Working...
Mrs. Lundgren’s
2nd Grade
Class of 2015-2016
Welcome to 2nd Grade!
My name is Kirsten Lundgren and this will be my third year of teaching here at Quinter Elementary School! I am so excited to begin the school year with your Second Grader! I know that your child is your world, and I want to thank you for allowing them to be a part of mine! Please, Please, Please, feel free to stop in, call, or email me with any questions you may have throughout the school year. I know that together we can make a difference in your child’s education!
Here are some things you should know about our classroom.................
Behavior
Your child will start out with a GREEN CARD everyday. Each time a 2nd grader does not follow the rules they will be asked to flip a card. If the students flip one card, they will be on yellow (Think About It), which is basically a warning. If the student flips a card again they will be on orange (Teacher’s Choice) and then they will receive a consequence to fit their negative behavior. If the student flips a card a third time, they will be on red and the student’s parents will be contacted and/or receive a visit to the principal’s office.
At the end of the day the students will be rewarded with “Movie Tickets” that they can use to spend at the classroom “concession stand” (treasure chest). They will receive 2 tickets for ending on green, lose 1 ticket for ending on yellow, lose 3 tickets for ending on orange, and lose 5 tickets for ending on red.
Mr. Potato Head
Mr. Potato Head will be joining our classroom this year. If the students can have an overall great day as a class, they will be able to add a piece to Mr. Potato Head at the end of the day. For instance, if every student ends on green, the class will earn a Mr. Potato Head piece. When Mr. Potato Head gets put together completely, the students will be rewarded with some sort of whole class reward.
Homework Folders
Your child’s homework folder will come home each night. Inside you will find a homework/behavior log. This log will need to be initialed each night. Looking over and initialing this log will improve communication between us regarding your child’s homework and behavior for each day.
Homework
Every night I would like the students to practice their spelling words and read. They will also have occasional math pages, reading pages, math facts to study, or whatever work they do not get completed in class.
If a student has missed school, their homework will need to be completed as soon as possible. I am an understanding person, so due dates will vary depending on the type of assignment and the reason for missing school.
Students will need to complete any given homework at home and return it the next day. If homework is not completed when I am checking in homework folders the next day, the student will be asked to flip a card. I am big on the students understanding that they can take their education into their own hands. Their education is now becoming their responsibility. I also understand everyone makes mistakes. If a student flips a card because of not getting homework done every once in a while, I will not be upset. Everybody slips up every now and then.
Take Home Folders
Take home folders will be sent home every Thursday. Most of the work your child completes will be sent home in this folder.
There will be a sheet of paper located inside the take home folder. After you have reviewed your child’s work with your child, please sign and date the log. There is also a place for you to make comments or ask questions about anything. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have a question or concern.
Read Night
Reading at home can make a huge difference! I believe that family time is so important. Why not make reading part of this valuable time with your children? I would like each parent(s) to sign up for at least 2 nights that work best for your family to take aside at least 15 minutes to read with your child. (Sign up sheet will be at the end of this document. Please fill out and send back to school with your child.) I understand you are very busy, and if you are unable to read with your child on your designated read night I am fine with anyone older than the child such as an older brother or sister to read with the child. The “Read Night Log” will be located in your child’s homework folder. It will need to be logged and signed on your child’s designated read nights.
Accelerated Reader
Accelerated Reader is a computerized program that allows the students to take comprehension tests on many of the books that they read. Generally there are 5 or 10 questions per test. Accelerated Reader is not taken as a grade in my class. They will however create goals for themselves on how many points they want to achieve for each 9 weeks. If they meet their goals, they will receive some sort of reward from the school library and Mrs. Zeigler.
My biggest fear with Accelerated Reader is that it can take the fun out of reading. I want the kids to LOVE reading. In my classroom, each child will get an “AR punch card”. For each half-point book the student passes (70% or above) he or she will receive 1 punch. The more points the book is worth, the more punches the child will receive. When a student has filled his or her punch card they will receive a reward from me. This is just something extra I like to do to keep kids motivated to read! The kids will bring an “AR folder” home every Thursday as well as their Homework and Take Home folder. This is so you can review your child’s tests and test scores and see how they are doing. When you are done looking over their AR tests, please take out the tests and sign and date the AR Folder log. There is also a place for you to make comments or ask questions about anything on this log as well.
I will also be keeping track of how many punch cards the class has completed. As soon as every student in the class has filled 1 punch card they will receive a whole class reward. When every student has filled 2 punch cards, they will receive another whole class reward, etc.….
I have high hopes that this strategy will encourage students to read because it is fun as opposed to making them feel the pressure of reading because they have to. Please help encourage your child to develop a love for reading. The more they read, the better they read!
Spelling
Each Monday your child will get a spelling list. This list will consist of words that go hand in hand with that week’s phonics lesson. For instance, our first week’s spelling list will consist of short A and short I cvc words such as: sad and dig. There will be 12 new spelling words each week. There will also be 2 review words and 2 bonus words.
There is also a dictation sentence on the test worth 1 point. The students will receive ½ a point for capitalization and correct punctuation and ½ a point for spelling the sight words of the week correctly. If I add words into the sentence they would not necessarily know, I tell them how to spell those particular words or do not count wrong spellings against them.
Please take time each week to go over the spelling words with your child. The easier these words come to the children, the better they will be at using them in any situation. Thank you for your help!
Math Facts
Starting in September, I will be sending home math facts flash cards home with your child. The Goal is to have the students fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies by the end of 2nd grade. I want the students to know from memory all sums and differences of two one-digit numbers.
The students will be tested on 0’s-10’s math facts. Each time I assign a set of Math Facts throughout the year the students will have 1 whole week to practice them (Mon.-Mon) and then they will be tested on them.
If your child does not pass a Math Facts quiz, they will have to fill out a Math Facts practice sheet of 100 problems as homework and re-take the quiz the following Monday. To pass the quiz, the students will need to know 10/10 within a time limit of 25 seconds. I will show the flash cards to them and the student will verbally give me the answer.
The Math Facts quizzes will be a part of their Math test grade. Please help to make sure you child is practicing these facts at home. The students will also be practicing these facts in math centers.
Book Orders
Each month I will try to hand out Scholastic book orders for the students to take home. The students will also have the opportunity to purchase books through the book fairs here at school at the end of September and April. If you choose to order, please send the completed form and money back with your child by the due date written on the order form. If writing a check, please make it out to the book company, not the school. You can also make your orders online. I will write our “classroom code” on each book order before sending them home. Ordering is always optional.
This year I will be creating a Facebook Group for Mrs. Lundgren’s 2nd Grade Class. This will be a private group which means no one will be able to see anything I put on that page except for the people I invite to the group (which will be you, the parents). If I missed over one of you, please add me as a friend or message me to invite you to the group!
The intent of the Facebook Group is so I have a fun way to communicate to you on what’s going on in our classroom.
I understand that some of you do not have a Facebook account and that is perfectly fine. I will still send notes and reminders home with each child for events going on in our classroom. The Facebook Group will just have extra friendly reminders as well .
Birthdays
Please let me know when and if you would like to celebrate your child’s birthday. Usually a week ahead of time is sufficient notice. We will try to start birthdays at 3:00 and end at 3:30. If your child has a summer birthday, I am open to celebrating his/her birthday whenever it is convenient for you. If you would like to send or bring treats you may, but please DO NOT bring any treats containing nuts in them.
Also, if your child is having a birthday party outside of school, we ask that your child does not pass out the invitations at school unless every girl or boy in the class is invited to the party.