BIBLE
Our Bible series is Voyages by Concordia Publishing. Bible stories are taught weekly and memory verses memorized weekly. Chapel is every Wednesday at 8:40 a.m. Please join us if you can.
MATH
Scott Foresman California Math teaches the essential content covered in the “California Mathematics Academic Content Standards”. Operations, thinking skills, problem solving, estimation, data, statistics, geometry, and probability are emphasized appropriately at all grade levels. Additionally, through paper and pencil exercises and hands-on activities, the children will begin to visualize numerical concepts. We will have opportunities to use hand-held calculators, and will spend time working on time and money concepts. We take weekly, timed math tests. We will also be using MathFacts in a Flash. This a a web based computer program which provides practice and assessment of 62 categories of math facts.
SOCIAL STUDIES
The text used in social studies is the Houghton Mifflin series, Some People I Know. We study about people who have made a difference, living in our country, and our family relationships.
LANGUAGE ARTS
We will be using the Houghton Mifflin series this year. It is an integrated, phonic based approach to reading, organized in thematic cluster, which includes spelling and langrage arts. Adventure and Delights are the titles of our basal readers. We will teach the conventions of written English. More importantly, however, we will be concentrating on the teaching of writing across the curriculum. Our aim will be fluency first, followed by form and correctness. In addition we will teach listening and speaking skills. In spelling, each unit groups works according to a specific emphasis (i.e. words with short ‘I’). We will also practice high frequency words.
HANDWRITING
Second grade continues to work on manuscript handwriting. Cursive is introduced and practiced in second grade. The textbook A Reason for Handwriting is used.
COMMUNICATIONS
Each Friday, “GO HOME” notes and an envelope of schoolwork will be sent home. There is a form to sign and return.
DISCIPLINE
In the primary grades, we use a system of “reminder” slips of different colors to help the children monitor their behavior. There are also slips for positive behavior. Parents will receive a note home when their child receives four or more slips in a day.
HOMEWORK
There are five basic elements to regular second grade homework.
1. Victory Drill and MathFacts should be practiced nightly.
2. Basic math facts should be practiced nightly. Timed tests are given weekly.
3. Children should read or be read to each evening.
4. Children will complete a weekly homework packet.
5. Occasionally special projects may need some work at home.
My name is Traci Wacker.
I earned my Bachelor of Arts degree in English from California State University Sacramento in May of 1989. I worked as a teacher’s aide at St. Peter’s for three years, two of which were spent in second grade. This is my twelfth year as St. Peter’s second grade teacher. My husband Matt and I celebrated our twentieth wedding anniversary in September. We have two children. Our son Ryan is a sophomore at Cosumnes River College, and our daughter Lauren is a junior at Pleasant Grove High School. Both graduated from St. Peter’s. We have been members of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church for ten years, and before that we were longtime members of St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Sacramento. God blesses each of us with special gifts with which we can glorify and serve Him. Over the last several years, God has revealed to me that teaching is the avenue by which I may serve Him, first through teaching my own children about this world God has made and their place in it, next, through teaching Sunday School and English as a second language in my church, and finally, through teaching his precious children here at St. Peter’s. As St. Peter’s second grade teacher, I feel I am taking the next important step in my walk as a servant of God. I ask for your continued prayers in the coming year, as I strive to be an example of Christ’s love to your children.
Thank you for your interest in St. Peter’s Lutheran School.
In Christ,
Traci L. Wacker
twacker@splseagles.org
