2 A

Newsletter

September 21, 2025

Dear Second Grade Families,

We hope you had a lovely weekend. We have a short week ahead of us. 

School is in session on Monday (but no Poly PM after school) and school is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday for Rosh Hashanah. Happy New Year to those who celebrate Rosh Hashanah!

Thank you for coming to Back to School Night last week. We are excited about our curriculum and teaching your children this year. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. We want to form a strong partnership with you as well as with your children.

This week 2A had our very first Buddy Time with PreK-B and Ms.Gomez and Ms.Fontanarosa. Our PreK buddies showed us around their classroom and we played games, read books, put together puzzles, drew pictures, built in the block area, and more! The Second Graders did an amazing job acting as role models and older sibs for our buddies. Lots of fun pictures to check out on our September photos page!

We review both Pick Up Patrol and the lunch menu every day at Morning Meeting and we recommend you do the same at home. 

Your Second Grade Team,

Inha Yang (2A Head Teacher) iyang@polyprep.org

Joyce Vizcaino (2A Associate Teacher) jvizcaino@polyprep.org

Sarah Davies (2B Head Teacher) sdavies@polyprep.org

Bria Jourdain (2B Associate Teacher) bjourdain@polyprep.org

IMPORTANT DATES

SEPTEMBER

22: No After School: Rosh Hashanah

23: School Closed: Rosh Hashanah

24: School Closed: Rosh Hashanah

25: New Parent Dinner, 6:30 PM

26: United Voices, 3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

28: HUGS Jewish Families Fall Social, 3:00 - 5:00 PM

29: HUGS COM & HUGS LGBTQ+ Social, 7:00 PM

OCTOBER

1: No After School: Yom Kippur

2: School Closed: Yom Kippur

9: LSPA October Meeting, 8:45 AM - 10:00 AM

10: Admissions Open House

13: School Closed: Indigenous Peoples’ Day

17:  Crazy Sock Day

18: Pumpkin Patch, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM. Homecoming is 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

20: School Closed: Diwali

What’s going on in our classroom

Reading

Reading groups begin later this week. Ask your child who their reading group teacher is. Reading Group teachers are Ms. Davies, Ms. Bria, Ms. Yang, Ms. Vizcaino, Ms. Heus, and Ms. Pico. Groups will meet for two weeks and then we’ll reevaluate to determine if each student is in the correct group.

Writing

Students are continuing to learn about sentence structure. Last week they learned about different kinds of sentences: statements, questions, commands, and exclamations. 

Fundations

Students continue reviewing consonant digraphs and blends. They also learned about when to use -c, -k, and -ck. See the posters below. We will also review the First Grade Trick Words. You can click on the link if you’d like to review them at home with your child. 

Math

Students continue working with Base Ten blocks and learning about place value. They also worked with number patterns. This week they’ll practice addition–both with and without regrouping using the blocks and recording their process in different ways.

Social Studies

Students are creating their own map of the five boroughs. They began by labeling the boroughs, New Jersey, Long Island, New York State, and the main waterways. Students are creating their own map keys and symbols for places of interest they want to feature in their maps.

Read Alouds

Last week we read Platanos are Love by Alyssa Reynoso-Morris and Separate is Never Equal by Duncan Tonatiuh. We also read Oliver Button Is a Sissy by Tomie DePaola and Ira Sleeps Over by Bernard Waber. Students wrote about what they thought the author’s message was in each of these books.