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St. Philip Neri Catholic School

Second Grade Update

Dear Second Grade Families,

Happy Friday!

This week, we had five eighth graders come in to share about their service experiences. In case you do not know, eighth graders need to complete at least 15 hours of service during their final year at SPN. 🙂 Second graders got to hear about this requirement, but more importantly, how service directly relates to our Catholic Social Teachings. We are called by God to serve others and make our world better. This was a perfect complement to our Miss Rumphius project last week – “Making the World a Better and more Beautiful Place”!
 
Other highlights were the Catholic speaker who shared her book about saints on Thursday. Students were truly engaged as she shared about lesser known saints from all parts of the world, from past and present day, with all different interests, and all ages.

Students also had the opportunity to make posters for our food drive AND share about it with the school during morning assembly! More students will have an opportunity to share at next Wednesday’s morning assembly – we will need to keep up the momentum! 🙂

Last but not least, students cheered on their classmates and schoolmates in today’s SPN Olympics, demonstrating good sportsmanship!

Next week will include some of the activities that got rearranged this week due to special events. 🙂 We will also start one of my favorite novels – Top Secret. It will be our final novel study of the year and is sure to be a hit with students!

Reminder: For the food drive, we are aiming for more than $1,000 dollars + food donations. Second graders should do their best to collect money and/or food donations from family, friends, and/or neighbors to show their leadership! 🙂

Below is our second grade update.

Focus Areas for Our Learning Next Week:

  • Reading – Students will focus on completing AR reading in class. In their Read Every Day journal, they continue to summarize the books they complete, describing the characters, plot, setting, etc. 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 decode and encode words with different spellings for /ōr/ (for example, short, warm, tore, four, door).
  • Writing – Students will use their writing skills and math vocabulary to share about the shape art they create during math.
  • Math – Students will review the characteristics of different 2-D shapes and create some shape art. They will use math language to write a paragraph describing their art.
  • Religion – In Family Life, we will start our last unit – God’s Gift of Community. This is a perfect way to end because it supports concepts of service, working together, and our role in our school, neighborhood, and family. 
  • Science – Students will share their mystery animal haikus with the class!
  • Social Studies – We will continue our economics unit and discuss the types of businesses in our community. Students will bring in their knowledge about resources, producers and consumers, and goods and services.

Other Updates for this Week:

  • COVID Safety– Please continue to be vigilant with the daily health screening. We appreciate your continued diligence – it keeps us all safe!
  • Dates to remember:
    • Monday, May 30th – No School – Memorial Day
    • Friday, June 3rd – Baccalaureate All School Mass
    • Tuesday, June 14th – Last Day of School – Moving Up Ceremony; 10:30 Dismissal!

We look forward to seeing our students on Tuesday! Hope you all enjoy the Memorial Day weekend!

All the best,

Catherine

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What Our Families are Saying

"The supportive teachers at SPN played a big role in preparing me for high school and helping me understand what to expect. They encouraged me to ask questions and seek help when needed, which made me more confident in my learning. Thanks to them, I entered freshman year already familiar with many concepts and effective study habits that have helped me stay on top of my work. SPN also taught me valuable life skills that I still use today, helping me succeed academically, build strong friendships, and maintain my overall well-being."
— Tibby Horvath, SPN Class of 2022
"We are very satisfied with the SPN community, something that is important to our family. My children feel safe and comfortable with SPN. Our family feels connected with the SPN community from parents and families to the staff and faculty. My children and we as parents have made healthy and positive relationships with other families from school. We share time outside of school with other families which brings a level of connectedness I don't know if we would have elsewhere"
— SPN Parent
"My children are experiencing community in other ways than just friends and playdates. Faith Families is an example of community, interacting with students from all grade levels, and learning and creating for others outside of SPN. Field trips to Kids Against Hunger or the Alameda Food Bank where they work and see firsthand how their efforts help others less fortunate, for those who are in need of support. Community is not just our SPN ‘bubble,’ and that is what SPN demonstrates and provides– opportunity to explore a bigger community."
— SPN Parent since 2016