Author: lincolnsecondgrade

We can’t believe that we are in fourth quarter and it is going to be April. It has been one crazy year but we have persevered and are emerging from the other side better and stronger. We are seeing your scholars become third graders before our eyes.

We would like to welcome Mrs. Duran in 2A back from her maternity leave. Remember, if you are in 2A, please direct all correspondence to Mrs. Duran and Mrs. Tiner and not Miss Dulaigh as Miss Dulaigh has moved to a position helping the lower grades.

Reminder: there is no school April 2nd. It is an R&R weekend so there will be no homework. We hope that you have an enjoyable and relaxing three-day weekend.

The week at at glance:

Poetry: Our newest poem Smart by Shel Silverstein was sent home last week. It will be recited on April 19th.

Reading: We will be learning about the Point of View in the stories that we read.

Writing: We will be writing Expository paragraphs. This will be very helpful when writing their insect project.

Grammar: Conjunctions will be the final part of speech we will add into our sentences for parsing. We will be introducing conjunctions next week.

Spalding: There will only be 20 words for Spalding next week due to the short week.

Literature: We will begin reading Charlotte’s Web. If your child has not yet brought in their book, please bring it by Monday 3/29.

Math: Our unit on fractions will continue with lessons on comparing and adding fractions.

Science: We will continue to learn about magnets.

History: The Civil War unit will continue.

We apologize for the missing blog last week. Some weeks just get away from us.

Please read through the overview of the next couple weeks:

As it is getting colder, we are seeing an increase in jacket wearing. Scholars can only wear non-uniform jackets during outdoor activities. If your child still feels they need a jacket indoors, it must be a uniform jacket. No other jackets are allowed indoors.

Next Friday, 11/13, we will have our mid-year Galileo testing. Students that are in person will be taking their tests as part of the school day. Curriculum has been modified for the week to accommodate testing. Online students will have to log into the test AND on Zoom at 8:45 AND 12:15. Please look out for more information from Ms. Bachman.

We will begin learning about Multiplication and Division in math next week. This is a new skill that we spend a lot of time on in second grade. Multiplication and division will span into third quarter.

Our poem, Something Told the Wild Geese will be recited on 11/23. We will be getting our final poem, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, passed out the next day on 11/24. It is formatted differently than the other poems we do, so be on the lookout for that.

Tuesday, 11/24 will be an action packed day for us. There will be a virtual assembly about perseverance. Each class will spend time playing a game as a reward for the read-a-thon. We will also be celebrating the end of The Cricket in Times Square and the end of our Ancient China unit with fun activities and treats. Please look out from a message from your class’s liaison with a sign-up for supplies.

11/24 will also be Mrs. Duran’s last day prior to going on maternity leave. Mrs. Tiner will be stepping in as lead for 2A until her return. Ms. Dulaigh has been hired to assist Mrs. Tiner until Mrs. Duran returns fourth quarter. We appreciate all your encouragement and support during yet another transition this year.

11/25-11/27 there is no school due to the Thanksgiving Holiday. That weekend is R and R as well. We are so thankful to be part of your school community. We hope you enjoy time with your family and get plenty of rest and relaxation.

Thank you for all that you do to support our school. We appreciate you all.

– The Second Grade Team

I hope that everyone enjoyed Literary Character Day as much as we did. Thank you to the readers who read to us over Zoom and the families that provided us snacks. We really appreciate all you did to make the day feel special.

Update on RAZ Kids- Since second grade is more concerned with comprehension than with how many books a student reads, we will not be leveling up through the amount of books read, but through how they are comprehending the books that they read. Please be aware that if you child reads several books, the program may level them up, but we may adjust their level again depending on where we feel is the best fit.

A Week at a Glance:

Poetry: Something Told the Wild Geese by Rachel Field- recited on November 23rd.

Reading: Our small group, leveled reading groups will begin this week. Our first focus will be pausing at punctuation. We will be focusing on routines surrounding our groups this week. There will not be addition reading instruction.

Grammar: We will continue to study verb tenses.

Writing: We will continue to learn how to write a friendly letter.

Math: Our unit on measuring and length.

History: We will continue to learn about ancient China.

Science: Our human body unit will continue by a brief overview of the respiratory, circulatory, and muscular systems.

It is hard to believe that we are almost to the end of October. How is it that this is the longest year ever but time seems to be flying by?

Literary Character Day

Friday, October 30th is Literary Character Day. This is the culmination of our Read-a-thon. That means this is the last week to log reading minutes for the Read-a-thon.

In person students will celebrate the day with literary costumes, reading in the dark, and eating some treats. Please look out for a sign up from your class’s liaison for supplies needed. Please have your child bring a flashlight and stuffed animal for our reading in the dark time. Due to distancing, we will not be able have blankets or pillows brought in. If you have not yet gotten costume approval from your teacher about your student’s teacher, please reach out ASAP. Students who have not received approval will not be able to dress up.

Online students will be celebrating as well. Please submit your costume approval on Google Classroom. Students who do not receive approval or are dressed inappropriately, will not be able to be on Zoom in their costumes. Please look out for more information coming from Ms. Bachman.

Reading Homework

We will be sending home log-ins for RAZ Kids on Monday. This is the first year that second grade is using this program. Because of this, we may be using it differently than it was used in the past. In second grade, we move more away from fluency and really focus on comprehension skills. Your child will be assigned a book and a comprehension quiz on every Monday. It should be completed by Thursday. Unlike other grades, the advancement to the next level will not be contingent on how many books they read at a certain level. As this is the first time that second grade is using this program, please be patient with us as we figure out how this program best fits our needs.

Week at a Glance:

Reading: We will be working on asking questions while we are reading.

Writing: We are going to begin our unit on writing friendly letters.

Grammar: We will begin to learn about verb tenses.

Poetry: Our next poem “Something Told the Wild Geese” by Rachel Field will be going home Monday. It will be recited on November 23rd.

Literature: We are going to continue to read “The Cricket in Times Square”. If your child has not brought into school or they do not have access to it at home, please get it for them ASAP.

Math: We are going to finish our unit on Addition and Subtraction with renaming. There will be a test on Friday.

Science: We will begin our overview of our body’s organ systems.

History: We will continue our unit on ancient China.

Thank you for your continued understanding and support. Please reach out if you have any further questions.

The Second Grade Team

We are in the last week of the quarter. It has both been the fastest quarter ever and seemed to drag on indefinitely.

Announcements:

• Tonight from 6:30-7:30 tune into facebook to kick off our read-a-thon and see some of your favorite teachers read their favorite books.
• Poems are due on Monday. Please make sure you have your scholar ready to present. You can see the rubric which they will be graded on on the back of their poem. Online students will upload a video of themselves presenting on Google Classroom.
• Friday, October 2nd is a half day.
• Friday, October 2nd is also our celebration day. Online students- please look at the email from this week with information and supplies needed for the online celebration. In-person students- Thank you so much for fulfilling our supply list. The office will put a wagon outside for supplies to be dropped off. If you are able to drop off items you signed up for prior to Friday or send them with your child on Friday. This will relieve congestion at the office.
• Conference sign-up will be sent out this week. Please look out for these and sign up promptly for a time. Conferences are mandatory. They will be held October 12th and 13th.
• Fall Break will be held from 10/5-10/9. It is R&R.

Our Week at a Glance:

• Reading: We will be reviewing story elements by reading the Greek Myth Arachne the Weaver.
• Spalding: We will be back our regular 30 words.
• Grammar: We will finish up learning about plural nouns.
• Literature: We will finish Boxcar Children and discuss the book with our class. Our next book will be The Cricket in Times Square. Please bring it in after fall break.
• Math: We will be introducing subtraction with renaming.
• Science: We will finish our simple machine unit. Simple machine project information and part 1 will be sent home Wednesday, 10/30.
• History: We will finish our Greek Unit. We will celebrate by doing Greek crafts and activities.

Hello again.

It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of the quarter. The next two weeks are busy and I am sure will fly by.

Announcements:

Galileo Testing:

• On Monday, September 21st, all second grade students will take the first round of Galileo benchmark testing. From 8:45-10:15 they will be taking the math portion and from 12:15-2:15 the English portion.
• In person students will take the test during school hours. There will be no homework besides reading that evening.
• Distance students will be sent their login information and instructions by the end of the day from their homeroom teachers. Please watch the video provided in the email to see how to login. After helping your child login, please allow them to take the test independently in order for the data to be valid. We will be on the Zoom to help with any questions that arise. Your child must be signed into the Zoom sent out prior to being allowed to begin the test. Students must be present at both testing times. There will be no synchronous instruction that day and asynchronous work will be cut down severely.

Greek Day/ Boxcar Children Book Talk:

• On Friday, October 2nd, we will be spending the day celebrating the end of Boxcar Children and our Greek Unit. Online and brick and mortar students will both have celebrations but will be celebrating in different ways.
• Online students- Please look out for an email next week detailing the celebration and supplies that will be needed.
• In person students- We need supplies for our celebration and activities. You can find a sign-up for supplies here: Celebration SignUp. Please look out for an email from your class’s liaison with more information. All supplies need to be in original packaging and food needs to be individual servings. Unfortunately, we are not able to have volunteers at this time.

Water Bottles:

Please make sure you student has a water bottle everyday. Most water fountains are closed to prevent the spread of germs. A hand’s free water bottle filler will be installed in the next couple weeks.

A Glance at Our Week:

• Spalding– There will be no Spalding words or homework next week due to testing and taking out monthly Spalding assessments.
• Reading– We will continue to review sequencing.
• Writing– We will incorporate our knowledge of sequencing to write sequencing sentences.
• Literature– We will read Ch. 8-10 of Boxcar Children
• Grammar– We will learn how to make nouns plural that end in y.
• Poetry– Our poetry recitation date of September 28th is coming up. Please make sure your scholar is practicing daily.
• Math– We will begin addition with renaming.
• Science– We will continue learning about Simple Machines.
• History– We will continue our Greek Unit.

Hello. Once again, we thank you for your patience and understanding. As teachers, we are perfectionists at heart and it is hard for us to have so much not go according to plan as this year has presented. However, we are forging ahead and trying to do better each week. We are still in continual transition but feeling that we are getting more of a rhythm. If you stumbled upon our mistakes, thank you for alerting us with kindness. If you didn’t notice anything go wrong, maybe we are better at covering than we realize.

We do not have school again on Monday, September 14 due to teacher in service. There will be no school (in person or online). We will see you on Tuesday.

If you have not brought in an art shirt, please send in an old shirt that can be used for messy art projects. If your child’s art shirt came back home, please send it back in to school.

A Glance at Our Week:

Grammar: We will continue with learning about singular and plural nouns by adding “es” to make some nouns plural.

Reading: We will start sequencing. We will use the words first, next, then, and last.

Writing: We will work on writing strong sentences in preparation for learning about paragraph writing.

Spalding: We will have fewer words again this week due to being out of school Monday.

Math: We will be adding 2 and 3 digit numbers without renaming.

Science: We will continue learning about Simple Machines.

History: We will continue our unit on Greece.

Thank you for all your patience as we have transitioned back to brick and mortar.

Reminder: There is no school on Monday, 9/7 in observance of Labor Day. There will be no online or in-person classes

This weekend 9/5-9/7 is R&R. Your scholar has no homework. Please enjoy this time with your family and get plenty of rest and relaxation.

New to Great Hearts? Want to learn more about Singapore Math and Spalding Phonics? Please join us for an information night via Zoom on Thursday, September 10th at 6pm. Zoom links will be sent out on Wednesday, September 9th. We look forward to connecting with you.

A Glance at Next Week:

Poetry: Our first poetry recitation will be a pair of Limericks by Edward Lear. Poems will go out on Tuesday and be recited on 9/28.

Spalding: There will only be 20 words due to the holiday on Monday.

Reading: We will continue our study of visualization.

Literature: Chapters 4 and 5 will be read in Boxcar Children

Writing: We will be reviewing the 4 types of sentences and differentiating between them when mixed.

Grammar: Our study of singular and plural nouns will begin.

Math: We will continue with addition and subtraction. Word problems will be introduced.

Science: Our simple machines unit will continue as we look closer at each type of machine.

History: We will begin our unit on Ancient Greece.

Thank you to those of you who joined us for Curriculum Night. We hope that you enjoyed getting to learn about what your scholar will be learning about this year. It was our intention that your questions would be answered to the best of our abilities after our presentations, but if you have any more questions, please reach out.

We also wanted to thank you again for your patience and understanding as we figure out what Phase 2 of reopening looks like. We assure you that we will inform you of any information as it becomes available.

You should receive an email today regarding DIBELS signups. Please make sure you signup for a time. All students need to be tested. This testing will take place outside of normal synchronous Zoom times.

We will be starting our first novel, The Boxcar Children, the first week of September. Please purchase this book if you have not done so already, and have it ready with your child by then.

A Glance at Next Week:

Thank you for your patience and flexibility as we navigated the first days of online learning. We all felt that today went much smoother than yesterday. We anticipate this trend will continue and we hope to smooth out any kinks that continue to arise.

A few points for next week:

• We will still be varying a bit from our posted daily schedule next week as the kids get used to online learning.
• We will start our Tuesday/Thursday small groups next week. They will not be reading-based for a couple weeks as we have not yet assessed their reading levels, but will be used to get to know the class in smaller groups. We will be seeing half the class on Tuesday and the other half on Thursday. If it is not their day for groups, they will be excused at 9:25 a.m.
• The assignments that we have given have been to get to know our class and get everyone used to turning in assignments. Going forward we will be checking and grading all assignments that are turned in. It is really important that your scholar keeps up-to-date with assignments. You can see what is due each day by looking in their agenda or on that day’s section of Google Classroom.
• From here on out, you should be able to access the daily Zoom from the Continuous Classroom on Google Classroom. If you are having trouble getting into the Zoom, please contact both of your teachers. This makes it much more likely that you will get a quick response and we can trouble shoot the issue.
• Starting next week, we will be adding a daily question into Google Classroom to help take attendance quickly and not take up precious live Zoom time. Please have your scholar do the question daily.
• Reminder: Please have your scholar working in a common area of the house (if possible) where there will be supervision and free from distractions. We cannot have children completely unsupervised on Zoom.

Items needed for Monday:

• white board and white board marker
• agenda
• pencil
• provided lined Spalding paper
• pink Spalding notebook

Please let us know if there is anything you need to help online learning be successful for your child. We are here to help in any way we can and appreciate constructive feedback.

Thank you for your partnership,

The Second Grade Team