Matthew Paterson Second Graders Celebrate Twosday

It was a day of doubles on February 2, 2022 – a date full of twos that was too much fun to miss. 

Grade 2 teachers and students at Matthew Paterson Elementary School celebrated the historic date with special learning activities, twinning outfits, tutus and a parade -- all centered on the number two! 

There were lessons on homophones – words that sound the same but have different meanings – using “to,” “too,” and “two.” 

“In the word ‘two’, the ‘w’ looks like double Vs,” Teacher Christine Demme said to her class. “So, remember that. There is double, so this is the number word 'two.'" 

The two-centric lessons were on a roll with a fun twist on a spelling game using dice. Students would roll a die and practice writing “to,” “too,” or “two” based on the number rolled.  

“How many times do you want us to roll our dice?” asked a student. The answer, of course: Twenty-two rolls. 

In a phonics lesson in Cathy DeGloria’s class, students worked on diphthongs – the sound created by two vowels in a single syllable – that had the same sound as the day’s special number: ew, oo, ou, ue, o, oe and u. Students  made a list of words that had the same sound heard in “to,” “too,” and “two,” such as true, chew, shoe, canoe and tutu. 

Students in Charissa Vickery’s class practiced skip-counting by twos with a basketball free-throw activity in class to earn tickets toward prizes that included desk pets, a class favorite.  

The Twosday celebration got even sweeter for students in Barbara Grollimund’s class who were treated to Twix and KitKats – candy bars with doubles – from a classmate. Students in Gina Sevigny’s class also received special cookies in the shape of the number two. 

To cap the historic two-riffic day, the second-grade students paraded around the hallways of the school donning their Twosday crowns at precisely 2:22 p.m.