly update.
 
Focus Areas for Our Learning:

• Reading – We continue Book Clubs. As always, we will be practicing fluent reading with a focus on decoding, speed, accuracy, and expression. Groups will also identify how illustrations and word choice add to readers’ understanding of the text and help them make inferences.
• Grammar/Spelling – In Superkids, students will identify ways of using ‘y’ in words and connect that many adjectives end in ‘y’.
• Writing – Students will practice writing a well-constructed paragraph using the “hamburger model” for their Family Artifact writing. They will not need to create a final copy for this assignment, but they will need to make sure they edit.
• Math – While continuing to reinforce problem solving skills, we will also discuss different types of clocks and telling time.
• Religion – Students will focus on the four mysteries of the Rosary: Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious. They will reflect on these while they practice praying a decade of the Rosary each day (just one!). This should take them about five minutes.
• Social Studies – Students will connect their knowledge of artifacts and focus close to home on a family artifact for their writing assignment. They will also explore how museums display artifacts for visitors to view and learn about. 
• Science – This week, students will continue learning about landforms and the types of changes that can impact the Earth, both quickly and gradually over time. 

Updates for This Week:

• Update on Return to School – I will be sending a separate email later this week about second grade’s planned return to school on Thursday, November 19th. It will include our preliminary schedule, a list of supplies your children should bring with them, things to consider to ensure everyone is prepared, etc. After all, it has been a while since we were all at school! 🙂
• Birthdays! – This week, we have William’s birthday on 10/27!
• Fort Party – Since starting the school year, our second graders have been earning marbles for awesome listening, showing respect and acknowledgement to classmates, giving great effort on assignments, participating thoughtfully, working together to solve problems, etc. This past week, they filled the jar! To celebrate, students shared ideas and voted on a special treat. So Friday, we will have a fort party for our morning meeting. They can even invite their pets or stuffies to join them. 🙂 Forts can be as simple as a sheet or blanket over a couple chairs or table, and I hope this does not cause you great inconvenience.
• A little Halloween package coming in the mail – Mrs. Serles and I wanted to send just a few treats to the kids. 🙂
• Halloween pictures for the yearbook – If you take any Halloween pictures of your adorable children, please send them to me because our middle school yearbook editors have asked for contributions! 🙂
• First Communion – The following children are registered for the First Communion preparation program. If you believe you sent in information or still want to register your child (deadline is October 28th), please contact Mrs. Diane Bustos. She is your contact, and I have included her contact information and preparation program information again for your convenience.
  • Carl
  • Maxx
  • Victor
  • Christine
  • Caroline
  • Jacob
• Science supplies for next week – Students will build a scene out of salt dough that includes at least two landforms. Salt dough is made from flour and salt, and while I know these are items that most households have, I wanted to give you a heads up so that I didn’t catch you off guard. 🙂
• Dates to remember:
  • October 21: Noon dismissal – Teacher work day
  • October 30: Fort Party for Morning Zoom Meeting
  • October 30: Noon dismissal – Halloween Wave Parade (11:30-12:00)
  • November 4: All-School Mass (live-streaming link to be posted on Clever and sent out via newsletter)
  • November 6: Noon dismissal – Teacher work day
  • November 9: No School – Veterans Day

Key Documents/Links (master file also attached for printing):

• Schedule – 
  • Please note there are several assignments highlighted in yellow that I would like your children to work on independently. Thank you in advance!
    • Writing portion of the Family Artifact paragraph assignment. However, you may assist with identifying the family artifact. 🙂 (Week-long, due Friday)
    • Fluent Reading Unit 2 assessment (Friday)
    • Unit 2 Assessment in Superkids Online (Friday)
  • Please notice that we have several fun activities this week that are different than our normal schedule. 
    • Art Docent (Tuesday, 10:40) – For supplies, please refer to the note from Mrs. Lynch that I forwarded last Wednesday. 
    • Halloween Drive By Parade (Friday, 11:30-12:00)
  • Tuesday – I had wanted to have reading groups on Tuesday since 1:1s would be canceled, but this is just too many zooms for the kids. They will use that period to work on Superkids.
• Weekly Assignment Matrix – Please review with your children. I will continue reviewing it with them daily as well.
• Describing a Landform worksheet – This sheet is for Science on Monday.
• Number Line worksheet – This sheet is for the Math Interactive Notebook assignment on Wednesday.
• Long E worksheet – This sheet is for the Reading Interactive Notebook assignment on Wednesday.

Wishing you a wonderful week ahead! I look forward to seeing our second graders tomorrow!

All the best,
Catherine