Grade two is having an excellent year so far! We continue to work on classroom routines, developing work habits, and building our classroom community. Students are also working on becoming more independent and more cooperative learners.
Grade two is almost finished with their fourth math unit-Using Bar Models: Addition and Subtraction. Students have been working on using bar models to solve addition and subtraction problems. We have used addition models for joining sets, subtraction models for taking away sets, and comparison models for comparing sets.
Second graders continue to work on building their reading stamina as well as exploring new authors and series. The second graders are also learning book selection strategies. Students should be reading “just right” books during independent reading. Please continue to support our second graders by sharing books with them and having them practice reading daily.
The second graders have just finished a writing unit on realistic fiction. Each student created a character and developed stories based on that character. Students worked on introducing the main character, explaining the problem in the story, and finding a solution to the problem. We are now working on letter and note writing. Some letter and note ideas we will explore: sending good wishes, saying thank you, and sharing a message.
The second grade is using the Children Discovering Justice (CDJ) program as part of our social studies curriculum. CDJ is a literacy-based social studies and civics curriculum for grades one through five. CDJ combines history, social studies, and character education. Students learn about the foundations of our democracy and engage in discussions about rules, justice, equality, and rights and responsibilities. Second grade students will explore the following questions: What is freedom? What is liberty? What is equality? How can an individual work for justice? And finally What is justice for all? We will explore and discuss each of these questions through picture books. The goal of the program is to help students understand what our social responsibilities are and what it means to be a U.S. citizen.
We are wrapping up our first science unit-soils. We have learned about composting, the importance of worms, and the components of soil. We have also been working on carefully observing our bean plants and recording our observations in our science notebooks.