Back To School Night… It’s great to see you here!

Goals for the evening… Homework Monday Folders Report Card Units Developmental Levels Questions & Answers…

Homework… Most weeks, your child will have the following homework on each night: Monday Cut words apart and sort using the headers Read 20 minutes Tuesday Spelling- sort words again Read 20 minutes Wednesday Spelling- sort words again Read 20 minutes Math practice Thursday Spelling- sort words and glue to return on Friday Read 20 minutes Spelling homework will change throughout the year as students become more familiar with the spelling program.

Poetry Anthology Students will have a poetry folder that will be kept at home A new poem will be sent home every Monday to be added to the folder Goals –Helps build fluency –Builds word recognition –Practices rhyming words How to extend the poems –Find new/ interesting words –Talk about words that have more than 1 meaning

Monday folders Come home every Monday Completed work from the previous week Go through the papers with your child Read the “2nd Grade Scoop” newsletter Sign weekly conduct report and comments

Social and Work Habits The weekly behavior chart in the Monday folder reflects the behavioral strands on the report card A “check” on the behavior chart indicates an area that needs improvement. Multiple checks in the same strand lead to 2s and 1s on report cards.

Report Card Standards-based report card –4 Exceeding the standard –3 Meeting the standard –2 Working towards the standard –1 Working below standard 3+, 2+ also on report card Strands show exact strengths and areas to improve

Standards-Based Grades

Math Classroom instruction is based on the series Investigations in Numbers, Data, & Space. Investigations offers meaningful math problems that emphasize depth in mathematical reasoning, computation, and communication. We will use pages from the Student Activity Book that goes with the current edition Occasionally, we’ll send home parent letters related to the current unit we’re studying. To help your child, practice a nightly story problem and practice single digit addition facts.

Theme We will integrate science and social studies units –American Indians/Economics/Maps –Matter –Civics/Famous Americans –China/Magnets/Egypt –Weather –Habitats

Reading Benchmark Reading series, selected Reading A to Z books, and various trade books We will have Reader’s Workshop daily. -Read Aloud -Mini Lesson -Small Groups -Literacy Stations

Writing Workshop Students need to be able to… write complete sentences with capital letters and ending punctuation use invented spelling for untaught patterns use conventional spelling for sight words and taught patterns

Spelling Every Monday students receive a new spelling sort The sort will be based on their developmental spelling level as indicated on the PALS test Students will practice sorting words at home and at school during the week

2 nd Grade Events Flat Stanley Project PTA Program: February Thanksgiving Feast Habitat/Animal in class project Field Trips- Please budget $40 for all field trips for the year.

How can you help? Review homework each night and fill out reading log Send in a note when your child is absent Donations we need: -plastic utensils -straws -adding machine tape -scotch tape -small cups -healthy snacks

Developmental Levels Social May be moody, shy, sulky, touchy; sometimes depressed Prefer playing and working alone or with one friend May change friendships quickly and feel “nobody likes me” Need the security of rules, routines and physical boundaries

Physical Often keep their eyes focused on a small, close area Copying from board is very hard With head on arm or desk, grasp pencil point tightly and write very small Can do quiet work for longer periods Can get sick from worrying about tests and assignments

Cognitive Better at understanding ideas such as time, space and quantity Learn new words and meanings quickly; enjoy writing stories Open to learning math Good at classifying and sorting Listen well and speak precisely Enjoy hands-on exploration of how things work Enjoy repeating tasks and reviewing learning

Cognitive Bothered by mistakes and try hard to make their work perfect Like to work slowly and finish what they start

Questions