Second Grade Update – Week of 9/18

Dear Second Grade Families,

Happy Friday!

A highlight from this week was our Family Pride activity. You prepared your students well because they came with amazing adjectives to describe the special qualities of your families! Your children were excited to share as we wrote them on the board together. These second graders are certainly blessed. 🙂 Their projects turned out beautifully – thank you again for your support at home! I look forward to hearing students share them in front of the class next week!

Conferences:
Next week, you will receive a link for parent/teacher/student conferences via the school newsletter. Conferences are the afternoons of October 3th-6th. Please make sure to sign up for a conference with me by Wednesday, September 27th. Thank you, and I look forward to meeting with you and your child!

Homework Heads Up:
Next week for homework, students will fill out a family tree (only three generations – themselves, parents, grandparents) and answer a few questions about their family to help them connect with their own history! I am assigning this for homework because it is not something your child will be able to accomplish in the classroom without your background knowledge and help. To balance this out, I will NOT assign any math or spelling next week. If you want to get a head start, attached are the worksheets that will be included in the green homework folder on Monday. Also attached is an example. Feel free to update to fit YOUR family like I did! 🙂 Below are the instructions that will be on Monday’s homework sheet:

Social Studies:  To learn about their family histories, each student will create a family tree and answer a few questions about their family. They should write in complete sentences, starting sentences with capital letters and ending with end marks. For the family tree, students should write clearly and then lightly color the background with crayons or colored pencils (their words should still show through). Again, students will need help from their family.

Below is our second grade update.

Focus Areas for Our Learning Next Week:

• Reading – 
  • In reading groups, students will continue SUPER magazine with a focus on understanding how text features and pictures support comprehension. Students will also work on understanding vocabulary and making connections.
  • At night, students should read aloud to practice fluent reading skills. Please encourage your child to observe punctuation, read at a good pace, and read the words as they appear in the text (no deletions or substitutions).
• Grammar/Spelling – In Superkids, students will review pronouns (he, she, it, our, my, etc.) and possessive nouns (adding ‘s or s’ to the end of nouns to show possession). Students should practice their spelling words for homework so they are prepared for the quiz on Friday.
• Writing – The class will review informative writing and then complete a paragraph that shares facts about something they know a lot about. As always, we will focus on the structure of the paragraph – topic sentence, facts and details, wrap-up sentence. Students will use editing skills to finalize their paragraphs (focus on capitalization, punctuation, and their best spelling). After completing their final copy, students will illustrate.
• Math – Building on the story problems we have been working together on during Number Corner, more and more students are participating in Math Masters! In Math Masters, students have six story problem opportunities to complete each week where they read the problem carefully, identify important and relevant information in the problem, and solve. This week, the class will also be reinforcing our understanding of odd/even numbers, counting by 5s and 10s, and working with time and math facts through 20.
• Religion – We will review our chapter about the Bible, remembering that the Bible is the written Word of God, there are two main parts (Old Testament and New Testament), and that the first four books of the New Testament are the Gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In the Bible, we learn how to live our lives by Jesus’s example.
• Science – This week, students will develop a model of the earth’s surface and use it to discover an important principle about how rivers work. In the activity, Paper Mountains, students take turns using a spray bottle to make rain fall on paper models of mountains to observe patterns of how water and rivers flow.
• Social Studies – Students will share their completed family pride projects. Presenters will focus on sharing information clearly, with a speaker voice. The audience will focus on using active listening skills. 

Other Updates for this Week:

• Field Trip! – 
  • When: Monday, September 25th, 9:15-11:30am
  • Where: Walking field trip to the Alameda Free Library. Ms. Andie will give students a tour, do a read-aloud, and answer any questions children have about the library and all its programs!
  • Chaperones: We need one more chaperone to walk with us and ensure safety while crossing busy streets. Chaperones MUST have completed the VIRTUS training Ms. Andie can help with any questions about these requirements. If you would like to chaperone and have confirmed all your requirements are complete, please reach out to me! I will take responses in the order I receive them.
• Tardies – Please be aware that if your child is not in line at the 8:00 bell, I will need to mark them tardy. This is a school policy.
• Covid Daily Screening – Please continue to do the daily screening. Your diligence is important and appreciated.
• Dates to Remember:
  • Friday, Sep 15 – No School: Eucharistic Revival
  • Tuesday, Sep 19 – Free dress for Sept. B-Days
  • Monday, Sep 25 – Walking Field Trip to the Alameda Free Library (9:15-11:30am)
  • Wednesday, Sep 27 – Noon Dismissal: Teacher Development; “Jeans Day” with $5 donation to support 8th grade activities
  • Oct 3-6 – Noon Dismissal, Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences
  • Tuesday, Oct 4 – Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, Prayer Service Blessing of the Animals, 8:00 a.m.
  • Monday, Oct 9 – NO SCHOOL: Indigenous Peoples Day

We look forward to seeing our students on Monday! 

All the best,
Catherine