August Newsletter
Dear Parents,
We are off to a wonderful beginning in second grade. This newsletter is to pass on to you important information about our classroom. Please take the time to carefully read my guidelines and expectations for the second grade.
READING CALENDAR: You found an August Reading Calendar in your child's take home folder. If I were to choose one thing for your child to do at home this year, it would be to faithfully complete this homework assignment. Each night, Monday through Friday, your child should read from the book of their choice for a period of twenty minutes. Your child can read silently or read aloud to you or another family member or friend. After reading please initial to verify homework was completed in the appropriate box on the calendar provided. At the end of the month, return the calendar to school. Remember this needs to be initialed by a parent.
WHY DO A READING Calendar: Research on reading demonstrates that the best way to learn to read is to read! It also shows that the greater number of minutes spent just reading, the greater the child's achievement. We need to set aside time each day for children to read at home and at school. The fact that you, as parents, emphasize that reading is important enough to do every day lends the activity great weight. The reading log provides a concrete way to reserve time for reading. I will be looking for consistent daily reading. This is a nightly homework assignment. If there are twenty school nights in the month then there should be twenty entries on the month's log. I know that you may have nights that finding an extra twenty minutes may seem impossible. If this occurs, possibly reading on Sunday to replace a busy night or reading thirty minutes for two nights may work. Just note on the monthly calendar the accommodation made. Happy Reading!
BOOK ORDERS: Monthly book order forms from a variety of different companies will be sent home in green folders. Ordering from these is optional. It does provide an opportunity to receive grade appropriate reading material at a reasonable cost. If you choose to order books remember to send book orders in an envelope labeled with your child's name. Please make all book order checks to the book club. The clubs will not accept cash.
DAILY PAPERS: Please check your child's take home folder daily. You will find papers that need to be signed on the left side of their take home folder and papers you may keep at home on the right side. It is a good idea to review your child's daily work to keep up on their understanding of our classroom work.
GREEN FOLDERS: Green folders will come home with all children on Friday. They are due back at school on Monday. The left side of the folder contains papers that need to be signed and returned to school. Papers on the right side should be removed and kept at home. I require all D and F papers to be signed as well as all tests.
HOMEWORK FOLDERS: Weekly your child will bring home a folder designated for homework every Monday. This folder and its contents are due back to school on Thursdays. In the folder may be such things as a handwriting practice paper, math review sheet, spelling review or a grammar review. Hopefully using the homework folder will help your families adjust time during the week to allow for completion of homework at a convenient time. Remember to always return the folder to school on Thursday. In addition to the homework folder usually once a week students will have a story from their reader to bring home to reread for homework. This will be accompanied by a reading slip to be signed by a parent and returned to school the following day. Any story sent home for reading homework can count as part of the required 20 minutes of nightly reading.
SNACK: Students are allowed to bring a healthy snack to school each day. Second graders go to lunch last and the children tend to get hungry around 9:00. We take a small break from our work to enjoy snack daily.
Second grade is an unbelievable year of growth both physically and academically. I want this to be a wonderful year for you and your child. If at any time you have questions or concerns please feel free to call, e-mail, or stop by. I am usually at school each day from 6:40 until 3:00. Enjoy the year!
Mrs. Barth
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