Welcome to Second Grade! Ms. Kayla James kayla.james@tellcity.k12.in.us William Tell Elementary The following document is for your convenience, to answer any possible questions about how the classroom will be ran and how your child will progress through second grade. **Note: Please read through, sign, and return the back of this document. Thank You.
1. Volunteering in my classroom: Please feel free to submit your name for volunteering if you wish. A volunteer in my room would help with classroom assistance (copying papers and other essential duties) and special projects (cutting out templates and organizing). Please contact me if you would like to volunteer. The office has to have a volunteer form turned into them. Teachers have a lot of copies and planning to do every week and each grade level tries to get at least one parent helper to make copies, so your help would be greatly appreciated. 2. Daily Schedule: The schedule is subject to change based on special classroom/school events. 8:10-9:40 Morning Meeting/Math Rotations 9:40-9:45 Restroom Break 9:45-11:30 Language Arts Block -Reading Skill/Strategy -Read Aloud/Basal Story -Daily Five Centers 11:30-11:35 Restroom Break 11:35-12:20 Recess/Lunch 12:20-12:25 Restroom Break 12:25-12:35 Read Aloud 12:40-1:20 Special Class 1:20-1:25 Restroom Break 1:25-2:05 Tier 2 2:05-2:45 Writing/Science 2:45 Pack up for dismissal 3. Special Class Schedule: Our class is split into three groups for special classes (students go to different classes on different days). This is due to the fact that we have more classrooms and smaller class sizes. Attached to this packet is our class schedule for the year. I recommend that you keep the schedule as a reminder. You will need to find your child s name to know their schedule. 4. Behavior Management: Positive reinforcement will be used while discussing issues with your child. We will use language like: do the right thing, treat people right, make good choices, make good decisions, be responsible, or how can we fix this problem. Students will be held accountable for their behavior on an individual level and as a whole group. Individual Behavior: Color Cards Color Cards will be used in the classroom to hold students accountable for their behavior on an individual basis. It is the student s goal to leave at the end of the day on green or blue. No student will be asked to move a card unless they have already received one warning. Students will record their color at the end of the day on their Weekly Agenda.
Teacher notes will be added to the Weekly Agenda explaining why the student was told to color down/up. Phone calls about behavior may also be made if necessary. I appreciate any assistance you may give with rewarding exceptional classroom behavior at home. I make it my personal goal to utilize positive reinforcement and patience in my classroom. I will exhaust all means to ensure that each student knows and understands what good choices look like, sound like, and feel like. The color cards stand for the following. -Blue= I did something extra special today! Student will have a positive note sent home and will receive two banana bucks. A student will receive a blue if they have done something like picked up a mess in the room or helped me. This is called coloring up. They can only receive this if they are on green. -Green= Way to go! I had a good day and made good decisions. -Yellow= I had an okay day and made one mistake. A student will be given one warning. After the first warning the student will be asked to color down to yellow. The student will miss five minutes at recess. Students on yellow will receive one point off of their Conduct grade. -Red= I had a rough day and made two or more bad decisions. The student will miss all of recess and will have a note sent home. Phone calls may also be made at this time if necessary. Students on red will receive three points off of their Conduct grade. **Note: For serious behavior such as intentionally hitting another student, destroying school property and violation of other offenses listed in the student handbook, the student will go straight to red, a phone call will be made, and a note will be sent home. Visiting the principal may also happen at this time if necessary. Banana Bucks Banana Bucks will be used as a rewards system in the classroom. Students can receive Banana Bucks by doing many different things. For example; following directions while other are distracted, helping a friend, helping the teacher, cleaning up a mess and many others. Students will be praised for their good behavior and will be asked to get a Banana Buck. Banana Bucks can also be taken away. If a student makes a bad decision I can ask them to pay me a buck. Whole Group Behavior: Scoreboard We will have a scoreboard in the classroom. Throughout the day I will use the score board to keep students on task and involved in lessons. On one side of the board is a happy face and on the other is a sad face. If the class is staying on task, listening, and doing a great job participating I will give a point to the happy face. If at any time the class is distracted or not following directions I might give a sad face. At the end of the day, if we have more happy faces than sad faces I will add one point to the score board. When we have ten points on our scoreboard we will share a special snack.
5. Communication about your child s behavior: Your child will bring home a Weekly planner every day. The Weekly planner will be the main communication tool between you and I. It will be used for daily homework and behavior. On the Weekly planner, which I have attached towards the end of this document, there is a small dot on every day of the week. This is where your child will color in the color they were on that day. On the right side and on the back, is a place where I will write comments about your child s behavior and why they colored up or down. Also on the front is a line for you to put your initials on as proof that you have seen their Weekly Agenda every night and that their homework is completed. This helps to monitor your child s conduct and completion of homework. Putting your initials on their Weekly Planner is a very important thing to do every night but if you forget, don t worry just go ahead and initial it once you see it. I will keep Weekly Agendas at the end of the week for my records. 6. What are your nightly responsibilities: Please check and initial your child s Weekly Planner every night for homework and behavior. You may add any notes, questions, and responses on the comments section of the Weekly Planner. Provide support for your child while they are working on homework. Please check the contents in their folder such as extra assignments to complete, graded assignments, progress checks and report cards. Please have your child empty their folder of any papers that no longer need to be at school. This will help to keep their folder clean and will help to prevent them from losing their homework if there are a lot of papers in their folder. Please make sure any documents that are sent home, and have a note to return to school, get returned. 7. What are your weekly responsibilities: A weekly newsletter called Jungle Journal will be sent home every Friday. It will have helpful information about the things we are doing in the classroom, things about the upcoming week, and reminders about events in the school/classroom. Reading Millionaire is a reading program to get children to read. A record sheet of the books your child has read at home will be sent home on Fridays. If your child participates with the program then you will want to send it back to school on the following Friday. 8. Daily Homework Assignments: Homework assignments will consist mostly of Everyday Mathematics worksheets, Guided Reading, Fluency Poems and Phonics words. Everyday Mathematics is the math program we use at William Tell Elementary. The homework sent with your child will coincide with the lesson taught at school that same day. The homework for guided reading will be reading a story from your child s reading book. Phonics words will be a list of words that have a common spelling pattern that your child will need to read through and practice. The Fluency poem is usually a funny rhyming poem that your child will also need to read. 9. What kind of progress should I be seeing? Reading: Your child should be using strategies to figure out unknown words, comprehending what they are reading, and stopping to think about what is being read instead of hurrying, enjoying reading and being read to, gradually increasing the difficulty of books to read, and reading at a faster rate while still being able to recall what they read. Writing: Your child should be writing a story focused on one moment, using details in words, illustrating less and writing more, trying various genres of writing: non-fiction, poetry, and fiction, stretching out unknown words and circling them if they aren t sure if they are correct, spelling grade-level appropriate words, and using punctuation and capital letters correctly.
Math: Your child should be writing numbers up to 100 in numerical form, arranging numbers in order from least to greatest and greatest to least, modeling addition and subtraction, regrouping, borrowing, using mental math to solve problems, creating patterns and skip counting, using fractions, graphing data, telling time to the quarter hour, counting money, using a ruler, using a thermometer, gaining problem-solving awareness and being able to explain their answers. 10. What can I do to help my child succeed? -One of the biggest things you can do is make sure your child is at school. Attendance is a very crucial part of learning. -Help your child with their daily homework. Parental involvement shows your child that you care for them and see the importance of a good education. -Read, read, read at home! Read signs while you are driving, keep books in the car, Go to the library it s free. -While your child is reading, don t tell them the word; let them use their reading strategies to figure it out. -Keep a journal or notebook at home. -While your child is writing, don t tell them how to spell a word; have them stretch it out and circle it if their still not sure if it is correct. -Write letters back and forth to your child. -Practice basic math facts with your child. Use flash cards or go to our classroom website and click on www.xtramath.com. -Make up story problems and solve them together. 11. School Website: I have a classroom website online. You can find it by going to the school website (http://www.tellcity.k12.in.us/school_home.aspx?schoolid=2) and clicking on Faculty Websites. After clicking, scroll down to find my name. On the homepage you will find my email address. If you click Ms. James s Classroom you will find classroom announcements, classroom assignments, and the weekly newsletter (Jungle Journal). Under my pages you will find our daily schedule, special classes schedule, classroom procedures, and behavior procedures. I understand that not everyone has access to the internet, so all copies of important announcements, newsletters, and homework assignments will be sent home with your child. The website is there for you to find updated general information about the classroom. If you re able to use it please do. 12. Snack: I will not be having a daily snack time in my classroom, so please make sure that your child has enough to eat in the morning to allow them not to need anything to eat until lunch time at 12:00. 13. Parties: I do allow birthday and holiday parties in the room. Students are only allowed to bring in one food item and one drink item. Please make sure that if your child is bringing the food/drinks with them that it isn t too much for them to carry. If it is I please ask that the parents of that child bring it in for them. Please contact me to let me know that you plan on sending something in to allow me to adjust the daily schedule for the party. During some holiday parties I will play movies. Lots of kids movie are no longer rated G and instead are rated PG (Parental Guidance). Please let me know if your child will not be allowed to watch PG movies. 14. Lunch Money: When sending lunch money in with your child, please try to ensure the money is in a sealed envelope with your child s name, grade level, and my name so that if it is lost you will
have better odds at recovering it. This also helps me keep track of the money to send it to the cafeteria. 15. Dismissal Changes/Early pickups: If your child has a change in dismissal I must have a note of this change. I will not send any student home in a different way without a note from home. You may also call the office to let them know if there is a change in dismissal and I will allow the office to notify me of those changes. If your child must leave the regular school day early, I ask that you please send a note stating when your child will need to leave and who is picking them up so I can notify the office. 16. Dress Code Changes: Please remember that students are no longer allowed to wear open-toed shoes including flip-flops. Please ensure your child is appropriately dressed according to the weather. To make sure your child is appropriately dressed for school, please check the student handbook. 17. Special Programs at William Tell Elementary: Olweus- Olweaus is a bully protection program. You may read more about it in the student handbook. C.L.A.S.S- Connecting Learning Assures Successful Students is a program that connects character, literacy, and curriculum to real life situations. C.L.A.S.S. is about teaching students life skills. Some of the life skills taught will be caring, responsibility, organization, patients, and cooperation. I will be actively teaching and using the life skills in the classroom. Reading Millionaire- Reading Millionaire is a reading program our school uses to encourage children to read. Your child will be given a Reading Millionaire form every Friday. They can then take it home and record what they have read until the following Friday when they turn it back into school. You have to write the title of the book and the number of minutes that your child reads. Please don t forget to fill out the students name, grade, teacher, total number of minutes read and parents signature. Any work you do that helps your child become a better reader should be counted (not just books). That includes: Fluency poems, reading stories, reading phonics words, and any other reading your child does. The form that you return to school says Choose any 4 days (or more) before or after school throughout the week. Any amount of minutes your child reads will be counted towards our schools running total of minutes read (even if you only read one night for twenty minutes), however second grade will have a reward only for the students that read 4 nights per week for 20 minutes each night or have a total of 80 minutes read in a week. I know that some nights are busier than others, so if you read 15 minutes one evening, and 25 on another, that will be fine. This new change was decided upon based on the fact that some students would fill out one day of the sheet and bring it to school every week without having actually read anything at home. We want to encourage our students to read at home, not to fib about reading only to receive a reward. I also keep track of how many minutes your child has read in my classroom. The more your child reads, even if it s only 15 minutes a week, the more prizes they will receive. I give out
prizes for every one thousand minutes they read. Reading Millionaire forms are due each Friday, but will be accepted on Monday mornings as well if students forget. Thank You for taking the time to read through this document. Our teamwork will make a big difference in your child s learning. Ms. James Cut Here I have read and understand this document. Students Name: Parents Signature: Date: