SECOND GRADE

Homework

    I just wanted to let you know a little about your child’s weekly homework assignments.  Generally the students will have homework on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  The homework for the weekend is only to remember to bring back their Friday folders on Monday.  On Monday and Wednesday the students will normally have some kind of worksheet to do.  It may be any subject area.  Most of the time, it will be some kind of math page.  I ask the students to write “This Side Only” or “Both Sides” on the paper so they can remember what they are to do when they get home.  If I ask them to do only one side, I really only want them to do one side.  Sometimes students want to do more, and that is great!  But, I will most likely have the students do the other side at school or for homework another night. 

     On Tuesday the students should read their story in their reading book for homework.  They will normally have a worksheet also.  If the students do not feel they will have time to finish the story on Tuesday night, they may bring their reading books home on Monday night also.  They can read part of it on Monday and part on Tuesday or read the whole story on Monday if they would like.  I encourage students to take the book home on Monday just in case, because some weeks the stories are lengthy and they might want to split it between two nights.  I do not care when they read the story as long as it is read before Wednesday morning.  If your child reads the story on Monday night, he/she will still be bringing the book home on Tuesday because they may need it to do the comprehension worksheet for homework that night. 

     Normally on Thursday night the only homework the students have is to study for their spelling test.  I encourage the students to study a little each night but I like to give the students Thursday night to concentrate on studying the words just in case they didn’t get a chance earlier in the week. 

     Homework is generally not graded.  I do look over the homework to make sure it is completed and to see how the students did.  Homework is great practice for what we are doing in the classroom.  It is fine to check over your child’s homework and help him/her with it.  It is a great way to see if they understand the material.  If a student does not bring his/her homework, they will have to do the work during recess time.  I try to stick to this homework schedule as best I can.  There may be changes due to weeks where we don’t go to school all five days or if there isn’t a story in our reader for that week.  I will let your child know.  If you have any questions, let me know.  Thank you!!

Discipline Policy

     The discipline policy in our classroom is designed to help the students use the DWP skills that we have at our school.  Each student will have four colored cards and for each negative behavior exhibited the student will have to change his/her card to a different color.  Each student will start on green.  The student will receive a yellow card for the first warning.  The student will receive a red card for the second warning.  The next card is black.  If a student receives a black card, he/she will have to fill out a classroom discipline form during recess.  This will have to be signed by a parent and returned to school.  If a student has to fill out three discipline forms during a month, the forms will be sent to Mrs. Schroeder.  The student may need to meet with Mrs. Schroeder to discuss the problems he/she is having in the classroom.

     After school, I will record on a calendar the color your child had at the end of the day.  This will be sent home weekly in the Friday folder.  The calendar should be signed and returned on Monday with the Friday folder.  Below, I have listed our DWP classroom rules.  We have gone over all the rules and they are also posted in our classroom.  If you have any questions about the discipline policy, please let me know.  I know this will help our classroom be a great learning environment.  Thank you! 

1. Respect Yourself, Others, and Things

     - keeps hands to yourself

     - using a polite, friendly voice

     - saying nice things

     - sharing

     - raising your hand to talk

     - being quiet in the hallway

2. Contribute to the learning environment

     - using your inside voice

     - keeping your desk clean

     - paying attention

     - keeping your hands at your desk

     - being prepared for class

     - do jobs before morning bell

3. Follow classroom procedures

     - doing your work or job

     - walking in the hallway and classroom

     - putting things away, using things for the right reasons

     - put your name on your paper

Grade 2 Room 3

Discipline Form

Name ___________________________________________ 

Date ____________________________________________ 

What I did ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________ 

______________________________________________________________________

What self-discipline skills I could have used _____________________________________ 

______________________________________________________________________

What I plan to do _________________________________________________________ 

______________________________________________________________________

How will I know if it worked __________________________________________________ 

_______________________________________________________________________ 

Student signature ___________________________________ 

Teacher signature ___________________________________ 

Parent signature ____________________________________

Spelling Reading Program

      I am very excited because this year we have adopted new reading books!  The stories look great!  The Spelling book is a part of our Reading series.  The students will have regular spelling words and challenge words.  The spelling words will be based on what we are studying in our reading.  The challenge words will not affect the students’ grades.  They will be for bonus points.  The challenge words will come from the story we are reading that week.

     Each Monday the students will receive the weekly spelling list.  I will point out the phonics rule that all of the words follow.  The students should study these words throughout the week.  The students will write spelling sentences on Monday mornings.  There are also many practice pages in the Spelling book that the students will do throughout the week. On Friday, we will take a regular Spelling test over the words.  The students will have to write the words as I say them. 

     At the bottom of the spelling list each week, there will be six challenge words.  The challenge words are the vocabulary words from the story they will be reading that week.  The students are allowed to choose which of these words they want to study for this part.  They must choose three, but are allowed to choose all six.  They will be tested on Friday only on the words they studied and each word will be worth one bonus point.  At the end of the nine weeks, everyone who has one point or more will get to choose a prize from the “Reward Box”.  They will choose in order of the number of points attained. 

     The students will also need to learn the meanings of the challenge words.  Even though they can choose to spell only three of the words, they will need to learn the meanings for all of them.  We will be talking about the words throughout the week and generally the students already know what the words mean.  There is a glossary in the back of our reading book.  If your child wants to look up the meanings of the words he/she could use that.  The students will have a vocabulary test on Friday.  It will normally be matching the word to its definition or filling in a sentence with the correct word.  I will not help the students read the vocabulary words for this test so it is important for your child to practice reading these words throughout the week.

     I realize this spelling program may be a little different than what the students are used to and it will take some adjusting.  As the weeks go by, it will become easier and part of our regular routine.  If you have any questions about the Spelling program, please let me know!  I would be happy to explain anything about the program.

     The students will also bring home their reader each week.  We will read one story every week.  I usually assign the story for homework on Tuesday evenings.  The students can read the story on Tuesday night or on Monday night if that is more convenient.  A few stories in our reader are a bit lengthy.  They may want to read part of the story on Monday night and part of the story on Tuesday night.  Either way is fine by me as long as they have the story read by Wednesday morning. 

     Please let me know if you have any questions about your child’s spelling/reading program.