Second Grade News

January 4-12

I hope you and your family had a blessed holiday season.  It is good to be back to school with the second graders. 

Reading: This week our reading genre is poetry, and we will be reading rhyming poems about animals.  We will learn that a rhyming poem has rhyming words, and the lines in a rhyming poem have a rhythm and beats.  Poems also express the thoughts and feelings of the poet.  As we read poems, we will look for details to explain what each poet loves about the animal in the poem.

 Sight Words:  By the end of the week your child should be able read these quickly and easily.  Please post this letter in a handy spot (on the fridge, etc.) and have your child practice reading through these words a couple of times each day.

bird

far

field

flower

grow

leaves

light

orange

ready

until

Spelling Words:  The spelling test will be on Tuesday, January 12

scratch

scrape

spring

throne

stripe

strange

shred

shrub

splash

split

catch

sting

far

flower

until

Vocabulary:  Please use these words in conversation with your child as we are learning their meaning.

behave

flapping

express

feather

poem

rhyme

rhythm

word choice

Math:  We will be learning how to use rulers to measure in feet, inches, and centimeters.  You may want to get out a ruler and have fun measuring objects around your home.  We will also review telling time on an analog clock.  So, please get out a clock and help your child practice.

Social Studies:  We are beginning a unit on communities.  These are some of the key concepts we will be studying:

*A community is a place where people, live, work, and play together.

*Communities have buildings, businesses, transportation, natural characteristics, and places to have fun.

*Communities have ways to keep people safe-police officers, fire fighters, and ambulances.

*There are three types of communities-urban, suburban, and rural.

Reminders:

*We have a new January reading calendar in our book pockets.  Please read with your child for a few minutes every day.  It makes a huge difference, and I am seeing big reading gains in the students who do this daily. 

*Please make sure your child is dressed for outdoor play at recess-snow pants, boots, hat, mittens, etc.

*Please have your child keep an extra pair of socks and mittens in his/her backpack.  This way your child can change into a dry pair of socks or mittens if one pair gets wet.

*Shoes, shoes, shoes!  Now that we are wearing boots, it is necessary that your child has shoes to wear in class.  Please make sure they are packed in the backpack, or your child may keep an extra pair of shoes in his/her locker.