WM 2nd Grade Curriculum Update
April 2018
Reading and Writing
Reading:
In Reader’s Workshop students will be starting a new unit: Series Book Clubs. During this unit students will begin reading series books with partners and collecting lots of information about the main characters of their books. Next, students will continue to work with partners and in clubs while they work on thinking about the craft the writer uses. They will study ways authors use word choice, figurative language, punctuation, and even patterns to construct their series. Finally, students will begin to innovate and invent ways to share their books with others. They will learn how to have a debate inside their clubs, as another way of share and talk about books. continue their work in reading non-fiction books and meeting with their book clubs.
Writing:
In Writer’s Workshop students will be starting a new unit : Writing About Reading. Students will start the unit off by writing letters about characters they’ve met in their books, formulating opinions and supporting their ideas, providing reasons, and using details and examples from the text to support their claims. Writing workshop will look very similar to reader’s workshop in that students will be learning to read and reread closely to come up with more ideas for opinions, more details and evidence to support their opinions, as well as fun conventions that authors and illustrators use to fancy up and make their writing interesting. Finally, students will move away from persuasive letters into more of an essay format as they write to persuade others that their favorite books are worthy of awards.
Math
Unit 7: Measurement, Fractions & Multi-Digit Computation with Hungry Ants
Estimate, measure, and compare the lengths of objects in centimeters and meters
Split whole shapes into 2, 3, 4, or 8 equal parts called halves, thirds, fourths/quarters or eighths
Solve, pose, and write addition, subtraction, and money story problems involving 2- and 3-digit numbers
Science
Second Graders will rotate between the following Foss units:
Air and Weather
Solids and Liquids
New Plants
Social Studies
Our next unit will be studying marketplace and local production in social studies. The big ideas of this unit are: producers and consumers depend on each other, people make money in different ways to pay for goods and services, raw materials become a product, products come from a producer, wants vs. needs, and families have to budget their money.
LMC - Library
We’ll be using Makerspace materials to work together to solve problems and meet challenges. Through these experiences, we’ll learn about teamwork and communication!
Music
Mrs. Spahn’s classes will be working on: Reviewing rhythms, including an introduction to the half note and the whole note!
Ms. Soltis’ classes will be working on: rhythm review from first grade (quarter note, quarter rest, eighth notes) and learning our new second grade notes like half note (2 beats) and whole note (4 beats). We will be visually and aurally identifying these notes as well as performing and composing with them.
Technology
Students will learn that the information they put online leaves a digital footprint or “trail.” Students will explore what information is appropriate to be put online. They will also judge the nature of different types of digital footprints by following the information trails of two fictional animals.
Art
Why are some artists famous? How can art be powerful? How can art change your mood? (Haring’s Bending Bodies)
PE
Our Jump Rope for Heart Event will be April 5th & 6th during your child’s PE class. We are fundraising and jumping to bring awareness to and support the American Heart Association. We will also be doing Spring Fitness testing, our, Track & Field Unit, and trying to get outside as much as possible.