2 A

Newsletter

February 8, 2026

Dear Families,

We hope you had a nice weekend. This Friday, we will celebrate Valentine’s Day during choice time. Please send in cards and/or small useful items such as pencils or stickers. No snacks or candy please. While bringing in cards for 2A is optional, we encourage you to have your child participate. We’ll each make “mailbox” paper bags to hold the valentines we receive. During our choice time, students will pass out their Valentines out by walking around and distributing their cards into classmates’ “mailbox” bags. Passing them out and feeling like you’re doing something nice for others is really fun! Valentine Class List

We are headed to the New York Transit Museum this Thursday 2/12. We will be back in time for lunch in the cafeteria. Thank you Glenn and Larkyn for joining us!

On Tuesday, February 24th, we’ll be attending a play called Layer the Walls. The play takes place in a tenement on the Lower East Side. The layers of wallpaper represent the immigrant families that lived in the tenement. Using puppetry, masks and live action, the performers tell the stories held within each layer. We’ll be watching Part I which features Irish, Italian, and Russian Jewish stories from 1870-1909. With stories about Brooklyn Bridge and immigration history, it’s a perfect fit for our social studies curriculum! 

In appreciation for our support over the last few years Poly Prep families are invited to attend an exclusive invite only shadow workshop, and then are welcome to stay to see a Layer the Walls Performance (Part I and Part II are available. Part II explores Chinese, Jewish, and Puerto stories 1930-1970.) at Abrons Arts Center in the Lower East Side. To ensure guests can fully experience the puppetry in the workshop, capacity is limited and tickets are first come, first serve. Click on this link for more information. 

All students are encouraged to participate in the Women’s History Oratory Contest. The contest is a fun, optional way for all of our students to celebrate women’s voices. While March may seem far away, students should select their contest pieces and start practicing! Video entries are due by 8:00 AM on Thursday, February 26.

Please help keep dismissal safe! We rely on clear sightlines in front of our building and easy-to-navigate sidewalks. Help us by waiting in front of 53 Prospect Park West if your child is in Nursery or Pre-Kindergarten, and along 1st Street if your child is in Kindergarten or an older grade. 

Please review both Pick Up Patrol and the Lunch Menu with your child. There are lots of new pictures on our February Photos Page. Highlights include Naomi’s birthday share and voice acting of The Little Kid with the Big Green Hand by Matthew Gray Gubler, reading groups, our subway geology project, building with Base Ten Blocks in math, hearing about Bobby’s weekend with Maren, sharing My Story posters and genius time presentations.

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

FEBRUARY

12: Gr 2 Field Trip: New York Transit Museum

16: School Closed: Presidents' Day

17: School Closed: Lunar New Year

18: United Voices - 3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

20: Black History Month Community Time

20: Readathon Launch

20: Spring Enrichment Shared in Pulse

21: Readathon Begins (Feb 21 - February 27)

23: Launch Ramadan Charity Selection

24: Gr.2 Field Trip: Layer the Walls at Abrons Arts Center

27: Dress Like a Book Character Day

27: Student-led Black History Month Community Time

28: PolyCultura, 1:00 - 3:00 PM

What’s going on in our classroom

Reading

Second graders returned to leveled reading groups. Ask your child who their reading group teacher is. Groups are reading Stone Fox, A Picture Book of Jesse Owens, Wilma Unlimited, Bunnicula, Pompeii, and Pinky and Rex. Ask your child who their reading group teacher is and what they're reading.

Math

We are continuing our work on subtracting three-digit numbers with regrouping. We use manipulatives, Base Ten Blocks, so that students understand conceptually what they are doing while also learning the traditional algorithm.

Please continue to practice facts at home, such as 15 - 7, 18 -9, and 13 - 7. They help as students subtract three-digit numbers. Automaticity is the goal, but strategies are helpful along the way. Here are examples of some great strategies: 

Think Addition: Use  7 + ? = 15 for 15 - 7 = 8

Use Doubles Facts: Think 9 + 9 = 18 for 18 - 9 = 9

10 is a Friendly Number: Think 13 - 3 = 10, 10 - 3 = 7 so 13 - 7 = 6.  

Writing

Students are continuing to write poetry. Last week students wrote nature themed poems and incorporated personification, rhythm, onomatopoeia, and repetition. This week students will learn about similes and metaphors and discuss the difference between ordinary language and poetic language.

Fundations

Students continue to learn strategies for spelling and reading multisyllabic words using vowel-consonant-e syllables, such as the words reptile and recognize. The syllables -tile and -nize are  v-consonant-e syllables because the “magic e” makes the vowel i long (or “say its name”).  We also continue to practice Trick Words. Click for our February Trick Words for spelling.

Social Studies

Students enjoyed the hand-on cross curricular project with Ms.Carmen. They made a cutaway diagram of the sand, gravel, and bedrock layers below the city streets. Then they drew a scene of the NYC streets. This week they will use this knowledge to understand how engineers needed to know what kind of rock was below the streets to figure out which construction method to use to dig the subway tunnels. Students learned about the “cut and cover” method last week and this week we’ll learn about the deep rock tunneling method.

Read Alouds / DEIB

We read The Only One Club by Jane Naliboff for Jewish Heritage Month and Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen by DyAnne DiSilvo.