Dear Parents,
Welcome to the second grade! We are glad to be a part of Athens Academy and to be teaching your child. Thank you for coming.
During the early days in school we devote much time to establishing routines. As routines become familiar, children should be given more responsibility. In this way they are learning to be more independent. In the beginning your child will need help with some of these routines. However, as time passes your child should become more capable of carrying these out on his/her own. The following is general information about procedures in second grade.
A detailed copy of our weekly schedule is attached. Please refer to it when making appointments and other plans.
Arrival: School begins at 8:10. Students will be marked tardy if they arrive in the classroom after 8:15. If your child arrives late or needs to leave school before the end of the day an adult must sign your child in and out at the Lower School office. Please notify the teacher if your child must leave school early.
Transportation: Please send a note of any change in the transportation schedule or notify Mrs. Gilmore during the day of late changes. Do NOT use e-mail for changes in transportation or any other time sensitive information. We will check our e-mail each day but we cannot guarantee that it will be before the end of the school day.
Lunch Orders: Your child should bring his/her order to the Great Hall before coming to class.
Snack: Please send a nutritious snack every day-fruit, crackers, etc. Snack time for all classes is 9:50 each day.
Birthdays: Cookies, doughnuts and cupcakes or other finger foods make good treats. Send treats for your child’s class only. Please do NOT send drinks, ice cream or favors. Children with summer birthdays could celebrate their half birthday. Check with us at least a day in advance before you send in a treat. Party invitations can only be given out at school if everyone in your child’s class is invited.
Absences: We will place the day’s assignments in the office. You may pick them up at 3:25. If you will be taking a trip, please notify us beforehand. Make-up work is given after your return but your child is encouraged to keep a travel log.
Clothing: Please follow the standardized dress code. Label jackets, sweatshirts, sweaters, etc. with your child’s name.
Folders: A folder of work will be sent home every Monday. Please sign and return on Tuesday.
Homework: Homework is given each night, Monday through Thursday. It will include about 20 minutes of written work. Your child is expected to read for an additional 15 minutes and keep track of this using the Home Reading Record. Special projects will be assigned periodically.
Parent-Teacher Conferences: Two conferences are scheduled during the school year, one each in the fall and the spring. Additional conferences may be arranged as needed.
Field Trips: These are set up at different times during the school year. Parents will be chosen at the time a field trip is arranged.
Play: Our play will be performed in March. Please check the school calendar for the specific dates.
Book Orders: These are sent home about once a month and are voluntary. This is a great way to build your child’s library and help secure educational items for the classroom. Please make checks payable to Scholastic Book Club.
Classroom Management: We will continue to use “Conduct Counts” throughout the Preschool and Lower School. We will count STOP behaviors (1, 2). After reaching 2, discipline in the form of an immediate five minute time-out will be used and recorded in the Conduct Counter Book. After the first time-out, additional steps will be taken such as a teacher-child conference or a note/phone call to you.
All second grade classes cover the same curriculum and accomplish the same objectives by the conclusion of the school year. However, please be aware that teaching styles, specific assignments and pacing may differ.
We are looking forward to working with you and your child. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.
Sharon Reinking, Becky Padgett and Betsy Billmayer, teachers
Carole Johnson and Kim Smith, assistant teachers
Dear Parents,
We are continuing to get postcards from all around the world. Our "Traveling Journals" must be well traveled by now.
Handwriting: We are excited about learning cursive writing. We are still working on lower case letters. The students are also learning how to write their first names. We use the Zaner-Bloser alphabet for cursive form.
Math: We are using the program, “Progress in Mathematics” to help us teach our math curriculum. Activities, manipulatives, and games are being used as we learn about different kinds of graphs and adding with regrouping.
Language Arts: Our Open Court series provides an integrated approach to the teaching of reading, writing, literature, phonics, language and spelling. We have finished our second unit, “Rich or Poor". We loved all of the Fairy Tale Projects. Thanks for all of the hard work that you and you child put into those.
Social Studies: To enhance our curriculum, we are now using a program, “I Live in Georgia”, which was developed by a local company, Georgia Voyagers. We have been reading about "Georgia's First People". We have learned about the Creeks, the Cherokee, and Sequoyah.
Science: We are now learning about the layers of the Earth and different types of rocks.
We have done many hands on lessons in Science Lab to support what we are also learning in the classroom.
Mrs. Reinking Mrs. Padgett Mrs. Billmayer
March 24, 2010
Second Grade Newsletter
Handwriting: We have been enthusiastically learning to write in cursive form. The students are progressing very well. Upper case letters are our current emphasis. Selected assignments are now being written in cursive form.
Math: Our math curriculum has covered many different topics with an emphasis on MULTIPLICATION. The students should continue to memorize and review the multiplication facts daily. We are also studying DIVISION and MEASUREMENT. Our next units of study will be GEOMETRY and FRACTIONS. The students have benefited in their understanding of math concepts by using their toolboxes and other manipulatives as well as activity-based lessons to learn and practice skills.
Language Arts: We are enjoying our literature unit on RESPONSIBILITY and will soon begin the topic of APPEARANCES in our second reading book. OUR COUNTRY is the remaining theme we will study. As always, the teaching of phonics, language, spelling and writing skills is incorporated into each unit. We hope the children are enjoying the book, More Stories Huey Tells which was recently sent home. Special assignments accompany the reading of this book.
Social Studies: During the past nine weeks the students have learned about the symbols which represent our fine state of Georgia. We are now learning about our Georgia heritage through a study of famous historical figures. Soon we will be sending home information about our “Hats Off to Famous Georgians” project which will be a culmination of our study about our state. Please remind relatives and friends that the traveling journals should be returned to school in April. The huge hallway display of postcards representing a wide variety of locations around the world has us excited. We are looking forward to learning about the journeys of our journals which began in August.
Science: The students did an outstanding job on their dinosaur research reports. We are very proud of their efforts. We have studied about NUTRITION, highlighting the food pyramid, labels on food packaging and the role of fats in our diet. We are now in the midst of an inquiry-based unit called CHANGES which deals with states of matter (solids, liquids and gases) and mixtures. This unit is taught once a week in the Science Center and emphasizes the process skills of observing, experimenting, and recording. During our other science period, we are studying the GRASSLAND habitat. We will conclude the year with units about DESERTS and WATER SAFETY.
Mrs. Reinking Mrs. Padgett Mrs. Billmayer
January 12, 2010
Second Grade Newsletter
Dear Parents,
The winter months can be an especially productive time for academic growth. We are working hard and looking forward to many learning experiences during this time. The beginning of a new year is a good time to replace lost supplies. Please check with your child to see if anything is needed.
Handwriting: We are excited about learning cursive writing. We are working on lower case letters first. We use the Zaner-Bloser alphabet for cursive form. We will soon be ready to do some of our assignments in cursive form.
Math: Our math curriculum has covered a unit on graphing in which the students were familiarized with different ways to represent data and interpret it. We have also worked with the concept of place value and used it to add and subtract two digit numbers with and without regrouping. Currently we are studying money skills and will soon be covering concepts associated with telling time. The students are anxiously awaiting our study of multiplication which will begin soon.
Language Arts: The students enjoyed sharing their Fairy Tale projects. We also used the technique of Reader’s Theatre to do in-class performances of fairy tales and a Native American folktale. We have finished our third reading unit, “Fossils”, which coordinated nicely with our science unit. We continue to emphasize phonics, spelling and language skills in our writing. The theme of our current reading unit is “Kindness”.
Social Studies: We have been learning about early Georgia settlers and Native Americans of the southeast, especially in Georgia. We will be focusing on government and then begin a study of our state’s symbols.
Science: Rocks, fossils and dinosaurs have been our major focus. These topics have coordinated well with our reading unit about Fossils. The students will spend time in class researching a particular dinosaur and will then be writing their research reports at home which will be due on Tuesday, February 16. Germs and Communicable Diseases were our recent topics of study. We did experiments to illustrate the importance of cleanliness including a very successful one in which we grew spectacular germs.
Mrs. Reinking Mrs. Padgett Mrs. Billmayer
Second Grade Newsletter
Dear Parents,
During the first nine weeks we have been busy. We began the year by sending our “Traveling Journals” on their journeys. We have already received postcards from across the country and around the world. Come see our interesting map in the hallway. Here is a summary of our learning activities.
Handwriting: We are excited about learning cursive writing. We will be working on lower case letters first. We use the Zaner-Bloser alphabet for cursive form.
Math: We are using the program, “Progress in Mathematics” to help us teach our math curriculum. Activities, manipulatives, and games are being used in conjunction with workbooks to introduce new concepts and reinforce previously taught skills. After a review of the addition and subtractions facts, we have been working with number order and place value.
Language Arts: Our Open Court series provides an integrated approach to the teaching of reading, writing, literature, phonics, language and spelling. We have finished our first unit, “Being Brave”, which included five literature selections. We have done several writing projects in which we emphasized the use of dialogue, sentence types and paragraph formation. We are reviewing phonetic sounds and stressing spelling skills. Our second unit is titled “Rich and Poor”, which explores the genre of fairy tales. Setting, character development and plot will be discussed. The students’ fairy tale projects are due November 2nd.
Social Studies: We have completed our study of map skills, emphasizing vocabulary and the use of the basic four directions, compass rose and map key. We are now learning about our home state of Georgia-its location, regions and rivers. Our next unit will be about symbols of Georgia. To enhance our curriculum, we are now using a program, “I Live in Georgia”, which was developed by a local company, Georgia Voyagers.
Science: We began the year by familiarizing ourselves with the scientific method and famous scientists. We conducted several experiments with bagels. Our fist unit of study was Bones and Muscles. We enjoyed examining bone specimens and x-rays and constructed human skeletons out of paper. We have also learned about Reptiles and Amphibians and will be in the process of “growing” our own alligators and monitoring their growth. Rocks and Fossils will be our next topic.
Mrs. Reinking Mrs. Padgett Mrs. Billmayer
LANGUAGE ARTS
Our children are now reading and writing in a fantasy world!
We have read several stories from our basal reader, acted out Reader's
Theater scripts and are beginning to develop stories of their own.
SPECIAL READING PROJECT
Look for information coming soon. Due Monday, November 2
CURSIVE
As we continue to perfect our manuscript skills, we will begin to
introduce cursive letters. Look for further information on this soon.
MATH
We are currently fine tuning our basic addition and subtraction facts.
Place value is being introduced with manipulatives.
SCIENCE
Through the Science Center and classroom instruction, we are beginning to
explore the world of reptiles and amphibians.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Georgia is on our minds! We are learning about Georgia regions,
rivers, and state symbols