Welcome Letter

Dear Parents:

Welcome!

This is a very special year for your child. Second grade is a time to experience important transitions and acquire new skills. I hope to instill a love of learning that will last throughout your child's years of schooling.

During this year, your child will build and reinforce math and reading skills by integrating and connecting learning to everyday life. Your child will explore topics of interest and in the process learn necessary skills. Reading, writing, listening, speaking, and problem solving will be interconnected and used as tools of learning in all subject areas.

Students will work as individuals and in small groups while sharing different strategies in reading and writing workshop activities. These discussion groups will help support and enrich comprehension. The importance of peer support and working together will be stressed. Many opportunities to talk about what is being learned will be provided for your child. Evaluation will be a continuous process. You will receive assessment reports throughout the year giving you information about what your child is learning.

Writing and spelling will be taught through a writing process that encourages the students to brainstorm and write drafts, as thoughts are refined. We will work on meaning, sentence structure, paragraph form, and story structure. We will keep most of our writing in our draft books for sharing and publishing. 

Our math program is work shop style, meaning that much of your child's math time will be spent working on his or her individual math goals. Although much of your child's math instruction is at his/her level, we are still responsible for providing instruction of the 2nd grade Common Core Standards. These standards are taught to all 2nd graders across the country. We utilize Math Investigations as a resource for these standards. Each day, there is a whole group mini lesson (often from Investigations Math). After each mini lesson, there is some kind of practice. This may be a work sheet, game, or another in class activity. After your child completes the practice for the whole group mini lesson and activity, he/she will move on to working on his/her individual math goals by choosing an activity from their math menu. They may also be meeting with me one on one or in a small group during this time.

The students will be taught science this year through units that were developed by the Battle Creek Mathematics & Science Center. These units were designed by area teachers to provide standard based, inquiry focused science. In the first unit the students will be studying a plant's life. Students will explore the parts of a plant, what they do, and how they contribute to its survival. Through planting seeds and observing their growth, they examine the life cycle of plants and consider their importance to the survival of all living things.

Your child will have special teachers for gym, art, music, and Spanish. We will visit the library once a week. The books need to be returned the following week. We will also have a block of time for computer lab or using the chrome book cart weekly.  Schedules for these time will be available soon.

All homework for your child will be a reinforcement or extension of class instruction. Look for homework periodically. Homework typically is sent home on Tuesday and/or Wednesday of each week.  A "Homework Helper" is needed to go over directions and make sure work is completed and returned to school. Please sign or initial your child's work or send a note if it’s not done.  Also, students should spend at least 10-20 minutes per night reading at home. Find a fun book to read together as a family. Kids are never too big for a read aloud! And hearing adults read is a great way to build fluency and comprehension. If you are reading aloud, point out places that you are making inferences, have your child explain inferences he/she is making and support those inferences with evidence from the text.

If your child is absent from school, I will be glad to send home any missed work.  Please give a 24 hour notice to gather materials for missed class work.

A newsletter will be updated periodically through our classroom website.  If you have any questions or concerns, a note, email, or call to the school is encouraged. If I’m not available, just leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

I am looking forward to working with your students and to a great school year!

Sincerely,

Kevin Canfield

Voice Mail @ Riverside 565-4763