Welcome to 2nd Grade

Hello and welcome to second grade! My name is Suzette Gibson. This is my 8^th year teaching at St. Peter’s School and each year gets better and better. I look forward to working together to make this a very exciting year for your child filled with new experiences, friends, and a greater appreciation of the gifts that God has given us. Please feel free to contact me at anytime with any questions or concerns. I look forward to getting to know you and your child. I will be available before school begins if you would like to drop by the classroom. I will be sending you a note soon with the dates and times that I will be available. See you soon! School2@stpeterswaldorf.org

What’s going on in second grade in February?

We have mastered all 100 addition facts and are working on continuing to get quicker with those facts. We are now working on mastering the subtraction facts. Some of our tasks for this month will be to add multiple 2 digit numbers with regrouping, reading a thermometer to the closest 2 degrees, and using more mental math.

We have begun practicing cursive handwriting and are working hard to learn all of the lower case letters.

Science finds us investigating simple machines, magnets, and motion.

We have completed our 100^th page in Language Arts and have begun our second book!

Spelling lists are shrinking and words are becoming more challenging. Second grade will amaze themselves with how well they can spell and write this month!

Social Studies has us studying many holidays from Chinese New Year to Valentine’s Day to President’s Day to Black History Month. Wow!

December 2011 and January 2012

Second grade has a big event in December. We will be receiving the sacrament of First Reconciliation on Sunday, December 18th. All parents and family members are invited to come and receive the sacrament along with them. We will have a special classroom lunch celebration on Monday, December 19th. Other December events will be a classroom cookie exchange on Tuesday, December 20th and a classroom Christmas party on Wednesday, December 21st.

In January, we will return to begin a new year. Second grade will begin to practice writing letters in cursive. All homework and class work will continue to be in printed handwriting. We are getting closer to the 100^th page in our language arts books. Soon the spelling lists will shrink as the words get more challenging. The students are enjoying reading groups and look forward to the added challenge of dictionary work with vocabulary words from our reading group books. We have already written one poem and will be creating 3 additional poems throughout the month. Students have almost mastered all of the addition facts. We will begin testing all 100 addition facts this month. Students will surprise themselves with how quickly they can complete their tests. We will also be taking a field trip in January to see a play at CSM. Information will be sent home the first week in January.

Week of October 31 ~

Second grade has been very busy and is ready to begin the second quarter of school. Parent-Teacher conferences will be on Friday, November 11. Please return the conference time request form soon to get a time to come in and meet with me.

The next First Sacrament workshop will be on Sunday November 13 11:45am – 1:15pm. One adult and the student receiving the sacrament must attend.

Here is what we will be working on for the next week or so:

Math ~ math facts with sums of 8, 9, 10, and 11, creating and reading bar graphs, dividing wholes into ½, ¼, and 1/8, working with sets and pairs of objects.

Language Arts ~ continue practicing memory words each night as they are getting harder. We are reading chapter books in reading group. Currently we are reading Henry and Mudge and the Careful Cousin. We will be learning to use the dictionary this week to search for definitions.

Writing ~ The students are completing the revision step and will publish their autobiography in the coming week.

Religion ~ We are beginning to work through our First Penance book.

Science ~ The current chapter is revolving around plants and animals. We will find differences and similarities among the two. We hope to have more classroom investigations with both plants and animals. We look forward to a guest speaker to show us all about different kinds of seeds.

Week of October 10 ~

The second grade had a wonderful time at the Race for Education. Thank you to all of the parents that helped out! Here’s what we will be doing this week:

Language Arts ~ We are currently on Unit 5 words. The spelling test will be on Thursday. Students are also working toward writing an autobiography. The first draft will be begun this week. We will also begin a new story, Nate the Great, in reading groups. All students will be able to take the Accelerated Reader test on the book when we are done.

Math ~ Second grade is currently practicing the adding 9 facts. We are getting faster and faster with our addition facts.

Science ~ We are beginning a new chapter about plants and animals. We will be doing a lot of hands on activities this year in math.

Religion ~ Second grade is praying a decade of the Rosary every day. We will also be focusing on lesson to understand that we belong to the Catholic Church.

Looking ahead ~ We will need old neckties for a project very soon. If you have an extra tie to send in we would appreciate it. We will not be able to return the tie after the project.

Week of September 26 ~

We are testing on Unit 3 spelling words this week and then beginning Unit 4 words. Try using www.spellingcity.com to practice the unit’s words with games and activities. The students are working on a writing unit that will result in an autobiography. Continue working nightly with the math addition facts. We will be testing the adding 0 and adding 1 facts this week and then adding the adding 2 facts to our practice sheets. We have come to the end of our first Social Studies chapter so we will have a test on Thursday. Students will be bringing home a study guide to use on Wednesday night. We will begin the first Science chapter next week. You will not see any grades for Science on the interim grade because we have not gotten to that subject yet.

First Sacrament meeting will be on Wednesday October 5 at 7pm. If you are planning to have your child receive the sacraments this year please make sure to send a representative to this important meeting.

September 19, 2011

Second grade has completed a whole week’s worth of work! The students are settling into our routine and I am very pleased with their work ethic. I look forward to meeting with everyone on Monday at Back to School Nights at 7pm. Please come to hear what my expectations for the year will be and bring any questions that you have about the class in general. Specific questions about your child can be addressed at a later time.