Bethany Elementary School, Plano, Texas

Homework will be connected to the topics or skills we are studying. During homework, we encourage parent guidance and assistance, letting the child do the actual work. We will be encouraging critical thinking skills and strategies with the homework your child receives.

Spelling lists will be sent home on Monday of each week along with a reading log. Any other important information will be communicated through your child's planner and on myPISD. This is the teachers' opportunity to inform parents of any upcoming events, conferences, volunteer needs, etc.

In order to help your child succeed and gain the skills needed for third grade, the second grade team would like to clarify a few things regarding homework expectations.

We feel it is very important in the growth of each student to become responsible for not only completing assignments, but also returning them on the day that they are due. We would like for this sense of responsibility to be developed by the end of the year; it will help your child tremendously with the expectations next year. Our goal is to help your child be ready. If a child does not return their homework on the day that it is due, we feel that there should be a consequence. If the assignment is not returned, the student will spend time at recess/study hall to complete or redo the homework assignment.

Please contact your child's teacher if you have any questions regarding these homework expectations.

In addition to other required homework, we expect nightly reading to occur. We would like to have our students read 20 minutes each night and record this on their Reading Logs.

To add variety to the 20 minutes of reading time, the following are suggestions:

Fine Arts Field Trip - The Frog Prince
Outdoor Learning Center - May 27, 2010

Curriculum Overview

The second grade Integrated Curriculum Overarching Concepts/Organizing Ideas are organized around the theme, Second Grade Keeps an Eye on the World. There are six Integrated Curriculum units studied each six weeks. These are:

1. Systems: How Do We Connect in Our World?
2. Balance and Stability: Where is Harmony in Our World?
3. Diversity: How Are We Alike and Different in Our World?
4. Continuity and Change: What Impacts Our World?
5. Interactions: How Are Communities Interdependent in Our World?
6. Communication: What Does Evidence Tell Us About Our World?

In addition, second grade teaching focuses on the skills outlined below in reading, language arts and composition, and math.

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Six Week Curriculum

First Six Weeks
Overarching Concept: Systems
Organizing Idea: How Do We Connect in Our World?

Summary: This organizing idea focuses on systems and their maintenance. Students discover how systems work. Tools and strategies that will be used throughout the year will be introduced and taught during this unit. Students discover that they are a part of the classroom system. They explore how keeping themselves healthy is an important part of keeping the classroom system going.

Second Six Weeks
Overarching Concept: Balance and Stability
Organizing Idea: Where is Harmony in Our World?

Summary: In the unit students will learn about harmony and the importance of living in harmony in the world. They explore and research the Earth's habitat regions. They learn how animals and plants adapt to their habitats and live in harmony. Students are introduced to the concept of endangerment and extinction by studying causes of extinction and how to prevent it. As a culminating activity for this unit, students look for examples of harmony in the world with magazines, newspapers, and news reports.

Third Six Weeks
Overarching Concept: Diversity
Organizing Idea: How Are We Alike and Different in Our World?

Summary: Students explore the meaning of the word diversity in the third six weeks unit. They study diversity as a condition of being varied or different, yet part of a whole. Students discover how each one is different from another person, yet they are bound to each other by common things. Students explore how cultures are the same and different around the world. Students are introduced to the computer database, "Many Places, Friendly Faces", which is used throughout the Organizing Idea.

Fourth Six Weeks
Overarching Concept: Continuity and Change
Organizing Idea: What Impacts Our World?

Summary: This Organizing Idea discusses how things that create an impact cause some kind of change. Students explore music, art, and literature, and the impact that each has on life and culture. Students examine people who have made an impact in their life and write a letter to one of those people. Students examine the impact of water pollution and what each can do to help solve the problems of the world.

Fifth Six Weeks
Overarching Concept: Interactions
Organizing Idea: How are Communities Interdependent in Our World?

Summary: This Organizing Idea focuses on the interdependence of rural and urban communities and how that contributes to the relationships of producer/consumer, and goods/services. Recycling is studied as a way communities work together to protect the environment. Students learn about transportation as the movement of goods and services and a way of connecting communities.

Sixth Six Weeks
Overarching Concept: Communication
Organizing Idea: What Does Evidence Tell Us About Our World?

Summary: This Organizing Idea deals with using evidence as a means of communicating. Students learn from their study that evidence is a form of communicating about the past. They explore evidence such as: fossils, dinosaurs, clues in mysteries, and everyday objects as to the information they communicate. Students use "Message in a Fossil" simulation on the computer and apply problem solving techniques to solve a mystery.

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Reading

Students are assessed on a regular basis to determine the appropriate instructional and independent reading level. Some concepts studied include: sequencing, reality/fantasy, classifying information, making predictions, main idea/details, oral summaries, written directions, parts of a book, drawing conclusions, alphabetizing, cause/effect, setting and characterization.

Students will have experiences in using the following: prewriting, drafting, writing personal experience stories, writing friendly letters, describing pictures, recording observations, writing informal responses to literature, describing characters, describing settings, predicting story endings or the next chapter, writing new story endings or additions to stories, writing poetry, creating characters, creating settings, joining related sentences in a paragraph, writing single paragraph papers, writing topic sentences, using action words, adding descriptive adjectives, use inventive and standard spelling where appropriate, apostrophes in contractions, writing noun forms both singular and plural, and writing regular verbs, proofreading, and some revision.

Our mathematics program is designed to support students as they make sense of mathematics and learn that they can become mathematical thinkers. Students will be asked to explain their thinking when solving problems and communicate their mathematical thinking verbally and in written format. Technology will be incorporated at all levels where appropriate. Instruction will take place in small and large groups and differentiation will be provided to reach all levels of learners. The students will have experiences that relate to mathematics in the real world using a variety of concrete materials and mathematical tools. Our units of study are based on state and national standards.