**This information will be sent home in paper form the 2nd week of school.**

Dear Families,

This year you may notice some differences in routines for spelling.  In 2nd grade your child will not have weekly spelling lists or tests.  Instead, we will be focusing on phonics skills that can be applied to a wider variety of words in both reading and spelling.  Each week we will spend time learning about, practicing, and applying 1-2 phonics/word skills.  At the end of each unit, students will be assessed on their ability to apply these skills to both reading and writing.  These check-ins will focus on the heart words for the unit, as well as the general skills taught during the unit.  Please note that this will be different than a traditional spelling test in that students will not have a set list of words for each skill to memorize.  Instead, the students will be asked to apply the skills they have learned.  

To help support your child at home, your child will be bringing home Weekly Practice Pages.  These will be sent home on day 3 of each week.  This two-sided handout will list the skills we have introduced that week, example words, heart words (words that don’t follow the typical learned patterns), and a reading passage for each skill.  This is not required homework that needs to be returned, but students are strongly encouraged to use these practice sheets to help them continue to work on their word skills at home.  There is a page on this website for some different ways the practice sheets can be used.  I will add more ideas and games to our class website as the year goes on. 

      If you have any questions about our skills and routines, please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask.