2nd Grade: Specials Spotlight
Second Quarter 2016-2017
Exploratory Team
PE
Wow, how is the school year already halfway over?! I can’t believe it! Second quarter in P.E. was packed full of great stuff. The first graders continued practicing their throwing and catching skills, as well as cooperative skills, kicking and ball control skills, and used scooters to maneuver around. Some of the first graders favorite activities were Perfect Pass, Mat Ball, Cone Flip Tag, dribbling/trapping/kicking, and so much more! The students are always impressing me with their knowledge and determination! Second quarter was also filled with a few holidays which called for some super fun themed activities such as Pumpkin Patch (a Riverview favorite), trick or treat, Thanksgiving relay, Elf Express, and Feed the Reindeer. The words for this quarter were nutrition, courtesy, goals, humility, helpfulness, and grateful. I am looking forward to the rest of the school year! Here’s to 2017!
Counselor
We have been so busy and second quarter has flown by. In guidance lessons we have become masters at starting class with a zones of regulation check in. The students start by saying “I feel _______________, I’m in the ____________ zone. This allows the students to identify how they are feeling and if they are focused and ready to learn. This process allows students who are not feeling ready to learn the opportunity to use strategies to help them regain their focus and regulate their emotions. We also spent several weeks learning to have growth mindset. A growth mindset is understanding our brain and how it works. Having a growth mindset helps us to realize we can learn anything with effort, hard work, time and a positive attitude. We also just started our Too Good for Drugs curriculum.
We will continue working with this program through third quarter. Each grade level has its own standards. Second graders enjoy learning skills for safe and healthy living in this interactive prevention curriculum. With the help of their good friend Wagner, children learn how to handle frustration, manage their emotions, and identify consequences, in order to make good decisions and avoid problem behavior. Second graders are also introduced to prescription and over the counter drugs and safe and appropriate ways to use them.
Technology
We were able to add in a little coding time if we finished. The Hour of Code activities taught us how to create a sequential program, how to use a loop, and a little debugging. The kids really loved competing against one another to see who could solve the most problems.
Music
During the second quarter, 2nd Graders have accomplished quite a bit! We practiced rhythm reading with quarter notes ("beats"), eighth notes ("beat-and"), and rests, and learned about a new note – the half note, which lasts for 2 beats. “Ostinato” (a repeated rhythm pattern) is another a new idea for 2nd graders. Students had several opportunities to perform ostinato accompaniments! Our performance for this year will be on February 9th! Auditions for Narrators and character parts will happen in January. Please see my website (riverviewmusic.weebly.com) for the scripts for our program. Also, look for more details about the program coming home in Monday folders soon. To finish off this quarter, we had lots of fun singing Winter Holiday songs to prepare for the school-wide sing-a-long! I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Break! I’m looking forward to some fabulous music making in 2017!
Art
Library
In our library classes this quarter students were very excited to get to start “self-checkout.” Students created their own library cards which they use when checking out materials. They have been very responsible about checking to be sure they returned their books before checking out new ones. They can place books they wish to have held for them until the following day in a designated spot. We identified characteristics of fiction and nonfiction. Students looked and listened for evidence to determine whether a book was fiction or nonfiction. Students learned about the various awards that are earned by illustrators and authors of children’s books including the Caldecott Medal, Newbery Award, Coretta Scott King Award, William Allen White Children’s Book Award, and Bill Martin, Jr. Picture Book Award. We reviewed using call numbers and what they mean. Students practiced locating books in the Everyone section of the library using a book’s call number. We reviewed alphabetical order and enjoyed a variety of ABC books.