2nd Grade Newsletter

Aug. 8th-Meet The Teacher

Aug. 9th-Back to School Bash (Virtual Session)

Aug. 12th-First Day of School

Sept. 2nd-Labor Day, No School

Sept. 5th-Only live classes in the morning

Sept. 6th-No live classes but will have OLS lessons

Sept 5th-Back to School Bison Bingo Bash

OVCA is excited to see how you started your 24/25 School year! Please upload images of your students' first day of school or Back to School Bash by using the link below. We may use these images for the yearbook, website, social media, school newsletters, or to share with perspective students excited about joining OVCA.

Here are some tips to help you get your school year off to a successful start!

• Students with better attendance achieve more success during the school year.
• Make a schedule and get in a routine for your school day. (Here is a template if you'd like one.)
• Here are some useful tools you might want on hand that can be purchased at Dollar Tree or anywhere: dry erase board, dry erase markers, dice, clear sheet protectors (can also work as dry erase to do work pages on), analog clock, ruler, pencils, paper, folders to organize subjects.
• Check your email everyday! Best practice is to check it at least first thing in the morning and at the end of the day before you log off for the evening.
• Create a quiet learning space that has all your materials easily accessed.
• Schedule Brain Breaks throughout the day. (Here are some great ones!)
• Expect your student to school for 6-7 hours (give or take) with breaks and lunches.
• Remember start out can be difficult but making mistakes is okay. Do not be scared to reach out for help!

These items are often used in our daily live classes.

Paper

Pencils

Pencil Sharpener

Whiteboard/Expo Markers

1 Pack Crayons and/or Markers

Container to hold school supplies.

By the end of the school year, your child will need to correctly read 100-148 words per minute and have built up their reading stamina. They should be able to read and focus on a book without interruption for at least 30 minutes.

Your child should also be fluent with sight words. We use the Literacy First sight words. Your child should have Sight Word List A (100 words) mastered by the middle of 1st Grade and Sight Word List B (100 words) by the end of the 1st Grade. If they have not mastered these words already, start there! Sight Word List C (300 words) will need to be mastered by the end of 2nd Grade. Click here to access all the sight word lists.

In 2nd Grade we really work on our fluency and comprehension.

Reading at least 20 minutes per day is a great way to increase reading fluency. Your child can work on building up their stamina by starting with just 5 minutes. You can also change up your reading space to make it fun and new! Some ideas are: reading outside, build a fort-then read in it, reading during a picnic, or read a book in bed. This website has more creative reading challenge ideas: https://www.ateachableteacher.com/free-reading-challenge/

As they read, help them practice comprehension skills like identifying the main parts of the story including details about characters, setting, beginning/middle/end, etc. They can also read a book and describe the main idea and details about the people, places, and thing in it.

By the end of 2nd Grade your child should be able to write 5-7 simple sentences on one topic. They should be able to write 1 to 2 paragraphs in the same way. An example of this would be writing a story with details about characters in a beginning/middle/end format. We will be working towards being able to write in all 3 Modes: Narrative, Opinion, and Informational.

We will start with number sense and build upon that throughout the year. Fact fluency (up to 20) is a major part of 2nd Grade. We will also work on telling time, money, fractions, and arrays, just to name a few!

Complete one lesson a week until the course is complete!

In Science you will complete 1 lesson a week and in History you will complete 2 lessons a week in the OLS.