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Newsletter

May 25, 2026

Dear families,

We hope you had a lovely long weekend.

We have school on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday this week. Athletics Fun Day (Field Day) is Thursday at the Upper Campus. Please send your child ready for outdoor play, with sneakers, hats, sunscreen, and a full water bottle. Thursday’s forecast is sunny and 74 degrees. Friday is Fan Day. Students can wear clothing that shows off a special interest - a favorite team's colors, Poly gear, or tees with a special hobby, or beloved musician.

Summer Math Workbooks were sent home last week. Please make sure you know where it is and keep it in a safe place. We recommend spreading out the workbook throughout the summer and especially focusing on it in August, so students can enter third grade feeling confident in math. Practicing the addition and subtraction algorithms (carrying and borrowing) will be the most important concepts to keep fresh over the summer. 

We’ll be working on our Tenement dioramas a lot this week. Students are motivated and excited about recreating early 20th century life in their models. You can continue to send in small cardboard jewelry boxes, corks, beer caps, jar lids, bottle caps, etc. Thank you! 

We have one more field trip and it’s to the Eldridge Street Synagogue on Wednesday, June 10. We will learn about Jewish immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. We’ll go on a walking tour of the Lower East Side, and picnic at Seward Park, the nation’s oldest playground. Let us know if you’d like to chaperone. The trip will be from 9:30 AM to 2:00 PM. 

Remember to check Pick Up Patrol, the Lunch Menu, and our Photos Page. 

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

MAY

27: School Closed: Eid al-Adha

28: Field Day (Athletics Fun Day)

29: Fan Day

JUNE

2: Field Day Day Rain Date

3: POLY PM: Last Day of Spring Enrichment

4: Noon Dismissal: Open School Night

5: School Closed: Commencement

8: United Voices - End of Year Celebration

8: POLY PM: MakeUp Week for Spring Enrichment 

9 & 10: Final Lost & Found Recovery Days 

9: Changemaker Day

10: 2A and 2B Field Trip to Eldridge Street Synagogue

10: Last Day of Poly PM for the 25-26 School Year

11: Clapping Out and Grade 4 Graduation

12: End of Year Community Time, 11:15 AM

12: Last Day of School, Noon Dismissal

What’s going on in our classroom

Reading

Second Grade reading groups have ended for the year to allow teachers time to do end of year assessments. Students will still be reading independently every day.

Writing

Students continue working on their historical fiction journal entries. Most students are writing about their steerage experience on the steamship journey. Some students will start writing about the Ellis Island experience. 

Fundations

Students are learning about r controlled syllables and the ways to spell long a, as in the words rain, play, and game.

Click for our May Trick Words for spelling.

Math

Second graders are learning about division. Last week we focused on conceptual understanding of division, which is the sharing (or dividing) of a total into equal groups. This week we’ll learn strategies: using multiplication since the two operations are closely related, dealing out equal numbers like a card dealer through drawing or counters, and skip counting. 

Social Studies

This week students will begin building their tenement dioramas in shoeboxes as they simultaneously learn about life on the Lower East Side for new immigrants. You can look at our slideshows on our Social Studies page. 

If you would like to come to our classroom anytime between now and the end of the year to share your family’s immigration or migration story, please email your homeroom teachers. 

Read Alouds / DEIB 

We read Island Born by Junot Diaz. We also read When Everybody Wore a Hat by William Steig. We are continuing Hannah’s Journal by Marissa Moss. This book serves as a mentor text for students’ historical fiction journal writing.