April 2016
Dear 2nd grade families,
Spring has sprung! It is hard to believe we are
beginning the fourth and final marking period of the
school year.
In reading, students will read narrative text in the
form of poetry and traditional stories. Students will engage in Shared Inquiry
Discussions with two Junior Great Book stories- The Jade Stone and The Wedding
Basket. Students will ask and answer questions about key details in the text and
discuss how words and phrases supply meaning to the story. Additionally,
students will be introduced to a Literature Web. Students will read poetry in order
to ask and answer questions and describe how words and phrases supply
rhythm and meaning to the text.
Reading will be integrated with our first writing unit, poetry! Students will
read a variety of poems and analyze poet’s use of word choice and repetition
to create imagery in poems. Specifically, students examine writers’ use of
sensory details to convey feelings, thoughts and actions in poetry and
incorporate these techniques into the poems they write. Students will then
compose a variety of free-verse poems and create audio-recordings and select
images to accompany a multimedia presentation of the poems. During writing,
instruction will focus on use of adjectives and adding visual displays to poems to
clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
Second graders will be very busy in math during the month of April.
During MP1 and MP2, the students developed and applied strategies for
addition and subtraction fluency within 100. Now, students will extend what
they know about addition and subtraction within 100 and apply the
understandings that, in adding or subtracting 3-digit numbers, one adds or
subtracts hundreds and hundreds, tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes
it its necessary to compose or decompose tens or hundreds. Students will solve
problems within 1000. As students develop written methods for addition and
subtraction within 1000 and explain their reasoning with different types of
problems, they may, once again, move back and forth among concrete
(manipulatives), pictorial, and abstract representations.
Additionally, some of our second graders have not mastered their basic
addition and subtraction facts within 20. Mastery of these facts is expected by
the end of second grade. Being able to quickly compute a basic fact is
essential for success in mathematics. Students may need to practice doubles,
near doubles, composing a number to make a 10 (7+5) or decomposing a
number to lead to 10 (13-5) with addition or subtraction facts. Please continue
to review both addition and subtraction facts with your child.
In Social Studies, students will expand their knowledge of civic
participation by examining how local school, community, and government
leaders contribute to society. They explore democratic attitudes and principles
represented by the contributions of those honored on holidays. Students
examine how participation occurs in classrooms, neighborhoods, and groups.
Through the examination of artifacts, biographies, and other informational texts,
students explore individuals who have shaped a significant historical change
(e.g., changes in: slavery, civil rights, voting rights; new ideas that helped
improve daily life).
Our science focus in April will be life cycles of plants and animals with a
focus on what needs each habitat provides for the species. We will grow brine
shrimp in the classroom and identify variables that could affect the growth and
development of the brine shrimp. We will continue to observe the phases of the
moon and compare our findings with our peers.
A few reminders…
Friday, April 8th is Picture Day! This will be class pictures and selected
individual pictures for students who have prepaid.
Thursday, April 28th is Take Your Child to Work Day. If you plan to take your
child to work, please let your child’s teacher and the office know ahead of time
by COMPLETING THE ATTACHED FLYER and sending it back to school with your
child. THANK YOU!
Have a great month,
Mrs. DeHaas
Mrs. Oxman
Mrs. Titherington
Mrs. Levy
Ms. Williams
Mrs. Podor