Mrs. Borgersen's Class
Welcome to second grade! This is a very exciting and important year. Here are a few of my class policies.
The STAR Notebook The STAR Notebook is a very important part of our Second Grade class. It is a wonderful organizational tool. Your child will need to take it home every night and return it to school each morning. It will help you stay informed of what is going on in our class. What’s inside the STAR notebook?
STAR Notebook Rules--a letter to your child about their notebook Snacks for Recess Students may have a healthy snack every day around 10:30. Parents are responsible for providing their child with a healthy snack daily. Please send snacks that don’t require utensils. Examples of a healthy snack : granola bars, gold fish, Ritz crackers, fruit gummies, yogurt covered raisin, dried fruit, etc. Classroom Homework Policy Homework is used to extend and expand instructional activities presented in class. Homework is important for two reasons:
In addition, I will be sending home a monthly reading calendar for you to keep track of how long and how well your child is reading at home. These will be put in your student’s STAR Notebook in the Reading Log section. Your child will be bringing home copied books. Please read the books with your child or have them read them and then ask questions about their reading. Included you will find a list of strategies you can use to help your child become a better reader and writer. Re-reading the selected books helps students build automatic word recognition and will benefit your child greatly. Be sure to sign the reading log. Make-Up Work If a student is absent, the make-up work assignments he or she missed will be sent home. Sufficient time will be allowed for completion. If the work is not returned by the given date, the student will not receive credit. Behavior In order for each child to be successful, there will be classroom expectations. Following the classroom rules is essential. These are the classroom rules:
We will discuss these rules in detail and I will continue to remind them about our classroom rules. To encourage students to achieve these expectations, I will reinforce appropriate behavior in the form of praise, recognition, stickers, and treasures from the treasure box. We have a color card behavior system in our classroom. Each child has colored cards to represent his/her behavior throughout the day. Their behavior will be reflected on their behavior card which will be colored in daily in their STAR Notebook. These colors represent the following classroom behaviors: Blue—SUPER DAY, student follows classroom rules and routines Green—GOOD DAY, Student needs to slow down and remember the class rules. Yellow—BORDERLINE DAY, Student made several poor choices during the day. 5 minute time out during recess, student will miss half of Fun Friday. Red—CONSEQUENCE TIME, Student has repeatedly or seriously violated classroom rules and has shown a lack of concern for others. Second 5 minute time out, student will miss all of Fun Friday, possible citation, phone call to parent or email. Please check your student’s behavior report daily and sign it after each week. If your child receives a red card, I will talk to you, write you a note, email or call you. I recommend that you reward your child for good behavior. Thank you in advance for your cooperation in this behavior system. Academics Many parents are interested in what we will be learning in second grade. I will be teaching what the state requires for second graders called the Common Core State Standard. In language arts, we will work on reading skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, fluency, vocabulary. The students will be assessed at the beginning of the year to determine their developmental levels. Students will then be placed in flexible, guided reading groups based on their developmental needs. They will be working with children at their level and learn in small groups. In writing, your child will participate in two writing programs; Being a Writer and one that accompanies “Wonders”, our new reading series. Proper handwriting will be emphasized at school and I am hoping that you will emphasize correct letter formation at home as well. In math, we will work on topics including how base 10 works or number sense, understanding addition/subtraction, using the operations of addition and subtraction in solving word problems, place value (ones, tens, and hundreds), shapes, measurement, fractions, money and telling time. Finally, some of our science, health and social studies topics include safety, nutrition, maps, families, friendship, holidays, our country, travel of sound, properties of matter, weather patterns, animal life cycles and how organisms are similar to and differ from parents. If you have specialized knowledge in any area, please let me know! We are always looking for knowledgeable guest speakers!! Grading Procedures Your child will be assessed on standards or “learning goals. The following rubric will be used to identify the level of mastery or proficiency relating to these learning goals. At the end of each quarter, his/her performance data will be represented on report cards using the following terms: Exceeds; Approaches; Emergent; and No evidence shown. Standard: 4 Exceeds: In addition to Score 3.0 performance, the student demonstrates in-depth knowledge and applications that go beyond what was taught. Higher order thinking is evident. 3 Meets: Learning evidence was complete with no major errors or omissions in the evidence regarding any of the information and/or processes that were explicitly taught. 2 Approaches: Learning evidence was partially completed and/or during the learning process, multiple errors were made. Student needed significant scaffolding in order to complete the task. 1 Emergent: Minimal learning evidence was shown. Minimal effort was made by student. Student was unable to complete independently. 0 No evidence shown School Supplies The list for school supplies is on the school website. As addition materials are needed I will let you know on my website. Please put your child’s name on their pencil box, backpack and lunchbox. Birthdays If your child’s birthday falls during the school year, we will be celebrating that special occasion during class with singing and a small gift. If you would like to bring a treat, please send it to school with your child in the morning or bring it to the school before 3:00 p.m. so we can pass it out at the end of the day. Please plan on 25 treats. If your child has a summer birthday, you are welcome to bring treats during their STAR Student spotlight week or we will celebrate their birthday at the end of the school year. Anything you decide is great. (Please remember that there is no obligation in any way) Thanks! Parent Helpers Parent Helpers are encouraged. Please see the attached form and complete it if you are interested in helping. We will be celebrating holidays and need a room parent or two to be in charge of celebrations. STAR Student of the Week Each student will have a spotlight week as the “STAR Student”. Included is a page with that date. I will send home an addition information page the week before their special week. During that week your child may bring one of his/her favorite books and a special show and tell item. Contact Information You can reach me at the school number which is 478-8888 or [email protected]. Second grade website is grade2somersetskypointe.weebly.com. |
Weekly Update:Day 1: Art Day 2: PE Day 3: Music Day 4: PE Day 5: Spanish |