Mrs. Porter's Second Grade News

Week of August 19-23

Calendar of Events

Sunday, Aug. 18th-Rite of Enrollment for Reconciliation at 4:30PM

Wednesday, Aug. 22-Mass at 8:30

Friday, Aug. 24-Picture Day-Please send back money and order

    Book order due back to school

We are off to a great start in second grade!  Last week was spent making new friends, going over (and over) school and classroom procedures, and getting our brain in learning made.  Ask your child about the special retreat rotations that we did this morning.  This week the real fun begins as we officially start the math program and our "Daily 5" reading exercises.  These are different then the kind of programs that we grew up with, but I believe that they are excellent in preparing children for learning.

The binders and planners will be coming home next week.  Please note the tabs in the binder.  It tells you all about the papers that are included in the binder.  Homework will be listed in the planner and the “color” that your child ended the day on will be colored in there as well.  Please make sure that you sign this planner every night.  Your child should be reminding you about this procedure.  

This Sunday at 4:30 is the Rite of Enrollment for all students who will be celebrating Reconciliation this year.  Your child and at least one parent is expected to attend.  Please meet in the church.  If you are unable to attend, please contact Gladys Tarter in the Religious Education office.

Next week we will be completing the Benchmark assessments.  These computerized tests are given to check what each child understands in the areas of Math, Reading, Science, and Language Arts.  It also helps us know where the students need the most help.  Results will be sent home as soon as these assessments are completed.

I will begin my “Math fact of the Week” practice next week.  Every week, students will concentrate on a specific math fact.  We will begin with +1.  (3+1, 4+1, etc.)  The goal is to achieve 90 out of 100 problems in 5 minutes or less.  I will give a pre-test on Monday and the post-test on Friday.  Each student will be given credit on how much he/she improved from Monday to Friday.  

Sometimes your child will bring home papers that have not been marked by me.  That just means that the paper was done for practice or as a class.  You may review these at home, but you do not need to send them back to school unless it’s in the “Complete and Return” tab.  On that note, whenever your child brings home papers that have problems that are incorrect, please take a few minutes to go over and review the wrong answers with him/her.

Make sure to send in any Box Tops that you may have at home.  The contest between classes has officially begun!  Our first book order will be coming home Monday if you would like to order any books.  Orders are due on Friday.

Don’t forget picture day on Friday!  You may be out of uniform wearing appropriate school clothing.  We do have gym class that day, so tennis shoes are a must.  If you would like to send gym clothes for your child to change into, that is fine with me.  

Finally, students are allowed to bring a snack to school if he/she would like to.  I always end the day reading to the students and I don’t mind if they have a snack while I am reading.

Here’s the scoop for next week:

Reading: Daily 5 introduction-Read to Self and Check for Understanding

Religion: Chapter 1-The Catholic community

Math: Begin Unit 1-Counting, Coins, and Combinations 

Science:  Begin unit on life cycles and start science notebooks

God bless you all!

Mrs. Porter-tporter@holyspirit-indy.org