Second Grade

Mrs. Hardy
Mrs. Nancy Hardy
Class Web Page

385.646.8482

Mrs. Miller
Mrs. L inda Miller
Class Web Page

385.646.8483

Welcome to Second Grade

Our goals are to make your child's year successful and positive, to help him/her develop positive attitudes towards learning and responsibility, and to encourage curiosity and creativity in a caring, respectful school environment.

Core Concepts

Rosecrest Elementary School has adopted the Houghton-Mifflin reading program, which is based on a balanced approach to literacy. Our second grade reading includes instruction in phonetic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, reading & listening, and comprehension strategies. Writing process skills and spelling are also important components of our language arts program.

Second grade math emphasizes content strands in numbers & numeration, operations & computation, data & chance, measurement & reference frames, geometry, patterns, functions, and algebra. These processes are taught using the Everyday Math program.

Science, social studies, and health are taught through Interconnections. In second grade we teach community, economics (here we also have Junior Achievement), plant and animal life cycles, map skills, Africa, weather, cultures, healthy lifestyles, rocks, and the environment.

Resources

Utah State Core Curriculum: a detailed description of the 2nd grade Utah State Core- http://www.uen.org/core/

General educational sites

Dolce 100 Words

Dolce

Reading & Language Arts

Math Resources

Science Resources

Social Studies Resources

Homework Tips

Students should do their home reading every school night. They should do their Home Link in math when we have a new lesson (about 4 days a week). Students should study spelling words every night. Other tips:

Have a homework routine.
Designate a specific area and time for homework and studying.
Eliminate distractions such as phone calls and television during homework time.
Help your student organize study and homework projects.
Provide the necessary tools and materials your student needs to complete the study or homework activity.
Teach your child that studying is more than just doing homework assignments.
Watch for signs of frustration during a homework session.

Testing

Second Grade has weekly spelling tests, except on 3-day school weeks. We have math tests at the end of each unit of study, mid-year, and end of the year. Reading tests are given on the skills we study in each theme. Interconnections may have pre- and post-tests. Other testing includes:

DIBELS
The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are a set of standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy development. Students are assessed in their development of phonological awareness, alphabetic understanding, and automaticity and fluency. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of pre-reading and early reading skills. The DIBELS assessment is administered three times each year beginning September, Mid January, and beginning May. For additional information visit the DIBELS web site.
Mathematics Benchmark Assessment
The mathematical benchmark assessment in a quarterly assessment. The benchmark assessments are designed to measure a students' progress in mastering State Math Core Objectives. Each benchmark assessment consists of multiple choice and performance based questions. As this assessment is not timed, students are given ample time to demonstrate their mastery of identified math core concepts.
YPP
Yearly Progress Pro (YPP) is a research-based, on-line assessment, instructional, and intervention tool that gives teacher and administrators specific frequent feedback on student progress in mathematics, language arts, and reading. YPP assessments also provide instant automatic, on-the-spot intervention and ensure classroom instruction is aligned to state and national standards. Students take the YPP assessment tests each week in the school computer lab.