Welcome to 2nd Grade!

I hope your child is having a successful week settling in to a new grade level.  From my viewpoint, everyone is trying hard to be proactive leaders and good friends.  I was able to pull most of you into our class on Dojo from the system.  There are four families that still need to connect and that information should come home to you on Wednesday.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Dojo, it is a system of fast communication from me to you and you to me.
You are able to see the Dojo points your child earns during the day. Occasionally, I will add points at the end of the day, but often they will be logged in during the day.  Students can use their points at the Otter Den, the school store, for purchasing small items or privileges such as helping a teacher for 15 minutes.  

Next, I want to address our schedule!  It is new and alternates from "A" days to "B" days.  One week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday follows the "A" day schedule and Tuesday, Thursday follows the "B" day schedule.  The following week, there are three "B" days and two "A" days.  It sounds confusing, but it is easier to do than explain.  I'll try to show you in the following chart:
"A"                                                                          "B"
8:45-9:15 - Arrival                                     8:45-9:15 - Arrival
9:15-9:25 - Morning Meeting                    9:15-9:25 - Morning Mtg.
9:25-10:25 - Math                                      9:25-10:25 - Math
10:30-10:55 - Lunch                                10:30-10:55 - Lunch
11:00-11:40 - First Special                       11:00-11:40 - Science
11:45-12:30 - Second Special                  11:45-12:30 - Writing
12:30-1:30 - Lang. Arts                           12:30-1:30 - Lang. Arts
1:30-1:55 - Recess                                     1:30-1:55 - Recess
2:00-3:10 - Lang. Arts                               2:00-3:10 - Lang. Arts
3:10-3:45 - Team Time                              3:10-3:45 - Team Time
3:45 - Dismissal                                         3:45 - Dismissal  

As you can see, the 11:00 - 12:30 slot is what changes from one day to the next.  On "A" days, we have 2 specials, on "B" days, we do not have specials at all.

Here is a list of our specials on "A" days and "B" days:


Week 1
M                                 W                                     F
Focus                           PE                                 Media
Art                               Focus                             PE

Week 2
T                                                          Th.
Music                                                  Art
Media                                                 Music   

All days with Specials are "A" days.  During a Week 1, you can see the specials we go to.  On Week 2, the "A" days are Tues. and Thurs.  The weeks will alternate all year.   I hope this helps you understand a little more clearly.  The students and I are already beginning to adjust to the new schedule. 

This week, we are making our class mission statement, setting our WIGS!, and applying for leadership roles in our classroom.  We are also practicing subatizing, break apart numbers and decomposing tens and ones in math.  In Lang. Arts, we are reading and describing the structure of the story by looking at what happens at the beginning, middle and at the end of the story. We took a pre-assessment in writing to see where we are with narratives.  We're learning all sorts of rules and procedures, but my main rule is "show respect in everything you do".  I'm happy to say this is a class who is working on being in charge of themselves and not giving up.  I'm excited about the new year!