Greetings 2GS Families! I hope everyone is having a great weekend. It surely was a beautiful day yesterday. Please note that I will be out tomorrow, Monday 4/1. Your children are aware and beloved substitute, Ms. Bankler has been assigned to cover this day. I look forward to returning to the classroom on Tuesday.
Please read below for many important updates.
Field Trip–Good news! There was a cancelation at the Wheelock Family Theater and so we will be able to attend James and The Giant Peach on April 23rd. Details about the trip will go out later this week.
Transition Update –Mrs. Crowley is in the final stages of identifying a teacher to cover my maternity leave. I have been working hard to set up materials and curriculum so that the last weeks of school continue to go smoothly for your children. I am hoping we will be able to share more details with you by the end of the week.
Please mark your calendars for Friday April 26th at 8:00.-I am hoping to have a gathering to celebrate all of the wonderful work your children have done this year in second grade before I depart. Your children have shown amazing growth this year and I am looking forward to us all coming together to recognize this. I will send further details in the coming weeks.
Nutrition and Digestion –We kicked off our study of the Digestive System on Monday. We began with the first stage, chewing. During this lesson students learned about the importance of chewing and saliva in the digestion process. Students munched on crackers to carefully identify what happens to foods while in the mouth. We learned that chewing signals the salivary glands to secrete saliva. As the teeth crunch food into smaller pieces, saliva mixes with food to create a bolus. The bolus is a ball of mashed of food that is ready to be swallowed. We also conducted investigations to explore how food travels down the esophagus and into the stomach. Students are carefully exploring the role of each part of the digestive system. Next week, we will study the importance of the small and large intestine and continue our way down the digestive system track.
Math- In math we have been busy working on our study of 2 and 3 digit addition with and without regrouping using the standard algorithm. This is a key learning expectation of second grade. I look forward to sharing your child’s progress in this area with you at our upcoming conferences.
Biography unit-We have wrapped up our biography unit. Students worked hard on their biography reports. The research they did to produce these well written reports is truly impressive. Their reports are on display in our classroom and we hope to share them with you in the coming weeks. Students also chose a famous person that they read about to identify the “turning point” in a person’s life. We also discussed what would have happened if their life took a different path. For example, what would have happened if Barack Obama didn’t attend law school? Would he still have become president? Or what would have happened if Helen Keller didn’t learn from such a skilled teacher? Would she have ever learned to communicate with others? Ask your child about their “What if” poster and the discussions that we had.
Opinion Writing –In writing, we have launched our Opinion Writing unit and students have been writing letters to explain their opinion on the different books that they have been reading. Thus far, students have written about both their favorite part of a story and their favorite character. They are learning that a strong opinion piece states an opinion with evidence and reasoning. Throughout this unit students will state opinions clearly, retell their stories so that their opinions make sense to readers, and revise their letters before sending them out into the world. Lastly, students will also participate in a punctuation inquiry and then incorporate the conventions they are noticing in published books into their own writing.
Lastly.. I am looking forward to our upcoming conferences. If there is anything in particular that you would like to discuss that might require more thought or a consult with another teacher, please feel free to send me an email ahead of time.