Back to School!

Dear Second Grade Families,

It was a pleasure meeting all of you at Meet the Teacher on Thursday evening. Can you believe the First Day of School is almost here? I am so excited for the year and I hope your children are too! I will post on the blog each Friday to inform you about curriculum updates and any other special announcements for the following week.

Mrs. Smith and I will take pictures of the students on the first day of school. I will be sure to send those your way! Don't forget to take lots of your own pictures and give extra hugs and kisses to your 2nd grader! I'm sure there will be some feelings of nerves and excitement. Don't worry - we will help your child feel safe, comfortable, and loved all day long! Monday morning there will be teachers at drop off to assist your children out of their cars, help unload school supplies, and remind them where to go. You don't need to worry about getting out of your vehicle.

Archway strives to create a sacred space for great works of the past. Our time with your children is so precious and important. That being said, our campus is pop-culture free. Please make sure backpacks, lunch boxes, pencil pouches, etc. don't contain any "characters" or "slogans". If you have any questions in regards to this please let me know!

The best way to communicate with me is via email. I have not learned yet how to check the voicemail on the school phone. If you need to speak with me the best way is to email me and I will give you a call.

Please send in a copy of Charlotte's Web with your child this week. We will be reading this book for the next 8 weeks. Please let me know if you need assistance in getting a copy. I have a few extras your student can borrow. 

Most of our focus next week will be on classroom community building and getting to know each other. There will also be many procedures to learn. AND we're going to dive right into our curriculum...

Poetry: Students will begin memorizing their first poem this week! A copy of the poem Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson will be sent home Tuesday. Students will memorize one stanza each week, and present their recitation to the class the week of August 31. I have attached a copy of the recitation rubric I will be using the back of the poem. 

Literature: Will we begin reading Charlotte's Web on Tuesday. Students will learn key vocabulary words from chapters 1-3, be introduced to some leading characters, identify important character traits for Fern, and write a letter to Wilbur from Fern's perspective. If you have a chance to speak with you child this week about perspective that would be so helpful. Understanding how others feel and think is a skill that we will work on a lot this year! 

Spalding: Students will not be assigned spelling words this week, instead we will focus on handwriting and phonogram review. Handwriting homework will be sent home in your students red folder this week, and I encourage you to review phonograms at home for five minutes each evening. 

Math: This week, students will take a second grade math assessment. The same assessment will be given at the end of the year to measure class growth. This assessment will not impact student grades or report cards in any way. We as a second grade team use it as an internal tool to help note areas of strength and weakness in our Singapore curriculum. We will also review making 10's, place value, and skip counting, involving quite a few activities and games! 

Science: Your young scientists will learn about the steps of the Scientific Method (Observations, Problem, Hypothesis, Experiment, Results, Conclusion) through exploration of "Mystery Bags" and reading a book called 11 Experiments that Failed. 

History: We will discuss where we live in terms of scale (planet, continent, country, state, city, address). Students will learn to identify things on a map, including the map key and it's symbols. We will also be assigning oceans and continents to students to learn about and share with the class!

As always, feel free to reach out to me with questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend! Make sure your 2nd grader gets plenty of rest and eats a nice, healthy breakfast on Monday morning! Don't forget to bring your school supplies (if you haven't already), a water bottle, morning snack, and lunch. I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Love,

Mrs. Dombrowski