Second Grade Newsletter January/February
What's New!     Welcome to a new year!  Over the next months in second grade we will be striving to get students ready for third grade.  You will notice new assignments coming home each Friday beginning in late February.  Your child will have two additional activities, one writing and one reading, for your child to complete on alternating weeks.  The assignments will come home each Monday and be due on Friday.  These activities will need guidance from parents.  Thank you for assisting your child with this.      Science/Social Studies:     Our units of study in Science and Social Studies will correlate with many of the stories we will be reading these next two months.  We will begin the year in science with our “Night Sky” unit.  “Weather” will follow before we switch to Social Studies.     At the end of February we will begin our unit entitled “Our Country Today.”  This unit ties in with our biography study. Vocabulary from this unit will include; government, mayor, citizen, governor, Congress, President, freedom, motto, and monument.	Reading/Language:     This month all second grade will be reading Follow the Drinking Gourd by F.N. Monjo. This is story about a family that helps escaped slaves reach safety using the stars as a guide.  Students will also learn about real Americans, like Harriet Tubman, who helped free many enslaved African Americans by establishing the Underground Railroad.  A website to visit with your child relating to this unit of study is: [Link]www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/        In late February we will dive into our biography unit.  Each child will choose a famous American to read about and research.  Students will then use the information learned to write a speech that he/she will recite while dressed like the famous American during our “Living Museum.”  This is a wonderful culminating activity that you will enjoy coming to.  Information regarding our “Living Museum” will be come home with your child as February gets closer.

Math

     We will begin this year with reviewing subtraction with regrouping.  This skill is one of the most difficult students will learn this year and will require extra practice at home.  Please continue to work with your child with the subtraction facts since mastery of these is crucial for success with regrouping as well as many skills taught in third grade.  We will continue to reinforce addition with regrouping as well.  After our review we will begin our unit on time followed by our unit over numbers to 1,000.  You may consider purchasing your child a watch with hands so he/she can practice telling time to the minute anytime!

    Math Olympics are just around the corner on February 29th.  Skills students have learned throughout the year will be practiced and reinforced in fun games set up in each second grade classroom.  Students will spend this morning rotating through each classroom and participating in the math activity set up there.  What fun!