April 13th - 17th

 Reminder: Spring Concert 🎶

McKenzie Towne School is excited to present “Singing Through the Seasons,” our Grade 2 Spring Concert on Thursday, April 23rd.

Dress Rehearsal (Families Welcome):
11:00–11:30 AM
Please note: This is a rehearsal, so there may be pauses as we fine-tune some details.

Evening Performance:
5:00–5:30 PM (Doors open at 4:30 PM)

We look forward to seeing you there and celebrating our students’ hard work!

Looking back on learning.......

Phonics:

This week in phonics, we explored silent letters—what we like to call “ghost letters”! Students learned about the patterns wr, mb, and kn. They sorted words, practiced writing them, and used decodable texts to strengthen their reading skills. To make learning fun and interactive, students also played partner games to reinforce these patterns.

In reading, we focused on Readers’ Theatre, with scripts all about chicks and their development. Readers’ Theatre provides a wonderful opportunity for students to read aloud while building fluency. They practiced using expression by experimenting with character voices, paying attention to punctuation to guide their tone, and adjusting their pacing to match the mood of the text.

Science:

This week in science, we took a closer look at the body parts of a chick, hen, and rooster. Students labeled diagrams and explored the similarities and differences between them, building their understanding of how these animals are alike and unique.

We also had our first and second candling experiences with our eggs. Students were excited to observe the early stages of development and were amazed at how much can change in just a few days. During our observations, we noticed that one egg is significantly larger than the others. We think it might even be a duck egg mixed into our batch—stay tuned as we continue to investigate and watch our eggs develop!

Math:

This week in math, we revisited pictographs by creating a graph all about animal teeth. This time, students worked with a more complex key, where each symbol represented 4. To help them interpret the data, students used a hundred chart to count by 4s and determine the total values. This activity strengthened their understanding of skip counting, data representation, and how to use tools to support problem-solving.

We also focused on base 10 subtraction with regrouping. Students learned how to recognize when they need to “borrow” from the tens place to ensure they have enough ones to subtract. Through practice, they built their understanding of place value and developed strategies to solve subtraction problems accurately.