Welcome to St. John's Second Grade.

There are three personal areas of educational values that we would like the students to be working on this year:
RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY and SELF-CONTROL.

RESPECT means valuing ourselves, our property, other people and their property; and recognizing those in authority.

RESPONSIBILITY means taking care of their own things at school such as their lunch tickets, coats, book bags, etc. It also means coming to school prepared with homework completed on time and with the proper materials such as pencils, folders and books. Any help you can give in this regard at home will be very much appreciated. Students should be responsible for getting their own book bag ready. Too many times we hear from students that their parents forgot to do it.

SELF-CONTROL means simply that the student should conduct him/herself in a manner conducive to an academic atmosphere. Constant talking is disturbing not only to teachers but also to other students. Self-Control is also necessary during recess times. As the rules state, there shall be no kicking, fighting, etc.

A general rule would be to keep their hands to themselves and off other people and other people's things.

Most students are already showing progress in these areas. We are confident that the students will continue to improve throughout the year and it will be a great year.

Math
At the beginning of the year, we will work for mastery of the basic facts in addition and subtraction through sums of 18. for future success in math, these facts need to be committed to memory for instant recall. Flash card drills and timed tests will be used to ascertain the students' progress in class. Practicing with the flashcards at home for 10-15 minutes three nights a week is essential in helping your child with this mastery task.

Once these facts are mastered, the students will have the confidence to proceed in addition and subtraction of larger numbers including re-grouping. Also, the students will work with telling time, money, measuring, and graphing. In all these areas, the use of story problems will be stressed to allow the students to apply their math skills to daily life experiences. Multiplication will be introduced in the last quarter of the school year.

Reading

In 2nd grade it is a time of still "learning to read" and later the beginnings of reading to learn. . In our class, we will be stressing phonics, sight-word recognition and comprehension. We will be using a phonics technique called Ortin Gillingham. This includes involvement in sand trays, arm tapping, and many other great experiences that will enhance our Reading series. This technique will help students become better readers and spellers.

Our reading series has wonderful stories to enjoy. The children will be bringing many enjoyable stories to read to you. The goal is to advance the students along a continuum of skills that will eventually allow them to become fluent readers who, in fact, enjoy reading.Read each night 10-15 min. The students are also responsible for learning 6 new vocabulary words a week.

We also have an Author of the Month. The children will learn that authors are real people. Hopefully, they will learn to recognize authors at the library and sometimes use the author's name in selecting books to read.

Science
In Science, we will have various units of study that are covered in the Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Science Books. We begin the school year with the study of Nutrition and Hygiene.. Other units of study include Earth, Life and Physical science.

Language Arts
Language arts are the complement of the reading program. It is the written and oral expression of our language.

The study of language arts includes learning and using correct grammar, especially capitalization, punctuation, and sentence structure. The skills learned will then be used in the students' own compositions of stories, letters, and reports. Some of the compositions will then be presented orally to the class.

Handwriting is also a component of language arts. The student will again practice manuscripts this year. The emphasis will be on correct letter formation and legibility because what they write will be valuable only if someone else can read it. Cursive will be taught in third grade. Please do not allow your child to use cursive until he/she has been taught the proper form. Bad habits are very difficult to change.

Spelling is another area of language arts. Most spelling words can be sounded out phonetically. Those that do not follow the rules are called "Red Words." These words can't be sounded out; they are learned by arm tapping.

Each Monday we introduce a new spelling list. Wednesday is the practice test. We check the pretest during the day and return it to the children. The students then write the words that they have missed twice. Please help your child understand this is not a punishment. Writing the words helps them to better remember the correct spelling. Wednesday and Thursday, they can use the practice test to drill for the final test, which is on Friday.

There will also be challenge words on the list. These are only for those students who have learned the regular words and are extra credit. If missed, the challenge words are checked but not counted as wrong. Extra credit is given for each correct word.

Social Studies
Our Social Studies books are exciting and are informative.The children will learn about their community in many areas including geography, history, economics, and government. The main purpose is to learn to be a good citizen in our home, school, neighborhood, and in our United States of America. We also expand an unit on early American communities by attending Pioneer Day at the Waterloo Farm Museum.

Religion
In the fall, the children study various aspects of our Catholic faith, including the Trinity, the role of the Catholic Church in general and their own parish in particular. They also study prayer and the Bible as aspects of the Church's worship and ongoing relationship with God. They will be required to learn to recite individually the Our Father and the Hail Mary.

Religion will include the study of the Sacrament of Reconciliation in which the child becomes more aware of God's love and guidance in his/her life and learns to recite the Act of Contrition. The child becomes sensitive to sin, the need for forgiveness. In this parish, the reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is in the fourth grade.

Our class will study 1 saint in great length.

We will also begin preparation for First Communion, which will include the study of the parts of the Mass. First Communion will be received in the spring. The children will also learn to say the rosary.

Computers
Each of our classrooms have four computers. One is dedicated to the "Success Maker" program offered to us by Jackson Public Schools. The computers are used on a regular basis during our reading center times. We also have use of "Alpha Smarts," which is a laptop style computer that is available for the children to use for writing assignments. Students also attend computer class once a week for 30 min.

Homework
Let us quickly summarize for you the important points of the nightly homework your child will be expected to do:

10-15 minutes of math flashcards
15 minutes of reading
any other written homework assigned
We will utilize the planners daily.