Welcome to 2nd Grade with Mrs. Macdonald!
I am a Florida native and received my BA in Psychology with a minor in Spanish from the University of South Florida. After graduation, I pursued my Masters of Education through the University of Notre Dame’s ACE Service through Teaching Program and have been an educator for the last fourteen years. Additionally, I earned my English as a New Language endorsement through the University of Notre Dame in 2012. I taught at a Catholic school in Kansas City, Kansas, and I then moved to Chicago in 2010 where I spent eight years teaching second grade at a Catholic school in Pilsen. I am excited to be back for my fifth year of teaching in this beautiful school community.
In my free time, I enjoy running, reading, singing, traveling, and spending quality time with my family and friends. I could not imagine teaching anywhere else but a Catholic school, where I can share my faith with my students and watch them grow in their own relationships with God. I am especially looking forward to preparing my students for the sacraments of First Reconciliation and First Communion.
Week at a Glance
Week of December 18-22, 2023
Math: We will continue exploring concepts about Geometry. Students will compose and decompose shapes, identify congruent shapes, and draw lines of symmetry. We will also spend some time reviewing one-digit subtraction, along with one- and two-digit addition. (After Christmas break, we will start the chapter focused on subtracting two digit numbers.)
Phonics (Fundations): As we continue into week 3 of Unit 7, we will review open syllables in multisyllabic words. Students will practice adding suffixes -y, -ty, and -ly to base words. The trick words of the week are: night, carry, and something.
Reading and Writing: We will spend some time reading different Christmas stories (some classics and some newer ones). We will also participate in a couple of winter writing activities. Please note extra time will be spent on Religion and Social Studies this week.
Science: None - see Social Studies
Social Studies: We will take some time this week to learn about how people in different countries celebrate Christmas as we collaborate with 1st and 2nd grades to participate in “Christmas Around the World” activities.
Religion: We will continue to build our classroom nativity set as we work through our booklet “What God Wants for Christmas.” We will also take time to learn some sign language for different Christmas songs. Finally, we will spend some time learning more about the sacrament of Reconciliation and specifically practicing the Act of Contrition prayer and discussing how Jesus is our Savior.
Tests and Quizzes: None
Additional Reminders:
Week at a Glance
December 11-15, 2023
Math: We will continue to review names, sides, and angles of 2D shapes, along with the names, faces, edges, and vertices of 3D shapes. The students will take a quiz on Tuesday. Later in the week, we will go into more depth about shapes as we learn how to compose shapes from smaller shapes (e.g., make a trapezoid from triangles) and decompose bigger shapes into smaller shapes.
Phonics (Fundations): We have been learning about open syllable words and long vowel sounds, and we will continue that learning of study next week. We will work on reading and spelling multisyllabic words ending in the letter y. Students will be able to explain when the letter y spells the long /i/ sound and when it spells the long /e/ sound. Finally, we will explore how prefixes can be added to base words and how those change the meaning of the base words. Trick words for the week include city, every, and family.
Reading and Writing (Wit & Wisdom): We will continue our deep dive into exploration and expansion of the American West. Students have been learning about buffalo and the Plains Indians. They will continue to discuss what life was like for different tribes of Plains Indians in the American West. They will identify main ideas and details from sections of nonfiction texts, and they will be able to use irregular plural nouns correctly.
Science/Social Studies: With all of the special schedules and extra Christmas events, we are skipping Science and Social Studies this week.
Religion: We will take a break from our Finding God textbooks and move into our special purple books to prepare for First Reconciliation. The first session in the book is titled “God Calls Us Friends.” We will read about the gift of grace we receive from God, what sins are (versus mistakes or accidents), and how we can work to better our relationship with God and others. We will also start praying the Act of Contrition daily. Students will bring home a copy of this prayer too. Please help them to practice this prayer so that they continue to feel more comfortable and confident with it. 🙂
Tests and Quizzes:
Additional Reminders:
Week at a Glance
Week of December 4-8, 2023
Math: As we start our week we will review faces, edges, and vertices of 3D shapes. We will also compare 2D and 3D shapes, and students will divide 2D shapes into equal shares (halves, thirds, and fourths). We will wrap up the chapter with a lesson on finding the area of a 2D shape by counting unit squares. The chapter 12 test will be the following Tuesday (12/12). Your child should have a review sheet in his/her Friday folder.
Phonics (Fundations): We will move into words with open syllables next week. Students will also combine open syllables with other syllable types to form multisyllabic words. Students will practice words with the letter y having a long /i/ sound vs a long /e/ sound. Finally, students will practice adding suffixes -ly and -ty to base words.
Reading and Writing (Wit & Wisdom): Students will express understanding for how Native Americans and early Americans impacted the prairie in the early American West. They will compose informational paragraphs with topic sentences, evidence, and concluding sentences, and they will try to incorporate topic-specific vocabulary terms that we have been reviewing in class. For grammar practice, they will form and use frequently occurring irregular plural nouns (e.g., children).
Science: Students learned about erosion and weathering this past week, so next week they will discuss ways to prevent erosion. They will explain why landslides happen and work as a class to plan models for ways to prevent erosion due to landslides.
Social Studies: None - see Science
Religion: As we journey through Advent, we will take time to pray throughout the week as we build our manger scene on our prayer table. We will also move on to Session 12 in our Finding God books, which gives us a good overview of the sacrament of Reconciliation. We will spend the following weeks (and after Christmas break) going into more depth on this sacrament, and we will practice the Act of Contrition prayer daily in class. Please also practice praying this prayer at home with your second grader so that s/he feels comfortable saying it for First Reconciliation in February. We will send home a copy next week.
Tests and Quizzes:
Additional Reminders:
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