SECOND GRADE

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2026

Happy Friday, 2nd Grade Families! The focus this week was on mindfulness and teamwork! We shared many moments where the focal point was being mindful not only of what we were saying/doing, but if the time was appropriate to do so. Sometimes our misunderstandings or soft conflicts are the result of a wrong time and place combination. This is where teamwork came into play. Are we looking out for each other? Are we proceeding as if our fellow classmates are our opps or our team? Framing has a way of drastically influencing the interpretation of a moment. In this season of Second Grade, the emphasis has now shifted from the primary of skills acquisition over to skills application. Maintaining the continuity of our true selves is the goal which evolves with us, empowering us all to always be better than we were yesterday. We also had a blast closing out the week/month with a massive dodgeball game of students (1-4) against the teachers! Woo!

ELA

This week in Language Arts, we continued working with contractions and singular possessives! The contractions we worked on this week were they'd, we'd, he'd, she'd, and I'd. In most cases, the apostrophe d stands in for the word "would," but every now and again it stands for "had" or "could." If you want to know why, just ask your child what kind of language English is. 😉 This week, we also returned to writing in our composition notebooks, and- although our writing speed has dropped off a bit- we are happy to report that EVERYBODY'S penmanship has seen a significant increase in cleanness, clarity, and spacing. We were also pleased to discover that, as a class, the spelling test we took last week was the BEST we had collectively done... ever. This was outstanding to see, and we're so proud of them.

math

This week in Math, we set sail off into the high tides of 8s times tables!! Woo hoo!! The beauty in learning our times tables in Second Grade, is that we get a headstart on gaining familiarity so that we'll be extremely comfortable when we enter third grade. This is also a time where we're able to develop the different strategies to help us identify the answers; some of us get it quickly with singing, some of us need to see the problems a few times before they click, and others of us need to make our circles groups before it starts to click. Whatever process works best for us, is what we're discovering now. This week we also dove into word problems again, practicing identifying the key details in the phrasing. If we see "how many more," then we know it's a subtraction problem; if we see "all together" or "in total," then we know it's an addition problem. And sometimes there are combinations of language which require both! We have taken to calling this our logic brain; the part of our minds which analyzes langauge use for clues to help us solve equations. The stronger this specific skill gets, the more powerful we shall become! No math problem will be able to hold us back!

4 PILLARS OF WELLBEING

One of the powerful things we do here at TCS is introduce meditation and mindfulness to our students on all levels. In addition to the practice of meditation, we're also focused on building community. We spend time in the morning, after our warm up activity, breathing and meditating to get our bodies aligned and our minds settled into their optimal flow states for the day. We've also incorporated music into this time together. Flow state is essential to life; out of flow state, comes organic evolution.

STUDENT LIFE

SOLIDARITY.

Today, Second Grade was slated to perform the Spanish song we had been practicing with Teacher Leidy. However, nearly half of the class was out today in support of the nationwide protest against la migra, and we (the teachers) supported this decision wholeheartedly for every obvious reason. However, this then left us with a question. Do we perform the song or not?

During our class period today, we stepped away from the usual make-up work protocol and instead had an interactive discussion about solidarity. Solidarity is when you stand alongside a person or community in support of what they're going through. When you can't immediately fix the problem, or provide what's been taken, solidarity steps up to say "hey- I see you. I agree with you. And I stand by your side." Solidarity is choosing to go without the very thing that has been taken from your neighbor, so that they do not feel alone or unprotected. Solidarity is a direct extension of empathy and taking care of your neighbor.

To this end, we made solidarity bracelets in class today. Everybody made a bracelet, and then we mixed them up. The whole idea was that everybody would be wearing the bracelet that someone else made, as a reminder that a) I have someone who will be in solidarity with me if I ever need it and b) I have people I myself will be in solidarity with if they need it. As a further act of solidarity for our classmates who stayed home, we each contributed beads to six different bracelets on their behalf. When they come on Monday, they will all receive a solidarity bracelet made by the whole class.

Today was not just any day, and we refused to treat it as such. The discussions were beautiful, the role play (we acted out some scenarios about bullies taking chairs and how do we show solidarity then??) was really enlightening, and the kids understood that this was a serious thing. It wasn't that we weren't doing our normal work, but that we were practicing solidarity, and thus something (the usual work flow) was sacrificed. As one student put it- "Solidarity is more important."

We did not sing our song today at Friday 15; we post poned until next week. This was out of solidarity for our classmates who opted to stay home in protest of la migra, as well as solidarity with our latinidad community as a whole. We see you, we love you, and we remain steadfast by your side. Somos familia. El pueblo unido, jamas sera vencido.

Page updated

Report abuse