The fourth
quarter of second grade is filled with some of my favorite units and ideas, so
I am very excited to start! There are
some big ideas that we develop in second grade, and this quarter we will look
at how these ideas of citizenship, honesty, integrity, and democracy play a
part in our countries history. Here is a
look at our upcoming week in second grade.
Literature:
Before starting our final novel, we are going to take a couple of weeks to
study another type of short story: tall tales.
This week, we will be reading a few different tall tales to help students
understand the characteristics of a tall tale as well as compare and contrast
them with other types of writing. We will
read about Paul Bunyan, John Henry, and Johnny Appleseed, discussing the
elements of the stories (characters, setting, plot, and exaggerations found in
each tale).
Grammar/Riggs:
This week we are going to learn about another part of speech: prepositions. Students will be learning a song to help
remember the prepositions and they will take home a yellow sheet with a list of
prepositions that can stay at home or in their yellow folder. This sheet can be used to help with the daily
preposition practice. We will learn new
Riggs words this week.
History: On
Monday, we will begin our unit on the Civil War. To help students understand why this war occurred,
we will begin the unit by examining the characteristics/differences between the
northern and southern parts of the United States before the war began. One of the differences we will learn about is
slavery. I have found in previous years
that this is the first time many students have been exposed to the concept of
slavery so our discussion is full of questions and disbelief. I hope you are able to continue the
discussion at home. We will learn about
abolitionists like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe, who influenced
people’s opinions using words. Students
will also learn about Harriet Tubman and her brave work to help slaves escape
on the Underground Railroad. Finally, we will discuss how a civil war is
different than the other wars we have studied this year. This era is filled with great-hearted people
who made a difference. To organize all
the information, we will create a lapbook.
THANK YOU to the wonderful parents who made them before the break!
Science: Our
new unit in science is about simple machines.
To begin the unit, we will think about the purpose of machines and why
they are used. We will discuss the terms
push, pull, force, work, and machine so as we delve into the types of simple
machines we can refer back to these terms.
We will then examine different items that use simple machines before
focusing on the inclined plane.
Hopefully next weekend students will be able to find inclined planes
everywhere!!
Important Notes:
-Congratulations
to 11 students who earned more than 100% of the reading log points in quarter 3. Way to Read!!
The beginning of a new quarter is a great time to make sure your child
is earning reading log points. If there
are 5 school days in a week, I would like a minimum of 5 reading log
stamps. Your child can earn extra
reading log stamps by reading on the weekend.
-There is no Riggs tutoring this week or next week. Tutoring resumes on April 1.
-Your
child will need to bring his/her copy of our next novel, Charlotte’s Web
by March 31. Your child’s Little
House in the Big Woods lapbook will go home this week too!
-Don’t
forget that our spring concert is earlier than usual this year! The concert will be held on Tuesday, March 25.
I hope you
had a wonderful spring break!
Warmly,
Ms. Norris
