Second Grade

Grade Level News-Spring Semester

Hurray for Second Grade! Second grade continues to be making progress in their learning and in taking responsibility for themselves.

 

Curriculum News

 

Language Arts 

The RTI reading instruction is a big success in Second Grade! Students are receiving intensive, specific skill level instruction for 4 times a week. They are all making wonderful progress and are being challenged to do their best work.

Writing

We are working on research writing for our hero biographies.  Many students are turning their note taking pages into well written paragraphs. They are using opening and closing sentences, as well as transitions and adjectives. Students continue to use graphic organizers to organize their thoughts as paragraph writing is fully developed in Second Grade. They are working on improving their writing using the six traits of writing.

Website: http://www.greatsource.com/iwrite/students/s_6traits.html

Our writing activities are focused on mastering the second grade standards. They are able to recognize word patterns and common abbreviations, use plurals correctly, and understand simple prefixes, suffixes, antonyms and synonyms. The children write clear and coherent sentences and paragraphs that develop a central idea. Their writing shows they consider the audience and purpose. They are writing about familiar events and experiences. They are practicing recognizing whether sentences are complete, identifying parts of speech such as nouns and verbs, and using commas, quotation marks and proper capitalization.

Reading Language Arts

 

The RTI reading instruction is a big success in Second Grade! Students are receiving intensive, specific skill level instruction for 4 times a week. They are all making wonderful progress and are being challenged to do their best work.

The students are continuing to develop into better readers. In our reading text from Houghton Mifflin, students are starting our sixth theme, “Talent Show,” which includes interesting stories like The Art Lesson, Moses goes to a Concert, and The School Mural. Each story is packed with rich vocabulary and the teachers will be busy teaching the students reading strategies like evaluating the author’s purpose and viewpoint, problem solving, sequence of events and word choice.

Some of the skills the kids will be learning are:

Phonics:  Vowel pairs oo, ew, ou, ou; long I (igh, ie); base words and endings ed, ing

Reading Strategies:  evaluate; summarize; question; phonics/decoding

Comprehension: author’s viewpoint; noting details; problem solving

Spelling:  vowel sounds in moon and book; words with long i patterns; more words with ed and ing

Vocabulary:  word families; multiple-meaning words, using context

Grammar: other irregular verbs; adjectives, including a, an, the; comparing with adjectives

Writing: paragraph that explains, summary paragraph, compare/contrast paragraph, persuasive talk

Information/Study Skills: using a newspaper; captions; chapter titles and headings

Fluency: phrasing; punctuation; intonation; pauses

Math   

Math Standards: http://www.csun.edu/~vcmth00m/practice.html

We will be doing some review work in preparation for the standardized testing coming in early May. The following website provides sample test questions.  We will go over the questions in class, but reviewing at home can be helpful for students.

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/documents/cstrtqmath2.pdf

We are learning about fractions, multiplication and division. In May, we will be working in our text on 3-Digit Addition and Subtraction.  In this unit, children extend their understanding of addition and subtraction to three-digit numbers.  They will continue to group and ungroup as necessary.  Good explanations and good questions using hundreds, tens, and ones language are emphasized as well as finding solutions to problems.  Students will also use money amounts up to $10.00 to help reinforce addition and subtraction strategies.

As part of our ongoing regular math program, the students are continuing taking weekly timed tests. These tests are helping the students to solidify their math facts and place those facts at the automatic level. It makes learning the higher level of math concepts much easier. At this point in the year, most students should be finished with the addition and subtraction facts and working on multiplication.  All second graders should know their 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s facts in multiplication by the end of the year.

 

Social Studies/Science

Second graders are finishing our last Social Studies unit for the year.  The unit, “People Who Make a Difference,” taught them about the contributions of famous people who have become our heroes.

Hero Research:

Second Grade is working on our Social Studies unit Hero presentations which will be performed May 18 and 21.  Your child’s teacher will be giving you additional information in the coming weeks your child’s preparation.  Here are some websites you can use to look up additional research on the hero your child has chosen. With practice at home, your child can become comfortable using the notes to speak from when he or she presents.  Be working on a simple costume for your child to wear for the presentation.

http://www.myhero.com

http://www.harcourtschool.com/hss (click on Multimedia Biographies)

  • Encyclopedia Access at Home
    • Encyclopedia Britannica has been purchased for all IUSD school sites. Students can access the site from home using the following link:
      http://school.eb.com/elementary
      Username = iusd
      Password = Irvine

We will be starting our Life Cycle Unit in science. Our focus will be on the life cycles of turtles, frogs, chickens, milkweed bugs, and butterflies. The caterpillars will be arriving, and the students will observe the changes as the caterpillars move through their lifecycle.  It is very exciting to see the painted lady butterflies.

Online Textbook Access

Language Arts (K-6):

Student Access:

  • Go to: https://www-k6.thinkcentral.com/
  • Select California
  • Select: Irvine Unif School District 92604
  • Select: Your School
  • Click the Box that says “Remember My Organization”
  • See the table below for User Names and Passwords. Both are case sensitive.

Grade:   2   Username: grade2     Password: student

Click on My Library                                                                                                                                   Select either Math or Language Arts Text

Math Expressions (K-5):

Harcourt Social Science (1-5):

Extra, Extra

  • Don’t forget that every Friday is Spirit Day! Wear your CV shirt or a blue or gray shirt to show your spirit!
  • Practice math facts every night!