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SPRING 2ND GRADE NEWS LETTER
Dear Parents,
Can you believe that we are already 2/3 of the way through the school year? I really can’t believe how fast time has gone by this year! Well, spring is now upon us and we have been so busy preparing some wonderful projects for you to see at Open House! We hope that you are able to come and see the interesting research reports we have written and the amazing art projects that we have created! Don’t forget that Open House is tonight (Thursday, April 16) from 6:30 – 7:30. Students are invited to attend with their parents, so that they can take you on a tour of their classroom and show you all of their hard work.
March was a busy month for us, and April has started off the same. So, let me tell you about all that we have been working on and all that we still have planned:
AREAS OF STUDY:
Science- We are in the middle of my favorite unit of the school year, studying endangered animals. It is heartwarming to see the interest and care our students have in protecting our environment and endangered animals, and how much they want to help and make a difference! It’s amazing to see second graders take such a personal interest in environmental issues and feel empowered to actually pitch in and make their contribution to help! We have created endangered animal posters, to help spread the word to our school community about why some animals are endangered and what we can do to help. *PLEASE LOOK FOR THESE ON OUR CLASSROOM WINDOW AND READ AS MANY AS YOU CAN!We have also written a research report on a particular endangered animal and created a realistic habitat for it. *Please look for these on our desks at Open House!
We have also begun our study of whales and other sea creatures (also all endangered animals). We wrote research reports on a particular whale and we even built paper mache whale models! *Please look for these hanging in our classroom right now! These are quite a project, but they turn out beautifully and they are so impressive to see!
We will finish our "Endangered Animals Campaign" by writing and sending letters to the President, requesting his help in the fight for the preservation of these animals. This activity also integrates with a big Language Arts Standard for 2nd grade, letter-writing skills.
SOCIAL STUDIES
: Next we will begin our study of the many cultures which make up our country and of our families and ancestry. Soon instructions for our Cultural Heritage Reports will be sent home and students will have 2-3 weeks to complete these. For the two weeks that follow the due date of the reports, each student will give an oral presentation of their report in class. Our culminating event will be a large Cultural Heritage Celebration at school. Parents will be asked to bring in a finger food which represents the country their child wrote about (Dates & details to follow).MATH
: We continue to practice addition with regrouping and subtraction with borrowing of two, three, and even four digit numbers. We’ve done exceptionally well so far on these difficult skills! Our newest skill has been working on Multiplication. We are solid with our 0’s, 1’s, 5’s, 10’s, and 2’s. We are now really practicing our 3’s and 4’s, which are much trickier for us. We also continue to review measurement, reading and interpreting data from graphs, practicing graphing coordinates, fractions, telling time, counting money, and solving word problems.LANGAUGE ARTS
: We continue to focus on the Writing Process through our Writer’s Workshop program (Rough Drafts, to the Revision Process, to Teacher Editing Conferences, to Final Drafts and Illustrations, to "Publishing" our finished works in our Publishing Portfolios. We have been reading literature and factual stories about whales, sea creatures, and endangered animals as well. Another big skill we have been working on has been letter writing format and paragraph writing. We have been learning to write full and complete sentences and then combine them to create full and complete paragraphs.STAR TESTING IS COMING SOON!!! Mon., April 27- Friday, May 8: ***Please make sure that your child is NOT ABSENT DURING THE STAR TESTING PERIOD!!! Please make sure that they are here on time, every morning! Please have your child go to bed early each school night! A hearty breakfast each morning and a healthy snack are also recommended to help your child do their very best. Thank you so much for your help with this!
IMPORTANT DATES:Thursday, April 16
– Open House: 6:30 – 7:30 PM.Monday, May 11 – Last Field Trip to Charles Schulz Museum & Ice Arena.
Monday, May 25 – Memorial Day Holiday. No School.
Thursday, June 4 – Minimum Day.
Friday, June 5 – Minimum Day. *LAST DAY OF SCHOOL. Thanks for your continued support! Sincerely, Mrs. Holmes-Bradley
