Happy December! I hope you
are all surviving and enjoying this busy and exciting time of the year! The
energy is certainly felt in 2nd grade! :)
In second grade we have
been very busy. We enjoyed an all school assembly last Wednesday. During this community meeting the children were reminded how
important each and every one of them is to the Robinson School community. The whole school enjoyed a
beautiful read aloud by Mrs. Rivet titled You're Here For A Reason by Nancy
Tillman. At the end of the meeting the kindergarten shared with us how many
hats and mittens have been donated. Then they challenged the whole school to
bring in even more. I am proud to say as a whole school met that challenge in
just two days!!
We have been enjoying our
new social studies unit on Mapping Skills. The children have learned about the
cardinal directions, map key, and how to "read" various maps. They
have also created maps of Robinson School, including symbols, map keys, and a
compass rose. We are also
beginning to learn about the names and location of the 7 continents and the 5
major oceans. These are skills that will lead us into our next social studies
unit, "Cultures and Migration."
We are looking forward to starting our next science unit, "Earth’s
Surface." The children will explore the earth’s surface and how it changes. Students
will be engineers while they build and test ways to protect a road from a
landslide. They will also create a 3D clay model of land and water on earth. This
is a fun and engaging unit for the children.
In math the children have
been learning about telling time on an analog clock. This can be a difficult
concept for some, so we encourage you to reinforce this concept at home. This
is an area that we will continue to review throughout the year. At this point,
the expectation is that the children can tell time to the hour and half hour.
The expectation for the END of the year is that they tell time in 5 minute
intervals. We have also worked with place value. The children have built
various numbers with base ten blocks. The children have also explored the value
of each digit in a 3 digit number along with comparing which number is largest
by looking at the value of each digit.
During reading, we have
spent some time enjoying holiday books. We have also been learning about making
inferences and visualizing while reading fictional texts. The children have
learned that when a reader makes inferences they use the words from the book
along with their own background knowledge to make inferences about what the author is telling them. While
visualizing the students learned to make a picture in their minds about what
they have read. These are skills that the children will continue to practice as
they begin to read longer texts and texts without pictures.
During writing we have been
learning about character traits. Discussing character traits led us to a fun
writing activity. We received a letter from Santa explaining that he was
looking for some friends to help the elves at the North Pole. The children
brainstormed the character traits that they felt they had that Santa would be looking for and
the reasons why those character traits would be important to Santa. Next, we
wrote letters to Santa explaining which character traits would make them an
excellent helper at the North Pole. After the writing the children created
their own elves (with real photos of their faces). They will be coming home soon!
After winter break we will begin our next writing unit which is "Opinion Writing."
I wish you all a fun and relaxing Winter Break and hope that you enjoy the holidays with your families and friends! See you next year!
Upcoming Dates:
December 19th- Winter Party
December 20- Pajama Day, Whole School Dance Party, and Holiday Sing Along
December 21-January 1st- Winter Vacation
