Second Grade Newsletter
October 2014
Mark your calendars…..
October 13th Columbus Day – Open House
October 16th Student Picture Day
October 17th No School – MSEA Conference
October 20-24th Fall Festival Week
October 30th- End of First Marking Period
October 31st - No School for Students
Reminders…..




Please remember to sign the homework
sheet and return it to school every Friday.
Your child should be reading for 15 minutes
each night. Books include those chosen
from a classroom library, the media center,
or a guided reading book. Books may be
reread to increase fluency and reinforce
key vocabulary.
For extra practice in writing, have your child
start a journal. Set aside a time before bed
to have your child write about the events of
the day. Be sure to remind your child to
add details and edit their writing. An added
challenge would be to revise for new and
interesting beginnings and words.
Please reinforce our PBIS Goshen
Standards…Respect, Responsibility,
and Ready To Go!
Thank you……
We really appreciate all that you are doing for our
students and are looking forward to a wonderful
school year!
Writing
We have started our new inquiry project on
nutrition. We will be investigating healthy
eating habits. Students will work in groups to
generate questions to research. Students will
then use their information to create an
informative paragraph.
READING
Students have finished the mClass assessment
given three times yearly to determine reading
levels. We will be learning many concepts in Book
Club. Our focus will be on elements of a story,
such as problem/solution, character traits and
setting, along with plot, cause and effect, and
facts vs. opinions. Later this month we will begin
our focus on non-fiction texts. We will focus on
identifying text features and using text features to
locate key facts. When reading at home please
highlight some of the text features highlighted
below and be sure to ask him/her what key facts
they can locate with a text feature. For example,
your child can use the index to find more specific
subjects on more pages. (EX: We can read more
about pollution on pages 3, 5, and 7.)
Text Features
Table of contents
Labels
Index
Headings
Glossary
Captions
Math
This month we will work on collecting, organizing,
and analyzing data. We will use different types of
graphs to display our data. We will dig further into
data by solving put together “add”, take apart
“subtraction” and compare (< > =) problems. We
continue to find that addition and subtraction are
skills that students need to be proficient at, so
please continue to support your child at home by
practicing their facts.
Vocabulary
Data
Bar Graph
Pictograph
Analyze
Collect
Science
In science students will describe the different
properties and components of air and water.
This will go into a discussion of the water cycle.
We will also discuss how air pollution affects
our health. In addition, students will describe
the forms of water in air. This will lead into
identifying and describing natural features on
different continents then compare them to
what is found where we live, here in Maryland.
You could ask your child what kind of features
he/she sees as you are driving around the
area or even if you get the opportunity to go
to a different state.
Social Studies
In social studies we have been learning about rights and
responsibilities of citizens by discussing how our
actions affect others. We have discussed our
community and how good citizens are responsible, fair,
and respectful. We will also discuss how fulfilling
rights and responsibilities promote democratic ideas.
Students will describe the rights and responsibilities
affect the common good of society.
Specials
Art: In October, Second graders will talk about
how artists use space in their work. We will start
with positive and negative space in a small
collage, then move on to overlapping, background,
foreground, and horizon line in a landscape!
Specials
In Physical Education, grade 2 will focus on executing
locomotor movements using different levels and pathways.
They will also work on movement and relationships with
others such as Leading and following, mirror and matching,
and meeting and parting.
Collaboration with Writing & Information Literacy in
The Media Center
Students are learning how to use an inquiry process to locate
information and ideas for informative and opinion writing.
Students build their background knowledge of healthy eating
habits by exploring variety of resources. After this
exploration, students brainstorm health related topics by
analyzing the inquiry driving question: What can you do to
develop healthy personal eating habits?
They will apply their knowledge of the different types and
location of resources. Students use images and resources
when developing their detailed questions. After analyzing
their topics to develop keywords, students use what they
know about text features to evaluate whether a source is
relevant. Students compare how to locate relevant
information in print and digital sources by analyzing text
features. Students learn about recording enough information
during note taking to answer their questions and record basic
citation information for sources used.
Happy Birthday!
Nicole Hasenbuhler - 10/1
Supuli Salgado – 10/2
Christina Hance-Aloi – 10/5
Diego Ramos - 10/16
Daniel Vidas - 10/17
Catherine Silva – 10/18
Nathan Jiron – 10/22
Aby Landaverde – 10/24
Kieran Keiller – 10/27
Aiden Valencia – 10/29
Unifying Question:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Music: Students
will continue to work on
How do identifying and using different strategies help
classifying instruments in preparation for the field
you generate ideas or solve problems.
trip to Strathmore in November. We will sing
Critical Thinking Skill: Fluency
patriotic songs and discover meter of music
I come up with many ways to solve a problem
through movement. We will also discuss
Academic Success Skill: Collaboration
appropriate audience behavior.
I work with others to accomplish a goal or task.
~The Second Grade Teachers
Mrs. Colon
Mrs. Krempel
Mrs. Lipari
Mr. Lohmeier
Mrs. Monarch
Ms. Perera
Ms. Pleitez