Millers Run School, Sheffield VT

Class Pages: PreK K 1 2 3 4 5 Sci. Lang. Arts Math.

Links on this page: Assembly | Morning Meeting |Word Work | Reading | Math

The Second Grade is off to a great year at school.

Teacher: Barbara Miller

I have been teaching second grade at Miller's Run for 20 years, but my connection to this school goes back to 1979 when my own two children were students here. Over the years I have volunteered in classrooms, skiied at Burke Mt. with the school program, taught music and watched this school grow and improve in so many ways. I have been in teaching for 35 years and have worked in pre-school and the primary grades.

Second Grade Schedule

We begin our day with a Morning Meeting where we greet each other and do some activities that set the tone for the day. This year we are using a new math program district wide called Investigations. We begin our morning work with an hour of math. The rest of the morning is devoted to Reading and literacy work. Following lunch at 11:15 we come back and do our Word Work and more writing. At 1:00 Ms. Mallon takes over second grade and we work on Science/Social Studies.
Each day we have a different special subject:

Weekly Specials

Monday: Assembly & Library/Computer
Tuesday: Phys. Ed.
Wednesday: Art
Thursday: Phys. Ed. and Bookmobile
Friday: Music

Parts of the Second Grade Week

Assembly

We begin each week with Monday morning Assembly. Grades K through 5 gather in the gym with Ms. Kennedy and spend some time singing and sharing some of the things that are going on in our classes. It has become a nice way to feel that we're a part of our larger school community.

Morning Meeting

Our classroom Morning Meeting is a big part of our day. It is the place where the tone is set for living and working together. We find out what's happening during the day, talk about ways we want our class to be and how we want to treat each other. It's the place to talk about respectful ways to solve problems. Music is always a part of the meeting. We have a growing list of songs we love

Word Work

Students are working in leveled groups on lists and groups of words that they are learning to spell and read. They spend some part of this time sorting words, looking for similarities and differences that will help them to remember it when they use the word in their writing. We usually begin a list of words on Monday and have a final test on Friday. I will be sending home lists of the words with your child each week.

Reading

Reading takes place in many ways throughout the day. Every student is a part of a leveled reading group that meets five times a week. There are times each day when students read silently and may choose their own reading material. They should also be reading at home each night using books from school, library or their own books. In May the second graders will all be assessed as a part of a state-wide assessment to determine their highest reading level.

Math

Our work this year is just beginning with Investiagations. The program combines whole group, small group and individual work in a constructivist setting. Many days we have Math Workshop where students choose from a number of activities that are centered around our theme. Homework is sometimes written work and sometimes involves playing a math game with someone at home. It's exciting to be involved with this new program and a part of district wide professional development. We look forward to seeing lots of progress in our students.

Barbara Miller's Class