Welcome and thank you for coming to Open House Second Grade School Year

Our Daily Schedule Classroom Schedule Every Day except Thursdays 8:45 – 9:05Morning Routine/Announcements 9:05 - 9:35Reading Whole Group (30 Minutes) 9: :35Reading Small Group (60 Minutes) 10: :55Math Whole Group(20 Minutes) 10: :35Math Small Group (40 Minutes) 11: :45Social Studies/Science Part 1 (10 Minutes) 11: :15Lunch 12: :45Recess 12:45 - 1:35Special 1:35 - 1:55Social Studies/Science Part 2 (20 Minutes) 1:55 - 2:25Math intervention (30 Minutes) 2:25 - 2:55Reading Intervention (30 Minutes) 2:55 - 3:25Writing (30 Minutes) 3:25 - 3:30 Class Meeting 3:30Dismissal

School Wide Behavior Policy Earn Your Stripes You’re Doing Grrreat Ready to ROAR Stop and think Teacher’s choice Check with your classroom teacher to see how it is being shown to you in the agendas.

School Wide Classroom Rules Whole Brain Teaching

First Marking Period Incentive Trip Criteria The incentive period for the 1st Trimester will be from Tuesday, September 15th until Friday, November 13th. Criteria for Participation All students will start the incentive period with 9 points. Students must have at least 1 point in order to attend the incentive trip. Each student begins each and every day on “Green/Ready to Roar”. It is their goal to “stay on Green/Ready to Roar”. Students can lose points by moving their clip and/or not completing homework. Moving to yellow more than once during a week – Lose 1 incentive point Moving to Red/Teacher Choice– Lose 1 incentive point Behavior referral – Lose of 2 incentive points Missing 2 or more weekly homework assignments – Lose 1 incentive point

Student Agendas/Folders Students have been given an agenda/folder in which all assignments will be recorded daily by each student. It is your child’s responsibility each day to record these assignments. Please sign your child’s agenda/folder every night after homework has been checked for completion. We will check agendas/folders every morning. This is a communication tool both for us and for parents.

Common Core State Standards The goal of the CCSS is to provide a single set of clear and consistent educational standards in math and English language arts that states can share and voluntarily adopt. A total of 45 states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity have adopted the Common Core State Standards. Until now, every state had its own standards and different expectations of student performance. Common standards will help ensure that all students are receiving a high quality education consistently, from school to school and state to state. Common Core standards can provide parents with clear expectations for what children should know and be able to do when they graduate high school or advance to a particular grade level.

Common Core State Standards CCSS A common set of standards ensures that all students, no matter where they live, will be focused on graduating from high school prepared for postsecondary education and careers. In an increasingly mobile society, families with children transferring to new schools will not have to adjust to new learning expectations. Standards will be the same for all students in states adopting the CCSS, making transitions smoother for students. In a competitive global economy, all students must compete with not only American peers in other states, but with students from around the world. The CCSS were designed to prepare students to succeed in this environment.

Reading Our reading program is Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Journeys. This program will nurture students with all the ingredients required to help them blossom as readers, from early literacy through the literary classics and beyond. Diverse research-based approaches and support, including ELL instruction, targeted intervention, concise lesson plans, and assessment; combine with authentic texts from HMH for programs that are effective, efficient, and engaging.

Writing We will use a writer’s workshop format to learn about writing. After mini lessons, students will explore the skill using their own topic. We will write many different kinds of pieces with the purpose of informing, persuading and entertaining.

Math Program Our math program is Math Connects by Houghton Mifflin. McGraw-Hill Math Connects provides opportunities for students to build their understanding of mathematical concepts and ample practice to master important skills. Most importantly, all concepts are taught through and practiced within a strong problem-solving environment, insuring that students become life-long problem solvers.

Social Studies Program Unit 1 explains how people live in a community. Unit 2 explains our government. Unit 3 tells the story of our country's physical environment and how people interact with it. Unit 4 explains people and cultures. Unit 5 deals with time: past and present. Unit 6 deals with economics.

Science Programs In our classrooms we use the STC Program™ for the first unit (Soils). In Soils, students investigate the chief components of soil (sand, clay, and humus). The students will conduct tests that enable them to observe and compare such properties of soil as odor, appearance, and texture. For the second unit (Bridges), we use Engineering Adventures from the Museum of Science, Boston. Engineering Adventures (EA) is a fun, engaging, hands-on, design curriculum being created by the Engineering is Elementary team at Museum of Science, Boston. EA challenges children to solve design challenges using creativity, teamwork, science, and engineering. EA is arranged as a series of thematic units, each focusing on a field of engineering. For the last science unit (Insects),we use the FOSS program (Full Option Science Systems). FOSS is a research-based science curriculum for grades K-8 developed at the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California - Berkeley. The three science programs second grade covers are (1 st Marking period) Soils, (2 nd Marking period) Bridges, and finally (3 rd Marking period) Insects.

RtI Response to Intervention Tier II 30 minutes per session, 3 times a week for Reading and Math Instruction Tier III 30 minutes per session, 5 times a week for Reading and Math Instruction

Dream Box Your student can access Dream Box Learning from any computer, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week using this link: Dream Box is an online program - there's no software to download! All you need is a high-speed Internet connection and Adobe Flash. Adobe Flash is free and is included with many Internet browsers. User ID/Password (child’s school ID -- “lunch number”)

Homework Policy Homework is give the first day of the week and is to be return completed the last day of the week. Homework includes 1 math and 1 reading page each night. In addition, your child should be reading every night to work on fluency. Should your child not come home with the work, please contact your child’s classroom teacher(s). Remember, missing 2 or more weekly homework assignments – Lose 1 incentive point

Christina School District Absentee Policy 90% Students are required by law to attend school 90% of the school year to be eligible for promotion. Schools may request a doctor’s note after 5 days of student absences. Parents are informed through a district letter regarding student absences at 3, 5 and 10 day intervals. Once notified, parents have up to three (3) days to provide proper documentation for these absences. A parental note of explanation must be presented on the first or second day of the student's return to school or class. Any notes provided beyond the three (3) day period will not be accepted. Providing documentation of a valid excused absence, the student will be allowed to make up all work missed, to take tests which were missed, and to submit any assignments which became due during the absence. Tardiness to School/Early Dismissals All students are expected to be punctual to school. A student who arrives to school more than halfway through the school day or leaves early before completing half of the school day will be counted absent.

November Conferences The first marking period ends November 20 th, conferences are held the following week. See your child’s teacher(s) for signing up tonight or in the near future for a conference time. February Conferences Conferences for the 2 nd marking period are held in February. Your child’s teacher will only be meeting with parents whose child is not meeting grade level expectations in any area academically, or parents that request to meet with us.

At this time, we would like to invite you into your child’s classroom to allow your child’s teacher(s) continue with discussing important information that pertains only to that classroom. Once again, thank you for coming.