2nd Grade

 

Teachers: Mrs. Trammell , Mrs. Pettit, Mrs. White, Mrs. Whatley, and Mrs. Brister,

     Second grade has had a terrific start to the new school year.  A major focus for our second graders is reading, reading, reading!  Reading-to-self, reading to-someone, listening-to-reading (on tape or cd), and reading with the teacher give our students the daily practice with the specific reading strategies necessary to become stronger readers.  Stamina, stamina, stamina!  As a class, second grade began the year with 2 minutes of read-to-self stamina… now we are up to at least 20 minutes!  Cynthia Rylant and Helen Lester have quickly become two of our favorite authors.  We have enjoyed discussing and charting what we notice about characters and their traits.

     An important part of our literacy block includes daily writing and spelling practice.  Second graders love to write stories about themselves.  We are looking at the elements of narrative stories in books that we read and applying those elements into our own personal narrative writing.  We also practice our own individualized spelling words daily so that we become stronger expressing ourselves as writers. 

     Our second graders are busy mathematicians with our daily story problem, partner activities, independent investigations and activities, and work alongside our teacher.  While becoming familiar with math tools such as the 100s chart and the number line, we are working on building number sense to 99 and naming and locating numbers on the number line.  Learning and practicing addition strategies and practicing counting coins up to 25 cents have been fun with partner games like, Tens Go Fish, Make Ten, Plus 1 or 2 Bingo, and Collect 25 Cents.

     Second grade scientists have discussed and practiced using our senses to observe.  We have discussed and explored the properties of matter and that some matter can change.

     Social studies in second grade has focused on building community within our own classroom.  Second graders also have enjoyed looking at maps and creating our own.  We look forward to a productive year.