MAGNIFICENT MARCH

We are marching right along here in second grade! Winter break gave us the perfect amount of rest and we are back in the swing of learning all we can. Math and reading groups are a daily time period where students have the opportunity to work independently on skills previously taught and also work in small groups with the two teachers in the room. Recently, we have covered topics in plant and animal life cycles, parts of speech including singular and possessive nouns and pronouns and contractions. We have also been working hard and perfecting adding and subtracting to 1,000 and even learned about the War of 1812! Ask your child to recount the history of Francis Scott Key and the Star Spangled Banner.

Second grade had the opportunity to tour the third grade biography projects. We learned about Rachel Carson, the marine biologist, and her effort to ban DDT and other pesticides, and Alexander Graham Bell’s first phone call consisted of the words “ Mister Watson…come here…I want to see you.” We also learned about Queen Victoria, Cleopatra, Fred Rogers and many more. Way to go third grade!

Students brought one insect to school for a collaborative, class bug collection. Our approach to beginner entomology included researching the insects’ common and scientific names, habitats, diets and if they were predator, prey, or both. We learned the mosquito hawk is actually the Crane Fly and does not commonly eat as an adult! This insect spends its adult life reproducing. The Short Winged Grasshopper can be both green and brown to blend into its habitat. We also learned that insects have three body parts: head, thorax, and abdomen and also a pair of antennae.