Welcome to the Second Grade!

What a great beginning we have had!

The children are learning their routines very quickly!

These kids have a good sense of their home classroom and English Language Arts groups. They easily transition from one group to the other, and what’s more is that they’re quickly forming a cohesive and positive class identity as a whole second grade community as well as in each smaller group. On Monday, we will begin separating from our home classroom to math groups as well. We know that the students will continue to flourish in these environments that are specially tailored to address each individual child’s needs!

ELA

So you know that your children are able to develop their reading and writing skills in a context where their individual strengths and learning opportunities are closely considered every step of the way; but did you know that there are a lot of similarities in what they’re learning, too? In order to maintain a feeling of cohesiveness within the second grade class, each group will continue to share the same uniting themes throughout our ELA instruction. This includes shared writing prompts and shared literature. For example, we are now all exploring the similarities and differences between urban and rural communities. Ask them about it at home!

Social Studies

Remaining consistent with our thematic unit of study, the children have been comparing and contrasting urban and rural communities. This study has already resulted in an exciting literature exploration. The kids found books on both kinds of communities. They sorted the books, gathered information from them, marked their favorite photographs and facts with sticky notes, and presented them to the class. They have created graphic organizers depicting similarities and differences, and they are working on some wonderful group artwork depicting both settings. Just today, they created their own imagined cities or towns and made newspapers from them. In these newspapers, there is a headline story as well as a calendar of events that one could attend when visiting these cities or towns.

Science

Our first science unit of the year will be a geology study, led my Mrs. Mankowski. Lots of hands-on activities supported by quality literature are coming our way!

Math

We’re very close to completing our beginning-of-the-year assessments, which will help us see how much these children grow throughout the year--and we’re confident that we’ll all be impressed with what they do! This week, we are beginning to delve into our study of money, combining our knowledge of coins and dollars with our number sense skills.

Stay tuned for examples of the children's work...