St. Joan of Arc School

Preparing for Second Grade

Even though first grade is coming to a conclusion, we encourage you to continue to work with your child over the summer so that the essential skills that were learned in first grade are not forgotten. Here are some suggestions for working with your child so that they will feel confident entering second grade.

Writing – In every area of the curriculum writing is essential. Your child should work on being able to write complete sentences that use correct capitalization and punctuation. They should be able to write stories about familiar things such as, pets, families, vacations, foods, or animals. They should be able to write narrative stories describing events that may have taken place. They might write expository stories, relating how to do something, such as how to have a lemonade stand. They could explore fantasy, and reality. Write a funny story, or write a factual account of a person or animal. This year we tried to write comparative stories where we told what was the same or different about two things. We also worked on explaining how we got an answer in math. They could use more practice in these areas. Finally, they could journal, write lists, write poems, write postcards, summarize stories, and/or write book reports. Any of the above would be valuable practice in preparing them for second grade.

Reading - Reading every day is critical to enhancing the skills learned this year. Your child should take a book in the car, on vacation and read before bed. Encourage using leisure time reading. Read fun, thrilling, factual stories. It’s a great time to get a library card, if they don’t already have one. Libraries have so many summer programs that are fun for children. Quantity is not as important as quality. Read for understanding. Try to discuss books with your children. Ask lots of questions and expand on the story. Delve into the personalities of the characters. Discuss setting, and plot. Make up a different ending for the story. Read a book and then watch a movie about the book and compare the two versions of the story.

Math – Your child should be able to add and subtract numbers up to 100 without regrouping. They have learned how to identify coins and count coins to $1. They have learned to read a clock on the hour and half hour. They have learned to identify simple fractions, such as, one half, one third, one fourth. They can graph, sort, and extend a pattern. All of these skills should be practiced. To extend learning to the next level, you may want to work on introducing the concept of place value to 100’s, adding with regrouping, subtraction with regrouping, reading a clock for quarter past and to the hour and forty five minutes after the hour, and possibly to the minute. Count coins with $1, $5, $10, add and subtract money. Also, practical hands-on experience in math is a good idea. Sell lemonade and make change, shop, earn money, spend money, save money, give money to those less fortunate, cook and use measurements. Finally, continue to practice math facts for addition and subtraction. You can practice in the car anytime. Having a strong knowledge of essential math facts will give your child confidence, speed and accuracy when working with more challenging computations next year.

Science – Explore, explore, explore. Go on investigative walks with your child. Try to spot interesting things in nature. Keep a log of interesting things spotted. Have your child write which the animals they saw on their walk. Then, catergorize each animal into its species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, etc. Next time look for animal homes. Visit as many museums as you can. Talk about why the days are longer, why the driveway is hot!! Etc. Build something together. Fly a kite and talk about Ben Franklin. Get to know some famous scientists.

Finally, have fun with your child and spend as much time as you can with them. This is probably the most important thing you can do for both of you. Your relationship is essential to your child’s well being which translates into self-esteem and confidence. Tell your child what you like about them and what you hope for them. Use terms such as I like the way you bring happiness to our family. You are helpful, determined, strong, spiritual, blessed, eager, honest, truthful, persistent, thoughtful, self sacrificing, funny, amusing, cheerful, cooperative, neat, orderly, precise, reliable, loyal, ingenious, trustworthy, creative, talented, artistic, athletic, graceful, etc. Your child is trying to form his/her identity and much of what he/she thinks about him/herself comes from you.

Have a happy summer and may God keep you always in the palm of His hand.

Mrs. McMahon