Weekly Newsletter

June 7, 2026

It’s our last newsletter and our last week of school. What a wonderful year it’s been. We loved getting to know each of your children and are so proud of their accomplishments and growth. We’ll miss them, and you!

Thank you for coming to Open School Night last week. We loved chatting with you and seeing your children excited to share their work. All student work will come home this week, so please continue to send in backpacks each day. We don't want to send everything at once, so we’ll send some workbooks, folders, and projects each day.  A big shopping bag or Fresh Direct bag for your child’s tenement would be a great way to safely transport it home. You’re welcome instead to come and pick it up yourself if you’d prefer. We’ll try to send everything home before Friday since many families have afternoon plans on the last day of school. 

Tuesday is Changemaker Day. We are collecting school supplies for KIND through Tuesday morning. Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) is devoted to the protection of unaccompanied and separated children, which ties into our social studies immigration curriculum. Second Graders will be making supply kits and cards to send to the children who will be receiving them. Items needed:

pencils/mechanical pencils

.07 lead

pencil cases/pouches

pencil sharpeners and erasers

color pencils

composition notebooks

spiral notebooks

black/blue pens

2 pocket plastic folders

Wednesday is our field trip to Eldridge Street Synagogue. Please send in a bagged lunch for your child on Wednesday. We’ll learn about the history of the synagogue and Jewish immigration around the Turn of the Century. We’ll also go on a walking tour of the Lower East Side with neighborhood highlights from our read aloud, All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown. Then, we’ll have a picnic lunch and recess in Seward Park, the nation’s first municipally funded playground. 

There are many pictures on our Photos page, including from Open School Night. There are pictures of individual tenement dioramas. Ellis Island Legal Inspection Videos are on the website as well! 

Please remember to update Pick Up Patrol because there are no Enrichment classes this week. The last day of Regular After School is Wednesday. There is no After School on Thursday or on Friday’s noon dismissal. Read this week’s Lunch Menu, but continue to send in snacks, including on the last day of school. 

What’s going on in our classroom

Reading

Second Graders will continue to read independently every day this week. 

Summer book list suggestions will be sent home. Try to have your child read every day this summer. Continue to read aloud to them too. Reading aloud boosts vocabulary, comprehension, and can be a bonding time with your child. 

Math

Second graders are continuing to learn about time and money. 

This summer it’s important to practice the most important concepts from the year. They are adding and subtracting with regrouping (carrying and borrowing), reviewing math facts up to 20, and drawing bar models for word problems. 

Social Studies

Students will play jacks and marbles this week, just like the children from the time period we’re studying did. For Changemaker Day, we’ll learn about the practice of banning children’s books and that there are some places in our country where school districts and libraries are doing that, even for books that we regularly read at Poly. We’ll also focus on how to affect change through marching, protesting, and community support. We’ll make school supply bags for unaccompanied migrant children at KIND. 

This summer, visit historical sites and museums if you can. Children especially love museums that tell a story like the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side, Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn, the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, etc. 

Read Alouds / DEIB 

We read Peppe the Lamplighter by Elisa Bartone. This week we’ll read DEIB books on agency and affecting change. We’ll also finish All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown by Sydney Taylor.

JUNE

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