Second Grade

Welcome to Second Grade!

October Newsletter

Mrs. Crocker/Mrs. Nardozza 

Grade 2

Religion – We have begun using our new Reconciliation books along with our Religion books.  We will have Religion every day and there will be homework assigned in the Reconciliation book every Thursday.  The homework is a family activity.  You and your child will choose 2 of 4 activities on the page.  Some of them require writing or artwork.  Please initial in the book the activities that you and your child complete.  I am also sending home a copy of The Act of Contrition for your child to practice.  Your child should be able to memorize it by the end of the month.

Class Mass – Our first class Mass will be On Wednesday, October 29th. Make plans to attend and celebrate the Mass with us! 

Math – We are comparing numbers to 100 and using the greater than, less than, and equals signs. We are using different strategies to solve word problems such as drawing a picture and looking for “clue words” such as “how many more” and “what is the total”.  At the end of the month we will concentrate on money by learning the value of coins and combinations of coins, and counting on to make change.  We’ll also be telling time to 5-minute intervals.  As a supplement to our Math book we are using Sunshine Math activity sheets and some great work folders that Mrs. Crane made for us. We will continue using the Mad Minute timed test of addition and subtraction Math facts.  Please keep studying these with your child.

Spelling – The weekly homework assignments are:  Monday – write spelling words three times on handwriting paper.  Tuesday – Write each of the 16 words in sentences or 10 in a good story on handwriting paper.  Wednesday – workbook pages.  Thursday – study for the test.  The test also includes writing 2 of their own sentences that include a spelling word and are checked for punctuation, spelling and capitalization.  Extra points are given if all Bonus words are spelled correctly.

Language Arts – We are finishing up our unit on nouns, writing titles and dates correctly, and forming compound words.  We will be working on writing narrative paragraphs and identifying main idea sentence and detail sentences.  In Unit 5, we’ll study verbs and contractions.

Phonics – The students are reviewing initial and final blends and dividing words into syllables to help with both reading and spelling.

Reading – The skills that we are learning are: identifying the problem and solution in a story; reviewing prefixes; reading and making diagrams; making and explaining inferences; summarizing, and reading with fluency and expression.  Please continue to read the “Take-Home Story” with your child until it can be read fluently (no more than one or two errors).  These should be kept in the red folder and ready to turn in on Friday. Remind your child to keep up with the Book-It! Reading Log for their 20-minute reading each night.  Weekends were not included in determining our monthly goal so the students can use these days to “catch up” if they miss some days during the week.  At the end of the month the logs should be signed and returned and students will be awarded a pizza certificate from Pizza Hut.

Social Studies—We are studying good citizenship and working together as a community.  We will begin Unit 2 by looking at different types of communities and climates, learning map and globe skills, identifying and locating oceans and continents, and identifying natural resources and their uses.

Agendas and Thursday Folders – Please continue to check your child’s agenda each night and initial the box at the bottom of the column.  It is important to check the work in the Thursday folders because it is a good indicator of how your child is doing.  All papers that have a grade of VG, G, or S can be kept at home.  Those that have an NI or U need to be reviewed with your child and corrected.  These can be corrected on the same page with a red pen.  Please sign these and return in the folder on Friday.

Story Book Character Day – On October 31st, the students in 2nd grade may come to school dressed as their favorite storybook character.  We will have a party at 1:00.  Please contact Mrs. Marin if you’d like to help out.

Special Thanks—Many thanks to Mrs. Marin and Mrs. Loges for all their hard work and efforts in getting our class project ready for the auction.  We will be making the Christmas ornaments this Friday.  We are still in need of items for the Martha Stuart gift basket.  Please send these to school.  The Harvest Fling will be here before you know it!

Dates to Remember:

Oct. 10 – No School-Professional Development Day for Teachers

Oct. 13 – Columbus Day- No School

Oct. 18 – Harvest Fling

Oct. 20 – Cool Weather Uniforms.  Second Quarter begins.

SPELLING WORDS                     

UNIT 8

October 6 – 9, 2008

• wild
• bright
• die
• sight
• child
• pie
• fight
• lie
• tight
• tie
• might
• mind
• find
• night
• lilac
• delight

Extra Spelling for all--

Students need to know how to write and spell correctly:

First, middle and last name

Street address

City, state, zip code

Please write your address in the front of your agenda.