Mrs. Bice's Second Grade

Literacy Celebration

We had an amazing week of celebrating our hard work in Phonics and Reader’s Workshop! In Phonics we culminated our unit by reviewing patterns in the endings of words! We learned a ton of common endings over the last few weeks: -ly, -ed, -ing, -tion, -s, -es, -ies, etc. The 2nd graders should be noticing these endings in their reading as well as spelling them in their writing. During the unit we learned about endangered animals with a focus on word endings! The kids had so much fun learning about the animals and applying their phonics rules! They had a blast creating t-shirts to raise awareness for endangered animals. What a unique and fun way to assess the kids on everything they learned about word endings! Thanks to all of your donations to Paws with a Cause! Mrs. Widdis and I will be delivered the money and items within the next week!

Our reading unit concluded with kids forming Goal Clubs. Individual readers were able to think about what area they needed to improve in: literary language, tracking longer books, and becoming more fluent! I was impressed with how honest all the kids were with the areas that they needed to improve on. They met in goal clubs to develop some tools and tips for them to use while they read! Today they created posters to help teach other goal clubs all there is to know about their strategies! Be sure to check out Seesaw for some pics from the day!

Math

Math has really geared up during this last unit! It is really important that your 2nd grader attempts their math homework independently. At this point in the year, they should be able to independently read a 1 or 2 step word problem, solve it by deciding on a strategy, and check their work. The more they practice this routine, the more confident they will feel and the productive struggle won’t give them the “scaries!” We continued to work through 2-step story problems and got a taste of two digit subtraction. Next week we will wrap up the unit and I will share parts of it with you at Parent/Teacher conferences!

As we close out the 3rd quarter it’s important to think of those end of the year standards. As a reminder, 2nd graders fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies and know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers. If your child isn’t quite there yet, they should be going on Xtra math a few times a week or strengthen those skills

Peer Pressure

What an important topic as these 2nd graders prepare for 3rd grade! We starting by defining peer pressure and learning about positive and negative peer pressure. Positive peer pressure might be exercise, trying something new, voting, etc. Some examples of negative peer pressure might be bullying, excluding, doing something we shouldn’t, etc. We looked at a STOP poster and learned some techniques/strategies to STOP peer pressure! We had some great conversations!

Tapping Maple Trees

I am sure you have heard the exciting news from your 2nd grader! We will be tapping maple trees and getting sap! We are incredibly fortunate that a prior Meadow Brook parent is carrying on with a tradition they began a few years ago! Dr. Chamberlain created a video to teach us about tapping the trees at MB. Then we got to meet up with him yesterday in the nature preserve at MB. He showed us how to identify a maple tree, drill a hole into it, insert a spile (tap) into the hole, and watch the sap drip out! The kids got to taste the fresh sap! What a great experience! We will be collecting sap for the next two weeks! Our class is in charge of collecting sap on March 18, 19 and the 25th. Once we have finished the collection process, it will be processed and turned into syrup! We can’t wait to try the syrup! Feel free to head out to the MB Nature Preserve and check our buckets! Fingers crossed they will start filling up with sap!

Toys From Home

Please remind your 2nd grader to keep toys, fidget spinners, recess toys, smart watches, etc. at home! It can be really hard to have kids keep track of it throughout the day and they can be a distraction! Thanks for your support!