Welcome to a very exciting year in your child’s school
career! Second grade is incredible as you
watch your child’s skills grow and develop.
They will learn so many new and wonderful things. I am looking forward to sharing a positive
and rewarding year with them while instilling a love of reading and writing.
The following information will give you an idea of the basic
structure of our classroom organization regarding class assignments and
homework expectations.
MATH – We develop and learn many new concepts through constant
spiraling during the year. Our
curriculum is filled with many hands-on learning experiences so that the
students continue development in new vocabulary, or expand on concepts that
were introduced in first grade. We are teaching math very differently than how we learned as adults. Please check-in daily to my webpage under the math tabs. I will leave hints how I am teaching the concepts the students need to know. Today math is more about the how and why, and less about memorizing.
READING – Each child was given a reading log. Please log the number of minutes that you
spent reading with your child every day.
At the end of each column represents a 100 minutes, and the child will
be rewarded with a frog by their alligator on the outside wall of my classroom. Please find time to share a reading time with
your child by reading aloud, reading the newspaper or sharing a magazine. Treasure the opportunity
to cuddle up with your child now because they will grow up in the blink of an
eye!
SPELLING – Each week a unit will be taught and tested. A test will be given on Friday. A list of the unit words will be on the newsletter
sent home on Monday to study. Spending a
few minutes daily studying the words is the most successful plan. It is helpful to write the words as you
study.
ATTENDANCE – Please call the office or email me if your child
is going to be absent.
COMMUNICATION – The easiest way to contact me is through
email. Don’t hesitate to let me know
anything that might affect your child’s learning (rough morning, parent out of
town, feeling down, etc.). Send an email
with your child’s name in the subject line.
NEWSLETTER - On Monday’s a weekly express will be sent home
with each child. This has the spelling
words, word wall words to know, and also objectives that will be the focus of
that week. Please read over this with
your child. Please talk about the
vocabulary, and ask your child what they have learned in these subjects. This is a great learning experience for your
child!
CONDUCT – A positive attitude, willingness to learn and good
behavior are keys to success in my classroom!!
Each student starts the new six weeks with a 100 in citizenship. Each student starts the day on green. No one is ever stuck on a color. If they have to lower their color, they have
every opportunity to be moved back up.
Students will be rewarded for good behavior with sticker charts. In their folder they will keep a daily log of
the color they end on for the day, so you may check it daily. Please sign their color chart daily.
Homework –
We will be starting homework this week.
Homework will consist of reading, spelling, and math. Every night I ask that you read at least 20
minutes. The students will have a
reading log in their take-home folders for you to sign each day. Monday thru Friday the students will be
bringing home books from me in a book baggy.
These books are on their reading level.
Please make sure to read these books with your child. Also, you will have a reader’s response
log. The students will choose one
question each night and answer on the space provided. Also, we will have a little reading passage
that goes along with the skill that we are discussing for that current
week. This passage is the reading level
that the kids should be on during that particular time of the year. Math will be done a little bit
differently. We have a new math adoption
this year. It has built-in homework into
some of the lessons. From what I see,
expect math homework once to twice a week.
Our spelling homework will be a lot like last year. You will receive a circle map with the
spelling pattern of the week in the middle.
Each night add one to two words inside the circle. At the end of the week, we will look at the
students’ homework and choose 10 words for their test. It will not be a memorized list, but a
specific pattern for their test. During
our phonics lesson we will practice the pattern of the week as well. The students were very successful last year
with spelling.
Behavior –
I am implementing a new behavior system this year. Instead of doing colors, the class has
enjoyed a new program called class dojo.
Each student has their own avatar.
They can earn points or get points taken away. I have even taught the students to give/take
away points to their own avatars on my computer. They have really enjoyed it. For every 10 points that the students earn
they will be able to do something special.
For example, some students want to eat lunch with me in my room. They have also mentioned things like taking
off their shoes in class, or extra computer/ipad time. I told the students they can choose their
rewards as long as they are within reason.
I have invited every parent to “join” us on classdojo. You can watch throughout the day the
different behaviors of your child. This
way you can reward your child at home for good behaviors, or go over some needs
improvement behaviors. Please let me
know if you need another invite. I did
have some parents that had some difficulty receiving my invite.
Communication
– This year I am using facebook so that you can feel like you are with your
child during the day. If we do neat
things I will add photos and/or videos to my page. I also like to put any reminders and/or
things that we learned that day. On
Facebook look for Lesly Hodges Second Grade and “like” my page. Please feel free to like or comment on posts
that I share. I love hearing from my
parents. Another form of communication
that I like to use is called Remind 101.
Send a text to (817) 653-8797 with the message @9c929. This is more for quick/short reminders. Last but not least, I have a webpage that you
can view from Austin’s website. On my
website I will include fun links to games that will help the students with
skills that we are working on in class.
Thank you so much for entrusting me with your little
one. I am looking forward to many fun
filled learning experiences. Please let
me know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Lesley Hodges
Sincerely,
Lesley Hodges
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