Second Grade Update

Dear Second Grade Families,

Happy Friday!

For a shorter week, we were busy! One of the highlights was seeing students do a fantastic job identifying and collecting facts from an informational text. Wow, we are ready to do some research next week for our informational writing! 🙂 

Your children also powered through their reading and math STAR assessments. I was impressed how they maintained a quiet testing environment for their fellow students even after they finished. Very respectful and responsible!

Also, next Friday, students will enjoy a virtual visit from the Bay Area Children’s Theater! Our focus will be storytelling through song with an emphasis on using our imaginations to explore characters’ motivations and story settings. I hope students enjoy this musical adventure! 🙂

Below is our weekly update:

Focus Areas for Our Learning Next Week:

• Reading – Students finish their book clubs just in time for Thanksgiving! We will focus on understanding how characters have changed through their stories and identify key events in the beginning, middle, and end of the text. Fluent reading (reading at an appropriate pace with accuracy and expression) is always a focus for all students. 
• Grammar/Spelling – In Superkids, students will practice decoding and encoding /ô/ words as in “saw” or “all”. We will review that “ay” makes the long A sound. The use of commas will also be a focus this week.
• Writing – The class will draft informational paragraphs with a strong topic sentence, clear supporting details, and a closing sentence to bring their paragraph to a conclusion. 
• Math –Students will practice skip-counting using 5s and 10s within 1,000 and develop fluency adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers using strategies based on place value. 
• Religion – We will reflect on all our many blessings and share what we are especially thankful for in our lives. Students will enjoy a gratitude-focused art project as we get ready for Thanksgiving. 🙂
• Science – We will take a break from our unit on material properties and explore the season around us – Autumn! Specifically, we will learn why leaves change color in the Fall. At the end we will create some leaf rubbings to create a community tree for our classroom!
• Social Studies – The class will review and add some new vocabulary to our social studies notebooks (location, state, country, continent, ocean). We will also practice following directions using a map.

Other Updates for this Week:

• End of Trimester 1: Students will receive their report cards on Friday along with their STAR reports, etc. As you review your child’s report card, please know that students are aiming for “3”s by the end of second grade. I am assessing 2nd grade standards, and if they meet that standard, the grade is a 3. I am not assessing above second grade standards at this time. Also, since we are just finishing Trimester 1, students often have not mastered the standard. This is expected and not something to worry about. 🙂 For any standard where the grade is blank, we have not yet covered that standard. If I believe we should discuss your child’s progress further at this time, I will certainly reach out to you (or may have already done so).
• Dates to remember:
  • Nov. 15th-19th: Scholastic Book Fair
  • Tuesday, Nov. 16th – Free Dress for November Birthdays
  • Nov. 17th: Spirit Day – Disney Day!
  • Friday, Nov. 19th: Report Cards
  • Nov. 22nd-26th: Thanksgiving Break

My next email to you will come on Friday, November 26th. 🙂

Mrs. Serles and I hope you enjoy the weekend and have a blessed Thanksgiving break! We are very grateful for all of you and your children! It is a blessing to be with them each day. 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving!

All the best,
Catherine