At HOME

Reading Folders:  During the first half of the year, your student will receive a folder with a reading log.  Each night please help your student record the book or passage your student reads and sign your name.  I will punch their behavior card each night they complete this work.  Once a student fills up one page of the log the student will visit the class prize box.  Second Grade sends the Wit and Wisdom fluency passages.  I will send these, as well as supplementary material that complements what we are working on in class, as well as decodable passages for select students.  These emphasize the skills and/or content we are working on in class.  You are welcome to supplement these as needed to keep your child interested in reading!  If something doesn't work for you please let me know.  I am a believer in the importance of the Science of Reading; however, I want to make sure that what we send works for you and your family at home and help elevate reading to the place you desire.    

Heart Words:  Our primary spelling word source will be the words that our phonics program designates as trick words.  In the Science of Reading movement these words are now often referred to as heart words.  Heart words are words that have at least one part that your child will not be able to decode and will have to memorize by heart.  For instance the word "said" is a heart word.  The s makes the expected sound and so does the d, but the ai does not make the expected sound, instead it makes the sound of short e.  Your child will have to memorize the spelling of the middle of this word by heart, but can sound out the beginning and the end.  We will evaluate how the students read and write these words on all Fridays. Words will be explicitly taught in class, and your child will know songs or spelling rules to help them navigate these words.  In general, I write songs to learn these words to the following tunes:

4 letters YMCA

5 letters BINGO

6 letters Happy Birthday

7 letters Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Songs always have the spelling of the word, convey the meaning, and involve student input.  

Additionally, if I notice that your child is misspelling first grade trick words on written work I will add these to your child's weekly list.  

Eureka Squared Math:  At the beginning of each math module I will send home a Eureka Math homework book.  In general we will move at the pace of one lesson per day in class.  At Masonboro students are expected to complete short homework pages that correspond with the work we have done in class.  The pages your student needs to complete are listed on the weekly newsletter (comes home digitally on the weekend, and hard copy Monday).  I am ok with you turning them in at the end of the week of daily.  All good.  Additionally, I will provide short quizzes on Friday for the students that cover exactly what we did that week.  These are meant as an exit ticket for the week to inform instruction and update you.  We will do them together until the children are ready and they will start out very simple.

Fact Fluency:  

Fact Fluency with addition and subtraction of single digit numbers, as well as adding and subtracting ten from two digit numbers is an important part of the curriculum as well.  

We also use RightStart Math games to learn math facts.  They can be a fun way to learn facts at home too!  Everyone loves "Make Ten" go fish!  

I will send videos of ways we work with this in class.