Mrs. Arnold & mrs. bordonaro’s 2 nd Grade Class Welcome, parents!

Contact Information  Phone: ext  Please make sure that you both of us.

All About us Mrs. Arnold  All of my education has been in San Diego County.  I graduated from Cal State San Marcos with my degree and teaching credential.  This is my tenth year teaching 2 nd grade.  Husband is Lee and we have an 20 month old son, Tobin, and a 5 month old son Brixton.

All About us Mrs. Bordonaro  I went to school at UCSB and got my teaching credential from SDSU.  This is my ninth year teaching and seventh year job sharing.  Husband’s name is Jeff and we have a son Scotty who will be in first grade at SEES and a daughter, Camryn who is four.

Daily Schedule  8:45-9:15Attendance/Phonics  9:15-9:30Language Arts Mini Lesson  9:30-11:00 Reading Rotations  11:00-11:45 Lunch  11:45-1:15Math  1:15-1:35Recess  1:35-3:10Writing/Social Studies/Science P.E.- (M) 2:25-3:05 and (Th) 2:25-3:05 every other (W) 11:50-2:30 Music and Science Lab-Rotating (T) 2-2:30 Library (F) 2:30-3:00 Art and Drama-Rotating (M) 12:00-12:30 Buddies every other Tuesday afternoon

Classroom Discipline Plan  As we firmly believe that a child’s success depends on self-discipline, we have developed a Classroom Discipline Plan that gives every child the opportunity to manage his or her own behavior. Your child deserves the most positive educational climate possible for academic growth. Therefore, this plan will be in effect at all times.

Class Rules  Rules were created by your students.  Be respectful  Make good choices  Be a problem solver

Rewards and Consequences  To encourage students to follow the classroom rules, we reinforce appropriate behavior.  There are individual, team and whole class rewards and consequences.

 Class  When the entire class is following directions they will receive marbles to add to our “Marble Jar”. When the jar is filled we will celebrate as a class.  Group/Team  The class will be arranged into teams that will change throughout the year. Teams will be rewarded on a daily basis with Table Points. Table Points will be added together at the end of the week and the table with the most points will get a bonus.  Individual  There will be many opportunities for students to earn “Funny Money” for good behavior. The money can be used at Student Store to purchase a wide variety of school supplies and passes.

In order for our class to be a safe and successful environment for learning the classroom rules must be followed. We have discussed the consequences for choosing to break a rule. The students have sticks that correlate to each consequence.  First Time: Verbal Warning  Second Time: Student will fill out an Oops Form  Third Time: Student serves consequence on the Oops Form (lose recess) as well as Oops form will be sent home to be signed.

Instructional Programs Common Core is different than what we were traditionally teaching in years past. It focuses on: Thinking Deeply (analyzing, explaining their thinking, critical thinking skills) Integrated learning (all of the subjects are linked together to give a more enriching curriculum) More real life situations (make learning have a lot more purpose) If you’d like more information on each specific subject you can find it on our school website under Our School, 2 nd Grade, Back to School Night.

Homework Your students will be receiving a homework coversheet and reading log on Mondays. It is their responsibility to complete the reading log and turn in on Fridays. Students will keep track of their daily homework assignments on a weekly schedule that should be looked over and signed by a parent on a weekly basis. Though there will be no homework over the weekend but we will always encourage students to read as much as possible during their days away from school. Optional: -Phonics- practice the phonics pattern weekly- sorts using the word pattern and other optional activities posted on 2 nd grade website. - Math- A menu of math activities that relate to the unit that we are working on is in a symbaloo on our 2 nd grade website -We will do optional projects for art, science, and social studies each semester.

Conferences Parent Teacher Conferences will be on November 16 th. This will be the only day that you will be able to meet with both of us. We will send out an electronic sign up when the date gets closer. The grading periods are broken up into semesters this year. Unlike years past, when you would get a report card at conferences, you will now get a progress report. Report cards will be given twice a year.

Book Orders Scholastic Book Orders will be sent home on a monthly basis for students to purchase books at a low price. As an added bonus, for every dollar that is spent on books, we earn points which can be used to purchase books for our classroom. Though there is never any obligation to order please remember that these books are offered as discounted rates and by purchasing through Scholastic you are helping to provide quality literature for the classroom. The first book order of the year earns our class the most points to put towards new books for our classroom.

Birthdays and Celebrations We will be having three classroom parties throughout the year. As more information is available, we will let you know. Birthdays will be celebrated in class. Students will be given a birthday poster to complete and bring back to share on a week to celebrate them. Please remember that no edible treats can be brought to school for birthdays. Also, please do not send birthday invitations to school unless the entire class has been invited. Although it may seem convenient to distribute invitations this way; it can result in hurt feelings for those not invited.

Ink Cartridges If you have empty ink cartridges laying around the house… we would love them!! Staples is now giving rewards for ink cartridges that are turned in. This is great way to earn money to buy things for our class -new ink cartridges - labels -copy paper - other school supplies that are needed ~Or gift cards to Staples or Amazon~ Our yearly site budget breaks down to $10.00 per student.

a BIG thank you!!! Thank you so much for all of the supplies that we have received!

Parent Volunteers  If you are going to volunteer to work with a group there will be a training following flag salute tomorrow and there will also be additional dates.  We would love to welcome parent volunteers into the classroom. We will get a calendar to you to let you know when we will start.  Please fill out a parent volunteer form if you are interested in helping in the classroom. If you are unable to volunteer in the classroom and would like to help at home please note that on the parent volunteer sheet. Parents can help at home by grading, making 20 copies, cutting, etc.

Let’s Have a Great Year!