Second Grade

​St. Joseph Regional School teachers welcome and encourage communication with families regarding all aspects of a student's development.




Contact information:
585-344-8451
msacheli@sjsbatavia.org

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 this year! I have always loved being an educator. 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!

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Second Grade News

Social-Emotional: We have gotten to know each other over the past few months and have truly created a classroom family.  We continue to grow together and learn from our mistakes.  We encourage open communication and appropriate expression of emotions.  We continue to identify reasons for behaviors and work together to find healthy avenues for emotion. We emphasize kindness and inclusion. We incorporate social-emotional literature in our weekly curriculum to help build skills to last a lifetime.
 
Reading: We will continue building our phonemic awareness and phonics skills by reviewing and practicing encoding and decoding 2nd grade words. We will improve our reading skills by reading with expression, natural phrasing, and reading at appropriate rates. We are growing our knowledge in grammar by learning past tense and pluralization. We are also learning opinion writing and will move into informational writing soon!
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 are also improving our ability to start each sentence with a capital and end with punctuation. We will also begin learning cursive.
 
Math: in 2nd grade we are hardworking mathematicians! We are learning how to add and subtract using the arrow way, count to 1,000, working on one and two step word problems, expanding our knowledge in mental math and beginning vertical addition. We will continue to use manipulatives and drawings to help us solve the problem. We are also going to be subtracting with 3-digit minuends, breaking apart to subtract, regrouping and adding with up to 4 addends!  
 
Science: Students are beginning the “Made of Matter” science kit! This unit will cover concepts about matter, its properties and how it is used.  We will be introduced to “Ada” and her friends who have instruments made from trash. We will build on the idea that trash is made of matter and matter has different properties, which allow it to be used for different purposes. Learning goals include understanding that matter takes up space, has mass, can be solid or liquid and we can classify matter by observable properties. We will have a lot of fun and will complete the unit with an engineering project, where students will make their own instruments from pieces of matter!
 
Religion: We will continue to review prayers we know, build an understanding of why we pray and learn new prayers. In our upcoming units we focus on how Jesus gives us the gift of peace. We will discuss the importance of honesty and being trustworthy.  We will expand our knowledge on forgiveness. We will then learn about meeting Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which students will experience in the spring!
 
Social Studies: Our next social studies unit focuses on economics! We will be learning about the difference of wants versus needs and creating a budget.  We will also work on the difference between saving, spending and sharing.  We will cover money, banking and taxes! Once we wrap up this unit, we will move into learning about three types of communities: rural, urban and suburban! We will expand our knowledge on what is a community, and what makes up a community. We will do many lessons and activities on the differences and similarities of rural, urban and suburban communities. We will end the unit with making a community flipbook!