WELCOME TO SECOND GRADE 2021 - 2022
Daily Routines:
After prayer, pledge, and the handing in of homework and important notes most days begin with a brief Morning Meeting: we start with mini-skills lessons and discuss our schedule for the day.
Religion
Our faith is a part of everything we learn and do! Religion is integrated into every subject we study as second graders. We use the Blest Are We series as our primary source of information during Religion classes. In addition, Mr. Biggs has again purchased a Gospel Weekly called “Good News” published by Pflaum for Second Grade. Each Thursday or Friday we use it to go over the upcoming Sunday’s Readings, afterwards I send it home for students to share with their families.
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Our curriculum for this year:
oWe Gather As Believers (Includes Baptism, Saints, Prayers of Praise and Thanks)
oWe Ask God's Forgiveness (Includes the Ten Commandments, Thinking About our Choices, Apologizing and Making Peace with Others and the Sacrament of Reconciliation)
oWe Celebrate the Word of God
oWe Celebrate the Gift of Eucharist
oWe Go in Peace
oFeasts and Seasons (Halloween/All Saints Day meaning, Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter) In May we learn about the Rosary
oSunday Gospel using Pflaum Weekly
Naturally, sacramental preparation is quite important. We are partners in your child's faith formation; one of the most important contributions from parents is to make sure that your child witnesses others receiving these sacraments. ** I will send a separate document home about dates and plans for the sacraments as soon as I have one.
Language Arts:
The Diocese of Albany uses the New York State Next Generation English Language Arts and Mathematics Learning Standards as a starting point for our lesson planning. English Language Arts is taught as a subject in the morning and also integrated into all subject areas. Language Arts includes: whole group instruction, small group instruction, partner reading, independent reading, phonics, spelling, speaking, listening, handwriting, grammar and writing. This year we’ll use New York Progress English Language Arts and a Phonics book, leveled readers, trade books, Scholastic News and National Geographic Explorer. Standards are available online if you’d like to read them.
Included in the Writing Standards are text types and purposes: Opinion, Informative/Expository, Narrative and Writing in Response to text. One of my most important goals for writing is to create a room of willing writers. Therefore, I begin the year by emphasizing meaning and deemphasizing mechanics and perfection. Because writing is hard and complex, children who see the goal as producing a certain number of perfect sentences will not write willingly and will only do the bare minimum to get by. I will NOT spell words for children on a first draft; they are taught to stretch out words, use environmental print and we will develop a list of frequently used words. Why won't I spell words?? If I spell words for children, they never pull away from me and become independent writers and thinkers! They also waste time waiting for me to help them instead of using the time to write! Once children are "willing writers" I'll be able to hold conferences with individuals and groups about their writing; at that time revising and proofreading are introduced. You won’t see pieces of writing which have been revised, edited and published come home for quite a while. Please be assured that in September we write for very short periods of time as is age appropriate; mini-lessons occur on a regular basis. Written language arts tests are unannounced and occur at least twice each marking period.
Mrs. Grogan, our classroom aide, works with individuals and groups of second graders in our classroom on Language Arts and Math assignments for some time each morning. This gives me the opportunity to work with individuals and small groups during our Language Arts and Math blocks.
Mathematics
I will communicate details about what we are currently studying. We begin the school year with Place Value followed by Addition and Subtraction strategies. By mid-October I have to move on; after that addition and subtraction practice should continue to occur in the home in order to achieve mastery. Earlier in September I sent home as homework our first set of math facts to study. All students should be keeping a record of their at home practice in the BLUE homework folder. We’ll test facts every Friday; these scores are a part of the quarter grade to show progress towards mastery of facts. Other written math tests are unannounced and occur whenever needed.
STREAM - Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics
This year we’ll integrate Religion into the content areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics whenever possible. STREAM curriculum models incorporate the lens of faith and God in all things into its approach.
Science May 2018 New York State adopted the NYS Science Learning Standards. Those standards include a balanced study of Life, Physical, and Earth Science and the Human Body. Our Science book will be supplemented with additional hands-on activities and experiments. We begin this year by studying the Life Cycle of Monarch Butterflies. Then we’ll begin the Properties of Matter. **Does anyone have a pond? One spring someone brought me frog eggs (floating together in a mass) and we were able to watch their development to the tadpole stage and then the frogs were returned to the pond. We can only do that again if someone finds the frog eggs! I won’t purchase eggs because then I can’t return the frogs to their natural environment. (I currently have an African Clawed frog in my house with a life-expectancy of up to 20 years!!!)
Technology: Technology is integrated into the curriculum by teachers in all academic areas. In addition to extending what we are learning in second grade, students work on developing their keyboarding skills; learn about the computer, and other age appropriate topics. Every second grader has a Chromebook available for use in the classroom.
Every second grader has been assigned a username that is used for an email account intended for academic purposes. In second grade each student saves work to their own Google Drive. These e-mail accounts are protected by our server; chrome2learn.org is a domain owned by St. Thomas School. The e-mail address is a Gmail account and can be accessed with any computer that way. My second grade classes have successfully used their own accounts for 8 years now. Parents will be given their child's username and password and will be able to check the account at any time. (Parents may not change the password.) Second graders do not send or check their email. They will be told that the email may not be used to sign-up for anything and shouldn't be typed into any site or used for anything other than academic purposes as specified by classroom teachers. I will have total access to each account while they are second graders and then Mrs. Hendrick will take over monitoring the accounts in third grade. Account privileges can and will be removed if we have any problems (which I don't expect.) We have begun using the e-mail accounts to access the Chromebooks and Google Classroom. Google Classroom is the place where assignments and links are posted for students; at this time, we do not access Classroom daily.
Social Studies The focus for second graders in New York State is Communities. “My Community and Other Communities” is organized into five units of study—Individual Development and Cultural Identity; Civic Ideals and Practices; Geography, Humans, and the Environment; Time, Continuity, and Change; and Economic Systems. These units represent five of the unifying themes of social studies, and may be presented in any order.
We use many sources of information including a textbook, National Geographic Explorer Magazine and a variety of trade books and internet sources.
Homework Details
Homework assignments are written down daily in the BLUE folder. In the beginning of the year most of the homework is typed on the sheet when it is duplicated and put into the folder. As the school year progresses second graders will assume more responsibility for writing down assignments. It is requested that an adult initial/sign the homework sheet daily so that home/school communication is consistent. The weekly homework sheets are placed in the prongs on Mondays and stay in the prongs until I remove them at the end of the marking period. Children have mailboxes which they are responsible for checking daily.
Reading for 15 minutes is a daily homework assignment. Second graders may read alone, with someone, or have someone read to them. Inside the blue folder is a reading record for daily reading. Title and author are requested. If a child is reading a chapter book, they may write down page numbers or chapter numbers but do not have to. A chapter book would only need the author once per week. It is expected that second graders will be able to completely independently write their own titles and authors by November. Reading homework is part of each quarter's grade; please do not remove the pages in the three-prongs from the folder because I total at the end of each quarter.
In addition to reading, your child can expect to work on one or two other homework assignments most nights including studying.
Math homework will be sent home at the beginning of the year at least twice weekly. I try to send home a variety of homework - not just worksheets. Don't be surprised if your child is expected to explore the house and make a list! Written details about "different" homework assignments will be sent home. Studying math facts or practicing concepts should occur at least 4 times weekly at home to aid mastery. Beginning earlier in September students will have a record sheet in their BLUE folders to keep track of their home practice.
Religion - Occasionally your child will bring home religion homework that complements our study in school.
Handwriting - printing practice will only be sent if needed. Please, please notice if your child is forming letters incorrectly or in the wrong direction and help me fix that! We will begin with a review of manuscript writing. Common letter formation errors include writing a, o, e in the wrong direction (the circle should be written counter-clockwise), not writing descending lines (lines which go through the baseline) for g, p, q, and y, and forgetting the pull down line with which letters like m, n, and r to begin with or u to end with. We need to form our manuscript letters correctly prior to learning cursive. Cursive homework will be assigned in the spring. Please do not allow your child to “teach” themselves cursive or practice letters without supervision prior to learning in school. Students should not be completing homework in cursive.
Science and Social Studies - As the school year progresses, students will have assignments related to our current themes. Written directions will be sent home explaining assignments to families. There will be extremely few tests to study for in the content areas of Science and Social Studies. Some years we don’t have any.
Projects - At this time I don't have many "at home" projects planned for second graders. You can expect us to do something possible for Thanksgiving and for the 100th Day of School. Some years children study a person and write a biography or do an animal report.
Other Subjects Schedule
Physical Education – Wednesday and Friday Spanish Tuesday and Thursday
Art - Tuesday or Wednesday Music- Monday Library - Every other Thursday
Supplies - Everyone has what they need or I gave it to them. You can expect to replace pencils and erasers as the school progresses as students go through many, many of each. Right now, we have plenty of tissues and wipes, when we need more, I’ll let you know.
Folders: If your second grader brings work home in a folder marked Work Folder, please do not do the work at home - send it back to school!! Unfinished work is placed in the folder daily. I also add papers for individuals as needed. I will not send home classwork for your child to finish without attaching a note to you. BLUE folders are for homework and completed papers to keep at home. The BLUE folder should come home every school day. YELLOW folders are for tests and evaluations. If the YELLOW folder is going home, it will be on a Monday and I’ll let you know to expect it. All tests and evaluations are to be kept inside the YELLOW folder until June unless I remove them to file at school to make your child’s folder lighter; if you would like to keep a test or evaluation at home, please let me know and I’ll make a copy for you. Unless you hear from me otherwise, other folders shouldn't come home! I do create Science and Social Studies and Writing folders to use in school; that work is taken out of the folders and sent home when we've finished with it.
Snack - We have a short snack break each morning. Children are encouraged to choose their healthy snack from their lunch box and to put everything else away until it is lunchtime.
Community Service Reilly House is a home for disabled adults next to St. Thomas Church is our “usual” place for community service. As of right now, any visits to Reilly House are on hold due to COVID. We will create holiday cards for each resident and I’ll drop them off. Our 2nd grade participates in a variety of other service projects as the need arises including cards and crafts for Catholic Charities.
Book Orders This year I will send home multiple book orders. Parents may order the books the traditional way by filling out the order form and sending in either the exact amount in cash or by writing a check. One check may be written for multiple Scholastic flyers. Online ordering for Scholastic is also available; parents would need to use a credit card.
The site: https://clubs.scholastic.com One time class activation code needed: GZWYD
The first orders went home last week and were due Sunday, 9/26. The next order will be placed mid-October.
**If you want to order books at a time when I don’t currently have an open order, you may place an online order with Scholastic Books at any time. Scholastic will email me telling me that you’ve placed an order and then I’ll confirm you are one of my families and the order will be sent to school the next time I process an order.
Communication
Home/school communication is very important. I do try to send emails frequently to keep parents updated. Messages and reminders from the office are sent by email; you can expect at minimum updates every Wednesday from the office. My personal class website is http://homestead.com/millergrade2. It has basic information but isn’t specific to 2021-2022 at the moment. Passwords for the St. Thomas School website are available from the office. I check email daily, but please don’t rely on an email for important messages such as pick-up changes or early dismissals. Keep in mind I may not check my email during the day and might wait until long after dismissal. You may always send me a note in the morning, call the front office, or use the school website to send a message. Together we can make this a wonderful year for your second grader.
Report Card
A new report card was adopted by the Diocese of Albany this year. The purpose of a standards based report card is to communicate progress towards meeting end-of-year learning standards. The rubric changed for Fall of 2021
The Rubric Used:
4 Student work demonstrates an understanding of grade level standards and objectives.
Student completes work independently and integrates learned concepts and skills.
3 Student work demonstrates an understanding of grade level standards and objectives.
Student completes work satisfactorily and applies expected skills to work.
2 Student work demonstrates a partial understanding of grade level standards and objectives.
Student exhibits inconsistent understanding and application of concepts and skills.
1 Student work demonstrates minimal understanding of grade level standards and objectives; evidences very limited organizational, reasoning and critical thinking skills; completing independent tasks only with assistance, struggles with grade level standards and objectives producing less than expected work
STANDARDS CODES
E Exemplary - exceeds the standard
P Proficiency - meets the standard
D Developing
NA Not assessed at this time
