Second Grade Blog

12/2/22 December is here! And second grade has been busy growing their brains. Check out what we’ve been up to… Reading: During phonics in reading, the second graders have been learning all about homophones! They figured out jokes like, What did the beach say when the tide came in? Long time no sea!  They also discovered other homophones such as to, two, too and where to use each in a sentence. Writing: The students have been busy learning about opinion writing, specifically with reviews of their favorite books that they read in school. We don’t want to divulge too much here,... Read More

Dear Second Grade Families, It is hard to believe that November is already here! We really enjoyed meeting with you at conferences to share the wonderful work the children are doing in class!   Reading: In reading we have been learning that second grade readers roll up their sleeves and get to work upon encountering tricky words. We built on decoding strategies and learned that readers often use many strategies at a time. If your child has a difficult time figuring out a difficult word at home, these are our strategies: Look through the whole word part by part Use... Read More

10/21/22 Hi everyone! Can you believe it is already the middle of October? The month is flying by with the holidays and the kids have become more settled into our daily schedules. We are busy, busy, busy and learning a lot! Reading: Our readers learned how to scoop phrases in order to read more fluently, as if we are speaking. They practiced reading aloud so we could hear the breaks or pauses within the sentences. At home, be sure to ask your child to read in a storytelling voice where they capture the essence of the story while scooping phrases... Read More

10/7/22   Hello Second Grade families! We hope you had a meaningful and restful Yom Kippur. We’ve had a shortened week but we’ve still gotten busy with our learning of new content across the subjects.   Reading: In reading we have been building our reading stamina each day! Our readers are reading more and stretching their reading muscles. We have been slowly building up our minutes and are up to at least 20 minutes a day!   Writing: Second grade writers have been adding seed ideas to their ever growing lists. They have been learning how to stretch one small... Read More

Congratulations to our second graders on finishing the school year! It was a bittersweet last few weeks of school and we soaked up our joyful time together before summer break. The students reflected on their growth academically, socially and emotionally since the school year started. It’s hard to believe that that was ten months ago! As cliche as it sounds, time does fly when you are having fun.   The kids spent thoughtful time looking back at work and sharing how they have changed as readers, writers, scientists, mathematicians, artists – the list goes on and on! They revisited their... Read More

In JS and Hebrew we continued learn about Lag Baomer and Rabi Akiva and his famous phrase ואהבת לרעך כמוך treat other people the way you treat yourself it’s a great rule of the Torah. We prepared signs and got excited for the Lag Baomer activities in the park…. We learned about Jerusalem Day and the importance of the capital of Israel. We read a book about Miriam and the ocean being ready for the Summer… The children were excited to practice their line and sing the songs for the Chumash Ceremony next week on Thursday May 26th.  

Hi families–good news! We received our worms on Tuesday. These worms are currently feasting on oranges, bananas, and watermelon donated by your generous 2nd graders, in their newly constructed habitats. Ask your second grader how we created their homes? Here are some fun facts about worms: – An earthworm can grow only so long. A well-fed adult will depend on what kind of worm it is, how many segments it has, how old it is and how well fed it is. An Lumbricus terrestris will be from 90-300 millimeters long. -A worm has no arms, legs or eyes. -There are... Read More

During Writer’s Workshop the second grade authors have begun a fiction unit! We began by reading and immersing ourselves in series books. We dove into Henry and Mudge and as readers we first studied how Cynthia Rylant writes her series books. The students discovered that Cynthia starts writing each book with the main characters and settings, that she keeps the main characters throughout the series and that there is either a problem and solution or an event (similar to a small moment) in each one. Next we started with prewriting! The students began by brainstorming their main characters and created... Read More