Author: stecker00

Last week of Quarter 3!

We are so proud of the progress and perseverance our scholars have put forth this quarter. We hope you enjoy a well-deserved break this upcoming week. Here are a few updates for this week:

Spring Break: March 15-19. Students return on Monday, March 22nd.

Grades Posted: Friday, March 19th at 3pm.

In the down time of your break, it would be helpful for your scholar to still practice their cursive! We will be implementing cursive even more in Quarter 4. 🙂

This week:

ELA: We finished Little House on the Prairie and are applying our learning to supplemental activities and writing.

Math: This week we are finishing our Time Unit and will be taking a Quiz on Telling Time Wednesday.

Science: INSECT PROJECT TIME! We are so excited to kick off our Insect Project with the students this week. More information will be posted to the blog in upcoming weeks 🙂

History: We have finished Westward Expansion this week and will be starting with the Civil War when we return for Q4.

Have a wonderful week and a restful Spring Break!

Hi second grade families, we are SO close to spring break!!! Spring break will take place March 15-19 and final Q3 grades will be posted March 19^th by 3 PM.

Quick reminder, Ms. Bachman has a grading day tomorrow, Tuesday, March 2^nd and WILL NOT be leading sync class. All online scholars will be expected to complete all their ASYNC assignments posted in Google Classroom. Ms. Bachman will see her scholars back on zoom, Wednesday, March 3^rd.

Math: In math this week we will be starting our unit for Time. By the end of the week our scholars will learn the concept of time, AM verse PM, and how to read an analog clock with the hour and minute hands. This unit is short and sweet as we will take the unit test next week before we head out to Spring Break. When we return from Spring Break, we will begin our fractions unit.

Spalding: We will be completing our March 50 and 70 phonogram tests with extra cursive practice in class this week. There is no daily Spalding homework this week, but we have assigned 10 minutes of phonogram practice and 10 minutes of extra cursive practice each night. Please continue to reach out to your scholars’ teachers if you need any additional help or additional resources to help your scholar improve their spelling, reading, or cursive handwriting.  

Science: This week in science we will be finishing our insect unit with our insect lab. Our scholars will get to explore many more insects and get hands on with a few insects, non-living of course. 😉 Then, next week we will be introducing and assigning our insect project which will be due May 5^th with presentations May 5-7. Each student will be assigned an insect and they will do a full report and presentation on their assigned insect. It will be broken into multiple parts with assigned due dates for each part, similar to our simple machine project.

History: For history this week we are continuing our westward expansion unit with topics; Iron Horse, Transcontinental Railroad, and settling in the West.

ELA:

Grammar- introducing and practicing pronouns

Writing- continuing and mastering narrative writing

Reading- developing reading skills to identify a problem and a solution
Literature: finish Little House in the Big Woods

Athletic Field Day Dress Code

Just as ACA provides guidelines for dress code in the classroom, it is important to project the image of professionalism in our athletic attire as well.

• All shirts worn for athletic practices and field day should be modest, loose fitting, in good repair
  • (no holes, torn sleeves, etc.), should be worn either tucked in or well over the waist of the pants/shorts if not tucked in.
• No midriffs may be shown.
  • T-shirts are preferred—no tank tops, camisoles, or sports bras may be worn as outer-garments. Sleeveless shirts may be worn if modest.
• Pants/shorts should be modest and in good repair
  • We discourage students from wearing tight yoga pants. If you put on leggings, be sure to wear a skirt or shorts over the leggings.  We suggest loose fitted shorts and tops.
  • (no holes, torn sleeves, etc.) No short-shorts or long baggy shorts may be worn. No boxers or undergarments may be visible.
• Attire should be free of inappropriate messages.
  • Sports team logos (e.g., Diamondbacks, Notre Dame), and apparel brand names (e.g., Adidas, Nike) are acceptable, provided they do not make inappropriate allusions. These guidelines also apply to sweatshirts and jackets that students may wear.
• Footwear should be athletic in nature
  • no sandals, open-toed, or platform shoes. Hats and sunscreen may be appropriate if the students will be in the sun. Hat styles should follow the same guidelines as above.

If we feel any student is not adhering to these guidelines, parents will be called to bring a change of clothes or AFD participation will not be granted.

Quarter 3 is rolling through and we are having a great time in our classes with so much more to come before the end of second grade!!! This week our scholars will be competing in Field Day, Friday, February 26th. Our second-grade liaisons have collected money and created amazing shirts for your scholar to wear on Friday instead of their uniforms. If your scholar chooses to not wear their shirt they must come to school in their normal uniform attire. There is also still a dress code for their bottoms and shoes. They must wear closed toed shoes (athletic shoes, sneakers, etc) and have on appropriate length and style bottoms. This may include athletic wear but must follow the dress code in the family handbook below. We will also be adjusting our snack and lunch time around field day and want to make sure you send your scholar with a bigger snack on Friday, as we will eat lunch after field day around 12:30 pm, later than usual. Keep an eye out for another update on field day from our administration or P.E. teachers. Quick reminder for art, if you have not already, please make sure to send your scholar with an old t-shirt or smock to use while your scholar is creating masterpieces in art class.

Week 8 Academic Overview:

Math: We have started the week off learning subtraction of money and will continue our practice and review of our money unit before the unit test this Friday, February 26^th. Please make sure your scholar is taking their time on their homework this week and using the strategies they are learning in class. Next week Monday, we will begin our unit on fractions!  

ELA: In English language arts this week we will continue our practice of “Bee! I am Expecting You!” poem with a recitation date of March 8^th. We also have Lincoln Writes Day this Wednesday and our scholars will be continuing to practice narrative writing. In grammar this week we are expanding our skills with bringing together all of the parts of speech we have learned. Our scholars will work on parsing or labeling each word in a sentence with the correct part of speech including nouns, verbs, adjectives, article adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and object of the prepositions. They will have a quiz this week to test their mastery with parsing sentences correctly. We will continue our exploring and learning in reading with reality verse fantasy. Our scholars will read multiple fantasy or tall tale stories and learn how to distinguish what is real and what is exaggerated in the stories.

Spalding: This week we will learn 15 new words and take a Spalding test on Friday. Our scholars will have their daily Spalding homework packets and their daily cursive homework packet. This is our final week of learning cursive and moving forward in the year we will begin writing in cursive more and more. If you feel your scholar is still struggling to form letters in cursive, please have them practice more at home and/or reach out to your scholars’ teacher for additional cursive resources.

Science: This week in science our scholars will continue learning about insects specifically insects’ in their social environments and how some insects are harmful, and some are hurtful. They will have a science quiz this week testing their insect knowledge.

History: We are continuing our journey West in history with the Westward Expansion. We will be diving deeper into the Oregon trail and the Gold Rush, learning more about the journey these Americans went through when they were searching for new land and better lives after the U.S. gained its independence from Europe in our last unit.

Yay we made it through another week of quarter 3 and had a wonderful time celebrating great hearts day with friendship and kindness last Friday! We appreciate all the support and donations that were given to make our great hearts day special. As we near the end of quarter 3 we ask you remind your scholars of behaviors and expectations for school as this quarter wraps up quickly and our scholars begin to check out before spring break. We also want to remind you that RAZ kids’ homework is given in the beginning of the week and due by the end of the day Thursday, with exceptions that will be communicated. All classes have a few scholars that have incomplete assignments for our RAZ homework, and this will be reflected in your scholars’ quarter 3 grades if not completed. Please reach out to your scholars’ teacher if you need more assistance logging into RAZ kids or clarifying the assignment the needs to be turned in each week. Thank you for your continued patience, understanding, and partnership as we continue to navigate this year, we couldn’t do it without our families!

Coming this week:

Galileo testing is this Friday, February 19^th at 8:45 am (math) and 12:15 pm (ELA). Please remind your scholars a good night’s rest and a nutritional breakfast will help the brains during these tests! 🙂

ELA: This week in ELA we are continuing our focus on prepositions in grammar and narrative writing in writing. In reading we are transitioning into

fantasy verse reality. We have a lot of fun activities we do during our school day to learn these skills and encourage our parents to challenge their scholars when they get home with questions about what they did and learned in ELA that day.

Spalding: In Spalding we are taking the February 50 word and 70 phonogram tests. We are also continuing to learn cursive with upper case letters this week. There will be no weekly word homework packet instead 10 minutes of phonogram practice nightly and the assigned cursive page from their cursive packet. Remember to use the cursive sticker on the front of your scholar’s orange folder for cursive reference and help.

Math: We will be continuing our money unit with a focus on adding money this week. In class we are going through MANY strategies to use when adding money including a few mental math strategies as well. These strategies should be used on their homework and reflect what they learn in class. If you feel your scholar is struggling with math homework this week, please remind them to follow along with their teacher during their math lessons as the strategies we teach in class represent what is seen on that night’s homework. You can also always reach out if you need additional resources or help with money. Don’t forget about the money resource sticker on the front of your scholar’s orange folder.  

History: For history this week we are transitioning into our unit of Moving West and what different methods of transportation were used back in the day when Americans were searching for civilization after the Revolutionary War when America gained its independence.

Science: In science we are continuing our wisdom with life cycles, specifically butterflies and grasshoppers. This week our scholars will learn the difference between complete metamorphosis and incomplete metamorphosis. If you read this and thought “what is metamorphosis?” ask your scholars at the end of the week! 😉

This week we are learning the following:

Science: Introduction of Insects! What are the characteristics of an insect?

History: War of 1812

Literature: Little House in the Big Woods (Bring your books if you have not already!)

Writing: Narrative Writing: A personal story that tells in detail a moment in time.

Poem: Bee! I’m Expecting You! By: Emily Dickinson

Grammar: Prepositions

Reading: Tall Tales; Fantasy vs. Reality

Spalding: 5 words each day + cursive practice (students have one word in cursive on both homework and the test) Please be using student resources to make sure students are using the correct formation.

Math: Counting Money: If your scholar cannot identify coins and their values, please make sure you are spending some time working with them on this skill! A change jar is a great way to get some hands-on experience by pulling small amounts to count.

Other Noteworthy Items:

Great Hearts Day: This Friday. Please check your email from additional information from your class liaisons.

Onsite Classes: Field Day is coming on 2/26. Shirts are being made for all onsite students. Money is being collected from 2D’s liaison. If you have questions, please reach out to your class liaison for further information.

Galileo: 2nd grade will be taking their Galileo test on Friday, February 19th. Start times are 8:45am and 12:15pm.

REMINDER: This Friday, 2/5 is a half day!

We just finished our first Lincoln Writes Day! Our scholars did an excellent job writing and we are proud of their hard work. We are also well on our way in cursive writing. Online parents, please make sure you are taking some time to work with your scholar on cursive since we cannot help them in person to make sure they are using proper formation! This week we have enjoyed listening to the Preamble during our poetry recitations. Thank you for your hard work in helping your scholar prepare!

We have Galileo testing coming up for all second grade students on:

February 19th at 8:45am (Math) and 12:15pm (ELA)

This week:

Science: Eggs are hatching! (Check back for pictures). We have one fully hatched and several others who have pipped. We are finishing up our Science unit on Life Cycles this week.

Math: We will have our Unit 7 test on Friday. This is our final test over multiplication and division. We will begin money next week- so take out your change and have your scholar’s begin identifying coins and counting money!

Grammar: This week we will be studying article adjectives and parsing sentences.

Writing: We are continuing to work on Narrative Writing. We love seeing your scholar’s creative side during our writing time.

Reading: We are studying the skill of Making Predictions in our literature and reading texts this week.

History: We are finishing the Constitution this week and next week will begin studying the War of 1812 next week.

We are excited to begin cursive this week! Students will have nightly homework (beginning Tuesday) practicing how to form and connect each letter. On your scholar’s orange folder is a Spalding Cursive alphabet. Spalding cursive may be a bit different than the cursive you learned as a student, please take a moment to look at the alphabet as your scholar is working on their homework this week. Please make sure that you do not work ahead in the packet for the week, we want to make sure that students are practicing what they have learned in class that day. 

We are also excited to have completed the first half of our math textbook and workbook. Because of this, Workbook 2A and Textbook 2A can now stay at home! The unit test on 2’s and 3’s will be tomorrow. On Wednesday, students will be getting a new Textbook:2B and Workbook: 2B. Textbook 2B will stay at school and homework will be in Workbook 2B.

This week we will be learning the following:

Reading: Compare and Contrast using Tall Tales (Paul Bunyon and Pecos Bill)

Science: Life Cycle of a Plant (Test on Life Cycles will be next week)

History: Constitution

Literature: Please have your scholar bring the Little House in the Big Woods book if he/she has not already.

Math: Unit Test tomorrow (Tuesday). Students will begin Unit 7: Multiplication and Division of 4, 5, 10.

Writing: Students will participate in Lincoln Writes Day on Wednesday

Our students are enjoying their first full week of learning! Please see below for notes for our online scholars as well as a summary of learning for this week:

Online Scholars: If you have not already picked up Semester 2 Math books, please stop by the front office at your earliest convenience. It is imperative that your scholar has the necessary materials for class.

1/21: Online scholars will be given the option to stop by the front office to pick up a Cursive Instruction packet as well as supplemental Spalding paper since the pink notebooks are nearly full. There will be an option to print the Cursive packet from home, but it is a large packet and we want to provide this resource for you and your child. ( Cursive instruction will begin on January 25th for the entire grade level).

This week we are learning:

Writing: Building a paragraph

Grammar: identifying adverbs and adjectives by parsing sentences

Reading: Compare/Contrast

Poem: Preamble to the Constitution (Please see additional resources posted on our blog to support your student’s memorization!)

History: None this week, we will begin next week

Science: Life Cycles: Frogs; Parts of an egg

Literature: Little House in the Big Woods- please bring your book if you have not already!

Math: Multiplication *Please pay careful attention to homework pages this week, as they are not assigned in chronological order.*

*Early dismissal: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Last day of Q2 is this Friday, December 18th!

*Online students: make sure you check Google Classroom and turn in any missing assignments

*School resumes: Wednesday, January 6th

* January 8th: Simple Machine written report and game are both due. Make sure your report is written in your best handwriting!