Second GradeSt. Joseph Regional School teachers welcome and encourage communication with families regarding all aspects of a student's development. Contact information: 585-344-8451 [email protected] Subject Area/Grade and Related Education: A.S. Genesee Community College B.S. Elementary Education with minor in Psychology About the teacher and Why Catholic Education Matters: I am thrilled to be teaching 2nd grade again this year! I have always loved being an educator and after taking some time off last year for maternity leave, I am excited to be back in the classroom fulltime! I have a deep connection and admiration for SJRS as I was a student here myself. I advanced on to graduate from Notre Dame High School in 2004. There is something undeniably special about the connections, family atmosphere, top-notch education and faith-based academics that take place at SJRS. Catholic education provides the ability to lay a foundation in faith, to knit together the connection of Jesus and add on academic growth together. I believe this connects the students and faculty in a way that grows with us in life. Seeing as we are all part of that foundation, we become part of each other through God, growing and learning together on each of our journeys. I am excited and grateful to be part of that foundational growth in 2nd grade this year helping each student academically, social-emotionally and spiritually. I am looking forward to the educational fun that will unfold- mixing in movement, sensory play and creative activities! |
Second Grade NewsSocial-Emotional: For the start of the year our focus is on building connections and relationships, getting to know one another and setting up our classroom expectations. We will define clear and achievable expectations within the classroom. Students will learn our behavior management plan. It is designed to help us learn from our mistakes. It helps us identify the reason for the behavior and build skills to use more acceptable strategies that help us correct and improve the behavior in the future. We will have weekly meetings where we build out SEL skills together and create a welcoming, accepting, loving and faithful classroom family.
Reading: To start off the year we will be reviewing our 1st grade skills. We will continue on with encoding pattern words, building comprehension and fluency skills, learning different types of sentences and increasing our vocabulary. We will incorporate our well-loved Super Kids stories again this year. We also have new, exciting lessons from a reading program called UFLI. This program is research based and has incredible success with teaching students to read. There is movement, comprehensive skill building, exciting new activities and we are looking forward to using it this year. We will incorporate technology through I-ready and educational apps that allow us to differentiate reading with various topics that appeal to each individual student. Writing: We will continue to learn proper penmanship and handwriting. We will also begin learning cursive this year! Math: We will review number bonds and fact families. We will practice making 10, adding on 10, counting the “say ten” way, adding and subtracting multiples of 10. We will move on to learn connecting measurements with physical units. We will then learn how to use rulers and measure various things around us. We will develop skills on estimation and work on increasing out mental math abilities. Science: Students will help “Tina the Traveler” decide where to live in the U.S. The students will receive postcards from Tina to learn about land, water features, mapping skills, and events that effect Earth. They will get to observe natural objects from different parts of the U.S. and then try to help Tina decide where to live. Religion: We will review prayers we know, build an understanding of what we pray and learn new prayers. In our first unit we are focusing on the gifts that God has given us all. Understanding that we are gifts of God and we have the love of Jesus in our hearts. We will learn about the sacraments of the church and how Baptism is our first sacrament in the Catholic Church. We will begin talking about First Reconciliation that the students will experience this spring. Social Studies: We are starting off this year with learning about citizenship. What does it mean to be a good citizen? How can we be a good citizen in our community and in our country? We will learn answers to questions like “what is a democracy?”, “what is a debate?”, and “how do we vote?” The students will have multiple opportunities to vote on various decisions in the classroom. A note from Mrs. Laska, our religion teacher: I am so excited to be teaching Religion this year to our second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. My main goal as a Catechist is to encourage students to live their faith and become active members of the Catholic Church. This year our second grade will be preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Our first unit of study will be about God giving us life and love. We will be learning more about Baptism and the Church. |