Second Grade Newsletter- Week 1
August 28, 2026
What a week! Our second grade tigers are really starting to get the hang of things as they navigate daily schedules and routines. We surely look forward to meeting with you next week during Parent/Teacher Conferences. Please remember to sign up for a designated time if you haven't already. Today when your child brings home their red communication/homework folder, hidden inside you'll find an IXL code card along with a Scholastic Book Club magazine.
The IXL card contains all of your student's credentials needed to practice both Math and ELAR foundational skills at home, games included. Our hope is that classroom instruction will be enhanced, refined, and echoed at home, in order to best support each second grade student. And feel free to order from Scholastic magazines sent home! Besides of course promoting reading, when you connect through your classroom teacher's account, she'll receive a number of free books in which to add to her classroom library. As well, we're both newly building our classroom libraries. It's a pretty easy connection, but if needed, please reach out to your child's teacher for a class code.
And lastly, as we conclude our mapping unit in Social Studies, we'll be administering a blank map continent/ocean test midweek in which to label. A word bank will be provided. A few maps have already been sent home to help practice. *Be sure to ask your kiddo what "top bunk, bottom bunk" means. We taught our kids a rather funny way to remember the seven continents and five major bodies of water! `
This Week in ELAR:
This week we explored author’s purpose; the reason an author writes a book! We learned the acronym PIE to help us remember: Persuade, Inform, and Entertain. When reading with your child at home, ask them to identify the author’s purpose and share clues from the book that helped them decide! We also learned how to make an inference by putting together evidence from the text + what we already know (background knowledge). This helps us figure out things the author doesn’t directly tell us!
In phonics, we learned about the soft sounds of c and g. When e, i, or y follows c, the c can say /s/, as in city, cent, and cycle. When those letters follow g, the g can say /j/, as in giraffe, gem, and gym. We also reviewed when to double the final consonant before adding a vowel suffix, such as -ed, -ing, -est, or -er. Ask your child to teach you the little song we learned to help remember this rule! We reviewed reading and spelling words with dge and tch. The letters d and t act as "protectors" for short vowels.
Our high-frequency words this week were such, both, mother, father, which, don’t, it’s, could, should, and would. Thank you for continuing to practice these words and read together at home!
This Week in MATH:
This past week we mainly focused on adding with and without regrouping. We left off by doing this with large three-digit numbers. We worked and reviewed different strategies to help us regroup these larger numbers. These strategies include but are not limited to the following: use of good old place value charts, the standard addition algorithm, manipulatives, tape diagrams, number lines, number bonds, counting on (even on fingers), adding mentally, and the ten strategy...just to name a few! Feel free to quiz your student at home by asking them to explain a few of these strategies!
Looking ahead in MATH:
This upcoming Math week, we'll continue to use various addition strategies and algorithms to add three-digit numbers by regrouping ones. We'll also focus on doing this with fidelity and fluency. Moving forward, students will continue regrouping in the tens. As I had mentioned last week, fluency is key! I challenge you to practice fluency facts with your student at home, which in turn will help them tremendously in the classroom. Generally speaking, automatic recall of basic Math skills (arithmetic) frees up cognitive working memory for higher-level problem solving. Food for thought!🍎
Looking Ahead in ELAR:
Next week in ELAR, we will review the skills we’ve learned and apply familiar phonics patterns to longer, multisyllabic words. We’ll discover that some of these rules aren’t just for short words! For example, magic e can be found in a one-syllable word like mute and in a multisyllabic word like athlete.
In reading, we will focus on setting; where and when a story takes place and we will discuss how it impacts the story. We’ll explore how the setting affects the characters and events. While reading together at home, ask your child, “How might this story be different if it happened somewhere else?”
Our high-frequency words will be the, of, you, that, was, for, are, they, from, and or. Please continue practicing both our new words and previously learned words at home!
What is Happening in Science/STEM? (From Mrs. Mertz)
Our STEM project on landform designs are still in progress. Our students will begin the last step of the Engineer and Design process where they will communicate with a partner what their landforms have that are the same and the differences to complete a Venn diagram. Once the Venn diagram is complete, they will bring their designs home to share with their family. I am so proud of all of their hard work!
Academic Language We Are Using This Week:
landform, mountain, hill, canyon, cliff, slope , plains, volcano, peninsula, island, plateau, cliff, cave
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