St. Odilo Second Grade

Mrs. Tracey Ocampo

Tracey Ocampo combines her love of learning with her affection for teaching young children to make second grade at St. Odilo special.  She has been a member of the St Odilo faculty for almost 20 years! She has taught primarily in first grade but is thrilled to be back teaching in second grade again! "Building upon the basic skills the children have learned in first grade, then watching them really begin to blossom academically in second grade has been a tremendous experience for me. The growth that takes place throughout the year is phenomenal!"  She believes in consistency in behavior and classroom management so that "children know what I expect of them. They feel safe and thrive in an environment where goals are attainable." She encourages this by providing team goals, games and an individual reward system where children can earn then purchase prizes and privileges. She welcomes parent involvement and provides opportunities for parents to visit the classroom from time to time. She believes that "education is a mutually supportive relationship among teachers, students and parents."

 
"Now that second graders are used to their school environment they are ready to take on some serious learning! Here is some of what you can expect your child to be learning throughout the school year: Most importantly, second grade is a pivotal year in religion. The children will begin to attend daily Mass, they will begin to know Jesus, learn about sin- the different types of sin- mortal/venial, the Ten Commandments and the beauty of forgiveness through Confession, and they will end the year by receiving Jesus in the Eucharist for the first time.

As this is the last year your child will be implementing the Superkids Literacy program, the students are challenged to become more fluent readers; they will read longer, more complicated stories, including chapter books; they will begin to develop and create more descriptive pieces of writing using correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and paragraphs.  They will also write letters and keep a journal. Some of the skills your child will learn in second grade math consist of understanding place value, mentally adding numbers to 20, addition and subtraction with regrouping (borrowing), telling time, adding and subtracting money and making change- just to name a few. Second grade Science and Social Studies units include such topics as understanding how the human body works (the digestive system), lifecycles of plants and animals (including watching real butterflies emerge from a cocoon), learning about the earth; geology and geography - such as studying landforms and continents, discussing current events and much more.

As you can see, your second grader will be working hard this year but there will also be lots and lots of fun in between!!!  "I truly love second grade, and I'm confident your child will too!"