Room 101- Mary Ann Miley

Room 101

Second Grade

Welocme to Room 101!

If you were to stop by you would see a very busy class of second grade students. We begin our day with a morning review exercises of Literacy Skills or Math followed by a community greeting and review of the day's schedule and messages.

In Literacy, our current unit is personnal narratives. Reading Workshop's focus is to develop a deeper understanding and comprehension of the of stories we read. Visualization, use of background knowledge, inferencee and questioning are a few strategies to develop this higher level thinking.  Small moments and family stories are a few "seed" ideas that develop into drafts and eventually published writing.  We supplement the DPS Literacy Guide with the "6+1Traits". Attention is given to 1. Ideas, 2. Organization, 3. Planning, 4. Word Choice, 5.Voice, 6 Conventions and finally the+1 is Presentation.

Mid year we will begin the non-fiction genre in both reading and writing.  Students will contrast and compare books with facts verses the fictional books.  They learn to notice differences by such attributes as Table of Contents, Diagrams, Subheadings, etc... In writing each child will work on completing various "All About" books. They will research and publish books based on their own interests and expertise.  

The Everyday Math program has been a fun way to explore many new concepts and strategies.  Emphasis is placed on knowing math by using various games and activities as well as journal pages. Each week, Everyday Math Home Links are sent home for review and reinforcement of the most recent lessons.

Social Studies begins with the Culture and Civics Units. To begin the year, DPS Standard 4- understanding how citizens exercise the roles, rights and responsibilities of participation in civic life is a nice way to launch our rituals and routines.  .  Second trimester we will focus on Economics, DPS Standard 1 – understanding that because of the condition of scarcity, decisions must be made about the use of scarce resources.  Finally in the third trimester we will study Geography, DPS Standard 1 – know how to use and construct maps, globes and other geographic tools to locate and derive information about people, places and environments.  Standard 6 will also be addressed – Apply knowledge of people places and environments to understand the past and present and to plan for the future.

Second grade Science focus is Earth Materials, Sound Waves and Plant Life.   New books and materials make it easy to study and get actively involvedin hands on experiments. 

We have pledged to do our best and make all our hopes and wishes come true.