Second Grade Update

Dear Second Grade Families,

I hope your weekend has been fun and not too spooky! Friday’s Fort Party was so fun – thank you for your patience and flexibility with that activity! Seeing the kids so excited to share about their forts was one of the best parts of my week, for sure. I do have to admit that climbing out of my fort was not as easy as I had expected – not quite as flexible as I used to be! 🤣 

Thank you to our amazing and talented Art Docents – Mrs. Ortiz-Lynch and Mrs. Tsiptsis! The painted pumpkins turned out wonderfully! Some were spooky, some were cute, and if you’d like, you can check them out on our Seesaw blog! 

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 work on giving and supporting opinions using evidence from the text.
• Grammar/Spelling – In Superkids, students will practice forming plural nouns as well as breaking words into syllables.
• Writing – Students will continue practice writing a well-constructed paragraph and following the writing process for their Landform Scene paragraph (this will accompany the landform scene they are creating for science). The paragraph is not due until next week and will be rewritten after the editing process next week.
• Math – We will continue working on word problems and counting by 5s/10s. We will also continue practicing telling time to five minutes.
• Religion – Students will resume learning about the Holy Trinity and specifically, the third divine person – the Holy Spirit.
• Social Studies – Students will learn about timelines and how they are used to depict events.
• Science – This week, students will create landform scenes using salt dough. This scene, along with the paragraph they will be working on in writing, will be due on November 13th. Since this was a more involved project, I wanted to make sure everyone had enough time. I am posting this project today on Seesaw in case you want to review ahead of time.

Updates for This Week:

• 1:1s – There is a slight update to the times to make sure there is enough buffer between sets of students in case of technical difficulties, etc. Please have your child check their time to make sure they know when to log on.
• Halloween pictures for the yearbook – If you took any Halloween pictures, I would love it if you could send one to me. Our middle school yearbook editors have asked for contributions, and I will be sure to pass it along to them! 🙂
• Book Fair: This year we are having a virtual Scholastic Book Fair. The dates are: Nov. 7 – Nov. 20. Online Store: https://www.scholastic.com/bf/spn_alameda
• Dates to remember:
  • November 4: All-School Mass (live-streaming link to be posted on Clever and sent out via newsletter)
  • November 4: PTG Steam Night
  • November 6: Noon dismissal – Teacher work day
  • November 9: No School – Veterans Day
  • November 12: Mandatory Family Meeting at 6:30pm with Mrs. Murray regarding returning to school
  • November 19: Second Grade Returns to School
  • November 23-27: Thanksgiving Break

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

• Schedule – Please note there is one assignment highlighted in yellow that I would like your children to work on independently. Thank you in advance! 🙂
  • Telling Time Assessment (Friday)
• Weekly Assignment Matrix – Please review with your children. I will continue reviewing it with them daily as well.
• Salt Dough Landforms – This sheet is part of the directions on Seesaw and included here for easy printing.
• Landform Labels – These labels can be used on the landform scene. They do not have to be put on toothpicks! Gluing is fine! 🙂
• Hamburger Organizer and Writing Paper – These are to support your child as they write their paragraph to accompany their landform scene. If your child struggles with writing, it would be a good idea for them to start with the graphic organizer so they can structure their thoughts. 
• What is a Timeline – This sheet is for the Social Studies assignment on Wednesday and will be glued into their Science/Social Studies notebook when they are done.
• Long & Short Vowels – This sheet is for the Reading Interactive Notebook assignment on Wednesday. 

Thank you again for all the support you provide your children and me as we continue our year together! Wishing you a wonderful week ahead, and I look forward to seeing our second graders tomorrow!

All the best,
Catherine