Second Grade Blogger

In second grade we celebrated the Lunar New Year! Welcome to the year of the….TIGER! The tiger is known as the third Zodiac in Western culture known for their fiery passion, daring, and fearlessness. Many of our second grade friends were born in the year of the horse which is symbolized by their popularity, energy and confidence. Others are the snake who are considered wise, reserved, and deep thinkers. We learned all about the traditions and customs of celebrating the New year including food, family and legends such as the Nian monster. Did you know that long noodles are eaten... Read More

The past two weeks have been busy! We launched a new unit in Writer’s Workshop on Informational writing. The students started by listing topics they know a lot about such as gymnastics, cats, baseball, soccer, pets etc. Then the students chose one topic from their list and created separate chapters and headings for it. Our next steps include adding details where they can teach and share their expertise with an audience. Stay tuned… During word work, the students learned about what contractions are, how to read them and how to use them in writing. Be sure to ask your child... Read More

Happy new year! It’s been great being back with the children in the classroom. Since our return from vacation we have been learning about the Civil Rights Movement and people who were instrumental in it. We have been busy learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , Rosa Parks, and Ruby Bridges. The students have been engaged in many read alouds and rich conversations about each person and how they were key figures in the movement. In this study children also learned about what a quote is, how to use it and also about character traits during reading and writing... Read More

Welcome to the last blog for 2021! We hope everyone has an amazing break and we look forward to seeing you in 2022! In SEL, social emotional learning, the students have been learning many skills. Through the past few weeks they focused on a few specific lessons. The first was how to have a constructive conversation about how to agree and respectfully disagree with one another. The students brainstormed wonderful ways where they can validate hearing others and then responding to them with kind language. Some prompts that came up were: I agree because _______ I disagree because _______ Ask... Read More

Judaic Studies: The 2nd graders students were excited to learn about Chanukah. We learned how much it is important to keep your identity and when lighting the candles of Chanukah we remember the miracles of Chanukah and that we are part of a community. The students learned the difference between the Menorah and the Chanukiah. And while learning about the customs of the holiday, each student wrote in script sentences relating to Chanukah. Hebrew: The 2nd graders start reading sentences and short stories containing all of the Hebrew vowels, including the brachot of Chanukah and the songs they were singing.... Read More

In General Studies our second grade readers and writers explored and learned about beautiful language in texts such as Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen. The students studied what makes language beautiful and why the author chose certain words to express emotion and meaning. Then we learned what synonyms are and how to use a thesaurus using guide words on the pages. We gathered words from our writing and other common words that are used in second grade. Each writer chose a word, looked it up in a thesaurus, and wrote them on paint chip samples moving from weakest (palest color)... Read More