Welcome to 2nd grade! 

Welcome to 2nd Grade! I am so excited to have you in my class and to get to know you and your families! Below you will find some helpful information for the upcoming school year.

Academic Information

In 2nd grade,  students will be studying the following subject areas: 

• Bible 

• Reading (consists of phonics, reading comprehension, and vocabulary)

• English (Grammar/Writing/Spelling)

• Math 

• Social Studies

• Science 

*Social Studies and Science will alternate quarters. Social Studies will be Q1 & Q3 and Science will be Q2 and Q4. 

Bible: We will follow BJU's Learning God's Truths for our curriculum. Each week students will have a Bible verse to memorize and a test on Friday for the verse. The format is fill in the blank with a word bank. We will practice each day but it is important for students to practice at home as well. 

Reading/English: We will do UFLI Phonics review each day. This is a program designed by the University of Florida Literary Institute and focuses on supporting students in their ability to decode. We will start with a review of the phonics sounds they learned in 1st grade and progressively get more challenging. If you are interested in learning more about the UFLI foundations program, please feel free to check out the link here or ask me any questions you may have. 

Grammar will follow the BJU English 2 book and we will alternate between learning new grammatical concepts and targeted writing instruction. 

We will also have Reading Comprehension lessons that focus on specific skills such as identifying Author's Purpose or utilizing text features, etc. 

Finally, in our guided reading groups, students will read a text on their level with an adult who will support their reading and ask them questions to determine their understanding of the text as well. 

Once a week students will practice their fluency by reading in partners and timing one another.  

Math: Math lessons will cover topics according to BJU's Grade 2 math curriculum. Students can expect a math lesson and then math groups daily. Math groups will include a group to practice fact fluency, independent skill practice, work with the teacher, and a hands on game or partner activity. It is incredibly important that student work on fact fluency at home as well. Having this ability to quickly recall their addition and subtraction facts will support their future understanding and speed with multiplication and division. 

Social Studies/Science: Both of these areas will follow the BJU curriculum as well. There will be reading and supplemental videos to support student understanding. 

Grading Information

Grades will be updated weekly; ideally you are checking grades at least once a week. Graded work will be sent home each Friday OR it will be put in the students learning binder until the unit is done. If there are any major concerns, I will typically send you a picture of the assignment and ask questions or give feedback. 

2nd grade will use a 10 point grading scale which goes as follows: 

90-100 A

80-89 B

70-79 C

60-69 D

59 or below F 

Weekly Homework

I send home a newsletter each week with the following weeks' memory verse and spelling/vocabulary words. I try to send this home on Fridays so that you have the weekend and the entire following week to work on it. I will also post it on the homepage of this website each week for easy reference. Each week you can expect:

• Nightly Reading: I cannot emphasize the importance of reading at home enough. I believe that literacy is among the most important things a child can learn. This is something that a person uses for the rest of their entire life. Just like a sport it must be practiced to build and maintain fluency. Reading ability is something that will determine a student's academic success for the rest of their school career. Bottom line. This matters. Alot. You will sign a nightly reading log and students will have a response question at the end of the week to fill out.

• 1 Math practice sheet 

• 10 Minute Math Fluency Practice daily (Fluency work will start Week 3 of school) 

• Spelling OR Vocabulary- We will alternate weeks with this and the test will be on Thursdays with the new list coming home on Fridays. The only "homework" for this is to review the words and dictation sentences with your student. We will do activites in class to support their learning as well. 

• Bible Verse: practice Bible verse memorization. 

• Study Guides- I will send home study guides for math/science/ social studies/ Bible tests at least 3 days before the test itself. 

Learning Binders

Each student will have a learning binder where we will keep all our materials from class. Please do not throw any of the materials away. We will clean out the binders periodically in class. We will put these binders together in the first few days of school. In the front of each binder, students will have a communication folder with things they can keep at home and a place for you to return things to school. The inside front cover will be for work they haven't quite finished; known as the "parking lot." 

Each day students should bring their binders back and forth from home. This is where they will keep their copies of newsletters, spelling lists, study guides, math facts, flashcards, homework, etc. It is imperative that they have it with them because we will definitely use it every single day. It will also have materials in it from class that they may find helpful as they do homework, study, etc. 

Absent Work 

Students are expected to make up assignments when they've been out. A student will have 5 days following the date of the last absence to complete absent work before it is considered "missing."  When a student misses a day, I will hand out papers to their desk just like I would normally. At the end of the day I will staple all the pages together and go through and highlight the ones that students MUST do for a grade. We do alot of different activities during the day; some for practice and some for a grade. They can still do they optional practice ones if they like and I will check them but I don't want to overwhelm students or families with mountains of absent work. Students will get this packet when they return or parents can pick it up at the end of each day. 

If you know you're going to be absent for a vacation or something like that, we can communicate in advance regarding getting work together. 

Missing Work

If a student is missing an assignment, I will type in a "0" in the gradebook as a placeholder. I will conference with the student and give them an extra copy of the assignment should they need it as well as communicate with the parent about the assignment. It is imperative that the teacher and the parent(s)/guardian(s) partner together in an effort to teach students the importance of responsibility and completing all of their work. They may need to take part of recess to complete it or take it home as an additional homework assignment to finish it.  Either way, the student will have time to complete the assignment. If it is still not done by the end of the quarter, I will change the grade to a 50 in the gradebook but it will still average into the student's final grade for the quarter. Once the quarter ends, an assignment can no longer be turned in for credit. 

Behavior 

Students will have a color chart to give a visual reflection of their behavior. Every student starts on "Ready to Learn" each day and slides up or down depending on how the day is going. Students will receive a warning, then a consequence, then a parent contact. If warranted, students may go to the principal's office for consequences. 

For positive incentives, students have the chance to earn "coins" for good behavior, participation, going above and beyond, being a good friend, etc. These coins can be turned into the "banker" at the end of the day for stickers, pencil charms, or a chance to spin the wheel of prizes and win candy, extra recess for the class, etc. 

Further, there is a class wide incentive which is Oops v. Oh yeah! When the class does something like transition quietly, work well together, behave well in the lunch room, etc, they will earn a tally under Oh Yeah! When we have a negative happen, like talking in the hall or a bad special report, we get a tally under Oops. If the Oh Yeahs! out number the Oops! at the end of the day, the class earns a point towards a whole class reward. It takes 20 points to earn the full class reward. Examples of rewards include Donut Day, Pizza Day, Camping Day, etc. 

Technology

Students should have an ipad/tablet that they bring and leave at school as well as a charger and a set of wired headphones. Students will use Ipads for:

• Kahoot

• IXL 

• Epic

• Prodigy

• Kodable 

• EdPuzzle

• Boddle 

 Kodable and Boddle are available on IPAD/IOS systems only.  One possible solution to this is to pull up the website on the students tablet internet browser. I know some parents have the internet browser disabled on their student's tablets for security reasons and that is fine. We can either set a code that I know that would allow me to pull it up for them or they just don't have to use those sites; either option is fine by me. 

**Some students have messaging capability on their devices. Under no circumstances should students be messaging anyone from their devices while they are in school. If you need to talk to your student, you have my phone number and can text at any time or call the school for my immediate attention. If your student needs to talk to you, I will make it happen. Please encourage your students to only use tablets for their assigned purpose.